4. Cassie
4
CASSIE
“ T here, you’re fucking stuck there now, aren’t you?” My kidnapper tugs on the ties which keep my arms wrapped backward around this tree in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the fucking jungle, as if I can go anywhere. “That’s much better.”
I try and tug my arms free, but this piece of work has me stuck again. The dehydration and exhaustion are making me woozy. My brain isn’t exactly in top form, which is making all of this so much harder to wrap my head around. I know that my life depends on my making some smart decisions here, but how can I when I’m in such a mess? I don’t stand a chance.
I’m weak as well, and my body hurts more than I want it to. I feel like I’ve been beaten to a pulp. What has happened to me?
“There’s no point in trying to escape, Cassie,” he sneers at me. “I know what I’m doing here. You’re trapped. And that’s exactly where you’re going to stay until the guys come to pick you up. That should be… a few hours away now.”
“We’re going to be here for a few hours?” I croak back. I guess I haven’t used my voice in a while. “Why?”
He rolls his eyes at me. “I don’t need to tell you all my plans. I just need you to understand what’s going on. I don’t exactly want you ruining my sleep by screaming even if no one can hear you. It’s been a long ass day for me.”
That was a fucking joke. A long day for him? My whole life has been ruined today. I’ve been snatched from my home, ripped from my life, torn apart, and now I’m going to die in the middle of this jungle somewhere. And he’s the one struggling?
“I wasn’t going to scream,” I mutter back angrily. “I’m not stupid. I know that no one can hear me here.”
“Oh, whatever. Just keep it quiet. This doesn’t need to be any more painful than it already is. Understand?”
I fight back the tears. It isn’t easy, but I struggle hard to keep them inside. This asshole has had enough of my crying today and he hasn’t shown a scrap of sympathy. The same will happen again. If I try and weep, then he will just laugh or ignore me. No, I don’t need my emotions to make this any worse. Crying will wear me out, which will ruin any chance I have to escape.
Although, where the fuck am I going to go? I was blindfolded the entire time I’ve been with this man, up until the moment he started pinning me to the tree. Even if I got out of my ties, I wouldn’t know which way to start, where to run. I would end up dead, anyway. I don’t want to fucking die alone in the middle of this jungle. I don’t want to die anywhere.
“What’s going to happen to me?” I ask meekly. It’s a sign of weakness that I don’t want to show, but I have to. I can’t hold the unbridled terror in any longer. It’s tearing me apart. “When they get me, whoever they are? They want money?”
The man snaps his eyes open and glares at me. “Are you kidding me? Did I tell you that I just need sleep?”
“I just want to know how quickly I’m going to die. Don’t you think I have a right to know that? Since I’ve just been taken from everything that I know just to be here in the middle of hell, I just want to know what’s going to happen to me.”
“I don’t care.” He shrugs his shoulders in a blasé manner. “It doesn’t matter to me what happens. I don’t even know the guys who are coming for you. Not properly. They just hired me to get you. That’s all I know. I’m in it for the money.”
“You said something about a ransom, though.” I push my luck, deciding to tip him over the edge if I need to. I need information and as much of it as I can get. “Are they trying to get some cash because of who my father is?”
“I don’t know anything ,” he insists. “They might have said something about a ransom, but I don’t know fully.”
“You worked hard to get me.” I pout sadly as I think about how fucking dumb I am for falling for it. Any of it. “You worked for a long time to get me, and you’re telling me you don’t really know why? That makes no sense. None of this makes sense.”
“I just told you that I’m doing it for money. That’s literally the only reason. I don’t need any other reason than that. Why does anyone do anything? It’s always for money. Perhaps you don’t understand that because you were born into cash.” This time, his eyes burn through my soul. I can feel his hatred burning through me. “You’re a rich bitch who doesn’t know that you’re born. Not until now, anyway. This is your first little hint at reality. See how real people live. Shame it’s your last.”
“So, I’m going to die?” I blink the tears away again. “They are going to get money from my father and kill me. I guessed as much because I saw your face. I knew I was going to die. Why don’t you just kill me now?”
“If I kill you now, then I won’t get any money. I have to give you to them alive. Then they can do what they want.”
Clearly, this asshole has no real attachments to this gang who want me for ransom money, so maybe I can work with that. If he’s only interested in money, then that’s something I can sort out for him. It’ll be a lot of money for him to risk his life for me, but I might actually be able to get my father to help me out with that one. To save my life, he would.
“Hey, you know that you don’t have to do this, right?” I tell him seriously. “Why not cut out the middle man? You’ll get more money if you just take me to my father and demand cash yourself. He will pay you whatever you want. He will give you whatever you want. He will make sure that you have the absolute best life ever. He can offer you the world.”
The guy smirks like I’m joking. “You have no idea who I’m messing with, Cassie. It isn’t worth this shit. He could pay me the earth and it wouldn’t be worth it. If I don’t do this, then I’ll be ripped to shreds. My life won’t be worth living, which is probably for the best because I won’t be alive for very long. You have no idea who these men are. They aren’t messing around.”
“Then why are you handing me to them?” I snap angrily. “Why would you send me to these people who you know are like this? I haven’t done anything wrong. My father’s money has nothing to do with me. I can’t control it or anything?—”
“That’s irrelevant.” He shrugs his shoulders. This attitude is so frustrating. “Getting at you is how they’re going to get to your father. It is what it is now. There’s no turning back. We’re here at the meeting spot, so just accept it already.”
I could. It would probably do me a favor to start getting my head around the end of my life, but I can’t. There’s still so much fight in me and I have to let it out. I don’t have any choice. I won’t just go down. It seems like my survival instinct won’t allow it.
“The cops will find out,” I insist. “And you will end up locked away. You can’t spend your money in jail.” He shoots me a look like I have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. “The media will find out. You know how famous my dad is. The press will be all over it. Your face will be all over the TV, and not in a good way. It isn’t going to be worth it.” I suck in a breath. “Your life will be ruined, absolutely destroyed. Whatever it is you want to do, you won’t be able to do anything. If you work with me?—”
“Bitch, the Cartel are smarter than the cops. They probably work with the cops. They outsmart the media all the fucking time. They know exactly what they’re doing. You think they don’t have a plan for all this shit? You don’t think they do things like this all the time? Honestly, don’t be so naive. You can’t offer me any kind of anything to talk me away from this.”
He turns onto his side and makes a point of going to sleep now, effectively ending the conversation for me. There’s nothing else that I can say, no more questions I can ask, no more offers I can shoot his way. I’m done here. Because of that, I can’t hold the tears back any longer. They come cascading down my cheeks. This is more real now, worse than before. I can’t hack it.
The men are coming for me, some Cartel gang guys, by the sound of it. Men who have been outwitting the cops and the media for decades. Some chick who’s the unknown daughter of a celebrity who will only be famous for as long as he wishes to be isn’t going to change that. I’m going to end up forgotten, just a victim no one will care about.
The world might not care about me. I’m just a dot on a giant planet, just a blip who has weaved in and out of certain people’s lives, but I care about the life that I haven’t lived yet, the one I’ve always wanted. There are so many places I haven’t visited, so many people I haven’t met yet, so many experiences I haven’t had… including love.
Sure, I’ve had the odd boyfriend, but it’s never been love. Lust, sure, but not full-on passion. I’ve never experienced the sort of things they write about in books or show in movies. I haven’t had butterflies and excitement. I’ve missed out on anticipation and need. Now, it seems that I’ve been stuck in a box for such a long time that I’m never going to have any of it. When I left the show, I should have run away. I should have done everything I want to and so much more.
The sad thing is if I had done all of those things, then I probably wouldn’t be here now. Then again, I suppose it’s better me than one of my siblings. I can’t imagine the pain of one of them being here. That would kill me more.
Now, I’m not just crying for myself but for that life as well. I slide my eyes closed and take myself away from here, over the world and into the arms of a man I can love. Some man I don’t even know, someone who can love me for who I am, who can make me feel special, make me feel all those things that a woman is supposed to feel. All those things I don’t know about.
God, I would love that. I suppose if everything is going to end for me here, then I should at least imagine it, think about what life would be like if I had all those things. I can’t have it in reality, but I can in my imagination. I need to take advantage of that. It’s much better than sitting here and panicking about things I can’t control in the depths of this jungle.