Amanda wasn't sure what time it was because she couldn't look out the window with the metal plate over it, but it must have been evening because Kyle brought her a bowl of soup, a spoon, a paper towel, and a glass of water.
"Not the five-star cuisine you're used to now," Kyle said snidely, "But we're all out of steak in the kitchen. Hope you like vegetable beef, because my preference is the chicken and rice and I'm keeping that for myself."
Amanda took the bowl but couldn't hold both the spoon and the bowl with her hands tied together so she set it on the floor and took each spoonful slowly, lifting it from the floor to her mouth with both bound hands.
After she'd quietly eaten part of the bowl, Amanda said grumpily, "I'm not the uppity bitch you seem to think I am. The guy that drives the limo for us, We're on a first-name basis, and..."
Kyle started laughing. "I love how you think knowing the first name of your LIMO driver means your new social status hasn't "changed you." How did you even meet this Jake guy, anyway?"
Amanda just kept eating. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." And he really, honestly wouldn't. Sometimes she didn't believe it herself. Would Jake have given her the time of day if they'd first met outside the realm? Maybe, it was hard to tell. But even if he hadn't, that wasn't being fair to him because at that point in her life, she wouldn't have either. She might have appraised his looks, but nothing more. She was entirely focused then on being John Kramer's apprentice, and would not have taken the time from that she would have needed to dally in a relationship.
Kyle snorted. He didn't quite believe her and felt she was hiding something. "Or, if you tell me, it'll confirm what I know about you. Maybe you were honest with him but I bet the rest of the family doesn't know your real history."
Amanda shrugged. "I already told you they do. Yes, they focus on their social status more than Jake and I do, but they see us together and see how in love we are and if there was any disappointment that I wasn't the daughter of some wealthy CEO and socialite, it's long gone. I make Jake happy, and he loves me completely and that's all they care about. They've welcomed me in as a daughter."
Amanda looked at him and glared at him in her rage. "And by the way, fuck you. You fucking used me and left me just like every other fucking guy I met before Jake, so don't you get in my fucking face about meeting a decent guy and falling in love with him. I could give a fuck less about his money. I love HIM, and it doesn't matter if we're in a fucking lifeboat, a mansion, or a fucking igloo. I'm getting more than sick and fucking tired of being talked down to by a man who fucked a virgin and then just fucking ghosted her..."
He backhanded her, hard. "Remember what I fucking told you. You get mouthy, you get hit." He was mildly surprised at the fire that rushed from her mouth. When he'd met her at 18, he'd have doubted she'd have had the guts to tell shit it stunk.
Amanda bared her teeth at him. "Yeah, mister fucking big shot beating on a tied-up fucking girl. It's because you know if you untie me I'll fucking kick your fucking ass right back to the fucking hole where you came from..."
Another backhand. "Keep going. I'm enjoying this. Now that I've seen what you became, I'm starting to regret ever putting my dick in you." That was a lie, but she didn't have to know it and he wanted to get a dig in on her.
But she wasn't buying it. Amanda glared at him. "The fuck you are. You loved popping my cherry. Hell, you tried to fucking blackmail me into fucking you earlier today. That's not the action of someone with fucking regret. But I can assure you, I fucking regret it, you fucking prick. Where do you get off fucking acting like I'm trash? You're the one with a fucking dead-end job who's done nothing with their life who was fucking looking to blackmail and use my ass for a meal ticket..."
Another slap. Her cheek was completely numb. "And then, you decide to fucking kidnap and threaten a woman who has been all over the news because she had a fucking near-death experience on a sinking fucking cruise ship. What kind of a fucking prick kidnaps a woman who recently suffered severe fucking emotional trauma? Thank God you fucking ghosted me. you know, back then, I was actually fucking hoping that you would become official with me. You using me and fucking running out on me was a HUGE fucking favor. I owe you. Fucking DICK."
He really put some pepper into his fourth slap. Amanda sulked and ate a few more bites of the soup, then drank some of the water. It wasn't the best, it had the mildly metallic taste of what she assumed were old cast-iron pipes. Kyle's expression softened a bit.
"You're right I guess. You saw a window to escape, and if I was in your shoes, I guess I'd have taken the same route. And...Yeah, sorry about the cruise ship. Doesn't sound like it was a fun experience."
Then his expression hardened again. "But...You could have given me the fucking money. You had access to it. I bet if one of your friends had begged you for it, you'd have given it to them easy. A million dollars is a huge windfall to me, but it's nothing to you and your husband. I ain't your friend, so I couldn't just call you out of the blue for it. Yeah, I was shitty to you, but you could have looked at my clothes and seen that I ain't got nothin' and been charitable, but you didn't. Yeah, I was an asshole but you didn't think that maybe I had a shitty life too that made me that way, you just saw me and remembered I did you wrong once and laughed at me and left. You celebrated the fact that my life turned out shitty, didn't you?"
Then he suddenly lashed out at her again with a strong backhand and caught her by surprise. "AND, you forced me to put together this fucking kidnapping on the fly, and you're right, it may end badly for me, and if it does, I'm going to make sure it ends badly for you too. If you'd been just a little bit nicer at that coffee shop, you wouldn't be here now. But instead, you saw the chance to belittle me over something that happened years ago and you just had to keep twisting the knife in to let me know how amazing your life was."
Amanda's eyes flashed with anger. "Bullshit. The reason I'm fucking here is because you don't fucking understand what the word no means. And if you'd been open and fucking honest with me, maybe I wouldn't have reacted the fucking way I did. Maybe if you'd been honest and fucking APOLOGIZED for fucking using me and told me why and told me you were hard up, I'd have fucking helped you. Not a million fucking dollars worth of help, but help. I'd have had to talk to Jake about it, because I'm not just going to pass money to an ex without him knowing, but I'd have fucking tried. You didn't do that. You tried to fucking blackmail me, and if it had worked, you'd have fucking laughed all the way back home over the fact that you'd fucking put one over on me."
She leaned forward into his face. "But again, let's not fucking shit ourselves. The other reason I'm here is because in that fucking moment, I got the better of you. You were coasting all the way to fucking Manhattan over the fact that you were going to get to put one over on me one more fucking time, weren't you? Your original intent was to fucking blackmail me, wasn't it. You only fucking thought of saying you were fucking hard-up afterwards. Your first thought was fucking blackmail, no fucking doubt."
Kyle was silent. Amanda said, "How many hours did you fucking fantasize about seeing me panic and cry and fucking beg for you to let me give you the fucking money because you believed my husband had no fucking idea I grew up abused and fucking poor? How often did your fucking dick get hard thinking that maybe you'd be able to use the information to fucking make me cheat on my fucking husband with you? How fucking satisfied would you have been if I'd fucked you as a married woman? Best orgasm of your life, right? Getting me to willingly fuck you one more time so you'd keep your mouth shut? When I laughed in your fucking face and told you do go fuck yourself, it really shattered that dream world you fucking built for yourself on your way up here, didn't it?"
Kyle's face darkened. Amanda wasn't done. "I'm sure that you've fucking felt guilt over our prior history, and maybe you've even fucking wondered if the shitty way you treat people is why your life fucking sucks now. Lord knows before I met Jake I thought I was being fucking curb stomped by karma. When I didn't fucking immediately fall into fucking pity over your hard knocks, and when you didn't fucking see the chance to use a fucking bleeding heart story to get me to open my wallet, you did what you felt would fucking work best. The plan you first fucking thought of. Blackmail me and try to use me for my fucking money and to get some fucking free sex. Shit, it's not even my own fucking money you were after, Jake's got the fucking money and I hardly fucking ask him for any of it if I don't fucking have to. But even then, your fucking blackmail threat still didn't make me curl up and cry, because what you fucking thought you could use to blackmail me was fucking worthless. I got the better of you and your fucking ego couldn't take it. Now you've got to engineer this fucking horseshit so you can feel better about yourself, and because I'm at a fucking place now where you don't intimidate me. And guess what? You still fucking don't."
No more slaps, this time he just punched her in the face. Amanda fell onto her back and even though it hurt, she giggled as the blood ran from her nose. "Strike a fucking nerve?" He stood and stormed away from her.
Her fucking nose was broken, but her healing ability eventually knit the fucking cartilage back into place. Thankfully, he hadn't fucking noticed. He was too busy glowering at the fucking wall with his back to her. Fuck him, trying to make her out to be the fucking reason she was here. She was here because he was a fucking asshole. That was IT.
She swiped at her face with her bound hands. "I'm sorry your life was shitty. Mine was too. Pretty much for the past 36 fucking years I've been alive. But eventually I fucking realized that the main reason my fucking life was shitty was because I was being a stupid fucking bitch and doing things to make sure I fucking wallowed in misery. I was strung out on fucking Heroin for awhile. I'm sure that will clash with your fucking image of me as a stuck-up bitch, but I was. And I got fucking clean. And I fucking fixed myself, and I'll admit, Jake fucking helped me through it but I put a lot of work into making me the fucking person I am today. I love my fucking life now, and I've fucking earned it. And you're not going to make me feel fucking guilty just because the man I fucking fell in love with, and who fell in love with me, happens to have a sizable bank account. Fuck, a lot of the time, as I fucking said, I pay my own fucking way for shit anyway. I didn't fucking force him to fall in love with me. He fucking chose me. And I'm fucking grateful every fucking day since that he did. He fucking made my life worth living and I'm fucking in awe that he saw in me what he fucking did to make me so much fucking better."
The fucking blood was getting congealed in her fucking nostrils and she knew she was fucking smearing it all over fucking her face. She said, "Can you fucking untie me? I'd like to fucking wash. I don't see why you fucking need to keep me fucking tied up anyway, there's no fucking way I can break that fucking door down and the fucking window is blocked. Where the fuck am I gonna go? Out the fucking drain pipe?"
He turned and glared at her, but he did untie her wrists. She pulled her fucking sweater carefully over her head and unbuttoned her fucking blouse as she got into the bathroom. She looked into the tub. It was overall clean, just a few dead fucking flies and a little debris in the bottom. She walked out of the bathroom, collected the fucking grocery bag and two of the towels that felt like they'd at least been fucking washed at some point and left to sit in a fucking cupboard for a while, went back into the bathroom and turned on the spigots of the fucking tub.
She splashed the water into the tub and washed the debris and dead bugs down the drain, then opened up the bar of Zest. This was not the ideal fucking wardrobe for cleaning, so she hung her blouse on the door hinge before returning to the tub and started fucking cleaning it in her bra. It helped her calm down from her fucking rage, having something as simple as this to fucking do.
Slowly, she worked up a lather on her hands, and kept relathering as she wiped it over the interior of the tub until she'd covered it completely, then she rinsed it all off. It wasn't as good as fucking cleanser, but at least the tub was as clean as she could get it. The tub was next to a windowsill, so she set the bottle of Pert Plus shampoo plus conditioner on it. The fucking bathroom window, like the other, was closed off with a steel plate.
There were two towel rings, so she put one next to the sink and the other in the ring behind the tub. There was another bar of soap so she left it in the box and set it on window sill. No fucking soap dish, so she put the toothpaste and brush and the little dispenser of Speed Stick on the sink and folded up the plastic bag and put it on the windowsill before she dropped the wet bar of soap on it.
"I'm going to take a bath," she called out of the doorway. She wasn't sure why she felt that she needed to fucking ask for permission, but the stupid fucker had kidnapped her and just finished making her bleed, so she thought it might be a safe fucking move. Kyle said nothing. She'd like a change of clothes because what she was wearing was going to become stinky and stale no matter how frequently she washed herself but that wasn't an option. She found herself impressed that she actually felt serene. Despite his assault, she felt no fear of the situation. It was different than on the ship. He was just one asshole, not millions of gallons of deadly seawater. She could handle him, if it became life and death.
She hung the black bra she was wearing on the hinge holding her blouse, then slid out of her black slacks and panties. There was nowhere to hang those so she put the lid down on the old toilet, folded the slacks and set the panties on top of it.
When she ran the hot water tap fully it scalded her, so she backed it off and added cold until it was tolerably hot, then got in. The tub's plug hung by an old chain around the faucet. She cupped her hands under the water and washed off the blood from her face so the water wouldn't get bloody, and once she knew it was gone and it had washed down the drain, she put in the plug and let the tub begin to fill up.
She laid back, actually finding it comfortable and then she sensed the presence in the doorway. She looked at Kyle and rolled her eyes. She was right when she'd told him that he wasn't regretting putting his dick in her as much as he'd claimed to be earlier. If standing in the doorway and looking at her naked and being an obvious perv was an intimidation tactic, it wasn't working. She knew telling him to get the fuck out wasn't going to do anything so she just let the water fill the tub and cover her body and ignored him.
She had to admit, the claw foot bathtub was the best there was, even an old one like this. She could stretch her body out entirely, unlike the modern rectangular ones, and could fill it with a hell of a lot more water. She and Jake's massive shower was great, but it couldn't quite beat a soak in a tub. She didn't notice that Kyle took her pants and underwear off of the toilet seat and moved it to her mattress. She only noticed that he came back into the bathroom, sat on the toilet seat, and was apparently going to perv-watch her bathe.
She leaned forward and dipped her head under the running spigot and soaked her head, then she leaned back and squirted some of the Pert into her hand. He got a generous view of her breasts and he felt himself stir. She'd been skinny when he'd had her as a virgin, with small tits, and her body had definitely filled out and improved in the years since, but filled out perfectly. She still only weighed maybe 115 pounds, and maybe even a little less. Her tits were twice the size it seemed, but he could tell they were firm and natural. She'd lost the pale skin she'd had and now she was a richly golden tan, which had to be from a salon since it was the middle of winter. But it was a good tan. She could slip into a bikini right now and look plenty hot laying out on a beach.
He could tell she was irritated by his presence and actively made sure she didn't even glance his way as she worked the shampoo from her roots to the tip. She laid her head back for a moment, letting the combo shampoo and conditioner soak into her roots, then leaned forward again and stuck her head under the running water and washed the shampoo from her hair, then shut the water off entirely. It was up to her shoulders.
She laid back against the tub, closed her eyes and said nothing. He stood up and took a step or two forward to look into the tub and see more of her body. The tan was uniform and he saw that she was smooth between her legs, probably waxing at the ritzy salon where she got her tan. Seeing her fully nude, he could admit that while she was born as trailer trash, she was now built like a fucking model and could easily strut down any fucking runway she wanted. Arguably her perfect figure was one of the reasons she'd managed to bag her rich husband. Her face was damn cute too. Yet she defied that cuteness with a quite impressive potty mouth and it seemed like the word fuck, and its derivatives, were definitely her favorite word.
She suddenly got to her feet and picked up the bar of soap and rubbed it over her shoulders, down her arms, and over her chest and breasts. Seeing her body naked and standing made the stirrings in his pants even stronger. Her waist was narrow and her stomach was completely flat, and yes, he admitted to himself, gorgeous. It wasn't just flat by metabolism, she'd worked to get it firm and flat and tanned and sexy. She rubbed the soap over her stomach, then lathered it over her hands and scrubbed between her legs.
She rested her left foot on the rim of the tub and soaped it from her hip to the ankle. Kyle looked at her tanned feet and noticed that she had a toe ring on the one next to her big toe. She curled her leg and soaped the foot, then set it in the water and swirled it around, then repeated the same process with her other leg On her right foot, again next to the big toe, was a second toe ring. She lathered soap in her hands and rubbed it over as much of her back as she could, then dunked the bar in the water, lathered soap in her hands again, and reached behind her to soap between her cheeks. She'd been an addict? Her needle scars had long healed, that was for sure. Even though she was short, when she stood, she looked like a fucking goddess now. A shorter, slimmer, Venus De Milo.
She dropped the bar on the bag, then settled herself back in the water and washed her body of the soap, and then she leaned her head back against the tub and closed her eyes. And she relaxed. She fucking relaxed. AGAIN. She acted like she was relaxing in the tub in her penthouse suite at the Mark Hotel. He'd passed the expensive-looking building on his way to finding the house she was staying at. He'd fucking kidnapped her and he was staring at her naked body and she didn't give him the satisfaction of even appearing uncomfortable by his presence. He basically wasn't there and she just sat there in the water as if she was entirely alone.
But it had been like that the whole time, hadn't it? She hadn't been scared in his car when she'd first realized he'd kidnapped her, and she'd been actually sulking and pissed off when Wade had been brought into the mix. Since the initial kidnapping, she'd acted like the whole fucking situation was just inconvenient, rather than a situation where she actually feared he might kill her. It was almost like she was simply allowing herself to be kidnapped. Her actions just now in the tub were likely the same ritual she'd have done if she was in her cozy mansion or at The Mark, rather than here.
Again, he found the situation maddening. How had that gawky high school graduate he'd met at the apartment complex turned into Lara Croft? Because with the tan and the dark hair he suddenly realized that if you put her in khaki shorts and dropped her in the jungle, she'd run into ancient ruins with the same casual fearlessness she had being in a bathroom with her kidnapper. He'd pegged her wrong. She enjoyed the wealth but deep underneath the designer slacks wasn't a snooty bitch. She'd turned into a survivalist.
And really, he'd seen that hadn't he? In those video clips taken onboard that sinking ship, she'd been all over the rails, only a few feet from the water sometimes, throwing stuff over the railing. She'd climbed over the davits like a cat with the knife between her teeth to cut the ropes, then kissed her husband after returning to the deck without a care in the world. She'd gone rushing into the interior of the ship twice, and had been the only woman who participated in the actual airlift rescue, short as Hell among the three guys who were all topping six feet, but still not seeming out of place at all, and then right at the end, scaling the rope towards the end like she was a rock climber. If the ship hadn't split she'd have made it out of there on the rescue chopper easy. She could have left before she almost died, the British dude they'd interviewed said that he told her she could leave, and then said that she'd decided she was going to be one of the last ones off. Making that choice had nearly fucking killed her, but here she was, right as rain and once again without a care in the world.
He wasn't scary at all. That was the long and the short of it. He didn't know what he could do that would make her scared of him, but whatever it was, he hadn't yet. She was locked up and couldn't go anywhere, but that was the only reason she was still here. She was not afraid of him, and she was not afraid for her life at all. She'd seen death on that ship, she'd survived it, and now death could go fuck itself. He wasn't anywhere near death's league. Not yet anyway. He started feeling rage building.
After using his looks and his charm to get what he wanted and having chicks, even with his poor social status, fall at his feet, after being so charming that he'd gotten Amanda to drop her shorts for him to fuck her, the fact that she, who had been duped by him and had given him her cherry, and who now should be fucking COWERING IN A CORNER and CRYING over the situation was actually in a place where being kidnapped, especially by him, was merely an inconvenience, pissed him off to no end and he stormed to his feet and put his hands on her shoulders and shoved her under the water.
He held her there. And after awhile when he didn't ease up the pressure she tried to force herself up but he refused to yield. Not until she fully understood that he could be dangerous and she needed to fucking fear him.
Amanda, starting to feel the burning sensation creep into her lungs, kept her head in spite of the situation. She took the chain for the plug between her toes and pulled it free of the drain and kept it clenched between them so the draining water wouldn't suck it back into place. And after a moment or two the water drained low enough that she could draw a breath and she heard Kyle scream in rage and he shoved her back under, but eventually the water drained so low that he couldn't keep her head under. So he grabbed her head, pulled her up and pulled her forward and slammed the back of her head into the tub as hard as he could and stormed out of the bathroom.
Fuck...Amanda felt like she'd been whacked by Bubba's hammer. Eventually the stars cleared and she felt no pain. She got to her feet, wrung the water from her hair and dried it as much as she could before drying off her body. She carefully looked out into the main portion of the room but Kyle was gone and the door was shut and probably locked. If his little stunt was to try and be a big man, fuck him.
She left off her underwear and pulled on the designer slacks, then put on some of the deodorant and put on the blouse and the sweater. She cleaned out the sink with the zest, the same way she had with the tub, and noticed there was a little metal emblem under the faucet that said, "Craig House." She filed it away. She put the smaller sink plug in the drain and spun the bar in the basin of water until it clouded. She washed her panties and bra in the water, rinsed them off, and wrung as much water out of them as she could before she set them on the radiator. It was quite hot, and she admitted that for as old as it probably was, the room was quite comfortable. It would dry her damp underwear in no time.
But FUCK was she bored. I mean really. Then she remembered. One of her Christmas gifts from Sylvia had been a copy of "Cell." Hadn't she tucked it into her purse before they'd left the realm to read on the flight back from the Ohio cabin to New York? She rummaged through her massive purse.
She had. Thank Christ. She put a pillow behind her back, leaned against the wall, and stretched out her legs and flexed her toes as she started on page one. She got up once, to turn the underwear over and dry it from the other side. Eventually she got tired enough to mark her place, turn out the light, and flop unladylike onto the bed, cover hserself under the musty comforter and fall asleep.
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Kyle paced the other bedroom. Bitch. Fucking bitch. Mother fucking bitch. Miserable cunt.
She hadn't even really struggled. She hadn't panicked, and she'd almost immediately realized that the solution wasn't fighting him, it was just to drain the fucking tub. She'd tried to raise herself up and when he wouldn't let her she'd taken away the ability for him to drown her.
Yeah, it definitely didn't fucking even feel like he'd kidnapped her. It was like she was just staying locked up until she figured out a way to get past him and leave. She'd been inconvenienced, and was now settling in because it was warm here and she didn't have a car. FUCK!
And when he called the Parks tomorrow and put her on the line, instead of sounding scared and fearful for her life, she'd probably just sound bored and hang up the phone telling her husband she loved him like they'd just made dinner plans, and tell him to let Roger her limo driver know when he could pick her up.
After he got the money, If he stabbed her to death, would she finally show fear? At this point, he honestly didn't fucking know. Of course, he really wasn't thinking about that. Yet. He found himself pissed off by her attitude, but he'd never killed anyone in his life, and he wasn't sure if he was even capable of it. But FUCK the woman was strong-willed and getting more and more irritating.
Wade had brought up a good point, that she could identify him. But there were plenty of ways around that. Once he got the money, he'd simply wait until he was safely in an airport ready to board a plane and leave the country before he called and let the authorities know the location where they could find her. Or, he'd leave her tied up, with the door unlocked, and once she got free, she could make her way to Beacon and get help. Or, if she really pissed him off, he'd let her figure out how to untie herself AND unlock the door. And all three of those options would make sure he didn't leave with a guilty conscience.
He stripped to his underwear and flopped on the bed. And then, angry with himself, he pictured her nude and jerked off until he came and wiped it on top of the comforter. Fuck her for having a perfect body and a perfect tan and perfect hair and those sexy contacts and making it so that she was undeniably hot. He'd seen her new, more-adult body nude now. She was right. He'd have definitely enjoyed fucking her in some hotel room she paid for. And while he still got laid by plenty of attractive women, she'd be the hottest he'd have fucked for a while.
He laid there and tried to think of ways that he could finally show her who was boss and none of the ways he thought of weren't felonies, and he was already facing one. She'd even known in that earlier moment that he wasn't going to drown her, he'd wanted to make her panic, or maybe render her unconscious, to show that he could have killed her and she'd even let the wind out of that sail.
He was surprised to find that while he was getting tired, he was also still horny so he thought of Amanda again, only this time, in his fantasy with her, she was unwilling and he held her down and she struggled as he fucked her. It was a much better climax. He added it to the wet spot on the comforter and tried to sleep.
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The NYPD tech and Fontana had gone home for the night but Strahm and Perez were still in the Parks' study, looking over the CCTV footage for anything they might have missed, but finding nothing.
Jake saw them and came in, trying not to be nervous but failing miserably. Jack followed him. Jake said, "Is it unusual for something like this to happen and then not hear from the person who took her, at all?"
Strahm stood up and stretched. "Not unusual at all, especially if the kidnapper was the person who tried to coerce her for money. The kidnapping was not thought out, and now he'd looking at a felony and trying to figure out what to do next. Obviously, he wants the money, but now he's working on the fly and trying to formulate how he's going to contact us and collect it without getting caught. He'll call tomorrow, I'll bet you on it, and considering the difference in our bank accounts, you have to know I'm confident."
He gave Jake a smile and somehow, even though he didn't know where his wife was and if she was suffering, Jake managed to smile back. Strahm said, "This is probably a very stupid question considering we're currently in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, but I don't suppose there are any cheap hotels nearby? Uncle Sam pinches every penny, despite appearances."
Jack said, "Sir, you're welcome to stay here. We have no shortage of bedrooms, and that way if you want to stay here and work into the wee hours, you can. I already asked the section chief it it was alright, and he said it was slightly unusual, but so was the situation and he said it was okay. If one of you wants to come with me, I can show you where they are for later."
Perez stood up. "I'll do it. Be back in a few." She followed Jack out the door.
Strahm looked at the nervous-looking young man in his rumpled clothes and with his long-hair askew and felt so bad for him. Kidnappings were one of the worst situations for a spouse to be in. He said, "She's going to be alright, Jake. I believe it."
Jake nodded and deep down, he believed it himself, after all, they were still well within the two-week time frame where the realm would heal them. but still, it was hard not to worry. There were other things he could do to her that the realm couldn't heal her from.
Strahm was looking at him. "You know how I know?" Jake shrugged. Strahm continued, "Because of who she was. Tell me, you know her, you live with her, she's long since stopped being an apprentice...But she's still got the cunning she learned from it, doesn't she? I know she was kind of enamored and a lot of the reason she fell in with him was because he respected her and didn't use her...But still, she learned things from him. She eliminated the bad things she learned, but she'd still cunning, she still knows how to play possum, and based on how she was on that ship, she's pretty fearless. I'll bet that even now she's calculating her next move. It's ironic to say, but...Of all the kidnapping cases I've been on, this guy really didn't choose a victim well, because even though he got the drop on her, she's way smarter than him, and will be for the entire time this thing goes on."
Jake sighed and nodded. "You're right. It's one of the things I love about her. I love that she's cunning, and fearless. And she really does use it to her advantage if someone tries to hurt her. Someone tried to manipulate her recently, and she really got his goat at the end." He of course was talking about Frank, but he said no more. The FBI man standing before him with the loosened tie and his sleeves rolled up wouldn't believe it anyway.
Strahm nodded. "And I'm not sure how the early conversation went, but she must have completely gotten the upper hand if she pissed this guy off enough that he kidnapped her in the spur of the moment. As I said, he knows he can get money out of the deal but I think maybe a small part of it was simply a power play. She bested him, and he wanted to best her back. He wanted to make her fearful, terrified, And to do so, he committed a goddamn felony. And the goddamndest thing of all is that I know the woman enough to know that she probably isn't intimidated at all. She's probably been bitching him out non-stop as we speak."
And then Strahm let out a chuckle. A thought struck him and it fit her so well he couldn't resist saying it. "Another day or so of Amanda raging at him, and he might not ask for a ransom. He might actually offer you money to take her back and turn himself in."
Jake chuckled. "Yep, that's my wife. And as well as I know her...That's not entirely outside of the realm of possibility. She will not hold her tongue if she's pissed off by someone or something, and she liberally uses the F-word the angrier she gets." Jake's face turned serious. "This isn't your first kidnapping case obviously." Strahm shook his head. "So...Based on experience, how do you see it going?"
Strahm was silent. "In all seriousness, I think he might dodge us long enough to organize a money drop, and you may have to collect and pay him what he wants, and then we tail him from the money drop and get him that way...Either that...Or Amanda incapacitates him, or if he's getting violent, she kills him."
Jake looked at him with shock. He wasn't serious, was he?
Strahm looked at him evenly. "She has it in her. We both know it. She didn't raise a hand to any of her known victims, but she stood back and let them die. Again, it doesn't really bother me because most of the people she let fall in Jigsaw's traps weren't upstanding characters or pillars of society to begin with. I don't think she's physically killed anyone herself, but she was tutored by Jigsaw, and that, I think, would give her the resolve to kill if she felt she had to. There's no sense kidding ourselves that she's the same as some random housewife who's been kidnapped, based on her history. She'll be taking note of how the kidnapper treats her and constantly calculating her chances of survival if she does nothing, versus act. Right now, she's probably just in wait and see mode, But I think, before long, she may get into a situation where she feels she has to act. If she has an opportunity, she's definitely cunning enough to incapacitate him and escape, and if her life is on the line, I think she'll try and find a way to kill him, with no hesitation, if the choice is between her life or his."
Jake didn't like the sound of that. Situation. "What do you mean, situation?"
Strahm looked at him evenly. "She doesn't scare easy, does she? I mean, she playacted in the nerve gas house because she had to, but she approached that situation without fear and just hung back and let things happen. When you were on that ship, she kept it pretty much together the whole time, right?"
Jake shook his head. "Almost, but not quite. When we were both trapped in the bar at the end, she got hysterical because death was right there waiting for us, and she said she panicked when the lights went out when she was looking for forgotten survivors in the ship before she recovered herself, but mostly...Yeah, you're right, she doesn't scare easy."
He looked at the floor. "I didn't want to say this earlier, because everyone was around, including your father, but I want to be straight with you now. You remember what I said, that this guy kidnapped her, in part, because he wants to regain control and put one over on her, right? We've pretty much set on the fact that this guy once knew her, probably treated her like shit, and expected when he made his demands that she'd open her purse." Jake nodded. "Now, you know her disposition better than me, but from the times I've seen her, and now that you've been married for awhile, she doesn't just roll over anymore, right?"
"No, no way," Jake said. "Not at all. If someone gets in her face over something and she knows they're in the wrong, she will get right back in theirs. I think she has mentally steeled herself to the point that she will not allow anyone, male or female, to belittle her or treat her like shit or take advantage of her, and based on her history, I don't blame her at all. She got shit on for decades and now that she's happy, she won't let anyone try and take that happiness away from her."
Strahm said, "We know most of her boyfriends used her and abused her, I mean, I don't mean that as an insult, she just grew up in a home that ingrained in her that it was okay for a man to beat on her and that's what she thought was right, until she finally didn't. She may have even known it wasn't right growing up, but it's all she knew for her whole childhood, and if she hooked up with a guy who treated her like her father, the warning bells wouldn't go off immediately like they would in a woman who's never been abused before."
Jake nodded. He'd heard some of the horror stories, and when she'd faked that cigarette injury for duping Frank Morrison, although he'd not thought of it at the time and never asked, he felt that Amanda knew how to do it too well, and he wondered later if it was because she'd had it done to her for real at least once. He'd not seen all of her scars before the Entity had cleaned her of them, but a cigarette burn could have easily been one of them.
"So, again, this is all theory, but so far it's backed up by what she told you before she was taken...Let's say that the guy that approached her for money, and later kidnapped her, was one of the deadbeats that used to beat on her. That may have been why he tried the blackmail in the first place. Number one, because he knew she wanted to forget her past and assumed that she would want to keep it hidden, but number two...Because he used to be physically violent with her, and assumed that all he'd have to do is raise a fist and she'd cower over in terror."
Jake nodded, "Okay, I'm with you so far."
Strahm nodded. "But she's changed. I can see it and you of course know it, being married to her. If a guy raised his fist to her now, she'd probably stomp his nuts in. The woman I saw in that sinking video would have. Even early last year when she saved my life at the Gideon plant, she was well on her way to the Amanda I met at your wedding. Hell, she was crawling all over those davits with a knife in her mouth like Rambo. But this guy, whoever he is, probably didn't see that. Maybe he just saw the interviews. Anyway, he meets her at this location expecting her to cower in fear. He expects the old Amanda. Hell, maybe he thinks you privately beat on her too. I mean spousal abuse isn't limited to the lower and middle-class."
Jake nodded again, slowly. He'd been so wrapped up in the kidnapping itself that he hadn't really thought about the fact that virtually every one of Amanda's exes was a low-life, and yes, many of them hurt her. And if she was in their hands, they would try to hurt her again, especially because she'd become so fiercely strong-willed. An ex-abuser wouldn't like the new Amanda, and Jake felt a twist in his gut thinking about how that man might actually consider it a challenge to try to break her again.
Strahm kept sharing his theory. "So he meets her at this shop, and instead of meeting the Amanda he knew, he meets the Amanda we know. And she laughs in his face and tells him you'll knock his dick off. This guy who probably used to beat her and she used to take it from. Seeing her completely defiant would set him off. He would be pissed that she was no longer afraid of him. And so the kidnapping would meet two needs, getting him the money he wants, and savoring the challenge of breaking her down once again. Because even though you and I both know that in the place she is now, he'd be unsuccessful, he wouldn't see it that way. He'd be thinking, deep down, that she isn't as strong as she appears, and that eventually, she won't be able to hold off any longer. If he beat on her before, then you can bet this is a man who has done it to every woman he's ever met, and his psyche will not be able to handle that one of them got away."
Strahm sighed. "Because even after they get tired of beating on them and move onto the next, they relish the fact that they've left their abused girlfriend or spouse as damaged goods for the rest of their lives. Sometimes they beat them until they kill them, but others, like maybe this guy, like to beat on one for awhile, and destroy them, and leave them in their wake and look for another victim to destroy."
Strahm paced the floor. "And that's my only fear, based on what I assume is the perpetrator's MO. I see him pushing and pushing to get her to cower to him, and she's been strong for so long that she's going to push back. So...I am a little worried that this guy will escalate things, and maybe get violent with her in order to get her to cower to him. I'm just not sure how Amanda will respond to that. I'm hoping she'll cave when she calculates its her best move. She wouldn't really be caving, just play-acting."
"Sounds like you're pretty sure he's going to hurt her, a lot, before this is over." Jake's stomach was in knots. The realm would do more than save her from death, it would protect her from the wounds this fucker may give her, but she would still suffer through the pain.
Strahm looked at him. "I'm only telling you this because I know you can handle it and you don't want me to give you sunshine and rainbows. I've read her history, and while I don't know names and addresses, I know of the type of guys she felt she deserved before she met you. Based on that, yes, I think he will. First his hands, then rougher. If she has to cave, I think she will. I don't think she'll keep up the fight if she knows that it's going to make him kill her. She's a smart and cunning woman. I think she'll realize she needs to play possum and dupe him...That she'll see that's what he's after and fake it. And if she's cunning enough to do that, she's cunning enough to then lie in wait for the chance to hurt him before he hurts her again, which brings me back to my earlier statement on possible outcomes, and her escaping him, or killing him. Even if her life isn't in danger when she does it, if he's hurt her at all, I'm not going to raise a single eyebrow if she kills him in retaliation. Frankly, I consider kidnappers about the same type of scum as a murder. If she eliminates him, it saves Uncle Sam money."
"But if he beats on her, and keeps escalating and she doesn't start playing possum soon enough, what's left," Jake asked him. "He's beat on her, she's still defiant, the only step left for him to make would be murder, and we both agree he's after money and even if he's a walking pile of shit, he knows he gets no money if she's not alive, so what else can he do. They'll be at a stalemate and maybe he'll just fucking give up and leave her be until he's paid."
Strahm's face had grown more and more uneasy as Jake had spoken and he struggled with the internal thought that had come through his head, because there was another way he could hurt her between beating on her and killing her.
Jake was looking at him and saw Strahm's eyes dodging his. He tried to read into Strahm's face and couldn't. "You know of something else he can do to her, don't you? Tell me. I'm an adult, I can take it."
Strahm was still silent for a long time. "You're not going to like it." Jake waved his hand, prompting him. "There's an interim step between beating her and killing her and it's disgusting but I wouldn't put it past him. Especially if they have prior relationship history." Jake waved his hand again, basically saying, 'Out with it,'
Strahm sighed. "They're alone. She's a gorgeous young woman. They may have been past lovers. She's strong, she's happily married, he's a man, she's a woman, he wants to damage her and break her. I think you can figure out from there where I'm going with this. There's another way he can try to break her down other than just hitting her, and if he were to do that to her...Well, she'd remember it long after. She might remember it every time you touch her."
Jake felt sick to his stomach. He hadn't allowed himself to think of the possibility, or maybe his mind had just refused to think of it, but Strahm was right. Forcing himself on her was another way he could get to her, and he'd seen how badly she'd been after allowing Frank Morrison to bed her. Being used like that unwillingly by her kidnapper would likely be even more damaging to her psyche, and this time, he wouldn't be there to hold her and reassure her that everything would be ok...That she wasn't dirty, she wasn't damaged, and he still loved her completely. If she felt so dirty after Morrison had slept with her that she'd douched herself multiple times...How dirty would she feel if her kidnapper forced himself on her?
Strahm could see Jake wasn't entirely reassured by his profile of her kidnapper, so Strahm said, "Hopefully we'll find her long before the, but just...Be prepared in case she isn't. Me and Perez are going to do everything we can to find her before it gets to that point, and I'm sure you can count on Fontana as well. He's a capable guy himself, and I'm glad the NYPD sent him. But if the worst happens...You need to be prepared. She's going to need a lot of support and understanding and to know that you love her and understand. She may need a lot of kid glove treatment, and she may lose some of the progress you've made between the two of you, especially if he progresses to forcing himself on her."
Jake nodded and thanked him. Of course Jake would support her and of course he wouldn't view her any differently if he used her for...That. But towards the end of the Morrison situation, her mind had recovered itself before she killed him, and there was a possibility that she'd fully understand she had no control over it and thus not blame herself. He hoped so. After all she'd done to improve herself, and her close brushes with death...It would kill him if she lost some of the ground she'd worked so hard to gain within herself. But maybe she didn't need him to tell her it was okay now. She'd recovered and grown even stronger after Morrison, and she knew that he completely loved her and that would never change, even if...That happened. She might not need the kid gloves that Strahm feared she might.
And he definitely agreed with Strahm on one point. If the kidnapper violated her, it would no longer be a question of whether she would just incapacitate him and escape, or kill him. Amanda would definitely slaughter him at the first chance she got, with whatever weapon she had available, whether Jake was there to reassure her first or not. He'd witnessed first-hand what she'd done to Morrison, and that was as a quasi-willing participant. If this guy did it to her, and since Jake knew she'd definitely be unwilling, she would not let him live. His death would be her coping mechanism, and it would be as brutal and violent as she could make it. Strahm was right on another point...He'd picked the worst kidnapping victim in the world. She may not have her stealth, she may not have her blade, but the cunning and skill she'd learned as the Pig was still buried in her. It would take her over completely if this guy hurt her past a certain point. Even just beating on her, it already may be active and simply lying in wait to spring.
Perez returned and he left them to their investigation as he went upstairs and laid down. It had been close to 24 years since he'd gone to bed without her. Not being able to feel her presence made sleep a long time coming for Jake as he laid there in their empty bed.
Strahm and Perez reviewed the collected evidence for another hour before they got tired as well. Strahm let Perez guide him to the empty guest bedroom that Jack Park had shown her was available to them, and he wished her goodnight as she disappeared into the one she'd taken. He went into his own, turned on the light, and almost gawked. It was like being in a five-star hotel. The bathroom was huge, the television massive, and the bed could have comfortably held him, Perez, AND Fontana.
His clothing had already been unpacked, and when he investigated the bathroom, he saw that his toiletries had been unpacked and put away. It was well beyond what he could have ever expected, given the circumstances, and was a mild demonstration on how much the Park family was counting on him and Perez to bring Amanda home.
And he was going to. Unharmed. This guy was only staying ahead of them through luck, and luck eventually would run out for the guy. Amanda was far from an innocent victim, but it was clear how much she'd done to turn her life around, and she didn't deserve this. Further proof of how much she'd changed was evidenced by how much she'd willingly told her husband about who she was, almost to the point of oversharing.
He liked Jake, now that he was getting the opportunity to get to know him. Amanda had done much to improve herself, but credit had to be equally shared with Jake. He accepted her, baggage and all, and while he'd helped her through it, it was clear he'd let her work it out at her own pace and hadn't pushed her. He'd fallen in love with her when she was likely still an emotional wreck, and even though they hadn't been married long, it was quite clear that the two had a deep love that was as strong as Strahm's own 20-year marriage to his wife. Speaking of that...
He slipped into a t-shirt and lounging pants, then reached for his cell phone and called Lauren. She was a night owl, so he knew she was awake. Based on what he knew of her, she was probably doing her yoga program and burning incense sticks. She liked to make sure that the house was cleansed of any negative auras that may have followed him home from the office. But God, he loved her and her quirkiness. He relaxed in bed and waited for sleep to overtake him as he and his wife shared each other's happenings of the day...After she set down her phone to put out her incense sticks.