Love for Dessert (Contemporary Romance) (10 page)

**

Anastasia quickly found out that being held hostage was a somewhat boring affair. After the first hour or so, she was growing tired of being bound to the chair. The rope was chafing her wrists, too. She let out a long sigh. The door opened, and Anastasia’s head snapped up, wondering who it was. She was desperate for some kind of distraction.

From behind the door, three thugs emerged. They looked like part of the gang. They were holding large brown bags with a Chinese food takeout service logo on them. Anastasia guessed that they were out on a food run while she was being kidnapped. Lovely.

“Ah, there’s the girl.” One of them laughed, stroking her cheek with one finger. She shivered, noticeably upset that he had touched her. “No one is coming to save you now…” He snickered. “Are you comfortable?”

“Yes, I feel like I’m at a spa. Nothing could feel better,” Anastasia answered sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She was sick of all these guys taking advantage of her, and she was hungry.

The man raised a hand, and slapped her across the cheek.

“Ah!” she cried as her cheek rapidly reddened. It stung so incredibly painfully, it brought tears to her eyes. “What the hell?!”

“Watch that attitude, bitch! You seem to have forgotten who is in charge,” the man threatened. “Next time, it’ll be more than just a slap.
Promise
.” He snapped his gum loudly.

“C’mon, forget the bitch, let’s go eat first. Food’s getting cold.” His companion hit him on the arm lightly and led him away. The man sent Anastasia one more bone-chilling glare before following the second man into the room where the first kidnappers had been in.

Loud sounds began to emit from the room, and Anastasia guessed they had turned on some sort of TV. There was a good chance they couldn’t hear her at all. She sighed as she returned to staring at the scenery around her, looking for a means to escape.

Several minutes ticked by, and a kidnapper came out of the room. He was holding rope, and bound her feet to the wooden chair painfully. “Ouch,” Anastasia growled.

“Fuck you.” He spat on the ground before tightening her bindings, making them cut into her skin even more. Anastasia shot him a look of anger which he ignored.

An hour later, she could still hear the television and the roaring laughter of the men. They had opened the door once to check on her. There was a somewhat noisy scraping sound at the door, followed by a whispered “shit!” Anastasia thought that sounded somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t place it at first. She was still a little drowsy from the chloroform.

The door creaked open, and a familiar sight appeared.

“Darren?! What the hell!” Anastasia whispered furiously. “How did you find me?” She struggled against her restraints, wanting to touch him. “You shouldn’t have come… they’re going to hurt you. You have to leave right now!”

“But if I leave, who’s going to save you?” he murmured, with a familiar twinkle in his eye that she knew so well. “We’ll both get out of this, alive. Don’t worry.” Darren ruffled his hair tiredly. “Let’s get you out of here.” He moved forwards, intent on untying her.

“How did you find me?” Anastasia asked, bewildered.

“I tracked your phone. Thanks for calling me by the way, gained some extra evidence. You’d make an excellent police officer.” Darren winked.

“Thanks.” Anastasia blushed from the compliment. “Is that a gun in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?” she joked.

“A little bit of both, baby,” he replied.

Darren knelt down, and untied the ropes around her ankles. She stretched her legs, grateful that they had been released. He was quick, but the kidnappers had tied the knots on her wrists tighter than they had on her ankles. As Darren struggled, he heard the door creak open. His eyes alert, he scrambled away behind a shelf, watching the scene. Two of the kidnappers emerged from the door.

“There’s no one else out here…” Mohawk said, as Anastasia stared determinedly in a direction far away from Darren so as to not give his location away. “I doubt she’d tell us even if there was a person here.”

“Maybe we should check to be sure?”

“Yeah, why not.” Mohawk rolled his eyes. “I want to go back to eating though, so let’s make this quick.”

Anastasia listened to their loud footsteps, and out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Darren moving stealthily among the shelves. She figured he had a lot of practice doing this kind of thing, and she tried not to worry that he would be caught immediately.

“Hey, shit, I think I saw somethin’.”

“What the fuck, really?” Mohawk growled. “You sure it ain’t just some bird or rat?”

“Whatever it is, it’s goin’ down.” There was a sound of a gun being pulled out of its holster. Then there was a cocking sound, and Anastasia was immediately put on red alert. She did not want to be shot, and she definitely did not want Darren to be shot.

Please let him be okay.
Anastasia prayed.

“Yo! Who the fuck are you?” Mohawk yelled, and a shot rang out.
Bang!

“Fuck!” Darren yelled out, and then there was the pounding of footsteps.

“Darren!” Anastasia yelled out, completely forgetting that she was supposed to be pretending to not know he was there. “DARREN!” She was completely overwhelmed by the fact that he could be wounded, and possibly shot. The men inside filtered out of the room, holding guns.

Anastasia remembered that her feet were untied, and she stood up awkwardly, trying to walk. She made her way to the shelves, and tried to find Darren. He stumbled his way to her side, and he hadn’t been hit badly, just slightly grazed. “We need to take them out,” Anastasia murmured. Her wrists were still tied, and Darren noticed this. He quickly untied her, pulling out a knife to cut through the ropes. Anastasia stretched and rolled her wrists happily due to her newfound freedom. She couldn’t find some sort of weapon, so she kept her hands on the chair in case she needed to use it.

“The both of you, get your asses out here!”

“No way,” Darren yelled back, pulling out his own police-issued gun. “I think I can get at least one.”

“Okay,” Anastasia murmured. All of a sudden, there was a loud noise behind her and Anastasia stood up, instinct taking over almost immediately. She slammed her fist into one of the kidnappers, making him clutch his stomach in pain. It wasn’t enough to knock him out, so Darren turned and punched him with all his force. The man fell onto the ground. Anastasia’s eyes widened in fear as she stumbled behind a shelf, hoping it would offer some sort of protection.

There were around four kidnappers left that could still fight. The odds for the couple didn’t look good since the men were burly and armed, but there was nothing they could do about it.
Anastasia watched as Darren shot two of them in the leg, earning loud yells of pain. He smiled victoriously, before moving forwards as if in a first-person shooter video game. If their situation weren’t so serious, she would have laughed out loud at how ridiculous he looked, all crouched down like that. She even thought that he looked pretty sexy, taking out those men, as inappropriate as those thoughts were at that time.

Anastasia followed Darren as they searched for the last two kidnappers. They seemed nowhere to be found, and she was scared. She didn’t want them popping out of nowhere. This room was big, and thank God for that. The shelves provided some protection, which was better than nothing. The fourth kidnapper was sneaking up on Darren from the side, and Anastasia yelled, “LOOK OUT!” Darren turned and raised his gun, shooting the man, who had his gun aimed at Anastasia. He fell, crying out in pain.

Anastasia lost her focus, and suddenly an arm snaked around her neck and held her in a chokehold. She was forced to sit back into the chair that she had previously been using as a weapon. She suddenly felt the cold steel of the end of a gun on the side of her face. That wasn’t good. Anastasia tried to move her head, but the grip on her neck grew tighter. “Don’t you dare try and move.” The man’s breath stunk, and she recognized him as Mohawk.

“Ana!” Darren called, and she watched him spin around and see her in her hostage situation. “Shit, Ana!” He took a step forwards, his arms reaching towards Mohawk.

“Don’t you dare move, or I’ll shoot!” There was a pause. “Now tell me where the drugs are.”
 
Anastasia knew that they both didn’t have the drugs because she flushed them in the toilet one day after receiving the suspicious flour shipment, but Mohawk didn’t know that. And she had a feeling that if Mohawk found out, the following scene would not be pretty.

Anastasia gritted her teeth as she watched Darren think things through. First things first, he had to get the gun away from Anastasia’s face. Darren held his hands out calmingly. “Don’t worry, we have your drugs. Just put your gun down first.”

“I will put the gun down once I get the coke. Hand it over,” Mohawk said through clenched teeth. “Hurry up.”

Darren didn’t say anything, but raised his hands in an act of surrender. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just, please, let Anastasia go.”

Mohawk scoffed. “In your dreams.”

“Just shoot him!” a man on the side yelled, one that Darren had shot earlier and clearly was upset about it.

“Good idea.” Mohawk snickered as he pointed the barrel of the gun towards Darren instead.

Darren saw his chance.

All of a sudden, Darren lunged at the man, and a shot rang out. The first one missed his body, but the second one hit its mark. Darren fell to the floor, clutching his right shoulder. Anastasia’s heart was pounding so loudly, she was afraid she was going to pass out. Darren was hurt, she needed to save him!

But first, she had to make sure that the man with the gun was out of commission. As Darren tried to keep the blood in as much as possible, Anastasia picked up the chair and slammed it into Mohawk’s head. He yelled loudly as she hit him with it again and again, as strongly as if someone else had come and taken possession of her body. Anastasia was very angry at Mohawk and wanted him to pay for hurting the man she loved

 “Bitch, stop!” Mohawk yelled, pointing his gun at her.

“No!” Anastasia dodged to the left with frightening agility that she didn’t even know she had. A shot rang out, and lucky for Anastasia, it was indeed a miss. She slammed the chair into his head for the final time of the night, rendering him unconscious. Anastasia crawled towards Darren’s trembling body, her breath hitched in her throat.

“Darren? Darren can you hear me? Are you okay?” she asked hurriedly, scared that he wouldn’t answer. The bullet was in his right shoulder, and somewhat close to his heart. She did spend a lot of time watching those crime movies, and she knew that if it entered his bloodstream or something, it would send him to heaven. There was no answer, and as the seconds crawled by, Anastasia grew increasingly agitated. “Please, please, please, talk to me.” She pressed her trembling lips to his. “I love you, Darren, please wake up.”

“A-Ana?” he stuttered out. His eyes flashed open and then drooped a little, almost as if he wanted to go to sleep. Blood was spilling out from the wound. “H-hospital. Car outside.”

“Okay, Darren, let’s get out of here...” Darren could barely breathe, and it was breaking Anastasia’s heart watching him. Darren leaned onto Anastasia as he continued to put pressure on his wound. He could barely walk, for the pain from the bullet was so incredibly powerful. They eventually managed to get to the door. Anastasia flung open the door and felt a wave of fresh air hit her. It was now nighttime, and by the color of the night, it seemed like it was at least after ten.

Anastasia put Darren into the passenger seat, and climbed into the driver’s seat herself. “Um, Darren, where do I go?”

“Just drive.”

**

Anastasia drove into the next town an hour later, almost falling asleep due to the day’s events. She was completely tired out, and could barely keep her eyes open. Darren beside her had already passed out, but she checked every once in a while to make sure he was still breathing. He had to make it out alright, he just had to.

She headed to a hospital, but there was barely anyone to ask for directions, and she was afraid that if she drove around in circles, it would put Darren’s life in danger. Time was of an essence, and his was quickly slipping away if she didn’t do something, and fast.

Anastasia almost died of happiness when she finally spotted a brightly lit white building with the words “GENERAL HOSPITAL” on it. “Thank you, God!” she murmured as she drove up to the emergency entrance. There were doctors rushing about inside, and she went to the front desk. After letting them know her situation, Anastasia watched as Darren was brought inside and medicated.

He was immediately rushed into surgery. Anastasia had never been in this city before, and had no idea where the heck she was. So the only thing she could do was wait for his surgery to be done. She knew Darren had important evidence to deliver to the police, but she didn’t know where it was or even where to deliver it. So she waited.

She waited, and she waited, and she waited.

Several long hours passed before the doctor came out, even though it seemed like a decade. “I’m looking for Darren King’s family?”

Anastasia looked up immediately, her drowsy state interrupted. “Me! Um, I’m his girlfriend. Is he okay? What happened? Is the surgery finished?” She bombarded the doctor with questions, for she was so incredibly nervous. She felt a little crazy with all the waiting and lack of sleep, but Darren was her top priority.

“Unfortunately, since the bullet was not immediately treated, it had moved closer to his heart. The surgery will take longer to complete, but I assure you that we are doing our utmost best to make sure your boyfriend makes it out of this okay.” The doctor was obviously good at this, and used to crazy relatives. “We ask for your patience. This is just an update. Please, get some rest. We have your cellphone number, and will contact you when the surgery is finished.”

“O-oh okay.” As much as Anastasia wanted to stay, she hadn’t slept in a full day and was feeling very close to passing out. So after grabbing her wallet and duffel bag from the car, she walked along the city, trying to find a hotel. She felt like it was a bad idea to drive in her current state. The cold air kept her awake, and pretty quickly, she found a place to stay.

As soon as she got a room, Anastasia collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep. With her last few moments of consciousness, she prayed that the surgery would turn out fine and that Darren would soon be back in her arms.