Page 4 of Inexplicable

“I think I liked it better when you were trying to fight me,” he said with an evil smile.

I kept my expression blank and unresponsive.

Of course he’d liked it better when he’d had a reason to rough me up. It had been very clear that he enjoyed inflicting pain.

He’d told me more times than I could count that he would have raped me if I wasn’t a gift for his boss because he’d never raped an American woman before.

I suppose I should probably be grateful that the man was eager to rise in the ranks of the cartel.

The room was silent as Rico raked his eyes over my nude body.

My heart raced as he surveyed me like he was weighing his options.

I knew I was going to be used and sexually assaulted at some point, but I was hoping for an opportunity to escape before that happened.

They wouldn’t keep me chained here forever, and I was going to fight for my life if I could get away.

I knew it was highly unlikely that I’d get free of this situation, but I had to try.

I wasn’t sure I could endure years of sexual assault.

Not again.

Rico spat out a disgusted sound as he finally turned and headed toward the door.

I let go of a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

One more day.

I had one more day of reprieve.

One more day to hope for a chance to escape.

If he was really going to clean me up, he wouldn’t do it here without water.

My soul was filled with a sense of hopelessness, but I knew I couldn’t give in to those emotions.

I’d been a survivor my entire life.

I’d gotten through trauma and challenges in the past.

Somehow, some way, I was going to find a way to escape from this horrible situation, too.

Chapter 2

Brock

“Yo! Earth to Brock. Did you hear what I just said?” Nate Davis asked sarcastically as we sat together in his conference room after a virtual briefing from Marshall.

It was early afternoon, and we’d spent the last two hours going over our plan.

We had a new mission, and we’d be performing our rescue during the early morning hours tomorrow.

The other members of our Last Hope team, Gage and Seth, had already left the room to start preparing our gear.

I lifted my head from the file I was studying to look at Nate, who was still sitting beside me.

We always got very detailed information on our victims. It helped to know as much as possible about the person we were being sent to rescue.