seating started.
He was looking at all the women huddled together as if he were shopping and trying to pick out the ripest fruit.
“You,” he said, pointing at Andrea, who was sitting on the floor in one of the rows.
She let out a quiet sob and shook her head.
“Get your ass up, now!” Luis ordered.
Ever so slowly, Andrea stood. Her head hung low and she stared at the floor.
“Well? What are you waiting for? Get over here!” Luis said with an evil smirk.
No one said a word. Gillian could hear Janet and the others crying, but no one stood up to the hijacker or came to Andrea’s aid.
Gillian’s mouth opened—she had no idea what she was going to say; it wasn’t as if she was going to volunteer herself—but it was too late. Luis had grabbed Andrea’s arm and was roughly towing her back down the aisle.
Luis pulled her into one of the exit rows, probably because it was wider and had more room. He shoved her to her knees in front of him. Gillian couldn’t see Andrea any longer, or what she was doing, but she could guess. All she could see was Luis from the chest up. Guilt surged that she was so grateful when the seats blocked her view.
Luis was looking down, and he still had that awful smirk on his face. As Gillian watched, Luis said something to Andrea, and she imagined him holding the other woman’s head in his hands as she undid his pants. He stood still for a minute or so—then he threw his head back, as if he was thoroughly enjoying what was happening.
Gillian could tell by his swaying movements that his hips were thrusting forward and back, faster and faster, and she could just imagine what poor Andrea was enduring. Carlos and Jesus were watching raptly from the back of the plane, and she realized Henry was stroking himself as he sat in the jump seat next to her.
Shivering and closing her eyes at last, Gillian couldn’t watch anymore.
Luis was horrible. Him and his buddies. As if this situation wasn’t bad enough, now they were forcing themselves on the hostages? Was she next? Or poor Janet? Alice? What about beautiful Camile? It was too much. Hadn’t they all endured enough?
A commotion made her eyes pop open, and she watched as Luis hauled Andrea back up the aisle. His pants were zipped but the button was still undone, and he had a satisfied look on his face. It made Gillian physically sick.
Andrea held a hand over her lips and refused to meet anyone’s eyes.
“If you all don’t behave and do exactly as you’re told, you’re next,” he said as he threw Andrea back into her spot on the floor. Then he motioned to Alberto and Isaac, and the three of them sauntered down the aisle to have a private conversation in the relative privacy of the middle of the plane, where he’d just forced himself on Andrea.
Henry said something under his breath in Spanish that made the others laugh, and Gillian was glad she couldn’t understand him. She had a feeling he’d said something derogatory about Andrea, or maybe about the women in general.
Gillian wanted to go to Andrea. Wanted to ask if she was all right. Reassure her that they’d get out of this alive, that they just had to be strong. But in her mind, the words just sounded hollow. She thought about how she’d feel if that had been her Luis had grabbed. She wouldn’t want to hear any platitudes from anyone.
Closing her eyes, Gillian tried to dredge up soothing thoughts about Walker once more, but found it was impossible. All her fears and worries were overwhelming her, and she couldn’t think about anything other than what Luis and his buddies might have in store for the rest of them.
Eventually, she did her best to get some rest, even if it was filled with nightmares.
It felt as if she’d only been asleep for seconds, but in reality, it had been hours when Gillian was painfully woken up with a kick to her side.
Crying out, she sat up immediately and flinched at the light shining in her eyes.
“Time for another call,” Luis told her brusquely. “We need to know when Hugo will be freed and when the plane will be refueled. They’re taking too long, and we’ve been sitting around waiting on them long enough. It’s currently one in the morning. They have until five a.m. to have this plane fueled