Carissa
God my headis killing me. What the hell happened? I’d been doing my hair while Mary went to get us some soda when I heard glasses break. I can’t remember anything after that.
My arms hurt, too. I try to move them, only to find resistance. They’re tied to something. I finally force my eyes open, only to squint, the light hurts. Oil-burning lamps are all around. I blink and look around. I’m in a basement somewhere, with fluorescent lights overhead. Dark and damp concrete walls meet my vision.
“What the hell?”
Someone whimpers behind me. “Carissa, are you okay?”
Mary? I turn my head, but a stone pillar stands between us. I can’t see her. I think our hands might be joined. I feel skin against mine.
“Mary? What happened?”
She groans. “That psycho woman and some men broke into our place. I tried to warn you but couldn’t. They knocked us out. I have no idea where we are.”
I look around, this place isn’t big. They’re not here with us now. I can’t believe Donna did this. I didn’t do anything. I hadn’t reported the altercation I saw with her and that man. I hadn’t even said anything to her about it, and yet she’s pulled all of this shit. And for what? Some now worthless chips?
My heart hammers. Knox has no idea what happened. He’ll be waiting to go on our date. Will we be killed before he or someone else finds us? My life was just starting to look up with him in it, I don’t want it to end now before it could even really start. I wanted to get to know him better. I wanted to hear stories about my dad. I wanted to have sex with him countless more times. Hell, I think I might even be forming feelings for him.
I need to get Mary out of here as well. She by far doesn’t deserve any of this, she wasn’t even involved.
I try to move my hands, but they’re on either side of the pillar. I have no way of trying to undo our binds. I try to look and see what it is, but I can’t crane my neck enough. “Are you okay? Do you know what’s tying us together?”
She groans more. “I think my head is hurt and one of my shoulders might be dislocated. I can’t tell. My arms feel like they’ve gone to sleep. I think they might be zip-ties. I came to as they were putting them on and recognized the sound but pretended to still be out. They’re making a plan to kill and dispose of us. They think you’ll snitch on them. They sound cracked out to me.”
That’s not reassuring at all. We’re supposed to take drug tests every month to be able to work at the casino, but that doesn’t mean anything. For all I know she could’ve been using fake pee, or who knows. They’ve never watched over my shoulder while I took my drug test, I could’ve done any number of things to pass a piss test if I wasn’t clean. Las Vegas has drugs on every block. It’s not hard to get anything you might want.
“Do you think you can move your arms at all? At least one of them? I know how to get out of them. We just need to pull down and apart at the same time. I used to play with them all the time as a kid. With enough force they snap no matter how thick they are. Thank god one of my uncles loved using them for all sorts of things. He always had a ton on hand and me and my friends would tie each other up and see who could get out of them the fastest.”
“I don’t know, but I’ll try.”
“Okay on the count?”
A door squeaks open and feet thunder down a set of wooden stairs to my right. Shit.
I watch as two men come down followed by Donna. Disgust rolls in my gut for her. This has all happened because of her.
She comes to stand in front of me. “I see you’ve finally woken up.”
She kicks me in the side and I wince, but I won’t give her the satisfaction of showing that I’m in pain. “Why are you doing this, Donna? I haven’t done anything to you. I thought we were friends. Then you frame me for fraud and now this? What do you think will come of this?”
She snorts. “Friends? We ain’t never been friends. You always thought you were better than me. I saw the look you gave me when I told you I slept with patrons for tips.”
I frown. “I didn’t care. What you do in your own time is your business. I slept with a patron the next night. I’ve never judged you, Donna. I thought you were fun until this shit.”
She crouches and slaps me in the face. My skin stings to high heaven. “Lies!”
I look at her. “What did you think would come from stealing the chips? Was it just to get me banned from the Bellagio, or did you think you can cash them now? They’re worthless. All of them. They were deemed valueless the second they left the casino.”
One of the men comes over to Donna. “What does she mean they’re valueless now?”
Donna stands. “She doesn’t know what she’s talkin’ about. It’s fine. We wait a couple of weeks, you two can go in, get a room. Play a couple tables and we’ll slowly cash them over the week. Make a hundred grand. I told you this would work. I ain’t stupid.”
I snort. “Google it. It’s called RFID, it’s used in all chips worth a value of a hundred or more. Even the lower denominations have serials. Every single chip you took has been reported as stolen. The second you return it you’ll be caught and arrested.”
She kicks me in the gut with her boot. “Shut up!”
This time a wheeze leaves me. I don’t know if she broke ribs, but it feels like she did.
