“If you don’t mind, I’m really tired and I’d like to get home now,” she said, and she looked down at the reporters daring them to ask her another question.
“Thank you for your time, Stacy, and welcome home,” said the reporter who had asked the stupid question. The other reporters chimed in with their thanks and support.
“Thank you all again,” Stacy said, and she blew a kiss to the crowd then turned away from the podium and grabbed on to Holly for support. “I’m not feeling so great. Where’d you park?”
“Over here,” she said, and she held on to Stacy as they tried to make their way through the crowd. People were handing her bouquets of flowers and cards as she passed and by the time they got to the car, Stacy and Holly both had their arms full. They got in Holly’s car and Stacy leaned back in her seat.
“I feel like crap,” she said.
“You probably should have stayed another day,” Holly said.
“Probably,” Stacy admitted, “but I need to get home.”
Chapter 29
The men were still drinking in the restaurant, when Ramos got a call from one of his men. He talked for no more than 15 seconds and hung up the phone.
“That was one of my men. He said that one of the television stations here is about to replay an interview your girlfriend gave earlier this morning. Let’s see if we can pick it up on a television in the lobby,” Ramos said.
The men got up and moved into the lobby. None was sober and they were loud and obnoxious as they made their way from the restaurant to the lobby. Ramos went up and started flipping through the channels on one of the TVs until he got to the right channel, then he turned it up loud and they all stood there and watched as Stacy was wheeled out of the hospital. The camera zoomed in on Stacy and a woman’s voice translated Stacy’s words into Spanish as she spoke.
The five men were fixed on the TV for the entirety of the interview. The camera panned back and showed the shot of Stacy leaning on Holly for support.
“I wonder who the tall blond is,” Eli said and Jason nodded.
When the report was over, Ramos put his arm around Niki’s shoulder and smiled.
“I’d kidnap her myself,” Ramos said.
“And I’d have to kill you,” Niki said, slurring his words.
Jason slapped Niki on the back. “Well, you were right. She covered for us.”
“I told you,” Niki said. “How long do you think I have to wait before I go get her?”
“I don’t know,” Jason said. “A month or two?”
“That’s what I thought too,” said Niki. “I need a drink.”
“What about Corazon?” Jason asked.
“He’ll be there tomorrow,” Niki said. He turned to Ramos, “Let’s get some rooms here tonight and we’ll go after Corazon tomorrow.”
Ramos laughed. “Did you think I’d take you there tonight?”
They moved from the lobby to the bar and the waiter brought five beers and a bottle of tequila over to the table. All eyes in the bar were on the table of rowdy men, some of the patrons laughing at them and others looking on in disgust. There was a table of women sitting next to them and Eli went over and started up a conversation with one of them, and Carlos soon moved over to their table as well. Niki, Jason and Ramos continued to drink and be obnoxious until finally a manager came to their table.
“Excuse me, but we have had complaints from several of our other patrons,” the manager started, but he stopped mid-sentence. “Mr. Ramos!” he said, smiling. “I didn’t realize you were with us tonight! I’m glad to see you are enjoying yourself. Let me buy you a round.”
Ramos shook hands with the manager. “Absolutely!” Ramos slurred.
The manager went back to the patrons that had complained and Ramos watched as their faces turned red and then they got up and stormed off. When the manager returned with the drinks, the three men were singing Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay in drunken voices, and by the time they came to the end of the song, everyone in the bar had joined in singing.
Eli came back over to the table and sat down by Jason. “We’re going upstairs,” Eli said. “Keep an eye on him, will you?” motioning to his brother,
“Yeah. He’s fine,” Jason said. He looked over to see whom Eli was leaving with. “Which one are you with?” he asked him.
“The one in the white shirt,” Eli said.
Jason couldn’t focus. “Does she look better up close?” he laughed.
“Fuck off,” Eli said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Wait,” Jason said. “Who’s Carlos with?”
“The chick in the red dress,” Eli said, trying to get away.
Jason looked but he was seeing double. “Twins?”
Eli rolled his eyes and moved over to Niki. “Keep an eye on Jason,” Eli said. “He’s shit faced.”
Niki looked up and there was a long pause while his brother came into focus. “Eli!” Niki exclaimed. “Where are you going?”
“Upstairs.”
Niki sat up straight and looked in the direction of the group Eli had been sitting with. “Which one are you leaving with?” he slurred.
“The one in the white shirt.”
“Should I meet her?” Niki asked.
Eli was confused. “Why?”
Eli had gone out of focus again and Niki opened his eyes wide and blinked. “Well, I don’t know. Do you like her a lot?” Niki asked.
“Not really. What difference does it make?”
“The difference is, if she’s somebody special, I should meet her because I am your brother. If she’s not, it doesn’t make any difference whether I meet her or not,” Niki explained, waving his hand.
Eli laughed. “What is that, drunk logic? In answer to your question, no, you don’t need to meet her.”
“Oh. Too bad,” Niki slurred.
“You should go to bed,” Eli advised. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Eli went back to his table laughing and told Carlos, “They’re both shit faced! I haven’t seen Niki that drunk in years.”
Carlos laughed. “It’s good for him. He needs a release,” he said, looking over at Niki. He turned back to Eli, “He’s going to be hell to live with for the next couple of months.”
“We’re going to have to take every job we can just to keep him sane.” Eli moved back to his chair and put his arm around his date. “Let’s get out of here,” he told her, and they got up and left the bar. Carlos and his date left shortly thereafter.
Niki, Jason and Ramos drank long into the night and when they finally staggered to their rooms it was well past 2:00 a.m. Niki managed to get one shoe off before he fell on the bed and passed out.
Chapter 30
Holly drove Stacy to her high-rise condominium and Agent Parker was coming out of the elevator as they were going in.
“Hi, Agent Parker,” Stacy said. “Were you looking for me?”
“Good morning, Stacy,” Parker said. “Yeah, I’m glad I ran into you. I have a man posted upstairs, the name is Kanes. And another agent will relieve him tonight.”
“Okay.”
“We’d like to bring some photos over in a day or so, after you’ve had some time to rest, and see if you can identify any of your kidnappers,” Parker said.
“Whenever you want,” Stacy said.
“Good. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Stacy and Holly took the elevator to the penthouse. A cute, clean-cut guy in a suit was sitting outside her door and he stood up when they got off the elevator and stuck out his hand to Stacy.
“Hello, Ms. Trent. I’m Agent Kanes with the FBI. I’ll be keeping an eye on you for a little while.”
Stacy shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you . . . what was your first name?”
“Alex. Alex Kanes.”
“It’s nice to meet you Alex. Please call me Stacy. This is my friend Holly.”
“Nice to meet you, Holly,” Alex said.
Holly unlocked the door with her key and Stacy t
urned back to Alex before she went in. “Can I get you anything? A cold drink or a snack or something?” Stacy asked.
“No, I’m fine, thanks,” he said, smiling. She’s beautiful even with two black eyes, he thought.
“Well, let me know if you need anything,” she said, closing the door.
“I guess I need to have the locks changed. And my credit cards. I wonder where my purse ended up after the bank robbery,” Stacy said. Now that she was home, she felt overwhelmed with things that needed to be taken care of.
“Your cards were probably canceled already since you were presumed dead, but you don’t need to be worrying about any of this today, anyway,” Holly said. “You look tired. Why don’t you go lie down?”
“On the couch,” Stacy said.
“Okay. Lie down and I’ll get you a pillow and blanket,” Holly said. She went into Stacy’s bedroom and took her pillow off her bed, grabbed a blanket from the closet and brought them out to the living room. Stacy was at the window looking out and hadn’t heard Holly come back in. When Holly came and stood next to her, Stacy jumped out of her skin.
“Shit!” Stacy said, embarrassed. “I’m so jumpy.”
“Can you talk about it?” Holly asked.
Stacy looked at Holly. They had been friends forever and Stacy trusted Holly with her life. She was trying to figure out how much of the story she should tell her.
Holly sensed her hesitation, “Is it too painful?”
“I need you to swear to me that you won’t tell a soul what I’m about to tell you, Holly.”
“I swear, Stacy.”
They went over and sat on the couch and Stacy took a deep breath before she began.
“I wasn’t in Colombia the whole time I was gone,” Stacy said. “I was actually kidnapped twice.”
Holly’s eyes got big. “What the . . .”
Stacy stopped her mid-sentence. “No. It gets worse,” Stacy said. “I really, really like one of my first kidnappers,” Stacy said, choosing her words carefully. Stacy waited for it to sink in, and she involuntarily flinched waiting for Holly to light into her.
Holly stared long and hard at Stacy. “You need to start from the beginning,” she finally said.
Stacy took a deep breath. “Okay. These four guys who robbed the bank took me to an island somewhere out in the Caribbean. And while I was there, I figured out that my father had paid someone to kill me.”
“Whoa, back up! Your father paid someone to kill you?” Holly said in disbelief. “I don’t believe that for a second.”
“It’s true, Holly,” Stacy assured her.
“And what? Now you think you like some guy whom your father paid to kill you?” she asked.
“No, it’s not like that. The guys who kidnapped me were not the ones my father hired, and they ended up helping me hide my assets from him,” Stacy said.
“But you ‘really, really like’ one of the bank robbers? One of the guys who shot you?” Holly asked, not believing what she was hearing.
“Yes, but they didn’t shoot me on purpose,” Stacy said. “I know how it sounds, but you just had to be there,” she said. “Let me just finish and we’ll go back to that part. Three or four days ago, a helicopter landed on the island and they grabbed me and took me to Colombia. That was the man whom my father had hired. They’re the ones who beat me up, not Niki.”
“Niki? That’s his name?” Holly asked. “And he didn’t beat you up, he just shot you. But he didn’t shoot you on purpose. Do you see how this sounds?” Stacy tried to talk, but Holly cut her off. “Stacy, there’s a name for this – it’s called Stockholm Syndrome – and you’re a classic textbook example.” Stacy looked like she was going to cry. “I’m sorry. Go ahead,” Holly said.
“Never mind. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Come on, Stacy. I’m just worried about you,” Holly said. “You’re abducted and reported dead, you’re shot and beaten, but somehow you manage to make it home alive, and then you tell me you ‘really, really like’ your kidnapper,” Holly said. “I’m telling you those are classic symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome that affect kidnap victims. You just need to talk to someone, Stacy. We’ll get you fixed up,” Holly assured her.
“I’m talking to you, but you’re not listening!” Stacy exclaimed. “It’s not a syndrome! I love him. There. I said it.”
Holy crap. She’s worse off than I thought, Holly thought to herself. “Okay, Stacy. Let’s come back to that. What happened in Colombia?”
“Well, the guy took me from the island at gunpoint and put me on the helicopter and I was fighting him and that’s when he slugged me. And they ended up taking me to a filthy, disgusting motel and that’s where I was able to escape. The lead guy left, so there was only one man guarding me. I went in the bathroom and broke the mirror and I made a knife out of a shard of glass. And then I knocked on the door that he was guarding and he opened it and while he had his hand on the doorknob, I slashed his wrist.”
“Shit, Stacy!” Holly said, horrified.
“I know. It was awful. Blood squirted out everywhere, but it didn’t even seem to bother him. He threw me down and was beating me up and his blood was going all over me. It was all over my face and on my hands. Everywhere. He pulled his hand back again to hit me and I managed to get my arm up and I brought the glass blade down in his neck.”
“Oh my God!” Holly said.
“He reached up and grabbed his neck and I got out from under him and crawled to the corner while the blood drained out of his body,” Stacy said. Holly had gone pale. “I watched the guy die and I didn’t have an ounce of remorse for what I had done.”
“Hell no, you didn’t have remorse. The guy would have killed you, Stacy! You don’t feel guilty do you?”
“No. Not guilty. I feel sick when I think about it. When I think that I was capable of that,” Stacy said.
“Well don’t. You wouldn’t be sitting right here today if you hadn’t done exactly what you did,” Holly told her. “So then what did you do?”
“I knocked on all the motel doors. There were two cars parked outside, and finally a man answered and I begged him to help me. He put me in his car and that’s the last thing I remember until I woke up here.”
“And he took you to the Embassy?”
“Yeah. I need to get a hold of him,” Stacy said. “Agent Parker said he could get a name and number for me.”
Holly was quiet for a minute then she broached the subject again. “So, tell me how it all came about with this Niki guy.”
Stacy sat straight up. “I wonder if he knows I’m okay. Maybe he’s called,” she said, getting up and going into the kitchen to check her answering machine.
Holly followed her into the kitchen. “You’re thinking he would call and leave you a message?” she asked in alarm.
“I know he’ll come after me,” Stacy said. “But I don’t know if he’ll call or not.”
Holly was horrified. “Stacy, you’re freaking me out. I’m really, really, really worried about you.”
Stacy laughed. “Holly, I know you think I’m being delusional, but I swear to God, I’m not. The guy is gorgeous, you couldn’t help but fall in love with him. Even when I hated him I was attracted to him.”
“He’s gorgeous?” Holly asked.
“Yeah, they all were. I mean the first group. The second group were all mean and disgusting, like you imagine kidnappers to be.”
“Niki is gorgeous?” Holly repeated.
“Drop dead,” Stacy said.
Holly stomped her foot. “I swear! Only you would be kidnapped by a gorgeous guy named Niki!” Holly said. “Did you have sex with him?”
Stacy couldn’t help but smile.
“You did! Oh my God!,” Holly exclaimed. “I don’t even have to ask if it was good! I can tell by the smirk on your face,” Holly said, and Stacy laughed out loud. Holly stood back and crossed her arms. She looked at Stacy and shook her head.
“You are, aren’t you? You’re in lov
e with him,” she said.
“I love him, Loretta,” Stacy said, and Holly laughed. “Niki’s brother Eli actually knew that line,” Stacy said.
“Get out! Who else was there?” Holly asked.
“Well, there was Jason,” Stacy said, and she filled Holly in on her first encounter with him on the beach.
“What’s he look like?” Holly asked.
“He’s tall with sun bleached blond hair. A surfer type guy. Pretty darling.”
“And what does Niki look like?”
“Niki is tall with these brown, kind of loose curls. Great body, awesome chest, nice arms,” Stacy said, “and green eyes the exact same color as mine.”
“No way,” Holly said.
“Way.”
“And the other guy? What was he like?”
“Carlos was different from the others. He was sweet. I don’t know how he ended up being a bad guy. He’s psychic and he messes around with herbs and stuff. Apparently his grandmother was a healer,” Stacy said.
“Who cut your hair?” Holly asked.
“The hair. That’s a story unto itself. When we left the bank, they crammed me into a disgusting burlap sack, and then they couldn’t get it off of me because I had dried blood all over my hair and it was stuck to the sack. I was passed out and the jerks butchered my hair to get the bag off. I was so pissed the first time I saw it,” Stacy said.
“I can imagine,” Holly laughed. “I’ll bet you went ballistic.”
“I did,” Stacy laughed. “I stormed into the kitchen and I slapped Niki across the face as hard as I could. I thought of that when I was in that motel room. The guy ripped some tape off my face and it felt like someone slapped me, and I thought of when I hit Niki.”
Stacy finally hit the button on her recorder. The tape was completely filled with messages, but there wasn’t one from Niki. She was walking out of the kitchen when the phone rang.
“Hello,” Stacy said. “Hello?” She could hear breathing, but no one spoke, and she thought maybe it was a bad connection on a cell phone. “Hello?” she said again.
Back on Solid Ground Page 21
