Chapter 71 Facing Him
Elsie
None of us stopped when ordered. I pushed forward even though my legs were shaking and our breathing was out of control. I can’t get caught. They will burn me alive because I killed one of them. And I can’t afford to be sold off like some cheap goods.
But the gunshot that followed was so loud that it filled the whole forest. The sound rolled between the trees and forced all of us to freeze where we stood.
“Stop or I’ll shoot again!” the voice warned. “Hands in the air! All of you!”
Slowly, one after the other, we lifted our hands. My arms felt heavy, but fear kept them up.
“Turn around,” another man barked. “Turn around slowly. Do not run. Do not try anything.”
We turned carefully, facing the flashlights and the shadows behind them. The men stepped closer, their boots loud on the dry ground.
“Move,” the first one commanded. “Start walking back to the road. Don’t look around. Don’t try to talk to each other. Do not even think of escaping or I’ll shoot.”
Eventually, one by one, we were forced back toward the road, trembling, breathing hard, and raising our hands in the air because that was the only thing the men demanded from us. They lined all of us up with guns pointed at us, telling us not to try anything. The girls stood around me, crying softly or biting their lips to stop themselves from shaking too much. We were dirty, tired, and terrified.
I saw Mariana standing a little to my right. She kept glaring at the men, refusing to let them see how scared she was, but her hands were still lifted like the rest of us. I noticed that her breathing was unsteady. She was angry, but she was also afraid, and it made me feel protective even when she had spent the whole day trying to pick fights with me.
Before I could gather my thoughts, I heard the sound of a car approaching. The headlights swept across all of us, bright enough that the girls raised their shoulders in fear. The car slowed, then came to a stop in front of everything happening.
My heart dropped the moment I recognized whose car it was.
Caleb stepped out with a calm confidence that made my stomach twist. He looked around for a second before his eyes settled on me. The men lowered their guns slightly when they saw him, and one of them nodded his head with respect.
Caleb pointed straight at me.
“I will take care of this one,” he said in a firm voice, like he was picking something that already belonged to him.
The man closest to him nodded immediately. “Okay, boss.”
That word — boss — hit me like a punch in the chest. Everything I thought I knew about Caleb fell apart at once. The gentle man, the man I trusted, the man I allowed into my heart… he wasn’t who I thought he was. Somehow I kept hoping the boys weren’t involved but I was wrong. He was one of them. Maybe worse.
The girls turned their eyes toward me, and the betrayal I saw in their faces crushed me. They looked at me like everything happening was my fault. Like I had known Caleb was with these people. Like I had walked them straight into a trap. Their expressions were full of fear and doubt.
Mariana’s eyes cut through me like a blade. She stared at me with disbelief and anger mixed, her breath trembling. She did not say a single word, but that stare spoke louder than anything.
“I’m not going with you,” I said to Caleb. My voice was shaking, but I stood firm. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Caleb did not answer. He simply walked forward with a cold expression, as if my refusal meant nothing. When he reached me, I stepped back, but he grabbed my wrist with a grip that made my whole arm tighten. I twisted, pulled, kicked — anything to break free — but he held me firmly and dragged me toward his car.
“Let me go!” I cried. “Caleb, let me go! Please!”
He did not stop. He did not slow down. His jaw was tight, his eyes hard, and he just kept pulling me as he had already made up his mind.
The girls watched me struggle. Some cried harder. Some looked away. Mariana’s hurt expression stayed locked on me, and guilt tore through my chest like claws. I kept thinking that maybe, without meaning to, I had led them straight to danger. Maybe that was why they looked at me as though I had betrayed them.
Caleb pulled me closer to his car, but before he could force me inside, everything changed in a second.
Mariana suddenly broke away from the men holding her. She ripped her arm free and sprinted across the road as fast as she could.
She didn’t get far.
A gunshot rang out sharply.
Mariana fell instantly.
My whole body froze before the scream tore out of me.
“No! No! God, no! Mariana!”
I tried to run toward her, but Caleb wrapped his arm around my waist and yanked me back with so much force that it felt like my body was going to split in half.
I kicked, fought, and screamed until my throat hurt, but he didn’t let go. He dragged me the rest of the way to the car, shoved me inside, and slammed the door shut before I could escape.
The last thing I saw was Mariana lying on the road, the girls crying and reaching for her, and the men pushing them back toward the van.
And then the car sped off with me trapped inside.