Limbo

What About Me?

ASHLEY:

I wiggle my fingers, trying to keep them from going completely numb from the rope that's wrapped around my wrists, and the rest of my torso, fastening me to the heavy office chair they dropped me into. Jinxx is in a similar state, several feet away, since Berridge seemed to think that there was too much chance that we could cook something up if we were too close together.

Fortunately we've both become fairly decent lip-readers from having to communicate over our instruments and crowd noise during shows, so when I'm sure that they're not paying attention, I look over at Jinxx and mouth, "Do you think they've called the cops yet?"

"Definitely," he replies. "But I doubt they'd use their sirens, so we'll probably be as surprised as these fuckers are when they show up."

We hear the text notification on my phone from the next room, and apparently he likes whatever he sees, because we can hear him chuckle. Almost immediately we can hear him talking to someone, but even though we're listening pretty intently, we can't quite make out what he's saying. A few seconds later he comes back into the room, with Jimmy right on his heels, and snaps his fingers, pointing to Melissa.

"Go find Jane," he orders. "Tell her to get everything together and come here as quickly as possible. We'll be needing her skills very soon now."

She drops her head down, looking toward the floor, and says, "Of course, milord." She then hurries out of the room while he stands there flipping my phone between his fingers and smiling.

When she's gone, he and Jimmy sort of grin at each other, and then he starts walking around the room, looking at me and Jinxx. After a few seconds, he says, "Your tall skinny friend is a mouthy little bastard, you know that, right?"

"Well, he's a singer, that's kind of in his job description," Jinxx retorts, earning a sarcastic smirk from our "host".

"Perhaps you're right, Mr. Ferguson," he replies. "But I will grant that he's reasonably clever, and apparently quite resourceful. I was certain that I'd need to send your friends a few fingers to motivate them, but they've already managed to find my medallion, so it appears that you'll get to keep them from the time being."

We pass a startled glance between the two of us, not quite sure we've heard him correctly. We turned the whole house upside down looking for the necklace and didn't find a fucking thing, so how did they suddenly pull it out of thin air? And if these crackpots didn't have it, where the hell did it go?

"Aww, that's too bad," Jimmy sneers. "I was hoping that you'd let me have the honor of taking them off. Especially with this wise-ass over here." He gestures at Jinxx as he speaks, shooting him a glare.

"Well, it's not like I'm the only one who called you out on the fact that you didn't know what the hell you were talking about," Jinxx snaps back. "It's hardly my fault that you didn't have enough sense to research your cover story a little better, Jimmy."

He sort of snarls and doubles up his fists, starting to move toward Jinxx, but Berridge holds up a hand, and he practically freezes in place. "No. I told you that you'll keep your hands to yourself until I give you permission to do otherwise, didn't I?"

Jimmy unclenches his fists and looks down at the floor, replying, "Yes, milord. But he and that scrawny professor bitch embarrassed me in front of everyone in the cafe. They laughed at me!"

"Consider it a learning experience, then, because he's absolutely correct. If you want to make someone believe what you tell them, then you have to acquire enough knowledge on the topic to be credible. You obviously failed to accomplish this, and what have I taught you about failure?"