The Wolf Code

Chapter 12

Her head was pounding when she woke up in the darkness and tried to roll over.  She reached up to touch her head, but her hands wouldn’t move, and her wrists screamed in agony as the fog cleared and her memory returned.

Kidnapped! Hannah thought suddenly, the fear slamming into her full force.  The Sheriff had picked her up and brought her here.  But why?  What was she doing here, in the middle of nowhere on the floor of some old barn?

She moved her hands again, slowly this time.  She could feel the ropes that bound her, their rough, frayed strands cutting into her delicate skin and making her itch.  The knots were crude, and as Hannah moved around, she could feel them slacken depending on where she held her hands. 

A door opened on the other end of the barn, and the click of boot heels on the bare cement floor echoed in the rafters.  Quietly but as quickly as she could, Hannah rolled back onto her stomach and buried her face into the sweet stench of the fresh straw beneath her.  Her nose twitched, but she looked up and found that the silly trick her daddy had taught her to avoid sneezing actually worked. 

Struggling with terror as the man got closer to her, she forced herself to go limp and ignore the muscles in her arms that protested at having her weight on them again as they tingled painfully. 

“I see you there,” a voice called out into the horse stall that Hannah was locked in.

There was a loud rap on the metal bars that made up the top half of the door, but Hannah somehow managed not to jump at the sudden sound.  Still forcing herself to relax, she focused on her breathing.

In and out.

In and out.

There was a laugh behind her, and Hannah was certain that the man on the other side of the doorway was the Sheriff.  She bit back the anger and held her ground, refusing to let him bait her into moving and revealing that she was indeed awake.

“You’re such a little thing; I think they gave you too much juice.  That’s going to make your video spot impossible to make right now, but maybe that’s a good thing.  The customers go into a frenzy when they have to wait for new product.”

There was a flash and a click as the Sheriff took a picture with his cell phone, then silence as he stood, watching her for a few minutes.  Her skin crawled at the feel of his gaze on her bare shoulders, but she wasn’t going to move.  She wouldn’t be making a video, and she wasn’t about to be sold to anyone.  She wasn’t going to go down easy, and she would rather die fighting than let them make her into someone’s maid or worse. 

News stories and cautionary tales flooded through her mind, but she pushed them away.  She wasn’t going to panic, wasn’t going to call this what it was.  She knew she was a victim of human trafficking, but she didn’t want to dwell on that.  She had to keep the fear under control or she would react instead of acting logically, and she would end up right back where she was.  If she was going to get away, she had to be smart.

She was starting to think that the Sheriff had already tiptoed away when she finally heard the first steps of him leaving.  She heard a second set of footfalls, and when the two men spoke, they were several yards away.

“She’s still out,” the Sheriff said.  “Your men gave her too much, and now, I can’t video her until morning.  Hopefully, you didn’t kill her.”

“Was she breathing?” a nervous man asked.

“Shallow, but yes.  I’m sure she’s fine, but your guys have to get a handle on their dosage.  They killed the last girl, and I can’t afford to lose another one.”

“To be fair, Boss, the other one was almost ten years older than this one and fought like a hell cat.  We didn’t mean-”

“I don’t care what you meant to do.  The fact is, you killed my catch, and next time, I won’t be so forgiving about that.  This one better live or I’m going to have to answer for your stupidity.  It’s almost midnight.  She should be wide awake by now and futilely yelling for help.  Instead, she’s dead to the world and laying there like a ragdoll.  She’d better be awake in a couple hours.  I have to post her by four in the morning so the early morning sickos can get first dibs on her.  That will drive the price way up.  So, please.  Do your damn job and get your men under control.”

The man muttered something unintelligible, but Hannah could hear the regret in his voice.  Hannah wondered who they’d killed, but between her schooling and her job, she hadn’t had much time to read the news. 

The men were still talking, and then their voices faded and the heavy barn doors slammed shut with a deafening boom that echoed off the rafters.  The room was plunged into darkness, and only the light from the small, square window cut out in the back of the stall illuminated the small space.

Midnight?  How could it be midnight already?  She’d slept forever, and now, she only had four hours until the Sheriff was going to come back.  Scratch that; it would be under four hours because he was going to upload the video in four hours. 

That didn’t leave her much time.

Cautiously, Hannah moved her legs, noting the rope tied around them as well and closing her eyes in despair.  She was tied up so tight, and even though the ropes around her wrists gave a little, they were far from falling off.

 She rolled onto her side, her movements gentle and deliberate.  When the rope had the most slack on her wrists, she stopped, holding her awkward position with her foot and breathing through the pain.  She was sore, and her body was trembling from the after effects of the Taser and whatever drugs they’d injected her with.  She was fighting to hold the position she was in, but she pushed the pain away and focused on her wrists in the pale moonlight.