Page 100 of Hart of Darkness
31
Maggie
Cory shoved me into an empty cage. “Bitch.”
I fell hard on my knees, barely catching myself with my hands before my head went through the other side of the cage. Loose pebbles sank into the palms of my hands, and excruciating pain gripped my thigh where Miguel had shot me. As hard as it was to suppress any sign that I was in agony, I schooled my features as best I could then raised myself to a sitting position and rested my back against the hard steel of the cage.
Cory slammed the door before wiping the blood that was running down his chin and neck. I should’ve flinched at being confined to a small space, but with my tan pants absorbing the blood oozing out of my leg, I didn’t have the energy to move. Shock was setting in and so was the nausea.
I covered my leg with my hand. I would’ve used my shirt to forge a makeshift bandage, but Cory had ripped that off me. And I didn’t have the oomph to tear off a portion of my pants. So there I was, locked in a steel trap. My only hope of survival was Dillon, and while I knew he would do whatever he could to rescue me, I couldn’t see him handing over Grace. Apart from that, sunrise was hours away. Miguel had delivered the meeting time to Cory when he’d hung up from talking with Dillon.
The women in the other cages spat at Cory as he hurried by them. Then Miguel and his men left the building.
“Maggie,” the girl next to me said.
Slowly, I turned my head, and even that was a monumental feat.
“Hey, it’s Misty. Remember me? I’m your source on the street.”
Her petite form came in and out of focus.
“You need to tie your leg with something to stop the blood,” she said. “Did you hear me? Maggie, you can’t fall asleep. You need to stop the bleeding.”
I knew that name, but my efforts to do anything other than keep my eyes open were becoming difficult by the minute.
“Come closer. Can you do that?” she asked, her voice becoming white noise. “Please.”
Something hard hit me in the head, and I opened my eyes.
“I’ll throw another rock at you if you don’t come closer to me,” she said as if she were my mother.
Oh no, my mom!I wouldn’t get to meet her after all. Tears started to run down my face. I wouldn’t get to go out on a date with Dillon. I wouldn’t get to feel what it was like to be kissed by him.
“Maggie,” Misty shouted at the top of her lungs.
I woke up.
“Get your ass over here,” she ordered.
I obeyed for the mere reason that I wanted her to be quiet. I used my hands and butt to navigate the short distance to her side of the cage. Once I made it, I almost passed out.
She tore her tank top off, exposing her pretty pink bra, and I noticed bruises along her arms. “Good girl.”
“How did you get here?”Please don’t say because of me or because you talked to me.
“One of Miguel’s men saw me talking to you a few weeks ago.”
More tears spilled out. “I’m so sorry.” God, I was getting women killed. I groaned more than cried. The pain was to the point that I seriously felt as though I were going to pass out. I felt as if someone had taken a hot fireplace poker and rammed it into my leg.
Shivers racked my body.
Misty flipped her oily auburn hair away from her freckled face. “It’s not your fault. Working the streets as a call girl comes with risks.” She ripped her tank top before shoving the piece of fabric through the small mesh hole. “Tie this around your leg. It should slow the bleeding.”
“She needs to get to a hospital,” a girl said from one of the other cages. “She’s not going to make it. She’s lost a lot of blood.”
That girl was right. I was fading fast. In between blinks and some blurriness, I could make out the four-sided steel cage that looked exactly like one that Ted used at the precinct to hold perps who hadn’t been processed yet. I knew there was no way out. Cages were tamper-proof from the inside.
Misty rubbed a hand up her bruised arm. “Use the shirt, Maggie. You’re losing a lot of blood. The bullet might’ve damaged your main artery.”
