Nancy was gazing aimlessly at the ceiling, following patterns in the cracks and the textures in the stone. There was nothing else to do really, and she had exhausted all possible constructive thoughts in the week she had been here. She had woken up the day after her incarceration, to a reduced headache and a renewed determination to plan out an escape. She had examined the small cell minutely, looking for avenues of escape.
Half an hour later, she came to the conclusion that there was no possible means of escape, not even through the tiny casement window near the ceiling. Pulling herself up to the window, she realized that not only was it tiny, it was also barred. Looking out, she found herself on level with the ground outside, and the limited view reinforced her conclusion about the location of her prison. They were among mountains of some kind, in a tropical clime, most likely towards the southern regions of Mexico.
Of the house itself, she could tell little, except that it was old, built with quarried stone if the structure of the dungeons was any indication. It was also eerily quiet, with almost no noise filtering down to her cell. With her scraps of a meal and a glass of water pushed through the door twice a day she had almost no contact with any human being. While this had initially translated as relief at the absence of Giovanni and most especially Carlos, she had begun to feel increasingly hopeless as days passed and her ideas for escape slowly dwindled, and she saw neither hide nor hair of any person.
Which was why she was rudely jerked from her contemplation when she heard the sound of rapid footsteps approaching her door. She sat up as it was flung open, and in walked Giovanni looking less suave and rather more flustered than when she had last seen him. She noticed Carlos and two other of his gorilla-like henchmen standing at the door. As she caught Carlos's eye, he licked his lips lasciviously before she turned away. Determined to ignore him she turned her eye on Giovanni as he paced in front of her, muttering imprecations. With a sense of satisfaction, she noted that his hair was mussed and he didn't look like he had gotten much sleep in the last few days. When he felt her eye on him, he attempted to rein in his emotions and pull himself together. He finally succeeded and turned towards her with a nasty gleam in his eye. "So, Miss Drew, I think it is time we had a chat."
When they left the cell an hour later, Nancy was feeling much worse for the wear. Their 'chat' had consisted of an unpleasant interrogation by Giovanni on what information she was in the possession of and how she came about it. Her refusal to answer had resulted in a number of tantrums thrown by Giovanni followed by muttered threats and a physical assault that left her with aching jaws and ribs and tenderness around her right eye.
She distracted herself by recalling the petulant looks and stamping of the feet as her silence and refusal drove Giovanni to distraction. At one point, when he had grabbed her by the shoulders and shaken her, she remembered spitting on his face. I guess I paid for that, she thought ruefully as another spasm of pain through her stomach caused her to wince. But the look on his face certainly was priceless! She also vaguely remembered a number of people moving in and out of her cell after Giovanni let his henchmen take over from there. I'm lucky Carlos had to leave before it started, she thought with a shudder. I am sure he would have come up with something more creative and less palatable if he were given free reign!
As her thoughts began to clear she also realized the implications of Giovanni's state. Were things not going well for him? Had her team come across some new information? It renewed her determination to somehow make contact with them, but the lack of proper food and the recent beating were beginning to take their toll on her. It was as she was drifting off into an uneasy doze that a glint of gold on the floor near her cell caught her eye. Well, well, look what the gorilla brought in, she thought with a slowly growing smile as she saw the edge of Giovanni's gold-plated ball point pen.
It was extremely dark outside when Nancy managed to get the door unlocked and slowly swung it open, thanking her stars that while the house was old, at least the doors didn't have deadbolts. She found herself in a narrow, poorly-lit passageway and she could see a number of similar doors to hers all along it. How many prisoners is he in the habit of keeping? She wondered as she walked along the passageway to the door at the end of it. Fortunately, it was neither locked nor bolted, so she slipped through into what seemed to be the main quarters of the house. She had the oddest feeling that someone was following her but all her frequent checks and detours got her nothing. She shrugged it off, but resolved to be careful all the same. No way am I going back to that dungeon, she thought vehemently.
A number of passages and a couple of dead ends later, she realized that she was mistaken in the assumption that it was a 'house'. It's a bloody mansion, she thought resentfully as she hit yet another dead end. I'm fortunate that no one came across me wandering around like a ghost. The thought was barely finished, when she heard a commotion at the end of the hallway and running footsteps heading in her direction. Backtracking and finding an unlocked door, she quickly slipped inside before the footsteps rounded the corner. As they went past her door towards the dungeons, she thought she heard Giovanni's tinny voice screaming through a walkie-talkie to "find that blasted bitch, and find her now!"
Well, it was probably too much to hope that they didn't notice I was gone, she thought with a sigh. It was going to be much harder coming up with a viable plan of escape with everyone frantically trying to hunt her down. Suddenly all the hairs on her neck stood up on end. She was standing facing the door, but her sixth sense told her that she wasn't alone. Her mind was racing as she contemplated diving back through the door into the hallway, but as she stood there bringing her breathing back under control, she realized the fact that whoever it was hadn't yet tackled her to the floor. Hoping to play that to her advantage, she turned slowly, all senses on alert and muscles tensed in readiness to jump into action any minute.
She was in a study of some kind, with sweeping bookshelves and an enormous French window at the opposite end, soft Persian rugs on the floor and a huge mahogany desk. The sweep of the entire room took only a second because her eyes were immediately drawn to the man standing in front of the desk less than six feet from her. With his back to the moonlight coming from the window she could only make out his silhouette, but she immediately knew that this man was different from the gorillas usually employed by Giovanni.
His lean frame looked deceptively relaxed leaning against one of the bookshelves, but she could sense a restrained danger within him that told her that he was capable of bursting into explosive action in less than a second. For the first time since her capture she felt a frisson of fear and the sense that she was now in real trouble.
Though she could not make out his face, she somehow knew that his eyes were roving down her frame, assessing her. If you are looking to be impressed, then I will have to disappoint you buddy, she thought with a fatalistic sense of humor. After her week in the dungeons she didn't even want to think how she looked. Or smelt, she thought before subduing her wayward sense of humour and mentally slapping herself to get her roving thoughts under control.
She caught the movement of him straightening up and just like that, she was alert and ready to counter any move he might make. Or however ready I can be with bruised ribs and stomach, she thought warily while trying to hide a wince. Except, she wasn't quite ready for the soft chuckle that rumbled out his chest. Shocked not only by that soft, strangely seductive sound but also by the unexpected familiarity of it, she stood perfectly still. She was still questioning her sanity when he spoke.
"Not quite how we pictured our next meeting, eh, Drew?"
Her eyes wide in incredulous disbelief, she could only stare at him as he stepped closer, revealing the handsome angular features of Frank Hardy.
Author's Note :
Ta da! And there he is. Thank you to all my reviewers!
Cassie: If you take a look at my profile at the bunch of characters listed as my favorites, you will notice that there isn't a single female one. Turns out I'm not much of a 'girlfic' fan myself. I've read almost all the Hardy Boys case files and only a handful of the Nancy Drew files, a natural consequence of being a girl and finding Frank Hardy hot! :) So I would never demean him by pushing him into the role of a sidekick (I have been accused of doing that to Nancy though!) but my muse demanded that the story start off this way. In terms of this being a 'girlfic,' I'm pretty sure you wont be disappointed; in terms of entertainment value, I can only hope you enjoy it for that as well!