Cartel Love (James Valdez)

Kidnapping

I slammed the door behind me after getting into our so called house which was more like a palace. All these rich bitches in school annoyed the fuck out of me today. I threw all of my stuff on the floor while shouting to our maid Mila that I'm home. I shivered when my feet made contact with the cold floor. Mila didn't answer me, so I walked slowly into the kitchen which was at the end of our entrance hall. I couldn't see her in the big white kitchen, so I walked around our counters to get myself a glass of water. Suddenly my feet touched something warm. Slowly I let my eyes wander to the ground , afraid of what I would see. I felt the strong urge to vomit when I saw our maid Mila lying on the floor in her own blood. And that's what I did. I vomitted right next to her, my eyes began to fill with water and I had goose bumps all over my body. I was hot and cold at the same time. She was lying there with her eyes open and it seemed like she was staring right into my eyes. Someone shot her in the head.  I felt vomit coming up my throat again. I felt like I couldn't breathe anymore, my heart thudded in my chest and it felt like somebody was choking me.

I had to get away. I couldn't look at Mila any longer. But I knew that they weren't here because of her. They were here because of me. They wanted me and they were here, they shot the woman who practically raised and they probably wanted to shoot me too.

I knew that my dad had a gun in one of these kitchen counters, I had to get this gun and then get out of this fucking house. But deep inside of me I knew that I had no chance. Suddenly I heard the familiar sound of someone loading their gun behind me. Ten seconds passed and then twenty and thirty before I could get myself to catch one last deep breath and turn around slowly. I clenched my fists trying to release all the fear I had inside of me until I felt warm blood running down my hands. When I turned around I looked directly into a caliber. My heart stopped beating for some moments and I closed my eyes knowing that these would be my final breaths. I couldn't think about anything but all of the wonderful things I would be missing in life just because my dad decided to be a drug dealer.

Moments passed which felt like years. Nothing happened. Then after what felt like an eternity I heard a deep voice: "Get on your fucking knees." I obeyed and slowly got on my knees. The cold metal of the gun touched my forehead and I carefully opened my eyes. I looked at the guy holding the gun. He had dark hair, a small tattoo on the right side of his neck and he was wearing a black leather jacket and black Ray-Ban pilot glasses. I saw three more men standing behind him. I had no chance. So I closed my eyes again waiting for my own death. But that didn't happen. "Put your hands behind your back. Now!", the same voice demanded and I obeyed again. I felt someone putting handcuffs around my hands and eventhough this wasn't my first time in handcuffs, it was definitely the scariest time.

And that was when I knew. They didn't want to kill me. Even worse. They wanted to kidnapp me. My dad told me so many times how I should behave when somebody tried to kidnapp me. But my head was empty and I couldn't think of anything. I knew what was going to happen next. They would press a fabric with narcotic substance on my mouth until I fainted. And that's exactly what they did. My whole body got hotter and hotter. I tried to scream and shout but the fabric muted me. Once again my heart began to race eventhough I believed it couldn't race any faster. I tried to resist, my body squirmed under all of the pressure. And then suddenly everything went black and the last thing I knew was that I lose.

When I woke up my head hurt, my chest hurt, my whole body seemed to hurt. I tried to open my eyes but I immediately closed them again because it just hurt too much. My eyes felt as heavy as metal. I tried to move but my hands and feet were cuffed to the chair I was sitting on. I tried to scream but I had tape on my mouth. After some tries I finally made it to open my eyes. It was pretty dark, there was only a small window on one side of the room I was in. When my eyes got used to the darkness, I recognized that it was more like a big cage. They captured me in a cage like a fucking animal in the zoo. I wanted to scream so badly but I just couldn't.

After a while I heard steps coming in my direction. Someone turned on the lights and again my eyes needed a while to get used to it. The same guy that was in my home dialed a number and the same deep voice said: "Tell Camila that Poppy woke up." The guy didn't say anything to me. He was just standing in front of me, smoking a cigarette and looked me up and down. So I allowed my eyes to wander around. But besides the chair I was sitting on there was nothing in this cage. The dude still stared at me, so I decided to stare back at him. He was wearing black jeans, a black shirt and the same black leather jacket he was wearing when he almost shot me.

After some minutes I heard high heels clacking on the ground. A tall, dark-haired woman wearing a red bodycon dress entered the room. "Thank you, James.", she said. So the guy's name was James. Then she turned to me: "Poppy, Poppy, Poppy... You were always a pretty child but now look at you, such a beautiful grown woman..." She gave James a sign, so he walked up to me and ripped the tape from my mouth. It hurt like shit but I didn't want to give them any satisfaction by making them think they could hurt me. "Now tell me, Poppy. Where is your daddy?"

That's what this was all about. She wanted to know where my dad is. I tried to speak but my throat was too dry, I tried to clear it but it didn't work. "James, bring her some water!" James left the room, he was obviously her second man. Camila came up to me and slowly ran her fingers through my dark hair. I looked at her in disgust. What kind of psych was she? After some seconds James entered the room again with a glass of water in his hand. I was hoping that they would release me out of these fucking handcuffs so I could drink but they didn't. James  demanded once again: " Open your mouth!" I opened my mouth and he grabbed my hair to hold my head. Then he poured the water down my throat. I coughed and spit water all over my shirt.

But I could finally talk again. "Why should I tell you?" I tried to look at her as badass as I could and with no fear but that's really hard when you are cuffed to a chair in a cage like an animal. "Believe me, little Poppy. Sooner or later you will tell me. I will break you sooner or later. And I know that your dad will be here within minutes when he finds out that I kidnapped you and that I am keeping you here in a cage like my little slave, Poppy. James, give me her phone!" James walked around the chair and grabbed roughly at the back of my jeans to pull my phone out of my pocket. Then he grabbed my thumb and forced me to put it on the home button of my phone. He handed it to Camila who searched though it for some seconds and then held it in front of my face. I knew it. She facetimed my dad. She knew that I was my dad's only weakness since my mom's death. She knew that he would do anything for me and that he would give up anything for me.

I closed my eyes and prayed to god that my dad wouldn't answer the call. Some crucial moments passed until it ended because he didn't pick up. I let out a small sigh of relief. Camila gave me a derogative look: " Doesn't matter. I won't stop trying. " She turned around to walk out of the cage: "Uncuff her! And she won't get any food until tomorrow." James kneeled in front of me and uncuffed my legs first. When he came up again I could smell his scent. He smelled like smoke mixed with peppermint. He walked around me and fumbled at my ass to uncuff my hands. The feeling of being able to stand up and walk around was so liberating even if it was just in this fucking cage. James gave me one last look before he lit himself his next cigarette. "Could I have a drag?" He had a suprised look on his face. " Please, I really need that right now." Hesitantly he gave it to me. I brought the cigarette to my mouth and I took a long pull. The feeling of nicotine running down my throat and to my lung relaxed me a little bit. I handed the cigarette back to James while I let the smoke out of my mouth again. "Thank you." I gave him a little smile. James turned around, walked out of the cage and locked the door.

I knew that he was my way out of here.