When the skids touched down at the center of the compound and a dust storm surrounded the helicopter, Maddie’s breath came out in a tired rush. She flicked switches on the stripped down console until the rotors slowed and the engine went quiet. The man sitting behind her pressed the barrel of his rifle into her upper arm and stroked it up to her shoulder. Maddie tensed and her hand shook as she reached for the door release.

“We will make a pit stop next time, eh, puta?” he said and his heavily accented words and tone sent a chill down her spine. This disgusting man, her assigned guard and navigator, made sexual comments to her at every opportunity.

There was no way she was letting this man touch her—ever. At least while she was conscious and had a choice. She looked over at him and her stomach lurched.

Oh, God, please don’t let it be him.

“If we do, you’ll have to kill me and El Jefe won’t be happy with you,” she replied, trying to force strength into her trembling voice.

That was all bravado, because Maddie wouldn’t let him kill her, either. She would spread her legs for Jorge, or any of the men in this compound, if that’s what it took to stay alive. Like she’d continue to fly for these monsters and transport their drugs for the same reason.

Her death wouldn’t just affect her now.

Pushing open the door, Maddie gripped the hull of the aircraft to ease the impact on her mangled ankle as she slid to the ground. With her ankle in the condition it was, there was no way she could run into that jungle to escape them and they knew it. There were other reasons escape was impossible now too, and the stitches between her legs, which pulled as she fell the last two feet to the ground were a stark reminder.

She shoved away from the side of the helicopter, took one step and crumpled to her knees when excruciating pain shot up her leg then radiated through her body. A tremor rocked her as talons of need clawed at her insides.

“Get up!” Jorge, commanded, grabbing her arm to jerk her to her feet.

Maddie moaned and tried to put as little weight on her foot as possible as she hopped with him toward the shack at the back of the compound, which was her prison cell when she wasn’t flying. Jorge stopped by the main building and relief poured through her when she saw the woman who claimed to be a nurse come out with the syringe in her hand.

She knew that cloudy golden liquid would make the pain stop, would dull her reality into a fuzzy, more tolerable place. Her mouth watered and those talons dug deeper as the woman stopped beside her.

“No—I don’t want it,” Maddie said, clenching her stomach against the pain as bile rose to her throat.

“El Jefe says you are to have it, and you will. You’ve been turning me away for too long and if he finds out, he will not be happy.” Calinda took another step closer, grabbed her wrist and turned it over.

More saliva gathered near the corners of Maddie’s mouth when the woman shoved her shirt sleeve above her elbow. The elastic served as a tourniquet, making blood throb in the crook of her arm. She gave her a sly smile as she squirted a small, teasing bead of the thick liquid from the end of the needle, then laughed when Maddie’s eyes fixed there.

Maddie licked her lips as she followed the tip of the needle down to her arm. She held her breath when it touched her skin, closed her eyes, craving the sharp sting that would signal almost immediate relief to her misery.

Take it—you’ll feel better and can still spend time with her.

The demon inside tried to control her mind as the woman pricked her skin. Maddie hissed a breath, closed her eyes and moaned. But an image appeared behind her lids, her body jerked violently and she pulled her wrist away to take a step back.

“No!” Maddie screamed. “I might have another flight later,” she lied, as sweat dripped down her forehead into her eyes and another tremor rocked her.

“Suit yourself, then. You’ll be calling me soon enough, after El Jefe beats you for disobeying him,” Calinda said with a sniff as she turned and flounced off.

“If he beats me too badly, I can’t fly his drugs. Make sure to tell him that too!” Maddie shouted behind her. And that he doesn’t need to keep me high to control me anymore.

When Maddie woke up in the shack that was now her prison, disoriented and begging someone to kill her to end the pain, she was thankful for the drugs that kept her unconscious most of the time. During her recovery from those mysterious injuries, the drugs were the only way she could tolerate trying to make her ravaged body function again when the woman who claimed to be a doctor forced her off the cot.

Once that woman finally declared her semi-recovered, Maddie was firmly addicted. She needed her next fix more than she needed her next breath. They knew that too and used her addiction as leverage to gain her cooperation. They put her in the pilot’s seat and told her if she wanted drugs, she would have to fly their helicopter to earn them. Maddie had no idea how to fly that aircraft, but she was desperate enough to figure it out.

After each flight, when she returned and fell out of the pilot seat, shaking so badly she thought her teeth would fracture, they would give her the drugs she needed. It became a vicious cycle, which continued until she figured there was something the doctor hadn’t told her, or maybe didn’t notice, because she wasn’t really a doctor. That discovery gave her plenty of incentive to break that cycle, and Maddie had.

For nearly nine weeks now, she’d claimed victory over the demon and would endure any agony to keep it that way. The stakes of failure were too great.

After taking a deep breath, Maddie blew it out then began her painful journey back to the shack with Jorge by her side. Exactly two-hundred-twenty-seven steps later—she counted each one by the knifing pain in her left leg—Maddie leaned against the wall, swallowed down her sickness, and waited for Jorge to open the door of the shack.

Maddie stepped inside the cabin and forgot all about her pain when she saw Maria standing there waiting for her. Her eyes locked on the woman’s huge, tanned breasts, which were nearly fully exposed in the deep vee of her unlaced peasant blouse.

Her knees went weak with relief as she staggered toward her and opened her arms. Tears filled her eyes, as the woman dropped the world, her world, into her arms. The twin wet spots on the front of the woman’s shirt sent jealousy ripping through Maddie as she hugged her bundle tighter to her own full, aching breasts.

Just be thankful she’s being cared for while you’re flying. It could be much worse.

Maddie turned and limped toward the corner of the room, her body exhausted from flying her second trip of the day, after only a week to recover from birth. There was no way, though, she’d allow her mind to give in to that.

She only had two hours to soak up the goodness that was in her arms, wrapped in a scratchy wool blanket. Her reward for suffering through those flights, for doing what these monsters asked of her and for fighting the demons that tried to deny her this pleasure.

The iron bolt on the door of the windowless room slid home, and Maddie forced her eyes to stay open as she turned her back to lean on the wall. Bracing with a hand, she moaned as she slid down the wall and excruciating pain ripped through her lower back and the stitches between her legs pulled. Her breath came out in a relieved rush when her butt finally touched her thin sleeping pallet.

“Oh, sweet, Sarah. Mommy will get us out of here soon,” she whispered, kissing her daughter’s cherubic face. The baby cooed and Maddie smiled as she pushed her dingy white blouse over her shoulder to expose her breast.

She teased the baby’s pursed lips with her nipple and she rooted to latch on. When her tiny lips finally closed around the rigid, weeping peak, Maddie whimpered. Sarah sucked hard and Maddie moaned loudly as she felt the pull in her heart and lower belly. Warmth filled her as her mother’s milk flowed, the pressure in her rock-hard breasts eased and relieved tears streamed down her face to sting the still healing wounds on her cheeks.

Nothing had ever felt more incredible, she thought, stroking the baby’s velvety cheek with her thumb as she nursed. Having this time with her daughter made suffering those withdrawals seem so insignificant. She would suffer any pain for this, to hold and nurse her sweet Sarah, to make sure she didn’t forget whom her mother was.

El Jefe says you are to have it.

Well, if El Jefe wanted her to fly for him, he would not force her to take the drugs. Maddie knew now that keeping her addicted had been just one more control mechanism for him. He didn’t need it. The red-faced, angry threats he issued while he stood over her as she gave birth, to sell Sarah to traffickers, was more than enough to keep her compliant.

Desolation and fear filled her and more tears rolled out of her eyes as Maddie listened to Sarah’s satisfied sighs, saw her jaws working to pull milk into her mouth.

Who the hell was she kidding? Escaping from here anytime soon was just a fantasy, one that could get both of them killed. Her ankle was too mangled to get far and the baby was too young to survive in the jungle. The helicopter was guarded twenty-four hours a day, and even if she could leave in it, she had no idea which direction to go, because they’d removed the navigation and com equipment from the console.

The only places she knew how to find were the network of drop-off points where they met other banditos to transfer the shipments of drugs. Those men were not going to help her find her way out. They would just turn her back over to El Jefe after they raped her, and he would kill her on the spot then sell her daughter into the most horrific life imaginable.

No, Maddie wasn’t going anywhere. This was her life now, and she was staying right here to make sure her daughter was safe.