Page 36 of Her Faithful Protector

She turned around and dropped the rope over her shoulder, then started marching toward the church. Camilla had to almost run to keep up. She felt a huge tug on the rope behind her, then she fell backward against Roxanne. Maria was standing over her, laughing.

“I told you how it would be. You can’t keep up.”

Camilla struggled to her feet and got a good look at everybody behind her. Nearly half of the students were on the ground—all of the girl students along with Travis. She watched as Brian Lane tried to help him up since Travis’ hands were tied behind him. Lisa was still on her feet and she was helping Phyllis and Leslie to get up off the ground.

“Maria, you have ten minutes to get them strung up in front of the church, got it?” He yelled over at her in Spanish.

“Got it,” she yelled back.

Then she yelled at two guards who were still at their Jeeps and told them to get over and help her. Camilla saw that a couple of the other men were pounding on the villagers’ doors and displaying their guns. The women who answered looked just as terrified as Camilla felt. Wait a minute, were there more men than there had been?

She looked some more and saw another truck and two more Jeeps.

Jesus, God, what was going to happen to them?

One of the doors was wrested off its hinges and two guards stormed in.

“What are you looking at?” a guard demanded in English. Camilla’s rope was yanked and she stumbled forward, but somehow managed to stay on her feet. Now the little village square was teeming with people. She saw more men in fatigues, and that new truck had some kind of antenna attached to it that looked like something on a news truck. So she had seen an antenna. What’s more, there was a satellite dish.

“Food, lots of food.” She heard someone shout behind her.

“Faster,” Maria said as she yanked harder and walked faster. The rope bit into her wrists, but it would have been worse if she’d let them tie them as tightly as they’d wanted.

“Ahhh,” she let out a scream as her arms were yanked forward and her waist was dragged backward. Roxanne had fallen again, pulling Camilla’s shoulder out of the socket.

“Get moving!” Maria yanked harder.

Camilla shrieked, hating the sound that came out of her throat. The pain swirled around her body and then dripped over her head and shoulder like a lava flow. Her body was being ripped apart by the taut rope, her muscles beginning to stretch to the breaking point.

“You’re worthless. Do I have to carry you?”

The words didn’t make sense until she careened into Maria as the pull of the rope behind her let loose.

“Ah, fuck,” Maria said. “We’re never going to get this done. Jorge, come here.”

Jorge picked Camilla up and she cried out again.

“Where’s El Jefe?” Maria asked.

“In the truck. He’s working to get the satellite internet up,” a man responded.

“Take this knife,” Maria said.

Even through her tears, Camilla saw the big knife flash in front of her. No matter how bad the pain was she didn’t want to die. She struggled to get out of the guard’s arms. He hugged her tighter. “I’m just cutting the rope,” he growled.

She didn’t get any kind of relief when her hands were cut free, the overall pain was too overwhelming. She tried to keep her eyes open, but she lost the battle.

* * *

Right had been the right way to go, but Jesus, what in the hell was going on? Max had the five of them spread out, so that they had the village surrounded, trying to get as much intel as possible. It had killed him to go past the prisoners to the back of the village where there were only a couple of dilapidated shacks, with no sign of life.

“I’ve got nothing,” Nic reported in. “I think these two huts have been abandoned. I’m going to go further around, closer to Zed.”

“Agreed,” Max said over the mic. “I’ve contacted Kane, the others are on their way.”

“Any ETA?” Cullen asked.

“Kane will report back in when he has one,” Max answered.