Page 9 of Inexplicable

I was going to have to wait and see if he let his guard down a little.

Maybe he’d stow the gun away once we were in the house.

I was surprised by the activity in the rustic building once he’d forced me through the front door of the home.

I guess I’d just assumed that Rico was working alone because he wasn’t really part of the cartel in Mexico.

My assumptions had been wrong.

I closed my eyes for a second and tried to slow down the frantic beat of my heart as I realized that the house was full of men, most likely some of Rico’s family and Mexican cartel members.

These were obviously the men who ran the trafficking on a regular basis.

None of them seemed the least bit surprised to see a bruised, dirty, naked woman being paraded through the house.

Honestly, it made sense that my presence didn’t faze them. Judging by the setup in the holding facility, there were probably women here on a regular basis.

I might be the only prisoner at the moment, but that clearly wasn’t always the case.

So much for getting any sympathy or help from anyone in this house.

That definitely wasn’t going to happen.

I shivered, desperately wanting to cover my nude body. I was used to hiding as much of my bare skin as possible because of my scars.

I tried not to wonder how many women had been marched around this compound after being captured and what had become of those females who had been here before me.

Focus, Jenna!

I was terrified, and my mind was going places that weren’t going to help me escape this situation.

I stumbled a little as Rico pushed me into a small bathroom.

There was barely enough space in the room for the two of us.

It was rustic and dirty, which probably wasn’t surprising since there were a lot of men in this home who had to use this bathroom.

The floor was made of cement and there was nothing that could really be called a typical shower here. There was only a pipe coming out of the wall and a drain on the floor.

Rico turned a handle under the pipe and water started to flow.

“Clean yourself up or I’ll do it,” Rico said roughly as he positioned me under the water and turned to leave the bathroom.

I knew why he’d left me alone in the room.

If he stayed, he’d end up drenched by the time I finished my shower. There was no protection from the flowing water in the tiny space.

I flinched as I caught my reflection in a piece of glass on the wall that some of the men probably used to shave.

I wasn’t an attractive woman to start with. The ugly scar that ran from my left temple down my cheek and ended at my chin was an eyesore that I’d lived with all my adult life.

I was used to the other scars, too.

Still, I barely recognized myself.

My normally curvy body had shrunk significantly, my torso and my face were both covered in healing bruises, and dirt from the conditions in the holding facility was stuck to all areas of my skin and hair.

I looked away from the mirror, determined not to dwell on my appearance or my injuries.