64
— CLARISSA DEVOR —
I sat alone on the chair in the dining area, still shaking all over.
I told myself that Karl would never have this kind of effect on me again and now here I was, letting him get under my skin.
I nearly kicked myself for that.
The motherfucker had just left the dining area after another of his displays. What the hell did he mean by saying that Damien was going to play right into his trap? That was total crap. There was no way that he would be able to control him. Damien would find me before Karl even had the chance to do anything. He was going to regret this!
And yet, why did I feel a strange sick feeling creep up my spine with every passing moment? What if I missed something? What if he wasn't just all bluff?
His threats echoed in my head on repeat.
He was going to use me to control Damien. There was no telling as to what lengths he would go to now and suddenly, everything became clear to me.
He would simply tell Damien that he had to do certain things if he wanted to see me again. He would use me as a sort of bargaining chip and force Damien to agree to certain deals that would be outrageous on a normal day.
"Terrible!" I thought, groaning in frustration.
Why the hell did I allow myself to get captured in the first place? Now Damien would be forced into submission and it would be all because of me. I knew that it wasn't my fault, and I had no way to change what had already happened. But that didn't make me feel any better. I sighed deeply, not knowing what to do.
The world was falling apart and I was stuck in the middle of it.
A couple of men walked into the room. They wore small smiles seeing how upset I was.
“Well, well, well, look who is here,” one of them began, his smile growing wider by the second.
I stared daggers at him, annoyed. If he thought he could step over me just because he felt like he was above me at this moment, then I wasn't going to hesitate to teach him a lesson.
But what could I do, I thought in despair.
I was completely helpless, on my own. I was giving Damien a hard enough time already without giving them a reason to actually beat me up in the first place.
“Look at her, she's not so high and mighty now, is she?” another of them snorted.
It was even more annoying how he was obviously speaking directly to me and yet he chose to speak as though I was a third person.
“What do you people want?” I asked. I didn't have the strength to argue or fight with them right now.
“What do we want?” one of them repeated. “Not much, of course. We are simply here to take you back to the lower floor.”
I frowned. What was wrong with staying here? Or were they on their relentless search for trouble again?
“Your movements are restricted to the second floor,” another of the men reminded me.
“And so unless you have a visitor or the boss comes around, you have to stay there. After all, we don't want you getting any ideas that you can escape, because it's impossible.”
“Whatever,” I cut him off with a huff.
“I'll go myself.” Without another word, I stood up and rushed past them, still angry.
I was not going to let them follow me around like I was some sort of prisoner. Well, technically speaking, I was a captive here but not for long.
I could feel their gaze on me as they followed me downstairs anyway.
There was a tiny gate at the foot of the stairs, and once I walked past it, they closed it behind me and I could hear the click of a lock.
“What are you doing?” I snapped, turning back to face them. Were they locking me in here? Was that even legal? I had my own rights, didn't I? And I wasn't going to let anyone trample on them, captive or not.
“Restraining you,” the men echoed, sounding bored.
“Don't kick up a fuss now. You have the whole second floor to yourself. Maybe this is the first time you are getting kidnapped, but I can assure you that this is the best VIP treatment you could ever get anywhere,” the first man said, leaving a threatening edge to his voice that made me think twice about giving him a witty reply.
“Whatever,” I said again and stalked away. That was my safe word, the anti-bullshit word that ended the whole debate.
And that was probably also the word that was going to get me through this place. If they pissed me off too much, I was just going to say "whatever" and remind myself to stop talking.
It had worked well a good couple of times now.
I headed down the hallway. Most of the rooms were slightly open, and thinking about it now, it was probably because of me considering that I had decided to take a tour around the place before I went upstairs.
There was another flight of stairs leading downwards at the end of the hallway, and I took those. I was just going to make sure that what the man said was true.
It would really be a huge problem if I was actually trapped here. I hated the feeling of being trapped; it made me feel weak, helpless. And thinking about it now, that was probably the reality.
As I arrived at the foot of the stairs, I made my way forward. To my disappointment, there was another gate there that was locked, trapping me inside.
I sighed. How was I supposed to think of a way to escape now? I couldn't possibly dare to try to jump off the building, and since I was at least one floor up, jumping from this place would be next to suicide. Being a woman, I had never even tried this kind of thing before.
Maybe if I had known beforehand or if I had somehow foreseen that I would be kidnapped in the future, I might have gone for training on how to jump and fall and do all those other sporting things.
I walked back to the hallway, feeling dejected. I couldn't even help myself—how pathetic. I did not even have a phone; I felt so cut off from the world. It was honestly quite disquieting. I found myself in the room where they had kept me trapped when I was first brought here.
I had already familiarized myself with every other room, and most of them were plain and boring. There was nothing intriguing about them.
I looked around the room, searching for something to do. I found the light switch by the side and flicked it on. So this had been here all along, and they left me in the darkness tied to a chair. How awful of them. "Get over yourself, Clarissa," I thought, shaking my head.
They were kidnappers, criminals; they were supposed to be awful.
I looked around the room again and saw that there was a small shelf at the corner of it.
What was this place anyway? Was it some kind of house for criminals? That didn't make sense, did it...
It was probably some kind of gang house. It was rather big though, I had to give them that.
I was about to make my way to the little shelf when I heard footsteps behind me.
I turned around with a huge frown on my face. Who could possibly be here now?
Hadn't they done enough already?
What more did they want?
My eyes narrowed in suspicion as the gang leader walked in. He had a confident stride like he owned the freaking place, like he could do whatever the hell he wanted. Boundless, like he could get away with anything.
Men like this didn't fear the law anyway.
“What do you want?” I asked tiredly.
“You look defeated,” he commented.
“And you must be very happy about it,” I replied.
He gave a shrug. “I would have been, but I don't exactly care about anything that happens to you.”
“Then why are you here?” I countered, turning away. “Go back to where you came from, I don't need you either.”
He gave a cruel laugh. “And you don't exactly have a say in this, do you?”
“Is it honestly very adorable how much you think you are in control? But the sooner you get to know how things are done here, the easier it will be for you,” he said again.
“Is that why you are here?” I asked. Although I wasn't putting it past him to just come here all the way to taunt me.
“Yes,” he said at last.
“You have a message.”
I felt my ears perk up at his last words but I wasn't going to show it. I wasn't interested in any message because I knew that the only person who would possibly send a message through him was Karl.
And I didn't want to hear anything he had to say.
“It's from Damien.”
I turned around, his next words catching me completely off guard.