I needed to find out more information. Try to figure out where I was. How far from civilization. I heard no noise, and trying to look through the window slats had proven useless earlier. The room smelled musty and old, like it hadn’t been used in a while. The mattress and pillow—I didn’t want to think about what those smelled like. But if I went close to the window, in addition to the freezing-cold draft, I could smell pine. We were in the woods somewhere. Question was, where and how far from civilization?

Death. He’d whipped me so easily. Hadn’t even had to hold me down to do it, although he had had to adjust my position a few times. I’d have to figure out how to not swallow the pills next time. I couldn’t be so out of control again. I needed to find an opportunity to run. But what if when I got that chance, it turned out there were more men out there? What if he wasn’t alone? What if I did manage to get past Death and got out there, only to find a second man? Or third. Victor had so many at his disposal.

But did Death work for Victor? I guessed he’d have to. Victor would have to be making money off this auction. Was he doing this to me to keep his promise to Mateo? How cruelly he kept his word. How easily he twisted it.

Mateo had begged him for my life.

He’d been on his knees when they’d brought me in. He’d been beaten and bloodied, bound and kneeling in the middle of that horrible room with the scent of fresh blood, of death, overwhelming every other sense. When he’d seen me, God, his eyes when he’d seen me. The shock. The horror. Like everything they’d done to him up until that point was moot. Like me seeing him like that, Mateo, my older brother, my hero, the one who always took care of me, who saved me every time, me being there to see him on his knees had broken him in a way they hadn’t been able to break him before.

He’d begged them, then. I knew he hadn’t begged before. Victor said so.

Victor.

Victor had looked so smug upon hearing my brother beg.

I would kill Victor with my bare hands. I would do to him what he’d done to my Mateo.

I wiped hot tears from my face and steeled myself. But remembering…remembering what he’d made Mateo do to promise to keep me alive. What he’d made me watch.

I leaped off the bed and ran into the bathroom, making it to the toilet just in time as that granola bar made its way back up. I’d had nothing to eat in so long. I didn’t even know how long.