Chapter 6

MELANIE.

MY FACE SWUNG TO THE SIDE FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME.

I’d stopped counting somewhere between 35 and 40, but it didn’t matter. It was going to be over soon. As if she’d read my thoughts Nadia (I’d learned her name after 20) stopped hitting me and blew out a frustrated breath.

“This isn’t working. The bitch won’t talk”, she bit out.

Her partner walked over to the little table where all the things they’d stripped from my body were placed and rifled through them.

“This doesn’t tell us anything. All she’s got are a shitload of weapons, a receipt for a teddy bear and a goddamn Twinkie”, he growled and they both shot me glares like I’d committed some sort of sin by carrying a snack.

I shrugged the best I could with my hands still tied and smirked through the blood dripping from my mouth.

“Girl’s gotta eat, but I can’t say the same for your anorexic ass though”, the last bit was directed at Nadia who took the bait like a good girl and came over to hit me some more.

I giggled hard as her hits jolted me slightly but not enough for what I needed so I decided to goad her some more by yawning even though the action stretched my split lip.

“This is getting boring. You hit like a girl”, I drawled and she let out a feral scream before proceeding to absolutely pummel me. I grit my teeth and bow down, consoling myself with thoughts of how much fun it would be to repay her the favor.

Finally, the little knife I’d been trying to jolt out of its tiny sheath in my sleeve by making Nadia punch the living daylights out of me and laughing hard fell into my palm just as she stepped away from me.

Satisfied, I allowed myself a private smile at my hard-won victory and began sawing at the ropes. Enrico had long since passed out, but that didn’t matter since I was only going to be busting my ass out of here so they don’t think we’re actually working together.

To distract them from what was going on behind their backs (figuratively) and mine (literally) I leveled them a stare until the man snapped, “What?”

I put on my best innocent face…

“I just have a small question. Are you two fucking?”, they both froze and Nadia turned to glare at me.

“What?” she said coldly.

“Y’know… Coitus? Intercourse? Dancing the fandango de pokum? Playing the basket hornpipe? Hide the-” I was cut off from listing other creative euphemisms for sex by the glance they gave each other before quickly looking away and a shit-eating grin spread over my face, making me wince. I totally called it.

“Ha. I knew it. Congratulations, man”, I smiled at the guy whose name I had yet to learn, and who refused to meet my eyes. My hard work paid off as the rope snapped but I kept my hands behind me. I wanted to get Nadia in close range to me again so I mused.

“I mean…unfortunate haircut aside, I’d do her too if she’s as bitchy in bed as she is out of it.”

Nadia narrowed her eyes and came at me, “Why, you little…”

She never got to finish her sentence as I sprang up from the chair, taking her to the ground with me. I hit her with a punch that was sure to disorient her then swung to the size to evade her partner’s brass knuckled fist.

From my position on the ground, I swept out a leg and knocked him off balance. He went down like a felled tree.

I tsked at Nadia as I got up and went over to the table to re-sheathe my weapons and put on my own brass knuckles.

“You really shouldn’t let things get under your skin so easily. You’d be a liability in real combat. Now, let’s have some fun, shall we?”.

I walked back over to her and hauled her into the chair I’d recently occupied. I’d memorized her style by this time, so every single hit she’d landed on me was filled in my head like a really bad choreography.

To test out my brass knuckles, I landed the first few punches in the same style and on the same areas she’d landed mine, satisfied when I heard the crunch of cartilage.

I was about to go to town on her when I caught the glint of a camera in a recessed corner of the ceiling. I swore…

Whoever was manning the cameras now knew I was free, which meant they’d be coming for me any second and I needed to get out now. Regretfully I stepped back, giving her a baleful look as she moaned and swiped at the blood running from the slit in her cheek.

“I hope we meet again someday so I get to punch your lights out and stomp on you”.

With that, I made for the heavy iron door and shoved it open, now finding myself in a long corridor with pathways branching in various directions.

I decided to go with my gut and head straight down, knowing I was almost out of time. I peeked into other corridors as I passed, seeing little to no security.

Finally I came to an open door through which I could see a staircase and I groaned. Elevators were invented 1880, yet humans still choose to be backward.

“Where was the progressiveness?”, I wondered as I started up the long flight of stairs.

I was still muttering about the injustice of it all when I finally got to the landing where I was met with - oh yay- another door.

I tried the handle and it was locked.

“Why, oh, why couldn’t these people just make it easy for me?”.

Sighing, I lowered my battered body to my knees and took my lock-picking tools out of my thigh sheath and got to work jiggling and shimmying until I heard a click. I put away my tools and got up staring at the door.

I briefly considered kicking the door open all dramatic but discarded it almost immediately. Not knowing what could be waiting for me on the other side (and it could be nothing, please, God or whatever celestial beings are listening right now).

I slid two daggers out of their sheaths near my ribs and once again blinked at the absurdity of someone who could inspire that kind of fear in Enrico having a door with a lock that was so easily picked.

“What kind of incompetent half-wit runs this shit-hole?” I muttered aloud as I swung the door open, barely stopping myself before I ran right into someone standing on the opposite side.

I raised my daggers to defend myself but before I could so much as look up they were out of my hands and I felt my back pressed against a chest with arms that felt like iron bands locking mine in place at my sides.

My latest captor leaned down until his mouth was level with my ear and I caught a whiff of sandalwood and expensive cologne and it was so jarringly familiar, I let myself breathe it in for a second.

“That incompetent half-wit would be me”, he growled making shivers run down my spine.

I twisted around the best I could until my brown eyes met his green ones and I stiffened.

Oh shit…