Mr. Lawson's Assistant

Chapter 36

Pedro and the men left, but not before they retied my gag and checked my zip-ties.
When the door closed, I let the gag drop from my mouth, and spit on the ground. Fortunately, when they had retied my gag, I was smart enough to shove my tongue up against my lips, leaving the gag loose when I let my tongue fall. I'd seen that on Pinterest once.
Switching my attention to the zip ties, I leaned forward, and suddenly, something inside my bra shifted. Frowning, I tried to look inside my dress and see what it was, before my mind clicked.
My phone!
Whoever had kidnapped me hadn't check my bra when they tied me up.
Glad to know they didn't check my boobs while I was out.
I thought with a snort. At the party, I had slipped my phone into my bra so I wouldn't have to carry it while I danced.
Grunting, I twisted my hands back and forth against the zip-ties, hoping to rub one free, but nothing happened. I grimaced against the pain, but kept pulling, hoping they would give. Not only were my wrists burning, but my cheeks were still stinging from the slaps. As much as I had pretended not to be bothered by the contact, it had really hurt. I prayed that Pedro didn't come back before I escaped.
If I escaped.
It made me feel sick to think of seeing Pedro again.
For the next ten minutes I kept my mind occupied by trying to loosen the zip-ties around my wrist, until blood started to trickle down my arms and into my swollen hands. And even then, the ties wouldn't budge.
Blowing out a breath, and leaning back in the rusty chair, I closed my eyes, fighting back tears.
Stop it Oana! Now is not the time to have a mental breakdown!
I chided myself, blinking in dismay when a few stray tears slid down my cheeks.
On my chest, my phone vibrated, and I glanced down to see David's picture flash across my screen.
He was calling me!
Wriggling against the zip ties with renewed energy, I tried to grab my phone with my teeth, when I realized that my hands were too numb, but to no avail.
Finally, the phone fell silent, and I let out a small, dismayed whimper.
Biting my lower lip, I coughed against the dispair that tugged at my chest.
Keep it together!
I told myself. Giving one last jerk to my zip ties, I huffed out a frustrated breath and dropped my chin to my chest. After a moment, I lifted my head and glanced around the warehouse. Tossing my head, I let my loose hair fall behind my shoulders, and continued surveying the large room. The windows were still too high to escape from, even if I did manage to get free, but I'd cross that bridge when I reached it. Spotting something relatively shiny on the complete opposite side of the room, I clenched my jaw. I'd read once that anything sharp or skinny could be shoved inside of a zip-tie to free the locking mechanism.
Shoving myself forward, I started to pull myself and the chair across the room, one small shuffle at a time. Not even five or six regular steps from where I had started, my legs were burning and my ankles were raw from the ties. I paused every few minutes to catch my breath, then continued forward. I didn't know when Pedro would be back next, but I didn't want to be here when he did. He was clearly a dangerous man, not one to mess with.
Even though his looks suggest otherwise.
I scoffed, panting as I struggled forward.
Suddenly, the sound of the door opening across the room brought me to a stop, and I panicked. I was clearly halfway across the room now.
At that moment, two of the men that had been with Pedro earlier walked into the room. In a split second they recognized that I'd moved.
One of them started growling in Spanish, and the other shook his head at me. The second one was carrying a small bag of food, but upon orders from the first man, he left it by the door.
"Where you go?" The big man snapped at me, his voice heavily accented. Crossing the room to get to me, he yanked the back of my chair, and started hauling me to where I had been a few hours ago.
"No! Stop!" I struggled against the ties again, hissing when my wrists stung at the movement. The second man watched with his arms crossed.
When the bigger man had brought me to the center of the room again, he barked something to the other man, and the smaller one turned to leave. I watched him grab the food and walk out, before my eyes switched to the man in front of me.
"Let me go!" I pleaded, not caring whether or not he understood. Instead of answering me, he met my plea with a hard backhand to the face. Grunting, I held my breath, glaring at the ground, as he shouted something at me in Spanish. "I can't understand you!" I screamed, flinching when he raised his arm to slap me again.
By now I was sure my face was burning red. The man muttered something else in Spanish, before spit at my feet, turned on his heel and left.
Sitting in the silence again, the only thing that I could hear was my labored breathing, as I tried in vain to supress my tears.
Finally, I gave in, and tears rolled down my cheeks onto my chest, and into my lap. I didn't know what was going to happen. Either way, it wasn't going to end well. Everyone knew how ransoms work. They kidnap someone, get their money by threatening to kill them, then kill them anyways. I just wished that if I was going to die, Damon and Greyson wouldn't be two million in the hole for it.
*
I couldn't tell how long I was in the warehouse, but I feel asleep several times, and even started shuffling across the room again.
Each time I would get close to the shiny thing, which turned out to be a nail, one of Pedro's men would catch me and put me back. Yet, I still kept shuffling back towards the nail. I had to keep myself from going crazy somehow.
Through the small safety windows in the top of the warehouse walls, I had been able to figure that I'd been inside for two nights so far. Which meant that it would be Tuesday.
I jerked my way across the room, pausing every second or two to relieve the pain of the zip ties against my raw legs and wrists. The blood had since dried up, and now my skin was just sore and raw. From what I had gathered, Pedro's men came everyday at noon and sometimes either in the morning or in the evening, but never more than twice. Over the two days I'd been stuck here, they had only given me a half a sandwich yesterday.
My stomach growled. Ignoring it, I pulled myself forward a few more inches, glancing up to the door as if expecting the men to come in and cart me back to the starting point. Not seeing or hearing anything,
I let out a breath, shuffling forward a little more. The screw was closer to me now than it had ever been, but I wasn't letting my hopes up.
I moved forward another half-step. Leaning back on the chair to rest my legs and my back, I closed my eyes for a moment, letting my thoughts wander. For the millionth time, the pictures that Pedro had shown me came to the front of my mind.
Someone had been stalking us the entire time... How had he even known where we were?
More importantly, was he right about Damon?
I opened my eyes, not ready to confront those thoughts. Lifting myself forward, I slid the chair another few inches towards the screw.
Minutes later, I reached the screw, and my heart was pounding. I couldn't reach it from how I was tied, so I decided to take desperate measures. Sucking in a breath, I tossed my weight sideways, and grunted as I slammed into the concrete floor on my side. I moaned and coughed from the lack of air in my lungs, and grimaced at the pain in my left arm that the chair had landed on, but after a moment, I blinked and cleared my vision. Seeing how much I needed to adjust to reach the screw with my right hand, I scooted my chair backwards a few inches. Feeling around for the screw, I sent a thankful prayer heavenward when I grasped it in my fingers, and pointed it at the zip ties. Beginning to shove it into the plastic, I breathed sharply when a pang went through my shoulder as the chair shifted on the floor.
Apparently, bullet wounds died hard.
Pursing my lips at the pain, I continued sawing at the plastic, a glimmer of hope rising inside me.
As the screw rubbed the tie around my wrists, I felt it starting to fray, and my heart surged.