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CHARLIE
Iwoke in a cramped position, my legs screaming at me to straighten them. The smell of gasoline filled my nose, making me dizzy. I had a terrible headache, red tinting my vision as I looked around. I was bound and gagged again, and this time, in a tiny trunk. My face hurt, and my ribs weren’t much better. Clearly, they’d kept on kicking me, even after I’d passed out.
We were still moving, the vehicle rocking over rough terrain.
Lucy wasn’t here. Fear threatened to paralyze me as I lay there. I couldn’t afford to hyperventilate in the trunk. I’d run out of air too fast.
I had to repeat a simple chant to catch my breath.
Ren will find Lucy.He’ll bring the might of the De Sanctis family down on these fuckers and not one will walk away. He’ll save her, and then he’ll save me. He’ll save her.
My hands were bound behind my back, and my shoulders ached. Somehow, in my sleep, my fingers had found the rosary beads. I ran my fingertips over the smooth spheres.
“Make a wish, kid.”I heard my Da’s voice in my head.
But rosary beads didn’t work like that. I knew that better than anyone. Instead, I held each bead and prayed to the vengeful god I had promised my soul to.
My husband.
* * *
We stopped somewherefor a long time before we started moving again. I had to pee. I couldn’t hold it, so I didn’t. What did I care about messing up my kidnapper’s trunk? Sure, it was embarrassing, but it was just biology. I wouldn’t let them make me feel ashamed.
When we finally stopped, I’d begun to think I was going to run out of air. My head pounded from the blow and then the hours of exhaust poisoning.
When the trunk opened, I wasn’t in a state to fight or do anything but be roughly manhandled out of the space. Laughter and taunts reached me. Maybe passing out would be preferable after all?
My knees, hurt earlier from falling in the tunnel, scraped painfully along the gravel road while they dragged me into a building.
I glanced around as I managed to get my feet under me. I wanted to walk into whatever was coming, not be dragged. It was a house, a big fancy one. Windows along one wall revealed the shore and boats docked at a private marina.
“Hurry up,” someone grunted behind me and pushed me forward.
A picture of a family hung on the wall. White, middle class, and perfectly ordinary in every way. I didn’t recognize any of them.
We went through double doors into a huge lounge. The middle-class suburban luxury theme continued with velvet couches, a fireplace, and fake flowers on every surface. A chessboard sat in the window and a huge TV loomed above the mantle. It was an utterly ordinary scene and didn’t fit with the general aura of violence coming from the man waiting for us there. He wasn’t the man in the picture outside. This man spoke in rapid-fire Spanish to his men, then turned a charming smile on me.
“Mrs. De Sanctis, what an honor.” A Castillo. MaybetheCastillo. The one Renato had been searching for. He pointed to the couch. “Sit.”
One of the men said something about me having wet myself, sniggering.
The boss shrugged. “It’s not my couch. Sit.”
I sank down on the soft surface, dizzy. My head was really sore. I might have a concussion. I tried to breathe deeply to calm my nerves.
“Let me introduce myself, I’m Juan Ruiz Eduardo Castillo.”
“I guessed,” I managed to get out around my swollen lips. “My husband’s been looking for you. He’ll be so pleased to finally find you.”
Juan laughed. “Except he hasn’t found me, you have. Well, technically, we found you and your sister, finally.”
I swallowed hard. “He will, though. As long as you have either of us, Renato will find us, and he won’t be forgiving.”
“What great confidence you have in the man who kidnapped you in the first place,” Juan mused.
I held my tongue and glared at him. He approached me, laid a hand on the back of the couch, and brought his hand to my bruised cheek. “I wonder what this dirt is hiding? Whatever it is, it was enough to enthrall a discerning man like De Sanctis. Maybe I should find out for myself.”
I refused to respond to that, channeling Renato’s deadly silence. I simply stared at him.
