Page 82 of Push & Pull
Simone attempted to moan, but quickly discovered that her lips were taped shut.Tastes like ass.Her mouth was so dry that she was close to choking on her own spit. Yet no matter what happened, her esophagus was trapped and her hands powerless to defend herself. Simone’s poor arms were tied behind her back, her whole body dumped on a cot in the corner of a small room.
Or, maybe it wasn’t so small. When she turned her head far enough to see beyond a nearby door, she realized that what she thought was a wall behind her was actually a concrete pillar. The gray expanse before her could have been any of the parking garages in the city.
It wasn’t her parking garage, though. That was the last place Simone remembered being.
The man held his phone close to his shoulder as he looked between Simone and the door. A shadow moved behind the frosted glass window. Eventually, it opened to reveal a middle-aged man in a worn denim jacket, workman boots, and a wrinkled face that could have belonged to any day laborer who had worked himself half to death.
As soon as he came closer, the thin man in black turned off his phone. Simone did not miss the guns on either of their hips.
“Good morning,” came a gruff voice. “Are you conscious?”
Simone did not immediately respond, either with a nod or a sound eking from her throat. For all she knew, admitting to consciousness was as good as getting knocked on her ass again.
“You don’t know us. You don’t know where you are. I doubt you know why you’re here. That’s fine.” The older man removed a tin of mints from his pocket and popped a tiny one into his mouth. “The only thing you need to know is that everything will be fine as long as your family pays up. We have no desire to hurt you. That’s not really our style.”
Simone closed her eyes and rolled onto her back. Her hands dug into the dirty cot that had been her home for God knew how long.
“But if for some reason your family doesn’t value your life as much as they should… well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Would be a tragedy if you were further caught up in all of this. Such an innocent party. It isn’t every day we do a kidnapping and ransom, but we make sure it counts when we go through with it.”
How was Simone supposed to respond to that?
“Any news about the ransom?” the older man asked the guy in black.
“No. The cops are all over our ass, though.”
“As expected. I highly doubt they’ll find us. The most dangerous part will be releasing her. I’ve taken great pains to not only plan the route to the drop-off spot, but our escape out of here. Two cars and not a camera on the route. That should earn me some Nobel prize for logic.”
The man in black snickered. He was asked to shut up.
“Keep an eye on her. In ten minutes, we’ll raise the stakes. I worry that they’re not taking us seriously. Besides, we need to submit another proof of life to keep the police from getting more serious.”
The henchman didn’t ask questions. Not that Simone knew of, anyway. She was so out of it that she was already falling back asleep.
Her respite did not last long, however. Another man entered, and alongside the guy in black, the two of them sat Simone up on her cot and untied her hands. This came with many stipulations that they’d “smack the shit out of her” if she tried to fight back, not that she had the strength or wherewithal.
They stuck a marker in her hand and told her to write on a piece of printer paper. As they instructed her what to write, Simone’s hand shook until her handwriting was barely legible. One of the guys was about to allow it when the other cursed, grabbed the paper and wadded it up in frustration. Another paper was slapped before Simone.
“Again. Only better this time.”
She kept her hand steady enough to write the words“PLEASE DO AS THEY SAY”in her legible penmanship. Simone held the finished product in front of her torso as one of the men took her picture and forwarded it to someone. Simone could only surmise that it was submitted to her family.Astrid. She’s the only family I have left.
The thought of her fate lying in Astrid’s hands was not ideal.
Simone was quick to pass out again after that, this time with her hands left undone. She removed her jacket and left it draped over her chest as she fell back asleep.Whatever happens to me, happens.For now, she was playing along, not only to keep herself as safe as possible, but because she was too tired to fight or sneak her way past at least two armed guards.
A commotion gained her attention, however. As Simone slowly raised her head off the cot and looked toward the maw of the abandoned parking garage, she saw a familiar face attempting to trick her way past the big guy with a gun.
“He said he wanted to see me, Samson.” Simone didn’t know why Petra was here – or why she enunciated the man’s name – but then again, Simone was convinced that her mind was playing tricks on her. “You think I didn’t know where you guys were? You idiots are all over the news.”
Petra happened to glance in Simone’s direction. Posture immediately straightened as Petra smoothed down her hair.
“Look at her. You’re trying to convince her family that she’s okay when she looks like that?” Petra shoved past the man who could have easily broken her in two. Yet he barely lowered his arms as she sauntered behind Petra.They know each other?This left a bitter taste in Simone’s mouth. “Why didn’t anyone call me? I’ve got a woman’s touch to this situation.”
Simone instinctively blanched from Petra as she approached. For the first time since she awoke, Simone put up her hands and extended her arms toward someone. Petra ignored this pathetic display of defiance and sat beside Simone on the cot.
“You okay?”
What else could Simone do but glare at Petra?Do I fucking look okay?She would have asked that if her mouth were still not taped shut.
