Sold into Slavery (3 page)

Now Leah scanned the signs along the storefronts, weaving her way past the crowds as she looked for the jewelry and gem shop the concierge at the hotel had recommended. Again she touched her throat, thinking perhaps she’d find a pretty new necklace for herself, and maybe some gifts for friends and family back home.

At first she’d been a little surprised the concierge had pushed the jewelry store so hard when she’d asked about clothing boutiques. She figured probably a family member owned it, which would explain why the guy had been so eager to show her the glossy color brochure featuring
the finest jewels and gemstones available at the most reasonable prices. “
Tell them Jao sent you, and I can guarantee you will get the best price. They’ll know you’re not just any tourist, but an experienced traveler, with a good eye for a bargain. Let me know when you’re going,” he’d said eagerly. “I’ll call ahead so they’ll be ready with the finest gems, the ones they keep in the back for their best customers.”

Armed with Jao’s directions and a promise from him that she’d find the jewels of her dreams, she finally spied the storefront with the neatly lettered sign in the window.
Glorious Gemstones and Jewels
was written in English, with Thai lettering beneath it.
She pushed opened the door, causing bells to tinkle as she entered the small shop.

It was a long, narrow room, the interior dark and cool compared to the muggy outside air. As her eyes adjusted to the dimness, she saw the place was filled with glass cases displaying all kinds of jewelry, from gaudy gold chains and cheap watches, to wedding band sets and ropes of pearls, to loose gemstones in vibrant reds, greens, blues and amber.

“May I help you?” A small Thai woman in a brightly colored silk dress stood behind one of the counters.

“I’m Leah Jacobs, a friend of Jao’s,” Leah offered, curious how this would be received.

“Ah, yes, I have been expecting you.” The woman smiled, bobbing her head in an eager nod. “I am delighted to make your acquaintance. Jao mentioned you are no mere tourist, but a woman of some culture and experience, a woman who knows the value of fine gemstones.”

While this was probably an exaggeration, Leah was pleased Jao had played her up like this. Hopefully it meant she’d get better treatment and be offered higher quality goods than the run-of-the-mill tourist. She smiled, saying casually, “I’m just looking.”

“Of course.” The woman nodded. “Our best quality items are in the back of the store. The selection out here is for the tourists.”

I knew it,
Leah thought triumphantly.

The woman came from around the counter. “I only show the quality jewels to the most discerning of customers. And of course, to friends of Jao.”

Leah pretended to hesitate, not wanting to be too obvious in her interest, but she definitely wanted to see the quality goods, and have a go at haggling down the price, no matter what was offered.

“All right,” she agreed. “Though as I said, I’m just looking at the moment.”

“Of course. I’ll just lock up the store for a few minutes so we can take our time and not be disturbed.” The woman moved toward the front door, sliding a bolt in place and turning the sign from
Open
to
Closed
.

Discomfited at first by the shopkeeper closing the store just for her, Leah supposed it made sense, since the shopkeeper couldn’t very well leave the displays unattended while she took Leah in back. She must be assuming Leah was a rich American with plenty of American dollars to spend. Leah would look, but she’d made no promises to buy.

The woman gestured toward an entrance that was hung with strings of bright glass beads in lieu of a proper door and moved in that direction. Leah followed her through the beads into a tiny room that contained a round wooden table with two chairs and a small kitchen area with a stove and half-size refrigerator.

“Please.” The woman gestured toward the table. “Have a seat, won’t you? I will give you some iced coffee. Then I will bring out the trays of our finest jewels for your personal inspection.”

“Thank you,” Leah said. She took a seat at the table as the woman moved toward the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, removing a large glass pitcher with what looked like dark coffee inside it, along with a small white bottle Leah assumed was cream. The woman took a glass from the cabinet and filled it with the dark coffee and cream, stirring it into a caramel swirl.

As she watched the woman prepare the coffee, Leah realized she was in fact parched, and a nice glass of strong, sweet Thai iced coffee sounded pretty darn good at that moment, even if she was just being buttered up so she’d make a purchase.

The glass was set before her, along with a dish of saltine crackers. “To your health,” the woman said. Leah picked up the glass and sipped. It was very sweet, too sweet, really, for Leah’s taste, but it was cold and wet, and she was thirsty, so she took a long, deep gulp.

Oddly, she felt thirstier than she had a moment before, and there was a metallic taste in the back of her throat. She lifted the glass again, taking another gulp of the thick, sweet liquid to wash it away.

The woman smiled, nodding approvingly. “I’ll bring the jewels. You drink that all up like a good girl.”

Leah set the glass down harder than she’d meant to, clunking it against the scarred wood of the table. Her head felt suddenly heavy, her eyelids drooping down as if lead weights were attached to them. The sounds of the traffic outside the shop were muffled and there was a strange whooshing sound in her ears, as if her head were suddenly inside a seashell.

Leah tried to lift her hand to her face, but only succeeded in knocking over the glass, spilling the remaining liquid onto the table. “Help me. Something is wrong,” she tried to say, but only managed a garbled, “Heh muh, sutha gah…”

The last thing she saw before her head hit the table was the shopkeeper, who reentered the room with two men holding coils of rope in their hands.

~*~

Leah awoke with a start, jerking violently out of a bad dream. She tried to push away the hair falling into her face, but found she couldn’t move. She was lying on her side in a dark, hot room. Her hands were bound behind her back and her ankles were secured as well. She realized she was naked.

“Oh my god,” she whispered, terror falling over her like a shroud. “What the hell happened? Where am I?”

She struggled to sit up, jerking hard at her restraints. She was bound with rope, thick and scratchy against her skin. Her head was pounding as she tried to lift it from the hard cot on which she lay.

“Help!” she cried out. “Someone help me!”

This couldn’t be happening. How had she gotten here? She tried to think. Her mind felt sluggish, as if suspended in gelatin.
Think… what happened?
She’d been at the jewelry shop. She’d had some iced coffee while waiting for the shopkeeper…

She’d been kidnapped!

That coffee had tasted strange, now that she thought about it, but she’d been thirsty. Damn it! She’d been drugged and then kidnapped. To what purpose? Were they going to contact her family and ask for ransom? They had her clothing—they must have her purse too, including her passport and her driver’s license.

How in god’s name had this happened to her? She was careful! She had an instinct for people. How had the shopkeeper slipped past her radar? She’d traveled the world several times over, and never had anything like this happened. Even when she’d been in China and had her backpack stolen along with her passport, she’d handled things and found her way out of trouble.

Don’t panic
.
Stay calm. You’ll figure a way out of this, too. You aren’t dead, so that’s the first thing. They want something from you. Find out what it is and negotiate. You’re Leah Jacobs. You can get out of this. You
will
get out of this.

She lay still for a long while, feeling the sweat trickling down her body as she counted slowly to one hundred, letting her mind clear. She did this several times until her heart had stopped thudding and her breathing had returned to something close to normal.

She decided to try again. “Hello?” she called, louder this time. “Is there someone there? Can you please untie me? Hello?”

The door opened, a slice of light momentarily blinding her. As Leah squinted against the light she saw two figures standing in the door. A bulb hanging from a string in the ceiling was flicked on, and as her eyes adjusted, she saw two men. One was tall with a darkly tan skin and thick, dark hair slicked back from his forehead. He wore a black tank top and black cargo pants tucked into army boots. The other man was much shorter, with straight black hair and Asian features. He wore a red T-shirt and jeans, flip flops on his feet. Both men looked to be in their mid to late twenties.

“You are American?” asked the Thai man in unaccented English.

“Please, what’s going on? Untie me. Give me my clothes.”

“You answer the question and only the question!” boomed the other man in what Leah recognized as a Russian accent. He took a step toward her, his hands clenched into fists, a scowl on his face.

“Y-yes,” Leah sputtered, frightened. “Yes, I’m American.” Thinking fast, she added, “My embassy knows I’m here in Pattaya. You’d better let me go right away or there’s going to be trouble.”

“Trouble?” The Thai man approached her with a leering grin. “You are the one in trouble, pretty lady. A nice American girl with
real
blond hair.” He stared at her crotch. “We’re going to sell you for a fortune.”

“Sell me?” Leah struggled harder against the rough rope around her wrists. “Let me go! Let me go!” Her voice rose in a panicked squeal.

All at once both men were on her. The Thai guy rolled her onto her back, crushing her arms painfully beneath her body while the Russian grabbed her by the throat and squeezed until her cries trailed off to a muted, terrified whimper.

“You shut up!” he growled. “You want I hit you? You belong to us now and there’s no damn thing you can do about it. You cost us lot of money, and you’re going to earn that back, understand?”

Leah stared at him, mute with terror. Slowly he loosened his grip on her throat, a small mean smile moving over his face. “Listen good, girly. You lucky. Because you American and you blond, there are men willing to pay a lot for your ass. We could just whore you out, but we have something better in mind for you.”

The Thai man nodded. “American girls need lots of training. You are not properly submissive like our women. Where we’re taking you, you’ll soon get rid of your stupid American ideas. You’ll learn what it is to submit, and to properly please a man, no matter
what
they want of you. You’ll learn, like the Thai girls, to do it all with a smile.”

“Please,” Leah finally managed to gasp. “This can’t be happening. Please let me go.”

Ignoring her, the Thai man pulled Leah back to her side and leaned over her, untying the knots at her ankles. “Please,” she tried again, “I can get you money, if that’s what you’re after. Lots of money. Just give me clothes and my things—”

She was stunned into silence by the Russian, who slapped her cheek with his open palm, catching her ear at the same time and making it ring.

“Another word and I beat you with my fists!” The Russian raised his beefy hands and glared at her, his mouth twisted in an ugly sneer.

“Better to be quiet,” the Thai man added, the smile on his face almost scarier than the other man’s overt anger. “Women should be seen and not heard. Now spread your legs like a good girl. I want to check out that cunt of yours.”

The Russian pressed hard against Leah’s shoulders, holding her still against the canvas cot while the Thai forced her thighs apart. Her bound hands beneath her body caused her pelvis to thrust forward, as if she were offering herself. Leah squeezed her eyes shut, fear making her pant as rough fingers pushed inside her.

“Her cunt is nice and tight. Leah felt a savage twist on her right nipple. The Thai man laughed harshly. “Great tits, and they’re real.” She felt the man’s finger rimming her asshole. “I’ll bet she’s never been fucked in the ass. Jao certainly steered us right on this one. It’s our lucky day, Boris, my friend.”

Boris’ heavy hands relaxed against her shoulders and Leah twisted suddenly, rolling herself from the cot onto the ground, her only thought to escape. Her actions were chemical, bypassing the brain, the fight-or-flight adrenaline kicking in. Using her head as a battering ram, she launched herself against the legs of the smaller man, who fell back with a startled cry.

Somehow she got herself to her feet and lurched toward the closed door, though she realized as she stumbled forward, hands still tied behind her back, that she had no idea how the hell she was going to get it open. As she reached the door, strong arms wrapped around her torso, pulling her back and lifting her off the ground.

Her breath was knocked from her body as she was slammed facedown against the hard cot. “Fucking little
suka
!” the Russian roared. Sitting beside her, he grabbed her legs, roughly retying the rope around her ankles.

The Thai laughed cruelly. “She’s a feisty one. What did I tell you? American girls are like wild animals. I don’t have the patience for them myself, but Khalil will take good care of her. He’ll pay top dollar, too. You know his fetish for blonds.”

Leah was gasping like a fish, still trying to draw the air back into her tortured lungs, when she felt herself being lifted. She was flung like a sack of laundry over the Russian’s large shoulder, her face against his muscular back. She could smell the acrid odor of his sweat, mingled with a heavy-scented aftershave.

They left the small room, entering a narrow alley. Though she had no idea if anyone would hear her, Leah began to scream. “Help me! I’m being kidnapped!”

She heard the pop of a car trunk and all at once she was dumped into the space, her shoulder making painful contact with the floor of the trunk. The lid slammed down over her, plunging her into darkness. Pulling futilely against the rope binding her wrists, Leah cried, “Let me out! Let me out!”

Car doors slammed and the engine started. Leah felt the car jerking forward, the tires squealing beneath her. As they moved along the streets, taking her who knew where, Leah tried desperately to slip her hands out of the rope cutting into her wrists. If only she could get herself free, she might find something in the trunk she could use as a weapon.