Page 75 of Healing Love

“Sharon, why? What happened? Why are you doing this?” she begged.

The other woman had the grace to look aside in embarrassment. “I had no choice. It was my only way out.”

“I don’t understand?”

“Not all of us had a rescuer come in the night, Miriam,” Sharon growled.

“If you’d been there, he would have gotten you out too. It wasn’t about me—he came to get all of us.”

A pained look crossed Sharon’s face before being replaced with indignation. “I made my choice.”

Miriam’s anger grew as she replied, “Yes. You chose to get in bed with them. So, how’d that work out for you?”

“It would have been fine if you’d stayed. After you left, Ernesto got angry and took it out on me. One day in a rage, I showed up at his villa. His wife had a fit—it seems he kept his many mistresses from her.”

Miriam noticed that Sharon needed to get her story out and tried to keep her talking as she desperately tried to stall the plane from leaving. “So, what happened then?”

Sucking in a shaky breath, Sharon continued, “That crazy bitch hit me. Actually, walked up and slapped me.” Giving an angry huff, she said, “It was her husband that was cheating on her, but I was the one who got slapped.”

Blinking the tears back, she looked into Miriam’s eyes. “He was furious at me. Said that he’d let the men have me or I could help him. So, it’s not too hard to figure out what I was going to do. I agreed to impersonate Sister Genovia and once I did, I could stay in the U.S. while you were taken back.”

Seeing the look on Miriam’s face, she looked away again. “I’m sorry, Miriam, but I’m not going back.”

“But you expect me to? Can’t you help me? We could both get out of here!”

“I have no choice. He’s got a gun and if you go back, Ernesto will be good to you. You were always the one he wanted anyway. Me? I couldn’t become one of the camp whores.”

Shaking overtook Miriam as she realized the desperate woman in front of her was not going to help her escape. Just then, the door flew open, and Manuel strolled in. “You fuckin’ finished?” Once more, he grabbed Miriam by the arm and pulled her along for a few steps before throwing her over his shoulder.

“What about me?” Sharon yelled.

Manuel shouted back, “Let me get this one in the plane and I’ll get you the car keys.”

Miriam tried to struggle but, with her extremities bound, she was at his mercy. He climbed up on the wing and leaning down, opened the door. Twistinghis body, he maneuvered her into the passenger seat of the small plane. Before she could wiggle out of his grasp, he fastened the seat belt around her body. He looked up, an evil expression crossing his face, before he jumped back down to the hanger floor.

Miriam watched in horror as he turned toward Sharon, smiling as he pulled a gun from the back of his waistband and pointed it right at her.

“Wha—”

A loud, reverberating sound penetrated inside of the hangar, causing Miriam to duck her head instinctively. Looking back up, she saw Sharon’s crumpled body on the floor, a red river oozing from underneath her.

A scream pierced the night before Miriam realized it came from her.

27

Cam threw himself into the passenger seat of the SUV, not willing to be in the backseat. Even though he was not driving, the front seat afforded him the radio intel coming from Luke.

“She still there?” he growled, finding his voice unnaturally low as fear choked him.

“Yeah, her tracer has stopped moving.”

“What assistance do we have?”

“Marc has the FAA on alert and Monty’s pulled in the FBI. They’ve got agents heading your way right now.”

“Not waiting on them,” Cam retorted.

“Understood,” Jack said, interrupting the call. “Do what you’ve got to do.”

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