Chapter 41 – Alana
Chapter
Forty-One
ALANA
Iopen my eyes and try to swallow, but my mouth is completely dried out. Every part of me seems to hurt, especially the back of my head, which is throbbing painfully. For a split second I forget what happened. Then it comes back to me. The crash. The gunfire. All of it.
I blink in the viciously bright light of the room and look around. It appears like we’re in a basement of a house. Lucia is sitting across from me. She’s still unconscious, but she is breathing, tied to a chair. Instinctively, I pull my arms and legs. I’m bound, too.
I can’t see Hugo, or George, or Hank, and my heart sinks in my chest. What happened to them? Are they still alive? There was a lot of gunfire, a lot of chaos. God, what I wouldn’t give to see them right now. Even Hank’s grumpy face would be a welcome sight.
“Good afternoon, sleeping beauty,” I hear a low, raspy voice beside me.
I turn my head to see two large men dressed entirely in black. One of them is sitting on a sofa, and the other stands near a small table.
“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up,” he says, leering at me.
He crosses the room until he is standing right in front of me.
He reaches out and runs a calloused fingertip down my cheekbone.
“So fucking sweet,” he hisses. “I’m looking forward to making you scream.
” He starts to laugh, and his accomplice on the sofa joins in.
Bile burns in the back of my throat, but I swallow it back down. I don’t know who these men are. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what they plan on doing to us. I know nothing at all, and that needs to change. I have Lucia and her baby to think of, not just myself.
I force myself to breathe. To remember what Alejandro told me when we talked about this exact possibility. Don’t ask questions. Be silent for as long as you can—and listen. Listen, because they will give something away.
“Remember, you can’t play with her yet,” the one on the sofa warns when he stops laughing, and I hear the Spanish accent. See, I’ve learned something already. Alejandro would be proud.
Alejandro. Thank God for him and his over-protective streak. He’ll already know that we’re gone and start looking for us.
I replay the other thing he said to me: “I will be moving heaven and earth to reach you, and you must do anything you can to stay alive until I do.” He will be coming, I tell myself, taking strength from it.
And when he does, these two assholes are in some serious trouble.
I’m furious now, especially seeing Lucia tied up like that.
A pregnant teenager. But I simply whimper and look confused.
I need them to see me as weak, not as a threat.
“The boss said we need to keep her intact,” sofa goon adds. “For now. Until we have Alejandro exactly where we need him.”
I’ve learned three things now. These idiots work for someone else, and they want to exploit my husband in some way.
The one in front of me cups my chin with his hand and tilts my head upwards. “I’m going to have so much fun with you, chica,” he sneers. I’m physically and emotionally in shock, and the touch of his skin on my flesh pushes me over the edge.
I vomit all over him.
He curses in Spanish and jumps away, the guy on the sofa laughing again. The one I’ve puked on draws his hand back and slaps me hard across the face with the back of it.
My head snaps back as I cough and splutter, trying to empty my throat of bile. The pain is intense. But it does help clear my mind.
“Fucking puta,” he snarls and then turns away from me. “I’m going upstairs to clean up,” he snaps to his associate.
The room is quiet again when he leaves. I look at the man on the sofa.
I guess he’s in his late thirties. He has a tattoo of a crucifix on his neck, and I wince at the irony.
This is far from a Christian endeavor. He stares back at me for what feels like an eternity, neither of us flinching.
I don’t say a word, try not to challenge him.
“Alejandro has taught you well, little puta,” he eventually says with a grin.
“I see the game you are playing. Don’t worry, soon you will know exactly why you’re here, and who took you.
But it will make no difference. You will still be leaving here in pieces.
And me and my buddy upstairs will take great pleasure in breaking you before you do.
We will make sure Alejandro knows every single filthy way we’re going to violate you.
Maybe we’ll even film it on our phones.” He starts to laugh again.
“Wouldn’t that be fun? He will have to live with those images for the rest of his life. ”
It’s very clear now that none of this is about me, or Lucia, or even Mateo. All of this is about Alejandro. These men are his enemies specifically, not the Montoya family’s. It’s him they want to hurt, and they plan to do that through me and Lucia.
I shake my head, even that slight movement hurting. The idea of these monsters laying a finger on Lucia pushes me over the edge.
“I don’t know your name, but I promise you this. Alejandro will find you, and he will peel your skin from your body while you’re still alive, hijo de puta!” I spit at him.
He shakes his head, amused. “Oh, puta, you have no idea who you’re dealing with.” He continues laughing and I close my eyes.
Please, Alejandro, hurry.