Chapter 86

Lucky – (an hour before)

Red, as I am now calling her - since she won’t share her name with me, has come back into the room and carrying a phone stand with backlight attachment. Oh, right the video. Dread seeps through my veins like tar being poured on a road, the heat blazing down on it causing it to run.

“Now, Princess, I am going to press record soon,” she says as she places the tripod down and clicks her mobile into the holder. “I have a message for you to read out.”

“Difficult since I am chained up,” I retort with as much bravado as I can manage. “How am I supposed to read it?” She comes towards me and slaps me hard across my face. I know from the sting that there will be an imprint on my cheek.

“Don’t backchat me, Princess. I have paper to hold up. What do you think I am some kind of stupid idiot who will unchain you? You will do as I say and read from the paper sheets I hold up. One wrong move and you will be shot on camera. Then we will see who comes to scrape your brains up off the bed,” she snarls at me.

My stomach is twisted in knots, the bile is acid in my stomach threatening to seep up into my throat. I swallow it down as the sweat begins to form on my back and between my breasts. The door behind her is closed but not locked. Not much use to me since she won’t unchain me from the bed. All I need is for her to make one slip up.

“Where are we anyway?” I ask her.

“What does that matter? You don’t need the details.”

“It would make me feel better,” I reply.

“Tough shit,” only the way she says shit is more like sheat.

Red moves to the side of the tripod and holds up a piece of white paper with big, black letters on it. “Can you read this?”

I nod, the least I say to her the better. I’m wasting valuable energy.

“You deliver, and I will bring you some food. We have to keep your energy up.”

“What for? You’re going to kill me anyway once you get what you want.” My voice is deflated. I already know I am fighting a losing battle.

She shrugs her slim shoulders. If I could just get off these damn chains, I wonder if I could take her out. Images of me in a gym flash through my mind. An expensive looking gym with a big guy coaching me. Self defense moves and boxing gloves. It seems that slice by slice my mind is trying to piece the puzzle back together again. At least my memory hasn’t completely gone.

“We start recording now,” she tells me as she turns towards her mobile and presses the big, red record button.

Then she holds up the first piece of paper.

“We have Lucky,” I read out loud from the first sheet. “And we will kill her on camera and send it to you, if you do not meet our demands.” I gulp not wanting to read the next sheet. The sweat is uncomfortable between my breasts, I want to wipe it away, only I can’t.

She discards the piece of paper and holds up a second sheet for me to read from.

“You will disappear from the New York scene and you will allow me to take over the business. It is after all my business too. You have no idea of my connection to you, but you will soon.”

What is this about? What business? New York? Is that where I come from? Why can’t I remember the simple things like where I come from, my real name and who the man is that my mind keeps bringing to the fore? Whoever he is, he must be rich and powerful. Perhaps he is in finance.

“If you want your Princess to come out of this alive, you have exactly forty-eight hours to reply and confirm that you will hand over the reins to me and disappear completely.”

She hits the red button to stop recording as soon as I have read the last word, and throws the paper to the floor.

“We are finished. You did okay. I will bring you something to eat.”

Could this be my chance? Or will she lock the door again behind her when she comes back in with the food? She’s going to have to unchain me and allow me to use my hands. That is unless she plans to spoon feed me.

I watch as she picks up the tripod, having first taken the mobile and placed it in her pocket. A few steps she is at the door. Red opens it and closes then locks it behind her.

The sound of the locking jars me, and again I left alone in this rat hole waiting for her to return. But whilst I wait, I can begin to plan how exactly I can distract her enough, to take the key and get the hell out of here.