Maggie shuddered at the offer as Joe reached back, gripped her wrist again, and they began moving slowly through the shadows, hunkered low, working around along the side of the garage toward the far wall. The direction they were going would have them coming up behind the men standing at the doorway. If they moved further into the garage, then there was a slim chance for escape.
“How disappointing,” Jose finally sighed. “But, I’ll enjoy punishing you for the effort I must make.”
Joe moved quickly along a row of boxes before pushing her between a higher stack and an old dresser. There was a maze built through the stacks of junk, haphazard and less than safe, but with a few hidden passageways that seemed more by accident than by design.
They moved into the narrow tunnel, easing slowly behind the dresser as the sound of footsteps began to near their hiding place.
Joe paused behind the dresser, crouched, and waited as the footsteps passed before moving slowly out of the impromptu tunnel and into a mess of old clothes hanging from a long rack. Maybe being a pack rat wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
“Americans are so interesting.” Amusement filled the voice that spoke from just in front of the rack of clothing a second before the glare of a flashlight illuminated the floor. “Come out my friends, let us talk for a bit.”
As the rack of clothing began to move, Joe kicked into action. Before Maggie could do more than gasp he pushed her back behind the heavy dresser and opened fire.
Maggie scrambled through the unnatural tunnel, her hand fumbling behind her as she attempted to reach the revolver tucked into her back pocket.
She had just moved to the other side of the dresser when the boxes that lined the tunnel crashed around her, and cruel fingers reached in, latching into her hair.
“No!” Her fingers formed claws as she tore at the fingers holding her, fighting the grip as she was jerked from the safety of the boxes.
“Redheaded whore!” A heavily accented voice hissed at her ear as one arm was jerked behind her back, her hand pressed against her shoulder blades as she cried out in pain.
“Do you hear her cries, Merino?” the voice called out as the gunfire was silenced. “I have your whore now.”
She was shaken like a rag doll as she fought against the pain ripping through her shoulders and her scalp. She was dragged through the dimly lit garage and brought to a stop next to the man she had met in her home, introduced as Juan Martinez. This was Jose Fuentes, not Martinez, and he was just as frightening now as he had been the year before, when he met with Grant.
“She’s very pretty, my friend.” Jose gripped her jaw in his hand, twisting her face around until she was forced to stare up at him. “I warned Grant when he married her that he had chosen one he could not tame. I was correct in this assessment, was I not?”
She fought his hold, tears filling her eyes from the burning pain tearing through her shoulders as her captor twisted her arm more forcibly behind her back.
“Let her go, Fuentes,” Joe snapped. “She doesn’t have what you want.”
Jose Fuentes held her head in place, refusing to allow her to look over to Joe as he glanced to his side.
“Ah, there you are, Agent Merino.” His smile was sickly evil, a twisted parody of humor. “It is very kind of you to join us.”
“Jose, get the package from him and we will leave,” Santiago snapped. “We have no time for these games.”
“We have time for whatever I wish, boy. Diego is not here to listen to your sniveling. You follow my orders.”
Jose tightened his grip on Maggie’s face as she finally whimpered with the pain.
His teeth flashed within the expanse of scarred, dark flesh as he chuckled at the sound.
“She’s a strong woman. Women such as this, they fight the drug Diego created. They are the enjoyable little tramps once they succumb, both fighting and pleading for the agony to come.”
Maggie shuddered at the threat as Jose released her face and stared back at her sneeringly
“I think I will let our Agent Merino live,” he sighed. “After I relieve him of the package it would appear he has dropped.”
Breathing harshly, Maggie turned her head to the side, seeing the shadowed form of Joe standing tall, his hands raised behind his head as one of Jose’s men stood behind him. The package was no place to be found.
“Let her go.” He nodded to Maggie. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“She has much to do with this.” Jose ran the backs of his fingers over her cheek as she jerked back in response. He chuckled a second before backhanding her. “Grant made certain he teased us often with tales of what a cold little wife he had. I do so enjoy breaking in such women. Frigid little bitches who think their bodies are too good for a little rough, sweaty sex.”
The pain ripped through her mind as the blow blinded her, nearly tearing her neck from her shoulders with the force of it. Sagging against the man holding her, Maggie fought to catch her breath as she heard the rough laughter that echoed around her.
“I will take Se?ora Samuels with me,” Jose stated then. “The videos make us much money. She will bring quite a price from those viewers who enjoy watching the battle between the needs of the flesh and the denials of the mind. I will take her in payment for my trouble.”
“Then you can forget the package.”
Maggie’s eyes widened as Jose’s gun came up to her head.
“I can kill her now.”
“Same deal. I know where the package is, you don’t.”
“I will find it once you are both dead,” Jose snarled furiously. “I do not need you to find the package.”
Joe glanced around the shadowed garage before turning back to Jose, his lips kicking into a grin. “Good luck.”
A tense silence filled the garage as Jose’s and Joe’s eyes met in a battle of wills. Moments later, Jose bent, the hiss of a knife sliding from an ankle sheath sliding over Maggie’s nerve endings like a serpent’s warning.
As he rose he turned to Maggie once again, his hand lifting until the blade touched her skin. “How long would you last, my friend, as I begin slicing her open, inch by inch. Her beautiful face.” The knife slid down her jaw. “Or these pretty breasts.” It moved to her breasts as Maggie fought to shrink back. “It would be a shame to destroy such beauty, Agent Merino.”