Danaë Chapter 19
I woke up with a pounding headache. At first, I wondered if I was sick.
I hated getting the flu. However, as I surfaced more, my brain came back online, and I began to recall things.
That was when I remembered being outside picking the dead heads and leaves off the flowers along the front porch.
I enjoyed making them look pretty again.
However, today, that enjoyment had been ruined by a man who came jumping around the corner of the house. I hadn’t expected it. It was broad daylight in the middle of a neighborhood. Even if many people were at work, not everyone was. I hadn’t thought of taking my gun out there with me.
However, as fast as he was on me, I wouldn’t have been able to shoot him anyway.
As soon as he grabbed me, I opened my mouth to shout, but he put his hand over it.
I struggled to get away. I kicked my feet, trying to gain traction.
I lashed back with my elbows, but I couldn’t shake him loose.
When the sweet-smelling scent registered in my nose, from a cloth he held in his hand, I panicked.
It made me drowsy. I felt my body weakening as he held me tightly.
My struggle grew weaker until everything faded to black.
As it did, I sent out a prayer. Heath, please help us. I love you.
When that memory fully returned, my eyelids flew open, and I gasped.
I tried to move, assuming I wouldn’t be able to.
However, as my arms and legs moved freely, I slowly pushed up into a sitting position.
As I scanned my surroundings, it took a moment for it to click why it seemed familiar.
It was my old room at Huston and Mom’s house.
The one I’d been forced to endure for two years until I was eighteen and could go live with Haris and Johann.
The only term for it was over-the-top extravagant.
Like the rest of their mansion, it screamed wealth but not in a good way.
I’d tried to get Mom to let me decorate it to suit my taste, but she refused.
She claimed I needed to learn to be a proper young lady.
When I left, I wanted to throw a match into this room and let it burn.
What the hell was I doing here? Don’t tell me my mom was crazy enough to have me kidnapped. Why? What did she think it would accomplish? Surely, she had no idea I knew what she and Huston had been doing all these years. If so, how?
Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I slowly stood. Dizziness made me reach out to grab one of the bedposts holding up the canopy. I held tight until I felt steady enough to walk. When I did, I headed straight to the door to the hallway. A turn of the knob revealed it was locked.
My first instinct was to yell, pound, and demand someone unlock it. But a voice in my head cautioned me not to announce I was awake. First, I needed to see if I could get outside help, find a way to get out of here on my own, or find something to use as a weapon to defend myself.
My next stop was the phone on the nightstand beside the bed.
When I took the receiver off the base, there was no dial tone.
Damn it. Placing it back down, I walked around the bed to the other side, where the ensuite bathroom was.
It was as luxurious as I remembered. However, after searching every drawer and cabinet, I found nothing.
The only possibility was the towel rack screwed into the wall.
Before going that route, I would search the bedroom.
After looking high and low, even in the closet and underneath the mattress and the bed, I admitted they’d removed anything I could use.
The windows overlooked the lawn below. The bedroom was on the second floor.
The windows were secured with locks. They had planned this.
Even if I could’ve gotten the windows open, pregnant, I wouldn’t risk jumping. I guess the towel rod was it.
I was halfway to the bathroom when I heard footsteps coming closer.
I scrambled over to lie on the bed. I didn’t know if I was in the same position I'd been in when they placed me there, but I closed my eyes and tried to relax my body.
I kept my breathing slow and steady. There was the faint rattle of the key in the lock, and then the door was opened.
The whisper of footsteps came closer to the bed.
It was hard not to move or open my eyes. Then I heard the hushed voices.
“She should be awake by now, shouldn’t she?” Mom asked. I thought there might be a note of concern in her tone, but I had to be imagining it.
“How should I know? The longer she’s out, the better,” Huston said impatiently.
“Huston, please, we need to let her go. She’s pregnant! It’s bad enough letting that man have her, but my grandchild, too. It’s too much,” Mom protested.
“Shut up, Dallia. You know we don’t have a choice. It’s either her or us. And in our case, if we don’t produce her for him when he gets here tonight, we’re dead. Do you want to die? I don’t. He’s not planning to kill her,” he hissed.
“But what’ll he do to the baby?” she asked.
“Who cares? She can always have more children. We only have our lives. If we want to keep breathing and maintain the life you’ve loved all these years, you’ll set aside any soft feelings and do what he says. Come on. We’ll come back later.”
I almost jumped up to see if I could get past them, but if I did, I'd have to get past a whole estate of employees. It would be smarter to bide my time and plan while I do. It was almost dark. I’d have a better chance of avoiding the security staff when it was.
Or I might find a phone and call for help.
The door clicked, then the lock followed.
I was alone. I sat up and headed to the bathroom to check out that bar.
It took me over half an hour to get it undone.
I popped the decorative base off the wall to reveal the screws that held it in place.
Since I didn’t have a screwdriver, I improvised.
As much as I hated it, I removed my engagement ring.
I took the slender band and wedged it into the head of the screw, a slotted, flat-headed one. Thank God it wasn’t a Phillips screw.
When I had it off, I hefted the bar. It was heavier than I’d imagined it would be. I tested it on the palm of my hand. It landed with a satisfying smack. I then pretended it was a baseball bat and swung it as if striking a ball. Oh yeah, this would do some damage.
???
I kept myself in check as I watched the minutes tick away on the ornate clock on the dresser.
I wondered how long it would be before they returned.
To pass the time, I thought of what I heard Mom and Huston say.
It didn’t take much to figure out that the ‘he’ they spoke of was Zhāng.
We knew he was their partner or whatever he called himself.
They hadn’t been meeting their financial obligations to him for months. He had to be losing patience with them.
And from what Undertaker and the others had said, the Triad weren’t known to be understanding or forgiving. What I was unsure of was why he wanted me, other than to sell and get some recoupment of the money they owed. I shivered in revulsion. The thought made me want to hurl.
Even if he sold me, it wasn’t as if I’d bring in enough money to make a dent in what Zhāng was owed. Were they planning to kidnap more women and sell them off to make up the difference? That would take too long.
The coldness in my stepfather’s voice as he said I could have another child made me see red.
It was clear he had no tender feelings for me.
In fact, neither of them was human in my book.
While Mom sounded upset at the thought of my baby and me being given away, she hadn’t demanded that Huston let me leave.
She hadn’t called the police to report my kidnapping.
In the end, she did what she’d been doing for over fifteen years, following Huston’s lead.
I thought of Heath. He had to know I was gone by now.
He had to be losing his mind. I knew Heath would try to find me, but would he guess that my own mom and stepfather had me kidnapped?
That I was being held in my old bedroom in their mansion.
And even if he did, this estate wasn’t exactly wide open.
It was walled in and guarded by security. He knew that from that failed dinner.
I knew the Dark Patriots did dangerous and impossible missions, but this was in the middle of town in a multimillionaire’s home.
They had the police to worry about. I did not doubt that Huston had numerous cops, politicians, and others in his pockets.
He had to, to get his imports and exports in and out of the country without being caught. Port authorities were being paid off.
The pervasiveness and enormity of dismantling an organization like Huston’s were mind-boggling. Then, when I thought of going after someone like Zhāng, I felt ready to cry. It was hopeless. If I got out of this alive, I’d tell Heath and the Patriots to forget going after the Triad.
The echo of footsteps coming up the marble-floored hallway had me jumping off the bed.
I crept to stand behind the door. When it was opened, I’d jump out and hit whoever was there, then I’d get out and try to sneak out the back way.
I knew the way through the servants’ quarters at the rear of the house.
I’d used it plenty to sneak out when I lived here.
Hopefully, no one would come to see what was taking the person so long until I was outside the house.
Tightening my grip on the base of the rod, I raised it up and back.
As the door swung open, I tensed. Then, a dark head popped past the edge of the door.
I didn’t hesitate or give him a chance to look around.
I heard his faint curse, then he walked further in, no doubt thinking I was in the bathroom.