Heart Strings

045

'Wants my blood....'

My eyes twitch and I freeze, staring into the coldness of his eyes and all I see is a darkness swarming my personified reflection. I see a helpless young girl trying so hard to hide her fears but I can see it in his eyes that he can see it, and when he looks down at my shaking feet, I can tell that he does, as a matter of fact know that he got me right where he wanted me when he spoke those words.

'Why would anyone want me dead?'

'And who the fuck is his sister?'

'Who the bloody fuck is he even?'

"But we can avoid all of that from happening!" His enthusiasm is not appreciated at the moment but the mischievous glimmer in his eyes as he blurts out those words is like one of a child who was just given a basket of candies "And all you have to do Alexandra is make a call to daddy and tell him to get ten million in clean cash only! What do you say huh? I'm deciding to be a little generous today." The color of his teeth gives out all evidence to his smoking habit.

My heart nearly leaps out of my chest at the mention of that money. 'Ten million fucking dollars? Has this man lost his mind?'

"I'm pretty sure daddy can afford that without bating an eyelash no?"

"You've lost your mind!" I spit at him not noticing the sudden change in his facial expression only to be rewarded with a deafening slap from him.

Caught off guard for a minute, I sit there just staring at the ground and refusing to meet his gaze while my cheeks still hurt from the after effect of his hands colliding with them.

He pulls out a burner phone from his jean pocket and shoves it in my face with a sick silly little smile that stretches from both bases of his lips making him look quite similar to a depressed antelope. "It seems I haven't been clear with something girl, this is not negotiable. You have two options here, It's either you ring daddy right now or you die before tomorrow. My sister doesn't delay on her word, and right now I'm the only salvation you have, you better not fuck it up with the wrong decision."

"Who's your sister?"

That seems to be another wrong decision because before I can even bat an eyelash, I'm rewarded with another deafening slap that sends my eardrums ringing and making ancient satellite rhythms.

"The clock is ticking girl." I don't need to look at his face to know that his facial expression would make me sick.

I blink, swallowing hard. All of my thoughts are now jumbled and limited to a brief three seconds. I think about the possible outcome of the decision I'm about to make. I don't even know Andrew's cell phone number even if I wanted to, neither do I have his work phone. I'd never even had to phone him for any reason ever before and as sick as that sounds I was okay with it, plus I think the little pride in me was still extremely reluctant to call Andrew into my aid..... Funny, he might not even believe me.

I don't trust this man nor his words, I know this is probably all just a scheme, and even if he gets the money I might be dead before I even get to find out what happens next but my clock is ticking and I don't have much of an option.

There is only one person's phone number I know off hand and as much as I don't want to drag him into this, I don't have any other choice, so I suck in a deep breath and focus my attention on the tinny looking burn phone on his hands while I say.

"Fine, I'll do it."

*****

My bones shiver, my skin wrinkles up and forms tiny goosebumps around my body, I feel the temperature intensify and I'm left praying, hoping that he catch my abrupt forwardness with the person behind the other end of the line.

Kyle.

The only name my brain could cook up in times of desperation like this, the only face I could see when I had a gun pointed to my head and a phone shoved in my face, the only person I believe can truly help me.

But if he fails to understand my hinting then we will both end up helpless indeed.

His voice comes out gruff from the other end of the already breaking line, there's an edge to his tone like he has so many other better things to do right now than to be taking this call. That should have more to do with the fact that I'm calling from an unregistered number.

"K..." I bite in my tongue just before I can spit out another alphabet and drift up my gaze to the Hispanic looking man with a gun to my head and staring down at me with a questioning brow. The last thing I want is for them to discover that I haven't phoned 'daddy'. "Hi."

"Lexa?!" It amazes me how he can recognize my voice with just a the light mention of a two letter word, the stupefaction evident in his voice, it's almost like I can see the panic in his face when he starts spurring out a jumbled mess of rushed words. "What the fuck Lexa? Where have you—, do you have any idea how—, I've been calling—, why the fuck are you calling with—"

"They have me" I quickly interject, knowing my time is limited and any pointless conversation would be invalid "I should have known better to watch out for 'snakes' in the 'fall'." I say, hinting carefully on the word 'snake' and 'fall' as my eyes trail up to the diagram of a serpent on his neck while indicating that it happened at our spot by the waterfall.

I shoot up a dirty glance at my captive and he presses the gun further to my head.

"What—"

"Get on with it girl!" Kyle's panicked voice is interjected by the sound of my predators gruff one.

"They want money." All the while my lips are moving, my eyes are doing a general survey around the area— "ten million grand" —trying to get even if it's just a little bit of a hint on a location where he could find me and just then my eyes stop at a small poster that's been glued to the wall by the entrance of the room. "More than enough money to rent a floor at the 'Royal Lease Hotel' aye?" My eyes divert to the man staring down at me with impatience as he presses the gun to my head even more "bet they can buy a couple buildings around the street too."

My smirk seemed to tick him off and just like that he grabs the phone from my hands and moves a little distance away from me to handle the rest of the talking himself.

I try to pretend like I'm handling the situation pretty well but within my heart is the smashing of a recking ball. My thoughts are all over the place, wondering if I did the right thing or if by chance he caught on to what I was trying to do.

The poster on the wall was more like an advert banner of the 'Royal Lease Hotel' giving out it's location and a contact information that I can't really see clearly, but from what I managed to, I could tell that the place wasn't far from here, maybe they could use that one to get to me......hopefully.

Raphael pulls out his gun and takes the former position of his boss, pointing the weapon to my head like I am going to try and escape, while he mutters a bunch of curses under his breath.

I focus all my attention on the man with the burner phone to his ear, tuning in as closely as I can into the conversation. And I hear him say, just before ending the line and crushing the phone with his hands,

"You have until sundown, or the girl is dead."