XXIII. A Different Kind of Prison

                                    

                                          
They tried to be gentle at first.
                          
She resisted. 
                          
Then they tried to threaten her. 
                          
They knew where her mother lived, told her they could get to her anytime if she didn’t talk. 
                          
When Hope kept her silence, they resorted to force. 
                          
“You won’t lose anything, woman. Just tell us where he is.” She smelled the man’s breath close to her face. She kept her eyes closed against the blindfold. The man’s rough hands caught her chin and pulled her closer to his unseen face. “Tell me where he went.”
                          
“I don’t know,” she finally uttered her first words. “He didn’t say.”
                          
What she got was a thumb pressing against her bullet wound and she cried out in pain. She could feel her bandage soaking wet with her blood, leaving her gasping for air. The man’s hand tightened against her cheeks. “Just tell us where he is and you will be free to go.”
                          
“I told you, I don’t know,” she managed to rasp out. For a split second she wondered why they never managed to follow Devin. But maybe they really didn’t know where they were until she made that phone call to her mother. 
                          
Before she could think of anything else, she was sent flying off the chair she was bound to by a blow on her face. The crash against the wet concrete was more painful than the blow and she was helpless. She didn’t know where they took her. They bound and blindfolded her the moment they walked out of that motel and into a black van. They even waited for a few minutes, the men hoping Devin would show up. 
                          
He never did and they drove off to this place and they tied her to the chair. 
                          
She heard footsteps coming near despite the ringing in her ears caused by the blow. She didn’t try to move. It would hurt like hell.
                          
“What the hell do you think are you doing?” asked a new voice she never heard before. It did not belong to the two men who took her from the motel. 
                          
“I thought you said he’s with her?” the man who hit her demanded. 
                          
She felt a hand grab her good arm and pulled her and the chair up. Hope’s head hung near her heaving chest. She could taste blood in her mouth. Her right cheek felt numb. The ringing in her ears continued. 
                          
“She was,” the new guy answered. He was the one who picked her up from the ground. “I was certain of that. It’s not my fault you were stupid enough to not get there in time!”
                          
“We drove off the moment you called us, you idiot. When we got there she was alone!”
                          
“Of course, she will be! Do you think Frye would be that stupid not to leave and dispose of the car? Someone saw them driving that thing! Did you wait for him?”
                          
“You think I’m an idiot? Of course, we did. But we had to leave before that woman arrived.”
                          
“What? Scared of one desperate mother? Do you know that you must have probably blown off the only chance we have of getting Frye?”
                          
“That’s why we took the bitch, fucker,” her captor answered with a kick on her chair. She flinched but no sound escaped her throat.
                          
How unlucky could she be? She couldn’t help but wonder bitterly. She happened to be tangled up in this mess after leaving another one. Devin shouldn’t have helped her if he was in this kind of danger. 
                          
“What did she tell you?” the new guy asked.
                          
“She’s not saying anything,” the other man answered.