Defending Bridget - P.J. Fiala Page 0,27

right hand out to formally introduce himself. "Axel Dunbar."

She stared at him so long he felt uncomfortable. He raised his left eyebrow, something he often did when inquiring or questioning and she quickly shook her head as if shaking her thoughts away and took his hand in a firm handshake.

"Vivian Barnes."

Josh then held his hand out. "Josh Masters."

Vivian shook his hand, too, then looked at Axel once again.

"Grandma is that Momma?"

19

The van turned a sharp corner and Bridget hit her head on the side wall. The road became terribly bumpy and the women found themselves tossed around. The rope bit into her right wrist and when they were bumped and thrown around the searing pain jolted up her arm. Trying to be quiet so the men in the front didn't hear them talking, she tried not crying out but instead grunted under her breath and vowed even harder to escape.

Reaching up with her left hand to try and untie the rope that held her to a hook in the side of one of the reinforcement walls on the van. She struggled and dug with her fingernails to loosen the rope but had no luck. The van came to a stop and she quickly looked over at Jennie Lee and Sydney.

Taking a deep breath when she saw Sydney close her eyes, Bridget prepared herself for what would come next. Whatever that was.

"Listen. Pay attention to everything without looking like you are. Anything you can notice. Sounds. Smells. Everything."

Jennie Lee responded. "Okay."

Sydney nodded but said nothing. She looked like she was about to cry again, so likely saying anything would begin the waterworks, and now more than ever, she needed to be able to pay attention.

The sounds of the doors closing caused her breath to hitch and she took another deep breath and let it out slowly.

The backdoors opened and two men wearing masks jumped into the van, one of them walked to her and grabbed the rope that held her roughly and pulled a large knife from his back, then sliced the rope from the van, leaving the part tied to her intact. The dried blood on her wrist opened when he jerked her arm to pull her from the van, but she ground her teeth together and didn't say a word or cry out. She decided to play the meek captive to keep from getting her lights punched out so she could pay attention and plan.

She heard Sydney softly crying behind her and hoped she could pull herself together to help them figure things out.

Bridget was jerked from the van by her arm and hair then roughly dragged along to inside a cabin. Two steps up into the porch on the cabin and what looked like an area littered with garbage and dirty buckets held yard working implements.

It was a couple steps through this room and through another door to enter the cabin. It wasn't as filthy as the porch area and for some odd reason she was grateful for that. She was roughly pushed onto a vinyl kitchen chair. There was a table sitting a few inches from her. Her left arm was pulled behind the chair and tied to the back of the chair with another rough rope which now bit into her left wrist. Jennie Lee was brought in next and treated much the same way. Her longer, brown hair had become disheveled and the ponytail she'd worn yesterday was askew but not completely undone. Some of her hair hung over her face and she kept her eyes averted to the table. Likely best they didn't look at each other.

The two men said something to each other in Ukrainian, something she recognized from her Army days. But she didn't understand the words, just the dialect. One then left while the other started rummaging in a cooler on the floor to her right.

Turning, he started tossing meal bars on the table along with bottles of water. So, this was to be their meals. It was a good sign that they were being fed but that also likely meant they were to be kept healthy to sell, that thought hit her hard in the stomach. She'd likely end up dead because there was no fucking way she was going to live as a sex slave the rest of her life. But she'd do her best to get away and maybe that meant die trying.

Soon Sydney was brought in and seated in another chair, tied and shoved to the table.