by Julia Derek
No, that won’t happen, I told myself. We will get out of here alive one way or another.
When I returned to the bedroom, Chase was lying with his eyes closed on top of the covers, his hands behind his head, and wearing all of his clothes except for his suit jacket and tie.
I don’t know why the sight of him fully dressed filled me with such disappointment, but it did. So much so that I stopped in my tracks and just stared at him. Had I really expected that we would have sex again? That he would pull me into his arms, against his hard, naked chest the second I crawled into bed, as if this was just another bed and we were just another couple that had finally concluded we were actually attracted to one another? I could tell he was as attracted to me as I was to him. Each time he looked at me now, it was obvious. The way he touched me, spoke to me told me everything I needed to know in that regard.
Or, wait… Was I fooling myself, only wanting this to be so because I had discovered that I was into him? I sucked in a quiet breath. Oh, God, what if I’m fooling myself and he’s only pretending he likes me as much as he claims? Maybe he’s this way with all the women he sleeps with, says things to make them feel special? Oh, God, what if he only pities me…?
My stomach twisted with agony at this possibility. That could very well be the case. He had pitied me and figured why not? Some sex would cheer her up. And him, too, but that was all it was to him.
He opened an eye then and looked at me.
“Why are you just standing there?” he asked. “Aren’t you gonna come to bed?”
That got me going again. “Uh, yeah. I was just surprised to see you wearing all your clothes again.” Jesus, what the heck is wrong with me? I wanted to slap my own face for being so incredibly obvious. Why hadn’t I just said that I couldn’t make up my mind whether to remove some of my own clothes or not? The pencil skirt wasn’t that comfortable after all. Even a guy must be able to tell that.
The way he smiled at me soon made me stop beating myself up. He extended a hand to me. “Come here, sweetheart.”
I crawled into bed and let him pull me into his arms. He pulled me close, kissed my forehead, and then put his lips to my ear.
“As much as I’d love to lie here naked with you right now, you have to admit that it’s much smarter for us to be dressed and ready to run if we get the chance?”
Yeah, that is definitely a very good point. I felt the tension that had gathered inside me ease and I relaxed again. Of course that was why he was wearing his clothes, not because it was some kind of nonverbal statement to let me know what we had done was just a one-time thing for him. My intuition wasn’t that off. Right?
“Yeah, that’s true,” I whispered back.
“Are you sure you don’t want to sleep a little?” he asked.
“Yeah, it would be a waste for both you and me. I’ll only be tossing and turning, so you might as well go to sleep.”
“Okay, then. I don’t have that problem, so you’ll have to wake me if you change your mind. I can sleep anywhere.”
“Will do. Sleep tight.”
He squeezed me close and gave me another kiss, on the lips this time. “G’night.”
A minute later, his breathing was deep and even, which told me he hadn’t been lying when he’d claimed to be able to sleep anywhere. Lucky him.
I closed my own eyes, not seeing the point in staring into the darkness. It wasn’t like I was going to fall asleep anyway. But I must have because the next thing I knew, something cold, small, and hard was being pressed against my forehead. At first I was certain it was part of a dream I was having, a nightmare in which one of the thugs was pressing a gun to my head, telling me that they would pour cold soda on my head if I didn’t stand up.
As I slowly came to, I realized that someone was actually standing next to me where I lay in the bed. And that someone was pressing something cold, small, and hard to my head.
I grew cold as I blinked against the darkness, immediately knowing where I was despite having just woken up. My heart beat like it was on speed and I sucked in a breath of terror. Who was standing there and what were they doing? Was the person actually holding a gun to my head or did it only feel like it?
I didn’t dare move or say anything, so I just lay there, stiff like a corpse as I hoped that the person would tell me what was going on. I wished I had been lying on my back so I could see what Chase was doing. At some point I must have slipped out of his embrace because I was now on my side instead, facing away from him.
“Do you want me to shoot him?” a gruff voice somewhere behind me asked. The same voice that had threatened to put a bullet in Chase’s kneecap earlier. Oh, God. I stifled a whimper. My pulse was storming in my head, pounding hard in my ears, and I was ice cold now, trembling so hard my teeth were chattering. Were they about to kill us after all?
Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.
The thug didn’t receive an answer to his question. Any second now I expected to hear a shot go off that would kill Chase. I couldn’t breathe I was so terrified. But the seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Then I felt what had to be a hand on my head, stroking my hair gently, like I was a beloved child. The mouth of what must be a gun remained on my forehead, though. I couldn’t stop myself from gasping the gesture, the entire moment, was so bizarre.
What are they doing? What do they want from us? Oh, God, why are we here?
Suddenly the hand grasped my hair and pulled it hard, so hard it hurt, the gun pressing harder against my head. I whimpered, but quietly as my head lifted from the pillow. Why, oh, why are they doing this to us? What did we do to deserve this?
“Leave her alone,” I heard Chase’s tense voice behind me then. “If you have to shoot someone, shoot me.”
“No, don’t shoot any of us,” I blurted, not sure how I managed to get my vocal chords to work when I was so terrified. “Please, don’t. What do you want? We have plenty of money that you can have. Just tell us the amount and we’ll give it to you. Any amount you want!”
The hand grasping my hair let go and my head fell back to the pillow.
Then a cackling laugh followed, coming from the person who was standing in front of me. I couldn’t tell the size of the person, only that it wasn’t someone small. It could be either a man or a woman. The sharp laughter echoed in my head and I realized suddenly that I’d heard the laughter somewhere before. But I had no idea where or who it could belong to. It did sound more female than male, though.
The cool muzzle of the gun was removed from my head and then I heard steps moving away from me. Soon there were steps coming from behind me that were moving away too.
The steps continued away from us. Then the door shut and the key turned inside the lock.
I still didn’t dare moving, even though it seemed like whoever had been in the room with us had now left. Shivers of fear kept surging through my spine and my teeth were chattering so hard and fast I thought they might crack.
I felt a hand on my upper arm, which made me jerk violently.
“Elisa, it’s me,” Chase said gently. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Are you okay?”
I rolled around so that I was facing Chase and buried my head into his firm chest. His strong arms wrapped around me as the aftermath of what had just happened made me cry.
“Shhh,” he whispered and stroked my hair. “They’re gone now.”
I sniffled and sucked in a couple of deep breaths, which made me calm down enough to be able to talk.
“I’m sorry. So… so sorry. I don’t know how I could’ve—could’ve fallen asleep. I never fall asleep like that. Never! I just closed my eyes a little and then when I opened them again, there was something cold and hard on my forehead. Oh, God, they were about to kill us, Chase!”
“But they didn’t.” He put a finger under my chin and looked me in the eyes. “Elisa, it’s not your fault. I’m sure the reason you passed out so quickly has something to do with you being drugged yesterday. Stuff like that can stay in your b
ody for weeks. Now that I think about it, I’m the one who’s an idiot. I should never have allowed myself to go to sleep, but stayed awake to be sure they couldn’t get to us unguarded.”
He wiped my tears that were still wet on my cheeks with the pads of his thumbs, gazing at me tenderly.
“What do you think they were trying to do to us?” I asked, my voice cracking.
His body heaved with a sigh. “Who knows? Maybe they were about to kill us, but changed their minds in the end. Maybe they were just bored and decided to fuck with us a little. Who the hell knows? All I know is that we have to get the hell out of here. No more sleeping. We can’t afford to let down our guard like that again.”
“No, we can’t.”
“I think that must’ve been the mystery woman, though.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right about that.” Her cackling laughter reverberated inside my head. It had sounded like someone playing a mad piece on a badly tuned piano. Over and over I heard it now. Then, out of nowhere, I realized that I’d heard it somewhere before. I told Chase this.
He looked at me intently. “You have? When? Where?”
“I really can’t remember. But I know it’s not the first time I’ve heard it.” The more I considered this now, the surer I was.
Yes, I had definitely heard that laughter somewhere before.
Chapter Nine
Neither Chase nor I slept another minute the rest of the night. The thought of what these psychos might do to us next was much too worrisome to allow us to relax enough to fall asleep again, even if we had wanted to. Not that we did, at least not at the same time. Both of us sleeping was obviously a very bad idea.
Of course, it might not make a difference whether we were awake or not when these people returned. For all we knew, the next time the bedroom door opened, they might simply shoot us. It sure had seemed like that had been the plan the last time they were here, but then, for some reason, they had changed their minds, fortunately for us. Or maybe they would never again appear and just leave us here to starve to death. Anything was possible after that last encounter. We tried to stay positive, telling each other that not only would they soon return, but they would also act somewhat normal again, just drop off a bottle of water and some food. Maybe even ask us what we would like for breakfast. We were praying that they had their reasons to break our spirits while at the same time keeping us alive.
Even if we couldn’t figure out what we were doing here, we refused to believe they—she—had chosen to do whatever she was doing to us out of sheer boredom. It just didn’t fit the rest of the picture we had managed to create based on what we knew so far. Besides¸ it was clear that I had met this woman before. Unfortunately, I had yet to figure out where that could be. I really didn’t think that I had imagined having heard that distinct, cackling laughter.
To make sure he’d stay awake, Chase sat up in the bed and leaned his back against the wooden headboard. He kept urging me to at least close my eyes as I rested my head in his lap, but I didn’t dare; the memory of what had happened the last time I did was much too jarring. So I kept staring into the darkness while waiting for it to become morning. It shouldn’t take too long as it had already been four thirty a.m. when they had come to… to do whatever they had done to us. Maybe there was a point behind it, a method to their madness.
We were both determined to put Chase’s plan into action the second someone came back. After we had discussed exactly how to go about it, we lapsed into silence for some time.
When it was six o’clock Chase said we had better not stay quiet any longer, or we might risk falling asleep again. I agreed, especially since my eyelids were getting heavier by the minute. As much as I wanted to stay awake, it was becoming increasingly more difficult to keep my eyes open. So we began playing word games to fight the fatigue and pass the time. Instinctively, it seemed neither of us wanted to talk about the other or ourselves. It was too real, and at the moment, we both needed a brief respite to soothe our stressed minds and bodies. Engaging in meaningless parlor games was the perfect solution. Currently, we were doing twenty questions and I had Chase beat by guessing five of his secrets correctly, while he hadn’t guessed even one of mine right.
“Wow,” I said when he failed the fifth time. “I can’t believe you didn’t realize that was Ronald Reagan. I thought you were smart.”
He chuckled a little. “I thought so too. But I guess you’re smarter.”
“When we get out of here, I want your job and you can have mine. Obviously, our team will do a lot better with me as the leader and not with some dummy like you.”
“Ha! You might be right about that.” He squeezed my arm affectionately.
I looked up at him then and considered the way he was gazing at me, the way he kept stroking my arm gently, like I was someone very fragile. “Wait a second… You’re letting me win, aren’t you? You think I can’t handle losing!”
Innocence colored his features. “What? No, I’m not. You’re just a lot smarter than me, that’s all.”
I scowled at him. “I don’t believe that for a second. Not to say that I’m stupid, but a ten-year-old could’ve figured out that I was talking about Reagan, yet you couldn’t. You’re just letting me win because you think I can’t handle losing.” I grabbed his hands and looked at him with my best serious expression. “Chase, I might have freaked out a few times in the last several hours, but I promise, I can handle it if you beat me at twenty questions. So bring out your A-game for this one, okay?”
His lips curved into a smile. “Fine, I will. Are you thinking of someone?”
“Yes.”
“Man?”
“No.”
“So a woman then. Is she alive?”
“No.”
“Ah. Born after world war II?”
“No.”
He rubbed his chin with his index finger and thumb, looking pensive. “Was she a movie star?”
“Yes.”
“Blond and busty and probably the world’s most legendary sex symbol?”
“Yes and yes and … I think so. So yes on that one too then.”
He looked triumphant. “Marilyn Monroe.”
“Yeah.” I frowned, not sure if at him or at myself more. “Maybe I made it too easy …”
“Nah. I’m just really smart, remember?”
I slapped his hand playfully. Then my stomach roared, revealing how hungry I was, but the sounds no longer bothered me. Besides, Chase’s stomach was making sounds too now.
“If you could have anything to eat right now, what would it be?” I asked him, tired of the word games.
He pushed out his lips as he pondered my question.
“A huge steak with béarnaise sauce, lots of steak fries and fried onion rings,” he said finally. “Washed down with a large beer.”
“Really? Yuck! That’s what you’d like for breakfast?”
He raised a brow as he looked down at me. “You didn’t ask me what my favorite breakfast food was, but what I wanted to eat right now. And that’s what I want. What would you like to eat?”
I thought about that. “A pizza.”
He laughed. “So a pizza is better than steak and fries?”
I shrugged and laughed too. “Well, one with only veggies on it. That makes it a little healthier, right?” As I was about to add that I would rinse it down with water, not any sort of alcohol, his face tightened and he grabbed my arm. “I think someone’s coming.”
Instantly on guard, I pricked my ears and lifted my head from his lap, listening hard. Yes, it did sound like someone was approaching the door. “Yes, someone is coming,” I whispered back.
Chase pulled me out of his lap and said close to my face, “Get down on the floor. Right next to the bed is enough.”
The heavy footfalls got louder and approached very fast. Too fast.
“But I thought you said—”
“Just do as I say!” He almost pushed me out of the bed. I rolled onto the floor, hurting my knee
in the process, but I bit my teeth together and ignored the pain. He leaned over the edge and hissed, “When I try to wake you, don’t wake up. Just keep acting like you’re dead.”
“Okay.”
Someone stuck a key into the lock and opened the door. I held my breath, hoping it would be only one person and that Chase had some idea what he was doing. I thought he’d wanted us both on the floor, but now apparently he did not. Why had he changed his mind?
My body was so tense I felt like I had turned into a bundle of hypersensitive nerves. Heavy footfalls entered the room. It sounded like it was only one person, and someone who was wearing boots as always. At least that was good. We should be able to handle one person. The footfalls stopped. I breathed as quietly as I could through my nose, my heart hammering wildly.
“What’s she doing on the floor?” the person who had entered asked. It was the man who’d threatened to put a bullet in Chase’s kneecap, and then to shoot him mere hours ago. My skin was suddenly full of goose bumps. If only it had been someone who hadn’t already seen me on the floor…
“What?” Chase’s voice sounded weak, like he was confused. What is he doing?
I thought he was supposed to act like he was passed out too. Why did that change?
“What the fuck is she doin’ on the floor?” the thug asked again, coming closer and sounding more ominous.
The bed creaked as Chase moved around in it. “I… I don’t know. She must have fallen out of the bed.” More creaking, then I felt a hand on my shoulder shaking me. “Elisa. Elisa! Are you okay?”
I kept my eyes closed, remembering what Chase had told me about pretending like I was dead.
He shook me a little harder. “Elisa! Elisa!” His voice was laced with fear and it struck me what a good actor my boss was. He sounded like he really thought I might be dead or at least in seriously bad condition. I remained still like a corpse on the floor, determined to act as well as Chase was doing. I hoped this was what he had wanted me to do. The thug stopped next to me.