Page 11 of Burn

It sounded awful. With care, I pushed myself up and tried to take a mental inventory. I hurt, but I still had on my panties, bra, and shirt. Nothing hurt any more than it had already.

My breast was still bruised and my head was stuffed with cotton and it ached. I was cold and hot at the same time. There was sweat on my arms. It was so humid in the truck. But the metal was cold against my legs.

Had all of that really happened? Had some other circle of hell come to take me from another? Where were we now? I had a thousand questions, and no answers.

Worse than all of that, my skin was still sticky. I leaned my head against the side of the—whatever we were in, a truck I supposed. The sound of the tires on the asphalt had a kind of soothing rhythm.

One of the kids started to cry and I closed my eyes. One of the kids. There were more kids on here than just that little boy. Had they also been in that warehouse? That image was too horrible to comprehend.

It was all justhorridperiod. I had no idea how long the truck moved, I was pretty sure I dozed off and snapped awake. My inner body clock was completely shot. I didn’t know what day or time it was.

The sudden application of the brakes jerked me out of the doze and to awareness. Eventually, we came to a complete stop. Were we at a gas station? Somewhere else?

Should we shout? Let someone know we were here? Even as these thoughts tumbled one over the other in my head, I swallowed back any sound as the other passengers began to hush each other.

I strained to listen. Were those voices? I wasn’t sure.

The sound of gunfire, however, registered clearly and I jerked with each shot that was fired.

I shoved a hand against my mouth to stifle any screams clawing their way out. Were we being stolen by someone else? What fucking twisted world had I fallen into? Was there a way out?

The sound of the latches going echoed through the container. Then a chain slid loose, and one of the huge doors creaked open and let light into the darkness. A light that blinded and I wasn’t the only one raising a hand to shield my eyes.

Fresh air rushed in, and it was cool against my sweat drenched skin. The flashlight was wielded by one of the men and he skated it over all of us. It gave me my first look at the other people on the truck with me.

Men. Women. Children.

All of us shackled and chained to the walls.

“Keep it together, Hawk,” one of the men said as he studied us. The disgust on his face wasn’t vicious. If anything, it was pained. The one without a flashlight climbed inside. He had keys that jangled.

Some of the women pulled back and worry rippled through the container. Fear was a sour taste in the back of my mouth, but I didn’t take my gaze off the newcomers.

Instead of attacking anyone, the newcomer knelt down and unlocked one of the older men’s chains. Then he gave him the keys and motioned to the rest of us.

With that, the newcomer leapt out. They were letting us go?

I really had no idea what they were doing, but the old man began to release us one by one. His shuffling steps were painfully slow, but I didn’t look too closely at this freedom.

Not yet.

I didn’t dare.

Chapter

Five

GRACE

The next few hours raced past as more men appeared in addition to those who’d opened the truck. One by one, the older man freed the passengers, including me. I found myself searching every single face aboard the back of the trailer.

I didn’t recognize anyone from where I’d been. That didn’t mean they hadn’t been there. Honestly, I didn’t even know how long I’d been on the truck or unconscious before and after. Not to mention I had no idea of the name of my captor or any of the others involved.

If waking up in that warehouse had been a nightmare and the next day a descent into one of Dante’s nine circles of hell… I didn’t have the words for this. The men who’d freed us were rough, hard spoken, and full of violence except when they spoke to one of us.

Then they deliberately softened their voices, pitching them lower and kinder—especially for the kids. They also made a concerted effort to not loom over anyone. When more men arrived, they were joined by a doctor.

El medico. He spoke passable Spanish and despite the wariness in everyone, he was allowed to ask some questions.Water was drunk down thirstily and blankets passed around. I waited until the kids had one before I got one.

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