by Debra Dunbar
I liked her. I more than liked her, although I wasn’t sure how much of that was due to circumstances and our physical encounter. Only time would tell. And I hoped that we both had lots of time to explore this thing between us. I hoped we had a lifetime to do so.
As soon as Leethu left, Pistol went over to the door and tried it. It appeared to be locked, but as she turned the handle, the door edged open.
“Don’t,” Sugar hissed. “They’ll see.”
Pistol eased the door shut and practically skipped back to us. “It’s unlocked! I’m so tempted to make a run for it. We’re going to get out of here. We’re going to be free. We’ll make it.”
“And we owe it all to Red,” Pillow said, all admiration.
“What, for fucking the demon?” Sugar snorted. “Hell, if I had known throwing some pussy that way would get us out of here, I would have been screwing her since day one.”
I felt my face heat up. Was that my contribution in her eyes? I screwed a demon, and that was what was going to save them?
But would we have been able to escape without Leethu’s help? We’d had one failed attempt already. The only one of us who’d managed to get free was Lacy, and she’d had the demon’s help getting out of here. I wasn’t sure how that made me feel that my worth was in doing it with a demon and evidently being good enough at sex that she wanted to help us.
“No, dumbass,” Pillow retorted. “Red would have gotten us out of here without the demon. She’s our leader. She’s the strong one, the one who isn’t afraid to face those guys. When we were trying to get out the door the other day, she’s the one who took on Pockmarks to buy us some time.”
“You attacked the guard too,” Kitten reminded her. “So did Baa. And she ran to turn the power back on. You both risked being trapped here so that we could get out.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re all heroes.” Sugar grinned. “Well, except for me, anyway. So what’s the plan? How are we to know when a good time to escape is? Is the demon woman going to give us a heads-up? Five-minute warning before she takes the guards in a back room, turns on some loud music, and serves them pizza or gives them blow jobs?”
“That bay door is really loud and echoes all through the building,” Pistol commented. “No loud music is going to drown out that sound.”
Her words made me realize something. “There has to be another door somewhere. Lacy couldn’t have gone out the bay door. Catcalls would have heard her opening it and come to see what she was doing.”
“But where?” Pillow asked. “I didn’t see another door.”
“In one of the offices?” Tasha asked.
“Not in the one I was in,” I told them. This wasn’t good. The time it would take for us to search the other offices, would greatly increase our chance of getting caught. Seven women couldn’t exactly sneak around the warehouse looking for another door either. “We’ll have to try the bay door again. I’ll stand there by the power switch and make sure it stays open, fighting whoever I need to fight. I’ll need one or two of you to volunteer to take on either guard who heads for you all so that the others can escape.”
“Maybe we should split up,” Pistol said. “It would increase our chances. There are only two of them, and seven of us, especially if the demon makes sure she’s busy elsewhere when we’re trying to escape. Two or three of us can look through offices and other places in the warehouse for another door. Red can guard the power switch. The three others can be trying to get under the bay door before one of the guards stops them.”
Sugar nodded. “Worst case scenario, Red gets beaten to a pulp, and we lose one or two of the girls trying to get under the bay door. At least one of them has to be able to get away. And, if we’re lucky, the other three looking through the offices can get away as well.”
“That’s if there’s another door or two in the offices,” I warned. “If not, then those three girls are going to be trapped in those offices with no other way out.”
Everyone fell silent at my words. I knew they were calculating their chances, wondering who would be the most likely to get out and get help. Once I was beaten to a pulp, that guard would move to either help his buddy, or go for the girls in the offices. And what if there was only one office with a door to the outside in it? The other two girls would be out of luck. Actually all three might be out of luck if we picked the wrong offices to search and got caught before we could check them all.
“At least one can get away,” Kitten said. “One under the bay door if she can squeeze through in time. And maybe one through an office door if there is one.”
Which meant the rest of us would be in trouble. The guards might decide they had to move us and postpone the sale, and the one who escaped might not have enough time to bring help before they loaded us up and took us away.
“It’s been at least twelve hours since Lacy escaped,” Pillow said somberly. “Do you think Pockmarks caught her and killed her?”
Sugar shook her head. “Nah, he’d bring her back. You saw how freaked out they were at only having seven of us.”
But we were all worried. There should have been SWAT teams swarming the warehouse by now. Had she gotten lost? Had someone just as bad as the guards grabbed her off the streets? Was she dead in an alleyway right now? Or locked in jail for being without identification and unable to speak any English to communicate what was going on?
“One,” I said firmly. “We only need one of us to get out of here. And we need to decide right now who that’s going to be. Whoever has the best chance of getting under that door, running fast barefoot, and finding and convincing the authorities to come help before the rest of us are moved. Everyone else needs to promise that we’ll do all we can to get that one person out—whether it’s fighting off the guards, or distracting them. I’m going to guard the power switch and make sure the door gets up, no matter what they do to me. Three of you can search the offices. I need two to ensure our chosen one gets under the door—protecting her with everything you’ve got, no matter what happens.”
“Kitten. She’s the smallest, and people are going to believe her when she tells them what’s happening. I mean, look at those big brown eyes. How can you not believe that sweet face?” Sugar reached out and pinched Kitten’s cheeks, as if she were an affectionate grandmother greeting a child. It made us all smile.
Kitten looked relieved at the suggestion. “I’ll run really fast. And I’ll send help right away—I promise.”
“I’ll help with the bay door.” Sugar’s voice turned serious. “I’ll make sure the kid gets out.”
Pillow had been translating for Baa, and at that time the girl raised her hand. “Baa says she’ll help at the bay door too.”
I nodded admiringly at the Guatemalan girl. She’d repeatedly stepped up, a badass eager member of our family.
“That leaves Pistol, Tasha, and me to search the rooms,” Pillow continued.
“There are six rooms,” I told them. “The one closest to the stage is where Onions took me. There’s no way out of there, so don’t bother with that one.”
“I will look in the first room next to here,” Tasha said. “This used to be a food place, no? I think there would be door near where people go to eat lunch.”
“I’ll take the next one,” Pistol said.
“I’ll take room four,” Pillow replied. “Pistol, when you’re done, search the next one down the line—room three. I’ll move on to room five. Tasha, when you and Pistol finish, if you haven’t found anything, meet me in room five. If you find a door, then go. Get your asses out that door and run like crazy. If there’s time, the other two of us will backtrack and escape as well.”
I was proud of these girls—proud of their bravery and their ability to tactically plan. This was our best chance at escape, better than our prior attempt. Hope bloomed up, filling me with warmth. We were going to get out of here. We were going to be okay.
But some of us probably weren’t. I felt a cold dread that the two at the door might not live to see
rescue. If Kitten and others escaped, would the guards kill the remaining girls and take off before the police showed up, leaving our bodies where they fell? Even if they moved us immediately, hauled us far away, we would all be made to pay for the loss of the others.
The boss would be furious. And the guards would put all the blame on us. Even Leethu wouldn’t be able to save us from their wrath. I didn’t just want to save two or three girls, I wanted to save our whole family—every one of them including the demon.
And me. I wanted to live. It had been a long time since I’d wanted to live. Redemption was at hand. I felt it just within my grasp. I just hoped I lived to see it.
Chapter 19
Leethu returned right about the time when we should have gotten dinner had they not decided to starve us. She told us the guards were unnerved by Lacy’s escape and didn’t want to leave the building, so they were sending the demon out for beer and food.
“They don’t trust me,” she said with a wry smile. “They’ll come by and check the door after I leave. It’s locked on the outside, but not from the inside, so they won’t think there’s anything amiss. Wait another half an hour, then go and go fast. They’re on high alert. Any noise, any sound at all, and they’ll be on you.”
I tried to look confident, even though my hands were sweating and my heart was pounding. This was our chance. It was our last chance before the sale tomorrow. We had to make this work.
“I hope you’re not here when I get back,” Leethu told me. Then she leaned forward and kissed me. “I’ll find you, Red Bird. As soon as I can get away from the one who summoned me, I’ll find you.”
“Or I’ll find you,” I told her. “We won’t be apart for long.”
“Knock it off, love birds.” Sugar rolled her eyes. “Save the kissy-kissy for when we’re out of here and safe.”
Leethu grinned at me, the smile making her look completely different then the scary, stern woman she’d appeared to be that first day.
“See you on the outside,” I told her.
We watched her leave and waited, trying to appear defeated and resigned to our fate when Catcalls came to count us and make sure the door was locked. We all silently marked the time, then I stood and motioned for them to follow.
Baa, Sugar, and Kitten were right behind me, as they’d have the farthest to run and needed to be at the bay door all the way on the other side of the warehouse. Tasha, Pillow, and Pistol brought up the rear. I held my breath and gently turned the handle, then eased the door open just wide enough for me to look out.
There was some noise coming from office number two that sounded like a television. I couldn’t see or hear anything else. Carefully, I closed the door and turned toward the girls.
“They’re in the second office from us, which changes the plan a bit. Pistol, you skip that one and take the next office down. Tasha, when you’re done with the first office, you search the second one. They’ll both run out the minute I start up the bay door, and you can sneak in after them.”
I figured that was probably where the door was. It made sense the two guards, paranoid as they now were, would set up shop in the room with the only non-noisy escape route.
The girls nodded, and I opened the door again, practically crippled with the adrenaline racing through my body. This was it. This was probably our last chance. We couldn’t screw up. Slowly I edged out the doorway, pausing to make sure no alarms went off with my exit of the room. Then I hunched down and ran, silent on bare feet, toward the power switch. The others burst from the room, everyone as stealthy and purposeful as if we were some well-trained military team.
I watch the others run for the bay door, held my breath hearing the faint scurry of bare feet. I had to be ready. Once they hit the switch, the guards would come running while they stood waiting for the thing to inch it’s way upward enough to squeeze through.
My hands were sweaty. I wiped them on my pants, wincing when the roar of the bay door sounded. Then I spun around to intercept the guards.
They ran from the office with a shout. I planted my feet, determined to guard the switch. It took them a fraction of a second to eye the scene, then Pockmarks took off for the bay door, while Catcalls came at me.
He swung the pole and I turned to take the blow in the stomach, folding myself around it and trying to dissipate the force as much as I could. The wind was knocked out of me, but I managed to pivot and get the pole under my left arm, both hands gripping it. He yanked, and I let myself stumble forward, knowing I couldn’t stand firm against his superior strength. Somehow I kept to my feet, the pole burning my palms as it slid a few inches away. I heard a shrill scream, and glanced over to see Baa on Pockmark’s back trying to garrote him with the chain from the toilet tank. Blood droplets flew from her hair as the guard spun around, trying to dislodge her and beat Pillow with the stick. I couldn’t see Kitten, but prayed she was already out the bay door, running as fast as she could.
The pole twisted in my hands as Catcalls shook me back and forth, trying to break my hold on the pole. I gripped harder and dove forward, hoping to throw Catcalls off balance with the unexpected thrust.
Unlike me, he was able to plant his feet, immovable. Then he mirrored my move, pushing forward with a rush. I scrambled backward, frantic to keep my grip on the pole and not wind up on my ass. We edged closer to the power switch and I started to panic. There was a sickening thud from across the room, but I couldn’t take the time to look. I had to keep the bay door opening.
A motion to the left caught Catcalls’ attention—Tasha scurrying into the room the guards had just vacated. I took the opportunity to turn, pushing my weight against the pole and bringing me close enough to twist my hips and kick out. I was barefoot, and the blow landed a bit higher than I’d intended, smacking him in the thigh as opposed to taking out his knee.
Imagine my surprise when Catcalls abruptly let go of the broom handle, throwing me off balance. As I teetered backward, he grabbed my leg at the ankle and twisted. I screamed, trying to turn into the motion and wound up on the ground, my head smacking painfully on the concrete. The stick clattered, but I managed to keep hold, swinging it upward as I quickly evaluated the situation.
Not good. I wasn’t sure what was happening over at the bay door, but from the sounds I was imagining Baa and Pillow being beaten to death. A memory of Deena’s broken face and body swam up and my chest hurt thinking that I might lose two more of my girls tonight.
Catcalls had retained his hold on my leg. He twisted the already broken ankle and I nearly passed out. Somehow I managed to land a blow with the stick and evade his attempts to grab it, but I couldn’t evade the kick that slammed into my hip, rolling me partially onto my side.
The next one landed right in the kidneys. I gasped and ineffectively swung the stick, unable to land any further blows from my weird position twisted on the floor. This time he managed to grab it and yank, pulling me up off the ground. I scrambled to stand, biting back a scream as the foot with the broken ankle hit the floor and twisted again.
“Stop the damned door,” Pockmarks screamed.
Catcalls snarled. “Tryin’ to.” He yanked on the pole, and I couldn’t manage to hold my balance with only one leg. I fell forward, trying to grip the pole to my chest and use the weight of my fall to pull it from his hands. The thing wasn’t all that effective as a weapon with me on the floor, but at least Catcalls wouldn’t have it to beat me with.
As I fell forward, the guard raised his knee and rammed it into my face. I heard a crunch, felt blood pour from my nose. My hands, wet with sweat and blood slipped from the pole. As I hit the ground, I heard the grind of the bay door halt, and reverse. Then the blows rained down on my face and body until everything faded to black.
Chapter 20
I regained consciousness as I was dragged by my hair across the concrete floor. It felt like my scalp was being ripped off, but that was hardly the only pain I was experiencing. Abruptly, whoever was dragging me let go, and I lay on th
e floor, dizzy, nauseous, and trying to open eyes that seemed to be swollen and glued shut.
Someone was crying. More than one person was crying. Girls crying. Afraid. Hurt. A wave of heat swept over me, burning, cleansing…healing. I shuddered, feeling my ankle snap into place, bones grind and reposition, damaged flesh replaced. My eyes blinked open and I saw blood-stained bare feet, huddled close together.
“Get up.” A pole hit my backside, hard enough to sting but not to bruise. I staggered to my feet and counted, my heart dropping. Five of my girls were clustered together against the wall, Catcalls standing in front of them with his stick at the ready. Only one got away. Only one of them.
Pockmarks grabbed my shoulder and shoved me in to the group, kicking my rear as I scuttled forward.
“Can I have her?” Catcalls growled. “I want the red-haired one tonight, and she ain’t gonna leave my room in one piece, either.”
“No.” Pockmarks swung his stick. “Back in the room. All of you. Now.”
We were herded into the room, me intentionally bringing up the rear so I could take any punishment these guys felt like dealing out on the way. I’d somehow healed from my injuries, but the other girls were hurt. Baa was bleeding from her head, her hair wet and sticky, red staining her shirt. Pillow’s face was so swollen one eye was shut. Tasha was limping. Pistol and Sugar were bruised.
“Sit,” Catcalls ordered. “One on each cot.” We obeyed, walking as slowly as we could without risking a beating. Every second was one additional second that Kitten had to get to safety—and get help.
“Keep them here,” Pockmarks told Catcalls. Then he pulled a pistol from his pocket and handed it to the other guard. “Here. One of them so much as looks at you wrong, shoot them.”
I caught my breath at the significance of the weapon. They’d always used their fists and sticks on us because, I assumed, Leethu wouldn’t be able to repair the more serious gunshot wounds. The introduction of the pistol meant they were done fooling around with us.