Chapter 5
Royal
It was too easy. It shouldn’t have been this easy. What the hell was she doing out there by herself at this time of night? We didn’t plan on taking her just yet, just doing a little recon, and there she fucking was. Like it was meant to happen for us.
She sits with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her arm is chained to the wall at the abandoned warehouse we stay in from time to time when money is tight, and we can’t get a hotel room. The bag is still over her head, and I can tell it’s getting harder for her to breath.
Pulling my mask into place, I walk over and pull the bag off her and toss it to the side. She looks up, tears leaking down her cheeks as she looks up at me. She looks terrified, afraid of what I might do to her.
“What do you want?” she asks in a shaky tone.
“Money.”
“I don’t have any,” she says softly. She doesn’t, but her dad does, and we know it.
“Your family is rich,” I remind her.
“My family is, not me.”
“They’ll pay,” I tell her. I see the pain in her eyes as she looks up at me, and that’s when I know something is off. Jeremy walks in, his mask over his face too, and comes to stand next to me.
“Everything good?” he asks as I look at her. I nod my head and pull out the burner phone we bought.
“Yeah, just need to make the call,” I tell him.
“We should wait a little while. At least overnight.”
“And do what with her?” I ask, nodding toward the girl.
“Leave her here. She isn’t going anywhere,” he says.
“I’ll stay here to be sure,” I say. Jeremy shrugs and gathers his things before heading out. I drop and sit with my back against the wall, playing some stupid game on the burner phone.
“They’re not going to give you money,” she says softly.
“For their own kid? I’m sure they will,” I chuckle darkly.
“You can try it, but they won’t.”
“How do you know that?”
“They hate me.”
“People always say that. They hate me, they don’t want me, they don’t care, but at the end of the day, they pay,” I tell her as if I know that for a fact. I don’t know shit. I’ve never done this before, and after today, I won’t be doing it again.
I continue playing the game until she speaks once more.
“I’ve done it before.”
“Done what?”
“Faked a kidnapping.” Now I snort a laugh.
“This isn’t fake, sweetheart.”
“They won’t know that. They’ll think I faked it again.”
“What kind of nutcase fakes a kidnapping?” I ask now, wondering what the hell we just got ourselves into with her.
“The kind that hates her life.”
“Did it work?”
“No.” I shake my head and look back down at the phone. Deciding not to kill the battery, I shut it off and set it on the ground next to me. I tip my head back and close my eyes for a minute when she speaks once more.
“You might as well let me go.”
“Now, why would I do that?”
“You’re not going to get shit for me,” she yells this time.
“Keep yelling, and I’ll gag you. And not in the fun way either,” I inform her.
“It’s true. You won’t get anything. You think I’m just saying that to get out of here, but I’m telling you the truth,” she says. I tilt my head and look over at her, wondering what the hell is wrong with her. Why does she think he parents don’t care about her?
“We’ll see tomorrow.”
“Fine. Doesn’t matter to me either way,” she adds, leaning her head back against the wall.
“You don’t care.”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“You don’t care. You don’t care that we took you or that you’re here,” I state, making an observation.
“Why should I?”
“Maybe because we kidnapped you.”
“And maybe this is better than where I was.” Now I laugh.
“Living in your fancy fucking mansion? I highly doubt that.”
“You don’t know me. You don’t know my life,” she roars at me.
“I know what I know. I know that you’re just another spoiled little rich girl who has daddy issues. What? Did he not buy you the car you wanted for your birthday?” I ask her mockingly.
“Fuck you.”
“Got you the black Benz instead of the white?” I laugh now.
“Go fuck yourself,” she snarls, never looking over at me.
“Okay. Enlighten me then. What did he do to you?”
“Why would I tell you anything?”
“You seem to think this is better, so now I’m curious.”
“He’s selling me off to the highest bidder.” That grabs my attention.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s finding me a husband. One who has money. One he can make more money off.”
“Arranged marriage?” I ask her. She sighs.
“Something like that. I stand to inherit a lot of money after my twenty-first birthday. In order for me to get the money, I have to be married. He’s going to pick a man who also has money and will make business moves with him.”
“He’s using you for more money,” I state.
“Basically.”
“But without you, he has nothing.”
“Not true. He still has money. He just can’t pawn me off onto someone else,” she adds. I sit back and think about what she’s saying for a minute. What if that’s the truth? What if she’s right and they won’t pay shit to get her back?
“How long?”
“How long what?”
“Until your birthday?”
“Six months.” Fuck. We should have waited on this. We shouldn’t have taken her yet. If we had waited, she would have had money, and we wouldn’t have to do all this shit.
Damn. We fucked up.