Page 67 of Play of Love
Chapter 15
Amy
* * *
Imanaged to close the door.
They’d destroyed the lock when they got in so I couldn’t secure myself in properly. I put the bin in front of the door to hold it shut because that was all I could move.
Everything was gone. My clothes, all my stuff, everything. All I had was what was on my back and in my bag.
Agonized by despair, I sat in the darkness, crying. Not knowing what to do or where to turn. I thought of Josh but didn’t want to call and involve him. Dom had a gun and he just told me he’d be back.
I was shaking so much I had to hug my knees to my chest to hold it all in. Fear knotted my insides, pulling my between anticipation and dread.
I stayed that way all night, crying and shaking until I watched the sunrise. Dom hadn’t come back but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t. I’d thought of every escape route I could use, but each would be bad. I was too high up to go through the window and there was no ledge or anything to grip on. It would be sure death. I thought of going out the corridor and making a run for it, but that was terrible, too, because either Dom or his lackeys would see me.
I saw the way things worked here and always kept my head out of it for fear of getting mixed up. Now look at me.
As the time pressed on I thought about work. How was I going to go?
I managed to send both Josh and Hilda a message. I said I had a bad cold and wouldn’t be in today. Hilda messaged back instantly telling me to take care of myself. Josh didn’t message back. It was fine, he never usually responded to my messages anyway.
I had to think of a way to leave. The only viable plan was to just make a run for it. The only problem was finding the strength and the courage to go.
* * *
Josh
* * *
I shook my head as I watched Hilda. We’d been at Zuma Beach all day with the crew from Sports Illustrated taking pictures of me for another ad I hoped would be the last. These sorts of events took up my precious time, precious training time.
“I can do this pose, or this.” Hilda did her best model’s pout and pose for the Sports Illustrated photographer who was having a field day with her. The poor guy had taken a shine to my pretty maid and had jumped at the chance to get a few snaps of her when he was done with me.
Hilda was only too happy to accompany me to this dreadful shoot. I really hated anything like this and had been eager to get it over and done with. She’d come along to help with the PA stuff Amy would do and for the opportunity. Unknown to me, Hilda wanted to be a model and loved being in the spotlight. So this was good for her.
I missed Amy today, missed her a lot. I’d gotten used to the fact of not seeing her on weekends, but the middle of the week felt off. I planned to take her some flowers tomorrow if she was still sick. She more than deserved it.
Hilda skipped over to me with a bright smile on her face. “Oh my gosh, he just took my number and said he’d put me on the list for extras.” She looked so excited.
“Sweetheart, you can do much better than working as an extra.” She could, she was beautiful, with her striking eyes and rich wealth of dark hair. “Hey Robert, or whatever your name is.” I signaled the photographer. I couldn’t quite remember his name.
“It’s Robin, sir.”
I knew it started with an R. “Does she look like a damn extra to you?”
Hilda looked horrified. “Josh, I’m happy with whatever I can get.” She nodded at Robin and turned back to me. “This is the furthest I’ve gotten, please don’t ruin it for me,” she hissed at me under her breath.
I ignored her. “You didn’t answer my question, Robin.” I eyed him with curiosity. “You just took a host of pictures and she proved she’s a natural. Why’d you do that if you were going to just add her to a list of extras?”
“Okay, I’ll put you forward to be added to the model list.”
I had a lot of influence with magazines like this. They knew I could always say no, and they didn’t want that because my pictures sold their magazines. There were plenty other athletes they could ask, but they seemed to like me. It wasn’t my fault that I was blessed with all the great looks God could give a man, and the body too.
Hilda screamed and hugged me. “Thank you, oh my gosh.” Now she started jumping up and down.
“I’m going to get back to sorting out those shots. But if you’re free we can go over some stuff on how it works,” Robin said. My tentative manner told me that was just a clever ruse to ask Hilda out.
