Lovely Revenge

by Julia Derek

  The man paused and gave Chase a lazy look. “You’ll soon find out.” Then he backed out of the room and closed the door. The sound of a key entering the lock and turning around reached my ears.

  My throat restricted further and I found myself hyperventilating. I plopped down on the bed, feeling like I was about to pass out. Black, little dots swam before my eyes. This just could not be happening. It must all be a very vivid dream and any second now I’d wake up from it.

  “Do you believe me now?” Chase asked, his face completely smirk-free.

  Oh, God, it was actually happening.

  “Y—yes,” I stuttered when I finally managed to move my tongue. Deep inside, I think I had believed him from the moment that first memory returned to me, only I hadn’t wanted to. Having been punk’d had just been wishful thinking. My coworkers might like practical jokes, but I didn’t really think they’d actually pull one of such complexity as this one on me. Especially not one that included our grumpy managing director.

  Chase grabbed my hands and looked at me with a grave expression. “Elisa, please pull yourself together. Is there any reason you know of that someone would want to abduct you? Why that guy would suggest that you know why I’m here?”

  The trembling in my body had calmed down when Chase grabbed hold of me and I was able to breathe better. I took another deep breath in an attempt to slow my still racing heart. “No… I honestly have no idea why he would say that. Or why someone would want to abduct me. Well, except for the fact that my family has some money, but that’s it. But we’re not so loaded that I or my family ever worried about me being kidnapped.”

  “So nothing else comes to mind?” Chase asked, still looking at me intently. “Elisa, think hard. There must be a reason. We wouldn’t be here otherwise. Think, for Christ’s sake!”

  I shook myself loose, annoyed with him again, which made me feel almost back to normal and I could talk with ease. “I am thinking. Do you think I want to be kidnapped?”

  “No, of course not. I apologize for being so condescending.” Getting to his feet, he sighed and rubbed his face with his fingers. “Now that I think about it, he might’ve just been kidding.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, watching him as he began to pace the room.

  “When he suggested that you knew why I was here. He might have just said that to shut me up.”

  “Oh. Did it work?”

  Chase stopped and put his hands on his hips. “Yeah, I have to admit that it did.”

  I scrunched up my face and thought hard about why someone would ever want to kidnap me. “I guess it is possible that they want some kind of ransom for me. My uncle has been in the news a lot lately.”

  “Why is that?” He gazed at me with anticipation.

  “He’s a plastic surgeon and he wrote a book about facelifts that he’s been promoting in the media. The book is doing pretty well, so maybe people think that means my family is now even richer. Which I guess we are, but not significantly so. That’s all I can think of. But that doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

  Chase sucked in a frustrated breath. “No, it sure doesn’t … Well, maybe they want a ransom for both of us.”

  “That’s the only thing that makes sense, right?”

  “That’s definitely the only thing that makes sense.” A corner of his lip went up into a lopsided, humorless little smile. “Not that I’m that loaded yet. It wasn’t long ago since I made less than the seven figures I’m making now. In a place like Manhattan, a six-figure salary doesn’t exactly make you anyone special. Not even a seven-figure one, quite frankly.”

  That was true. Even though I’d only spent a couple of months in Manhattan, I’d already learned that it was packed with well-to-do people. Pretty much everyone I’d met when I’d gone out for drinks after work made at least one hundred thousand a year despite being in their early to mid-twenties still. And they weren’t only working in the financial field. Chase belonged to the slightly more exclusive crowd that made seven figures. Rumor had it that he was about to be promoted to partner shortly, he was so good at his job, and then he’d make even more. He’d been at the firm since graduating college seven years earlier and had worked his way up very quickly to where he was today. Unlike me, he was from a blue collar background and had performed so well in school he’d received a scholarship to Princeton. At least this was what I had learned from Tessa recently. She knew all kinds of things about our team leader, having been in love with him for as long as I’d known her. He was tall and athletic with thick, dark brown hair that was always slicked back, putting his smoky gray eyes, paradoxically aristocratic nose, and high cheekbones in focus. While I had to agree that Chase was attractive, I found him highly unappealing. To say the least. He barely ever smiled and if he did, it seemed fake, just like his perfect, white teeth. Tessa thought his surliness only added to his attractiveness and made her want to nurture him. I only thought it made him even more of an asshole.

  Unfortunately, all I had now was this asshole.

  A picture of my trashed apartment entered my head then. I gazed at Chase, who had taken a seat on the chair next to the bed again

  “But I don’t see why they’d trash my place if they just want money in exchange for us,” I said. “Seems kinda excessive. All they needed to do was take me, right?”

  “That’s a really good point,” Chase said, for once looking at me like he thought I actually had something going on in my head. “Why would they trash your place when all they needed to do was drug you and take you out of there? Trashing the place might have alerted your neighbors, so that seems like an unnecessary risk to take. And I just can’t get over the fact that I’m not all that rich yet that I’d be worthy of kidnapping.”

  He laughed as he finished that statement. “Or maybe I am and just haven’t realized it yet. I’ve been working so much the last couple of years, I haven’t really paid attention to how much I’ve been making. I can’t even remember what my last bonus was. And if I’m not sure how much I’m making, it seems even stranger that others would have caught on to it.”

  He reached for the energy bars on the ground and picked up a couple, eyeing them closely. They were a brand I knew and liked, but I was not about to eat one despite that my stomach began to gnarl with hunger suddenly. It must have been a while since I had last eaten. A long while. As far as I could remember, the last time I ate something was during lunch yesterday. And if I’d awoken two hours after Chase was abducted, it must be about ten thirty, eleven now, making that almost twenty-four hours ago.

  “Are you actually going to eat one of those?” I asked him as he kept examining the bars.

  “Nope.” He looked up. “I was just curious to see if they might have been tampered with.”

  I glanced at the bars in his hand. “Are you telling me you think they might be poisoned or something?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. I’m not sure why they’d care about our well-being so soon.” He peered closer at the wrapping, turning it around so he could see it from every angle. “But this one seems untouched. Not that I’m an expert at these kinds of things.” He threw it back on the floor and turned to me. “Actually, it must’ve been a while since you last ate, so maybe it isn’t so soon. You must be hungry. You should eat something to keep your strength up.”

  My stomach gnarled loudly in that moment, so it was hard for me to deny this fact. I could feel my cheeks flame at the sound, which annoyed me. So what that my stomach was making sounds? I had more important things to worry about than the fact that I was sounding like I had accidentally swallowed a little but very loud engine.

  Chase bent forward and picked up a banana that he eyed carefully. When he was done, he handed it to me. “I think you’ll be okay if you eat this one. I don’t think it’s possible to poison a banana without leaving some kind of a mark. Besides, now that I think about it, I really don’t see the point in abducting us only to poison us. They obviously want to keep us alive or they wouldn’t have come b
y with stuff for us to eat and drink.”

  I shook my head. “I think I’ll pass for now, thanks.”

  He threw the banana back on the floor. “Suit yourself.”

  As I was about to say that I’d eat a banana if he had one first, I suddenly remembered what I was supposed to have done yesterday. A smile spread across my face. Oh, my God, it makes all the difference… Excited, I grabbed Chase’s arm. “You know what? I was definitely taken very soon after I’d gotten to my place yesterday.”

  He brightened. “Oh, yeah? What else do you remember?”

  “That I was supposed to have taken a flight to L.A. at two thirty p.m. yesterday. My nephew’s getting baptized this weekend. That’s why I left the office right after lunch.”

  “Okay…” He gazed down at my hand that was still holding onto his arm and then back at me with a confused face. “Well, it’s good to know the timeframe of your abduction, I suppose.”

  “Yes, but that’s not why it’s so great that I finally remember what I was gonna do.” I leaned closer to him. “See, I’m pretty sure it’s only a matter of time before we’re out of here. Like, we should be rescued sometime today. So I can definitely go without eating any of this stuff until then.”

  Chase perked up again. “Really? What makes you think we’re about to be rescued?”

  “Because I was gonna go directly from the airport to a late dinner with my brother and his wife and a whole bunch of other people. When I didn’t show up yesterday, they must’ve wondered what happened to me. Flaking out on people is not my style and my brother knows that very well. Anyway, two of the people at the dinner I was supposed to have gone to are cops. Surely they’ve figured out by now that I never boarded that plane. And if they’ve figured that out, by now they must also know that someone broke into my place and trashed it. Combine that with the fact that I didn’t show up for work this morning… See what I’m trying to tell you?”

  I was practically jumping on the bed, I was so excited.

  Chase nodded, looking more and more interested. “Yes, I’m definitely seeing what you’re trying to tell me… You’re suggesting the authorities must already be looking for you even though you’ve not been missing even twenty-four hours yet.”

  “Exactly.” I grinned big, so glad that I’d suddenly remembered what my plans had been for last night. I gave myself a hug. Everything would be okay very soon … Gabi would make sure we were rescued. “One of the cops is also my friend and old trainer. She’s an LAPD detective. She was recently working undercover here in New York with her boyfriend. At the time, he was a detective for the NYPD. I’m sure he knows what strings to pull to make things happen fast. Don’t you agree?”

  Chase returned my smile and this time it even reached his eyes. “Wow. Her boyfriend worked for the NYPD, huh? Yeah, he definitely should be able to pull lots of strings to make things happen much faster than normal.” He paused, rubbing his chin again. “I wonder if they’re assuming the fact that I never showed up for work today might have something to do with you missing. I don’t think I’ve ever not showed up for work. Well, at least not without giving someone there plenty of notice first.”

  Yeah, that sounds right, I thought. Chase might be a grumpy, unpleasant boss, but he was always there and he did seem extremely conscientious.

  Suddenly his smile shrank and a shadow fell over his face.

  “What?” I asked, instantly worried.

  “Only problem is, even if they’re looking for us right now, we can’t count on them finding us all that soon. New York City is the biggest city in the country after all.” He sighed heavily. “Yeah, I don’t think it’ll happen any time soon.” He nodded toward the food on the floor. “So you should probably eat that banana. To keep up your strength.”

  All the happiness that had surged through me at the thought of what Gabi and her NYPD boyfriend could do for us left me as though I was a balloon someone had just pricked with a needle, letting the air out. Chase was right of course; New York City was huge—almost ten million people living across the five boroughs. It would take not only genius and, more importantly, extreme luck for them to find us in just a few hours. It didn’t really matter that they’d be able to start the search for us a lot sooner than they normally would.

  What had I been thinking?

  Leaning into me, Chase whispered, “I think our best bet to get out of here anytime soon is if we try to make it happen ourselves. I suppose we could also just hang around and wait and see what it is they want from us, but I’d rather not do that.” He got to his feet and walked up to the white walls. He peered and examined every square inch of the posters that covered significant parts of the walls, ran his hands over the paper as though searching for something. He also carefully examined any little bump he could find on the bare plaster, pushed and rubbed them. He took a closer look at the line where the ceiling connected with the walls, taking extra care at the top of the room’s corners. I watched him with interest, not sure what he was doing.

  “What are you doing?” I asked when he had finished with the walls and the ceiling edge and moved onto smaller items such as the wastebasket in the corner.

  He turned to face me and said in a low voice, “I’m trying to figure out if there are any cameras taping us that enable these thugs to see what we’re doing, or bugs so they can hear what we’re saying.”

  “Oh.” I supposed it made sense to do what he did. Even though I couldn’t imagine why they’d want to tape or bug us, it didn’t hurt to try to verify it. Who knew what these creeps were up to? Anything seemed possible and surely it was nothing good. Chase went back to his search. After he had felt up every part of the wastebasket, he moved on to the two side tables. One had a vase on it, the other a lamp. He took a close look at the vase and the lamp, as well as the tables. When he seemed satisfied the items were clean, he moved on to the bureau and went through each drawer and the many small trinkets on top, turning each of them upside down. Then he went over to the bathroom door and peered closer at that, investigating every square inch. After that he walked over to one of the windows. He leaned in close, searching the entire window frame, running his hands along it. He moved on to the next window and performed the same procedure. He returned to me and stepped on top of the bed and reached for the crystal fixture above us, going through every piece of it. Stepping onto the floor again, he shook out the striped rug that lay on one side of the bed. Finally, he went down on all fours and peeked under the bed. He must have spent five minutes searching the big bed’s underside.

  When he was done, he sat beside me and whispered, “Well, unless they’re using very high-tech equipment, I don’t think they can see what we’re doing at least. I suppose they might be using some tiny chip that enables them to hear us. My guess is they’re not, but it’s better not to take any chances. Therefore, whenever we talk about something that might tip them off to what we’re up to, we’ll have to be very quiet, okay?”

  I nodded.

  Suddenly he ran a finger along my cheek and gave me a warm, eye-crinkling smile. “We’re gonna be okay one way or another, Elisa. Trust me. Don’t you worry.”

  Automatically, I returned his smile, so taken aback I was momentarily speechless.

  The moment between us was over so quickly I wondered if maybe I had just imagined it, because the next second Chase was on his feet, marching over to the nearest window. He began pulling at something at the bottom of it. The window suddenly slid upward with ease, taking me by surprise, and Chase too, judging from the way he jerked a couple steps backward.

  He pushed against the dark material blocking the window with his hands, but it didn’t budge no matter how much effort he used. He even tried tackling the wall of black a few times without success. If they were shutters, they must have been fastened to the windows with several strong nails or something similar. Chase was not exactly a small guy.

  “Fuck,” he hissed under his breath, finally giving up on that window and moving on to the next one.
He didn’t have better luck there, however. When he seemed tired of trying, he turned toward me again, his face a little flushed and set in that hard way I’d gotten so used to at the office. He strode over to the bedroom door and started banging at it with the meaty part of his fists.

  “What the fuck do you want from us?” he yelled at the door. “How about telling us or are you too chicken shit for that? Yeah, that’s it. You guys are chicken shit!”

  My hand flew up to cover my mouth as I gasped, “Chase! Don’t say stuff like that. Have you gone mad? These guys are armed.”

  He stopped the pounding and turned to look at me again, his face still set in that hard way. “So what? I’m tired of sitting here waiting for these thugs to tell me what the fuck it is they want from us. If they’re not chicken shit, they should come tell us right now what the hell’s up.”

  He lit up suddenly, as though something of significance—something good—had just struck him. A little grin curled the corners of his lips and he looked all pleased with himself. Then he turned back to the door and banged at it again with even more fury.

  I froze, terror growing inside me. What is he doing? Has he totally lost it?

  “Hey, you pussies,” he yelled at the door and kicked it hard. “You too scared to tell us what it is you want from us? Yeah, you’re too scared. That’s it. I knew it the first time I saw you. You’re all a bunch of pussies!”

  I bit my knuckles while staring at the madman taunting our captors, so terrified I couldn’t move. I wanted to tell Chase to cut the crazy act, but I couldn’t form the words.

  He pounded and kicked the door several more times. He drew in a breath, looking like he was about to yell something else, but the sound of someone approaching the door wearing heavy boots made him stop himself. Chase swiveled his head in my direction, a tense look on his face. He hissed a short sentence to me right as something outside the door crashed to the floor, producing a loud sound that echoed throughout the house.