The only person I had in the world right now was the bloody devil beside me, and that was almost as bad as if I had of been alone. Probably.
"Man up, Sneaks," was the response given to me. Man up? Maybe he should woman up! Asshole.
The van came to a sudden skidding stop, making the both of us crash around in the back like a pair of rag dolls. I could now feel his feet on my back.
Breathing heavily, I tried to move, but from the lack of sleep and energy, I found myself unable to move at all.
"Honey, I think we're home," Diablo chuckled, making me even more scared. Such an asshole.
Two slamming doors stopped me from responding. Instead, I just listened to anything from outside of this god, damned van.
We waited and we waited, but nothing seemed to be happening.
Where had they gone?
Was there anybody around us?
Should I make a noise?
"What's taking so long?"
I didn't expect him to answer, and he didn't disappoint me either because he didn't say a word. Instead, we just continued to lay in the back of a van to see what our fate would be.
This has got disaster written all over it.
My mouth felt like sandpaper from the lack of water, so I was almost relieved when the door finally did open. The smell of earth hit me first and I could see a haze of light through the rag that was still tied tightly around my eyes. Suddenly my feet were grabbed by a pair of ice-cold hands, and I found myself being dragged forwards toward the doors of the van. I could not stop my reaction that was to scream instantly and very, very loudly.
"For the love of god Sneaks, knock it down, will you," Diablo was way to cool and calm about this whole situation. Even if he thought there was still a chance that it was just his brother that was the cause of everything. What had he called him? Jack! Even if he thought it was Jack, there was still a chance that it wasn't, and I don't think he was anxious in the slightest about that possibility.
"Fuck off!" I was done with him and his smart mouth now. Fuck you, Diablo, and the stupid elevator you rode in on.
He didn't say anything back to me and as I was planted back on two feet, I could feel a heat I’d never experienced in New York before.
Where the hell are, we?
Sure, New York was humid as hell in the summer, but it was April. This heat was nothing like that. It was stifling in comparison.
"Walk," the robotic voice that they had used in the underground parking garage spoke, and a shove in the center of my back with the bottom of, what felt like the gun that had been aimed at us, made me move quicker than Allie when Sephora has a sale on.
Everything in me wanted to run, and even if they didn't have guns, I would not get very far. I was an appalling runner. I'm talking Phoebe from Friends kind of running with my arms flapping around and the equivalent of two left feet running in opposite directions. Allie filmed me once, and after seeing that footage, I have not run again. Not even once.
All too soon, I heard Diablo making some kind of sarcastic comment behind me, but my ears couldn't make out the actual words he was saying. My senses were all too consumed, trying to work out where we were.
Sweat was beading on my brow as I was all but dragged by the man holding onto my elbow. It was so hot here.
A door opened with a loud creak once we had walked through, it was closed with a click behind us. Listening out for some kind of a lock clicking into place, but nothing came. Slowing my pace causing one of our captors began to pull me along to match their own pace. The squeak of my feet being dragged on what sounded like tiles was all I could hear, that and the distinctive smell of bleach which filled my nose.
Why the hell did this place that they had brought us to smell of bleach?
Oh god, this was not good. Not good at all.
There were only two reasons I could come up with as to why it would smell like this. One, someone was a clean freak, which seemed highly unlikely. And two, they had cleaned up after their previous activity of killing people. Which seemed a lot more likely after the way this whole thing was going.
Was this it, was I about to die?
My life started flashing before my eyes. Mom painting in the front room, leaving splotches of paint everywhere and giving anyone hell who dared comment on them. Dad, swearing at the flat screen in Italian, thinking me and my brother wouldn't understand. We really knew only the swear words. Our teachers never knew what we were saying to them, so they couldn't give us detention for swearing in class.
Then there was every second spent with Allie. Our traveling around Europe when we graduated from college. My shop, my beautiful record shop I had with my brother. I had worked every hour of the day, putting everything into it. It was mine, all mine and Eduardo’s. What would happen to it now?
Suddenly I was spun around and shoved downwards onto a hard chair, which was metal, I think, from the coolness that seeped through my wet jeans.
Wet from the lack of any bathrooms.
The feeling of a thick rope was then tied around my ankles, attaching me to the chair's legs, followed by some around my chest and the back of the chair. There was no possible way we could get out of this.
No hope in hell.
With my arms still tied with the same cable tie around my back, there was no way to fight my way out of this. We would be like sitting ducks, waiting for whatever fate had in store for us.
"Open your mouth" when I hesitated to follow the order of the robotic voice, they simply just began to pour a liquid over my lips. Water? Opening my mouth as soon as I realized what it was, they began pouring it so fast I almost choked.
The water did not last as long as I needed, and I could hear Noah struggling next to me. The sound of metal scrapping reached my ears of what I assumed was the legs of his chair on the floor.
Soon enough, though, I could feel them leaving the room, and when the door clicked shut behind them, I let out a deep breath.
What if they hadn't left, though? What if they were just sat there, watching us? Waiting for us to speak, to try and escape? As if we could with how we had been tied to these chairs.
No, I couldn't sense anyone in here with us, but I guess you never could tell. There was every chance they one of them at least was just standing or sitting there watching us.
Several moments passed before Noah spoke, "You okay over there, Sneak's?" His voice pierced the silence, like an unwelcome guest, "You haven't said a word for all of five minutes."
Feeling, well, feelings right down to my very soul made me want to scream and shout at him, but I couldn't. I felt sick to my stomach, words stuck in my throat that I wanted to say. Death, the fear of death was suffocating me.
"Sneaks?"
Breathing deeply, I tried to see if I could free my legs, my arms, hell anything, but it was no good I was tied up better than my grandmother, Omas Christmas gifts.
"Val, Valentina?" The panic in his voice clear as I continued to ignore him.
However, I couldn't do it for long. "I don't want to die here," admitting to him how I felt, my voice sounded small and weak as I finally broke my silence.
"Shit, look, we will get out of this. Don't cry." His voice was begging, as though he finally thought we were in real trouble here.
"Still think this is your brother?"
When he didn't answer me, that gave me the answer I needed.
No.
We were in trouble.
Big trouble.
Life-changing trouble.
Chapter Four
Valentina
We had been left in this room that smelt of nothing but bleach, and well us, for almost an entire day, maybe even two. Time was moving differently, and I didn't know what to make of that.
How much longer could they, would they keep us tied up in here?
Surely if they wanted to kill us, we already would be dead. What possible use was it keeping us alive like this?
They must be after something, maybe money from Diablo'
s father. He was a billionaire after all.
Our captors didn't come back, at least not to see us. They could very well be somewhere else in whatever building we were in right this very second for all we knew.
We had no food to eat and no water to drink.
This was not good.
The human body could go without food for something like three weeks, but without water, you can only last a few days. Three or four maximum before you're dead. We needed water. Unless that was their plan to kill us without actually touching us in the process. Which if that was their plan, it was kind of smart, evil, but smart.
My tears had dried up long ago, and the fear was turning into anger deep inside of me.
Diablo was asleep, I think. He had spent several hours screaming and shouting. Calling out for his brother, Jack. Hell, he started screaming out for god at one point as well. He was panicking, and that made it worse somehow. If it wasn't his brother playing some kind of sick joke kidnapping us, then it was something a lot more sinister.
Was anyone even looking for us?
I had to believe that Allie would have called the cops. My parents and Eduardo would be looking for me. They would, I had to believe that. They will find me. Eduardo was a stubborn pain the ass, but he would do anything for family. I had to believe that he would be out there looking for me, for both of us.
Had anyone found my purse?
What about Noah's phone?
Someone must be out there looking for him as well. Maybe even his brother, which definitely was not the person behind this whole fiasco.
"I need water." My throat almost hurt to speak from being so dry, in desperate need of hydration.
"Well, let me just go to my fridge. Oh no, wait, sorry, Sneaks, little bit tied up over here." Sarcasm dripped from his voice like dew off a leaf on a spring morning.
"Asshole"
"I thought I was Diablo."
Growling under my breath, I could help but snap at him, "Go back to being silent or get us out of here." My tolerance of him was wavering. If I had not been tied to this chair, I would be either hitting or kicking him. I hadn't decided which just yet. Hell, if he didn't shut that pretty mouth of his soon, it could be both for all I cared.
"And how do you propose I do that?"
With no idea how he could get us out of this situation, I didn't know how to answer him, so I changed the subject and asked a question instead, "Why haven't they come back?"
"They did." Was his simple reply, after a solid ten seconds of silence.
"What?" If I could see myself, I'd guarantee that I had just gone at least one shade paler after those words had left his mouth. What did he mean by that?
"I think you were sleeping." No, he must be trying to get into my head, doing the devil's work.
"Are you just trying to mess with me, Diablo?"
"Will you stop calling me the fucking devil." The loudness in his voice vibrated throughout the room we were being held in.
"When you stop calling me Sneaks!" I knew damn well he was not going to do that, knowing that it annoyed me he was the kind of guy that would call me that ridiculous name until he took his last breath.
"So damned awkward."
"Woman up, Diablo"
"Woman up?" he scoffed.
"What happened when they came?" If that ever happened in the first place. Doubt filled me knowing the little that I knew about this man, he could just be messing with me.
Sighing, he finally told me, "They took pictures of us," clearing his throat, he added, "They took off our blindfolds for it."
"What?" They took photos of us? "How did I sleep through that?"
"That's what I said"
"Nothing else?" If they had touched me…. my spine tingled as unpleasant shivers flew down it. What if they had come in when both of us had been sleeping? Anything could have happened.
Fear danced through my veins like a bad curry the next morning. Lava like.
"Said that they would be back."
"Why would they take photos of us?" Especially of me?
My parents were no one, unlike Diablo's father, a wealthy, powerful CEO who could and would likely do anything they wanted. On the other hand, my mom was just a housewife who spent hours painting on canvases in front of the flat screen, and my Dad was an accountant.
No, if anything, I was in more danger than he was. I was an unexpected item in the baggage area in this little plot. One that could be removed with little to no repercussions on these people getting, well getting whatever the hell, it was that they wanted "This isn't good."
"Nope, it is very, very bad."
"Is there any way we can get out of this?" There was very little hope in my voice.
Not answering me, instead, he asked his own question, "How're your wrists feeling? Still bleeding?"
"They are sore as hell," admitting it only made the pain flare. Like when you have a spot, and it doesn't hurt until you notice it and then suddenly it consumes you until it is all that you can feel.
"They looked bad." His voice was almost a whisper as those three words left his lips.
"What?"
"When they took the blindfold off, I tried to see how they were, there's a lot of dried blood."
"Shit" Thinking how bad they were was one thing but knowing that they looked terrible. That they had actually been bleeding as much as I had thought, well that made everything even worse.
"I have been trying to break mine, but they just get tighter." I could hear him struggling as he spoke, trying to break the cable tie around his own wrists.
"What about using them on the rope around us?" I suggested. I mean, the likelihood was that nothing would happen, but it was worth a shot, right?
"I have been," he sounded almost like he was smiling. "What's your last name?"
"What, why?" His question hit me out of the left field. Why the hell did he want to know my last name?
"You know mine, only fair. Plus, it will distract me while I try and get through this rope" I could hear movement coming from the direction of his voice.
Sighing, I answered his question against my better judgment, "Borroni."
"Valentina Borroni, you Italian or something?"
"My Dad's parents, yeah. They came over in the nineteen sixties from Sorrento to New York."
"I was born here, there, I guess," with no idea where we had been taken and with how long we were in that van, we may well be another state. Thinking back to that heat, we had to be, but where?
"Beautiful place, Sorrento."
Trying to contain the shock in my voice, "You've been?"
"Yeah," Of course, he would have. I bet this guy has traveled the entire world twice over. "Have you?"
"I haven't been able to go with my family, but me and Allie, she's my best friend, we spent a year traveling all around Europe and managed a couple of days there when we were in Italy. Hands down the best experience I've ever had being in Italy, and I swear to God that if you say you're a better experience, I will cut you when I'm free."
"Well damned Sneaks, you know me so well already" I'm sure he just snort laughed at me.
"Unfortunately for me."
"Don't act like you don't love it."
"Allie was right. You are a complete and utter asshole that I have had the displeasure of meeting."
"Wait. What?" He chuckled, "How does she know me?"
"You are a….. you hit on her in the bar, like twenty minutes before I got into the elevator with the devil himself and got myself kidnapped. You know I solely blame Allie for this. If I hadn't agreed to go shopping with her, I would have been at the store and never would have met you." And when I say agreed, I mean she bribed me, in ways only she could.
"You wound me, Sneaks."
"What's up with your accent?" I decided to ask because it was bugging me.
"Women," I could almost hear his eyes roll, "I was born here, but my beloved father dumped me, his most troublesome child, into a British boarding school at the tender ag
e of ten years old to fend for himself, until college when I came back and claimed the title of his most troublesome adult son."
"That's, harsh" what kind of parent puts their kid in a boarding school on the other side of the world? All alone with no family around? These Hartman’s sure are a piece of work, that is for sure.
Devil In The Elevator: A Hartman Romance Page 4