Page 76 of Savage Obsession

“Don’t think so.”

“Jakub, do the honours, would you?”

Jakub steps up behind Timo and grasps him by the hair. He tips his head back and slices his throat from ear to ear. The sight is the highlight of my day so far.

CHAPTER 18

Julia

I lose track of time as the van bumps over the rough terrain. It’s difficult to keep our balance with our hands tied behind our backs, and on one occasion I crash headfirst into the side of the van. Neither of the men guarding us lifts a finger to help.

Eventually, the vehicle rattles to a halt. The rear doors are opened, and the man we saw on the roadside, the one with the dark eyes, scowls in at us. At the sight of my bruised cheek, he barks a question at the guards.

The answer in rapid-fire Spanish, clearly denying responsibility for my injury.

I note the exchange with interest and a little surprise. Why would he care? I haven’t time to ponder the question before he gestures for the men to help us out.

“Inside,” he snaps as soon as our feet are on the ground. He jerks his thumb in the direction of a dilapidated single-storey farmhouse a few paces away. The place looks uninhabitable, thrown together from rough-hewn planks of wood and with a corrugated iron roof.

“Mom, I don’t want to go in there,” Lily whimpers.

I’m not keen either, but as long as these men are waving guns about, I see no option. “We need to do as they say,” I reply. ‘Your father will come for us. I know he will.”

The dark-eyed man, who appears to be in charge, cracks a smile at my words. He speaks to us in perfect if slightly accented English. “Your confidence is encouraging, Señora Kaminski. Let us hope it is not misplaced.”

His English is considerably better than mine. It takes me a few moments to process his words. Before I have an opportunity to query his choice of name for me, one of the guards shoves me hard in the back. I stumble forward, Lily at my side, and we find ourselves bundled inside the single-storey dwelling.

A dark-haired girl, aged perhaps nineteen or twenty, swings around from the stone sink to regard us warily. She says something in Spanish to the leader of this gang, who has followed us inside. He dismisses whatever she has said with an impatient wave of his hand.

“In there,” he orders us, pointing to a small door at the far end of what seems to be the farmhouse kitchen.

“C-can’t we stay in here?” I venture. The room seems cleaner, more homely than I imagined.

“No,” is his curt response. “Do as you’re told.”

The alternative doesn’t seem worth exploring, so I nudge Lily in the direction of the door.

It leads to the bedroom, a tiny space with just a single bed, a chair, and a bucket in the corner. The window has been boarded over so the room is in darkness, illuminated by just one bare lightbulb swinging from the ceiling. It casts eerie shadows, and the light fails to quite reach the corners.

We step inside, followed by two of the men. I brace for whatever is about to happen, fearing the worst, but all they do is slice through the ropes binding our hands then march back out again.

The door slams shut behind them. There’s the sound of a bolt sliding into place, then silence.

I sink onto the edge of the bed, and Lily drops down beside me. “What’s happening, mom? Why have they brought us here? Who are these men?”

“I don’t know.” I can’t answer any of her questions, I’m as baffled as she is.

“Why did he call you Señora Kaminski?”

“Obviously, he made a mistake. He thinks I’m someone else, Janey, probably.”

“Maybe if we tell them we’re not?—”

“No!” I turn to glare at her. “Definitely not.”

“But, they might let us go, if?—”

“If they realise we’re not who they think? That we’re no use to them? As long as they think I’m connected to Mr Kaminski, we have value. They… they won’t hurt us. Maybe we’re hostages, in which case…”

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