The Bartender's Daughter

Chapter Twenty Five

         When I regained consciousness I snapped my eyes open and then immediately closed them again. My head felt like a bowling ball and my eyelids ten pound slabs of concrete each. Slowly, with my eyes still closed, I moved each finger and toe separately. What I concluded was that nothing was broken, I was still wearing my dress and shoes, and I wasn't tied to the chair I was sitting in, which was actually kind of comfortable given the circumstances.

  I opened my eyes again, this time more slowly, and looked around at my surroundings. I was in a small, windowless room, made of stone with worn wooden floors. There wasn't much in it; my chair and a desk and another table along the wall with a basket on it. My eyes found the door next and when I saw the two figures standing next to it I went cold.

  "Oh my god... You're alive..." I breathed, frozen in spot.

The two men who had sat in the gardener's kitchen, who I was afraid had died in the explosion, were standing right in front of me with loaded guns in their hands. They were dressed exactly the same in navy blue suits, and the same guy who had done all the talking in the kitchen still wore his signature fedora.

  The one in the fedora had scratches all over his face and a patch on his neck and seemed to be favoring his right leg, but the guy next to him looked a little worse. He had a patch over one eye and bandages on both of his hands. There was a long gash on his neck that had stitches in it, and cuts and scratches all over his face like the other guy. Both of their skin colors looked slightly pinkish and raw, scrubbed flesh. And their faces held pure hatred.

  "Yeah, no thanks to you sweetheart. We barely got out of there alive." The fedora man spat at me.

I flinched a little at his words, remorse and guilt washing over me. "I'm so sorry... You have to understand I didn't want to get taken away, and my intention was never to kill you!"

The man with the patch rolled his one eye which looked a little bit ridiculous, and I refrained from laughing, figuring it probably would have put me in worse circumstances than I was already in. "I'm sure it wasn't."

  "Please you have to understand-"

  "We understand our orders which is stand here and watch you to make sure you don't go anywhere. And if you start getting unruly, I can go show you what's in that basket over there. Do you understand?" Fedora man said calmly.

  I turned a little and looked at the basket and was suddenly terrified. There was no way for me to get out of here, no one knew where I was. The party upstairs would be too loud for anyone to hear me if I screamed, if I was still even at the mansion. I felt tears forming in my eyes but I held them back. I would never show these two men any kind of weakness. I was the bartender's daughter and I did not go down without a fight.

  "Yes, I understand." I said softly, easing back into my chair. I understood. Understood that who ever walked out that door was going to have to put up a hell of a fight to get there.

I have no clue how long I sat in that room, having the worlds longest stare down with Fedora and Eye Patch until I felt my leg cramping and I had to stand up.

  "Sit back down." Eye Patch barked at me, moving his gun in my general direction.

I raised my hands defensively, flexing and unflexing my leg. "Relax, my leg was just cramping a little okay? I just need to stretch it out."

His eyes narrowed but he lowered his gun as I massaged my calf. Charlie Horses were no fun; I needed to eat more bananas. I sat back down on the edge of my chair and took off my shoes, wiggling my toes. Like I said before, heels may look glamorous but they could really hurt after a while.