Chapter Three
The ticking sound of an imaginary analog clock played in her head, waking Hope up in the wee hours of the morning.
Her eyes widened as she observed the darkened room with just a hint of light coming from the moon.
She stared at the bastard light with a vengeful mind.
It marked how much time she had left of her innocence.
She would be moving from one property owner to the next.
She rolled over, tucking one arm under her pillow, balling it up and testing the comfortability.
Several times she readjusted, but nothing worked.
Unable to fall back to sleep, she sat up and thought about her fate and the life she’d never have.
Her chest tightened as the minutes that she lay awake turned into hours.
The hours had ticked down until she became the property of someone else.
She swallowed hard, it was so loud she wondered if she had woken up someone in the house, but there was no movement outside her door.
Even though she was restless, Hope refused to get out of her bed in fear that one of her guards would come check in on her.
Sitting there in the dark gave her a lot of time to think about the years of abuse and mistreatment.
During that reflection, she came to an important realization. Her father held no control over her once she belonged to Navarro. If, for whatever reason she couldn’t run away, she could use Navarro to destroy her father.
The alarm had gone off, and the true countdown had begun. Hope had dressed for her inspection and handoff and then waited for the dreaded summons.
The single knock on the bedroom door resonated in her ears like iron bars slamming shut. Steeling her expression, she slid her purse across her body before opening the door.
“It’s time to go,” Cummings informed her with the curt, unfeeling tone he’d always given her.
She didn’t resist. Instead, she marched out of the room with her head held high. He could no longer destroy her. The sway he thought he held over her vanished the second he made a deal with Navarro. I will get my revenge, she thought.
“Wait,” he hollered, rushing down the steps to catch up to her.
Cummings stepped up to his daughter and pretended to give her a hug, but instead, he leaned in to whisper, “You better still be pure, or your body will be on the slab. Don’t embarrass me and be a whore like your mother. She suffered those consequences.”
She gasped at the insinuation that he murdered her mother. Knowing that he inflicted pain, he smiled to himself as he opened the door, holding it for her to pass.
She nodded, a closed-lipped smile stretching across her face as she stepped in front of him.
With her newfound confidence, she stared into his heartless eyes and said, “Smile away, Father. Remember…please do remember this. Once he takes my innocence and I make him putty in my hands, I’ll only have one request—One bullet to your temple.
” She raised her hand, forming her hand into the shape of a gun and pointing it at his head. “Boom.”
Cummings flinched. Hope winked and blew him a kiss before striding over to the waiting goons. Her verbal jab hit its mark and stunned Cummings, creating a new paranoia. He closed the door, wondering if it was best to kill her after Navarro gave him the money.
Two guards led her to the car, where the driver waited with the door open. They helped her into the backseat. One stepped in behind her while the other dumped her luggage into the trunk, while the driver took his seat.
Driving away from the estate, she took a deep breath and asked them, “What makes you guys so willing to help commit human trafficking? I mean, that must make you all pretty depraved.”
Jimmy, the guard in the passenger seat, scoffed, while the one at her side answered, “A job is a job. You’re not going to get us to feel sorry. The last guy got capped for it. Relax and accept your fate.”
I knew it.
“You could always look the other way. Lie and say I escaped, running to a police officer or something,” she offered. She’d met these men before, and they were just as fucked up as her father.
The driver spoke up. “He owns the cops. Just calm down. It won’t be that bad. You’re going to give it up to a guy who will last two minutes in ya, then you’ll be lavished with all the finer things that even your daddy didn’t give ya.”
“Whatever, thugs one, two, and three. I hope you comprehend how irrelevant you all are, you fucking cunts. I don’t remember any of your names because none of you are important.
You’re nothing more than human trafficking lackeys.
” Hope glared out the window, silently enjoying their grumblings.
She smirked, covering her face as she watched their expressions harden.
They raised the divider, cursing under their breaths, ignoring her for the rest of the ride.
The guy at her side was playing with his phone.
It looked like some game and made her laugh to herself.
He should be keeping an eye on the surroundings and her, but instead, he was on his phone.
She was sure her father would love that.
While they ignored, she took the time to familiarize herself with the neighborhood they entered.
The streets weren’t full of people, but they were busy enough for her to sneak away unnoticed if she got a shot.
Once they pulled into the lot next to the clinic, the guard on the passenger side exited and opened the door for Hope. She stepped out and immediately Jimmy put his hand on her shoulder. She hurriedly shrugged off his hand and glared at the guard.
“I can fucking walk on my own. Remember, can’t damage the merchandise,” she scoffed.
One held the door open for the doctor’s office, giving her no room to even try to run. The third thug remained at the helm for the all-clear.
With a cool, calm breath, she approached the front desk and addressed the receptionist. “Hi, Hope Cummings. I have an appointment.”
The woman raised a brow, pursed her lips briefly before pulling some papers and then adding them to a clipboard with a pen. “Okay, fill this out and have a seat.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, taking the clipboard with HIPAA forms attached. Hope rolled her eyes because none of that mattered. Her life wasn’t her own anymore until she could get away. She looked around the room, searching for a possible way to escape, accidentally catching the attention of Jimmy.
He came over and sat down next to her. He leaned over as she filled out the forms, checking to see what and how she answered the questions.
It was evident that he was making sure she wasn’t leaving notes for the staff, warning them that she was being trafficked.
With his breath grazing her ear, he threatened her, “They all work for Navarro. Remember that, bitch.”
With a smirk on her face, she gave him her own little advice. “I’ll remember to tell Navarro that you stole a kiss from me.” She winked at him and then stood like a queen with her head held high, walking over to turn the forms in.
The two men in their suits with sunglasses on were clearly out of place in a gynecologist’s office, but they didn’t care one bit.
They looked like they belonged outside an expensive club guarding the door.
Several of the women stole glances at Hope, wondering who she was to have these massive escorts with her.
How she itched to tell them why they followed her.
Twenty minutes passed before she was called back.
“Just the young lady,” the nurse stated when the three men stood.
Internally, Hope breathed a sigh of relief.
This was her one and only opportunity to make a break for it.
Hope didn’t have long to escape before the doctor or nurses would come looking for her.
Thankfully for her, the rooms were on the first floor, making an escape much more manageable than she expected.
The nurse’s assistant led her down the hall and pointed a little further ahead.
“Please use the restroom around the corner and pee in this cup. We only need you to go up to this line, and let a little go before you start collecting. After you finish up, please go into room three. The doctor will be in with you a few minutes after they review your history and sample.” She handed Hope a sealed plastic medical cup and pointed again to the bathroom around the corner.
Hope hit the proverbial jackpot as she stared at the large EXIT sign. It wasn’t equipped with an alarm, which made it twenty times better. She snuck out, sliding along the edge of the building, and came around the other corner.
What Hope didn’t see was that a woman had noticed something was off with the men. She’d heard Jimmy mention, “If they take any longer, we’re going to go in there and look for her. We can’t let her escape. She’s too damn valuable.”
Minutes passed, and they grew antsier. “Sir, please have a seat. The visit is at least half an hour.”
He grumbled something and then sat back down.
This continued for a good while before John stood up and moved to the counter.
He was about to harass the receptionist when the eight-month pregnant former law clerk stood up, waddled to the door separating the patients from the waiting room, and groaned.
Her breathing became harsher, attracting the attention of the staff and all those around.
Her theatrics bought the runaway more time than she knew.
The medical staff blocked the hall inside the patient area, halting any attempt to go look for Hope, who was already a good distance away.
Unable to head to the airport without being easily tracked, she hurried down about four blocks before she hailed a taxicab. The next step in her plan was to get a new change of clothes. The first place she knew to be crowded would be Market Square.
“The Market Square, please,” Hope instructed the driver whilst repeatedly looking out of the rear window for any of her father’s men.
She knew it was a well-populated place far away from the doctor’s office that would be easy to hide in and where she could pick up some tourist style clothes to change into.
“Anywhere in particular?” the driver questioned, giving the beautiful young redhead a once-over. Normally she loved her hair, but it was too distinctive and identifiable.
“No, just go.” He did as she asked, shaking his head in the process.
She was running from something or someone for sure, but the man wasn’t interested in getting involved in other people’s problems, so he drove away from the area as if it was any other day.
There were things he saw that were none of his business, and he kept it that way.
Don’t ask, and you don’t have anything to tell.
Once they had left the area, Hope calmed down and sat straight forward, directing her attention toward the windshield.
It surprised her how she managed to escape.
A brief moment of relief hit her, then a sense of panic.
It had been too easy for her. What if Navarro’s men knew to look for her?
She hadn’t met any of them or even what they looked like.
Panic set in so intensely that she started fidgeting with her purse and slunk lower in her seat.
“Ma’am…Miss, Miss. I’m coming to the end of the Market Square.” She’d been so wrapped up in fear of what was to come that it took her a moment to hear the driver.
“Fine. Okay, let me out.”
“That’s fifteen twenty.”
“Okay,” Hope grumbled, pulling a twenty from her bag, then she jumped out, unwilling to look back.
As soon as she began walking around the square, she looked for the large tourist shop.
It had been farther than she remembered, but once inside, she picked up a tank and a hoodie with San Antonio emblazoned on them in dark blues.
She was a pink kind of girl, so she hoped that the color would make her less obvious to any of the men hunting for her.
Next, she picked up a large beach bag with the “Don’t Mess with Texas” branding on it.
This would work perfectly to add a couple of extra shirts.
The last things on her list were a pair of sunglasses and a baseball cap.
After half an hour, she paid for her clothes and accessories and walked over to the restrooms.
A quick change later, she didn’t look like a prissy runaway but rather a tourist, ready to go. She hoped they wouldn’t be able to recognize her.
“Now to get a bite to eat and then find a way to get out of town.” She didn’t have a cell phone, so she needed to find another waiting cab to take her to the bus station.