Haunted

CHAPTER 35

LUIS DISAPPEARS INTO THE SHACK, FOLLOWED BY his toadies. I want to rush in, kill the guards, make Luis talk. But I’ll wait for Culebra to try it his way. Maybe he’s right and the guards will let something slip. They don’t expect Culebra to live long enough to pass anything he hears on to anyone else. And they sure as hell don’t know he has telepathic abilities. They may speak freely among themselves.

In the meantime, this may be my chance to get to the girls.

I leave my hiding place and make my way to the shack where Ramon went to see Luis. There is no guard outside. It surprises me and makes me wary. I look toward the shacks surrounding Luis’. But no heads appear in the windows, no observers in the doorways, no rifles peeking over the tops of the thatched roofs. The shack appears to be completely unprotected.

There’s only one way to approach the shack and that’s from the front. It doesn’t make sense that they would leave the four girls by themselves. There must be a guard inside.

I pick up a rock and send it skittering through the doorway. Then a second. I’m still shielded by a wall of dense brush so I hunker down to see if the rocks will draw someone out.

Nothing happens.

No one comes to investigate. No shouts from within. Nothing.

Glancing around once more to be sure I’m not being observed, I sprint with vampire speed to the doorway and disappear inside. I flatten myself against the wall and wait to listen for the sounds that would signify life inside the shack.

It’s dark and close and smells of unwashed male and sex. The door opens to one room with another just off the back. I detect only the dull thudding of four heartbeats from that room. They left the girls alone.

Should make this easy.

I call out softly as I make my way into the room where the girls are. There’s no answer. Once I push back the blanket hung over the door, I see why.

The four girls are lying diagonally across the bed. Their hands and feet are tied, their mouths gagged. When I approach, I smell the harsh pungency of chloroform.

No wonder they weren’t worried about leaving the girls unguarded.

They’re unconscious.