"Sam, look at me".
"Why so you can kiss me again?"
"Oh don't even go there. Seriously you were as much apart of that kiss as I was".
I turn to look at him my retinas burning with fury. "Yeah but has the fact that Austin and I are together registered at all?"
"I don't know has it?" I want to hate him for saying that but I know it's true all of it. I bite my lip with shame and look away.
"It was just a kiss Riley. It doesn't," I suck in a breath ready to fire, "mean anything".
"Shut up. Just shut up for Christ's sake. You know it was more than that Sam. You just won't admit it because you're still in your fantasy world where you and Austin are still together".
"Excuse me? We are together."
"Oh yeah then why haven't you picked up any of his frantic calls? Why didn't you..."
"What? What calls?! He never called me! Not even once after he left for California!"
"Are you bloody serious? He's called you at least twenty times a day!"
"My cell phone hasn't rung once since he..." The leaves. Last night... Where are you? "He did call last night when I was in the woods," The tears pour mercilessly splattering on the cement floor, "But it was the first time I swear. I would never ignore his calls not even if I'm upset with him".
"Maybe your cell phone blocked his calls." Riley's voice is flat, deflated with obvious guilt.
"My key. Yesterday when you came over I couldn't find my house key. I had to use the spare. Nukpana must have gotten a hold of my cell phone and blocked his number. But she couldn't have the night he left. It was with me the whole time"
"I guess it just slipped his mind to call you. I promise you Sam since I've been on this case I'd always catch him dial you and when he couldn't reach you he'd just get this lost look. I guess that's why they hired me to watch your back."
"Do you believe in miracles?"
"If we get out of this alive then yes".
" 'Cause if Nukpana blocked his number then how could I get it yesterday?"
Riley heaves a sigh rolling over facing the wall.
"I thought it was over between you and him, honest. Since you wouldn't pick up the phone. I just thought Austin was making an excuse 'cause he didn't want to admit things were done between you two".
"Riley you're really…" I stop myself wanting to say what was engraved in my heart, what was infused in my taste buds, what the scent of him left on me. But I couldn't. I belong to someone else. Someone who was so far away yet so fucking close. Riley? No, Austin.
"Can I interrupt this heartfelt conversation?" A quiet yet assertive voice says from the top of the stairs. Nova makes her way down each step fluidly like a dignified queen. A simple brown skirt and yellow peasant blouse are the only reminders that she is a mere girl just as trapped and lonely as the hostages stowed away in her basement. Nova approaches me hands behind her back. A devious look is playing on her milk chocolate complexion. She bends brushing my honey blonde hair away from my neck. Goosebumps rise as pricks of fear prance up and down my body. And then I see it. Her fingers are wrapped around a syringe. The needle squirts a clear substance in the air as her forearm comes down towards me. I stir tossing my legs about. She kicks me right in the stomach causing me to choke and gasp for air as she quickly administers the drug.
"Rohypnol," I whisper as my eyes begin to close.
"How the hell did you know?"
"You gave it to us to knock us out last night didn't you mademoiselle?" Riley pipes up, his voice sounding low and slurred or maybe that's the drug's quick effect to my coherency.
"You better watch who you're talking to," answers Nova's wavering voice, but I'm too dead inside to register the knife she pulls from the pocket of her bathrobe.
I close my eyes,"Goodnight".
000 000 000
A mixture of leather and gasoline fill my lungs as I come to life. It's dark. A car honks and screeches too close. I awake with a jolt. It's too close. Am I in the street…dead? Did it hit me? I didn't feel a…
"Samantha," A husky gasp says behind my head. Riley.
"Are you dead too?"
"I wish. We're in the trunk. You've been out for at least an hour".
"When did you wake up?"
"They didn't give me any drugs."
"What? Why not?"
"Nova prodded me in the back with her dagger and made me walk blindfolded towards the car. Then they hauled me inside the trunk. I tried to get away but someone kicked me…there."
"I still don't get why they didn't drug you."
"To teach me a lesson, of course".
The car comes to an abrupt halt. A door slams and all of a sudden the trunk pops open and I can see the stars. The sea air banishes the car smell as I am lifted from the trunk and set on my feet. My binds fall away and if it weren't for the fact that Riley is still in the trunk I would run. A strong grip swallows both of my shoulders as I am steered away from the car and forced to walk up a little path towards a bright pink cottage. A pier is only half a mile away and by the persistent crash of the waves I can tell we're right on the beach front. Droopy Black-Eyed Susans line the path. Fairy statues are strewn across the tiny garden. We duck under the millions of wind chimes hanging above the front door. As my captor leans over to press the doorbell my eyes shift and take in a severely scarred face. He furrows his thick brown eyebrows and grunts. I stare at my shoes embarrassed to have been caught.
The front door whooshes open. An older woman with wrinkled skin and yellow teeth winces at us then hurriedly opens the door. I am lost in a scent of menthols and various aromatherapy candles. "Come in, come in" Her voice is low, barely audible. She holds the door open with one arm the silky flowered sleeve hangs to the ground like a kimono. He shoves me inside striding across the tiny living room with me in tow to the white leather couch rudely tossing me onto it as if it's some bed.
"Sit," She commands waving her arm across the threshold. I obey sitting perfectly still in the middle of the couch. He crosses his legs in a black iron deck chair staring at me like a guard dog. She disappears into a lighted kitchen bringing out two steaming mugs. She hands one to him and sits in an overstuffed red loveseat with gold buttons stitched to the arms.
"So, Samantha tell me," The woman says pausing to take a sip, "how was the trip up here?"
"Dandy," I say sarcastically unsure of where this is heading.
"Ah," She says her eyebrows arching to the middle of her wrinkled forehead. "a tad saucy, eh?" she asks gesturing to the man. He scowls and nods, arms crossed.
"Who are you people?" I ask voice and knees trembling as I stand. My head is swimming with anxiety.
"Sit down," The man says roughly pulling a pistol from the inside of his suit jacket. I comply shivering from the cold.
"Hopefully this may clear things up a bit," The woman says coughing into a closed fist, "Nukpana and I are both Mr.Ames's ex lovers equally scorned by his carelessness and by the fact that he has made a mockery of us both. Nukpana was a client of mine and through that we found out we had a few things in common. It has been our mission to bring down Mr. Ames for the past ten years. But then we learned of you, and our plan turned into reality."
"What?" I sputter, "How is this my doing?"
"Austin loves you, Mr. Ames loves Austin. If something should happen to you then…well you get the picture".
"Actually Austin got the picture," The man says with a hearty laugh.
"Oh yes he did, didn't he!" The woman says smiling clasping her hands. "Nukpana took a picture of you and that cop she hired lying next to each other all glassy eyed in secret passion. She mailed it to Austin and word from one of the nurses said he was just stricken and called off protection for you, Sammy".
"Excuse me?" I say my voice dying inside of my throat before the words could reach their ears.
"You didn't know? Yes well, Nukpana knows the sheriff heading the case in San Fernando for whoever allegedly overdosed that drug into Mr. Ames's drink. He's a dirty cop I guess you could say but anyway Nukpana asked him if there was a dashing young man that could seduce Austin's lover and he complied sending down the gorgeous Australian lad. The sheriff has been sending his men on wild goose chases so there would be no telling who's been behind this scheme."
"How many people are against Mr. Ames?" I ask choosing to stay neutral even though my heart is swinging by a thread.
"Honestly, just Nukpana and I. The other people in this little operation are people you will never live to see," She says with a malicious gleam in her eyes.
