Stronger (The Unit Book 2)

by Greyson, Sarah

  “We didn’t,” Tony quipped as he lunged for Luis.

  Rob fired his first round taking down the man to Luis’s right. Steve’s bullet took out the second man who was standing guard at Luis’s left. They made quick work, two rapid bullets, and the other two men were taken down without a bullet wasted. Signaling the all-clear, Steve followed Rob from behind the airplane. Tony and Steve had managed to disarm a shocked Luis and zip tie his hands behind his back as Rob and Steve appeared.

  “You have no idea how much shit you just brought on yourselves,” Luis spat in Rob’s direction.

  “I think it’s you that should be worried,” Rob said with a cold calm which overtook him in the heat of a battle. “Grab him.” Rob pointed to the dead man lying to his left. “You’re going to pose for some pictures,” Rob told Luis as a slow smile spread across his face. “And if that doesn’t work, we will resort to extreme measures,” Rob continued.

  “Ortiz will hunt you down and kill your families,” Luis spat out.

  “What family?” Rob grunted as he pulled the pants off of the dead man. “Sit him down.” Rob pointed to Luis. Luis was now seated on the cold, concrete floor of the hangar. “Just like we used to do,” Rob reminisced with Steve and Tony. Tony squeezed Luis’s cheeks together effectively prying open his mouth. Rob stood at the ready. This was the part he didn’t like, but the results were usually the same. Tony had forced Luis onto his back and held his hand on his face forcing it to the side. Rob positioned the dead man’s crotch in front of Luis’s face. Rob picked up the man’s penis and placed it in Luis’s mouth. Luis gagged and coughed trying desperately to turn his head. But Tony had the upper hand and kept his face turned to the side to thrust the dead man’s penis in his mouth.

  “Smile,” Steve said standing over Luis’s body as he held the cell phone camera overhead.

  As Luis coughed and gagged, Rob removed the penis from Luis’s mouth. “Now cooperate and no one will ever see what appears to be you giving this man here a blow job.”

  “That doesn’t frighten me. What frightens me is Ortiz.” Luis raised his chin now that Tony had let him go.

  “What should frighten you is me and my three bad-ass, mother fucking brothers here who have been trained to get information from reluctant participants. That man’s dick in your mouth was for our amusement. We’ll show this picture to your family. In fact, my man Tony here will broadcast it all over the Internet, and it will go viral within the hour,” Rob said in his most menacing voice. “What do you think men, more pictures first?”

  “We could have him butt-fuck that dead guy.” Tony laughed.

  Rob was a cold, sadistic bastard, but after everything he had seen and witnessed, after all of his harsh training and the brutality of five tours, after losing his Lizzie, he really didn’t give a fuck anymore. Anything went. In fact, he would start with the fingers instead of the fingernails. He easily rationalized Luis was nothing more than the scum on the bottom of his shoe. He sold young, innocent girls into the sex-slave trade. Nope, Rob didn’t feel sad or sorry, or even guilty, for what he did or was about to do to this piece of shit. Rob reached down and removed Luis’s shoes. Then he pulled Luis pants off of his legs. “Flip him over.” Rob pointed to the dead man with no pants. Tony flipped him onto his stomach. Aaron and Steve helped Luis to his knees and positioned him so it would look like he was butt fucking the dead man. “Smile pretty. This one goes on the Internet tonight.” Rob laughed as he snapped a couple of pictures of the man mimicking the sexual position. “I’ve had my fun. Let’s cut to the chase. “Where are the girls from your shipment of a week ago? We know you get your shipments on Saturday nights and fly them out shortly after they arrive.” It pained Rob to talk about innocent, young girls like they were nothing but cargo. They were someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s love. They didn’t deserve to be sold just because they were easily attainable or neglected by family. No girl deserved that. In his book, girls and women, should be revered, especially the innocent ones. Sure he slept with his fair share of women and always left before they could awake in the morning, but he was always upfront and always gave his women more pleasure than they could stand.

  Rob had better snap out of his thoughts or he was going to kill Luis before he had the information he needed to rescue Lola Sardeson. “Grab a chair,” Rob barked. Tony brought the chair from the office and sat it in front of Rob. Tony and Steve transferred Luis to the comfortable cushiony office chair. “You comfortable?” Rob coldly asked Luis with a look of death and fury in his eyes.

  “Get me the branch cutters from the bag, please,” Rob asked Steve. Steve returned from the back of the hangar with a black bag which had all kinds of fun little tools they could use on Luis. “I am going to start with your fingers. I don’t have time to shit around.” Rob held the orange tree branch cutters in his right hand by the black handle. He closed the distance to Luis in three long strides. “Hold his hand flat over the armrest.”

  With Luis’s fingers protruding over the end of the arm rest, Rob started with his forefinger. He placed the sharp metal blades and brought the handles of the cutters together slightly, just enough to cut the skin. “Tell me where the girls go once they leave here, and I will stop,” Rob implored Luis. But Luis remained tight lipped. He had drawn his lips into thin lines and his jaw worked back and forth as if he was grinding his teeth against the pain. Fresh tears sprung to his eyes. Rob brought the handles of the cutters together cutting at the joint of Luis’s forefinger. Luis heard a loud scream as he squeezed his eyes shut. Blood was quickly pooling on the concrete floor. “We can’t have you bleeding to death before we get our answers, now can we, Luis?” Rob said as he retrieved a blow torch from the black bag. He turned it on high. Reaching into the bag, he pulled out a flat piece of metal no bigger than a book. He took the torch and heated the end of the metal until it glowed red. Grabbing the cooler end of the metal with pliers, he placed the glowing end against Luis’s nub of meat. The smell of burnt flesh quickly filled Rob’s nostrils, and Luis’s screams quickly filled his ears. “Had enough yet?” Rob asked Luis as he stared at him with steel grey eyes. Luis’s eyes were raining tears. Rob barely had enough time to jump out of the way as Luis lurched forward and vomited into the pool of blood on the dusty floor. “I always forget about that part,” Rob said smiling. Once Luis was done, Rob asked the same question, “Tell me where the girls go from here.” Apparently, Luis was a weak man because it only took the removal and cauterizing of one finger and Luis was spilling his guts.

  “They go to the personal property of Ortiz. He has huts he keeps them in until they are sold.” Luis said through thick and heavy breaths.

  “How long does he keep them before he sells them?” Rob asked.

  Luis brought his breath back under control and tightened his lips again. At the sight of Luis being closed lipped, Rob reached for the cutters. “You know, I really have no problem with this. If I run out of fingers, I just move to the toes. Then there are other body parts I save for the truly tough ones.” Luis remained tight lipped. Rob brought the cutters and positioned them over Luis’s middle finger. He applied pressure as he squeezed the handles tighter. Luis’s middle finger flung across the room at the pressure it took to remove it from his hand. It really was amazing what one could do with the right tools. He brought the blow torch up to heat the metal and cauterize Luis’s stub.

  “Stop,” Luis shouted. “I will tell you anything you want to know. No more. I can’t take any more,” Luis begged of Rob. Rob looked at Steve, Tony, and Aaron with pride glinting in his grey eyes. Rob was known as one of the most effective interrogators the Army had ever seen. He could break even the toughest man in a matter of hours. Rob had a knack for knowing what to start with and what would cause the least amount of damage but yield the highest results. It truly was his gift.

  “How long does Ortiz keep the girls?” Rob demanded.

  “About twenty days. First they see a doctor and then a shopper. That w
ay they look their best on auction day. He doesn’t drug them up on auction day either. He is sadistic like that.” Luis was telling all. He was answering questions Rob wasn’t even going to ask.

  “Where are the auctions held?” Rob asked realizing Lola Sardeson was probably getting ready to head to auction now.

  “Colonia Hidalgo. About thirty minutes from his property,” Luis replied. “Do you want the address?”

  Stunned, Rob nodded his head. He really did have a way with torture.

  “There’s a farm at the northeast end of town. They hold the auction in a barn. Well, it only looks like a barn. Inside is something else. Each man is assured anonymity by the two-way mirror in a private room which separates him from the auction floor. The girls are paraded outside each mirror, one at a time, and the bidding begins. Usually, there is a packed house on auction night. Ortiz’s girls are mostly virgins, so they fetch a premium bid, always six figures.” Rob was shaking his head in disbelief at Luis’s words. He couldn’t think about what the men did once they purchased the girls, or he would be sick.

  Rob reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He dialed Tyrrell and quickly communicated the information to him. They would need to regroup and strategize.

  Once the FBI arrived, Rob turned over Luis to an agent. The agent eyed Rob suspiciously when he looked at Luis’s blackened nubs of his hand. Rob ignored the look and proceeded to the SUV with the men. Time was of the essence.

  Chapter 9

  “Dangani? How are you feeling?” Lola asked as the dark box truck she and the other girls rode in bounced up and down over the rough roads.

  “I’m scared. What is going to happen to us?” Dangani grasped Lola’s hand and squeezed. In a reassuring gesture, Lola squeezed back.

  “I overheard the guards saying they were moving us to the farm today. They didn’t give me any pills. Did any of you get yours?” Lola asked confident the answer was no.

  “No, just a small piece of bread and some water,” Cece replied from the other side of the box truck. “Did you hear what waits for us at the farm?”

  They were loaded into a small box truck. The floor was gritty to the touch. Upon entering, they were ordered to sit up against the walls. The truck bobbed and weaved and so did Lola’s body. She was swaying back and forth and landed on her rear each time the truck hit a ditch. She was sore from the ride. She steadied herself by placing her right hand against the floor as the truck came to a stop. This stop was longer than a stop-sign stop. She reckoned they were at the farm. It had been a short trip. If she had to guess, she would say thirty minutes. Dangani began whimpering, and Lola placed her arm around her small shoulders, pulling her close and hugging her. The back door opened and sunlight flooded the box. Lola could see the fear in each of the girls’ eyes. This was the end of the line. Their destiny awaited them inside the barn. Lola helped Dangani to stand.

  “Don’t let them see you cry,” Lola whispered to Dangani. Lola watched as Dangani’s features transformed into defiance. She raised her chin and wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. One-by-one they were led on into the pasture. There was a rundown farm house to the right of where the truck had stopped. Shutters hung sideways from the windows. Paint peeled off of the house like skin peeling off of a sunburned shoulder. Lola could see the screen door was badly in need of repair as the top half ripped away from the door and folded over the bottom half.

  The girls, Lola counted twelve in all, stood in the middle of the pasture. Were they brought here to work on the man’s farm? That wouldn’t make sense. Why did they bring them here? When the truck moved and a guard appeared with an assault rifle in his hand and tucked under his arm, Lola swallowed down the panic that quickly rose in her throat. She had no idea what awaited them, but at least they were still together. She could watch over Dangani, Cece, and Alisha. The armed guard gestured with the barrel of his gun for the girls to move towards the big red barn in the distance.

  It was strange that the barn was in immaculate condition; at least the outside looked that way. A fresh coat of bright, fire-engine red paint coated the barn. The doors were kept closed by a metal bar which hooked into a latch on each door. Lola could smell a farm. She easily recognized the smell of cow manure she remembered from her country drives with her family. She even picked up a faint trace of hay. Why did they want the girls in the barn? Would they be taken somewhere else? The other guard opened the metal lever and swung the right door open. The sun was still high overhead, so Lola judged it to be around one o’clock in the afternoon. The heat was unbearable. Sweat already trickled down her brow and between her bosoms. She felt droplets dribble down her back. She was still dressed in the short, blue mini-dress she had worn to the club over a week ago. Now the dress was grungy with the same dust covering the fabric from the hut. It was a clingy dress that showed off all of her curves.

  When she left her hut this morning, the marks under her bed showed she’d been held captive for ten days. They had fed her well and kept her medicated. She didn’t want to admit to herself that she needed the drugs to cope. She dreaded turning into her mother, but the circumstances were vastly different. She was being held hostage. She did need the drugs to cope because not knowing what was coming was scaring her to death. She recalled a conversation she heard a few days earlier from the guards in front of her cabin. At the time, she didn’t care. But now, she had to remember exactly what they were saying because her instincts said that was the answer to what was going to happen to them.

  She racked her brain trying to recall the words spoken in Spanish. Thank God her father insisted she take it starting in elementary school. She could speak it fluently and could understand it just as well. What had they said? Suddenly, dread crept up her spine like finger nails on a chalk board. She was hyper aware of what was going on around her. She noticed the man who had opened the barn door was now standing behind them. She tried to peek into the barn, but it was dark and the blinding sunlight prevented her from seeing inside the barn. She was aware of where all of the men were. They all had guns slung over their shoulders and some men had guns hanging from their sides. Would they kill her if she tried to run? She was readying for the run when Cece pulled her back.

  “What’s wrong, Lola?” Cece asked quickly grabbing Lola’s hand. “Your face went so pale. You look like you saw a ghost.” Cece stroked Lola’s long hair down her back, trying to calm her.

  “I am going to be…” That was all Lola could say before she fell to her knees, wrapped her arms around her stomach, and vomited up the bread and water she’d had for breakfast. Cece remained dutifully by her side, holding her hair back from her face. Once the heaves stopped, Lola turned her head and looked up at Cece. Lola’s blue eyes were as dark as a storm cloud. She remembered what the men had said. “Oh no,” Lola groaned keeping eye contact with Cece. Lola looked at all of the young girls that stood around her waiting to enter the barn. Tears instantly formed in her eyes. She began sobbing.

  “You’re scaring me,” Cece whimpered.

  Lola cried for what was going to be done to her. Lola cried for the loss of innocence the younger girls would face. But most of all, Lola cried for her new friend Dangani who was only thirteen years old. Some man was going to own her as his personal sex slave. Still on her knees, Lola began chanting a prayer over and over to God. “Please. Please. Please.”

  Lola was the last to reluctantly enter the barn. What struck her first was the catwalk closed in on both sides by dark paneled glass. She couldn’t see what was behind the glass. Lola followed the girls onto the catwalk and behind the professional looking stage from which the catwalk extended. The girls were led back into a large room with mirrors and dressing tables on each side of the room. It looked like a large dressing room the stars had used when she had been invited backstage during a Broadway performance of The Lion King. Laid out on each dressing table were cosmetics, brushes, combs, hair products, hair bows, berets: anything one would need to make oneself attractive. In the middle
of the room was a large mobile rack filled with negligees hanging from padded hangers. This is what the man who measured her had been doing: securing clothing for each girl to wear at the auction. Just then she noticed that same man with a small army of Latino women enter the dressing room.

  “First you shower. Then we will get you ready for tonight. Tonight is the big night ladies,” the man cooed. The girls looked at each other with panic-filled eyes.

  “The big night for what?” Cece whispered to Lola. Lola didn’t want to tell Cece, but she would want to know.

  “They are selling us tonight.” Lola said defeated as her shoulders slumped forward. She had surrendered to what was to come. She reached out to grab Cece’s arm, refusing to let go.

  “Selling us for what?” Cece asked confused. “You’re hurting me.”

  “Sorry. I just don’t know how you are going to handle what I am about to tell you.” Lola still had her fingers wrapped around Cece’s arm, just not as tight. “Men are going to buy us and then we will belong to them. They will do with us as they please.” Lola waited and watched as her words began to register on Cece’s face. Cece paled.

  “I’m going to be sick. I need a bathroom. I don’t think I can hold it in.” Cece said, panicked. Her breathing had increased and was coming out in short spurts.

  “We need a bathroom. She’s going to be sick,” Lola announced to the measurement man. He pointed. Lola grabbed Cece by the hand and pulled her back through the door the man pointed to. Lola held Cece’s hair this time and stroked her back. So young. The thought of the virgins among the group had taken Lola aback. She thought of herself, still a virgin, naively waiting for the right man. To lose something so special to a man who was obviously a sick, degenerate; to a man who wouldn’t be gentle; to a man who didn’t care for any of the girls; made Lola’s face burn with anger. Lola began to shake with her rage, but what could she do? What she would give for a pill right about now so she wouldn’t care what was happening. “No,” she told herself. “I need to be here for the younger girls for as long as I can.”