The Bond That Built Us (16 page)

She’s gone three days without food and water and it pisses me off that I let her go through with this. We had other options.

She is way too weak to even try and escape. Why didn’t I think this through? I will carry her if I have to. I yell out as loud as I can and in a few minutes Carlos and Andres come into the room.

Andres’ eyes widen in alarm. He starts spewing Spanish to Carlos who rushes over to her and picks her up. He leaves the room with Andres close behind, still griping about something. I sigh in relief, hoping they will help her. But dread still sits in the pit of my stomach.
It all happens so fast that I don’t even have time to try and help.

I look out into the hallway and… the hallway. They
left the door open. Holy shit! What the hell do I do? Do I leave and come back for her, once I find help? Or do I try to find her now? I can’t leave her here, that’s for damn sure. I step out into the hallway and listen intently for any noise. I hear them down the hall to the right, where the shower is. I tiptoe down and slip into the shower room and hide behind the open door. They are in here and have Aubrey on the bench. They untie her wrists and ankles and Carlos yells at Andres, who nods and runs out the room.

Carlos runs his hands through his hair and mutters something I can’t understand.
Beside the bench is a cabinet and sitting right on top is the knife. My breath hitches and I automatically start to gravitate to it. I’m so close. I itch to take the few steps forward and grab it. It would only take a minute or two for that to cut through the bindings.

I tentatively take a step forward just as Andres flies through the entrance. He is holding an IV bag and has a handful of other things in his hand. I stand there and watch as the two of them hook her up to the IV and Andres holds up the bag of clear fluids as it slowly drips into her system.

Both of them have their backs to me and are fussing with Aubrey so I take initiative and step forward and grab the knife. I hide back into the corner behind the door and start to saw away. I’m hoping the sound of it isn’t loud enough for them to hear.

Just like I thought, the ropes snap at the last swipe and break away from my wrists. There are red burns all around them and I don’t even stop to take the time to rub them. I start on my ankles and am free within minutes.

I wait while the two of them attend to Aubrey. Carlos is constantly touching her which pisses me off, and Andres is holding the bag up with his arms, watching as it drips down the small tube and into her arm. I can’t believe this is happening. It all seems so surreal; I’m just waiting to wake up from this nightmare I’ve been in for a week.

About thirty minutes go by before the bag is empty. She
is coherent now but still very weak. They don’t rush to put her restraints back on and I wonder if now is my chance. Carlos expertly pulls out the needle and wraps some tape around her elbow with a cotton ball pressed against the needle wound.

I wonder briefly how Carlos can know how to do an intravenous drip like that. Is he a doctor or nurse? I don’t have time to analyze it because Andres pivots and turns to the cabinet to throw away the trash. He cocks his head to the side in thought and purses his lips together.

He asks something to Carlos who barely turns his head and says something back. I know he is looking for the knife. The one I hold in my hand. Andres turns back to Aubrey and I stride forward and lunge at him, grabbing him by the shirt and tossing him to the ground, away from Aubrey and the door. He hits his head on the side of the shower tile and his eyes roll back.

Carlos jumps up in alarm and nearly knocks over Aubrey.

“You escaped?” He asks breathlessly.

I nod and narrow my eyes to him. “Give her to me.”

His rage overpowers his shock and he says, “No.”

I step back to Andres who is still unconscious and hold the knife to his neck. Aubrey whimpers a little and tries to sit up and escape Carlos.
He grabs her by the upper arm and she whines. My nostrils flare as I evaluate the situation. Andres is pretty much out like a light. I wish he was dead but I can faintly see his chest rise and fall. Carlos has Aubrey, and for the last week I’ve noticed that he seems to be the brains of the operation. He’s smart but I have the upper edge. He has what I want and I’m not leaving without her. I leave Andres on the floor, but not before I kick him hard in the gut. He doesn’t even make a sound.

I walk purposefully toward Carlos with the knife in my hand. I think about all he has done to us. The vivid memory of when he forced himself on Aubrey and made me watch comes to me and I don’t even give him a chance to change his mind. I lunge at him and stab him in the side just below his ribs,
making sure to keep the blade away from Aubrey. I want to stab him over and over again until I give him his last breath, but I just can’t. I want him to feel all the pain we felt. But there is no way.

Carlos groans in pain and his hold on Aubrey loosens and she slips down to the floor.
I hear her body smack down on the concrete. I want to tend to her because I know how much she needs me but Carlos is hunched over with his hands covering the wound. I take the opening and punch him as hard as I can in the face. He flies back and the back of his knees hit the bench and he trips backward and falls over it, landing on his back on the floor with his feet up in the air.

I take whatever strength I have left and pick Aubrey up and whisk her away. I run down the hall and stop short. There is no stairway on this end, only a few doors. I open one and it is a closet. The second one is locked,
and the third door is
our
room. I backtrack slightly and come to a tiny hallway that has two stairs leading up. I somehow hop over both and when I push on the door at the landing, it bursts open and sunlight assaults my eyes. It is bright and significantly hotter out here than in that building.

“We’re outside, Aubrey. We made it,” I tell her, though her eyes are closed and her head is resting against my shoulder.

I run down the street, but the further I go, the further into poverty I get. Soon I am in a desolate area where the houses are shacks with cinderblock walls that are crumbling and I doubt they will last much longer. I spot a young family outside and I run to them, hoping they’ll help me.

I only know a few words in Spanish, and we can’t communicate well enough.

“Por favor, um… shit.” I don’t know the word for help, sick, or kidnap. The older woman looks at Aubrey with sympathetic eyes and nods her head. She leads me to their home and lets me lay her down on the only couch in the area. It is all one room and there are two small beds in one corner and a kitchenette in the other. Aubrey’s eyes are open and she is looking around like she doesn’t know where she is. She looks extremely confused.

I hold my hand up to my mouth and ear like a phone, but
the chances of them having one are slim. They don’t have a TV or anything. They all shake their heads. But the young girl, who can’t be but seven years old, points into the business district where I just escaped.

15

Aubrey

I don’t remember much about the last couple days. Just bits and pieces, and they are all pretty bad. I haven’t truly slept since we were taken, and with my bright id
ea to starve myself, I became a vegetable pretty quickly.

I don’t remember escaping. I don’t remember Kellan carrying me a mile down the road to the poverty-stricken little neighborhood. I don’t remember him carrying me back toward the building we spent the last week tied up and tortured.

I think what breaks me out of my stupor is glancing down and seeing Kellan’s bloody feet. I realize that he has been barefoot, walking around in dirt and gravel, carrying me.

“Kellan, I can walk,” I say weakly. I try to clear my throat but it is so dry I can’t.

“I’m fine, just a little farther,” he says with determination masking his beautiful face.

“We haven’t eaten those cheeseburgers yet, have we? I’d be a shame for me to not remember that.”

Kellan laughs and it causes him to slow his speed down, clearly exhausted.

“No, we haven’t had them yet.
Are you good enough to try and eat something?” He asks, and cranes his head around to look me in the eyes.

I shrug because I really don’t know. “I feel weird, but not awful. What happened?”

He goes through what we went through the last few hours. I hate myself for trying something so stupid. I should have known that it wouldn’t have worked. But… really, it did. It was just enough for them to freak out and do something irrational. We are lucky.

“You need to rest, put me down,” I say, trying to sound strict.

“Yes, ma’am.” He gently sets me down and the feel of the gravel underneath my feet feels hot. “You okay?” He runs his fingers through my hair and my eyes close at the feel of it.

I nod and give him a weak smile. I spot the
businesses a quarter mile away. I see people crowding around a corner and I want to investigate. Maybe there is someone there that speaks English.

When we get there, our nerves are on end. We are looking around frantically, hoping Carlos and Andres are still in the building, unconscious. When we don’t see them, we cautiously approach the group.

I’m still in the blue dress with no bra, and Kellan is still shirtless. I haven’t seen a mirror in a week but I am certain I look awful. I try to clear my throat again and this time am successful.

“Habla Ingles?” I don’t really know if I asked that correctly but frankly I don’t give a shit about proper Spanish right now.

Everyone shakes their heads, but one points closer into the town and says, “Carlos Esperanza, doctor.” My breath catches because they are talking about our Carlos. My body immobilizes and my eyes widen. The group eyes me curiously. I can’t trust these people, so I keep our nightmare to myself.

“Come on, let’s go,” Kellan whispers in my ear. We walk around the town on the outskirts, scurrying from wal
l to wall to stay out of sight. We have no money, no shoes, no clue where we are, so basically, we’re screwed.

“What should we do? Maybe there is a payphone or something somewhere,” I suggest. We turn a corner and see an old general store. We peer in and see an old man behind the counter. He looks up at us and smiles.
There are only three aisles and all the product is in Spanish.

“Telefono, p
or favor?” I ask.

“No, lo siento,” he says sadly.

“Policia?” Maybe we can contact the police department and they can help.

Kellan quickly shakes his head, signaling that notifying the police might not be a good idea.

Kellan’s stomach growls loudly and the man points to the aisle behind us, which is full of candy and treats.

“No dinero,” I say and shrug.

The man waves his hand to us in a nonsense gesture and walks around the counter and grabs two granola bars. He hands one to each of us and smiles. The two of us walk around the store, nibbling at what is likely to be the only food we get for the day. I spot some maps in the corner so I grab one and run to the man.

I open it up and point to Cancun
, where our villa is. He seems to know what I am asking so he points to where we are. His finger slams down to the west side of the city, away from the hotel zone. Based on the key, it looks to be about twenty kilometers. I know that equals a lot of miles, though I don’t know the conversion. I thank the man and we start to head out but he stops us and holds out his finger for us to wait. He disappears into the back hallway and comes back with two pairs of flip flops.

This man is a freaking Godsend.

As we exit the store, Kellan turns to me and whispers, “Hey, don’t trust anybody, okay? Let’s just make it back to the hotel zone and we can go from there. Until we get into the tourist part of the city, we can’t trust anyone. Not even the police. We don’t know where they stand on anything, okay? They could be corrupt. Got it?”

I nod but wish we could find someone who could help us. I don’t know if I can make it back to the touristy area without going crazy again. I assumed once we escaped we would be in the clear, but our nightmare is still going.

We’ve been walking for hours. Every mile or so we have to take a break. I wish we didn’t have to but we are both pretty weak, and that granola bar didn’t keep our strength up for long. The last time we stopped, we ended up sitting on the sidewalk for what seemed like an hour until I could take a full breath.

Locals are staring at us and laughing, probably thinking we are just drunk college kids who wandered off the beaten path. A few look at us suspiciously, and I see one pull out a cell phone and speak Spanish into it. I imagine he is talking to the police but a sudden shift in my thoughts and he is talking to Andres and Carlos. I voice this to Kellan and we bolt up and disappear into the small alleyways. The man didn’t follow us, thank God.

The sun is setting and we look around, hoping to see somewhere to rest some more. When I looked at the map, I remembered a few main roads, but after a while they all seemed to sound the same so we’ve been walking east, not paying attention to which roads we are taking. I’m disoriented and starting to lose hope. But Kellan keeps on, pressing me to continue also.