The Madam

Women are abducted every day, their tragic dilemmas headlining the local news until more important events hit the 6PM newsroom. We murmur "Oh, not another one." We gasp and listen in horror believing we can imagine their fear. But we don't really care. They're just gone. Out of sight, out of mind. What happens to them is beyond our mind's eye. We're too nice, or so we believe, too innocent to conceive images of the unthinkable. They're just gone. But Mercedes isn't a naïve Spring Break pass-around; she isn't a cheating wife looking for love on a bar-stool where she doesn't belong. She's a young mother and wife, innocent and afraid. She knows he will find her, terrified that he will loathe her for what she let happen to their daughter.Manuel is a US Marine sniper returning from war. For the first time he's anxious to kill. He's the best, and he's angry. Still, he knows about patience, about lying in wait for the One Shot, the One Kill. **The doorbell rings. She's innocent and kind; she opens the door to the glaring Atlanta sun. They speak to her of love, faith and goodwill. Manuel wants a better life for his wife and little Sofia, despising that he can't find work, enduring the heartache of seeing Mercedes suffer long, demeaning days as a hotel maid. He knows only one way to change how their new country sees them. Several months and100 perfect kills later, he arrives home from another man's war to give his family a better life. Instead he's greeted with vivid remnants of violence scarring their humble home. She's gone, taken from him. He's angry. He's resentful, and he's trained to kill. Killing is all that he knows as he trades a futile war for one that gives him strength.She's been gone one year, yet Mercedes feels that strength, still certain he will find her before her obligation as a Preferred Girl in Atlanta's most secret bordello is terminated. Until then she must survive to save her daughter. She must give Manuel the time he needs. She must never be sent to the vault, her premier client crucial to her plan, unaware that William and Manuel have joined together. William accepts his fate. To save Mercedes he must now confess to a desperate husband who's made the Marine creed his own: One shot, one kill, and William's the target.