Chapter 27
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WHEN LUCIANA AWOKE, she was in a large storage room filled with boxes.Her body ached, and she realized that she was propped up on a metal chair in the corner, left there just like the freight being moved around.
She heard machinery in the background—trucks coming and going, and the beeping of front-loaders as men worked.There were voices, too, but they were far away.Too far to hear her or help.
As she looked around further, she saw that the door was closed.No doubt locked.A lone lightbulb hung down from the ceiling, barely providing enough light to see the entire space.It seemed like a storage room for a shipping depot, and she shuddered.Was the truck she’d been standing by in her driveway somewhere here, too?
Her jaw dropped in shock as the door opened and her father appeared.“Hello Luciana.”
She shook in fright as he moved toward her.
“It was harder than I expected to find you.I considered it a happy coincidence when my associates discovered you amongst the women they’d taken.”His eyes were hard, like dark little beads as he stared at her.“You left our family long ago, but it seems you came in handy after all.You’re quite the little slut capturing the attention of Santiago Garcia.He could have any woman he chooses.Imagine my surprise that he wants you.”
“No.”
Her father chuckled.“Si.He is unhappy with some of my business practices.Although he was housing you for some time, providing you with food and shelter, he now wants you all for himself.I owe him a payment, it seems, in return for some things I did.I am happy to give him you to settle my debts.”
“No!”she said, more firmly this time.
“It is already a done deal.You will be his property now—to use and enjoy.Perhaps share with his men.Maybe he will be greedy and want you only for himself.It is no longer my concern,” he said with a dark chuckle.
“Harrison will come for me,” she told her father, eyeing him defiantly.“I’m not flying with you back to Panama.”
“Not willingly, at any rate,” he sneered.
Two men stepped out from the shadows, and she realized in shock that they were the men who’d taken her with them to the alley weeks ago.The one with the jagged scar—Pedro Gomez—leered at her.
“You will go with them,” her father said.“They will take you to Garcia and hand you over like the whore you are.I will finish things here in Hawaii.I need to take care of another little matter.”
“Harrison—”
“Quiet!”her father snapped.“He will be silenced in the sea—yet one more sailor lost to the Pacific.If others have to go with him, so be it.I will get revenge because he took what was mine.He’s caused me a lot of trouble, and for that, I will end him.”
Tears smarted her eyes.Her father was pure evil, and his ties to a notorious cartel didn’t surprise her in the least.She’d somehow found herself back in his clutches, despite her years of freedom to do as she chose, and he’d come for her after all.
