“Ah Uh, not yet! I thought I’d make breakfast all by myself… as a thank you for being so kind, Is that okay?” she asked meekly.
“That is absolutely wonderful my dear, but you have stop treating me like this stranger now. Come along, let’s set up the table before the boys are up!” she said as she gave Liza a pat on the shoulder and they both started to chuckle.
Edward mentioned through breakfast about how he was headed uptown to find a wholesaler for some supplies for his shop. Liza suddenly remembered how she should be heading to the bank uptown as well, as she had planned a day earlier.
Her father had told his friend Harry that his safe was meant for Liza, and Harry had given Liza the key to the safe only three days ago. She was told to keep it safe and luckily, she had slipped it into the chain of her necklace. She exhaled softly when she touched her long chain to find the key still in its place and spoke up “Would it be okay if I come along? I have to go to the bank and check my father’s accounts. I can find my own way back if it is any trouble,” she asked politely and Edward spoke up before she could finish her sentence.
“It is no trouble at all, my dear” he said with a smile and turned his attention back to the newspaper in his hand. Before long, Liza was on her way uptown beside Edward who was pointing out little pieces of information about everything they went past as they walked along the streets.
They took a bus on their way and then had to make their way on foot till they reached the bank, where Edwards dropped her off and took his leave. He asked if she would be more comfortable if he stayed on, but Liza insisted he went on and that she would make her way back home just fine.
She went inside the building which looked like a huge cubic piece of smooth marble, with small windows and vents indicating about five floors. It was a completely square building and the architecture had an intimidating air about it. She walked inside and her eyes started to search for a counter where she could ask for help. She saw a middle aged woman tending the reception and answering calls and walked up to her table.
“Um, I need to speak to someone who can direct me to my safe?” she said, holding up the key dangling from her chain. The woman nodded politely and pointed her in the direction of a man who was sitting in the far corner. His face was round and chubby, unlike his body and he had a disturbingly oily nose. The way he wiped it with his hand every now and then made it all the more repulsive.
“I was told you can direct m to a safe that belonged to my father?” she asked as the man looked up at her through his glasses.
“Do you have any identifications miss?” he inquired in a stern manner.
“Yes, yes I do” she shuffled inside the small pouch she had managed to grab on her way out of her house when she was being chased and thought about how lucky it had proven to be for her. The pouch didn’t have much money, but it had all her necessary documents and identification cards. She produced her ID and the man took a close look at it, then he asked for the key and started to fish his computer for account details of her father after entering the safe number mentioned on top of the key.
“Liza Norton, daughter of Andrew Norton, is that correct miss?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied softly.
He got up off his chair and started to walk towards a large door to his right after saying “right this way, miss” and Liza followed him into a large empty chamber. Inside the chamber was a larger door made of steel, and behind the door was a large room with walls that were lined with hundreds of safety deposit boxes.
The man walked up in front of her trough three rows toll he reached a safe and entered Liza’s key into one of them that was located at his eye-level. The lock turned and just as he heard the sound, without sliding open the door of the safe the man backed up a few steps and then started towards the exit, leaving Liza alone inside the large empty room.
She took a few steps and went to stand where the man had been standing, and pulled open the small steel door of the safe. When she saw the contents of the safe her heart started to race and she could not believe her eyes at what they were witnessing.
Inside the safe were stacks and stacks of bills lined up beside and on top of one another in a huge pile. Liza had never seen so much many altogether in one place and she could have never imagined her father owning such massive amounts of wealth and never telling her. She dug her hand inside and started to reach for the far end where she saw small dark cloth.
Chapter 5
She fished it out and soon realized it was a small, velvet pouch which was filled with some kind of stones. Her nerves started to get jittery as she felt the small gemstone-like forms from over the thick fabric.
She looked around to make sure nobody was seeing her and loosened the strings of the pouch, putting her hand inside she fished out a few pieces of stones and took them out to see.
Small and shiny, sharply cut diamonds reflected the light as they lay in her palm and Liza tried to gather her nerves. She could never have imagined such amounts of money and gems belonging to her father, and the fact that those criminals had been chasing her started to come into perspective.
She never saw her father even around any strange looking people, and finding out a safe filled with cash and diamonds after he mysteriously died and escaping from criminals who wanted to hurt her had suddenly made her realize how serious the matters had become.
She stuffed the pouch back inside and took out a few stacks of cash, which she stuffed into the hemline of her skirt, under her shirt. Then, she turned the key in the safe and made sure it was properly locked at least three times, before she quietly went out the room, then the large chamber, and then thanking the man who had led her inside, the building of the bank.
She spent some time at a quaint coffee shop she ran into on along the street and tried to think about all the information she had collected. There were at least more than a million in cash and she had no idea what the diamonds would be worth. She thought about the men who had been chasing her and how they searched the entire house for a clue. This was what they were looking for; she thought as she took the last sip of her coffee.
She paid the waitress a generous tip and decided to get herself some clothes; she didn’t want to ask for shirts and skirts form Janet any longer since she had been kind enough. She passed by some shops where she managed to purchase enough clothes for herself that would last at least two weeks, and bought two dresses for Janet she thought would suit her very nicely.
She spotted a nice souvenir shop and decided to go inside. She went in started to see all the little ornaments through the glass counter till her eyes met a series of intricately fashioned daggers that were displayed next to each other. She observed all of them and then asked for a maroon one which was rather simple, but had a long blade a dark sleep handle. It was a sleek looking blade and it appeared to be sharp as well.
“How much for this?” she asked the old man who stood slanted behind the counter.
He named a price and Liza took it without bargaining; she knew it was time she carried an arm since the people who were after her seemed particularly dangerous. But more than that, she loved the sleekness, sharpness and precision of the thin blade and had always enjoyed the thought of owning an intricately fashioned dagger. She tucked it into her belt from the inside and made sure it wasn’t visible at first glance.
Suddenly, the thought of the event arising where she would have to use the dagger flashed past her mind and her expression became grim as she started to take slower steps. She thought about how the thrill of unimaginable wealth may be clouding her judgment, and how she never saw herself as a killer.
Just then, she felt strong hands grab both her arms from behind and twisting them into a painful lock. When she let out a sudden shriek and dropped everything she had been carrying as the man put his huge hand against her mouth and muffled her yelling. Another man came running from the corner of the street and hurriedly took out his handkerchief from his pocket, and
then he took out a small bottle from his other pocket and spilled a little bit of the liquid held inside onto the handkerchief.
“Did you have to do this here!” he said to the large man who was holding Liza down “in a public street! You dumb fuck! Hold her still!” he said through gritted teeth as he brought the handkerchief closer to her face and the large man let go of her mouth. The man pressed the soft piece of cloth against her nose till she started to feel weak in her legs.
Everything in front of eyes started to fade and turn into mere shapes, and colors. Then the colors started to morph together and form other shapes, till everything became dark and she felt her body going entirely limp as her mind sank into oblivion.
Chapter 6
When she opened her eyes she felt as if water was being sprinkled on to her face and suddenly shut her eyes again to avoid any water from getting in. She kept them shut and let out a grunt and the trickling stopped. When she could finally open her eyes again all she saw was bright yellow light and that the ceiling had been dripping all over her. She tried to shield her eyes from more oncoming drops of water and tried to get up but found herself restrained.
When her vision started to adjust she realized how the bulb that hung right above her was too bright for her to take right after she had woken up.
She suddenly remembered how she wasn’t just waking up from sleep; she had been drugged and now she was in a strange dark room with nothing but a bright bulb hanging over her head as she lay on a table with her hands bound with chains, chains that she could not fathom getting out of on her own.
“Help! Somebody please help me!” she let out a desperate shriek, unsure of whether it reached any ears or died out half-way out of this gloomy place.
After crying out maniacally for a few seconds, she heard footsteps approaching the door of the room and quieted down. She tried to hear but she heard no voices. After a few moments passed she heard someone insert a key into the door lock and the sound of it unlocking, so she turned towards the door to see who stood behind it.
When the door slid open all she could see at first was darkness, till the form standing in the hallway moved and stepped into the room. He wasn’t a very tall man, but he was broad, and he had one of those ribbed muscular upper bodies that she had always found highly intimidating. He had salt and pepper hair and small eyes that wrinkled at the sides. His face was rough and rugged, and he had a really bad scar on his forehead right in the middle of his eyebrows which made his face look a little lopsided.
He walked in slowly as Liza noticed his clothes and the rings in all his fingers with encrusted jewels the size of her fist, and she knew there and then who he was and why she was there.
“Why am I here?” she spat out as the bulky man stopped midway, took out a steel box of cigarettes from his coat pocket and lit one up. Puffing out a thick cloud of smoke he started to take steps again and coming in her direction. When he was close enough for Liza to see his face properly, she noticed his steel grey eyes and the blankness in them and suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
He kept staring at her as his blank expression transformed into a sneer and Liza spoke up even louder “Why am I here? What do you want?”
“It is very simple Ms. Liza… I want my money,” he started to speak and Liza noticed his exotic accent, but it was a rare dialect and she could not place it “…and your father, oh, excuse me, your LATE father, has kept it away from me for too long,” he said while laying a lot of emphasis on the word late and walked towards her mockingly till he was very close. He took a drag of his cigarette and then blew the smoke in her face, then continued as he turned around flicking the cigarette ash on the ground.
“Now, you could either be a good little girl, and tell me where your father has kept the diamonds,” he turned to face her again and then mockingly said in his weird accent “Or I can be just as brutal you as my brother was with your father” he finished and finally put the cigarette out, folding his hands in front of him he stood there, waiting for Liza to respond.
“You killed my father,” a sudden surge of violent anger took over her and she became enraged at the man standing in front of her.
What did he mean by just as brutal as his brother was with dad? What did he do to him? Did he hurt him?
Her mind started to race as the man started to laugh at her and her heart felt like it would burst out of her chest.
“I know how it looks, I mean, he was too clean! The police couldn’t spot him. I could never do that, I like to take my time you know” he looked straight into her eyes and toyed with her anger. He could see how Liza was feeling by the way she clenched and unclenched her jaws, but he wasn’t done playing “He took your father’s syringe and drained his insulin into the sink as your daddy watched,” he spoke slowly and intently as Liza literally started feel her blood boiling within her veins “…and then, just when your father was least expecting it, he plunged the empty syringe deep into his neck and emptied its contents inside… he loves that technique, an untraceable murder. But that is HIS way” his tone suddenly took a turn as he spoke the last sentence and he started walking abruptly and in a very intimidating way towards the table Liza was chained to.
When he was very close again she noticed how he was now carrying a gun in his hand, and she suddenly remembered the dagger she had stuffed inside her belt before her perpetrators apprehended her. He tried to move a little bit to feel if the dagger was still in place and was relieved when the steel touched the bare skin of her belly.
The man brought the gun closer to her face and placed it on her forehead as she closed her eyes and waited for the bang. But he made a loud sound from his mouth instead which made Liza jump as he laughed at her.
“You think I will just kill you?” he asked after he was done mocking her.
“I’d prefer you would just kill me,” she uttered in a whispering tone.
“You don’t have to die sweetheart, I can even show you a good time,” he said as he ran his finger down her neck, then slid it over her cleavage and onto her stomach, but stopped near her navel and started to rub it “all you will have to do, is tell me where your father has kept the diamonds… and the cash” his voice became more serious and intent as he rubbed her navel and she waited for him to find the dagger and take it away. Luckily, he didn’t; instead he turned around and took a few steps, then lit another cigarette and continued talking “But,” he said loudly and in the same mocking tone again “If you don’t, I will have to do things to you that you would not like, and I don’t want to see you hurt… no one has to get hurt” he finished and then took a long drag.
Liza’s mind raced as she started to think of a clever way to get herself out of the chains that were holding her down. She knew now that this man was sexually attracted to her, and even seemed a bit aroused. She knew how easily she could use that for her advantage; a man seldom thinks clearly when all the blood in his body is running into the opposite direction from where the brain is.
This wasn’t the first time she had found herself in a situation where she found herself alone with a man who was attracted to her and could kill her too if he wanted to. I made her way out of that incident, why should this man be any different, she thought to herself.
She didn’t know how her father had managed to trick these people and ripped them off, but she did know that such massive amounts of money could change her life and she was not about to give them up that easy. The fact this man had just revealed made her even more adamant on keeping the money and teaching him a good lesson instead. She could not have ever imagined her father being murdered, suffocating to his last breath. She felt enraged, but she was a woman who seldom let her anger get the better of her.
She still believed she could make her way out of these restraints using only her words, so she decided to pick them wisely and devised the best thing she could say that could start to lure him in. No man had ever been able to resist the charming side of her that she was just abo
ut to reveal to her perpetrator, and she smirked at the thought of how foolishly they all succumbed.
She knew this man would be different nonetheless, so she tried to turn the tone of the conversation.
“What will you do to me after I tell you?” she spoke slowly, and made sure her tone was husky and low.
“Well, that depends,” he started to move around again and taking long drags while he talked, which made him harder to understand “If you tell me nicely, maybe we can both walk out of this room happy,” he said with a smirk and winked at her which she found repulsive, but managed to keep her composure.
“Will I be chained to this table while you,” she uttered each word with intent “…try to make me happy”
He smirked and looked at her in a way that told her how aroused he was already.
“You don’t like being chained?” he asked in an intimate tone.
“I like being in control,” she looked straight into his eyes as she uttered the words and knew there and then that she had him by the balls.
“Uh, this is turning out to be a much better day than I thought!” he said and she noticed the excitement in his tone “Why don’t you just spill the details first and we will see how much control we can give you” he said and when he finished talking he licked his lips in a sexual way.
“I will even take you there, but I want out of these chains… now” she said in a very sexual way and looked straight into his eyes. He looked back at her and started to walk towards her as he looked at her erotically from head to toe. She was lying on top of the table with her limbs spread across all four sides and chained to the feet of the table.
She noticed how her skirt rode up to her thighs and her legs lay on the table exposed, and she also had noticed her unbuttoned shirt earlier. The man walked up to her and touched her thigh with his heavy and masculine hands, she winced just as he touched her and he started to slide his finger down her leg. He tickled her with the edge of his nail as he started to toy with her ankles and feet, and then slowly slid his fingers upwards.
Romantic Suspense: Indebted: Wanted (Dark Contemporary Romance) (Romance Series) (Indebted Romantic Suspense Contemporary Romance Series Book 1) Page 2
