Can't Run (Danger and Desire Book 1) (6 page)

She hopped up, gripping the quilt with one hand and walked to her bag. She dug around a little bit and pulled out a bottle of liquor.

“Cachaça” she said holding the bottle up in the air walking back to the bed, “although my grandma used hot whisky… this should do the trick.”

She smiled at Eric as she popped the bottle open and took a sip. She held it out to Eric who reluctantly took it from her. She sat back down beside him and watched as he took as sip.

“I’m going to try my best not to be angry with you,” Sara said, “I will even try to make your job a bit easier for you, as long as you don’t lie to me again.”

“It was my job.” He said uneasily, not turning to look at her.

“It’s not like it’s some fucking classified stuff that I need a clearance for, I don’t care if it’s your job, if it involves me be honest.” Sara said firmly, still staring at him.

“Okay, I’ll try not to lie to you again.” He agreed turning to face her.

“Good, let’s drink on it.” Sara grinned.

Eric smiled and took another drink.

As the night went on they continued to talk with the goal of creating a better working relationship through gaining understanding of each other. This would have been a good idea if it hadn’t turned into a game of ‘I drink, you drink’. Sara, who was much smaller than Eric began to feel as if she were spinning laid down on the bed.

“Light weight” Eric teased, he rose to move to his spot on the floor but sat down instantly, the color from his face drained.

“Lightweight” Sara tried to tease, but it came out as a slur.

“I’m just going to lay back for a second…” Eric said.

Sara meant to respond, but before she could everything went dark.

~

Sara woke up the next morning with a cruel headache, her legs were still hanging off the bed. Not wanting to open her eyes, she blocked the brightness of the daylight with her arm, and was surprised when she felt the movement of a body next to her. Not just a body, a naked body next to her. Eric’s sheet had fallen off as he laid passed out beside her. She sat up, worried that she had done something she shouldn’t have. The quilt which she had forgotten fell down to her waist.

Eric’s eyes opened, awoken by Sara’s panicked movement. He looked at her and remembered the state that they were both in. Jumping up he grabbed the sheet and tied it around his waist. She pulled up her quilt and scurried to her bag where she pulled out panties and a large t-shirt, even though it was now pointless to hide herself from him she used the quilt as a shield she slipped on the items.

Eric had also slipped on a pair of jeans and a dry t-shirt. Without saying anything, he grabbed the wet pile of clothes that Sara had tossed and walked outside. She could hear the others ask what happened to them last night, and was relieved when she heard him explain that Sara was exhausted and fell asleep almost immediately.

She realized the awkward situation that was going to be their working relationship from that point on.
Why didn’t I just put clothes on?
She thought to herself;
I was wet, we were both wet… you can’t put clothes on a wet body or your dry clothes will get wet,
she reasoned.

She was absolutely mortified and was tempted not to look up when he returned to the bedroom. She was somewhat eased that he returned with sandwiches made from leftover dinner which they had missed during their drunken heart to heart. .

“That was stupid of me,” he said passing her a sandwich, “I hope I didn’t make you feel unsafe, I promise, that will never happen again.”

“I started it,” She said apologetically.

“I should have ended it before it started.” He said shaking his head.

He passed her a sandwich and a small bottle of ibuprofen that he kept in his pocket before he self-consciously adjusted his holster and moved to sit on the floor cross legged facing her. She was grateful for both the sandwich and the headache relief from the ibuprofen. They ate their breakfasts in an almost comfortable silence, avoiding the topic of their drunken but completely innocent slumber party. No matter how ill-advised their drunken bonding session was, Sara was almost thankful it happened.

Eric stepped out of the cabin while Sara got dressed and ready for the day. It was fairly cloudy outside, she opted for short ripped blue jean shorts, a gray over the shoulder t-shirt, and a navy blue zip up hoodie. She brushed her hair out so that it fell in to long straight strands. She appraised herself in the mirror, and was especially satisfied with how she looked. She had been feeling extremely self-aware since the previous night, but felt unquestionably more confident after looking in the mirror.

Sara walked out onto the deck where Eric was sitting with Carrie, Amanda and Gabriel. It was overcast outside and there was a strong wind blowing, but the air was still warm and humid. Sara sat between Eric and Carrie, and graciously took a beer passed by Gabriel who was looking rather restless. He had beads of sweat on his forehead, and one of his legs bounced up and own uncontrollably.

Eric was eyeing Gabriel suspiciously when the sound of a motor was heard in the distance. 

“What’s that?” Amanda wondered out loud walking to the back corner of the deck to look for the source of the noise.

It was rather strange considering that they hadn’t seen many boats in the past 24 hours. In the distance they could see a speed boat racing up the river in their direction.

“Oooo look at that boat,” Amanda pointed, “Probably some rich tourists showing off.” The group followed to look at the impressively fast boat quickly approaching.

“Sara,” Eric warned, is voice uneasy, as he placed his hand on her shoulder ready to pull her back.

“It’s just some joyriders.” Carrie told Eric, obviously annoyed with his incessant worrying.

He didn’t budge and watched quietly, waiting with his other hand over his holster. The group could make out three men on the boat, and they definitely didn’t look like rich men enjoying a leisurely ride.

“Are those guns?” Carrie gasped as she stepped back in alarm. Eric grabbed Sara and pulled her behind him when there was a loud thud and Eric slumped to the ground. The girls were stunned as they saw Gabriel standing over him holding a pistol. Eric had been knocked out, and was laying completely unconscious.

Amanda screamed as the girls turned to run toward the cabins.

“Stop”, Gabriel commanded, completely ignored.

In the scramble to the safety of the cabin the girls paid no attention to the man behind them who they had trusted enough to let him accompany them on their trip. He had betrayed them. They had one goal, and that was to barricade themselves behind a door, but before they could reach the cabin a shot rang out and Amanda crashed to the ground.

“No!” Carrie screamed as she and Sara plunged to their knees beside their fallen friend.

“Amanda,” Sara sobbed as she rolled her friend over to her back and cradled her friend’s head onto her lap.

Amanda breathed quick shallow breaths as silent tears stained the side of her face. Carrie held Amanda’s face and sopped quiet words of comfort while blood began to pool at the corner of Amanda’s mouth and under her back. Amanda’s shirt over her stomach became more and more soaked in a dark shade of liquid crimson, while the thick metallic fluid pooled underneath her body.

Carrie screamed as Gabriel approached the girls, still pointing the gun at them. His face had no remorse, just dangerous determination as he grabbed Sara by the hair and raised her to her feet.

“Stop, what do you want?” Carrie cried out in a terrified high pitched voice.

“Just this bitch!” He growled pulling tightly on Sara’s hair, she gasped as Carrie began screaming louder, “No, please! No, please Gabriel, let her go!”

“Shut that hole in the face before I give you another one!”  He growled as he pointed the gun at Carrie.

“No,” Sara’s voice broke, “I’ll go with you, just, please don’t hurt anyone else.”

Carrie slumped over Amanda, sobbing brokenly.

Still gripping her hair, Gabriel pulled Sara back to the edge of the river boat where the three armed men waited.

In the speed boat one of the men duct taped her hands together and put a strip of duct tape over her mouth. She looked from man to man, each of them was between 30 and 40 years of age, one had a burly beard, while the other had a scar down his jaw line, there was Gabriel, and there was one man who Sara realized she recognized. She couldn’t quite remember where from.

To Sara’s surprise they the boat didn’t turn around to go back to Manaus but headed deeper into the rainforest. The boat bumped and jarred as it sped up the river, the tears distorting Sara’s vision created a Picasso-esc view of the river and forest scape in blurred tones of tones of greens, browns end intermittent bright colors emphasized by the sudden influxes of light shining through the canopy.

After what must have been hours the boat pulled to shore and Sara was lifted out of the boat. Sara cried silent tears as was led on foot into the forest on what seemed to be some sort of game trail that was barely there. Branches scratched and bruised her legs and arms, thorns underneath her feet were so large that they threatened to plunge through her thin slip-on hemp sneakers as she stumbled clumsily along the trail. Whenever she staggered she would be gripped by one of the men with such pressure it made her arm throb.

As she staggered along she glanced around looking for some way to escape. Sara was alarmed to realize that even if she could somehow get away from the men she would be running aimlessly into the jungle, either way she didn’t stand a chance.

The as they walked deeper and deeper into the forest, Sara noticed that it was surprisingly dark although it was still daytime. The canopy shaded the entire area, and the warm stick air was made it uncomfortable to breathe, especially with the tape over her mouth.

There was a buzz in the air from millions of bugs, and the intermittent screeches of birds in the background. The enormous tree trunks dominated the earth floor creating a maze, disorienting Sara even more.

Sara’s feet ached as she obediently walked for what seemed like an endless amount of time, she felt weak and exhausted when the men finally came to a stop. She wouldn’t quite call the spot a clearing, however, the large trees were further apart. The large man with the scar sat Sara down against a tree and taped her feet together so that she had no chance of escape.

While the men set up camp for the night they only spoke in Portuguese, Sara had no idea what they were saying leaving her helpless and confused against the tree. Sara kept trying to figure out how she knew the one familiar man, and couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

As the sun went down the group was surrounded by true darkness, the only light was the fire dancing through the night. The sounds of the night were much louder than during the day as more bugs flew about accompanied by animal cries and screeches from deep within the darkness.

As Sara leaned against the tree she felt her body grow heavy as somehow the exhaustion and stress from the day proved to be too much. Though she tried to fight the heaviness overcoming her eyelids, she felt the world dimming around her, and though she struggled to keep her eyelids from falling shut the world went completely black.

Sara awoke in the darkness to the tape binding her feet being cut. Other than the dancing fire light there was nothing but the silhouette of trees in the blackness.

She looked down to where the tape had been cut and saw the familiar man kneeling over her. He grinned at her, his one green eye glinting the fire light. She realized where she recognized him from, it was his one eye that gave him away was the hotel security from Rio who was at the bar where they met Gabriel. 

Maybe he’s going to help me,
Sara though hopefully after realizing that he had freed her feet, she hoped that he would free her hands next. But her hopes were shattered when he put his hand on her throat and unzipped her sweater past her breasts. Sara struggled and tried to kick him away with her newly freed legs, but this did little to deter him. He tightened his grip on her throat as he pressed his weight down on top of her and kissed down her chest down to the boarder of where her shirt began. Frustrated by her clothing he lifted her shirt and sweater up so it was around her head and she could no longer see him.

Terror flooded her body as she felt him licking her stomach and working his way up to her breasts. Through her shirt she could smell the liquor seeping through the pores of her attacker, and she tried to scream as she felt his mouth on her breasts, his tongue circling her nipple before he violently sucked.  Her taped mouth let no sound out, so she did her best to trash around, if she couldn’t get him off of her maybe she could wake the others.

His hand was on her crotch, pressing down over her jeans, violently rubbing her. There was absolutely nothing she could do, her hands and mouth were still bound, and her thrashing was beginning to exhaust her, however she did not want to lose to this man.

He bit down on her breast, with such intensity that she would have cried out in pain if she had been able too. She could feel his dry thrusts against her and was terrified at the prospect at what could be coming next. Her eyes burned with tears as she heard a zipper and realized that he was probably undoing his pants.