Killing Sarai

9

And just like that he leaves the restroom and shuts the door behind him.

Frozen in shock, it takes me a moment to get my head together. I gaze down at my unbound feet and I wonder why he did it. Why keep my hands bound but allow me the use of my legs again so that I can run away? It doesn't matter. I need to free my hands, too. I bite down on the tight knots again, working at them furiously but only getting frustrated. I barely lift my head from the tub to get a better view of the restroom, looking for anything that might work as a knife or scissors so I can try cutting it away instead. Nothing. Just a bone-dry deep plastic industrial-type sink with paint, oil and dirt stains and a disgusting toilet with no lid.

The door opens to the motel room and I hear voices inside.

"Where is she?"

Oh no...that's Izel's voice!

My heart speeds up so fast I feel lightheaded as the blood rushes quickly to my head. I bite down on the fabric even harder, twisting the impossible knots with my teeth until it hurts.

"Javier wonders why you didn't just bring her back yourself," Izel adds with her trademark sultry, sarcastic tone.

There are more voices, male, speaking Spanish among themselves while Izel talks only to the American. Their voices are muffled. I can't make out what they're saying.

"Have a seat," the American says calmly.

"We didn't come here to visit," Izel refuses. "Give me Sarai...or-." I can picture her walking toward the American like the slithering snake she is. "Or, you and I can be alone together for a while first. I would like that."

Her voice stops abruptly and her seductive tone disappears in an instant. "Fine! Fine! Fucking puto. You'd rather shoot me than f**k me?"

"Yes. I would rather," the American answers.

"Bring her out here," Izel demands, her voice laced with contempt.

"Sit first," the American says.

Suddenly I hear guns cocking and instinctively I lower my body back into the tub as flat as I can make myself. I'm beginning to understand why he forced me in here like this.

"There are five of us and one of you," Izel says venomously.

Then a shot rings out and I stiffen against the hard plastic beneath me. More shots. Bullets pepper the walls; two move straight through the wall into the restroom where I lay huddled. I hear glass shatter and what sounds like bodies stampeding through the room beyond me. More shots ring out and Izel screams curses over the chaos. The walls shake all around me, knocking thick layers of dust from the exposed light bulb hanging from the water damaged ceiling above. I hear a loud crunch and then the sound of the large window in the room shattering as if someone or something was just pushed through it.

Everything goes silent. All that I can hear now is my heart beating so fast and violently. I'm so scared I can't even manage tears anymore and my body has stopped shaking. I'm paralyzed with fear.

The acrid smell of gun smoke lingers in the air.

Is the American dead? It's all I can think about. Maybe they're all dead and I can get out of here alive.

I go to climb my way out of the tub but then I hear Izel:

"Fuck you. I won't tell you shit!"

There is a brief bout of silence and then I hear the American say calmly, "You've already told me most of what I need to know."

"How is that?"

"If Javier wanted me alive to kill Guzmán your men never would have drawn on me."

"He did want you to kill him."

"So then your men are simply stupid."

Izel says nothing in response, but I can picture the expression she wears: sour mixed with evil.

Quietly, I crawl out of the tub, careful not to make any abrupt movements and I reach out for the door handle. It comes open the second my fingers touch it as though it hadn't been shut all the way before, though I know that it had. It must've been jarred loose when I heard someone bash against it during the fight.