- Chapter Eighteen -

The Magical Number

"If I asked you who on this wide earth you wanted to see one last time, who would you say?"

Proper procedure ignored as the gauze was wrapped tight enough to cut the circulation off, Angel could be heard turning around, presumably to gaze at Ashley. Communication shared via expression or telepathy, the more dangerous of the two opted to share with the prisoner. "Our stories aren't so original that that it's some shocking thing that we ended up where we did in life, I'll give you that. My mom abandoned the family when I was just a kid, and I never knew my father. Grandmother tried to raise me right, but my antics had the state dragged into it. For Ash, it was a case of small town equals smaller minds. It was rough going for a long time, yet we found each other in the city. But you..." Angel trailed off thoughtfully as the patch job was completed.

Tourniquet by far the most confining part of the situation, her tormentors made it no secret that she was only tasting actual medical care because the call had come in from above to prepare the captive for the boss. Hopefully whoever this young leader was, they didn't mind their slave-wives broken, because apart from all the scars she was collecting, Daniella had been clutching the blunt arm of the chair for dear life and had come through the other side short one nail. The heiress had no clue if anything she was being told was true, and frankly she didn't care - she just wanted it to stop. Although, she was almost just as terrified of what came next.

Weary of anyone who might try to undermine the bond of their relationship and possessing that short of an attention span, Ashley had made a throne of the teen's lap and was sitting leisurely while driving a spike of some kind into her shoulder. Optimistic about the future to keep from crumbling entirely, the heiress could tell by the way the metal went in that there would be a mark under her collarbone. Among the indecisive movements and other flaws of the tattooed jailer, there was also a propensity for baby talk, "Angel's right, who would you pick? As easy as you were to gather intelligence on, you really don't leave very many crumbs in your wake."

Bratty selfish teenager inside coming to the forefront, the first thing she wanted to say was that she didn't have anyone she cared enough about to bother seeing again. Her body had gone through too much to waste the energy on being so juvenile, and though the decision had been made long before she understood what it was to hurt so bad, she wanted her last words to be more original than that. So if she had that chance to see anyone in the world before she left for good, who would it be?

As ever, her mind jumped to the dream of the father she never had, but they would probably want to hear something more substantial than a ghost. And... Either the wound of learning that her mother was willing to trade her own daughter for the hollow life they led was too fresh, or it would never recover, because Daniella couldn't even bring herself to consider the woman. Her mind had even blipped over such shallow friends in the past as Carissa, but not her own mother.

Maybe Shen? Her stepfather had made her the person she was today, that was true, and she missed him terribly, so it should have been his name to come to her lips. It was as petty as it was puerile to hold someone to a promise they had made before she had been old enough to really understand the concept of mortality, she knew that deep down, but the vow had been broken all the same. Special and shattering in measure, because he had disappeared on her after swearing that he would always be there, the first major pact of her existence had left an impact that she still couldn't fully understand.

Jaded by more than one man of significance in her life, Jay's face swam before her eyes for a moment, but instead of a tender moment it was only the day he'd made her the teacher's assistant as an excuse to keep her close. Beneath his tutelage, it hadn't taken her long to learn how to be discreet, even in public places.

Willing to branch out, she wouldn't even get her hopes up that the cute girl in economics had so much as ever looked in her direction before.

Clocks in short supply wherever they were, she could hear from the impatient noises the pair were making in the pitch blackness that they were waiting for her answer. Aware of the fine edge she walked, she turned her thoughts to the new "friends" she had made.

If she were to visualize the people in her life as pictures in a yearbook, Logan was the square that had been scribbled out completely after little holes had been poked into the eyes. Chloe would have been bordered in stars and had little hearts and sparkles to denote that she was both kind of awesome and totally doable. She'd only met Mr. Sullivan the one time, so his picture would have been left blank and shoved back towards the back, where the faculty were listed. With all the new faces she had become acquainted with, that only left Sam.

Mr. Drake was... he had... There was a lot she could say about how grateful she was that he had saved her, but honestly she didn't have much else to add. If... No, when, she made it out of this, she'd like to have an honest conversation with him. Frankly she was mad at herself for squandering all of the opportunities she'd had to engage with him so far, but it was beyond her skills to get more than one word out after she'd overheard him with Chloe. The one time she almost came close to opening up, a dead rat had fallen from the ceiling and landed with a wet thump on her lap.

Tongue curving around a soft 's', Daniella realized that she had alluded to some kind of fake relationship with her temporary custodian to sound more protected than what she had been, yet she couldn't bring herself to say his name now. Lying had come so much easier before she knew that her life was in jeopardy, and she had no idea why.

Deep down - like way down to the weightless depths of her soul - a part of her had secretly hoped that maybe the man could have been the one to break the cycle, to actually care for her where no one else did. It certainly wasn't helping that her mind was equating him saving her skin as meaning more than not wanting to be blamed for her death, no matter how many hours she spent at night trying to tell herself otherwise. Honestly, it was almost getting to the point where she couldn't fall asleep without hearing a loop of 'I'm just a job'. By all rights everything should have been shot all to shit when he had been left no other alternative than to resort to feeding her like an infant, and it probably would have, if Logan hadn't shown up when he did.

Taking too long to answer, Ashley moved around and wrapped an elbow around the teen's neck, "Thankfully for you, we're all under orders to not kill you. Unfortunately for you, there's only so much the boss needs you for. Right, Angel kisses?" Devolving to the cutesy couple bit, Ash pulled Angel in for a long, deep kiss.

Literally reduced to furniture at that point, Daniella was shocked she could still feel uncomfortable with being that close to a display of open intimacy after what they had done to her.

Question resonating with some secret part of herself that had become shriveled and hollow from neglect, the heiress could only conclude that the original inquiry fell in line with what she wanted most in the world. But was she really so desperate for acceptance that she was willing to get it where she could, even if that meant that she had to delude herself into getting it? The answer was as sickening as it was obvious, however it made her feel a hair better about what all she had let Jay get away with. Not that anything could actually make it better.

Chomping teeth at Ashley with the unspoken prospect of coming in for more, Angel finished the lover's train of thought with a threat and a sharp tap to the wintry crown that had become skewed from all the thrashing the hostage was doing, "Give us an answer, or it won't be much longer before you could fit in nicely at a museum."

"N-no one." It sounded as honest as it felt in her gut.

While Angle detested guessing games and was one of the rare few that liked to not always have an answer, Ashley was intrigued by the prospect of a new activity. "Angel, knife. Bitch, hand." Taking Daniella's left hand and the knife that had previously been caught between fat and flesh, Ashley cut a thin line that was nothing next to the others. "I'm going to guess who she's lying about, and every time I don't get an answer I like, princess here is going to get another. If I don't get it in five guesses," Ash changed from laying out the rules in general to speaking directly to the heiress, "you're down a finger." Tone going from threatening to mocking, another line bit deeper to prove that this wasn't a laughing matter. "I'd ask you which is your favorite, but we both know that such lewd things are below your station."

Shows what they knew. But she wasn't about to antagonize the duo.

Dossier on the young woman mandated reading for all the peons, they knew all about the teen and her known associates, down to the new babysitter. Granted, the intel they had been able to grab thinned considerably at that point. Just for the fun of it, Ashley threw out what was obviously going to be a wrong answer. "The famous surfer and father-to-be, Logan Savage." The news had broken about three months ago was was a matter of public record, yet somehow in all the time she'd been couped up with the man, it had never occurred to her to connect those dots. "Not really my type, but I can see why he's so popular."

Just as jealous over the other half of the coin, Angel snorted in an angry huff.

Eye roll audible even from behind what must have been high-tech goggles, it sounded like not everything was sunshine and daisies. "Babe, you heard me say he wasn't my type, right?" Without an answer from the girl either way, the blade cut deeper into the same finger as the previous two blows. "Not quite your type either, is he? I'm not saying you have a thing for dinosaurs, I'm just saying that you clearly like them seasoned. True, he covers that criteria, but blondie falls short in the brain department, yeah?"

No, they couldn't have known about Jay... Right?

Literally shaking their heads, both of the hipsters had to sigh in disapproving fashions, although it was Angel that took the lead on this one. "You know, when we managed to get a hold of your information, it was just a matter of simple math to figure out that you had a little something on the side. If I had been in charge, I would have just let you have this one secret, but I'm not the one calling the shots around here. The boss was adamant to get to know every last detail about you, however our tech department had a really hard time finding this one. I'd say that our guy had all but given up, but that wouldn't be true - in the end he just had to run simple facial recognition. You sure weren't shy showing the traffic cam your pearly whites when you volunteered to help your professor get supplies for a class project that day."

"For shame." Chiming in, Ashley yanked on the teen's wrist and targeted a different finger for this one. "It's funny how much policy can change in just a few short years. Obviously I'm with my soul mate now, but back in high school... Man!" Grunting and all but salivating at the memories, the story was almost drowned out by the sudden scream that rent the air. "I had this one teacher I would have killed to bang! All those stories about teachers getting caught having affairs with students, and now this! Guess I just went to the wrong school."

Suspicious of what that was supposed to mean, Angel clarified, "Why did she get that cut? Are you really that jealous? Huh?"

Jabbing the knife down into Daniella's hand so it wouldn't fall, Ashley moved over to assure Angel that they had everything and more. It might have been sweet if it wasn't so twisted and she was on the receiving end. "Her royal slutness might have gotten an idea about getting clever. We all know that her teacher is banging half the class." Translation: Jay wasn't worth more to the situation than what had happened in middle school. "Princess here is a tender little flower that needs more attention than that. Like someone else I know." There was another kiss between the two, but this one was more of a short check on the cheek. "Not you, but someone."

There was the sound of a hefty and sudden slap, followed shortly after by a surprised gasp. "Not me? Really? You obviously mean me. Really? How stupid would I have to be to buy that tone?!" Angel was on the warpath. "I have to watch greasy little hosebags try to get better deals from you on the daily, and then you have the gall to yell at me for staying an extra twenty minutes at the bar? I'm sorry I don't just chug my beer! Some of us actually like to enjoy ourselves." From the sound the plastic made, she would guess that one of the two hipsters had cocked their head. "I give you the benefit of the doubt when you want to head out early, but I'm not letting you ruin this for me. Just like you ruined my friendship with Vee. She was good to me, long before you entered the picture."

It sounded like a lot of little issues had been brewing and bubbling below the surface for a while now. If she could have Daniella would have excused herself from the scene so they could talk, however being tied down to the chair still, that wasn't an option. Silence would have been the prudent answer, but... "It's not Jay..."

Ashley (or Angel for that matter) could have backhanded her and told her to shut up, but instead they prompted the girl to go on. "That's two. So?"

Rules permitting her to offer up her own suggestion from what she understood of the game, the heiress supplied her own answer to keep from losing a finger. "You already know, don't you? You just want to hear me say it." If buying time to keep them at bay until the boss came to collect whatever it was that he wanted from her was the plan, it would have been better to just let them fight it out. Again, the smart answer wasn't always the first one to present itself.

Leering at one another from the pregnant pause that hung heavy in the chilly air, they played along, curious to know where she thought she was going to go with this. "Go on."

Honestly, she wasn't expecting to get this far. Clearly she didn't want to pay the penalty, however with the way the couple was revealing the tatters just below the outside seams, her best hope had been that one of them might shut her up so they could have at it. Apparently that wasn't going to be the case. Because why would it be?

Even if it was slapping her in the face, Daniella wasn't going to give the easy answer.

If this was for anyone else but the three of them, this might have been the part where the heiress acknowledged that if she were a bolder soul, she might have tried to make the accusations true. Based solely on looks, Mr. Drake wasn't unfortunate looking (she could only imagine what he had looked like when he was younger), however short of having a mole at the safe house, there was no way they could have known the extent of the situation with Sam. Her even thinking of him now was clearly only because she had come to consider him to be some kind of knight in shining armor.

For all her desire to be wanted by someone, she didn't know how to move beyond a physical attraction, and even then she needed something deeper, just like Ashley said. Given the option day one of presenting herself for a grade, she declined to do anything more until she felt comfortable. It was a tedious process, but Jay respected her boundaries (and the fact that she was doing the work and earning her own marks). Praying for better restraint in the future, the young woman liked to think that at a minimum she would maintain that same level of self-respect with anyone that she had her eye on.

Again, maybe if she was braver and wired differently, maybe when this was all said and done it would be worth examining closer, but by that point a part of her hoped that they would be in a place that would just make romantic intimacy awkward and strange. And the other half? If she were to answer for herself, the only thing should could have admitted about Mr. Drake was that she couldn't stop thinking about him pulling her from the water. The heroism and the halo...

"My dad." Shen too, but this answer wasn't the full truth: it was what she thought they wanted to hear, remixed from selections of the truth. "You seem to know everything about me, but do you know how my mom would discipline me? She would play old tapes." Vision plagued by a human drum that had been struck until it was red, her voice broke and she sounded a million miles away. "Not the whole thing, obviously, but she would show me recordings of my dad spanking her, and she told me to pretend that that was me. It was innocent enough, until the day came where I accidentally saw more than she intended."