Chapter 9 - KAT
Antonio entered the room, flanked by two men, bulging with muscle everywhere you could possibly grow muscle, and a woman, a lot smaller than me, with her dark red hair turned into a pixie cut. Her mouth turned into a huge smile and she ran up to hug me.
"I have to say sweetie, I love a shopping trip!" she exclaimed, "by the way, I'm Pepper!" She greeted me with a kiss on each cheek, but like Antonio had done earlier.
Pepper may love shopping, but I despise it.
I hate buying clothes, I am perfectly happy with jeans and a jumper, I also hated buying expensive things.
I always felt like the money could go to so much more than an overpriced handbag because of a simple name attached to the inside.
The two men were taking us on our shopping spree, well, more like making sure I don't run away whilst out of the house I assume.
I recognised a couple of the higher brand shops, insanely expensive, and I walked straight past them.
"Um, Katarina, what are you doing?" asked Pepper, as I walked past the last shop on the stretch.
"None of these shops are right," I replied.
They weren't right, they were way too expensive, and on the budget I was on, I needed to find something normally priced.
I walked back up the street to the other end, and turned right, walking down past the shops that were still a little too expensive, right to the end, where there were some normally priced shops.
"Katarina, he's not going to be happy..." worried Pepper, "with you, with me, or with them," she gestured to the two huge bulky men waiting a few metres away from us.
"If he wants me to buy clothes I like, well this is what I like.
" I turned to go into one of the shops and proceeded to pick up various items and try them on.
Once I found a few I liked, I went to the counter to pay for them.
I had a couple of flowery summery dresses, nice tops, some cute skirts and shorts, a pair of flip flops, a pair of fancier sandals and a pair of trainers.
Thank God I still had my credit card, it was in one of the pockets in my jacket that I had been kidnapped in.
They took my phone, but I still had my credit card at least. I was glad I could pay for everything myself, but Pepper looked quite concerned about it all.
In the next shop I bought some sports gear.
Back at home I loved to go to the gym a couple of times a week, and practice my boxing, so even if Enzo's huge mansion villa thing didn't have a gym, I would at least go on runs and do some floor exercises.
I expected he would have one though, considering how ripped he is and every single one of his men is.
The shop after that I got some bras and some pants, quite a few pants actually.
I wondered why they didn't take any of my stuff with them when they flew over, it was kind of annoying but oh well, kidnappers usually are.
I went into another shop to get more casual, everyday things, and then went into the last shop on my little spree.
It was a department store, but I only really needed the makeup section and the toiletries section.
I stocked up on pads and tampons, deodorant, bought a new toothbrush, toothpaste and all of the bathroom products I needed.
Then I went to the makeup section. I stuck to what I knew, my favourite brands, like Bobbi Brown and Benefit cosmetics.
I let myself buy a few different eyeshadow palettes as well from various brands, and various lipsticks and lip-glosses.
I paid for them all on my card, and we headed back to the villa.
I was halfway through my afternoon nap, back in my first bedroom (I got a new mattress), after a long day of shopping, when I was rudely awakened by a gruff, angry voice, and two other men laughing.
When I opened my eye I saw it was Enzo, angrily going through all my bags, and Antonio and Pascal (whose name I finally know now), laughing, literally clutching their stomachs.
"What is so funny?" I ask.
"I sent you on a shopping spree, and you come back with, I've never even heard of these brands," Enzo's voice moved angrily through the room, but it made Antonio and Pascal laugh harder, breaking up the tension.
"This will be like pennies to my bank account.
You were supposed to follow Pepper's lead!
I can't have you coming down for dinner, meeting my officials, in, whatever the fuck this is," he shouted, throwing one of the floral dresses at me, "when Dante or Gian see my bank statement, and the pennies that have been removed, they will laugh at me. "
"Well, I happen to love this dress, and all of the clothes I bought today, and I didn't buy from the expensive shops because it wasn't in my budget, I am an NHS doctor you know, at least... was," I argued back.
"What do you mean not in your budget? I gave you my card!" his voice was continuing to rise. I stood up now, putting things back in their bags that he had rudely thrown all over the room.
"I didn't use your card," I retorted, pulling my credit card out of my pocket. Antonio and Pascal stopped laughing, Enzo looked like he was about to kill me.
"Katarina Mendez I swear to God, do you know how rude it is to refuse a gift, especially in Italy, especially when it is the fucking Boss of the Italian Mafia, do you fucking realise the disrespect you have just shown me?" roared Enzo, his voice causing the glass on the windows to shake.
"Two minutes ago, you said people would laugh at your bank account, now you're angry I used my card!
" I yelled back. Fuck him, I thought, as I defiantly began unpacking my things into the empty chest of drawers and wardrobe.
As I did so, however, Enzo grabbed them and stuffed them back in the bags.
"Hey!" I snapped, "what are you doing?" But it was no use, I was one woman, and he had both Antonio and Pascal helping him now.
As I tried to get towards Enzo, to punch him or slap him or something, Antonio stepped in the way, so I tried to punch Antonio, but he just grabbed my wrists so I couldn't move.
"Fuck you," I shouted, "Nice hickeys by the way" and I stormed out of the room. I didn't wait to see the reaction on his face, but I heard it in the way he proceeded to smash things and yell. 'So easy to annoy', I laughed to myself.
Once I reached the gardens, I took a long breath in, and continued walking.
There was a huge wall that surrounded the perimeter, but just by the pool, the wall turned into a low glass fence, so that you could see the beautiful view, I assume.
Unfortunately, it was rather a long drop down a bit of a cliff, into an olive tree orchard down below.
Fuck it. I climbed over the glass fence, there was a bit of a ledge on the other side of it before the drop, so I lowered myself down to be sitting on the edge, then rolled over onto my front.
Once there, I lowered myself with my hands, and looked down.
It was a long drop still, I would probably break an ankle, or two.
The cliff was made of rock, and I recalled back to when I was on Scout camp once upon a time and we climbed up rock faces.
Although, then I had ropes, now, I have broken ankles if I go wrong.
I started to descend, just in the nick of time, as I heard commotion out in the garden, all looking for me I guess, but on this cliff face they could not see me.
I went down about two metres before the cliff cut off and became an overhang, meaning I would have to literally be climbing horizontally to the rock face to get back onto the vertical, and I did not have the arm strength for that.
Luckily there was a nearby olive tree, and I could just reach some of the branches.
This is it. I jumped, grabbing one of the branches, I held onto it for about 5 seconds before my hand gave up and I slipped, but at least I was a bit lower than was on the cliff face.
I landed, falling to the floor, after being whipped by various different branches on the way down.
My little escape plan caused a lot of noise, and one of Enzo's men looked over the glass fence to see me, struggling to get up on the floor. Probably assuming I jumped the whole way. He shouted out in Italian, and I knew I had to run.
I ran as fast as my legs would take me, but I had no idea where I was going.
The branches of the olive trees continued to whip me as I went past them, cutting my arms, face and legs, but I had too much adrenaline to care.
I continued running till I reached a stone wall at the end of the orchard.
It was only about my height, so I climbed up and over it.
I was now on a road, and I could see the headlights of cars coming towards me, I couldn't risk it being the mafia, so I ran across the road into an open field, towards a looming, dark forest. Various branches continued to scratch me, I got stung by wasps and stinging nettles, and scratched by thorns.
After a while, the voices of the men behind me began to grow fainter, so I continued running, finding a small pool of water in the middle of a river, and just behind it a huge waterfall.
I went up to the waterfall, hoping all of the books and movies are right about having a cave behind them, and luckily enough there was.
I sat on the cold, wet floor of the cave, hiding in the dark.
I heard voices, speaking in Italian, but they ignored the waterfall and went straight past it, up the hill.
I didn't dare move.
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