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25
KAYLA
There was a good chance I was going to die here.
I tried not to think about it, not to allow the despairing thoughts to take over as day by day, my existence became more precarious. They had me in a steel box, and it was hard to calculate time, but I knew I must have been here for about two days, and with each day that passed, my captors grew more impatient, although they never told me what exactly it was they wanted.
The day they took me, I woke up tied to the metal bars inside a make-shift cell. One of the men dressed in black was standing outside my cell, and he didn’t have his ski mask on. Still, I could only see the back of his head. It was shorn short, and he had a tattoo of a snake on his neck.
I opened my mouth instinctively to ask for help, but then I had a coughing fit. My throat felt as dry as a desert. The man who looked to have a black eye and a broken nose-looked back at me when I made the sound, and without a word, he turned and headed down a long dark hallway leading to nothingness. I tried to call out for him, but it only led to a full-blown coughing fit that I could feel right in my chest.Water…I gasped, taking in breaths between hacking coughs.I needed water.
Footsteps announced the man’s return even before he reappeared in front of me, holding a small cup of water. He held it out to my mouth, cupping his hands under it. I hadn’t expected the kindness, and I hesitated before drinking it, wondering if it was poisoned. But they would have no reason to poison it. There were easier ways to kill me now that I was completely under their power, so I leaned in for the cup, gulping down the water. Unfortunately, some of it went down the wrong pipe, and I started coughing once again.
“Easy,” the guard said. Despite his tough appearance, his voice was surprisingly soft. “Don’t take it all in one go. Sips.”
I adjusted and did as he said, finding that the liquid went down my throat much easier.
“Thank you,” I murmured when he pulled the cup away. My voice still sounded hoarse and croaky, but at least I could form words now.
“Where am I?” I asked.
He shook his head. “The boss will see you soon,” he said before going back to stand at his post.
“Who’s the boss?” I asked. “What does that mean?”
He didn’t answer me again, and with a sigh, I stopped trying, orienting myself to my surroundings instead. There was a single window in the cell I was in, but it was damn near the ceiling with light rays passing above my head.
Outside the cell, there was a row of lightbulbs lighting down a dark path to the hallway, and there was nothing else in the room of value except for a few crates stacked in the corner.
I took it in, and the direness of my situation sunk into my brain in terrifying increments.
I couldn’t remember much of what happened in the car after the smoke bomb was thrown, but I recall hearing some sounds of bullets and scuffling right before I passed out completely. It had been one of the scariest experiences in my life, losing control of my body as it slowly shut down despite my best efforts to move. Pretty soon, my consciousness slipped away, too, such that I couldn’t even fight against it. And then I had woken up here.
What the hell did they want from me? Who took me? Was it my father?
I should have known better than to trust him. Everything he said had rung of honesty, but the man was probably an expert liar. I wondered if they had taken Monty too, or worse…if they had killed him. At this moment, I thought sounds of a battle slipped into my subconscious. If he had been outnumbered…The last thought was one that almost caused me to despair, but instead, I shook my head.No. No way. Monty was strong. There was no way he would have been killed like that. He was still alive. Hehadto be.
If he wasn’t in here with me, it meant he was trying to find a way to save me, and I had to stay alive until he did. But in the meantime, I had to figure out information that could help me get out of here. After all, I had escaped my father’s men before. I could do it again.
I was just happy we decided against bringing Hunter with us on this impromptu trip, or he would have been taken too.
The other good news was that I was still alive, which meant they didn’t want me dead yet. Now, I just had to figure out why.
“Excuse me?” I called out, and the man standing outside the cell glanced at me briefly before glancing away.
“Why did you take me?” I asked. “You should know I have no money or connections whatsoever, so I couldn’t pay a ransom even if I wanted to.”
Although I knew if it was a ransom they wanted, between Monty and his friends, they could probably work up the money. Still, I didn’t want my kidnappers to know that right off the bat.
“We’re not interested in your money,” the man replied.
Rather than relieve me, that only made me more worried. “Then why did you take me? Did my dad ask you to do this? Is this his way of making sure I never leave him again the way my mom did? ” It would break my heart to think my father set me up again, but I had to know.
But from the blank look on the man’s face, he had no idea what I was talking about either. Or maybe he was just good at hiding information.
“Why did you take me?” I asked again. If I knew why, perhaps I could talk my way out of it, have them see that taking me would not benefit them in any way. I was simply a nobody after all.
Instead of responding, the man simply said, “The leader will see you soon.”
