The brunet boy leaned into the window of Gomez's crap car. The blond one held me back as I desperately tried to get back to them. Gomez and Luther may have kidnapped me, but I knew that Luther had no intent of killing me. And Gomez certainly had no intent of doing any harm to me, and would stop Luther from doing any to me as well. But with these boys, I knew that they had no thought of ever returning me home, as I desperately hoped Gomez had, and no one was there to protect me.

All of a sudden, I heard a piercing gunshot. To my horror, I looked up to see that Luther was clutching his shoulder. I only caught a glimpse of him before I let out a blood curdling scream and Gomez thrust the car in reverse and zoomed off, the dust from the wheels choking me.

"Com'mon, sweat heart," the blond said, pushing me into the house. "Let's have some fun."

My heart pounded into my chest. I had a strange feeling in my heart. At that moment, I longed for Luther. Why? Was it because he was shot? That he loved me and would protect me from everyone? Well, with the exception of himself. It confused me.

The brunet began walking towards us.

"What's your name, babe?" he asked me, reaching a hand out and gripping my chin with it, forcing my head up.

"Why should I tell you?" I asked through gritted teeth.

He shrugged as the blond behind me chuckled to himself. He positioned his tongue to stick out in the side of his cheek with his lips parted open as he stared down at me with his big, brown eyes. "Because I said so, missy."

"Tell me yours and I'll tell you mine."

The brunet pretended to be offended as the blond chuckled again.

"Fine, princess. You're strong, I like you." I lifted a brow nonchalantly. "But your courage ain't gonna last long in here." He took a step back. "I'm R.J. He's Sean."

I looked down, not realizing that they were going to comply and f-up my plans. "I'm Ava..." I whispered weakly.

"Ava?" R.J. asked. I nodded. "You're name is going to be the Ava Wave, got it?"

I crinkled my brows. "The...Ava Wave?"

"Yeah, cuz you got wavy hair." I rolled my eyes. "But we're going to have to do something about that attitude."

"What do you want with me?"

The boys exchanged a sinister glance. "That's our business," Sean said.

I curled up my eyebrows and looked around as they shoved me into a chair.

"Stay here," R.J. demanded, tying my wrists and ankles to the armrests and legs of the chair.

"Do I have a choice...?" I muttered.

R.J. suddenly lost his temper. He whipped out the gun and put it next to my head and leaned in real close to my face. I let out a gasp, but he clasped his hand over my mouth.

"Listen, Ava Wave, you'd better shape up that attitude of yours, or you'll get something way worse than what's already coming to you. Got it?" I closed my eyes and quickly nodded my head. "Good."

He released me and began walking out of the room with Sean.

I looked around the room that I was in. It was dark and smelled like it hadn't been cleaned since...ever. I crinkled my nose as I tried to breath in through my mouth, which only resulted in drying out my throat and chapping my lips, which was not something that I wanted.

Why had Gomez left? And who was Taco? I almost chuckled to myself when I thought of the name. Taco? Well, he must just not want anybody to know his real name, kind of like Gomez. Was there some sort of connection?

No... I thought. No way. There are plenty of people that don't want to reveal their real identities.

A few minutes later, the boys returned along with a man with a Latino look. Mexican, was my guess. Taco...

"This is her, boss," Sean said.

"The Ava Wave," R.J. introduced with a dramatic wave of his hands while bending his torso back slightly. I rolled my eyes. He cast me a glare of warning.

The man, whom I assumed was Taco, had one arm across his chest and the other resting on it as his hand caressed his chin. I stared at him incredulously as I lifted a brow, not knowing what to expect.

"Tell me, señorita Ava," he began in an accent, clearly Mexican. "What is your pain tolerance?"

"P-pain tolerance?" I asked in a shaky voice, suddenly loosing my tough act. That wasn't who I was. I was the shy, quite girl, enduring silent torture from a psychotic serial killer by the name of Luther. "Wh-what...sort of pain?"

He shrugged nonchalantly as he lifted his brows. "All sorts."

I gulped. What is this? A job interview?

Realization suddenly hit me like an extraterrestrial space craft. My eyes widened as my mouth gaped open.

"You're going to sell me, aren't you?"

Taco turned his head towards R.J. and Sean. "She's intelligent too," he remarked softly to them. They nodded.

"I'm not and idiot, Ava Wave." He leaned towards me and rested his hands on his bent knees. I almost coughed as he breathed, for cigarette smoke lingering on his breath.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "What have I said to make you say that?"

"Tell me, what is your real name?"

"Ava," I responded.

"More..." he prompted.

This guy was creepy, and yet at the same time, I felt almost comforted by him. He reminded me of Gomez, however he was considerably older than the Brazilian was.

"Ava Lane."

I immediately cringed. Why had I told him that?

He lifted a brow. "Lane. Ava Lane. The police are looking for you."

I let out an over exaggerated huff. "They'd better!"

Taco lightly rolled his eyes as he walked slowly away from me.

"I don't think that I can have you being trafficked while there is such a fuss being made over your recovery."

"Or...you could just not traffic me at all."

He scoffed at me. "You white people are so problematic, you know that?"

R.J. and Sean began laughing, until Taco cast them a glance. "Why are you two idiots laughing? You are white too, you know."

Immediately, they ceased their laughter and straightened themselves out again. Taco turned his gaze back to me.

"Well, if I'm not going to traffic you, then what am I supposed to do? Let you go?"

I shrugged. "That would be preferable," I said optimistically.

"Trust me, chica, you're far safer in here than you are out there," he assured. Chica? That was what Gomez had called me on several occasions...I suppose it was a common nickname for Hispanics to use for girls. But still. He said it in the exact same way that Gomez had.

"Then just wait until my..." I paused. "Friends return. Which, they will."

"Your friends?" Taco asked. He turned to the boys. "What the hell is she talking about? Where did you find her?"

R.J and Sean exchanged a concerned glance. R.J. stepped forward.

"Well, um...we where pretending to be running from someone, so that someone might let us in there car and hopefully have something or someone for us to take. Luckily, someone did. She was in the car with 'em."

"Yeah," Sean agreed. "Then once we got here, we demanded to take her with us. They let us."

Taco sighed as he rested his hand on his sweaty forehead. "You threatened, or you demanded?" The boys exchanged a worried look.

"They shot one of them," I chirped. Taco looked at me with wide eyes.

"You-" he turned back to the boys. "You what?"

Sean put his hands up defensively, leaving R.J. looking like he was about to receive a beating.

Taco tried to calm himself down. "How many times have I told you? You don't shoot somebody if they have complied to your wishes!" He screamed.

R.J. shuddered. "I know, I know. But trust me, if you had seen this guy, you would've wanted to shoot him too. He's not dead or anything!" Taco rolled his eyes. "He sure looked like death, though."

Taco pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "That's descriptive."

"No, for real," Sean agreed. "He had pale skin, black hair and sunken eyes. He looked anorexic. Is he anorexic?" he asked me.

I suddenly sat straight as their attention was brought towards me. "Um...I-I don't know."

"Oh, and there was some other guy in there who said that he knew you...?" R.J. quipped.

Taco spat out his cigarette in shock and quickly smashed it with his shoe.

"Knew me?"

The two boys exchanged a look. "Um yeah...?" Sean said.

Taco shook his head. "There is no body out there with that relationship to me."

"What do you mean?" I asked, utterly confused.

"Either you know me, or you're dead."