I did my job and kept to myself.
The women worked longer hours because of the increased amount of daylight. The days were getting warmer, the vegetation growing bigger, and the wilderness came to life with green leaves, flowers, and creatures from the forest. Sometimes coyotes would howl to the moon in the middle of the night.
I didn’t have a single ally in that camp because they’d all turned against me.
But still…I didn’t snitch.
I had too much pride to make a single complaint.
But I could never drop my guard because the knife was constantly at my throat. My eyes were always in the back of my head. The guard must have told the others that Raven had been freed from her noose because the hostility was even worse than before.
I ignored it.
I went to the communal cabin to do my checks, and I instantly knew something was off. The guys weren’t seated at the table as usual. There was no one there, all the lights off. But it was too early for them to be in their cabins.
I could feel it.
Then the footsteps sounded behind me.
I quickly ducked then threw my body hard into Alix’s frame, knowing exactly where he stood based on the slight creak of the floorboards. He fell back and rolled down the stairs, groaning as his back thudded against the hardness.
The other guards emerged from the room behind me because it was an ambush.
“Get that piece of shit!” Alix pushed to his feet.
I ran down the steps then kicked him in the face before I jumped over him.
Alix spat out blood then got to his feet, facing me with a whole new level of ferocity. He pulled a knife from his pocket and spun it in his palm. “Get him.” He spun the knife again. “And I’ll cut off the other half of your sac.”
Eric, Karl, and Nathan came toward me, their hoods down, all carrying blades like they were going to slice me into little pieces.
I pulled out my own knife and held my ground. I didn’t turn and run because that would result in a knife in the back. If I was going to die, I’d do it on my own two feet. But I wasn’t going to die. If it were them or me…it would be them.
“You let your little girlfriend go.” Alix stepped toward me, moving over the grass, stalking toward me like a lion in the savanna.
“She’s not supposed to be killed.”
“And she wouldn’t die,” he said. “If she just stayed on the box.” He chuckled.
The rest of the guys chuckled too.
“If I die, Fender will hang all of you.”
“Who said anything about dying?” Alix took another step forward. “We just think you aren’t man enough to have any balls at all, not even one.” He rushed me, his heavy mass sprinting.
I ducked under the knife and kneed him in the balls like last time. Then I tripped him over my knee, making him fly through the air and land on his head, knocked out at the collision. Eric came at me next, and I redirected his knife into his thigh, making him cry out loud, the blood dripping down his leg to his boot. He collapsed and yanked the knife out by the hilt.
Karl hesitated and backed up. He lowered his knife.
Nathan did the same.
I walked toward them, wanting to carve their mouths off their faces because I was furious.
They backed away farther, tripping over their own feet in their hurry to scurry away.
Eric continued to howl loudly, his teeth clenched tightly together as he gripped his flesh wound. Blood dripped onto the dirt.
I walked back to them, taking my time as I stood over them.
Eric looked up at me, nostrils flared, breathing through the pain.
“You should get to the infirmary if you don’t want to bleed out.” I extended my hand to help him up.
He hesitated before he took it.
I pulled him to his feet.
Then I punched him so hard in the stomach he lost his entire breath. “Don’t.” I hit him again. “Fuck.” Again. “With.” Again. “Me.”
He fell to his knees, breathing through the pain I’d just caused.
Alix had woken up with a jolt, and he quickly climbed to his feet.
I kicked him in the back until he fell again.
When he got up, I did it again. “I can do this all night, Alix.”
This time, he stayed down, blood still dripping out of his mouth from the kick. He turned over onto his back and looked up at me, his chest rising and falling quickly, soft groans accompanying his breaths. But he looked up at me like he still wanted to kill me.
“No more mercy, Alix. Try this shit again…I’ll kill you.”
Seven
Ultimate Sacrifice
Eric was in the infirmary for a few days. He couldn’t walk because the blade had pierced his muscle so badly that he couldn’t hold his weight anymore. Nathan and Karl steered clear of me like they thought I might decide to finish the job. Alix stopped staring at me every chance he got.
When I saw them in the evenings, they pretended I didn’t exist.
I hoped that was the end of it.
But I wasn’t stupid enough to assume anything.
A week passed, and my time at the camp was repetitive and uneventful. Alix did the execution every Friday, and I was never around to witness it. I tried to work out a bigger distribution with our Colombian partners, but the cargo hold simply wouldn’t allow it. I tried to think of another shipment route, perhaps by a cargo ship. They could dock in Spain, and our guys could meet us somewhere near the French Alps. It was risky, but Fender wanted to grow this business more, to be richer than we already were.
I didn’t glance at Raven again.
She always tried to look at me at the clearing, but I ignored her.
The only reason I’d cut her down in her cabin was because I was already there, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to check on her or intercept danger in any way whatsoever. I shouldn’t have even delivered that note, but it would have haunted me if I hadn’t.
I went to the clearing at midday when the girls were eating. They sat together at the tables, eating in complete silence so they wouldn’t be punched in the face, or worse, hung. I went to the product table and made my notes on the spreadsheets. I meticulously checked everything that was there so people wouldn’t try to steal. The best way to keep people honest was to make it impossible not to be honest.
One of the guards yelled unexpectedly. “What the fuck is she doing? Get her!”
I turned, assuming Raven was the culprit. She was probably doing some stupid stunt to escape.
But she sprinted right at me, panicked. “Move!”
What the fuck? Stunned, I just stood there.
It all happened so fast.
She crashed into me, making me fall onto the table.
I rolled and hit my head, confused.
A collective gasp sounded from the women in their seats.
I turned to look, seeing Raven standing there, a knife buried deep in her stomach.
She swayed slightly, her legs growing weak, and then she fell to the ground.
Alix stood there, staring down at her like he was surprised by what had happened too. His hand was bloody.
I immediately righted myself and looked down, still in shock.
Alix spat on her. “That worked out better, if you ask me.”
I finally understood what had happened.
Alix had come up behind me to stab me, knowing this was the only time of the day when my guard was down, and Raven had seen what he was about to do…and tried to help me. “Fuck.” I hopped off the table and leaned down over her. Her shirt was already wet with the blood seeping from the wound. A puddle was growing on the dirt beneath her.