Caught Unaware

Chapter 35

AMELIA CERSHAW

LOCATION: UNKNOWN

A hard slap jarred Amelia into consciousness. Immediately her head rang, amplified by the ache the tranquilizer left as the effect wore off. She reached up to clutch the sides of her head when she realized her hands were cuffed behind her back. She looked around and saw she was in a hotel room. Its beige carpet was just as lifeless as the beige walls that contained it. A window was at her back and she was beside a bed whose blanket was in shambles.

The high-backed wooden chair she found herself seated in had no cushion beneath her. Her feet were tingling from the low circulation that slowly traveled through them, protesting against the length of time she had been sitting and restricting the airflow. Everything ached. Her hands ached from being cuffed, her arms from their position behind her back. Her back hurt from being slumped over and her head...

Amelia glanced up at the figure who delivered the assaulting blow to her face.

"Look at me like that again, girl, and I don't care how valuable you are to the boss, I'll tear you apart," the man, clad in dark jeans, a black shirt that stretched across his impressively detailed torso and military-grade black boots threatened her. Amelia slowly let her eyes drift off the sneering man's face in her own manner of defiance.

"Where am I?" she demanded. Somewhere in her depths she knew she should be terrified. But, though her heart beat fiercely against her rib cage, she felt more furious than afraid. He had invaded her personal space. She hadn't heard him. Casey hadn't heard him. And if she was weak, maybe this guy would rip into her just for the sake of it. Best not to be a victim here.

"Where ever I damn well please, girl," the man answered without answering her. "Not another sound or I'll gag you as well."

"Will you at least allow me to use the restroom?" Amelia asked.

"Piss yourself for all I care, girl. You're not leaving my sight and as appealing as some people may find it, water play isn't really my thing."

Amelia grimaced at his foul words and scoffed.

"It's not sexual, it's a bodily nee-"

Her words earned her another vicious slap across the face, almost knocking her out of the chair. Her eyes filled with unbidden tears and she cried out, quickly biting her lip as she righted herself to cut off the sound that she suspected gave him a bit of satisfaction to hear.

"As I said, girl. No more sounds."

Amelia stopped a Casey-like growl of frustration from escaping her mouth. She spit the blood that had welled up in her mouth to the ground, hoping against hope he didn't knock any teeth loose.

She got the hint. Turning to look at her abductor, she observed a man who had had a pretty rough life. His face had minute scaring on it, from fights or whatever that involved pretty minor but bloody wounds. /His nose was a little crooked, a break that wasn't fixed quite right it seemed. He sat on the edge of the unmade bed and glanced at his watch. He rose back up on his feet, paced and looked out the window behind her while Amelia cautiously watched him through the mirror that hung on the wall facing her before he sat back down.

"I wanted to wait till the sun came up before delivering you, girl, but you are proving too much of a pain to deal with even for a few more hours."

The man plucked his phone from his pocket and dialed a number before holding the phone up to his ear.

"It's Gomez. Yeah I know what time it is. Don't much see the point of waiting till later to tell you all about our golden girl, here, boss. You know my room number, come get her." A muffled voice was cut off when Gomez disconnected the call.