Hey, looky looky! An update on Saturday! :D
And poor Tony. Poor, poor Tony...
I sat at a table in the restaurant Nick and I had picked for our date just a couple of hours before, anxiously awaiting his arrival. I'd hurriedly gone shopping to find something suitable to wear, as I certainly hadn't expected to have to dress for any such occasion while I was here. And I was quite happy with my selection I'd found at a small dress shop. It was a rose-colored satin-lined chiffon dress, with thin straps, the chiffon gathered around the bust, with a flared and very flowy knee-length skirt. I'd found some strappy silver metallic kitten heels to go with, and a clutch to match. I'd decided to wear my hair down, with just the sides pulled up, and some square dangly diamond earrings with pave' inlays. A small diamond pendant hung around my neck by a delicate silver chain. I wanted to keep the look more on the playful innocent side than fetching and sexy. I figured it was best to play it safe, and to not make my attraction to him too obvious. This was only our first date, after all. And coming on too strong would only further instill my fear of chasing him away- which was the last thing I wanted to do.
Soon, I saw Nick enter, shaking an umbrella, and wearing a long, black wool coat, with a royal blue scarf around the collar, which was turned up. He folded the umbrella and put it inside his coat's deep side pocket, glancing around to find me. I waved, smiling, and he spotted me, nodding, and smiling widely in acknowledgment. I stood up as he approached the table. He said hello and then gently cupped my cheek, giving it a kiss. I shivered a little, both with the chill of his skin on mine, and also the thrill of the gesture.
He stood back to survey me with a look of admiration, holding one of my hands in his. "You look beautiful," he purred, and I blushed, smiling at him bashfully.
"Well," I said, averting my eyes. "It's the best I could do on short notice."
"Well, it's very nice," he replied. "You're stunning."
I giggled girlishly and said, "Thank you," and he took his seat, laying his coat across the back of the spare chair at our table.
"So, have you had a chance to figure out what you want? It's been a while since I've been here," he commented, as he started to peruse the menu.
"Oh, there are so many things that sound wonderful," I said, not being able to stop smiling at the thought that he was actually in front of me, and we'd managed to arrange, and go on, an actual date. Without impediment. Without interrogation from Tony. And without any last minute cancellations. A miracle in and of itself, I mused.
"Yes, there are," he said thoughtfully, scanning down the pages. He glanced up. "I'm sorry. Are you as amazed as I am that we're actually doing this? In London, no less?" he asked.
I chuckled and nodded in agreement. "That's just what I was thinking, actually," I replied.
He chuckled in return. "I'm amazed you were able to break away long enough to see me," he said jokingly.
I nodded in agreement, and furrowed my brow, glancing at my phone beside me on the table. I'd tried to reach Tony in the hours before Nick and I had agreed to meet up, just to let him know of my plans. But, oddly enough, I hadn't been able to reach him. I knew he had his phone with him, and that it was on, because it would ring a few times, and then his voicemail would pick up. I'd left him a message, letting him know where I'd be and if he needed anything, to please let me know ahead of time. But there hadn't been a response of any kind. And, frankly, I was a bit concerned, though I couldn't imagine what the problem could possibly be that would affect his ability to answer his phone other than just being distracted. He was right where he wanted to be, with the person he wanted to be with, and I just chalked it up to them being too busy making the googly-eyed expressions they'd been making at each other lately to pay attention to anything else, and nothing more. Still, it wasn't typical for Tony to not at least text me some kind of acknowledgement of my correspondence with him. And I couldn't seem to shake that nagging feeling.
"Our waiter appeared, and I pulled myself away from my thoughts to give him our drink order. Nick ordered a bottle of wine, looking at me for approval on his selection, and I smiled, impressed by his knowledge of fine wines. He picked a great vintage, one that happened to be one of my favorites, and the waiter soon returned with the selected bottle and two glasses, pouring each of them for us.
Nick raised his in a toast when the waiter left again, and I followed suit. "To terrific first dates," he said, winking and smiling, his green eyes sparkling, and that adorable dimple appearing in his right cheek.
"Here, here," I said jovially, clinking his glass. We chuckled and sipped our wine, easily falling into the evening's conversation as comfortably as old acquaintances. And my concerns over Tony quickly drifted away.
XxXxXxXxXx
I groaned, my head feeling like a lead weight. Come to think of it, that's how my whole body felt. It took all I had to even crack my eyelids open to try to figure out where I was. All I could gather was that I was in a room with gray cinder block walls, with bare air ducts and pipes exposed in the ceiling, and a concrete floor. I knew I was lying on a wire bed frame with a bare mattress over the top of it, to which both of my hands were handcuffed together on the iron pipe headboard, and it rattled and creaked with each minute movement I made. There was a bright white light coming from a hanging circular fixture right above me, and I shielded my eyes from it just as I'd noticed it, the harshness of the light making my still-sensitive eyes ache.
I closed them again, just wanting to go back to sleep in hopes that this nightmare was just that- a nightmare- and it would all miraculously be for not went I regained consciousness a second time.
I felt a vibration in the front pocket of my jeans, and realized it was my phone. My heart leaped, realizing the lucky break I'd caught by Vanessa and her over-sized sidekicks not noticing I'd had it. I turned over and groaned as I came up onto my knees against the headboard, trying to bring my pocket close enough to my handcuffed hands to fish it out. "Come on, come on," I murmured impatiently, as I worked it out of my pocket with just the tips of my pointer and middle fingers of one of my hands, careful not to move too suddenly and drop it behind the bed and out of reach.
Finally, it was out of my pocket, and I gasped a relieved, "Yes!" when I was able to grip it in my hand securely. I worked my thumb to open it up, and saw that I had several missed calls from Pepper, and a voice mail. I hurriedly opened my voicemail, and lowered my ear to the speaker to listen. The signal was almost non-existent in this place, but I could make out a few of her words in between bouts of static.
"...London...Nick...dinner in two hours...are you?...just checking to...goodbye..." was all I could gather.
I frowned. Nick? Did she say Nick?, I thought, my cloudy brain trying to register if what I'd heard was reality, or some kind of hallucination. I shook my head in dismissal. None of that was important right now. I had to try to get a signal out, and call Pepper. She needed to know what had happened.
I quickly dialed her number, and prayed that it would ring. It did. Three times. I'd almost lost hope again, thinking I'd get her voice mail, but she picked up, thankfully, with a surprised sounding, "Hello?"
"Pepper!" I croaked out hoarsely, my head beginning to spin from being upright. I sank down on my haunches, laying my head against the cold cinder block wall behind the bed and tried to re-steady myself. "P-pepper, you gotta...I'm in trouble," I tried to explain, my throat closing up with the residual dryness of what I could only assume was just another delightful side effect of whatever it was they'd pumped me full of. "Pep. Please," I begged, trying again. "It's her. It's Vanessa. She..."
I heard Pepper exhale sharply on the other end. "Tony, you sound drunk. Are you drunk right now?" she asked with disdain. "If you are, I'm hanging up. Didn't you get my message? I'm..."
"No, Pep, I swear," I said, although, admittedly, my speech did sound slurred. Even to me, in my own groggy mind. "I swear," I said, trying again. "I'm not drunk. J-just listen, mmmmkay? It's Vanessa. She..."
Just then, the door to the room opened swiftly and in marched Vanessa, looking at me a fiery glare. She ripped the phone out of my hands and I groaned, not so much in pain, but in defeat.
"Yes, is this Ms. Potts?" she asked, her voice syrupy sweet.
I heard Pepper's voice on the other end, and my heart sank. "It is," I heard her sweet voice say. In the back of my mind, I supposed that was going to be the last instance I'd get to actually hear her voice, and it saddened me that it had to be in a moment like this. Goodbye, Pep. Nice knowing ya', I thought regretfully.
Vanessa started laughing. "Tony! Stop! You naughty boy!" she giggled, obviously trying to put on some charade to try to fool Pepper and cover my attempts at getting help. "Isn't he just a cad? He just can't seem to get enough of me!" she bragged, and I instantly felt my stomach turn. "I assure you, though, he is in very capable hands," she purred, giggling slyly once more. "So go back to your evening, my dear. Sorry to have bothered you!" And with that, she abruptly hung up and tossed my phone behind her to one of the gorillas that had man-handled me before.
"Do I have to do everything around here?" she screeched at them sharply, making my ears ring as a result. "Honestly! I swear to God, sometimes you two are virtually useless to me. A phone? You let him have his phone?"
"Didn't fink 'e still 'ad it on 'im, Miss," the gorilla in the black suit replied in his familiar cockney accent.
"Oh!" Vanessa chirped sardonically. "You didn't think he had it on him! Well!" she said, marching back over to the man. Through my squinted eyes, I could see a look of shame cross over the man's face she was addressing, and the other one glanced back and forth between his buddy and Vanessa with trepidation. What a big dumb animal, was the only thing I could think at that moment, watching the one man take his scolding like a whipped dog, with his proverbial tail between his legs and looking completely pitiful.
"You mean to tell me you don't understand that, in this day in age, everyone carries a cell phone on their person, at all times? Especially someone like Tony Stark, you bloody dolt!" she barked. I winced at the reverberation of her shrill voice batting around in my skull mercilessly. "You could have completely ruined our entire operation! You're lucky I had shown up when I did! Before he could make his pathetic attempt to talk to that mewling little tramp and beg for her to come save him!" she roared. "Or God knows what we would have had to do!"
The whipped gorilla nodded gravely. "Very sorry. Won't 'appen again, Miss," he said sheepishly.
"You're bloody right, it won't," she growled. "Now get out! And wait for me by the door," she directed. She spun around on her heels, turning back around to face me. "Mr. Stark and I have some matters we need to discuss."
"Yes, Miss," both men muttered, and I heard them walk out, closing the door behind them.
I was seething at the way she'd talked about Pepper. "Don't. Don't you dare call Pepper a tramp! She's got more honor in her little finger than you'll ever..." I tried to argue, my voice still scratchy and hoarse.
But Vanessa clapped a hand over my mouth before I could finish, and straddled my hips, making it obvious from this time, and the time before, that this was her favorite submissive position to put me in.
"Shut up," she spat at me through gritted teeth. "You will not utter her name in my presence. Do you understand?"
I narrowed my eyes, and gritted my teeth behind my clamped-shut lips. But, slowly, I nodded in agreement, fearing what she'd do to me, or threaten to do to Pepper, if I didn't comply. For now, at least.
She smiled a surly smile. "Good!" she chirped sharply. "Now, Mr. Stark. Have you awakened enough from your little nap for us to discuss business?" she asked, releasing her hand from over my mouth. I abruptly sat up, backing into the corner of the bed against the wall defensively.
"We have no business to discuss, Vanessa," I said sternly. "You're a maniac. I can see that now. And if you think I'm gonna go along with whatever demented plan you've got rolling around in your..."
She clapped her hand over my mouth again, and I grunted angrily, my annoyance with this growing each time she did it. "Ssshhhhh, love," she whispered with a hiss in my ear. "You're getting yourself all worked up again! And we can't have that. Best we do something to calm you down and make you a little more agreeable, hmmmm?"
She removed her hand again, and leaned back to look at me, awaiting my response. "It doesn't matter what you do to me," I gasped hoarsely. "Torture me. Kill me, even. Whatever. You'll be doing me a favor," I said. I noticed a glimpse of surprise at my words ghost over Vanessa's face. It seemed she believed me. And, by all rights, she should have. What I was saying was the truth. I knew I didn't serve much of a purpose in the world. I was just holding down the fort my dad had slaved his whole life to build. So I'd long ago come to the conclusion that I should just live life with reckless abandon. And if I was going to go down, I was going to go down hard, and have a good time all the way to the end, which appeared to be coming up fast.
I continued. "But my death wish is my problem. If you think I'll take down anybody else with me, you're wrong," I explained.
Suddenly, an evil grin spread across Vanessa's lips. "Oh, and don't I know it, darling," she purred sickeningly. "Which is why I'm here to pluck the petals from your precious little flower. One. By. One. Until I get what I want, that is."
I frowned, not understanding at first what she was talking about. Then it dawned on me, and I gasped, my eyes wide as the bottom of my stomach dropped out. "Pepper," I murmured.
