“Go fuck yourself,” I spat. That just made him laugh harder.
They carried me outside and the twin holding my feet said, “If you scream, things will get very bad for you.”
I almost screamed just to spite him. I really wanted to, but at the same time, I had no idea what they’d do to me if I did. The rational part of my brain started to take over, bypassing the adrenaline rush. I needed to protect myself, stay alive, meet their stupid boss, and maybe they’d let me go if I didn’t cause too much trouble.
Besides, if I did scream and draw out my neighbors, what were they going to do? Did I expect Mrs. Parker to try and stop them? She was almost ninety. I wouldn’t let anyone get hurt because of me.
When we got to the car, the twin I’d decked dropped one of my legs and opened the door. The two of them slung me inside and slammed the door shut. They both got into the car and then we were driving down the road, turning off my street at the stop sign.
I waited until we were in a busier part of town, somewhere that there would be witnesses everywhere, and tried to open the door. It was locked.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” one of them said. The passenger, Twin One.
Great.
We sat in silence for a few minutes before I poked Twin One in the back of the head. “What kind of man sends his goons to kidnap someone he saw once at a fashion show?”
The driver, Twin Two, sighed like he was over it. He said, “You’ll find out soon enough.”
I poked Twin One in the back of the head again.
“Ow!” he yelped, grabbing the back of his head and turning around in his seat. “Cut that shit out. And put your seatbelt on.”
Rolling my eyes, I sat back and acquiesced.
Looking out the window with my arms crossed over my chest, I mumbled, “He must be some kind of perv.”
Twin One chuckled, but then said, “Yeah, I wouldn’t say that in front of Dante if I were you.”
“Whatever,” I huffed, and sat in silence for the rest of the drive.
We ended up in a part of town I’d never been to before, finally ending up in what looked like a gated home.
Why the hell would a house need to be gated? I thought to myself. Just who was this Dante guy anyway?
He had to be someone important, someone high ranking, to need a fancy gated house. Maybe he was in the government or a diplomat from Italy or something.
Twin Two stopped the car at the gate and pulled a card from his pocket. He inserted it into the slot and then punched a code too quickly for me to see what it was. The gate slid open and we drove down a long driveway.
As we got closer, I began to see just how massive the house was. Mansion was a better word for it because that’s exactly what it was. A sprawling, massive-ass mansion with what looked like three stories. I couldn’t even guess how many bedrooms were contained inside its white walls. I’d grown up in a house with just one bathroom, and that was horrible. Whoever lived here had to have at least fifteen of them. You could pee in a different toilet for several days and still never use them all.
He stopped the car in front of a set of doors and they both got out of the car. Twin One opened the back door, reached inside, and grabbed my arm again. “C’mon,” he said.
“Good evening, Mr. Rossi and Mr. Rossi,” a young valet said. Twin Two handed him the keys and what looked like a wad of cash.
I looked at the valet and said, “You’re really going to just let them drag me around like this?”
The valet looked at me for a second before guiltily looking away.
“If he gets fired,” Twin One said as he led me to the door, “he won’t be able to feed his family. His mom’s chemo is expensive.”
I hated the guilt that nagged at me. It was hard to feel sympathetic to a guy complicit in my kidnapping, and yet I did. This all was so messed up.
When we got inside the lobby, the woman behind the desk quickly looked down, pretending like she hadn’t seen anything. She was probably another poor person the rich assholes that stayed in the hotel exploited in order to keep her quiet. I felt bad for her too.
With a hotel this fancy, I was a little surprised that there wasn’t an elevator operator waiting for us. Twin One dragged me into the elevator and Twin Two pushed a button. Of course we were going to the penthouse. This Dante guy had to be loaded.