Adriana felt like she was suffocating under the mask. Her face was sweating and she could barely breathe.
"What do you want?" she asked her assailants.
She couldn't see them and they were saying nothing.
"Shut up," the one in the front seat said, while the one in the back seat beside her kept the gun pressed into her side.
Money? Was this ransom? Adriana began to panic at the thought that they might actually kill her. In Gotham, ransom was rarely a guarantee of a safe return of a hostage. And then she though of Brake, stabbed nearly to death in prison by someone who wanted to know where the Joker was. If this had something to do with that, it was worse than she thought. They would certainly kill her and not think twice about it.
Arsenio was all she could think of next. The light of her life. She told him all the time how much she loved him, and for that she was glad. It was always the last thing she would say to him. But him waking up without her the next day was heartbreaking to think about. She couldn't cry now, she couldn't show emotion. She needed to be strong and figure out a way to escape. There was nowhere to go now, with her hands cuffed behind her back and a sack over her head.
Bruce. She began to think of him. He represented safety..security. Some part of her expected him to stop this situation immediately. He would rescue her. He knew what was going on. But the last thing she said to him was that she hated him. The worst fight they had ever been in was not something she wanted to replay in her mind. Bruce was so angry with Adriana for allowing Arsenio to be in the presence of the Joker and he didn't even know that she had left Arsenio alone with him several times. If he knew that, she was certain he would have ripped her apart. Her anxiety grew as she realized that he was not coming for her. Not yet, at least.
She wondered how long it would take for him to realize that she was in danger and that she was not off somewhere sulking alone and trying to avoid him until he came to his senses.
The car ride seemed to take forever and Adriana could hear the sound of the city fading. The ambulances and cop cars and sirens faded. They were on quiet roads and eventually, based on the ride loosing it's smoothness, rough terrain. They were in the woods.
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I DON'T SEND INVOICES.
The text from Twyla came through in all caps to Bruce's cell phone. He huffed at it and took another swallow of scotch. He barely remembered getting into his car and driving to her house by the time he was ringing the doorbell.
"Driving under the influence," Twyla said, as soon as she saw Bruce and let him in. "Naughty boy."
Bruce sighed and walked into her living room, leaving his shoes on.
"I don't allow shoes in my home," she said to him and he ignored her and sat on the couch.
He pulled his checkbook out of his jacket and began to write.
"How many zeroes?" he asked, hearing his words slurring.
She sat across from him and shook her head.
"You've really had a terrible evening haven't you?" she asked.
"Six bottles of potion, how is six zeroes?" he asked, ignoring her again.
"I have you twelve," she said. "Six twice."
"Oh.." Bruce laughed to himself. "Right..."
"What the hell happened to you?" Twyla asked.
"You've shown me the truth," Bruce said, accidentally dropping his fountain pen.
"And that would be?" Twyla asked.
"That would be..." Bruce began to answer but then stopped. "Ah...you're trying to use my drunkenness against me. I see."
"I don't follow," Twyla said innocently.
"You want me to tell you what happened, and that is...very persalal," Bruce said.
"Persalal?" she asked.
"Personal," he corrected himself.
"Aww, you can tell me," she said.
Bruce laughed.
"Tell me this," Bruce said. "What do you think of the Joker?"
"Joker?" Twyla asked. "I don't play many card games."
"The Joker," Bruce sighed. "Gotham's Joker."
"Oh..right," Twyla said, remembering. "The one that jumped off a bridge. Killed all those people."
"Yes," Bruce said. "That's the one."
Twyla shrugged. "You're very drunk."
Bruce sighed. "Proven my point," he said. "The man is so terrible you won't even answer the question. You think it's my drunken state that even makes me bring him up. Why else would anyone bring him up in polite conversation?"
"You tell me," Twyla said.
Bruce looked into her eyes. He did not trust her for a second, but she was actually relaxing to look at. So he stared.
"How many zeroes?" Bruce asked again and Twyla stood up and walked over to sit next to him.
"It's so unnatural," Twyla said and picked up Bruce's pen from the floor by his feet.
She took her time sitting back up, allowing her face to linger by his knees.
"What is?" he asked as she sat the pen on the table.
"Marriage," she said. "I know the look of a disappointed husband when I see one. You had a fight with your wife didn't you?"
"Not your concern," Bruce said. "Doesn't make marriage unnatural."
"Oh but it does.." she whispered against his cheek. "That is why I will never marry. Marriage means lies, it means disappointment. Why permanently attach yourself to someone who will only show their true colors later and betray you? Yes..I know the look of betrayal too."
Bruce looked into her eyes feeling almost hypnotized.
"Don't get me wrong," Twyla said. "There may be a few boring, predictable people out there who may do well in a marriage. But you and I are none of those. Some of us..."
Her fingertips touched Bruce's neck and he felt a shiver over his skin.
"Some of us are meant to be free," she said and kissed his cheek.
It happened so fast that Bruce felt it was a reflex. Perhaps is was natural. He was kissing her deeply and squeezing her everywhere he could. He had become used to Adriana and this woman felt very different. Adriana's body was athletic and very firm everywhere apart from her chest, but Twyla felt delicate and soft, the hyperfeminine form where the flesh would yield to the slightest touch. She was comforting in a way he hadn't known. For a few moments her considered her words. Some were meant to be free. He thought that she was right.
.
.
.
"Move!" the man shouted at Adriana after they pulled her from the car.
She could feel that she was walking on a dirt road and could hear the snap of a small twig under her feet. She didn't know where she was walking and still couldn't see anything. The sound of was sounded like millions of cicadas let her know they were in the middle of nowhere.
Once of the men grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side to change the direction she was walking in and she felt herself trip over something. As she fell down she felt herself on an incline. She was on a wooden ramp and she had fallen over the threshold. She side of her hip hit the woods and immediately she felt and arm grab her roughly and pull her to her feet.
All she needed was the cuff and bag off and she could handle them. She prayed for a moment of opportunity. A few seconds later they were indoors.
"Don't move a muscle or you'll get ten bullets in your back," one of the men hissed beside her face.
Adriana stood still and heard another pair of footsteps. There were three men in the room now. The third one that had been there waiting for them walked close to her and circled her.
"Say your name," she heard the one who threatened to shoot her say.
She was quiet. She didn't understand..they knew who she was. A second later she felt the barrel of the gun against her neck.
"Adriana," she said quickly.
"Full name," he said.
"Adriana Wayne," she said.
The men were quiet and then she heard a sound she became familiar with when she worked with the Joker. The faint sound of wrapped bricks of money being placed into someone's hand, and the sound of a ringer dragging over the edge of the bills fanning them out. They were being paid.
Moments later, she heard the footsteps of one of the men go out the door. She tried to piece it all together. The two men had abducted her and delivered her here to another man who had just paid them. The man who had paid them was there with one of his hires.
She felt him grab her arm and pull her through whatever building they were in. Her shoulder hit a doorway before he pushed her and she fell down onto a hard floor. She hit her hip in the same area she had coming up the ramp. No pain, she told herself.
He grabbed her arm and lifted her before pushing her down onto a bed. No fear, no panicking, she willed herself. She moved to sit upright, still unable to see. The man was quiet for a few seconds before pulling her to her feet again.
"Where is the Joker?" she heard a voice ask.
It was coming from the man, he was right in front of her face, but the voice sounded distorted. Like a machine or program had changed the voice to conceal it's owner's true sound.
"Isn't..." Adriana began to ask. "Isn't he dead?"
His fist hit her hard on the face and she fell down again. She felt unimaginably dizzy as he pushed her back onto the bed. Her first instinct was to kick him hard with both feet, hard in the gut, because she could feel he was right in front of her. but before she could position herself to do so, she put the gun under her chin and grabbed her shoulder.
"The hole for your body has already been dug out," he said, voice completely concealed. "Don't do anything stupid to fore me to have to use it."
"What do you want?" she asked.
She felt him back away and then grab her leg with one arm, throwing it over onto the bed. Once she was seated on the bed he pushed her onto her side facing away from him. Horror and the will to fight no matter what began to take over her. But she suppressed it.
If she fought he would shoot her. If she cooperated, it was likely she would eventually find some window of opportunity to escape.
The second man came into the room. She could hear him, he was dragging a chain. The man with the gun stepped back and Adriana heard him drop the chains before rolling her over.
"Don't do anything stupid," he hissed, this man's voice wasn't concealed, and put thick cuffs around her feet and chained her to the metal frame of the bed.
Once she was chained, they surprised her by pulling the bag off of her head. She recognized the man who played the cop. He was still wearing sunglasses and what looked like a fake mustache. The other man's face was completely hidden like the other two she had seen when she was abducted. He was wearing a thick mask that covered everything, and his mouth was also covered with a small machine that was changing his voice. Whoever he was, he was rich. Someone wealthy in the mob? Such a mask with a built in voice changer was not cheap.
"I don't know anything about the Joker," Adriana told them.
"You will have the night to think about your answers," the masked man told Adriana and they left the room and shut off the light.
Once they were gone Adriana sat up. Her hands were locked behind her back and she could see the chains around her feet as her eyes adjusted to the dark. She could dislocate her thumbs to get out of the cuffs. She shut her eyes and did it, adrenaline keeping her from feeling any pain.
The chains were another story. She looked around for anything to help her free her feet from the cuffs but the room was bare. She looked at the bed frame and wondered if she could break it without making noise. But as she did the door flung open and the light were back on.
The masked man had returned alone and paused for a second to see that she had gotten the cuffs of in under a minute. The second unmasked man came in with him and they both looked at her and then at each other. The masked one raised a gun and the second one left.
Adriana thought it was the end of her life until the second man came back moments later with ropes. He tied her hands so tightly that she immediately felt them fall asleep. After being tied to the bed, Adriana could barely move at all. It felt like all circulation had been cut off to her fingertips.
"Try anything like that again," the unmasked man said. "And we'll use that hole we dug out back for your body sooner than anticipated. Understand?"
Adriana nodded and glanced over at the masked man who said nothing. He saw that she was secured to the bed and finally lowered his gun.