by Robyn Steele
Chapter 4
Sometime later I woke up with my head resting on Cruz’ lap. His arms wrapped around me. He was propped up against the wall. Did I fall asleep? How long have I been sleeping? Sorry… I sat up after realizing I was sleeping on his lap. I didn’t remember falling asleep. I certainly didn’t remember lying down on Cruz. I rolled my neck around to stretch it out.
No, I’m sorry. You just looked so uncomfortable and your neck was kinked. I really wasn’t taking advantage of you. Just trying to let you get some much needed rest. I think you’ve been sleeping for a couple of hours. I broke my hands free from the ties and broke yours also. I hope they don’t get angry and retie them. Maybe if we act compliant they won’t.
Ya, right. Maybe they’ll reward us for good behavior. Not. I sarcastically retorted.
I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have untied them. Cruz was sincerely contrite.
That’s okay. It’s worth a try. It does feel good to have them out. Maybe we can put them back on. I mean… make them look like they are on.
It’s probably best not to deceive them. That would probably just anger them more. Cruz cautioned.
Just then a woman came in carrying a tray with two cartons of milk and two pop tarts. She sat the tray down on the floor next to us. “You kids eat up. We have no idea how long this will take. We don’t want anyone accusing us of mistreatment. Go ahead. Eat.”
“Why would it matter if you feed us? I mean…isn’t kidnapping worse than not feeding us. Call me crazy, but I think kidnapping is like a f e l o n y.” I dragged out the last word to give it more significance.
“Look little girl, don’t smart off to me. I can make this easy for you or hard for you. Your choice.” The woman looked to be in her late twenties. She was tall and slender but muscular. The tank top she wore emphasized her physique. She noticed me eyeing the gun slung on her hips. “I wouldn’t if I were you. I can assure you I am faster than either one of you.” Then to demonstrate, she grabbed the gun out and had it pointed at me in a mili-second.
I put my hands up. “I wasn’t thinking anything. I just noticed it is all.”
“Good. Make sure you keep it that way. I don’t even need my gun to take you kids down. You understand?” She paused as we both nodded. “You play nice and I’ll play nice. When we get what we want, you’re free to go.”
“What, exactly, is it you want? Cruz prodded for more information.
“You tell me. I know you know.” The woman answered. “I was gifted with all the abilities. You understand? I’ve heard all your thoughts. I’m not here to hurt you. You know that. If we hurt or kill you, we lose our leverage. You notice I haven’t tied you back up. Mostly cuz I know you can’t get past me. And if by some miracle you make it past me, there are many more right outside your door to stop you. So I suggest we work together on this and get this over with as soon possible.”
“And you expect us to believe you’re just gonna let us go when you get what you want?” I snorted.
“I really don’t care what you believe, little half breed. However, I have no intentions on keeping you or killing you.” The woman answered. “Oh wait, you’re not a half breed. You’re a quarter breed, right?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. I was just learning about my people. Now she’s saying I’m something else. I can’t keep up. “It really doesn’t matter to me what kind of blood I have in me. I have the greatest family on Earth!” On Earth. That held a whole new meaning for me now.
“You are so naïve.” The woman sneered.
“So what the tramp means, my dear Talitha, is….” Cruz began.
“Hey! Watch your mouth scamp!” The woman sneered as she made a swift kick to Cruz’ abdomen.
“Are you… not… here trying… to steal… what does no…t belong to you? Cruz managed to spit out in pained breaths. No need to break my ribs.
Cruz, are you okay? I tried to reach him.
“Like I said, I can make this easy on you or hard on you. It’s simply your choice. I suggest you keep your snide remarks out of here.” The woman locked the door as she left.
I’m fine. What she means by quarter-breed is that your grandfather is Teletrian and your grandmother is human. Your father is half Teletrian, so you are quarter Teletrian. But it seems to me that the Teletrian blood is very strong in your veins. I have seen you run extraordinarily. You can read minds. And we still haven’t tested out any other abilities and you may not even be fully developed yet. You could still gain more abilities. Cruz explained.
This was a lot to take in, still. It hadn’t quite sunk all the way in. I think I’m just exhausted. I wonder how long we have been here. I thought to Cruz.
Just rest your head over here. We can think and rest. We won’t be any good to ourselves if we get too tired. Cruz offered.
Okay. And I’m still trying to contact my family. I need to warn them. And we need the back up.
The door suddenly burst open and the woman was back in. She grabbed me by my arm and yanked me up to my feet. Her closed fist connected with my jaw, which knocked me back down to the floor. “No more contacting family! Do you understand? I’ll be listening carefully so don’t even think about it. Besides, if you bring your family here, they will probably get hurt. Or worse. Are we clear?”
“Crystal.” I spoke sarcastically as I spat the blood out of my mouth.
“I really don’t like your attitude, little quarter-breed.” She started to leave and then stopped and turned around. “I just realized. You have no idea who your grandmother is, do you? Or should I say, what she is.” Then she turned and left.
“What is she talking about?” I asked Cruz.
“I have no idea. Maybe she’s just messing with our heads. Part of the game, probably. Don’t let her get to you. That’s what she wants. She wants to break you and intimidate you.” Cruz breathed out as he was holding his ribs to ease the pain.
“Well she’s doing a great job of it.” I rubbed my jaw. Cruz took his shirt off and ripped strips of fabric and handed them to me.
“Do you think you could wrap these around my ribs tightly?”
As I wrapped the strips of cloth around his ribs, I couldn’t help but admire his beautiful six-pack, although I tried not to look. His skin felt warm to the touch and the task at hand almost felt sensuous. I tried to keep my mind on something else. Where were these feelings coming from? After we were satisfied with the wrap, I help him put his jacket back on. Thank goodness that was over.
Time passed very slowly. I would get so exhausted I would sleep for a while and then wake up and remember where I was. I’ve never been homesick before. Mostly because I’ve never been away from my family. However, I was learning what that meant now. If only I could be at home on my porch swing with grandpa or sitting in grams kitchen with the aroma of bread baking or even shopping with momma. I think I really did take them all for granted. As soon as I get to see them, or, I hope I get to see them, I am telling them. I wonder what Nate’s doing. I wonder if he knows I’ve been kidnapped. I wonder if Brielle knows. I wonder what the woman meant by “what” my grandma is. There was plenty on my mind.
There was plenty on Cruz’ mind, too. When I listened in I could hear him try to think of a way to get out. He would also think about his family and how he missed them. He also wondered if he would ever see them again. He also wondered about some girl and if he was ever going to be able to marry her. Strange, though, he never thought her name. I’ll have to ask him sometime. I actually feel safe with Cruz. He must be a pretty good guy, even though I don’t know him, I can tell. The girl he is pining over is a very lucky girl. Is that a hint of jealousy I feel? ‘Course not! That would be silly. He is good-looking and kind and strong…..what am I thinking. I hope I didn’t think that so he could hear. I better watch what I think.
I look
ed up at Cruz and his eyes were shut but he had a big smile on his face. He must be asleep and dreaming. I think maybe I’ll sleep for a while, too. I snuggled on to his lap and closed my eyes. Might as well be comfortable and get some sleep. Cruz’ hand came around me and held me. He must be dreaming about that girl and he thinks I’m her. That’s okay. I’ll let him think that while he’s asleep. He needs his rest so he can get us out of here.
I awoke to the sound of the door opening. A man brought in a tray of food and sat it down by us. “Here you two. You better eat this. I promise it’s not poisoned. Not too bad tasting, either. You’re lucky I’m on board tonight. I’m a good cook. You’ll like it. Aster’s not even a cook period. When she’s here you’ll just get pop tarts or canned food.”
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I must have slept a long time. I was starving and the food did look good. Lasagna my favorite.
Cruz must have been awake for a while. Well, good morning, sleeping beauty. Actually, I don’t think its morning but what other greeting works when you wake up. He thought to me.
“Did I sleep long?” I asked as a grabbed a plate of food. Then I remembered Cruz’ abs. How are your ribs feeling? I asked him.
Sore. Was his only reply.
“You kids enjoy.” The man said and turned to leave.
“Wait!” I said to him. “What is your name?”
“You can call me Max.” He smiled as he told me, then turned and left, locking the door.
“What?” I asked Cruz. He had this strange look on his face.
“You just surprise me how well you adapt. “Asking that guy his name like he’s a friend.”
“I just was trying to establish a rapport with him. If he’s going to be watching us and we make a connection, maybe he’ll take these things off.” I said, pointing to the shackles.
“I think that’s a great idea. It just surprised me, is all. You’re very brave, you know.” Cruz complimented me.
We ate our dinner insatiably. We were both hungry and it was really good. If this were different circumstances I would love to have Max as my personal chef. Sometime after we finished eating, four men came in and tied our hands up behind our backs.
“Why are you tying us up? We’ve done what you wanted. We haven’t tried anything.” Cruz asked the men. “Haven’t we been compliant enough?”
“Shut up! We don’t need to hear from you. If you behave, we will take them off after the transport.” The largest man said.
We took that as our cue to zip our mouths and not even try to telepathically communicate. They moved us out the door and on down a long hallway. There were no windows so I suppose that’s why they left the blind-folds off.
The building we were in must be extremely large. It seemed like we walked a half mile. It probably wasn’t that long, but it seemed that way. We passed several doors that were closed. The doors had no windows so we couldn’t see where they went. We stopped at a door and one of the men opened it. The others pushed us into a room. The room was about 20 feet by 20 feet. There was a sofa and two chairs. There was also a television, a refrigerator and another door that led out from the other side of the room. There were no windows.
“Make yourselves at home.” One of the men laughed. “This will be your home until your father shows up. The fridge has drinks and snacks in it. The bathroom is off that door over there. The T.V doesn’t have cable or anything. You can play games on it.” They took off our ties and shackles. Then the men all turned and left.
I looked at Cruz. “I’m taking advantage of that bathroom for now.” I said.
“I will after you. Right now I’m going to check out the fridge. See what they left us.”
We tried to pass the time but it was really hard. We were worried and didn’t know what to expect and there wasn’t much to do. Even conversation evaded us. This wasn’t quite the setting for small talk. Cruz was such a gentleman, though. He tried to comfort me and worried about me. It seemed he was more concerned for my welfare than his own. And we had just met. I don’t know too many people that altruistic that isn’t family. I was impressed with him.
We spent the night cat-napping. I slept on the sofa and Cruz pulled the two chairs together to sleep on. I offered to switch half through the night but Cruz wouldn’t let me. I really wanted him to sleep on the couch the whole time because of his ribs. We would sleep for a while and then wake up to find nothing had changed. We were still in the same room and no one around. We had no more information. We were getting frustrated. What was going on out there and had they found my dad or had our families heard anything. We were really in the dark.