The night wind hooted after her,
teasing at her hair as she raced past the fountain and down the meandering
drive to the road.
One could have safely stomped in
combat boots along the hallway just now.
The occupants of the office, locked in tight embrace, wouldn’t have
noticed, hadn’t even seen her stealing past the
doorway.
Outside the gate, she slowed to a
brisk walk. At the first bend in the
road, she heard a scuffling behind her.
She wouldn't stop, of course;
wouldn’t even look back. What was there
to say?
She looked back. No one was on the road, only shadows tossing
in the wind. Had one really expected to
see Alejandro in pursuit, sputtering indignant denials?
Ahead, the lights of the
plantation house beckoned through the trees.
Close now, the gate only a few yards distant.
The scuffling behind her on the road resumed,
approaching rapidly.
It was not Alejandro there on the
road. Only a stupid little urchin would have expected him to be
there. She broke into a run, opening her
mouth to scream out for Herminio.
Heavy, muscular arms stopped her
in her tracks.
She crumpled to the ground, to
make dead weight of herself, but the arms coiled around her, lifting her
effortlessly, carrying her into the black forest.
Silver showerings
from the moon revealed a flash of chrome on the concealed sedan that had been
there earlier. Light snapped on as the
rear door opened, giving her a brief glimpse of thick lips and a heavy brow
like a shelf overhanging the grotesque face.
She hit the seat inside with one
shoulder. The bong! was the cause of this, she thought,
cord snapping around her wrists, biting into the skin of her ankles. If not for the bong! she would not be here, shoved into
this car, trussed up like wild game.
Unbelievable how irresolute she
had been, there on the roof with Alejandro.
Aunt Sofia was right; one was a shameless hussy.
Such were the things she was
thinking, the cord knotted and her lower body capable only of the sort of
movement a fish might make on a dry pier.
"Be still; you won't be harmed."