Tori had led a pretty average sort of life, she felt. She'd grown up in a nice neighborhood, had gone to a good school. She'd done her fair share of partying, more than her fair share of bed hopping, but had also always shown up to work and always remembered her friends' birthdays. Overall, she'd have to say she was a pretty good person.

Which was why it was so surreal to find herself standing in a dark, dirty room in Thailand, with a gun pressed to the side of her head.

I guess I also always got into more than my fair share of trouble ...

“You help him steal drugs!? You steal from us!? You steal our fucking drugs!?”

Tori winced as the barrel painfully ground against her skin.

“No!” she shrieked, holding up her hands, which were bound together at the wrists. “I don't know anything about drugs, I swear! I swear it!”

There was more cursing in Thai, then the gun was taken away again. She still held herself rigid, knowing it was going to be back again in a couple minutes. It always came back.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been in the room. There were no windows, so it was hard to tell. She guessed it had been a day, maybe less. Maybe a little more. Sometimes she was alone in the room – that was the worst. Not knowing if she'd been left for dead. Listening to the sounds of other people crying in distant rooms.

In the beginning, they'd stripped her down to her underwear and taken lots of pictures of her, from every angle. She'd managed to kick one of the men in the nuts and she'd ran for the door, but someone had stopped her. That little stunt had gotten her backhanded.

Now the fun thing to do was leave her alone for a couple hours, just long enough to drive her a little insane. Then they'd come back and press a gun to her head and scream at her, demanding answers she didn't know. Why had Landon taken the drugs, where had he sold them, who was his buyer, who had been his accomplice at the club, who had pulled the fire alarm? Who, who, who!?

She sobbed and she begged and she told them everything she knew – that Landon had come to Bangkok to hire people to dig a new well, that was it. He'd paid them out of his own pocket, that's what he'd said. She didn't know about any drugs or anything else, please god, they had to believe her.

After endless hours of that, she almost wasn't scared anymore. She was too tired and too hungry. As the men talked to each other, she slowly sank to the ground, moving so she was on her knees. She had an itch on her nose, but she didn't dare scratch it. Movements tended to make them jumpy.

A loud banging on the door startled her, causing her to duck and flinch. One of her interrogators sneered at her, then walked over and opened it. There was some murmuring, then he stepped aside. Another man walked in, one she recognized right away. It was the guy from the camp, the one who'd kidnapped her.

“How are we today?” he asked, standing in front of her. She shrugged her shoulders.

“Honestly, I've been better.”

He laughed in a high voice.

“Yes, well, things are going to get a lot better! Your pictures created quite a bidding frenzy, I was very impressed. Normally, old and used women don't garner so much attention!”

“Used!? And I'm twenty-four!”

“Yes, very very old, but fortunately for you, you have amazing breasts. We made a lot of money off you. Bidder was very adamant about purchasing you.”

“Purchasing,” all the breath left Tori's body as she whispered the word.

“Yes! You high ticket item, you should be proud.”

“You can't sell me!” she sputtered. “I'm ... I'm a human fucking being!”

“I can sell anything. Human fucking beings are in demand right now, so I sell them, too. Stand up.”

“I'm not fucking doing anything! I'm not some piece of furniture you can just -”

He grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. His fingers bit painfully into her flesh and she cried out.

“You are furniture,” he hissed at her. “You are a couch. A mattress. Something someone will use and get dirty and ruin, and then he will throw you away. And you have your precious Dr. Edenhoff to blame for this.”

No. She refused to believe it. She remembered the club they'd mentioned, knew Landon had bought drugs there, but they were wrong. Someone else had taken their drugs, this was all a big misunderstanding.

A misunderstanding that's going to get you raped and killed.

She started crying again.

“Ah, good, this is perfect. Delicate feminine tears are perfect. Show her new owner in!”

She wanted to fight. She wanted to turn into some bad ass super hero and throw this asshole after her shoulder, then back flip out of the room. But when all was said and done, she wasn't a super hero. She hadn't ever even taken so much as a self-defense class. She was a middle class American, soft as cookie dough, and she didn't know what to do.

The door opened wider and she heard footsteps moving across the room. A shiny pair of black dress shoes came into her view. Her captor put his finger under her chin and forced her to lift her head, forced her to face her buyer.

Black slacks were above the shoes, leading to a suit jacket, dress shirt, and tie. All tailored excellently. Money and power bled from this man's pores.

So she was shocked when she saw his face and recognized him.

“Velez!?” she gasped. He stared at her, his eyes full of disdain.

“She's filthy – you couldn't bathe her?” he snapped.

She was taken aback. Where was the relaxed dude from Bali, and who was this guy? What was he doing here?

“You rushed us too fast, we didn't have time. I'm doing you a favor as it is,” the Thai drug dealer snarled.

“A favor? Fifty thousand U.S. dollars is hardly a favor.”

“It barely covers half the cost of the drugs your friend stole.”

“I know,” Velez said, his eyes skating up and down her body. “Why do you think I bought her? He fucked me over, too, so now I'm going to fuck over something of his.”

All the men in the room shared a laugh at that statement and Tori suddenly felt so ill, she swayed on her feet.

“Oh god,” she moaned, tilting dangerously to the left. Someone caught her and held her upright. Painfully gripped her jaw, forcing her head up so she could be inspected.

“Poor little Tori,” Velez sighed, walking up close to her. “Fell in with the wrong guy, didn't you? 'Dr. Edenhoff' sounds so impressive – 'drug dealer wannabe', though, not so much.”

“Please ... please, don't do this. You know this is a mistake, you have to know that,” she whined. He snorted.

“The only mistake I made was offering Landon a job as a drug runner. First he fucked me over by bailing out on that deal, then he fucks us all over by stealing. Fuck him. We're done here. I would like my property, now,” he barked, turning to the Thai gentlemen.

Bank accounts were checked and paperwork was exchanged. For a bizarre moment, Tori wondered what kind of paperwork could be involved in a sex trafficking deal. Did she come with a receipt? She laughed out loud at the idea.

Oh god. It's started. I'm going insane.

“No refunds or exchanges,” the drug dealer joked, then he shoved Tori into Velez, who gripped her arm and held her away from him.

“By the time I'm done with her, she won't be sellable anymore,” he assured them. There was another round of raucous laughter, then they said their goodbyes.

“Velez,” she breathed his name as he yanked her out of the room. “You don't have to do this! You're not this guy, I know you're not. Please, let me go, please.”

“Baby, you have no idea what kind of man I am. Now shut the fuck up.”

Tori tripped over her own feet as she was all but dragged through the building. When they stepped outside, she was surprised to see it was night time. She was shoved into the very back of a large SUV, then Velez got in the front seat.

“I just want to go home. I want ... I want to see my mother,” she started sobbing. “Please, please let me go. Please.”

“I said be quiet!” he hissed as he drove them through an empty parking lot.

Tori didn't pay too much attention to what was going on. She knew she should be alert, trying to figure out how to escape, or at least where she was and what route he was taking. But she couldn't. All she could think about was Landon being scared for her, and of her parents getting the news their daughter was missing.

They were stopped at the edge of a compound by guards with scary looking assault rifles. Velez's paperwork was checked over, then the vehicle was, too. Finally, they were granted permission to leave. They sailed down the highway, Tori tucked into the very back of the car like she was luggage.

They drove for maybe thirty minutes in unbearable silence, then he began to slow the car. This terrified her. She couldn't think of any reason why he could possibly need to stop the car in the middle of nowhere, other than to rape and murder her. When he got out of the vehicle, she felt like this confirmed her suspicions, and she started screaming.

“Shut up!” he yelled when he opened the back door of the SUV. “Jesus, fuck, you want everyone to hear you?”

“Yes!” she screamed, kicking at him when he tried to grab her leg. “I want everyone to fucking here me, you fucking rapist piece of shit!”

He latched onto her ankle and she was yanked out of the vehicle. She hit the ground hard and thought to get away, but before she could even move, he was hauling her up onto her feet.

“C'mon,” he growled. “We gotta hurry.”

“Help! Somebody! I'm being kidnapped! Help! Rape! Help! FIRE!”

Velez stood behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist, then used his free hand to cover her mouth. He halfway dragged and carried her off the road and down a small ditch. Completely hidden from the road by the side of the ditch and a bunch of bushes was a shitty looking Suzuki.

“What's going on?” she breathed when he finally dropped his hand.

“We need to hurry. Here,” he said, and she was shocked when he shrugged out of his expensive suit jacket and handed it to her. She didn't hesitate, though, and she quickly put it on, glad to finally be covered up again.

He led her to the side of the vehicle and opened the door for her. She expected him to shove her into the seat, like he'd done with the larger SUV, but he didn't. He hurried around the car and got in behind the steering wheel.

“C'mon! You want those fuckers to show up and catch us?”

She glanced around quickly, saw that there weren't any other cars or any sort of dwelling nearby, and she went with her gut instinct. She bit her lips and fell into the passenger seat. They were peeling out of the dirt and bushes before she'd even gotten her door closed.

“What the fuck is going on!?” she demanded, struggling to put on her seat belt as she was bounced all round in her seat.

“Sorry, I couldn't say anything in the other car in case they'd bugged it and tagged it while I was inside,” he explained.

“Are you rescuing me?” she asked, staring wide eyed at him. He nodded, staring straight out the windshield as he struggled to control the vehicle.

“You could say that.”

“So you didn't actually buy me?”

“Oh, honey,” he laughed. “Do you think they would've let me inside if I hadn't paid in advance? Shit, until I paid the fifty thou, they thought I was actually Landon.”

“You actually spent fifty thousand dollars on me?” she gasped. He shook his head.

“Landon did.”

Her jaw dropped.

“What!?”

“He wired it to my bank account last night, while I was flying up here.”

“Okay. Wait. What is going on?” she asked, raking her hands through her filthy hair. “I was just fucking kidnapped and they think Landon stole something and now he's bought me and what in the actual fuck is going on!?”

Velez grimaced and finally glanced at her, “you want the truth?”

“Of course I want the fucking truth!”

“Okay,” he let out a long sigh, then he glanced in the rear view mirror once before jerking the wheel. They tipped sideways for a moment, slipped around on the loose dirt on the ditch, then they came bouncing up onto the main road. When he seemed confident there were no cars following them, he relaxed into his seat.

“The truth – Landon stole two kilos of cocaine from that drug dealer back there,” he started, but Tori shook her head.

“No, he got the money from -”

“You wanna hear the fucking truth or not, lady?” Velez snapped. She pressed her lips together tightly, then nodded. “Okay then, here's the fucking truth. Your boyfriend stole a lot of fucking drugs worth a lot of fucking money from a really bad fucking man. He stole them and sold them, then used the money for his little charity gig. Niran back there figured out it was ol' Lando who took his drugs, so he called my boss, who then fucking called me.”

“Wait,” Tori dared to interrupt. “Who's your boss? Why would they call him?”

“My boss is basically a general in one of the biggest drug cartels in all of Indonesia,” he answered. Her jaw dropped.

“Soooo ... what does that make you?”

“Something else,” he said with a shrug. “I used to deal drugs for a crew in Los Angeles. A felony warrant got me to move out of the states. Now I organize drugs runs between America and here.”

“Drug runs ...” Tori's voice trailed off while he nodded.

“Yeah. Drugs, or antiques, stolen artifacts, exotic animals, whatever people want.”

“So how do you know Landon?”

Velez laughed out loud.

“You seriously cannot be this naive. I used to sell him drugs, sweetheart.”

“Ah. Gotcha. So that's why he came to Bali. To see you,” she said softly, realizing their vacation had started out as a sham.

“He'd gotten bored in San Francisco, I guess. Something. Wanted to spice things up. I told him he should try smuggling, mostly joking. He took me up on the offer.”

“He came to Bali to become a drug smuggler?” she was practically guffawing. Velez snorted.

“Honey, why do you think you came to Bali?”

“To get a fucking tan!”

“Okay, if that's what you want to believe.”

“Well, what am I supposed to think!?” she demanded. “What the fuck else don't I know?”

“That you were gonna be a drug smuggler, too.”

That was it. Tori lost her fucking mind. She grabbed the emergency brake between them and yanked up on it as hard as she could. Velez let out a shout as the tires skidded across the pavement and the back end fishtailed so much, they went in a complete circle.

“I'm sorry,” she said softly. “You'll have to say that again. I was going to what?”

“Landon figured he probably wouldn't make it through security screening with a couple ounces of cocaine on him, but you ... you got this kinda sexy-yet-innocent thing going on, no one would look twice at you in customs.”

“He was going to ask me to smuggle drugs?” she double checked.

“Ask? Nah, I don't think so.”

“Well, then how ...” her voice trailed off as the dots connected. “Oh my god, he was going to plant drugs on me. In my suitcase or my backpack. Just send me to the airport and I wouldn't even know. God, I am stupid. I am so fucking stupid.”

“Hey, hey, you're not,” Velez insisted, gripping her shoulder and shaking her gently. “How could you know? Shit, an all expenses paid trip to Bali, I'd jump on it, too.”

That didn't make Tori feel any better. In fact, she felt worse. She started crying all over again.

“I'm so stupid. He lied to me, the whole time. He told me ... he told me we were the same, that's why he wanted me to go on the trip. He said all these things ... so many things ... all lies. God, he told me he paid for the well with his own money!” she shouted, beating her fists against the dash. “I believed him! Saint fucking Landon, jesus, I believed him. He stole drugs and got me kidnapped and lied about everything.”

When she started hyperventilating, Velez undid his seat belt and scooted closer to her. She felt his hand on the back of her neck and he forced her to bend in half, to put her head between her knees.

“Breathe, honey, breathe,” he urged, rubbing circles on her back. “I don't think ... he didn't lie about everything, Tor. He told me he didn't care how much it cost to get you back. Promised me all his money and his building. Told me I could kill him when this was all over. Anything, as long as you were safe.”

“Yeah, he's Mother fuckin' Teresa,” she shuddered and coughed while she spoke.

“He cares about you. He's just ... just a fuck up. A screwed up guy who did the wrong thing to try to make something else right.”

Tori thought about those words. Landon had basically said similar things about himself, the whole time. Told her he would fuck up, warned her that he would try to ruin it.

Jesus, I had no idea how spectacularly he would accomplish it, though.

“I wanna go home,” she whispered. “I ... I barely have anything. They took everything, they must have gone into my tent after they took me. They showed me my passport, my wallet, my jewelry. How do I get home?”

“We'll think of something, but for now, we've got a lot of problems to deal with,” he sighed, and he finally pulled away from her. When the car started rolling forward again, she leaned back in her seat.

“Are we going to Landon?” she asked, suddenly nervous. She didn't want to see him, didn't know what she'd do in his presence.

“No, he's too dangerous to be around while the gang is looking for him.”

“Can you get us plane tickets home?”

“No,” Velez shook his head. “Landon wired the money and I thought it would be more than enough, but I got into a bidding war with some oil magnate fucker from Brazil, he drove your price way up. I barely got the money out before my accounts were frozen.”

“Frozen?”

“Yeah. This little act of heroism is probably going to cost me my life,” he chuckled. “I just fucked over two cartels to save you.”

“Oh god,” she groaned, rubbing her hands over her face.

“I'm kidding. Kind of. Not really. But they won't get me. I'll turn myself into the U.S., try to strike a deal. Give up some names, something, get a shorter sentence. I was getting tired of this life, anyway,” he assured her.

“I'm tired of it, too,” she whispered, blinking back tears as she stared out into the darkness.

“It'll be over soon. You got any friends you can call?” he asked, then he patted the front of his jacket. “There's a cell phone in there. It's a shitty burner phone, but you should be able to get an international operator, call collect or something.”

Tori pulled out the phone and stared at it. Wondered who she should call. God, she was so embarrassed. So ashamed. This sort of stuff happened to other people, not her. Her mother would lose her mind. Katya would freak out. Who else could she call? Who else's phone number did she have memorized?

She took a deep breath and knew what she had to do.

She dialed the numbers and as she listened to the operator explain to the receiver that he had a collect call from Thailand, tears started running down her face.

“Hey!” a voice so dear and familiar picked up at the other end of the line. She had to put a hand over her mouth to hold in a sob. “I had no idea you were all the way over there, what the hell have you been doing? You said you were -”

“Liam,” she cut off Landon's twin, her voice hoarse and raw. “I need you to be quiet, okay?”

“Uh huh.”

“And I need you to just listen. This is serious. No jokes.”

“Uh huh ...”

She took another deep breath, and then she told him.

She told Liam everything.