We again fell into an awkward silence. There was nothing more to say and I doubted Graham would say much. I could almost feel the tension now in the small space.
At least I was no longer hungry. Talking about my ex seemed to have that effect on me.
It wasn't until much later, after I thought Graham had fallen asleep, that I heard him whisper a promise. "I'm going to find him and kill him for what he did to you."
CHAPTER SEVEN
Graham
You know the movieGroundhog Day? That was my life right now. Each day I was pulled from our prison and taken to the same room where the same three men beat me. Never enough to break anything though. It made no sense.
"You can't keep this up." Once again Sarah was bringing the canteen of water to my busted and cracked lips.
"I'm fine. They have yet to break anything," I reassured her.
"Yet," she snapped. "They haveyetto break anything but what happens when they do, huh?" The longer she talked, the more hysterical she became. Normally I hated hysterical women, but in this case, it was warranted. Multiple days in a black hole with no interaction except for a man who barely spoke would be enough to crack any woman.
"I don't think they intend to …" I tried to reason.
Sarah sighed loudly. "And why not? Did they hit your head a little too hard that you're forgetting they take you daily to beat you? This isn't a one-time thing, you know."
I started to laugh and then forced myself to stop when a shooting pain shot through my rib cage.
Note to self: Laughing doesn't pair well with bruised ribs.
"They've been kind enough to avoid my head. Which is another reason I don't think they want to do more than rough me up."
"Well, that makes zero sense." Sarah sat down next to me as I sipped on the water. "And your rationale is flawed. Last time I checked, they gave you a fat lip," she said rather matter-of-factly.
"I said myhead. I said nothing about my face."
In the dark, my senses became heightened. I blamed that fact for the reason I was so attuned to Sarah's frustration rather than because we were forming a connection.
I knew I was lying to myself, but it felt necessary in order to keep distance between us.
I cleared my throat and continued to argue my point. "If they wanted to kill me, they would've broken something by now and let me die slowly. They have yet to ask me a single question or speak to me at all."
"Then why beat you up at all? Is it just some sick game to them?"
I wish I had the answer to that. But since I didn't, I kept my mouth shut.
Sarah however kept going. "I'm tempted to go up there and give them a piece of my mind. Ask them what the hell their problem is with us? Were we just some random target they were lucky enough to find bobbing in the ocean or were they specifically looking for us? Oh God," Sarah gasped. "Do you think they’re the reason our plane went down?"
I hadn't given it much thought but now I was. "I doubt even pirates could be lucky enough to crash a plane and know that we survived. It's more likely they were in the right area at the right time and took advantage of the situation."
I didn't really believe what I was saying but the other explanation was too far-fetched even for my own muddled brain.
"You're right. How could anyone know that there would be any survivors from a plane crash?"
"Exactly . . ."
Now that the seed was planted, my brain couldn't let go. Because of my line of work and from my time in the Army, I had plenty of enemies who would gladly see me dead. But enough for them to crash an entire plane for one man? There had to be easier ways to kill someone that didn't require so much loss of life.
And the pirates? How did they fit in? Dumb luck?
None of it made sense, but there was one thing I knew for sure; I couldn't take much more of this. I needed to find a way off this boat.
CHAPTER EIGHT
