Stolen (Book 1 of the Greed series)

Chapter 3: Breaking and Exiting

Mark took a deep, shaky breath before answering the phone. A look of pain flashed across his face as he all of a sudden looked so humbled by Josh, but I can completely understand why. Josh always made me feel horrible, and he was excellent at what he did. Trust me, I'd know. 

"Hello?" Mark asked into the phone, his face full of nerves but his voice normal. It didn't take long for me to realize he had put it on speaker. 

"Mark! I thought you weren't going to answer for a second; what a shame that would be." I cringed as I heard that one voice that I knew too well, too well for my own good. Joshua Callahan held me hostage for longer than a week and in that amount of time we'd managed to actually learn about each other; and I discovered he's a psychopath. 

"What's the deal, Callahan?" Mark asked, probably fed up. I shivered as I heard his voice once again.

"Well, Marie would like to speak with you for a moment." Joshua said. What? No! He never let me talk on the phone when we were together! I thought. Mark's face relaxed but he looked shocked, none the less. 

"What?" He breathed in disbelief. All of a sudden a very frail, wavering voice came on the phone.

"Mark?!" She yelled, and Mark fumbled to turn the phone off speaker and then pressed it to his ear as if it would save her. It wouldn't. He closed his eyes and I replayed her voice saying his name over and over again.

Mark. It sounded all wrong in her mouth. I mouthed his name when I was sure he wasn't looking. I wonder how it sounds coming out of my mouth. I glared in his direction when his face suddenly became very sorrowful. He pulled the phone away and clicked it back on speaker phone and I cringed. I wasn't ready to hear Joshua's voice again...Mark closed his eyes, possibly thinking the same.

"I hope you liked your reunion." Josh said sarcastically. "Because, it won't be happening again. She’s a bit aggravating, I don’t know how you put up with her. Probably because she’s pretty." I laughed quietly, it sounds so much like Josh, even though he wouldn't dare say a thing like that about me. He's delusional.

"Get to the point, Callahan. What do you want me to do with her?"  

"As of right now? Get to know her, Mark! Andromeda certainly is an interesting person. I want you to know about her, I want you to befriend her." He stopped and chuckled deeply. “I want it to hurt you and her when I decide what exactly it is that I want done. I want you to feel guilt.”

"Guilt? Why would there be guilt?" Mark asked.

"In time, dear friend-" 

"I am not your friend." Mark yelled. A brave move for someone whose beloved girlfriend is about to be murdered, and Josh knew it. 

"Enough. Your attitude bores me." He paused. "It leads to disobeying. And, as of right now, you're my first ally, making you, by default, a friend. But there's time for that later! As of this second, I want to speak to Andromeda." My eyes widened as I frantically shook my head at Mark, I mouthed 'Tell him I'm not here!' before I had a shiny phone shoved in my face. Of course, I couldn't hold it, so Mark stood there holding it for me. He clicked the speaker off and put his hand up to my face. At first, I thought he was going to hit me, but that was just a little technicality.

 "H-hello?" I stuttered.

 "Andromeda!" Joshua yelled. "How have you been?" 

"My name is Anna." I snapped. "And peachy. Life is great. But you wouldn't care about that, would you, Josh?" I ranted and ranted forever. Josh never cares about hostages. I bet Marie probably lost 10 pounds living with him from not eating.