“You are lying. Tell me now,” he says, his accent getting even thicker as his anger grows.
“I don’t know.” I enunciate every word. Even if it kills me, a protective instinct forms in my gut. I can’t let them know where he was going; he has to end this before they continue to ruin lives.
I barely have a clue as to what they do, but if there was cause for the FBI to get involved, it has to be important, right?
“Fine. If you won’t tell us, we’ll see what young Daniel thinks of us having you.” He shrugs again, pulling out a phone, which I realize is the one I had in my pocket, the one I was given by Liam. He fumbles with it at first, and I realize the bravado he’s trying to scare me with is fake. He’s actually scared because his business is being threatened. “Maybe he’ll come to us.”
“He won’t!” I say. “He doesn’t give a damn about me.” Looking at Boss Man, I’m trying to think of a way to keep Liam out of this.
Even if it is all his fault.
“If that were true, he wouldn’t have brought you into this in the first place,” he says, challenging me.
“Come on, I mean—” I stumble, trying to think fast. “He let me go because he doesn’t care. Just let me out of here!” The panic builds in my chest, but before I can say another word, a voice fills the room.
“Who is this?”
“Ah, Daniel,” Boss Man starts. “I have something I think you’d be interested in.”
“I highly doubt that, Anton.” I suck in a breath when I realize this is the worst of the worst standing in front of me. This is the man Liam said was the most dangerous.
The thought that I won’t see the light of day again strikes me, and I try to push the fear away.
“Oh really?” he says. His face shows he’s almost amused at the situation. “Say hello, Margaret.”
I won’t let him get to me, and I won’t make Liam worry about me when there’s so much more at stake.
“Fuck you!” I yell, spitting in his face for good measure. Looks like watching all those action movies came in handy.
It hurts even more this time, and I’m pretty sure the liquid I feel on my face is blood from my nose breaking. I growl at him and try to keep the tears at bay, even though it’s damn near impossible because, hello, my nose is broken.
“If you hurt her, I’ll put you in the fucking ground and not think twice.” Liam’s anger vibrates through the room, and Anton laughs at him.
“Boy, you only wish you could get to me,” he taunts. “Tell you what, you come and try to get her. If you succeed, I’ll forget you exist, and we’ll go our separate ways.”
I don’t believe this guy for a second, but the naïve part of me hopes Liam will take him up on it. There’s silence for a while, and I lean slightly forward, hoping whatever he says will save me.
“Well, it doesn’t seem like you’re that important after all,” Anton says, his eyes cold and proud before he turns the phone off.
I realize then that Liam has hung up, and my hope deflates.
He starts walking toward the door, and I wait to see what order he’ll give his goons. When he doesn’t snap his fingers at them and bark out instructions, one of his guys asks, “What are we doing with her?”
Anton looks back and considers me for a minute. “Leave her for now. We’ll kill her later. I’m not convinced we can’t still use her.”
The goon who asked looks at me with a frown, but he follows his boss out of the room and leaves me alone.
I breathe my first breath in minutes and then curse, having completely forgotten that I desperately need water.
It could be hours later when my stomach revolts, but then again, it could be seconds. The lack of food or any nutrition finally shows, and I end up puking everywhere. Thankfully, if you can look at it in a positive light, I didn’t have much to expel, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
I wonder what they’re doing beyond these walls, wonder where the hell I am. I forgot to ask the important questions when they were in here threatening me. It must have been a while since that happened, and it feels like days since I was put down here. I want to scream out for help, but my throat is so raw it comes out as a gasp.
My mind wanders away from my current situation to Liam, wondering where he is, if he’s coming, if he’s going to let me die down here…
I guess I wasn’t nearly as important as I gave myself credit for.
It’s the second time he’s given me up since I met him, so I can’t really put any faith in him at this point. I briefly wonder how Mike and Jen are doing and hope for their sake they got out of town as fast as they could. I don’t want them to have to deal with anything involving these crazy Russian bastards.