Melody froze for a half of a second, but it felt like an eternity. Her gaze was trapped on the man who was rushing towards her, his face twisted in an expression she knew all too well.
All the hope, that bright star of light that had filled her up when Christian had first found her, began to gutter and go out a little bit at a time.
She turned and tried to run. She knew she had to get away from them, that she couldn’t let herself by caught by Enrique or his men again. But she’d only made it a step or two when she looked over her shoulder.
She watched one of the thugs punch Christian so hard that his head whipped around, and he stumbled backwards. By the time he found his footing again, Enrique’s man had pulled a gun from its hiding place at his waistband and had it levelled at Christian’s chest.
The sight of that had far more to do with her stopping than the man who had grabbed her. It was enough to make her surrender and do whatever they told her, her eyes wide and desperate on Christian’s as she tried to tell him without words that they would be okay. That somehow they would make it out of this alright, and together.
The man behind her held her wrists so tight together that she swore she could feel the bones grinding against one another. Two men tackled Christian much harder than they needed to. He’d already put his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
The last man moved to corner Amanda, and she stumbled backwards, about to turn and rush away, when his hard hands tangled in her hair and pulled her to an abrupt stop.
“Oh no,” the man who held her growled. “You’re not going to get away with this. Enrique will want to know all about how his cousin betrayed him.”
“I didn’t betray him, Jose, I swear,” Amanda said.
Melody could see that she was trying to think of a way out of this and that she was slowly realizing the truth that Mel had already discovered. There was no way out. They were back under Enrique’s power. Again.
But that didn’t stop Amanda from trying.
“I…I saw them escaping, and I was trying to stall. That’s all.”
Jose drew back one hand, swinging it forward as he hit Amanda across the cheek with the butt of his gun. Enrique’s cousin cried out at the blow and stumbled unsteadily, one hand clutched to the side of her face.
Melody lurched forward, trying to help the other woman, but the man that held her from behind had her restrained too tightly, and she couldn’t move. All she could do was trip forward as they pushed them down the hall in an odd and unwilling parade.
Melody stumbled over her own feet as they dragged them down several flights of stairs, and in the back of her mind she wondered if Christian’s joke about a dungeon wasn’t real after all. It felt like they had descended far underground by the time they came to a heavy wood door with the padlock on the outside.
One of the men drew out a key, unlocked the padlock, and before Melody could utter a word or a cry for help, not that she thought that would help, they were shoving her, Christian and Amanda into the dark basement in a tangle of arms and legs.
They were still trying to get free of one another when Jose uttered a warning in a low, malicious voice.
“Just wait until Enrique gets back. You are going to regret ever going against him.”
The door slammed shut with an ominous thud, and they all listened in silence, completely unmoving, as the metallic sound of the padlock being put back echoed through the dark room.
Melody rushed to Christian’s side, and they clung to each other as their eyes adjusted to the sudden gloom. There weren’t any windows down there. Just four bare concrete walls and a smattering of old furniture.
She shuddered in Christian’s arms. No one would hear their screams. No one would be coming to rescue them now.
That little bright star of hope gave one last, flickering pulse and then went out inside her. She knew in her heart there was no way they were going to get out of this one. Not unless one of them had a miracle tucked up their sleeve that she didn’t know about.
Despite the despair that filled her, though, it wasn’t in Melody to just give up without a fight. And she had one thing now that she’d never had before. Christian.
She gave him last, hard squeeze before stepping back and trying to get a better look at the gloomy room they’d all been locked in.
“Well, it’s not exactly a dungeon, right?” Melody muttered in the dark.
She was rewarded with Christian’s soft chuckle, before his voice sobered.
“Not quite. But too close for my liking, that’s for damned sure.”
Melody started walking the perimeter of the room, searching for anything they could use. It was bigger than she’d thought at first, with most of it lost to the shadows that clung to the deepest corners.
As she was walking, her eyes slowly got used to the dimness, and she could make out a darker shadow in one corner. A bad feeling filled her, settling deep in the pit of her stomach as she rushed towards it.
“Oh, my god! Bianca?”
A hacking cough reached her ears, followed by Bianca’s familiar, gravelly smoke-roughened voice.
“Damn! He got you too, did he?”
Melody couldn’t speak. She was choking on the pain she could hear in the older woman’s voice. Christian answered for her.
“Yeah. Me too, Bianca,” Christian’s voice said softly from the darkness beside her.
“Bastard!” Bianca coughed roughly again, forcing out the word on a hack.
Melody felt Christian turn in frustration.
“Amanda, can you find us a light? Anything? I can’t see a damned thing.”
A moment later, there was a sound of rustling coming from the other side of the room, closest to the door they’d all been tossed through. After a few seconds and a softly muttered curse, a dim fluorescent glow flickered half-heartedly to life and filled the basement.
“God damn it!” Christian cursed again as they got their first good look at Bianca.
Melody had to draw in a deep, shuddering breath to steady herself. Even in the dim lighting, she could see that it wasn’t good.
Melody felt like cursing too as they helped Bianca to her feet and had to practically carry the other woman over to a nearby chair so that Christian could examine her injuries. He wanted to see how bad they were, but Melody could already tell that she was in a bad state.
Melody swallowed hard, taking in the swollen left side of the older woman’s face and the limping way she walked. Her left eye was so bruised and swollen that Bianca could hardly see out of it.
The older woman put up with the examination with as much patience as she possessed. Which is to say, none at all.
“It’s not as bad as it looks, Christian. Stop fussing over me.”
Bianca tried to wave them all away, obviously uncomfortable under all the scrutiny but Christian wouldn’t be deterred.
“Nothing looks infected, just swollen,” Christian said, and Melody could hear the anger in his voice even though he tried to keep it soft and calm as he spoke to Bianca. “Did they hurt you anywhere else? Your ankle? I noticed your limp.”
Bianca snorted, trying to wave him off once more.
“That was my own damned fault. Tripped in the dark and twisted the damned thing something good.”
“I’m going to move it now. It might hurt a little, but I need to make sure it’s not broken, okay?”
“Is anything I say going to stop you?” Bianca groused, giving him a put-upon look that normally would have sent anyone running towards the door.
But Christian just grinned at her and shrugged.
“No.”
“Well, then go ahead and get this over with. Damned doctors!”
Bianca looked away as she spoke, and Melody’s heart clenched at the look in the older woman’s eyes. Pain, embarrassment, shame.
“Don’t worry, Bianca,” Melody said quietly, trying to distract her from what Christian was doing. “We’ll get you out of this mess. I’m sorry I ever got you involved.”
“Oh, honey, this ain’t on you. This is all on that no-good, rotten, son of a bitch…”
She cut off abruptly on a hiss of pain, as Christian tested her ankle before gently putting it back down again.
“Well, it’s not broken, but you can’t put any weight on it.”
“Hell, I could have told you that.” Bianca swatted his hands away. “I’m not one of your strays, Christian. You don’t need to patch me up. I do just fine for myself, thank you very much.”
Bianca’s voice was suddenly all business.
“The real thing we need to figure out is how the hell we’re going to get the two of you out of here.”
“And you too, Bianca,” Christian said sternly.
“And you, Amanda,” Melody added.
Bianca hissed again, this time in anger. The older woman’s eyes searched the dimly lit basement until they landed on Enrique’s cousin, who had stayed silent and huddled against the far wall during Bianca’s examination.
“You! Did you betray them again you little…”?
“No, Bianca. She helped us,” Melody hurried to explain.
The only thing they had down there was each other. She couldn’t let them fall apart.
“If not for her, Christian would never have known where I was. Or you. He never would have found us.”
“Fat lot of good finding us has been. He’s just as trapped as we are.”
“Maybe not, Bianca,” Christian said slowly, looking deep in thought.
Melody gazed at him questioningly, but after a moment it was obvious that he wasn’t going to explain any further than that.
“What are you planning, Christian?” Melody asked softly, turning towards him so that she could get a better look at his contemplative expression.
“I’m not sure yet. But you’re right about one thing. We need to figure our way out of here. If we wait…”
He trailed off, leaving the words unspoken, but they all knew the consequences of that. If they waited until Enrique found them, they wouldn’t be leaving this place alive. Melody was not even sure what he would do to her after that betrayal.
“Alright,” Melody said, glancing around the room. “Any ideas? We can’t stay. That means we have to figure a way out of here. And we don’t have much time.”
Slowly, they all gathered together, taking whatever random seat they could find as they sat down to make a plan.
Melody had just told the truth. The clock was ticking. And they were running out of time.