Chapter 8

Decisions

Roderich sat at the dining room table, drumming his thumbs on the dark colored oak. It had been two and a half hours since the Feliciano last called, he was supposed to call every time the hour changed.

Roderich was filled with worry and anger. Either something had happened to Feliciano, or Feliciano forgot that he had to call. Roderich swallowed hard, picked up his phone, and began to angrily dial Feliciano's cell phone number. Right as Roderich was about to press "talk", his phone began to ring. It was Feliciano.

Roderich put the phone to his ear. "What the hell Feliciano? What happened to calling me every hour?"

"Am I on speaker?" Feliciano replied quickly.

"Answer my question! Why haven't you called?"

"Am I on speaker?" Feliciano screamed into the phone so loudly Roderich had to pull the phone from his ear.

"No." Roderich replied, slowly placing his phone on his ear.

"Put me on speaker." Feliciano ordered.

"Why?"

"Put me on speaker!" Feliciano yelled, his voice full of fear and anger.

Roderich put Feliciano on speaker. "You're on speaker."

"Where are the others?" Feliciano asked.

"Elizabeva is right next to me, and Feliks and Toris are in the other room. Why?"

"All of you get in the same room. I need to talk to all of you."

Roderich did as he was told, he and Elizabeva stood, and walked in the living room where Toris and Feliks sat. Feliks and Toris fell silent when they saw the worry and fear in Roderich's eyes. "Where all here." Roderich mumbled.

"Good." Feliciano paused, took a deep breath, then continued. "Lovino isn't here, there is no sign that he was, and I called his boss and he said that Lovino was fired because he never showed up… He said when he fired Lovino over the phone, he had to leave a voicemail because Lovino didn't answer…" Feliciano blurted out quickly.

The room fell silent. No one spoke for a very long time, then Feliciano continued. "We cannot call the police."

"What? Why?" Roderich yelled in surprise.

"Lovino has been kidnapped."

"And why can't we get police involved?" Elizabeva questioned.

"They said I didn't want to know what they would do to Lovino if we did." Feliciano whined.

"Who said this?" Feliks yelled across the room.

"The kidnappers. They called me. They must have gotten my number from either Lovino or his phone." Feliciano said.

Roderich heard the sounds of a door slamming and an engine turning on. "What are you doing?" Roderich asked.

"Backing out of the parking lot." Feliciano made it sound obvious.

"Why?" Toris asked.

"We have a week to get in the back alleyway behind the stripmall on Walter Road with all of the Edelstein fortune, or they will shoot Lovino in the gut."

"Okay, so by the time you get back here, well have about six and a half days." Toris explained.

"Yes, well let me rephrase that." Feliciano began, the engine of his car roaring in the background. "More like Roderich has a week, from right now, to get in the back alleyway behind the stripmall on Walter Road with all of the Edelstein fortune, or they will shoot Lovino in the gut."

"Why me?" Roderich asked.

"I don't know. I guess they want your money. Do you know what the funny thing is?" Feliciano asked.

"What?" Roderich replied.

"The man that was on the phone with me, he sounded familiar."

"How so?" Feliks responded.

Feliciano waited a few moments before he answered. "He kinda sounds like the guy who shot Lovino in the hip."

Roderich froze. He never even thought that the night that haunted his nightmares could even relate to this in any way, but now it all makes sense. These men were after money, and eleven years ago they wanted the Edelstein fortune, and would do anything to get it. And today, they kidnapped Lovino to use him as a hostage to collect a ransom of most of the Edelstein fortune. Well played. Roderich thought.

But Feliciano continued. "Roderich, you must go alone. If you don't, they'll… They'll slaughter Lovino!"

"No!" Elizabeva yelled. "Roderich is not going alone!"

"Elizabeva-"

"They could kill Roderich and Lovino then run off with the money! I won't let him go alone!" Elizabeva interrupted Feliciano.

"Please!" Feliciano sobbed. "They'll kill Lovino! Don't you understand this! We aren't calling the shots here! If we do one thing that they don't want us to do, they'll kill him!"

The room fell silent again, and everyone stared at the phone, where they heard the slight sound Feliciano crying.

"They'll kill my fratello…" He whimpered.

"Feli…" Elizabeva began. "I can't let them kill my husband, the love of my life."

"Please, Roderich. Just go alone." Feliciano begged.

Roderich wanted to reassure Feliciano that he would go alone, and he would get Lovino back, and everything would be okay. That everything would be fine. But Roderich agreed with Elizabeva. "I'm sorry, Feli. But I agree with Elizabeva." He told Feliciano slowly.

Feliciano was silent, with the exception of the sound of him sniffling on the other end of the phone. "But…" Feliciano pleaded.

"I have an idea." Feliks said, breaking the silence.

Toris looked over at Feliks, with raised eyebrows. "What would that be?"

Feliks paused for a dramatic effect. "Roderich, who is unarmed, takes the Edelstein fortune to the alleyway, while Elizabeva hides in the shadows with a gun. Feliciano is hidden in a different alleyway where he has sight of their car, but is ducking under the dashboard so he isn't seen. Toris and I will be at the nearby gas station taking our time putting gas in our tank, but we will be keeping contact with Feli. How does that sound?"

Roderich thought about what Feliks was saying, and actually decided that this was a good idea. Roderich nodded. "I like this plan."

Elizabeva and Toris both agreed, but Feliciano stayed silent. All they could hear from the phone was the humming of the engine from his borrowed car.

"Feli?" Roderich asked. "What about you?"

Feliciano sighed. "Fine." He whispered. "I'm just going to focus on driving right now. And I'm going to call Ludwig and tell him what's going on. I will call you in an hour?"

"Please do so." Roderich replied.

Feliciano hung up.

.

Feliciano nervously dialed Ludwig's number into his phone, being sure to keep an eye on the road. He listened to the humming sound, desperately waiting for Ludwig to answer. His heart pounded against his chest, and his stomach twisted when Ludwig didn't answer the phone as quickly as usual.

"Hello?"

Ludwig's voice took Feliciano completely off guard and he nearly dropped his phone. "Hey, Ludwig." He replied.

"Feli!" Ludwig exclaimed with fear in his voice.

Feliciano stayed silent for a moment. There was something off in Ludwig's voice, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something told him not to tell Ludwig the information he recently got. "I just called to check up on you. How are you?" Feliciano lied.

"Me? Oh, I'm fine. How-" Ludwig cleared his throat. "How are you?"

"I'm… Okay…" Feliciano replied awkwardly. Feliciano was never great at "sensing the mood", but he could always tell when someone was lying to him. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Ja, I told you, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Ludwig lied.

"You sound nervous."

Ludwig didn't answer for a little while, and Feliciano heard a weird clicking sound in the background. "Well," Ludwig began nervously. "I nearly got in a car accident today… And-and you scared me awake with my cell phone going off." Ludwig paused. "But I'm fine, really."

Feliciano wondered what was happening to make Ludwig lie to him so much, but he obviously wasn't getting anywhere with him. "Okay." Feliciano said. "I'm going to hang up now. Goodbye Ludwig."

"Goodbye."

"Ti amo."

Ludwig paused again, cleared his throat, then went silent, "Ich liebe dich." He whispered.

Feliciano hung up, a weird, terrible feeling was twisting in his stomach. But right now, he just needed to focus on driving.