Moments later, he heard the man who had kidnapped him ask, “Did you see a kid, black hair, jeans, wearing a tank, run by here?”
“No comprende, se?or.”
“A kid, umm, ni?o. Running rápido.” When the worker didn’t reply, the man said, “Fuck it,” and moved on.
A minute later, the worker came over. “Okay, it’s safe to come out.” Derek looked at him in surprise and the man chuckled. “Figured if I spoke Spanish, he’d give up and move on.”
“Thank you. Why didn’t you tell him I was here?”
The man shrugged. “I didn’t like the look of him. Should I have told him?”
“No, no, he snatched me. I took a chance and ran when we got to the light.”
“Maybe he figured you’d make a good sex-slave.”
Startled, Derek said, “What?”
“You know, like human trafficking. There’s a lot of that going around. If you run around like that in just a skimpy tank…” The guy shrugged.