Bait

VII

My emotions were through the roof as I stood in the corner of the room with the Hulk and Mr C a mere two metres away from me. My heart was pounding, sweat was starting to bead across my forehead.

With our eyes locked, or my one eye locked on his two, my breath hitched as the man who I had come to fear, the man I had nightmares of was standing in the same room as me.

I had spent the last ten days holed up in this room thinking about what Mr C had planned for me and better still what he had looked like. My nightmares pictured him as a tall pudgy man with blank expressions and gold chains. Clearly i'd watched way too many cheesy mafia movies.

My assumptions were completely and utterly wrong as my eyes unlocked from his and drifted down his body. His features were sharp, striking and defined.

As my eyes ran, I noticed his chocolate brown hair that was perfectly styled, his mysterious dark eyes and as my vision lowered my breath hitched again.

Mr C was nothing like how I imagined, he wasn't chubby nor was he your typical mafia man. His body looked like it had been carved out of marble, his features were distinct and out of shock my jaw dropped. This man, his type, they only graced the covers of GQ magazines, they weren't a part of gangs.

Before my eyes fell on his torso and before drool could escape my now open mouth, I had been shaken from my daydream by the clearing of a throat, "you enjoying checking me out Ms Richards."

Shit, I had been caught in the act. Stumbling for words, I said the first thing that came to mind, "well you definitely don't look like the fat mafia man I pictured you as."

A grin took over Mr C's face and my heart swooned even more. "Well i'm definitely not a part of the mafia." Then he moved his eyes from me to the Hulk, "Lou, call Angelo and tell him we will reschedule our meeting." The Hulk or Lou as I had just found out nodded frantically and rushed out of the room. I almost laughed at how such a big man so easily cowered around the presence of Mr C.

"I swore his name was the Hulk," I mumbled. Mr C gave me a quizzical look and then doubled over laughing. In between laughs he was able to spit out "the Hulk? The massive green superhero? That's hilarious. I'm calling him that too."

I smiled, his accent wasn't Australian so where the hell was this guy from? Mr C didn't seem as scary as the hulk made him out to be.

Just as I had started to believe that maybe Mr C wasn't as bad as I imagined, he abruptly stopped laughing and his face went expressionless. "I believe I am yet to formally introduce myself to you, I'm Charles Westwood and you, Skyler Richards have a debt to pay."

So Mr C has a name; Charles Westwood. Sounds like a name out of a British sitcom if you ask me. As my mind ticked over what he had just said, one thing had made sense. CWest must stand for Charles Westwood. Geez this guy was cocky if he named a gang after himself.

The revelation of his name was the first insight into this gang however the last part of what Charles said brought a chill to my bones. "A debt? What debt? Tell me what's going on. I've been stuck in this hell hole for ten days. Ten excuritating days, i've barely been fed, i've been attacked. Why the hell are you keeping me." My voice had risen and as I had finished the last word, my voice was just below a scream.

I was angry, I had every right to be furious at these guys. They couldn't just kidnap me and not tell me what was going on. Yes, I was scared but I'd be an idiot if I didn't at least try to escape.

To my surprise Charles stepped forward and to even more of a surprise he actually began to talk, "your father made an enemy of me and before we had the chance to interrogate him, he'd been killed."