Word Count: 36,042
Summary of Events:
Riel received a call from Roberto in Mar del Plata that Esperanza's case was being reopened before heading off to his cousin's engagement party, where he happened to run into the one senior partner in his firm who didn't like him, and they had a heated argument. Esperanza was hauled out of the container on her chair by her captors and taken on deck, where she was cut free; she took advantage of her freedom to jump over the side of the ship because she could see lights suggesting a shore in the distance, but her captors started after her in a motorboat . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
"She could still hear the motor, though, but under the motivation of its threat she swam faster, as fast as she could, her arms slicing through the water, propelling her further and further toward the shore.
The motor seemed to be getting closer. Esperanza didn't have her eyes open, though, being as the salt water was stinging them, so she couldn't tell if the light was nearby, she was just waiting for her hands to collide with the sand underneath the surface so that she knew when she was getting close to shore.
Suddenly her wrist was stopped. A hand was wrapped around it.
Esperanza struggled against it, but more hands grabbed her and hauled her into a boat. Two hands held her wrists, two held her ankles, and a blanket was put over her.
She heard the motor rev again and she could tell they were covering water quickly; she struggled against the hold on her left wrist, she wanted to get her hand free so she could wipe the salt water out of her eyes and see.
"I want to see!" she cried.
A rough finger stroked over each eye — she guessed it was meant to clear the water away, but it felt more like it intended to gouge out her eyes.
"Open your eyes," a voice roughly snapped.
"Let me do it!" Esperanza protested.
Her right wrist was released.
Grabbing the blanket, Esperanza dabbed her eyes lightly and wiped them gently until she felt they were clear enough for her to see.
She opened her eyes just as a hand snaked out and seized her wrist again.
They were much closer to the shore now, the lights were more like lights than stars.
The motor abruptly stopped and the two men holding her shifted around. Esperanza saw motion to her left as a man sat down, brought out a pair of oars, mounted them in place, and started rowing.
Esperanza struggled to sit up and get a good look.
All she could make out was trees. They were approaching a heavily forested shoreline, it appeared. The perfect place to hide if she wanted to run. They wouldn't be able to find her, especially in the dark.
She watched, waiting for an opportunity to break free and make for the shore and the trees.
None came before they came into the beam of a flashlight. A man in the front of the boat Esperanza hadn't seen until the flashlight illuminated him tossed a rope toward the light and the man rowing didn't pull so hard.
Soon Esperanza was able to make out a dock, and two men. One holding the flashlight, one holding the rope.
"You're a little early," one of the men said in English.
"You've got yourself a firecracker," the man rowing said, turning around.
"The boss doesn't mind them that way," the man on the dock said.
Esperanza didn't like that, not that she knew what it meant."
No comments:
Post a Comment