It was too late. The voices had stopped. A scraping noise, like something was being dragged away. The door opened. The boys walked in, carrying our propane lantern, jeans hanging low on their hips. Gavin had a small belly, the skin floppy, and a dark patch of chest hair. Brian’s left arm had streaks of blood, from where I’d stabbed him. Their eyes looked excited and their nervous energy filled the room. I could smell sweat and beer and pot smoke.
Beside me Dani was sitting up, watching. Blood leaked from her nose and her cheek was scraped. On my left, Courtney was slumped against the wall. The room was only about ten-by-ten feet. The bottom part of the wall was concrete, about a foot high, then wood paneling all the way up to the rafters. There wasn’t any insulation in the ceiling and I could see that the roof was aluminum. The room was dirty, cobwebs hanging everywhere, like it hadn’t been used for years.
“Well, look who’s awake.” Brian walked over and crouched down in front of Courtney. He grabbed her face, turned it to the side so he could see the burn mark. Gavin watched from the doorway.
“Someone sure did a number on you,” Brian said. He turned her back to face him and smiled. “But you’re still a sexy girl.”
A tear rolled out the side of Courtney’s eyes but she was glaring at him. He gripped her jaw tighter and tighter until she moaned, then he let go.
He turned to me, still smiling. “Little sister, you’re awake too.” The smile disappeared. “You’ve been giving us a hard time. I’d stop that if I were you.”
Gavin came over, gave Dani a kick. She grimaced but didn’t cry out.
“You girls should’ve been a lot nicer to us,” he said. “A lot nicer.”
“What are you going to do to us?” Dani said, her voice hoarse.
“We’re having ourselves some fun,” Brian said.
“People will notice we’re gone,” she said.
“Yeah, right. All we’ve got to do is wait a little bit, then sell off your truck parts, and poof, just like magic you bitches were never here.” He looked at his watch. “But we’ve gotta get home now. Don’t worry, we’ll see you later.”
They headed toward the door.
“Can you at least untie us?” Dani said.
Brian turned and laughed. “No way, princess.”
“What about water?” I said. “We’ll die without water.”
They exchanged a look and Brian nodded. Gavin disappeared while Brian watched us, one of his hands idly rubbing his chest. He could’ve been sitting at home staring at the TV.
Outside I heard the truck door open and shut. Gavin came back with a four-liter plastic jug of water like I’d seen at the ranch. He grabbed a dirty pail overturned in the corner, flipped it right side up, and dumped the water into it.
“Let’s go.” Brian gave us another lingering look. “You girls be good, now. Don’t get into any trouble.” Gavin laughed.
The door closed with a loud click, sending us back into darkness. Sounds of something being dragged. Brian said, “Hold it there.” Hammering. A board was being nailed over the door, each blow echoing through the room.
*
We spent the rest of the night huddled together. We’d tried to undo each other’s bindings, putting our backs together, but they were too tight—the guys had retied our wrists when we were unconscious, wrapped pieces of rope around and around, like we were cattle being hauled to a slaughter.
“In the morning we’ll try again,” Dani said. “We’ll climb up the wall.”
“You know they’ll come back,” I said. My head throbbed where Gavin had hit me. My thoughts were foggy, my vision blurry if I moved fast.
“We’ll get out before then.”
“I think we’re in an old fruit-packing place or something,” I said.
“Probably,” Dani said.
“I really have to pee,” I said.
“Me too,” Courtney said.
We put our backs together again and shuffled our way to the corner of the room, hooked our hands into the waistband of each other’s pants and pulled them down, and took a pee. Then tried to sleep but we stayed awake all night, sometimes resting our heads on each other’s shoulders.
“What do you think they’re going to do to us?” I said.
“I don’t know,” Dani said, but I could tell she was lying.
“Yes, you do.”
“We’ll be gone before then,” she said again.
I closed my eyes, pressed my forehead into her shoulder, breathing her familiar scent, feeling the strength in her muscles, in her words.
*
When it got lighter in the room, sun shining through the gap near the rafters, which we now saw was covered with a clear sheet of plastic, we tried again to untie our hands. While one sister worked on the other’s bindings, the third called out instructions: “Try to get your finger under the knot, pull it to the left.”
But the knots were too tight and complicated, the bindings wrapped around and around in a figure eight. We also tried to get our legs through our arms, but none of us was flexible enough. Dani walked over to the door, backed up, and tried the knob with her hand, but we already knew it was pointless.