by Nicole Fox
“She was worth every penny,” he slurs.
Jake perks up. “She?”
“Mind your own business,” the Tiger says. “Just play.”
“Come on, man. We all know there are women on this boat,” Jake says. “We aren’t stupid.”
“Debatable.”
Jake smiles and leans forward onto his elbows, unknowingly doing the hard work for me. “Are you the one in charge of them?”
I can see the Tiger wavering, trying to decide if he wants to stay discreet or brag about his power. Finally, he shrugs. “Depends who you ask.”
“He’s asking you,” I say. “Are you?”
The Tiger turns to me, assessing me for a moment before he nods. “I am.”
“Well, shit,” Jake says, dropping his cards facedown on the table. “Why are we playing cards, then? There is clearly something else I’d rather be doing if you catch my drift.”
The drunk sailor thrusts his hips lazily in front of him, his tongue sticking out between his half-rotted teeth.
“They aren’t for you,” the Tiger says.
“They aren’t for anyone yet, right?” I ask. “They haven’t been purchased by anyone?”
“Not yet, but they will be.”
“So, why should they go to waste until we reach the next shore?” The words are vile in my mouth, but it’s the only plan I can think of. If I can somehow pay for a night with Courtney, we can formulate a plan. I can figure out the best way to get her, Tati, and Olivia off this ship once I know what their routine looks like and once I can have her help on the inside.
The Tiger lifts his chin and shakes his head. “We’ve been out to sea for four days, and you are already out-of-your-mind horny.”
“Horny and willing to pay,” Jake says, pulling a wad of bills out of his pocket.
“No one else needs to know,” I say quietly. “I mean, if you’re nervous what your boss is going to think, it can just be between us.”
I see the jab land exactly as I hoped. The Tiger doesn’t want to look weak. He’s a second-in- command who wants to look like the first. He doesn’t like the suggestion that he’s afraid of being reprimanded.
“The women are under my charge,” he says sharply. He cracks his knuckles again and leans back in his chair. “Tonight, we play poker.”
The drunk sailor groans, but the Tiger reaches out to grab the man by the collar, sitting him upright. The sailor is too wasted to be afraid. He smiles.
“But tomorrow night,” the Tiger continues. “Come here with cash in your pockets and your dicks in your hand. We are going to have ourselves an auction.”
I make a cool three hundred from poker, but I still spend the night tossing and turning, wondering if I’ve made a mistake.
What if someone outbids me, and I end up selling my wife to a disease-riddled sailor? I went into this plan knowing that was a possibility, but the reality of it is just now hitting me.
I won’t be able to stand back and watch it happen. I’ll have to fight for her, and we will all end up dead.
After imagining the scenario thirty different ways, each one ending with me thrown overboard while Courtney is dragged roughly away by some drunk, faceless sailor, I finally get up and go for a walk.
Being on the ship has been a stressful experience from the start, but the nights are calm. The sky is filled with stars and without the sound of the chef barking orders, it can even be a little peaceful.
I’m sitting on a wooden bench and staring up at the stars when I hear muffled voices.
I almost walk away in search of a more secluded spot when I hear what sounds like crying. A woman’s crying.
Quietly, I stand up and move further down the side deck. Just before the pathway opens into a larger area, I see a door cracked open a few inches, pale light pouring from it. When I stop and press my ear to the door, I can hear heavy breathing and shuffling footsteps.
“Stop, please,” a woman pleads quietly.
I know it isn’t Courtney, but that doesn’t matter. It could be.
I press the door open a few more inches and immediately see the shadowy shape of two people in the back corner of a small storage space. The scrawny sailor from poker has a woman pinned against the wall and his pants are around his knees, giving me a full and very unwanted view of his bare ass.
Then, the woman turns away from him, and I immediately recognize Sadie.
I stand there, frozen for a second, unsure what to do.
Stepping in and stopping the sailor could blow my cover. It could ruin my plan to buy Courtney tomorrow night and plan her escape. It could ruin everything.
But walking away feels wrong.
Sadie and I have never been on the best of terms, but she’s Courtney’s best friend. And no one deserves to be treated like this.
I’m still standing in the doorway, torn, when Sadie suddenly lifts her arm. Something in her hand catches the light, and I realize it’s a sharpened piece of metal.
The sailor shifts back to see what she’s doing and just when Sadie should be bringing the shiv down, piercing between his ribs and driving up into his heart, she hesitates.
Her eyes go wide, her hand stills, and the sailor sees the makeshift knife.
“Bitch!” he shouts, wrapping his hand around her wrist.
He has little in the way of muscle, but he’s still large enough to overpower Sadie. I can see her fighting, but her hand is turning back towards herself, the point of the blade moving shakily towards her chest.
I’m across the room with my hand around the sailor’s forearm before I realize I’ve made my decision. I can’t stand by and let an innocent woman be murdered. Courtney would never forgive me if she knew.
And I would never forgive myself.
His eyes are glassy and unfocused, but when he turns to look at me, I see recognition cross his face. It is quickly replaced by horror when I rip the weapon from his hand and plunge it into his chest.
I almost feel guilty taking out someone so obviously incapable of defending himself, but then I see Sadie stumble away from the man’s limp body, hand pressed to her stomach, mouth open in a silent sob, and I don’t feel bad at all.
Sadie doesn’t seem to know whether she should be more shocked by the dead sailor or me. Her gaze flicks between the two of us before finally settling on my face.
“Dmitry?”
I nod, and then hold a finger to my lips. “No one can know I’m here.”
“You’re here for … for Courtney?” she asks.
“Of course.” Sadie is clearly more shaken up than I knew. “Why else?”
She holds a hand to her head and takes a deep breath before speaking again. “They said that you sold them. That you sold your family. I guess I thought … I thought—”
When Sadie looks at me, there is shame on her face, and I know she bought the lie. She believed them. The only question now is: “Did Courtney believe that?”
“No,” she says quickly. “Never.”
A weight lifts off my shoulders, allowing me to focus on the situation at hand. I look down at the sailor lying at my feet. Blood is beginning to pool around him, and I need to get him overboard before someone finds us. I kick his shoulder with the toe of my shoe. “Can you help me toss him over?”
I could do it myself, but not without getting blood all over me and the ship. With Sadie’s help, we could dump him over the side without drawing attention.
Sadie nods, and together, we carry the man out of the room and across the narrow side-deck to the railing. Luckily, the drop just across from the storage room is sheer, and the man plummets straight down into the water, floating for only a second before sinking beneath the dark waves.
“The Tiger is back at the container waiting for me,” Sadie says, pressing the heels of her hands into her temples. “What am I going to do? Courtney handed me the shiv, and I didn’t think about what would happen after I killed him. Though, I wouldn’t have killed him at all if you hadn’t shown up. He would have
killed me.”
She chokes on a sob, and I lay a hand on her back, mostly to keep her quiet. “Courtney gave you the shiv?”
“Tati found it on the deck, and Courtney sharpened it,” she says flippantly, like isn’t important.
“Tati found it?” Suddenly, I wish I could grab the sailor from the ocean’s depths and stab him again. I wish I could make it more painful for him. It would be some small consolation for the horrors my family is going through.
My kind, innocent daughter is scavenging the ship for possible weapons to fight back against her captors. That kind of trauma can’t be washed away. That can’t be erased and written over. She will carry this experience with her for her entire life, and I want to kill every single person on this ship in vengeance.
“What am I going to do?” Sadie asks, ignoring my question. “The Tiger is standing guard, and I—”
“You’re going to return and tell him the sailor was too wasted to walk you back,” I finish for her. “The man is a sloppy drunk. The Tiger will believe you.”
Sadie stares up at me and nods, understanding. I follow her to the back of the ship—the stern, I’ve learned—and through a maze of shipping containers and cargo to where the girls are being kept.
It’s a nondescript container beneath a tall stack of others. I never would have found it on my own.
Just as Sadie said, the Tiger is standing guard outside of it, hidden in the shadows. I grab Sadie’s arm for a minute, looking around to be certain I’ll be able to find the women again on my own, and then send her on.
She’s shaking and terrified, but that doesn’t mean anything. The Tiger will assume she’s shaken from her encounter with the sailor. As long as Sadie can pull off the lie, he won’t suspect a thing.
I want to stay and make sure Sadie gets inside okay, but I’m not sure what I’ll do if he opens the door, and I see my wife and daughter huddled inside like cattle en route to the slaughterhouse. There is no way to be sure I won’t kill him right then and there.
So, I walk away and let Sadie go the rest of the way on her own.
8
Courtney
The Tiger came for Sadie late. We were already asleep when the door squealed open, and he pulled her out without so much as an explanation.
I shoved the shiv into her hand before my brain had even fully grasped what was happening. And as time passed without her return, I wavered on whether or not I wanted her to use it.
If she killed the sailor, she would be punished. Harshly. Likely with death.
If she didn’t kill him, and the Tiger found the shiv on her, it could be traced back to me or Tati. I didn’t think Sadie would turn in a child, but torture could do strange things to a person. There was no way to know what she would or wouldn’t do.
The longer I sit, waiting for Sadie to return, the more my worries grow.
So, when she finally returns, pale, shaking, and terrified, I’m relieved.
She’s alive.
The Tiger isn’t going to take Tati away.
Everything is horrible, but it’s a type of horrible I’m accustomed to, which is a small kind of comfort.
As soon as the door to the container is sealed shut, Sadie throws herself at me, and I nearly fall backwards. “Are you okay?” I stutter, startled.
Sadie grabs my shirt with both fists. “He’s here.”
I saw the Tiger leave and no one else came inside with Sadie, but I still look around the container in an effort to understand what she’s talking about. “What?”
“Dmitry,” she says in a harsh whisper. “He’s on the ship.”
Time slows down, and I can’t breathe. Can’t think. Can’t do anything but stare at Sadie, trying to decide if she has entirely lost her mind or if I can trust her.
“Courtney,” she says, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me. “He is here. He is really here. He just saved my life.”
I sit, shell-shocked, while Sadie relays the last few minutes for me, explaining how Dmitry appeared out of nowhere and saved her from being killed. She tells me that he killed the sailor and they both threw his body overboard. Then, she tells me he escorted her back to the container and left.
“Did he say anything else?” I ask when I can finally find the words. “About saving us?”
She shakes her head. “I know that’s why he’s here—I mean, he said he was here for you—but there wasn’t time to talk about anything else. I had to get back before the Tiger came looking for the sailor.”
I’m disappointed I don’t know more—it still feels impossible Dmitry could actually be here on the ship—but Sadie seems coherent, so I believe her. And for now, the knowledge that Dmitry is nearby is enough.
“I was so wrong about him,” Sadie says, wiping a tear from her eye and shaking her head. “I never should have doubted him.”
“You didn’t know,” I say, grabbing her hand and squeezing. “We’ve both been through a lot, and you didn’t know.”
“You told me. That should have been enough.”
“I’ve lied to you before,” I say, recalling the beginning of my relationship with Dmitry. I lied to everyone about what I was doing in his house, about why I was with him. Sadie came through for me then. She involved herself with dangerous men to try and save me, even though I didn’t actually need saving.
Now, it’s my turn to save her.
“I’m still sorry,” she says. “He is a good guy.”
I wrap an arm around her shoulders and lean back against the metal wall. Tati is sleeping next to us. I want to tell her Dmitry is on the ship, but I’m not sure it’s safe. No one can know, and I don’t want a nine-year-old to be the keeper of that kind of secret.
“He is a good guy,” I agree quietly. I squeeze her against my side. “And he’s going to get us out of here.”
When the container opens late the next day, I think it might be Dmitry.
I know he can’t just barge into the container and free us. We’re on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Our escape will have to be more nuanced than that. Still, logic does little to curb my hopes.
So, those hopes plummet to the depths when I see it’s the Tiger, and he wants us to follow him.
“You three,” he says, pointing to Sadie, Annika, and me. “Come with me.”
I wrap my arm around Tati, and she clings to my side, her fists balled in my shirt. “Not without my daughter. I’m not leaving her here.”
I’ve spent all day comforting Tati with vague promises. I stroked her sweaty forehead and told her we wouldn’t be here for long, that we would get out. Before knowing Dmitry was on the ship, I avoided such things because I didn’t want to lie to her. I told her I would keep her safe, but I couldn’t promise anything beyond that. But now, her hopes are high, and I might be being ripped away from her forever.
The Tiger laughs, but his face is pulled back in a sneer. “Trust me, you don’t want her going where you’re going.”
My heart hammers in my chest, fluttering so fast it’s hard to breathe. I’m already separated from Olivia. What if they take Tati away, too? What if I leave and when I come back, she’s gone?
“I’ll watch her,” another woman says, leaning forward to lay a hand on my arm.
It’s the first time I’ve heard the woman talk since we’ve been locked in the container. I don’t know who she is, but I see the sincerity in her eyes. It does little to make me feel better.
“Come on,” Sadie says, grabbing my hand.
I hesitate, digging my feet into the slick metal floor, trying to hold my position. Tati grips my leg, and I can feel her trembling.
I drop Sadie’s hand and turn to sign to Tati, to tell her to stay quiet and stay with the other women, but before I can, there is a flash of heat across my face. My head cracks to the side, and I gasp at the sharp bite of pain.
The Tiger’s hand is still lifted in the air, ready to come back down on me. “Do you want me to do it again?”
“Come on,” Sadie urges, eyes wide.
I shake my head and follow Sadie towards the door. Just before stepping out, I turn and hold up the sign for I love you. Tati returns it with a trembling lower lip. The woman wraps an arm around her shoulders, and I take in my precious girl’s face, hoping I’ll see it again.
We’ve been on a strict schedule since arriving on the ship. Meals come at the same time every day, and the nicer of the two guards changes the bathroom bucket three times a day. Every change in that schedule, like when the Tiger took us out on the deck and when Sadie was taken away last night, has been bad. So, I have no reason to believe this is any different.
We walk down the narrow hallway that leads towards the deck we visited a few days before, but instead of taking the stairs up, the Tiger goes down, further into the belly of the ship.
The lights along the hallway are dim, and the metal walls seem to be pressing in on us. I’ve never suffered from claustrophobia before, but panic creeps into my chest, and I’m having difficulty breathing.
Suddenly, I feel Sadie’s hand slip into mine. She’s walking in front of me, but she must have been able to hear my labored breathing.
After everything she has endured, I should be comforting her. Still, I squeeze her fingers back, trying to send her a silent message that I love her, no matter what happens in the next few minutes.
Suddenly, the Tiger stops walking, and Annika nearly runs into his back. He scowls at her and then addresses each of us, eyes narrowed. “I expect you ladies not to embarrass me, do you understand?”
Not at all, but he takes our silence as an agreement and opens the door to his right.
I’m not even in the room when the smell of alcohol and sweat hits me. It is like walking into the bathroom of a dive bar. I didn’t think anything could repulse me more than the bathroom bucket in our shipping container, but my nose wrinkles as I step into the dimly lit room.
My eyes have to adjust to the darkness. The only light comes from a few neon lights hanging on the walls, and a poker table has been set up in the middle of the room, though the game seems to be forgotten now that the women have arrived.