Trust Me II (66 page)

He watched as the man stepped closer to his wife who stood her ground, the stern look on her face was filled with anger, her hands balled into fists, but before she could react a large hand reached up and slapped her hard across the cheek, tumbling her to the floor. Creighton growled angrily. The ring on the man’s hand was very familiar and he realized immediately who it was.

“Get us to Dijon now!” he shouted to Tabor. “I know who’s behind this.”

“Who?” Andrew asked as Morris turned to look across the seat
, the engine accelerating to a top speed.

“Silvano
Vigano.”

Sandra raised her hand to her cheek, feeling the sting of the impact of the man’s hand. She couldn’t believe what had just happened; how did Silvano get involved in all of this? Where was his father, not to mention Miriam and how did he know Bachmeier?

“Get up bitch,” Silvano said in a deep, angry tone. Sandra forced the tears back from her eyes and stood
up; her glare was filled with anger, challenging him as he laughed at her.

“You don’t want to do that,” Bachmeier argued. “She’s worth money to us, unharmed.”

“She’s not worth the spit of a slug to me,” the larger man said, his tone filled with hatred and thick with accent. “Take them into the other room and tie them up. We’ll deal with them later.” Bachmeier pulled the two by the arms and forced them down the hall to the medieval room. In the center of the ancient style décor sat two chairs, thick wood bases and seat sitting back to back against each other. He shoved them down to the seats and snatched the cuffs from the drawer, securing their hands behind their backs.

“Gag them,” Silvano said from the doorway. “I don’t want to hear that sickening American voice
again.” He watched as Sandra turned an angry eye to him while Bachmeier completed his task of cuffing their feet to the posts of the chairs. He took two ball-gags from the credenza and placed the wiffle style plastic objects into their mouths, strapping them behind their heads.

“Come on,” Silvano said with a grin. “We have
work to do and a phone call to make.”

Sandra watched them leave the room and close the door before drawing a deep breath. She was angrier than she could ever remember feeling; her face was
stinging and it was getting difficult seeing out of her right eye. She knew she was swelling and from the pain throbbing in her temple, she was about to have a hell of a headache; but it wasn’t enough to stop the blood rushing through her veins.

She was
too busy trying to figure out how Bachmeier and Silvano could possibly have met to worry about herself. It was obvious where the cars for the trip came from and how he knew what to do and where to go. He had to have someone with money to back up this scheme and the gun wasn’t something he would have gotten by himself without proper ID, not to mention the expensive phone. Bachmeier said he had help getting out of the van that caught on fire; it was obvious Silvano had been behind this for some time, but question was, why?

He had a wealthy father, more money than he would ever know what to do with and unlike Bachmeier
; he had a family who cared for him; though she couldn’t for the life of her understand why.

The sound of Sabrina’s soft sobs vibrated through the room and Sandra found her anger and irritation growing. She knew the girl was scared, hell she was too, but this was not the time to lose control. They had to stay focused. She knew Creighton would be there soon and all she had to do was buy enough time until he
arrived with Andrew.

A door slammed down the hall and Sandra frowned, listening to the two men shouting
. She strained around Sabrina’s crying to hear the voices and could make out only part of what was being said.

“Idiot,” Silvano’s angry voice shouted. “Y
ou beat and raped a woman in Beauvais. Did you really think someone wouldn’t find out? You were damn lucky you got away when you did.”

“She was
a whore, who cares what happened to her?”

“
The police care. Don’t you realize what is at stake here? We are sitting on a gold mine with those two; all we have to do is wait for the drop off and then we can get rid of them and disappear. But stupid stunts like the one you pulled could cost us everything.”

“So I made a mistake, you can’t blame me,” Bachmeier said, sounding like a wounded child. “You don’t know what it’s been like with them. They are both gorgeous, but that woman didn’t know how to shut her damn mouth the entire trip. I needed some relief.”

“But rape? The wench was a whore; all you had to do was pay her?”

“With what money?”

“What happened to all the money I gave you for the trip over here?”

“I had other needs to take care of.”

“Putting five thousand euros up your nose was not part of the agreement! Do you know what I jeopardized to break you free? I killed those guards and set that van on fire to hide your escape so you could get that bitch, then you show up with Giovanni’s girl as well? You were supposed to bring me his whore, not the sister too.”

“
Your brother will just have to find another woman. Besides, it made things easier; it was pure luck she was there. That bitch is a demon; if I didn’t have leverage over her, she would have escaped. Having the other one is an advantage for us; now we’ll get twice what we wanted.”

“But this is a bad situation,” Silvano growled. “We have no choice; we will have to get rid of both of them.”

“Not yet,” Bachmeier insisted. “He will want proof they are alive. Until we get the money, we’ll have to contend with keeping them alive.”

“I suppose killing them is the best idea.” Silvano suddenly
laughed a snort nearly as bad as Bachmeier’s.

“We could take another route,”
Bachmeier suggested and Sandra had to draw a deep breath to keep from slamming her head against Sabrina’s to stop her noise so she could hear.

“What did you have in mind?”

“There are men who would pay very well for women who look like they do. We could double or even triple our profit.”

“I don’t know about that. It’s too risky; what if his whore starts talking? There isn’t a country in this world who does not know him or his company. Selling her would be extremely difficult.”

“I suppose,” Bachmeier said with a disappointed grunt. “Then we stick with the original plans and ransom them off. He’ll pay greatly to get them both back.”

“Too bad what he gets back, won’t be what he was expecting,” Silvano laughed as their voices trailed off and the sound of a door closing echoed
through the quiet mansion, leaving them in total silence again; save Sabrina’s ragged breathing around the tears.

Sandra frowned; so it was Silvano who had killed those guards and that prisoner. He was the mastermind behind all of this, but that still didn’t explain why.
She and Sabrina sat back to back on the wooden chairs, hands cuffed behind their backs, ankles tight against the legs of the chairs. They couldn’t speak around the balls in their mouths, but Sandra’s mouth was dry and her face throbbed with pain, making her feel slightly nauseated. She was beginning to grow very anxious and nervous as she sat staring around the medieval decorations; it was the room Miriam said was her particular favorite.

Fear was an unwelcomed fiend and she knew if she didn’t control it, she would lose her stance; she had to remain calm and push aside her emotions. There would be time for letting go once she was back in her husband’s arms.

Closing her eyes, Sandra drew a deep breath thinking of her unborn child, her home in Yorkshire, her grandparents who would be arriving in England that same day with her sister whom she had finally managed to make amends with. She thought about the rest of the family, both hers and Creighton’s. There was a very large, extended family waiting for them to return and she knew this was not going to be the way they died; that much she promised the universe of fate and the karma of life.

Sandra sighed again; she was exhausted and
was certain it would be very easy to keep her eyes closed and drift off to sleep, but that wouldn’t help them. She had to stay focused and thinking was the best way she knew how to do just that. The cuffs around her wrists were the same type Bachmeier had used throughout their trip; it was obvious where they had come from. Even though they could escape quiet easily, she was afraid of what the men would do if they found them again. Creighton was on his way, she knew it; all she had to do was remain in control until he found them. If she unfastened the metal restraints now, there could be blood shed when Andrew arrived, or Bachmeier and Silvano would get scared and run. Staying right where she was for now, was the best, if not the safest place to be.

She
continued to think about the outside world in an attempt to reign in her stamina. There were a lot of people waiting for them, but she had to wonder about Donato. What would happen to his partnership with Creighton? Did he know what Silvano was doing; perhaps he was a part of all of this. That thought brought another frown to her face; she would never believe the older Vigano would support such an act from his son. It wasn’t his persona; he may have been an overbearing pompous ass, but he was kind and caring as well. None of this reflected as something he would be involved with.

A door slammed shut down the hall and footsteps faded on the wooden floor as she listened. Sabrina had quieted down and Sandra wasn’t sure, but she would almost swear she had dozed off. At least she was able to hear what was going on outside the room. She continued to focus on other aspects of their existence
; her life was waiting for her and she was eager to get back to it.

Sandra
wondered who was caring for Max and the animals, she thought about William and Emma, fear of what happened to them when Bachmeier arrived at the farm plagued her subconscious. Sabrina said they were alive, but she couldn’t help worrying. She could only imagine William fighting with the lunatic; then she remembered the shot she heard. She had thought it was something associated with the workers at the house; now she realized it was that exact moment William was being shot. The thought made her nausea increase and she was forced to hold her breath and count to ten in order to contain her stomach.

Images of Creighton filtered through her mind again as she forced herself to think of something less disturbing. She thought about his childish smile when he was excited, his cheerful disposition when things were going right, even his dark, perverted sexual appetite. All of it together formed a man she was hopelessly in love with. But she couldn’t help thinking about what he was going through.

She knew without a doubt, he was cursing himself for leaving that day, possibly even for bringing her to Yorkshire in the first place.
He was angry because she had not left Bachmeier when she had the chance, but she also knew she could soothe his ire. If there was one thing she knew about her strange and wonderful husband, it was how to reduce his anger.

With a deep sigh, she began to think
back on all the hunting and fishing trips with her grandfather; the camping trips he insisted his granddaughters participate in where they had to rough it; find their own food and prepare it. She remembered all the times she sat crouched in the brush next to James, waiting for a deer or an elk to come by. She had to be very quiet and concentrate; listening to the rushing water of the creeks and whispers in the wind. He would always tell her to remain focused, to listen to the sounds around her, to feel the air change and above all else to remain in control of her emotions.

T
hose words continued to echo in her mind. Because of the lessons of the past, she found the strength to calm the thumping of her heart and slow her breathing; she would take advantage of the opportunities as they arose.

Several long minutes passed by before the sound of a door closing again echoed through the silence. The heavy step of heels against the wooden floors came closer and Sabrina gasped
, wide awake again. Sandra’s anxiety got the better of her and she began to feel around the cuffs for the release and was about to press it when the door opened.

The large looming figure of Silvano filled the threshold, his ugly pot marked face smiled at the two
women still tethered to the chairs. He locked eyes with Sandra and snarled. She had to keep his attention focused on her in order to try and protect Sabrina, so she deliberately stared the man down, though her eye was nearly swollen shut and her jaw felt as fat as a newborn calf.

He stepped into the room and closed the door, a silver pistol in his fat grip as he
slowly approached them. One push was all it would take and she’d have her hands free, but she couldn’t risk it; not yet. She held his gaze steady for a few moments, the smell of bourbon reeked in the air as he laughed a thick drunken sound. He reached behind her and lifted Sabrina’s chin so he could look into her lovely face.

“You look good enough to eat,” he said
as he reached down and cupped her small firm breast in his large hand. Sabrina whimpered and Sandra shifted in her seat to get his attention. He glanced back to her, releasing Sabrina’s face and licking his fat lips with the tip of his tongue. Sandra could feel her sister-in-law cringe behind her, her head turning away from his lustful gaze, but Sandra continued to stare him down. She had to make certain he dealt with her and not the younger girl; it was the only way to keep them on a safe, level ground.