Safe

Four

         The day passed by quickly. Nike remained in the living room alternating between fear induced crying sessions and falling in and out of sleep while Stranger took phone calls in the other room, completely ignoring her.
That evening, when it had gotten dark out, a vehicle rumbled into the clearing and Stranger stomped past her on his way out.
He remained there for a few minutes and Nike was tempted to sneak over to the window and try to catch a glimpse of the visitor but she thought better of it. Her company had been in a foul mood all day and she was sure he wouldn't hesitate to beat her if she annoyed him so she stayed where she was.
He came back inside with a bag which he dropped in front of her with a thud.
"There's a change of clothes in there and something for you to eat." He said then disappeared again.
Nike watched the bag warily like she expected it to grow horns and wondered why they were feeding and clothing her. They were under no obligation to take care of her even if they weren't going to kill her and she wondered if her father's status had anything to do with their kindness towards her.
Anyway, she couldn't afford to wonder. She was hungry and miserable in her dirty clothes and she really wanted to be out of the Stranger's clothes so she looked into the bag and pulled out a black tank top and leggings.
There was also a black t shirt a few sizes bigger than her and a plate of rice in the bag. The food was from a very popular fast food place in town and Nike deduced that they weren't very far from the city since the food was still warm.
Glancing quickly behind her to make sure stranger had not popped up, she shimmied out of her jeans and pulled on the leggings then put on the clean shirt keeping her bra on beneath it. It was dirty too but washing it would mean going braless and she'd rather die than go half naked with a criminal.
After changing, she wolfed down the food and burped thankful that at least, she wasn't hungry anymore.
She still feared for her life and was suspicious that none of the men from the previous day had returned leaving her alone with the stranger. He seemed nice but Nike didn't know how someone who'd kidnapped her could qualify as nice. She wondered what her family were doing at that moment and she fought tears as she imagined them going crazy with fear as they searched for her.
Most people would pray in such situations but she wasn't exactly religious. She knew there was a God but she let him do his thing and she did hers. They didn't have to bother each other but at that time, Nike wondered if she should have bothered.
It didn't take long for her to fall asleep although she slept fitfully and woke every time something went bump in the night.
The next day, TJ, that was Stranger's name, gave her breakfast and promptly disappeared from sight. He didn't reappear until later that evening when he brought her some bread for dinner.
Night gave way to day and fully expecting it to be like all the others, she almost died of fright when very early the next morning, a group of men entered the house.
She spotted the one that had teased her with his gun the other day and almost dissolved into tears at the possibility that he would touch her again.
The four men moved some bags inside very quickly and Nike just sat in the chair in the corner praying they would ignore her and go away. She'd rather be stuck there with TJ, the devil she knew than any of the others.
Clearly, God or whoever was out there wasn't on her side because a few minutes later, a burly man stopped in front of her and she cowered even more.
"So this is the girl."
TJ nodded and whispered something to the man to which he grunted in response then he turned to her and barked out.
"Stand up!"
Nike flew out of her seat quickly, standing in front of him with her head bowed so she was looking at her feet instead of his face.
The man grunted and she flinched as he delivered a hard slap to her ass. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly fighting the urge to run, far away from there, anywhere else at all.
"I hope she isn't making any trouble." He said and she heard Tj say that she hadn't.
"Good! Behave yourself and you might just survive this."
Then he laughed and turned to walk away. The other men followed him out and soon the building was quiet again but Nike remained there frozen in place, tears leaking out of her tightly shut eyes.
Out of the blue, a pair of hands touched her and gently guided her to sit. Reawakened by the touch, she burst into tears sobbing into her elbow and hiccupping intermittently.
Struck by her response, TJ could only sit and chew his cheek while wishing she'd stop crying. He'd never been good with women and understanding them was something he'd never attempted.
Compassion wasn't an emotion commonly experienced in his line of work. It could get you killed, he knew that but looking at Nike sitting there, her long frame folded in on itself, he broke his own rule.
He remembered her eyes when she'd run into him at the mall, wide, franctic and shining with tears. Worst of all, he remembered her eyes when he'd handed her over to Ija, hurt like he'd taken something precious from her. It worried him afterwards that he'd interpreted that emotion as hurt. How could he when he didn't even know her?
She'd eventually stopped crying but stayed curled in the chair sniffling softly. He felt responsible for her pain, felt the need to say something. He'd never touch a woman like that but he knew no one cared to be decent in his gang.
They were all kinds of men and he knew that there was no justification for who they were or what they did but they did them anyway. Killers and thieves didn't care about personal boundaries and while he would never violate someone like that, he knew he wasn't a better man than any of them.
"Hey, don't cry anymore please."
She ignored him and kept her face buried in the chair still sniffling.
Holding back a sigh, he got up and went into the next room to bring her a bottle of water. The guys had brought supplies so there would be no movement between the safe house and the city. The police were sniffing around them and several other crime organizations. The last thing they needed was to leave traces, he didn't know how long they planned to keep her or if they would even kill her but he had to follow instructions whatever the outcome would be.
There was food, some cooking utensils and clothing for both of them. Whoever packed the bags had the sense to include feminine hygiene products and he wondered if it would be alright to give them to her with how upset she was at the moment.
She drank from the bottle he offered and muttered a gentle thank you.
"I'm sorry about him. You didn't deserve that."
She turned her head to glance at him.
"I don't deserve to be here either. Will you send me back home then?"
Her voice was quiet but strong and piercing. He obviously had nothing to say so he got up and left the room.