Falling With Grace

A flicker of disbelief danced in his eyes, his lip curling on one side. “They would have made sure you were dead.”

“They did.” I grimaced. “I woke up as they were coming down the riverbank, and I rolled into the water and let it carry me away.”

“And that’s it?” He studied me with a whisper of skepticism.

I shook my head and swallowed, glancing between him and Javier. “They’d almost caught me when I was at the border, but Border Patrol got to me in time.”

“Tell me where he is.” Hestood and adjusted his pants down his thick thighs and cleared his throat. He rolled his shoulders back. “Where did you run from?”

“You’ll kill me.”And if he didn’t, Andrés would most definitely kill the rest of the people I left behind.

“I won’t.”

“I’m sorry.” I shook my head and sank away from the man who towered over me. “But I don’t trust you.”

“Fine.” He gave a curt nod with a side motion. “Just know I gave you a path to freedom, and you didn’t take it.” He snapped his fingers, and Javier took over the voided space between us. “Put her in the barrel.”

My gaze snapped up to the cross tattooed on Javier’s face as he snatched me up from the couch. “You should have told him what he wanted to know.”

Javier whisked me up the concrete steps towards the cock fighting ring.

“What’s the barrel?”

Javier chuckled, a low and rumbling vibration in his throat as he stopped beside a rust-covered barrel, the ground wet beside it, and the lid fixed with a metal grate over the top.

“Get in.”

“What?” I glanced inside the barrel. A small pool of liquid coated the bottom of the barrel. “What’s in there?” My stomach sank, and an acidic bile bit at the back of my throat.

Javier clenched his jaw, swiped his arm around my waist, and hoisted me into the air, fixing my feet over the entry of the barrel. “I said get in.”

“Wait. Wait.” My chin trembled, and my voice screeched like a mouse eaten alive by a cat. “Please. Don’tdothis. I just want to go home.”

He dropped me inside the barrel with a wet splash. The liquid seeped into my pants and between my toes as he pressed his hand down onto my head, forcing me into a seated position.”Tráeme la tapa.” Get the lid.

I dug my nails into his forearms, clawing my way down to his wrist as I squealed, my weak legs unable to push me to a standing position.

A lid blocked out the light above as Javier’s hand came away from my hair, and the lid took his place.

The small grate in the center of the barrel allowed oxygen to pass through and a narrow beam of light.

“Please. Javier. Don’t let him do this.” My fingers threaded through the grate as I pushed up on the lid, my strength no match for its secured position. The men laughed in the background.

“Don’t plead to me. Pray that God delivers a swift death.” A smile crept over his lips, and the cross tattoo near his eye crinkled.

I pulled out the rosary from my pocket and held onto it as though it could somehow deliver me from a cruel death, but it hadn’t stopped Jorge from dying.

Tucking it back in my pocket, a sob bouncedoff my metal enclosure, my impending fate looming like an inescapable shadow.

Ice-cold liquid splashed over my face as it sprayed in from the small pipe in the barrel, soaking every bit of my clothing. My teeth chattered as I slammed my hand over the hole, staunching the powerful water to a splattering spray.

“Stop. Please.”

My muscles trembled as the pressure pushed against my hands. The water level rose to my bent knees, and the rapid breath in my lungs pinched my broken rib.

The men’s laughter penetrated the thick metal as my arm shook and fell away from the hole. Tipping my head to the side, I avoided a direct spray to the face.

“Please.Javier. Please.”