Chapter One
“Can anyone hear me?” Elena Sanchez’s voice cracked. She dropped her head against the rusty cage and her stomach lurched. “Help me. Please.” As she rattled the metal bars of her five-foot-by-five-foot cage, her sweaty palms slipped.
Her voice echoed off the cavernous walls of the warehouse, sounding as empty as the hope in her heart. Had it not been for two small windows at the top of the tall building, she’d have been in total darkness. The stench of mold found its way into her nostrils, making her sick and weak. She sneezed and then groaned, “Why me?”
She sank back, lifted the cross from her neck, and kissed the head of Jesus. “Please, God. Tell me what to do.” She would have cried, but the tears had dried up two weeks ago when those bastards kidnapped her.
Every day she yelled until her throat grew dry and her voice disappeared, but no one ever answered. Never had she been so alone. Hungry, sweaty, and filthy, despair was her constant companion, but she refused to give up hope. There had to be a way out.
Even after hours of self-reflection, nothing made sense. Why were they keeping her alive? What did they plan to do with her? She was glad they hadn’t killed her, but making her suffer by keeping her crammed in the cage defied logic.
Had the stranger who’d approached her after work been responsible for her capture? The pretty girl had seemed rather desperate herself. She’d come out of nowhere and stopped Elena less than a block from her office. She said if Elena was willing to quit her job that day, the woman would give her five thousand dollars. Her mind couldn’t even comprehend such an amount of money. On her secretary’s salary, it would have taken her forever to save that much.
She jumped at the offer. Working for Couch had been a nightmare. Twice he’d groped her in his office and even insisted she stay late several times without compensating her for her overtime. She’d already decided at the first of the year she’d look for another job. The woman’s offer appeared to be an early Christmas present.
Even at the time, it seemed too good to be true, but did she listen to her conscience? No. And, that was the problem. Greed was the root of all evil—a sin. Now, she understood why she should have turned down the stranger’s offer even if that kind of money would have helped her mother’s family in Costa Rica. Her grandmother was ill. Since her mother met her father after high school, her parents had lived in Gulfside. Last year, her parents had given up their jobs and moved to Costa Rica to take care of Abuela.
Elena gave up questioning why, because there never were answers.
Her thin pillow was crammed in the corner, and she lay back down, waiting for the sullen guard to come. He never said a word and didn’t seem to understand English. He fed her three times a day and let her use the bathroom.
Her captors had already confiscated her money and her suitcase on the day they’d taken her. They hadn’t violated her. Yet. She wasn’t naïve enough to think they wouldn’t.
Her stomach grumbled. She lowered her head to her pillow as sleep won over the hunger pangs. She was about to doze when the metal garage door leading to her prison squeaked opened. She bolted upright. No one had used that door before.
Sunlight streamed in. She squinted to stop the light from piercing her eyes, desperately trying to focus on what was outside. Cars passed by, but she didn’t recognize her location. She was tempted to scream, but the sight of two burly men with guns affixed to their shoulder holsters made her throat close up.
Heart pounding, she believed this was the day they’d rip her from her cage and kill her. Her stomach tumbled and her muscles shook. The cool outside air made her skin prickle, but the scent was sweet and salty like maybe she wasn’t far from the Gulf.
“Put those two next to the other bitch.” The command came from a skinny dude with the nasty goatee.
As he got closer, her breaths quickened. She recognized those tattoos on his arm. He was the one who’d taken her. God have mercy. She hadn’t seen his face during the abduction, but when he’d stuck the needle in her arm that day at the airport, she’d spotted the unforgettable snake and devil design on the back of his hand.
She shifted her gaze away from him and, only then, spotted women inside each of the two cages. One had dark hair like hers, and a second was a dirty blonde. Both girls looked close to her age. Though at twenty-three, she hardly considered herself a girl anymore.
Neither moved and Elena suspected they’d been drugged, too.
The skinny dude came up to her cage and kicked it. “I’ll be back. A good soak in the tub and I bet you’ll be ripe for the plucking.” He spit and walked out.