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  “Just for a bit longer,” I said, trying desperately to appear casual. “I’m not done training her yet.”

  “Of course,” El Alfa said, smiling so broadly I could see the gold glint of fillings in his back teeth. “She is yours.”

  Mine. I had to do something in the next couple of days to save her. Or we would both be lost.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Jessica

  I was still throbbing with warmth from the orgasms Vale had given me, but now adrenaline pumped through my system. Escape was only a few feet away!

  I pulled the chain all the way through its loops. I was still chained on one side, but now I had slack.

  One degree of freedom. It was all I needed.

  The first thing I did was rip off the collar that was around my neck. It was easy enough to unclip the hasp. I tossed the collar into the corner. Gone. I wasn’t going to be a slave anymore.

  I stumbled over to the wall, still in disbelief, pulling one of the chains behind me. I stared at the metal door that Vale had left through. Was it locked? I could only hope not. I tried to be as quiet as I could as I moved forward toward the door.

  The remaining chain caught me before I could make it there. I stretched out, but couldn’t reach the place where the chain was locked by the door. It threaded through an iron loop in the wall, and that’s where I was leashed. Just out of reach, like a dog chained to a stake.

  No. I wasn’t going to let that stop me. My mind worked quickly to see what I needed to do to get out of here.

  If I could get the metal loop to give, I would be able to reach the door and unlock the last chain. My fingers traveled over the iron bolts. They were rusty. Hopefully rusty enough to break.

  As I began to pry the loop from where it was bolted into the wall, I paused. Was this a test? Was it a game? What if Vale was standing right outside the room in the hallway, waiting for me to escape? What if all of this was a trap?

  I’d have to take that chance.

  As quietly as I could, I grabbed hold onto the chain on either side of the bolt. I felt weak. I wished I had eaten more when Vale had offered me food. Now, my arms felt like hell as I used all my muscles to strain against the iron loop.

  It moved. Just a bit, a tiny shift, but it moved. I could do it. With the right leverage, I could do it. I wrapped the chain around my hands on both sides and pushed my foot against the wall. The stone felt cold and rough under my bare foot, but I could feel the iron bolt giving way as I tugged.

  Once, twice. I heard a noise and looked over at the metal door. No, it wasn’t anything. I was hearing things. I looked back over to the other side of the room, where the window was. The sunlight was blinding. I’d been used to having it at my back, but now that I stared at the back wall, everything looked brighter.

  Again! I tugged hard and heard a creak as the rusted iron bolt strained under my pressure. Then again!

  The bolt snapped in two, and I managed to pull the loop out of the wall with one final jerk of the chain. It ripped the bolt from the wall and clattered to the ground. I waited for a second, sure that the noise would have alerted the guards. There were footsteps outside of my room. I grabbed the chains that were still attached to my wrists. They were the only weapons I had at my disposal.

  Then the footsteps stopped. So did my breath. The guard outside waited for a second more and then left, his steps disappearing down the hall outside the door. I let out a relieved sigh.

  Two degrees of freedom.

  I was at the hook by the door. It was easy enough to uncoil the chain from around the hook. Then I pulled it through the loops and looked down.

  Two long chains. And they were still attached to my wrists by the black leather cuffs. I tried to pick one up and sling it over my shoulder. It was heavy, each iron link clinking and pinching at my skin. I dropped the chain back down, panting. I couldn’t very well go and try to escape with a hundred pounds of iron tied to each wrist.

  Okay, well, I couldn’t escape like this. How could I get out of these chains? I’d thought that the hardest part would be getting the chains unlocked, but now that I’d done that, I was still stuck.

  I couldn’t freak out. I took another deep breath in, then out. I could do this. I wasn’t going to let Vale come back and find me here. I was going to escape.

  I examined the cuffs. I hadn’t been able to see them closely when my arms had been stretched apart, but now I could turn them around to get a look. There was a metal lock on the inside of the cuffs that they had used to lock them on. What could I use to undo the locks?

  There was nothing inside this cell that was small enough to pick a lock. Oh, if only I had kept the breakfast plate Vale had given me! A fork might have been small enough to jam inside the lock. But even if I did that, I didn’t have any idea of how to unlock the thing.

  This wasn’t going to work. I was too much of a good girl. I’d never picked a lock… I’d never even thought about picking a lock. I was useless here. Desperation bubbled up inside of me. I slumped back against the wall under the window where I’d originally been tied up.

  Then I looked at the backs of the cuffs. I lifted them into the square of sunlight. They were tied up with knotted leather lace.

  Maybe I couldn’t undo the lock, but a few knots? I could do this. I think I could do this.

  I started work on the first cuff. It was slow going—it took me almost fifteen minutes to undo the first knot. But now that I knew how to do it, I knew that it was possible. It might take forever, but it was possible.

  It would have been much, much easier if I could have worked with both hands, but the knots were on the back of the cuff where I couldn’t reach with my fingers. So I worked one-handed.

  It was afternoon already. By the time I had the cuffs off, it would be night time. I would have to hope that nobody would come down to my cell. Not Vale, not El Alfa, not any of the guards. Sure, it was a dim glimmer of hope, but it was all I had to work with.

  Patiently, one piece at a time, I began to unravel the tightly knotted cuff.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Vale

  The sun was setting outside the huge window. The last red rays of the sun reflected off of the crashing waves just outside El Alfa’s estate. I sipped on my tequila, waiting for my orders.

  El Alfa finally slumped back on the couch in exhaustion. He pushed a button on the end table.

  Immediately two girls in white gauze dresses came in. They didn’t look at the bed, where the other girl was still hanging from her chains. They went straight to him and knelt in front of him. Their hands lay out in front of them, palms up.

  “Help me to the baths,” El Alfa said. The girls rose and took his fat, meaty hands, pulling him to his feet. He lurched away, leaning hard to one side.

  I could follow them. I could kill him now. But orders were orders, and I was supposed to wait until just before the raid. I met El Alfa’s eye, and he noticed me standing there as though for the first time.

  “Do what you want with her,” El Alfa slurred, gesturing to the girl who had tried to run away. “Have fun, Americano.”

  He left, the two girls supporting his weight. The door slammed shut behind him.

  My eyes fell on the girl hanging over the bed. She was still bleeding from her wounds. A dirty gag was stuffed in her mouth. I stepped closer and picked up a knife from the table full of torture instruments. I could use it later, maybe. Of all the tools here, El Alfa wouldn’t miss one. It was a small knife, the blade thin and sharp. Bile rose in my throat as I thought about what El Alfa might have used it for.

  If El Alfa asked, I would say that I wanted to use it as a threat for Jessica during her training. He would believe me, I thought. He trusted me, at least enough to let me into his private rooms. I could only hope that he would trust me further.

  That he would trust me until he was dead.

  I stepped forward and the girl moaned in terror behind her gag.

  She thought I was going to hurt her. Of
course.

  I tucked the knife back in my belt on the side. I adjusted my shirt so that the folds nearly covered the handle. It wouldn’t be apparent to anyone unless they were paying close attention.

  The girl wriggled on the chain, like bait hung in the ocean to catch fish. I was the shark, or so she thought. But I wasn’t here to eat her. No, far from it. I couldn’t help her much, but I could get her away from El Alfa, at least. He’d said I could do what I liked with her. So I would keep him to that promise.

  I pulled the gag from her mouth. She didn’t meet my eyes as I tossed the gag aside. Her attention was at my belt, at the place where I’d put the knife.

  “It’s alright,” I said, without much conviction. It wasn’t alright, not for her. But at least she didn’t have to fear me. When I reached out for her, she flinched away.

  “I won’t hurt you,” I said.

  How many times had I said that since coming here? Ten’s orders had been simple: do whatever I had to do in order to get at El Alfa. Here I was, trying to justify acting the way I did. But I had hurt Jessica—I’d hurt her, badly. I’d scared her to death. I’d killed her friend. And now I was making promises to another girl, promises that I couldn’t keep if El Alfa ordered me otherwise.

  I untied her hands. She slumped down, and I picked her up, feeling her light weight in my arms. Like a ghost of a person. She was bruised on all sides, and she whimpered as I carried her out of El Alfa’s rooms, but she didn’t scream again.

  I brought her down the stairs. There was a cell near Jessica’s that I knew was empty. I could put her there.

  From out of the shadows, a figure appeared.

  “What do you have there?”

  It was David. That asshole.

  “A girl.” I spoke abruptly, as though he was interrupting something important. But he only came forward and leaned on the wall, leering at the girl’s cuts. There was an evil gleam in his face as his eyes dragged down over her bruised body.

  “What happened?”

  “She tried to run away.”

  “You did this to her?”

  There was a clinking sound, and I looked down the hallway. Nothing. All of the doors were shut. I frowned. It had sounded like —but never mind. I had to deal with David now.

  I kicked open the door, since David didn’t seem to want to open the door for me. He walked in behind us.

  “El Alfa and I both had our fun,” I explained. I hoped that would be enough to satisfy him.

  As I set the girl down, I heard the sound of his belt unbuckling.

  “Then I’ll have mine, too.”

  I glared back at him.

  “She’s had enough.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says me. She’s no good to El Alfa if she’s dead.”

  He scowled at me.

  “You’re nobody here. Understand? If I told El Alfa—”

  “Go tell him then.”

  I stood there, staring implacably. I dared him silently to go upstairs, where El Alfa was in all likelihood asleep in a bathtub, being washed by the two girls in white gauze dresses.

  I shouldn’t have been pressing my luck. All I had to do was hold out for two more days, and then I could kill the man. But the thought of David doing anything with this poor, broken girl made me feel ill.

  She whimpered behind me. I clicked the armcuffs around her wrists, going through the motions of chaining her up. I ignored David as best as I could, working slowly and methodically. Eventually, he got tired of waiting.

  David slammed the door as he left. I could hear his footsteps clanging down the hallway and up the stairs.

  I stayed for a few minutes, washing the girl’s wounds as best as I could with a dirty linen cloth I found on the floor. As I’d expected, most of the cuts were superficial, and the deeper bruises were beyond my help. She needed rest, that was all.

  Rest. That’s what I needed too, after all this. I thought of going next door, to Jessica. I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her everything.

  Stupid, I know. What was I thinking? I wanted comfort. How selfish was I, that I would think of trying to take comfort in the arms of a girl who was, for all intents and purposes, my prisoner?

  I heard a clink from out in the hallway. My ears perked up.

  I pushed the door open and stepped out quickly. To my astonishment, Jessica was standing there in the hallway, completely unchained. Her face froze in terror.

  “Jessica—” I said, holding my hand out.

  She turned and ran.

  Chapter Thirty

  Jessica

  Vale stood right in front of me. I heard his words from before, tolling a warning bell in my head.

  A girl—

  She tried—

  She tried to run away.

  My worst nightmare had come true. He was only an arm’s length away. He looked as shocked as I did that I wasn’t tied up. Well, I wasn’t going to give him any time to figure it out.

  “Jessica—”

  I spun and darted away, down the hallway. I didn’t know where I was going, only that I couldn’t let him catch me. I’d seen what happened to girls who tried to escape.

  “Wait!”

  His voice bounced off the end of the hallway, echoing back to me.

  As I reached the stairs, his hand gripped my arm. I kicked backwards as hard as I could. I must have hit him squarely in the stomach, because he grunted and his hand loosened. I ripped away from him and scrambled up the stairs.

  “Jessica—stop—”

  He caught my foot and I fell down, knocking my head against the wall. The torch light spun dizzily in my vision. I heard footsteps coming from above.

  “No!” I cried out.

  Vale dragged me back and slung me over his shoulder. I beat at his back with my fists, but it was like beating on the surface of water—useless. Still, I hit him, let all of my fear and frustration out through the blows against his impenetrable exterior.

  “Stop it,” he growled. He ducked down to carry me through the cell door. My fingers slid uselessly over the metal door, scrabbling against the stone entryway for only a split second before he had pulled me back inside. The iron door clanged shut behind us, and I let out a cry of disbelief. I had been so close—so close—

  “Stop it!”

  I realized that I was moaning, stretching my hands toward the locked door. Vale set me down on the floor as I twisted. Then I saw it.

  The handle of a knife sticking out from behind his belt.

  I reached out and pulled it without thinking. The knife turned, and I saw the blood seeping red against Vale’s shirt before I heard him swear.

  “Fuck!”

  I leapt backward and Vale took a step back, too. We faced off, only a few feet apart. I crouched under the window in the back of the cell. My foot braced back against the wall. If he came close, then, at least I would have leverage. The light from the window might have blinded him, if only it had been earlier in the day. Now it was almost night time, and the light was dim. All of my luck was bad luck, but I was desperate. I had to take any chance I could get.

  He shifted toward me and I raised the knife. My hand trembled. The blade glinted in the reddish rays from the window, sending dim sprays of reflected light across the ceiling of the cell.

  “Jessica, stop. You don’t know how to fight with a knife.”

  “The easiest way is to slit the throat,” I said, parroting him. “Or through the ribs. I should be holding the blade sideways, right?”

  “Jessica—”

  He moved slightly forward and I jabbed the knife in the air. He stopped, his hands raised to protect himself. His face was solemn, but I could still see his muscles tensed. Ready to catch me.

  “Or the femoral artery.”

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” he said.

  “Really? You’re not here to hurt me? That’s pretty fucking unbelievable, considering what you did to that other girl.”

  His face paled slightly. He turned to glan
ce at the door, shifting his weight as he did. I shifted mine. I wasn’t going to let him take me off-guard. He turned back to me.

  “You saw that?”

  “I was going to escape then, but I saw you and that guy outside and closed the door. I saw her, too. Don’t tell me—”

  “El Alfa did that to her.”

  “Sure,” I hissed. “El Alfa did that to her. And El Alfa made you kill James. And El Alfa made you fuck me—”

  “I am not going to hurt you,” Vale said, a frown drawing together on his brow.

  “That’s damn right you’re not going to hurt me. Or I’ll stab you. Now get out of my way.”

  He stepped sideways then, lunging at my arm. I sliced the knife across the air, but it only nicked his arm. He was already stepping back between me and the door. Blood dripped from the shallow cut on his arm.

  “Stay. Back.”

  “I can’t let you out that door, Jessica.”

  “Why?”

  “You know why. They’ll hurt you. El Alfa will hurt you.”

  “I’ll take my chances.” He was bleeding from his arm and his side, and still he didn’t want to get out of my way.

  “You don’t understand.”

  “No? Then explain.”

  A cloud moved over his face. I realized that the sun had gone away dipped below the horizon, and the cell was dimmer. He shook his head.

  “I can’t.”

  “Then get out of my way.”

  “Don’t make me do this, Jessica.” He took one step toward me. I held up the knife. I’d already gotten him twice. I could do it. I could stab him.

  As he moved forward, his arm came up to grab me on the right. I sliced the knife in that direction, but he was already out of the way, spinning left. He moved faster than I’d ever seen anyone move before. In an instant, he had gripped my arm.

  “No!”

  I twisted to try and get away, but his other arm came around me. He spun back against the wall, holding my body tightly against his. I kicked, but he picked me up off of my feet. My wrist was held as though by pincers in his rough, strong fingers.

  “Stop! Let me go!”