Willing Captive (3 page)

“
Don’t even think about trying to run.” As he says this in his
rough and husky voice, I realize I’m trying to back away from
him.

Fear washes over me.
I take a moment to look around.

Dark. Desolate.
Deserted.

Two options flicker
through my mind; attempt to escape, or go with the husky voiced,
gruff man. Mentally, I weigh my options. Escaping means running.
Running on Jell-O like legs likely won’t get me far, which would
leave me captured once more by an extremely pissed-off
abductor.

I
scan my surroundings again
, desperately looking for a means of escape. My
face falls when I can’t find one. I look up into the face of my
kidnapper and nod in resolve.

The dickhead smirks and I want to knee him in the jingle
bells.

My face must convey
what I feel because his smirk flares into a wide, gleaming, crooked
smile.

The man is actually
not bad looking. Not traditionally good looking, but gruffly
attractive in a manly way. His nose is crooked and looks like it’s
been broken a few times, but he has high cheek bones and a strong
chin. His full lips surround his teeth which are white and a little
crooked on the bottom. This man doesn’t look like he was ever meant
to be a pretty boy. His dark hair is buzzed. His tall, muscular
frame is extremely intimidating; his arms alone look like they
could squish a person’s head to mush with no effort.

His gruffness, his
appearance, it works for him in a mean, scary way. Damn shame he’s
an asshole criminal who I want to gut with a jagged, rusty
blade.

When the others come
out from the van, I’m shocked to see a woman amongst the men. What
kind of woman would take part in this sort of thing? She must be a
heartless bitch. When she removes her mask, she offers me a sad
smile that I want to slap right off her pretty face. She is taller
than me, fit and lean with long, dark-brown hair and hazel eyes. An
olive-skinned man, who I’m sure was the one standing at my bed,
removes his mask and smiles at me. His dark hair is short but not
buzzed. His brown eyes are warm and soft. He jerks his chin at me
and says, “Wassup?” and I glare at him.

These guys are clearly bananas. Mentally unstable fruit loops,
every single one of them
.

The third man
doesn’t remove his mask. He gets into the passenger front seat of
the van and it drives away, leaving me with this strange and
potentially dangerous group of people. The lady approaches me and
asks kindly, “Would you like some water?”

I don’t want
anything from these people. Avoiding her gaze, I shake my head.

The man and woman
casually flank me while Humungo hottie holds me in a tight grip. He
jerks his chin to the left and the olive-skinned man and the woman
jump to follow some unspoken order.

Oh shit. He’s the
boss-man. Just wonderful.

I
risk looking up at him to find his narrowed eyes searching me. He
searches a while before his gaze fixes on my hair. I’m sure I look
like death warmed up
and I don’t give a damn. He’s the reason I
look like shit and I wear the look with pride. I straighten, stand
taller, and glare right back at him.

Take that,
asshole.

Okay, so I’m
mentally shaking in my boots, but I can’t let him see that. Right
now, I have to go with the flow of things, wait for the right
moment and try to escape.

Be
cooperative. Be polite. Make them think you’re going along with
this whole scheme
.

Okay, okay. Time to change tactics. I drop my glare and clear
my throat. “Excuse me, uh- um-
man
.
Can you please tell me what I’m doing here?”

He looks into my
eyes but doesn’t answer. I try to hold his gaze, but his blue eyes
pierce mine. It’s getting a little awkward so I lower my eyes to
his chest and try again. “If there’s something you want, I can help
you get it. If you could just tell m-”

He cuts me off with
a curt, “No.” Then turns away from me, gripping my arm tighter. He
turns me to face away from him and I’m suddenly blind.

“
Hey.” The asshole blindfolded me! “Hey!” I yell again and try
to remove it. My arms flail as I fight a very one-sided fight with
him. He takes hold of my hands in one of his large ones and clasps
them firmly.

“
If you struggle, you lose what little freedom you have right
now.” His voice speaks low and directly into my ear. I break out
into goosebumps and still.

I don’t want to lose
that little freedom, but I can’t stop my mouth from spewing out,
“You know you’re an asshole, right?”

A smaller,
colder hand grips my arm and I hear an amused feminine voice say,
“He knows, alright.”

We
walk and walk and freakin’ walk some more before I hear the squeal
and creak of a door opening
. The woman whispers
, “Be prepared. We’re gonna be here a
while.”

Sigh. Just
great.

***

Hours of sitting in
this awful chair is starting to numb my ass. I move from side to
side, wriggling until one of my captors sighs loudly and runs a
hand through his hair.

It’s the hot one. Of
course.

I look him in his
icy-blue eyes and beg softly, "Please. I don't know what you want
from me, but I’ll do anything. I’ll give anything for you to just
let me the fuck go. I never saw you. I'll never speak a word of
this to anyone." I duck my chin, my voice trembles as I whisper,
"Please." My head remains lowered and I watch in slow motion as a
tear drop falls into my lap.

I hear my captor’s
chuckle and devastation breaks my resolve. I burst into sobs and my
captors laugh louder.

I lose it.

"You fucking
assholes! Getting off on a petrified girl? What kind of men are
you? I'll tell you what kind of men! The kind that no one likes, so
they have to stick together or they'll be left at the bottom of the
food chain to fend for themselves like rabid fucking dogs!" My
chest heaves with rage. Both men have stopped laughing and wear
matching scowls. I look the hot one in his hard, cold eyes and
screech, "You are lower than scum and I fucking hate you!"

I realize I’m
hysterical and burst into laughter. Laughing hard, I yell, "I'm
locked away in a shithole!" I laugh so hard I’m wheezing. "No one
knows where I am!" I snort through my chuckles. "I'm going to die
alone!" Laughter forces its way out of me for a good minute, slowly
fading out until I finally stop.

I'm hollow. Empty.
And numb.

The olive-skinned
man asks, "Feeling better now?"

I don't look at him.
I keep my eyes averted and shake my head once. I whisper, "No. Not
at all." I finally look up at him. "How would you feel if you'd
been kidnapped?"

His lips twitch and he looks over at hottie Humungo. Hottie
Humungo’s
eyes meet mine. "You tied
to a chair?" I look down at my bare wrists and shake my
head.

He fires another
question. "You been slapped around?"

I look him in the
eye and shake my head. He nods in agreement. I blurt out a meek, "I
just wanna go home."

He raises his brows.
"You're so fucking annoying that there is nothing more I want to do
than to let you go right now...but I can’t." I fight the urge to
call him a motherfucking douche canoe and glare down at his shoes,
my lip curling. He leans back in his chair and states, "You haven't
been kidnapped, Delilah."

Eyes wide, I lift my
face to look into his and ask, "Who are you?"

Hottie‘s lip
twitches. "The person who just saved your life, baby."

What the mother
fuck?

I look around the
damp, concrete room. All three of my captors wear matching
expressions of amusement. Leaning back in the ass-numbing chair, I
try to speak but my mouth opens and closes like a fish out of
water. The olive-skinned man laughs, “Shit, Nox. You broke
her.”

The woman rolls her
eyes at him. “Leave her alone, Rock. She’s been through enough
today without your ass-ery.”

“
Oh, c’mon. I’m adorable. Everyone loves me.” He winks then
blows her a little kiss and she glares so hard I think she might
lose her cool and punch him.

And here I sit, all
confused and shit, while they banter.

Finally finding my
voice, I ask quietly, “Can someone please tell me what’s going
on?”

The woman opens her
mouth, but the man called Nox cuts her off with a firm stare.
“Later.”

She nods once in
agreement then shoots me an apologetic smile. She comes over to me
and holds out her hand. “My name is Constance. But if you call me
Constance, I can’t be held responsible for my actions. People call
me Boo and I’d like if you did, too.”

Well, she’s knocked the wind right out of my sails and I’m
finding it hard to be indifferent toward her. She seems genuinely
nice…but it could be an act. It probably
is
an act. Yes, I’m
sure
it’s an act. Reaching out, I take her hand. “Delilah. But if
you call me Delilah, I can’t be held responsible for my actions.
People call me Lily.”

She smiles then
tilts her head. “Lily.” She says my name thoughtfully than shakes
her head. “You don’t look like a fragile little Lily to me. Maybe
I’ll call you Deedee?”

Deedee is one of the three-hundred-and-fifty-seven nicknames
my sister has for me. My lips twitch and I nod. She smiles
at me and whispers, “I think we’re going to be
good friends.”

The olive-skinned
man stands abruptly and walks over to me. Pushing Boo out of the
way none too carefully, he holds out his hand. “Rock. But you can
call me…” He lifts his head in thought. “…ThunderPants.”

I bite my lip to
stop my laughter. Lord knows I don’t want another pissed-off
captor. Boo doesn’t stop herself though, she bursts out laughing.
“What the fuck? ThunderPants? Why? Are you the king of
flatulence?”

Rock holds out his
hands in argument. “No! Because of my massive dick!” Boo laughs
harder. So hard she doubles over. Rock glares at her and turns to
Nox. “C’mon, boss. It’s a cool nickname, right?”

Nox’s lip twitches
but he shakes his head at Rock. Rock’s face falls dejectedly and he
turns to me. “Okay, no ThunderPants. Rock will do just fine.”

Who the hell are
these guys?

I’m sure this is how
Alice felt falling down the rabbit hole. I stand and all three of
them look at me cautiously as if I might run. I’m in an underground
room, an underground, soundproof, concrete room with a heavy, metal
door locked with a rusted latch.

I mean, I’m badass
and all, but I am no MacGyver. MacGyver is the king of badass.
Seriously, who else could escape Bulgarian extremists by making a
bomb from dental floss, lemon juice, and bleach? That shit’s
impressive.

Nox’s watch beeps
and he stands. “Time to go.”

My stomach knots. I
don’t want to leave. I feel safe here.

When all three of
them walk to the back of the room and move a storage cabinet out of
the way, I’m shocked to see there’s a secret door hidden there, a
door almost identical to the one we came in through. Boo tries to
open it but it doesn’t budge. Rock tries next and it creaks but
doesn’t open. Nox tries last and his arms bulge as he strains.

Nothing. Nadda. Zip.
It’s safe to say the door is stuck.

“
How are we getting out of here?” I haven’t realized I’m so
close to Nox until he turns around and we’re almost nose to
chest.

He looks down at me
coolly. “Wanna see how explosives work?”

My
eyes widen and I want to shout
hell yeah!
But I contain myself and say in a bored voice, “Sure.
Whatever.”

His lip does that
cute twitchy thing again. Rock and Boo go to work placing something
that looks like grey play-doh onto the door hinges. Nox pulls me to
stand behind him, shielding me with his large frame. Boo shouts,
“Fire in the hole!”

Two small
firecracker sounds go off with little poofs of smoke. And I gotta
say…I’m a little disappointed. “Well, that was anticlimactic.” Rock
and Boo chuckle while they work the door open. As soon as fresh air
hits my face, I shrink into myself. Nox turns and I ask quietly,
“Where are you taking me?”

He
looks at me for a long moment before he answers. “Home.”

Chapter Three
Homeward bound

Lily

When Nox said we were going home, I assumed he meant he was
taking me back to
my
home.
This is the reason I went
so willingly. I practically skipped to the large, black van smiling
like a fool and yelled out, “What are we waiting for? Let’s
ride!”

So
we’ve been driving for an hour now and I have no idea where
home
is. They won’t answer any of the
hundred questions I’ve asked, and I’ve reached the point where I
see Nox’s cheek tic. He scowls at me. “Don’t you ever shut
up?”

Slumping in defeat,
I mope. I’m officially peeved. I don’t have my cell phone to check
on my parents or sister. I suddenly realize that I haven’t asked
where they’ve been taken and my heart skips a beat. I’m panicked.
“I know you said we’ll talk about this later but please, just
answer one thing.”

He sighs then snaps
impatiently, “What? What is it?”

“
My family. Are they safe? Where is my sister? Is that the
place where you’re taking me?” I rush out.

He looks annoyed.
“Firstly, that’s three questions and the answer to those questions
will result in a lot more questions. So the answer is no, I won’t
answer any of your questions right now.”