Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 67

-Jacey-

I woke up in the dark. The first thing I noticed was that Caleb wasn’t there. I felt around for him, but the space I was in was tiny, only big enough for me to lie down, curled up on the floor. So, I knew almost immediately that I was alone. Without Caleb.

Panicking, I felt along the walls for a way out. I found a door handle, but jiggling it did not cause it to yield.

I banged on the metal door and screamed for help.

The door swung open, and three black-clad figures stood before me, their faces covered by half-masks over their noses and mouths.

“She’s awake,” one of them told the others.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” another, this one a female judging by her voice, said.

Captain Obvious muttered something about her being a raging bitch, but the third person grabbed my arms and dragged me out of the tiny space.

“You were an expensive little thing,” he chuckled, standing me up and marching me to a metal chair in a small, empty, concrete space.

“Sorry?” I replied, though I wasn’t sure what I was apologizing for. I didn’t run the auction, after all.

“You will be if you don’t talk,” Captain Obvious said, putting a small knife to my throat.

I was afraid to swallow. I was afraid to even breathe, thinking I might cut myself on his blade.

“Lay off her. We haven’t even asked any questions yet.” Chuckles sighed, smacking the blade out of Captain Obvious’s hand. It went skidding across the room.

When Captain Obvious went to retrieve it, Chuckles knelt in front of me. “We know you miss your boyfriend, but he was too rich for our blood. You almost were, too.”

“Four billion dollars is a lot different than six, I suppose,” I muttered.

“Exactly.” Chuckles smoothed his hands over my thighs, parting them.

I tried to scootch away, but either the chair was bolted to the floor or it was too heavy to scrape across the concrete.

He grinned at me. “Only the boyfriend gets this privilege, huh?”

“Yes,” I responded firmly.

“That’s sweet.” Raging Bitch circled me like a prowling panther. “I think we can leave her alone for the time being. She hasn’t refused to answer our questions yet.”

“We haven’t asked her any,” Captain Obvious pointed out.

She raised an eyebrow at him in annoyance. “Yes. We know.”

“Where’s Caleb?” I demanded. “I’m not answering any questions until I get to see Caleb!”

The three looked at each other then burst out laughing.

“Oh, darling, it’s so adorable that you think you’re in charge here.” Raging Bitch snickered. She put one pointy, perfectly-manicured nail under my chin. “Unfortunately, for you, you’re not.”

I swallowed then winced as she flicked her nail over my skin, drawing blood.

“Oh sure, Catwoman here can draw all the blood she wants, but I take out one teensy little knife…” Captain Obvious complained.

“Last time we questioned someone, you slit their throat before we got any useful information.” Chuckles grunted.

“He insulted my mother!” Captain Obvious argued.

The other two just shook their heads.

“I want to know where Caleb is,” I insisted again. I wasn’t going to let them bully me into being silent. Without Caleb, it didn’t really matter what they did to me, anyway.

“He’s with the sheik. There, happy now?” Captain Obvious said. “He’s an entire continent away from you.”

Shit. “What happens after I answer your questions?” I asked cautiously.

“You can go on your merry way just as soon as we’re sure we have all the information we can get out of you,” Raging Bitch replied.

I nodded. “All right. What do you want to know?”

***

They grilled me for hours about everything Caleb had told me. I answered to the best of my ability, but I didn’t know specific locations or anything like that.

Captain Obvious wanted to cut off my fingers at the end to make sure I was really telling the truth, but Raging Bitch and Chuckles stopped him. He pouted, twirling his knife between his fingers.

“And that’s all you know?” Raging Bitch asked once my mouth was dry and my tongue felt like leather in my mouth.

“Yeth,” I responded, trying to moisten my mouth. “Wather?”

“Get her some water,” Chuckles said to Captain Obvious.

“Why do I have to do it?” he whined.

“Because I told you to,” Chuckles growled.

He sighed and got a bottle of water out of a nearby black duffel bag. He handed it to me with a scowl. “Drink up.”

I twisted the cap and it cracked, so I assumed the water hadn’t been tampered with.

It turned out I was wrong.

I gagged on the water, coughing and retching. Raging Bitch grabbed my chin and forced the water down my throat. It tasted bitter.

The three waited a few minutes, Raging Bitch’s hand over my mouth so I couldn’t throw up. Then Chuckles started to ask questions again.

“Who are you working with?” he asked.

“Caleb,” I replied automatically, my stomach roiling from whatever they’d given me.

“And who’s he working with?” Chuckles continued.

“Masterson.” I urped a little, but Captain Obvious put the knife under my chin, almost daring me to try to throw up. “But we don’t want to. We were with the FBI, but Masterson hit our safehouse…”

I just kept talking and talking, babbling, and answering all of their questions.

“So, you’re Will Jr.’s mother, huh?” Raging Bitch asked, sounding excited.

I snorted. “Yeah, but Masterson doesn’t care about that. He wants to mess with Caleb.”

“And the easiest way to do that is to dangle you over his head,” Chuckles mused. “Sicko bastard.”

“He wants to fuck me,” I slurred, blinking as the world became blurry. “He wanted me to touch his dick in the Escalade, but the auctioneers got us out first.”

“Good to know he hasn’t changed that much over the years,” Raging Bitch muttered.

“What do you guys want with Masterson, anyway?” I asked.

The three laughed again. “Let’s just say he owes us for services rendered and needs to pay up.”

“Okay. So… now that I don’t know anything else, can I go?” I said.

“Why would we give up Masterson’s favorite toy?” Chuckles grinned.

Oh no. “But you said I could go,” I argued.

“Yeah, about that. We lied.” Raging Bitch winked at me.

I kicked out at Chuckles, and he yelped when I hit his shin. “I want Caleb!”

“Princess, you can’t have him. You’re probably not going to see him again in this lifetime.” Chuckles seethed. “Especially if you keep kicking me.”

With an angry harrumph, I stopped kicking and folded my arms. “What, now are you going to try to get your money back by ransoming me to Masterson?”

“No, we don’t want him to have his toys back,” Raging Bitch said. “But we might ransom you to the sheik.”

“Good,” I replied, feeling hopeful. “Then Caleb and I can be together.”

“You probably have that sweet little idea that as long as you’re together, everything’s going to be okay.” Chuckles snorted.

Captain Obvious made a gagging noise.

“Trust me. You’re toast. Both of you. No matter where you are. No matter where you go. Whether you’re together or apart. Right now, you’re both just pawns in the game,” Raging Bitch said.

I squared my shoulders. “I don’t believe that. We’re going to get out of this.”

“That, at least, will be fun to watch.” Captain Obvious snickered.

Then the two men grabbed me and dragged me back to the tiny hole in the wall they’d put me in before.

“Hey! What about food? Real water?” I asked. “Bathroom break, for the love of God!”

“Sorry, Princess. This isn’t a hotel.” They tossed me in. “See you around.”

“Hey!” I cried again, but the door slammed shut. I beat on it with my fists, but a heavy bolt slid into place.

I screamed for an hour, but nobody came. I couldn’t hear a thing outside my tiny room. Maybe it was soundproofed? I didn’t know. I just knew I’d torn my fingernails to the nub trying to find a way out. Something to grab. Something to move. Something to break. But there was nothing.

Holding back a sob, I curled into a ball on the floor. The room was freezing, I realized now.

I didn’t know how long I shivered in the dark. It could have been hours. It could have been days. But finally, the door opened again.

Captain Obvious leaned in the doorway. “Looks like you need some cleaning up.”

Shaking, I got to my knees.

“I like the change in attitude.” Captain Obvious led me out into the main room again.

This time, in the middle, was a camp shower with a privacy screen. Raging Bitch was holding a green sundress.

“Hop in and clean up. We’ve got a plane to catch,” she told me.

I stepped behind the privacy screen, knowing Chuckles and Captain Obvious were on the other side, and took the fastest shower I’d ever taken in my life. After drying off with a towel that felt like sandpaper, I pulled on the dress, distressed it was sans bra or underwear, but at least they gave me sandals to wear.

Once I was finished, Raging Bitch grabbed me by the arm and dragged me toward a different door in the room.

Chuckles whistled. “You fill out that dress real nice.”

“Save it. We said no sampling the merchandise. Remember? That was the agreement,” Raging Bitch said.

Captain Obvious and Chuckles looked disappointed but kept their hands off me nonetheless. In the SUV. In the jet. All the way through the cobblestone streets of a country I didn’t recognize.

It took a whole day, but finally we stopped outside a villa on a high hill outside of a town. The wrought iron gates opened, and we drove inside.

When the black sedan came to a stop, Raging Bitch reached over me and opened the car door. She shoved me out so I fell to my knees on the stairs outside the front door, scraping them and my palms.

“Enjoy your new home,” she called sweetly. Then the door slammed closed, and the three of them took off.

I struggled to my feet, standing alone inside a wide courtyard at the stairs to the main door of the villa. I hugged myself, wondering where I’d ended up this time.

The door suddenly opened, and a tall man with dark skin came walking out.

“Jacey?” he intoned.

I brushed gravel and a little bit of blood off my knees. “Yes, sir.”

“Follow me.” The man turned back into the villa.

My stomach knotted, but I followed him, climbing the stairs and going through the heavy wooden door into a hacienda-style villa.

“D-Do you mind if I ask where we are?” I asked as I followed the man.

“Spain.” He grunted, but said nothing more.

“You have a nice house,” I continued, hoping to maybe sweeten him up a little.

“It’s not mine,” he grunted back.

“Oh.” I fell silent, walking along a covered walkway to a large room where a man in long robes was holding court.

“Thank you, Ibrahim. That will be all,” the new man said.