Chapter 70
My fingers are numb. My ass is numb. Every part of my body hurts.
My breasts ache from the constant pinches and gropes I endured since I woke up, my head throbbing from that asshole’s punch.
No matter how many times I curled my body away from the one who rode in the back with us, until they suddenly pulled over and he disappeared, but not after groping us and kissing Jacinda, touching her still unconscious body.
The interior of the van was dark, but I could hear the moans of pain as Kamilah suffered the same fate.
Now, we are in the back alone; our antagonizers left us alone a while ago. From the sounds outside, we’ve been driving for a while. The road was smooth. Highway was all I could think of, but now I jerk and bounce in the back of the van, and I can tell we are on a different kind of road.
The corners of my mouth are rubbed raw. After screaming and cursing each time they stopped, they got tired of us, Jacinda, Kami, and me talking amongst ourselves and decided to gag.
Turning my head, I look at Jacinda. She’s lying on her side, exhausted.
She hasn’t had anything to eat, and I’m sure her blood sugar is a mess.
Frustration tugs at me because I’m afraid for her.
The last time we stopped, they gave us water and a few dry crackers, but that was it. My stomach rumbles.
Kami is staring listlessly into space, and tears are on her face.
I make a garbled noise, and she looks my way.
I nod my head toward Jacinda, trying to communicate with her using my eyes.
Her eyes widen at the prone form of our friend.
I scoot closer to Jacinda, worried that she’s passed out.
Kami inches closer to, alarm all over her pretty face.
I lean to the side and use my knee to nudge the front of Jacinda’s thighs.
She blinks, opening her eyes. Thankfully, she seems aware, albeit tired.
Sweat coats her face. My stomach rumbles again, and she maneuvers herself up, leaning on me for support.
Kami cuddles next to her, and we lean on each other.
We aren’t able to speak with our gags, but we don’t need to.
The fear on all our faces says everything.
Suddenly, the car jerks to a stop, and I flop over in the opposite direction, grunting in pain as the side of my face crashes into the metal interior of the van.
Moaning, I try to sit up, unable to find balance with our hands tied behind my back.
The rear doors of the van are yanked open, and my eyes naturally squint at the brighter light.
It’s not much, but from what I can calculate, it’s late afternoon.
When I went out to check on the girls, it was nine in the morning, and around six hours had passed.
The air rushing through the open doorway is cool.
It feels good against my overheated, sweaty skin.
My hair is stuck to my neck, and I wish it weren’t so loose.
The breeze also brings the smells of grass.
The woods. I can also detect something stagnant, like lake water.
Definitely not the city anymore. The scent reminds me of that day in the forest with Stone, but that night was different.
This fear is stronger, making me salivate and sweat.
Two men climb inside and watch us. They are not the same men as earlier.
That means there are at least four. These men are bigger, and they look even scarier, not the dark romance scary either.
Their eyes are dead. Jacinda starts to tremble, and I lean into her body, hoping to protect her.
I know she’s strong, but she’s the most vulnerable.
Her blood sugar may be dropping. I don’t know much about it, but, seriously, she has to wear her glucose monitor in her body.
Hopefully, her monitor has some sort of tracker, and they can use it to find us.
He’s handsome, and if he weren’t my kidnapper, and will probably be responsible for my imminent death, I could see his appeal.
My fear ratchets up when the bigger one moves closer to us.
He’s huge. Tall like Stone, maybe even taller, and his muscles are bulging from his sleeveless shirt.
He stinks, legitimately stinks. I arch my head back when he reaches out and touches me.
He tilts my chin to the side and pulls down my gag.
The corners of my mouth burn from the tightness of the gag, and my tongue is dry.
“Are you Camryn Park?”
His English is perfect, but there’s an accent. Not French, not Spanish, but something different. My voice is scratchy when I respond. “Water.”
He doesn’t look away from me, but barks out in a language I haven’t heard before. It’s lyrical, and my brain scrambles to think about whether I’ve heard it before, but exhaustion and dehydration are making the synapses in my brain work at a slower pace.
A bottle of water is raised above my head, and he pours it over my face. I open my mouth, not caring about his attempt at humiliating me, as long as I get the water. I greedily swallow, the coolness easing my parched throat.
“My friends. Please.”
I open my eyes, and water drips into my eyes. I watch him. He’s angry, hatred burning in his eyes. I watch him rip the gags from their mouths. He pours the bottle and does the same thing to Jacinda and Kami.
“You got your water. Now talk. Are you Camryn Park?”
I turn my face away from his rancid breath and the body odor emanating off him. I close my eyes, refusing to answer. The slap to my face makes me see stars. My whole face is on fire, stinging from his big hands. Kami and Jacinda cry out, with Kami sobbing, praying to God.
He roughly jerks me up to his face, his fingers digging into my arm. The pain makes me suck in breath. Spittle splatters my face as he barks, “El Jefe doesn’t want you hurt, but maybe I’ll hurt you in ways he won’t see.”
The implied threat is there. Rape. I open my eyes. A part of me wants to cower, but I refuse to let him see me scared, even though my stomach is twisting. “You already know who I am. They already told you, so stop playing games.”
He squeezes my arms harder, and I bend my back, hating that my hands are bound.
“Brave little bitch. My brother must really want your cunt.” He pinches my nipple.
I catalogue everything I’ve learned so far. El Jefe. Brother.
He lets my arm go, and I inhale rapidly so I don’t focus on the pain. The smirk on his face looks clownish. I take it back, he’s ugly.
The second man laughs and starts speaking to our stinky captor.
I recognize that he’s speaking Spanish now.
I turn to Kami, and I can see she’s eagerly listening.
They both laugh, and funky man eases back and climbs out of the truck before slamming the doors shut again, leaving us in the dark once more.
“What did he say?” I whisper to Kami.
Her voice is hoarse, too. “I can only understand the ones that are speaking Spanish, but I think others are speaking Mandarin and Russian, and another dialect I can’t figure out.
It sounds French. Maybe French Creole. He said something about collateral.
That he will come and get you. They are scared of someone called El Búho. The owl.”
The name tickles something in my brain, but everything is so foggy.
“Great. The UN of kidnappers,” Jacinda murmurs. Her attempt at humor makes me smile a little, but not enough to forget that we were in serious trouble and I had no idea why.
We strain to listen more, and Kami’s eyes widen as she listens to them through the metal.
“They are going to feed because the boss doesn’t like skinny bitches and he won’t be able to sell us if we look sick.”
“Sell us?” I utter in disbelief.
A tear falls down her cheek. “We are going to be sold.”
“Sold?” I screech. What the fuck?
“Yes. As sex slaves.” Kami says, her voice so small and terrified.
Jacinda promptly vomits, and I cringe. “Oh my god.” Jacinda harshly whispers, panting. The smell of vomit is strong in the hot interior. I look down at her, and she looks paler than before.
Turning to her, I look at her face. “It’s going to be okay.” I’m not sure if it’s true. How can I? But fixating on what we just heard is not good for any of us. I’m liable to vomit as well. “How are you? Do you know how low your blood sugar is?”
She shakes her head and sighs deeply. “I don’t know the actual number, but it’s low.”
Kami asks the question I was thinking. “What happens if it gets too low?”
Jacinda closes her eyes. “Seizure, loss of consciousness.”
She looks scared but accepting, and I’m more determined than ever, racking my brain for a way. She turns into me, and her arm pumps mine. Her monitor.
“Does your monitor have GPS?”
She blinks, and then awareness comes into her eyes. “Yes. My phone. It will have my location. It has emergency hypo-alerts with a GPS locator to notify my contact in case of an emergency.”
“Do you think it’s working?” Kami whispers to us, hope in her voice.
Jacinda smiles for the first time. “My brother is connected to my account. Thank God he annoyingly checks it religiously since I crashed my car when it went too low.”
Something shifts between us. The energy is different now. There’s hope, something connecting us to the people who care about us. My mind pictures Stone wondering if he’s one of the people who know we’re in trouble.