A few weeks later I’m put into a van with five other girls and taken to a warehouse. Then I’m on a small plane with only two of the girls I started this trip with.
After the plane ride, I’m forced into the trunk of a car.
I’m the only girl left.
The next time I see daylight, I’m in another country and I can’t understand what anyone is saying.
I should have run away when I had the chance.
The second I get a chance, I’m running off to some place far where men don’t hit.
Men don’t take.
Where there is always food and girls have their own beds.
Chapter Two
Present Day
Tonya snorts another line up her nose, and I wonder if this will be the one to kill her.
She’s thin. Frail. So damn skinny, if the wind blows hard enough, she may snap in two.
She smiles at me with her crooked teeth dancing around our shared room in her underwear. She’s a ghastly sight. A ghost wearing skin.
The drugs are killing her.
This place.
The men.
She’s too soft for this world.
Breaks my heart. She’s only been here about two years.
She’s not a lifer like me.
I’ve been here so long I don’t remember there being anything else.
Guns. Drugs. Money. Powerful men. Lust. Sex. Desire.
Pain. So much pain.
That’s what I know.
My innocence was bought and paid for.
My father sold me to Cookie’s pimp, who sold me to the cartel.
That’s the bitter truth.
I belong to no one and to everyone.
I’m theirs to play with.
Theirs to use.
I’m not the first, but one day I intend to be the last.
