Page 62 of Fearless
Noelle ended up picking out a hand-painted sunflower wall hanging and I got Tess a candle that smelled like roses. I couldn’t read the foreign writing on the label, but the candle had a picture of a motorcycle on the tin, which seemed fitting.
We stuffed our faces with street food and meandered for hours. The market seemed to stretch on forever! I still hadn’t found much clothing in my style, so while Noelle paused to look at garden statues, I moved on to a shop with lots of pretty fabrics billowing nearby.
The garments were lightweight and decorated in every color and pattern imaginable. A few mannequins showed their versatility—wrapped around the body to make a halter dress, a long skirt, or around the head for a scarf. It seemed like a great solution to keep the sand out of my hair while riding.
I flipped through the selections on the table when a tiny, elderly woman emerged from under her canopy and gave me a wide, toothless smile.
“Ohh, you!” She pointed at me. “So beautiful! You must try on, yes? Please try!”
I smiled back, taking note of her broken English and heavy accent. “Español?” I was still rusty at the language, but Jandro had recently started teaching me more. Might as well practice it out in the wild.
“Oh no.” The woman waved her hands and shook her head. “No, no, no. Is okay! Please just try!” She snatched the length of fabric I was holding with surprising strength and moved behind me, holding it out as if to put it around my shoulders.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that.” I turned around and held out my hand to take it back from her. “But thank you.”
Undeterred, she waved the fabric at me. “You try on! So beautiful! I give you so cheap! Please!”
Deciding to humor her, I relented, turning around and lowering to her level so she could put the scarf on me. Rather than putting it over my shoulders like I thought she would, she proceeded to tug at my jacket collar.
“Take off. You must try on.”
“Hey, hey, take it easy!” The jacket slid to my elbows with how insistently she tugged at it. I was already thoroughly turned off from buying anything from her, but didn’t want to cause a scene in a crowded market. I’d try on the scarf, take it off, and politely tell her I wasn’t interested.
I allowed her to peel the jacket from my arms, intending to hold it or tie it around my waist, but she suddenly turned and ran behind her stall with it.
“Hey, what the fuck!” I took off after her, mad as hell. “Give that back, you fucking thief!” I pushed fabrics out of the way, chasing her at full speed and crashed into a wall.
No, not a wall. Just a very solidly-built man. Tree-trunk sized arms came around me, crushing me against an unyielding chest.
“She the one?” A gruff voice above me asked.
Someone else lifted the back of my shirt, prompting me to kick and flail with all my strength, which wasn’t much against the man restraining me.
“Don’t touch me!” I shrieked. “Ugh, let me go!”
A bony hand grabbed my face and turned my head cruelly to look at one of my captors. His face was dark and lined with years of harsh sun exposure. I saw myself frozen with fear in his harsh, dark eyes. Who were these men? And what did they want with me?
“You got any club ink?” the face-grabber asked me. “Think carefully. I got no problem stripping you down and finding out myself.”
I knew he wasn’t lying. If he would just get out of my face so I could see one of my men…
“N-no,” I answered. “But I had a property jacket. I’m with the Steel Demons and you assholes aresofucked!”
Both of them chuckled at my false bravado. “I don’t see any jacket. Nor any of them pussy Demon fuckwads anywhere.”
“They’re here!” I insisted at the top of my lungs, though my voice barely carried over the hustle and bustle of the market. “And when they find out I’m missing, you’re in for a world of hurt.”
“How about you shut up and let that cunt do the talking?” He grabbed between my legs and I felt the first real jolt of terror wrack my body. These men were probably looking for unclaimed women at the market to sell. What did they give that old lady so she could take my jacket away?
Thankfully the chaps over my jeans provided an extra barrier between me and his groping hand. Still, my stomach roiled and tears sprang to my eyes. No, this couldn’t be happening. After all this time wandering alone, then finding love and safety in the last place I expected it, and this was it? Meeting my end by getting tricked in a marketplace? Because I would rather die than endure what these men would put me through.
“Get her on the truck.” The groper finally pulled his hand away from my crotch and wrapped it around my throat. “If you keep quiet, I won’t hafta cut your tongue out. You understand?”
I gave a shaky nod with my head and allowed myself to be dragged away.
Twenty-Five
GUNNER
