I felt soreness in my neck and wrists, the kind of soreness you got when you slept wrong one night and you had to spend the rest of the day trying to ignore the fact that you were in great pain.
I groaned and tried to open my eyes, which felt so incredibly heavy. I slowly lifted them and realized where the pain was coming from. I was upright in a chair, hands tied behind my back and my neck was craned forward from having been unconscious.
Oh dear God I've been abducted. I thought to myself. I looked all around me only to realize that I was in some motel room with a single queen sized bed, the window to the left of me had the curtains drawn closed and other than a dripping faucet, I heard no sign of anything else.
I began to struggle to free my hands and try and escape but before I could get too far I heard someone swipe a card key in the door to unlatch it. In walked my captor, the same man with the long black hair and dark eyes that I had seen before came in.
"Ah, good you're awake." He acknowledged.
"No thanks to you," I muttered curtly. "What kind of drug did you use on me anyway?"
"I didn't." He sighed rather impatiently; all while picking up a newspaper and thumbing through it.
"What do you mean you didn't?" I said becoming impatient myself.
He sat down in another chair that was at the foot of the bed and propped his feet onto the end of the mattress.
"What does it sound like I mean?"
"People don't just pass out for no reason, now what did you do to me?"
"Nothing." He grinned, obviously enjoying my frustration with him. "People tend to pass out once they deprive themselves of oxygen as you did. Apparently the adrenaline of our little scuffle followed by you trying to scream and catch your breath at the same time was enough to render you unconscious."
"Okay fine," I said defeated. Then I remembered the bigger picture. "Better question, why am I here? If you think you can get money from me, well you're wrong. I am not rich; I have no family, nothing. Or maybe you're just some sick pervert who kidnaps women all the time and if that be the case let me tell you I am going to be one tough bitch to kill." With that I inhaled deeply to let out a scream.
Before I could even muster up enough air he was standing in front of me with his hand over my mouth prepared to stop me once again.
"I am getting very tired of you trying to do that." He said through gritted teeth. "I could have easily gagged you when I put you here but I thought against it, don't think I won't change my mind! Now you are going to behave yourself or else." He slowly put his hand down from my face; he then set his chair in front of mine and took a seat again.
"Or else?" I laughed. "Or else? You kidnap me, tie me up and the best threat you can give is 'or else?'"
"When I think of a good enough threat to shut you up I'll have something better then 'or else,'" he said. "Now if you promise to be a good girl I will untie you're hands.
"I promise." I said. He pulled out a small knife from his boot and cut the ropes.
"Did you have to tie them so tight?"
"Weren't we just about to discuss why we are here or would you just like to continue picking at the mundane details of our current situation?" He said bemused.
"Fine, would you please enlighten me?"
"What do you know about your boyfriend?" he asked.
"Do you always answer a question with a question?" I responded.
"Do you ever focus on the main issue at hand?"
"No." I said with a smile. He blinked at me in disbelief. I bet you weren't anticipating that answer now were you?
He sighed again. "Can we just get through this? Tell me what you think you know."
I refrained from responding to his asking 'what I think I know'. "Lucas Miller's family owned a vineyard before they passed a few years ago, they left it to him. He graduated high school at sixteen, went to Harvard to study prelaw before entering Harvard Law School and he has been with a private firm dealing with the wealthy men who want to divorce their wives so they can marry someone younger." I said. "Oh and he is a Gemini" I added sarcastically.
"Hmm." He responded.
"What do you mean hmm?" I questioned. "Who are you? How do you know Lucas?"
"Oh please excuse me for not introducing myself earlier." He said politely. "I am Gregory, I would have actually liked to have introduced myself when you answered the door to me but you kicked me in a rather sensitive place when I tried to let myself in."
"Let yourself in?" I gasped. "I don't know how you were raised but it is customary in most societies to wait to be invited in first."
"I would have waited for you to invite me in had I not felt that you would have wasted too much time gawking at me when I was at the door." He said, smirking at me.
I tried hard to ignore the blush the crept onto my cheeks. "I was hardly gawking at you; I have a boyfriend which I thought you were aware of. Anyway aren't we supposed to be talking about him?" I said trying to change the subject.
He ignored me. "Just because you are taken does not mean that you can't find other men attractive. You sure couldn't take your eyes off of me."
"You're arrogant."
"You're smitten."
"You're avoiding the main subject at hand."
"You should talk, this is the first time you have prioritized what we should be discussing."
"It deals with something-someone that is important to me." I sniffed.
"Yeah, sure. Someone who has been lying to you since day one." He snorted.
"What?" I asked, just barely above a whisper.
"There is no such person as Lucas Miller." He blurted out. "At least not in your world. Lucas Miller's real name is Brian Costello. His family has known my family for quite some time as well as some other families within my circle of people."
"Brian Costello?" I repeated to myself. No it can't be true.
"Anyway," he continued. "Brian has been squandering money from my family and the families of some of my friends for years. Ever since his parents, who are alive and well I might add, cut him off for dropping out of high school. He changed his name two years ago and moved to the very city in which you reside."
"Is that it?" I asked numbly.
"No, but I am not sure if you are prepared for the rest."
"Don't try to spare me now!"
"Fine." He continued. "When he just disappeared we hired people to come find him, and we found him connected to you. Upon further investigation we found that he had been following you for quite some time."
"Are you saying that he stalked me?"
"Yes." He answered. "A few people I know ransacked his apartment, there were a lot of pictures of you that indicated that he had been following you. Plus there was a journal that recorded your whereabouts, as well as information he picked up about you from a few investigators of his own that he hired."
"Why?"
"You were the perfect decoy. He chose to find a girl with no family and who earned barely enough money to care for herself. No one would expect him to hide behind you, we figured he would go for some wealthy young girl who he could charm so that way she would just give him money. Then he could pay us back and dump her without any legal obligation to pay her back."
"He didn't choose a girl like that though, he chose me! It must mean that he loved me, and maybe he didn't stalk me, maybe he was just too shy to ever approach me!" There just had to be some justification for all of this.
"So rather than approach you he takes pictures of you without your knowledge and recorded everything he could about you?" He asked bewildered.
I didn't answer.
"Whatever the case, his clear obsession with you is why you're here." He said.
"Oh, and are you going to be any more specific than that?"
"Yes Aurie," he said taking his hand he gently lifted up my chin. "You're live bait."
