Page 115 of Spooked

Meera, Greta, Rebecca, Karine, Nicola, Elin, Annalise.

“The police haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory so far, have they?”

“Is that a yes?”

“I need to speak with Indi. The final decision is hers. But if she wants to go ahead, I won’t stand in her way.”

CHAPTER40

THE ASSISTANT

This was either the smartest thing or the stupidest thing I’d ever done.

Before we left for the hostel, before Brax kissed me for what might have been the final time, he’d told me that it wasn’t too late to back out. But it was. The preparations had been made. Jerry had glossed over the details, but I knew Alexa had pretended to be Silvio and sent an email to the kidnappers, telling them that Meera’s sister had arrived in town and kept asking difficult questions. Perhaps, Alexa-slash-Silvio suggested, the easiest way to avoid an American woman stirring up trouble would be to pick me up too. The kidnappers had taken the bait. The fact that Brax had pushed the bidding on Meera up to a hundred and fifty thousand bucks had probably helped.

As for Silvio, he was being oddly cooperative this evening. Had Brax paid him to help? I felt sick at the thought, but I didn’t dare to ask, and I also wasn’t certain I wanted to know. Apparently, he usually gave his victims a drink containing a sedative, but since I was a special case, I sipped regular wine while Silvio hobbled to the door to let his accomplice in. I had no idea what he’d done to his foot, but I hoped it hurt.

I’d been seated in Silvio’s office—standard procedure, he said. After the two men had spoken for a few minutes in Portuguese, they each took one of my arms and led me toward the door. That was when my heart began hammering.This is really happening.Since I was pretending to be drugged, all I could do was stumble and mumble as they half carried me to a waiting SUV. Before the accomplice bundled me inside, he patted me down and gave my phone and watch to Silvio. The phone was a decoy, a cheap smartphone registered to Indira Adams, just in case anyone happened to check. Alexa paid attention to detail. I made a weak protest as the man cuffed my hands behind me in the back seat, all the time knowing how scared Meera must have been when this happened to her. That’s not to say I wasn’t fearful—what if the rest of the team lost me? My biceps still ached from the tiny tracking device Jerry had inserted into my left arm using a touch of local anaesthetic and an oversized hollow needle. It was powered by kinetic energy, she’d told me. The battery would last for a day, and after that, I’d have to recharge it by moving.

Now I was travelling toward a destination unknown, and I’d never felt so alone in my life, not even when I moved to Los Angeles. I had to trust someone was following, but I couldn’t see them. There were no headlights glinting in the mirrors, no cars close behind us when we turned.

What if I ended up on that auction site?

What if I was sold to a stranger to serve at his pleasure?

Marriage to Karam seemed an attractive option in comparison. Sure, he was an asshole, but I couldn’t see him purchasing a human from the internet.

How long did the journey take? Two hours? Three? Without a watch, I lost track of time. The driver turned on the radio and fiddled until he found a rock station as we wound through country roads and then joined the freeway. Carefully, I tested my hands. Not only were they cuffed together, but they were also attached to a loop of cable that stuck out from the gap at the back of the seat. I couldn’t escape from the vehicle, even if I wanted to.

Which was probably why the driver felt happy leaving me there while he filled up with fuel at a quiet gas station in the middle of nowhere. That told me he’d been doing the job for a while. He’d grown complacent. Learned not to expect trouble. His actions gave me a small measure of comfort, but that was nothing compared to the relief I felt when a dark-coloured sedan pulled up at the pump beside us and Tulsa climbed out. She was wearing a blonde wig and a shapeless sweater, but I recognised her cowboy boots. She’d had them propped up on the kitchen table this morning, casual as she planned my visit to the underworld. They hadn’t lost me. She didn’t look in my direction, just pumped gas and strolled into the attached convenience store to pay, butshe was there.

All I had to do was stay calm and wait for rescue.

The sky was beginning to lighten when we bumped down a rutted track to a farmhouse not too dissimilar from the one we’d rented near Fundão. Rustic in style but modern, well cared for. The driver continued past that building and around to the rear, where he stopped the SUV outside a barn and honked the horn. A huge door at the front slid silently to the side, and we drove into the cavernous interior.

“What is this place?” I mumbled, not expecting an answer. The man hadn’t spoken to me the whole way.

“Is somewhere for you to stay.”

“Like…like a hostel?”

He just laughed and climbed out of the car. The door slammed, and I studied my surroundings without being too obvious about it. The barn had been used to keep horses at some point. Stables lined both sides of a wide central aisle, square boxes with wooden walls at the bottom and bars at the top. I’d tried horse riding once, several years ago with Meera. The experience was one I’d rather forget. My horse got spooked by a groundhog, and I’d barely hung on as it galloped across a pasture, whinnying as it went. Eventually, a cowboy had caught up with me and stopped the thing, and I’d walked back to the stables, ignoring Meera’s laughter as I cursed four-legged beasts in general and that one in particular.

But there were no horses here.

I jolted as a pale face appeared between the bars of the nearest stable. Not Meera, but I recognised her. She was the girl they’d called Greta, and her eyes were wide with fear. This was where they kept the women? In a barn? The driver was talking with a man sitting on a couch at the far end. A guard? A chaperone? Satan himself?

A long minute passed before the man rose and came to the SUV, peering through the window before he opened the door.

“What’s going on? Where am I?”

Did I sound scared enough? Hopefully, because I sure was terrified.

Nobody answered me, but words were exchanged, and I found myself released from the cable and manhandled into the nearest stable.

“Get away from me! What are you doing?”

The guard’s slap caught me off guard, and I saw stars as his hand connected. Seemed that actions spoke louder than words around here. Another laugh from the driver.

---