6. Cassie
6
CASSIE
“ T his is fucked up, I can’t stand it. Not one phone call, not one bit of communication. It’s as if no one cares about me. No one wants to know, ‘oh, how are you getting on, Alex? Nothing,” the kidnapper, who is seemingly named Alex, unless that’s some kind of pseudonym he’s working with, declares angrily. The pacing around me is making me anxious. I don’t like it one bit. “I mean, they are all well and good, calling me to bark orders at me, but they don’t check in. This shit is supposed to be happening soon. There should be a meeting any minute now, and I haven’t heard from them. Is this professionalism? No, I don’t think so.”
I suck in and hold a breath. I don’t think Alex expects me to answer him or anything. What the fuck can I say? ‘Oh, I’m so sorry that the guys who want to use and kidnap me aren’t here yet’? No way. But I need to be prepared to speak, just in case.
“Are they even coming?” Alex throws his hands in the air in frustration. “Have things fucked up somewhere along the line? Has something happened with your father? I don’t know, and they might be throwing me under the bus.”
My heart lifts with a little bit of hope. Dad must know that I’m missing by now, and there’s a massive chance that he’ll act instantly. I know he doesn’t trust the Puerto Rican police when they didn’t catch the people who broke into our home years ago, but with this will surely change his mind. He won’t be able to get me alone. But is it likely that the cops will get the Cartel over this? I mean, all the things they do are dreadful, the worst of the worst. Not that I know a lot, but there are drugs and murder, God knows what else. I don’t suppose the kidnap of one person will change everything, but if my father starts… well, he can be an animal. I just hope some of that translates to saving me. God, I need him to save me. I need him here right now.
“Those fuckers,” he growls while his fists ball up by his sides. “They think that I’m just some small-time little guy who doesn’t mean anything to them, but I can kick some ass. I can make a dent on them. I can make them know about me.”
“What about me?” I feel like it’s time for me to try and defend myself, but he doesn’t give a shit about me.
“I don’t give a shit about you.” He shakes his head hard. “I’m trying to work out what the fuck I’m going to do here. I need to figure out how to get out of this situation without landing my ass in jail. I won’t get locked up for them.”
“I’m sure my father will still pay you if you want to take me back home,” I offer, my survival instincts coming out.
“I don’t want to hear about your damn father. I don’t want to hear anything about you anymore.”
“Just let me go.” I wrestle with my ties for a little while longer, even though I know it’s pointless. I’ve been trying on and off throughout the night, and all I’ve managed to achieve is a raw redness around my wrists. It’s absolute agony. “We don’t need to keep going on with this now, do we? If they aren’t coming, then you can save yourself. Both of us.”
“Oh, as if you won’t head straight to the cops. You think I don’t see right through you?” He rolls his eyes in an exaggerated manner. “I don’t want to hear anything from you. In fact, I think it might be better if you shut your mouth so I can work shit out. I can’t think straight with your constant going on. Your fucking shrill voice is annoying. I don’t want to hear it.”
I clamp my lips tightly shut, trying desperately to give the man what he wants, but the need to speak damn near overwhelms me. I can’t get past the fact that this might well be my last chance to save myself, so I need to try.
“Alex, please.” I hope that using his name, whether it’s his real one or not, will help to bond us a little bit. “Alex, you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to be this person. I don’t blame you for being here. I understand. You aren’t a bad person.”
“Fuck off, rich bitch,” he spits back, venom exploding all over me with every single word. “Just fuck you. They are going to come, this is going to work out…” I don’t know where this newfound confidence comes from, but it’s just as fucking terrifying as the anger. “And then I’ll be someone. I’ll be wealthy and known as well. I’ll be worthwhile. So, shut the fuck up. If your endless whining hasn’t worked to save your life so far, then why the hell do you assume that’s going to change now?”
Tears come from nowhere. I don’t even sense the prickle of them beginning. They simply burst like a pipe. Weirdly, I’m crying because of what he just said. I want to be someone too, a person in my own right, not just a member of the Jones family, and I haven’t. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do but never quite got around to it, and it’s hitting me hard. I wasted too much of my life, and there isn’t any way that I can get it back now. It’s done. Over. My life is lost to me for good.
“Tears won’t work on me either,” Alex continues, with an arrogance lacing his tone now. As if he wasn’t unpleasant enough, this takes him up to a brand-new level of asshole. “I’ll just watch you cry until there isn’t any water left in your body. I don’t care if you want to expend your energy in such a silly way. It means nothing to me. You are just my entertainment.”
He sits back with his arms folded, defiantly watching me as if that’s going to stop the flood of my emotion now. I can’t, it’s too late. It really is over now. I’m fucked. There’s no turning back. Even if these gang members don’t turn up, Alex will leave me out here to rot. He’s only out for himself, and there isn’t a damn thing in the world that will change that. I’ve lost for sure.
“Shut up,” he barks all of a sudden. The way that he leaps up with his eyes maniacally scanning everywhere, I do as he commands without even thinking about it. This isn’t just him yelling at me, but him screaming because something’s happening. His eyes dart everywhere. He becomes like a predator hunting for his prey, or perhaps the other way around. Maybe despite all of his arrogance, he’s the prey and he’s afraid of this gang. Goddamn it, why didn’t he just listen to me? My father would have done something to protect him, I’m sure of it. He would have made sure that no one destroyed him, even if they were Cartel.
Either that or he could have gone to jail where he would probably be a whole lot safer.
“Did you hear that?” I strain my ears, not quite sure why I’m assisting the guy who wants me dead, but I suppose I need to know what’s going on as well. “I definitely heard something. Someone is here. This is it. They have come at long last.”
The nervous energy rocketing off him is palpable. It amps my anxiety up tenfold. I don’t know if I can stand this. My body is squirming to get me away from this place because it’s scaring the living shit out of me, but I still can’t go anywhere. I suppose the only positive about this is the anxiety is overshadowing my pain. I can’t feel anything in particular.
“What’s going on?” I hiss, unable to hide how I’m feeling now. I guess the floodgates have opened and I just don’t stand a chance. “What’s happening? Do you know who it is? Is it them? Oh, my God, I don’t want it to be them. Please, Alex, help?—”
“Shut the fuck up, Cassie.” Oh, my God, if Alex is terrified, then I really need to be fucking scared. “I don’t know yet. We just need to calm the fuck down and wait to see, okay? We have to just… just be patient. Just wait for them to come to us.”
Why the hell is Alex messing around with these people? Clearly, he doesn’t trust them one bit. How can he be around people he has no faith in whatsoever? His life seems to be on the line almost as much as mine. It’s insane. Unless he somehow got mixed up with them without meaning to. I suppose in my privileged position, I don’t know about his life.
“I can’t stand this any longer.” Alex steps—well, he basically tiptoes—over in the direction he heard a noise. I didn’t notice any sounds, so I really don’t know what the hell he’s talking about, but it isn’t for me to judge. I wasn’t listening. But with every step that he makes, I can feel my heart pounding heavier and heavier in my throat. The end is coming for me, it’s over….
He stops. Alex’s face changes. I know without even needing to ask him that he’s seen something. Someone is there. I wish that he would speak so that I could have a little inkling about what’s going on, but he’s strangely silent. I can’t see his face enough to read his expression either, but I don’t think he’s pleased. Has something gone wrong with the mission? That’s good, that’s exactly what I want to happen, but I’m scared shitless in case. Dying here like this will be agony.
“What are you doing?” Alex growls. He’s saying too much to be full of fear now. Unless it’s terror that he’s dead which is making him brave. “This isn’t right. This isn’t the way things are meant to be happening. What’s going on?”
I hold my breath while I wait for some kind of answer. Something needs to happen. I don’t know what, exactly, but the anticipation is killing me. I feel like I’m at the top of a rollercoaster, waiting to tip over the edge into the abyss…
Bang!
The sound is so loud, so shocking, it reverberates right through my brain. I want to block it out, but I can’t press my hands to my ears. It’s unlike anything that I’ve ever heard before, so I don’t know what the hell it is. It takes me a few seconds too long to process the sound and to realize what it was. By which time, Alex is falling. His hand is on his face, covered in a deep redness which seems to be consuming him, and he’s tumbling hard, losing himself as he goes.
“Alex!” I cry out in shock, as if he’s my friend and not my kidnapper. But right now, he’s the only person with whom I’m somewhat familiar. Without him, I’m lonely, floating. I have no anchor to keep me in place. What will replace him is worse.
But he hits the ground hard and doesn’t get up. Of course he isn’t getting up. Why would he be? That was a gunshot. Alex is dead, and I’m still here battling with this fucking tree, with the ties keeping me in place, with the knowledge that it’s too late…