AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The light flashes in my eyes and I’m forced to look to the side. I watch one of the men behind the one filming me.
“My…” I try to swallow, realizing how thirsty I am. “My name is Elisabeth Delacroix. I…” My throat tightens as reality hits me. “I was taken from my house during the night.” My eyes burn with tears, but I swallow them back. Their leader wants them, and I will do anything but give them to him. I squeeze my eyes shut, opening them to find the same image before me. Everything is tilted since I’m lying down on my side. “My ransom is two point four million dollars in one-hundred-dollar bills. It fits into a twenty-five by eighteen by four-inch suitcase.”
There’s a long silence before the man holding the phone turns the camera off.
“No tears, then?” he asks.
The leader chuckles. “They’ll come, don’t worry. Send that to her dad with the coordinates of where he should drop off our money. Tell him he’s got forty-eight hours.”
Forty-eight hours.And then what?
My father will have found me before then. He must.
The guy with the phone taps for a minute and sends the message. “Done.”
“Nice. Let’s go for some food. We can come back when we hear from him.”
My heart stops. They’re just going to leave me here? I press my lips together and take a deep breath through my nose. Just before he leaves, the leader comes by my head, grabs my shoulders, and rolls me onto my back.
“I love to have those nice tits of yours on display.”
My nostrils flare, knowing how noticeable my boobs are through the transparent lace. He looks down at them, and I want to die at the fact that my nipples tighten.
It’s the cold. We’re in the middle of winter and this is clearly an abandoned house. That’s why.
He seemingly thinks otherwise in the way his mouth twists into a sick smile. He doesn’t say anything, however. He just leaves me alone on the bed and walks away. The lock clicking tells me there’s no reason to even get up and try to get out. I’m stuck here.
I’m not sure for how long they’re gone. It feels like less than an hour. I’m dozing in and out of sleep when the door slams open and they all walk back in in a hurry.
“Daddy’s calling,” the leader tells me. “Be a good girl and show him how frightened you are.”
One of them grabs me by the hair to sit me back up, making me wince in the process. I’m sick of being manhandled by these brutes.
The telltale of a video call being answered shocks me. I thought it was a voice call, but it’s my father’s hard face on the screen.
Everything I remember about the training kicks in at once. I take a deep, long breath as I assess my father’s stern eyes. I know what he expects of me.
“I’m in an abandoned house. Red bricks. Boarded windows. There are four of them. Their leader has an American accent, broad build, brown eyes. Armed. They’re wearing—”
That’s all I get in before the one holding the phone hangs up.
“Stupid bitch,” he shouts at me. He rears his arm back, ready to slap me. I close my eyes, waiting for the brutal hit, but nothing comes. When I open them, I see the leader holding his wrist in a tight grip.
“It’s alright,” he says calmly. “I’m sure Elisabeth simply didn’t understand how serious we were being. She thinks this is a little game. After all, two point four million is nothing to her, right?”
His brown eyes flick to me, and I can’t stand his stare, dropping mine to my lap.
“You don’t understand,” I whisper, my voice trembling. “He won’t give you anything.”
“Not if you make it look like you’re on a fucking vacation to Cabo, no.” He gives a look to two of the others and they leave the room.
“See,” the leader says as he comes to stand right by my side. “This isn’t our first rodeo, but I have a feeling it’s yours. You’re being brave. You’re the daughter of a politician, and you were probably trained for this since you were a little girl.” Still standing, his hand comes to caress my hairline. “Forget about what they told you. Nothing can prepare you for this. Nothing can prepare you for me. I asked you to do something, and you didn’t. I told you I wanted tears and fear, and you denied me. Now I have no choice but to hurt you. It truly is unfortunate, Elisabeth. We could have done this the easy way.”
I can feel the way my heart is begging to be let out of my chest, and I can’t seem to calm it down. Cold sweat starts pearling at the back of my neck as I look up at him.
“I know my father,” I push past my tight throat. “Tears won’t convince him to give you money. At this point, he will only care about destroying you.”
The door to the room opens again, and two of them come in carrying a giant bucket. They put it right next to the leader’s feet. I eye the water and the ice floating in it.
