“Don’t you dare shoot me,” I grumble, continuing to go through the twenty plus keys on the chain.
“You’re awfully bossy for a hostage,” his dark voice rumbles. “And who is Winfred?”
I freeze—yet again. I think about explaining, but I ignore him instead. Finally, I find the right key and the metal lock opens. The shackles slowly fall to the ground. I jump at their heavy clang. Before I can run, he grabs me by the elbow and starts pulling me toward the chaos.
“You know you might come off hot and sexy on paper, but in person you are the Devil.”
He grunts and continues to pull me along. I want to argue, but I know it’s useless.
“Remember what I told you. Keep your head down and only speak when I give you permission.”
I bite my lip to keep from begging him to let me go and let him pull me along. At least he’s partially blocking my body. Maybe I’ll get lucky, and a stray bullet will take him out. A girl can hope, and I ignore the twinge of guilt I feel. I can’t still be infatuated with Max after this, surely. That would truly mean I’m insane.
After I sneak a look around the first area we enter, I change my mind. All around me are guards, dead, unconscious, or bleeding and tied up. Prisoners surround them, with guns pointed and ready. It’s like a scene from a Bruce Willis movie. I may never watch another one of those again.
“Who do we have here, Gringo?” A heavily laced Spanish accent asks, and I suddenly remember, very vividly, that I was told not to look up. I have no problem with that. In fact, I think I’d love to bury my head in the sand at the moment.
“My lawyer,” Mad Max replies and the way he says it, it sounds like we really know each other.
“Damn, Max you know how to pick em. Send her my way and give me a little taste of that honey.”
I’m keeping my head down, but I can see him reach for me out of the corner of my vision. I can’t help but stumble back against my captor. Suddenly, he feels a lot safer than the other possibility here.
“No way, Hernandez. This is my private pussy. I’m about to go through that tunnel you guys made, get the fuck out of dodge and get my dick wet for the first time in years.”
His words make my body lurch with a sick feeling of dread. Mocking all those stupid girlish fantasies I had, in ways this situation hasn’t yet. Why did I think Max was a safer choice? It dawns on me that there is no safe place. I am probably going to die. The only question will be, what will happen to me beforehand?
“I thought you had no interest in leaving? I believe you told us to fuck off when we asked for help.”
“I’ve changed my mind, and since I didn’t rat your asses out, I figure I did my part.”
“This is where we disagree. I think you owe a little more than that,” the Spanish guy says, as he moves his hand to my cheek and wrenches my face up. It hurts and tears sting my eyes. My nails bite into the thick, muscled arm of Max.
That’s when I see the Max who committed the murder. His hands move so fast; it’s a blur. He grabs the other guy by the neck and slams him hard against the wall. The guy’s feet are a good two inches from the ground. Max moves his face in close to the other guy, and his voice is so cold, chills move through my body. It feels as if the air around me has dropped a good twenty degrees. Max is that deadly now.
“In what universe did you think it was okay to touch what is mine, Hernandez?”
“Easy, Gringo. Easy! I was just playing. No harm, no foul.”
“Wrong. You put your hands on my property. The way I look at it, now you owe me, asshole.”
I watch as he wraps one of his hands around the guy’s neck. I remember reading in his files exactly how he killed the other man. My stomach rolls with the knowledge. I can tell by the way the man gasps that Max is applying pressure. I want to tell him to stop. I’m scared. I’m not sure what to do. The other man’s face is starting to turn blue.
“Max…” I whisper, starting to reach out to him and get him to stop.
He lets go and steps back. The other man holds his neck and gasps for air.
“I’ll be using that tunnel now,” Max says, and the guy doesn’t answer. I’m not sure he can. He nods and steps to the side. That seems to satisfy Max, and he grabs my arm and pulls me further into hell. I follow on weak legs.
Heaven help me, I follow.
4
Max
I don’t talk to the woman as we make our way to the tunnel. Hernandez’s crew that is on the outside bribed some guards into getting them the tools needed to make a tunnel through the back of the prison. The tunnel exits against the security fence that surrounds the prison. The men arranged it so their buddies would disable the fence’s electric charge, and the wire would be cut enough for a person to slide through.