Chapter Nineteen
“Sunshine,” Liam heard his voice from a great distance. Who was calling out to him? “Wake the hell up.” He heard before something hit him in the face. Liam felt a heavy weight on him, and he couldn’t pull free. It was sucking him down. “Dude, wake up. You have to tell us what happened.” What happened? Where was he? Liam felt his eyelashes fluttered, and his eyes cracked open a sliver. “I think he’s coming around.” More voices all different. Who were these people? Where was he? And why was it so bright? He lifted a hand to block out the light, but he felt as weak as a newborn babe. “Close the blinds. He’s starting to wake up.” Liam tried to open his eyes again, and this time with a little more success. They were gritty and everything was blurry, but he felt them opening.
“Thank god, you opened your eyes buddy. It’s been over 24 hours. You had us worried there.” Worried? Why, what happened? Liam tried to sit up, but a hand pressed him back down. “Easy, you took a nasty beating in that car wreck.” Car wreck? Like a movie, memories came flashing back in quick time. His sister had a seizure. He and Cora left to get to her, then a car swerved into their lane and hit them. The airbag had never gone off and he slammed into the steering wheel. Why hadn’t the airbag gone off? Cora. Where was Cora?
“Cora,” Liam croaked trying to sit back up again.
“Easy, Sunshine,” Doc said holding a hand on Liam’s chest. “You need to rest.”
“Fuck rest. Where’s Cora?” Liam glared at Doc. If he didn’t start getting answers and quick, he was going starting beating answers out of them.
The guys looked at each other uncomfortably. “How about you get a shower first? We’ll talk after.” Hound finally said.
“Hound, we’ve been friends a long time. You’ve always had my back, and I’ve always had yours, but if you don’t tell me what the fuck is happening right now consider our friendship over.” Liam’s tone was deadly. He still felt weak, but he would beat answers out of every one of them if he had to.
“Cora was kidnapped when your car crashed. Alejandro has her. We looked over the wreck and it appears that your airbags were tampered with. I don’t know yet, but I will.” Hound told him point blank. Liam felt the air rush out of his lungs. Cora had been kidnapped? His airbags had been disarmed. He failed her. Just like he failed his sister. Alejandro was doing who knew what to her because he hadn’t protected her. “There’s more.”
Liam took a few deep breaths. All sorts of scenarios played in his head of what Hound was going to tell him. “Tell me.”
“It’s better if I show you.”
~
Cora came to slowly. She was lying on the ground. There wasn’t a part of her body that didn’t hurt. Especially her jaw. She vaguely remembered someone hitting her in the face in the car. She had no idea how long she had been out or where she was. The ground felt cold and damp. And was uneven. Like rock. Rock? Where was she? She remembered they were heading to Liam’s sister, then they were hit by a car. The vehicle had swerved at them at the last second, so Liam hadn’t had time to react. Most of the impact had been on his side. She hoped he was okay. Cora started to lift herself up on her elbow and look around. Her head started swimming at the abrupt movement, and Cora had to close her eyes to get her equilibrium back.
Once she felt better, Cora cracked her eyes opened and looked around. She couldn’t see much. It was dark with only a few torches in the room. It was a round room with only one tunnel that led out. She heard water, like waves crashing against rock. That was good to know. It meant she was on the coast. If she could escape, she could make it along the shore and find help. Cora was concerned when she looked around and didn’t see Liam. Where could he be? Were they holding him somewhere else? Trying to keep them separated? She hated the thought they would have left him behind to die on the side of the road. Cora sat all the way up and was pushing to her feet when she heard voices coming down from the end of the tunnel. Cora looked around panicked but didn’t see a place she could hide. The only thing she could think to do was play possum. Cora laid back down facing the tunnel and kept her eyes cracked to watch for whoever came. Four men entered the room. The leader wore a white three-piece suit. Alejandro. She remembered hearing his voice after the crash. He had somehow faked leaving the States and waited for someone to leave Aaron’s property. Liam had told her something hadn’t felt right, and he had been right. They had all been a fool. Every instinct in Cora told her to run and hide, but knew they would capture her again in a second. She had to relax. Cora tried to calm her breathing, so it appeared as if she was still sleeping. The men circled around back of Cora. She could hear them talking but couldn’t understand what was being said. Cora’s body tensed, and her eyes cracked open more looking left and right, trying to see where they were standing.
A pair of expensive looking shoes stopped in front of her. She didn’t dare look up. He just froze. “You can stop pretending to be asleep, mi querido. I know you’re awake.” Alejandro told her.
Cora debated pretending not to understand and keep lying there, but one of his goons kicked her forcefully in the ribs. “He said up, puta.”
Cora winced at the swift kick in her ribs. She slowly sat up and turned and looked at her kidnappers. Alejandro’s hair was slicked back from his forehead and was thinning and appeared bald in the middle. He had a thick well-manicured mustache that curled out to the middle of his cheeks. He looked exactly how she imagined. His three goons were muscle-bound meatheads with muscles bigger than their brains. And who could apparently kick like a mule.
“What do you want?” Cora demanded, trying to sound braver than she felt.
“Your friends steal from me. Make me look incompetent to my buyers. Then I hire you. And you invite my enemies to steal from me. Your men beat my men. Kill them like animals. This I can’t allow to go unpunished. We had a business arrangement, Cora. I warned you what would happen if you disappointed me. You pay the price first. Your men come, then I finish them. I kill them like animals.”
“What did they steal?” Cora assumed it was Hannah, but she wanted to keep him talking while she formulated a plan to escape. Her back was to the exit. She might be able to stand up and escape before they could react. She had always been a fast runner growing up. She didn’t see any guns on them, but they could be concealing them.
Alejandro squatted down, so they were almost face to face. He stared at her a moment before his hand reached out lightning quick and slapped her across the face. “It is not your place to ask questions. Women are too dumb to understand a man’s world. You are only meant for fucking and nothing more. I thought you could be good for protecting my money, but I see I was wrong.”
“Or a mula de la droga.” A drug mule. Came a snide remark from one of the goons. The other two laughed, but Alejandro’s face remained passive.
“Is that the only way you can get laid anymore? Force yourself on women?” Cora could slap herself for egging this man on. He would kill her without blinking. So why was she antagonizing him? Because she was scared. When she was scared, she let her mouth run away with her.
“Are you jealous of these other women, mi querido?” Alejandro asked while stroking Cora’s cheek. She tried moving her head away from him, but his other hand reached out and gripped her hair. Cora bit her lip to keep back her cry of pain. She wouldn’t give this asshole what he wanted. “Don’t be. You serve a different purpose. You will send a message to all those that think they can steal from Alejandro Ferrera. If you are good, I will reward you. I put a smile on your face before you die.” He smiled broadly showing off a row of perfect white teeth as his gaze roamed over her body, giving little doubt to his meaning.
Ice filled Cora’s veins at hearing what this sicko had planned for her. She would die before she let him touch her. She was the daughter of two Marines. She would not just stand here and wait for whatever they had planned for her. Cora punched Alejandro in the side of the mouth and whipped around, pushing herself off the ground and headed for the tunnel. No one sent up a cry or went after her. It was too easy. Cora made it ten feet before something pulled tight at her ankle and held it back. She lost her momentum and fell on the ground cracking her chin on the rock floor. Her chin throbbed and stars winked in and out of her vision. Someone pushed her onto her back, and she saw two of Alejandro’s men leaning over her. Blood was dripping from the side of his mouth, but he had a white handkerchief to clean it up.
“I have been in this game too long, mi querido. You think you are the first to try and escape me? I was going to go light on you when I made my message, but now you piss me off. I’m going to make you scream and beg for death.” Alejandro stood back as his men seized her and stripped her of her top and pants leaving her in only her bra and underwear. They even took her shoes. A goon held onto her, on each side of her arms, while the third shackled her hands and clipped them to a chain dangling from the ceiling and pulled, pulling her arms above her head.
The only thought going through Cora’s mind at that moment was Liam and that she prayed he would come for her.