The warehouse off in the distance finally overtakes my vision once again, Antonio towering by the entrance with his arms crossed, entire body clothed, but hidden expression clearly rageful. We park the truck and all clamber out like a hoard of maniacs, Leon and Shushi get to him first, talking above each other like children trying to tell on the other first. And shout and gesture towards me, repeatedly looking back to see whether or not I cower and avoid the suspected backlash. I don't. I remain standing by the truck, arms crossed, Callum and the ladies all avoiding looking at me as they scurry away, Callum back to his lab and the girls back to their tents.
Finally, Antonio taps them both on their shoulders, saying something just out of range, and together, they head into the warehouse, covertly high fiving as they do so. Once Antonio reaches me, sand rising with his every step, his shoulders hunched, breathing heavy, and fists clenched, he stops and speaks with a subtle intensity, "Did you cheat on me?"
My voice comes out cold and scratchy, heart suddenly racing, "No." Our eyes meet, but we don't see each other.
"I'd say you're a liar," He lowers himself till we're both at eye level, his coldness doesn't warm.
"Can we not talk about this here?" I look away, towards our tent, surrounded by many others. That wouldn't be a private enough place to talk and discuss, anyone would hear us.
"No. Because I know you're lying to me." He begins raising his voice now, rageful as his fists clench tighter within their gloves. "You slept with the fucking supplier? You were a slut and allowed any man in sight make a move on you? And guess what? I know you cheated on me because you're still bloated from the food and dicking you received and your hair is still knotted after some kind of 'golden shower,' whatever the fuck that means!"
Is he-
Is he genuinely upset about this?
Surely he knows they're lying, right? They are the enemy.
No, chances are he's just putting up an act, meaning that I should just play along.
"I didn't cheat on you, can we please just talk in private." My voice comes out cold, defensive.
I reach for his hand, he pulls away, shouting, "Don't fucking touch me, whore!"
What?
"A- I- Um- I-"
"Oh and now you can't even speak? I knew you were guilty, you were far too excited to go on that fucking trip! I should've known you just wanted to be dicked down and used! And for what? Because we don't fuck enough? Is that why?"
Why is he doing this? He's taking it a tad too far.
"You know what? You want to speak in private? Fine. Let's talk somewhere private!" He grabs my hair beneath my clothing and begins to drag me, the dry wind carrying the oohs of the people watching excitedly as he drags me away, down a long winding hill. Even once we're out of sight, his grip doesn't lighten, not until after he throws me to the ground, sand clinging to my clothes and ripping away the moisture from my skin.
Even once we're secluded, he doesn't calm down. "Dima, why?"
"Don't fucking speak to me like that, how many men did you sleep with, huh? How many!"
"None!"
His foot slams into my gut, sending me flying a few feet, coughing up moisture that clings my mask against my mouth, suffocating me with each inhale.
"I swear! If you'd just let me explain, fuck!" A sharp, searing pain radiates throughout my stomach, spreading to my spine. My voice lowers now, pleading. "Please, just listen." I gag, and begin to whisper, Antonio now towering over me, his shadow like a wave of wrath. "I didn't cheat."
Why is he still like this? We're alone! The other leaders are in their air conditioned office, the lower level people know not to snoop, so why is he still clearly pissed off?
Is he genuinely upset and believing that I had cheated on him? I'd never do that on purpose. Now, of course sometimes it may be called for for the sake of a mission, but this time around I legitimately never did. So why the fuck will he not let me explain myself?
He places his boot on my side and begins pushing down, twisting, "Then speak, you filthy slut." I cry out, limbs flailing but unable to get him off me.
"I never slept with anyone! They don't listen when the supplier says he doesn't want prostitutes!"
"Oh really? So what did you do instead? Because they claim you slept with Leon, Callum, the supplier, and every single man you laid your eyes on!"
"Do you not hear how ridiculous that sounds?"
"Shut up!" He kicks me once again and I roll onto my back, he's standing above me within a second, and the next, he's pinning me down, one arm holding both my hands above my head, the other clenching my throat.
It's tight.
Too tight.
Way too tight for this to simply be a performance.
No. He's genuinely upset. He genuinely believes that I've cheated on him multiple times within a what; six day time frame? Why does he believe our enemies over me? How could this possibly be happening? What happened while I was gone?
"You know," He exhales, refusing to lighten up, weighing me down to the point where I can't even kick him off me. "I've learned quite a bit over these last few days, I've learned that the drugs they use on these women can be pretty convincing-"
"So if you suspect I was drugged, then why turn on me?"
"Just shut up!" His voice makes my ears ring and he begins shaking, whimpering. A few moments later, his face is mere centimeters away from my own and he whispers, "I'll be contacting the school with the info I've gathered, and I'll be ensuring you get taken off the mission. Slut."
Finally with his weight released from my legs, I kick up and send him flying over my head. He faceplants on the sharp sand and I scurry to climb on top of him, pinning his arms behind his back and refusing to let go. "Now you listen to me," I speak against his ear, and he doesn't fight me. "They've attempted to make moves on me, I stopped them every time. I woke up to that disgusting herbalist trying to take my clothes off, I beat the shit out of him; you can even verify for yourself if you don't believe me, just try to see his face. The supplier, he's never once slept with any of the women brought to him, in fact, he's actually working on helping women in sex trafficking situations escape! Instead, during the time that those pigs suspect we were sleeping together, I was actually in a private apartment, showering, washing my clothes, and eating! With the man nowhere near me." I take a moment to breathe, scanning my peripherals for onlookers, finding none. "Now, what information had you gathered while I was away trying not to get fucking raped?"
"This isn't their only warehouse, they have three more, the thing is though, those three had been raided about a month ago, with the suspected raiders being their primary competitors. So the drugs in this warehouse are the only ones being produced while they work on rebuilding the others. I suspect the reason for producing a new strain was to get one up on their competitors, and the large shipment isn't just to start production, but also to rebuild what was stolen from them. Also, the three men aren't the true leaders of this enterprise, there's another person behind the scenes, these idiots are only in charge of this one warehouse. I couldn't find any information of who is truly in charge, though, any record of him is blacked out." He exhales heavily, but I don't lighten up, keeping him down and in place. "This is why we need to share this information with the school, they'll know what we've gathered so far and likely find out who is truly running this entire thing."
"Why can't we just figure it out ourselves?"
"Because we don't have time to get that in depth on this mission. We're nearing the end of the first month, there are only six more days until Punic."
"We've already made quite a lot of progress though-"
"Not enough to get through the mountain of an issue this is."