A Multi-ship Story **in Editing*

*Where*

"Just, don't make too much noise and you can stay like this," Dylan said as he pulled the tape off of Lexi's mouth. She furrowed her brows at the discomfort.

Mr. Peterson had left the room and Mark was in a chair by the door, reading a magazine. Dylan leaned back and stood a few steps away from Lexi.

"Why are you doing this, Dylan?" Lexi unsuccessfully tried to keep the fearful whine out of her shaky voice.

Dylan looked at her with dead eyes. "I didn't want to in the first place... it's just..."

Lexi stared at him, trying to read what he couldn't say. "From the beginning? This was your plan?
...why me??"

Dylan glared at her. "You have no one to miss you."

Lexi stopped talking. She shut her mouth, letting his words sink in. She had no parents, so Mr. Peterson had targeted her in case things went wrong. Things would go wrong, of course. She wasn't worth 2 million dollars to a man she had only caused stress for... she was going to die. Just like her parents.

Somehow, this thought hadn't occurred to her. This was what her parents had gone through right up to their deaths. After dwelling on this for a moment, she felt her chest tighten. It was an odd and painful feeling, and she worried that she could be dying already. Her breaths became rapid and heavy. She couldn't quite get a full breath, no matter how deeply she breathed.

Dylan glanced back to Mark. "Mark, she's freaking out, what do we do?"

Mark glared at him. "Who cares if she's freaking out?"

"We can't just leave her like this." Dylan's tone seemed urgent and worried. Lexi, amidst her panic, almost recognized the tone as loving.

Mark marched over and yanked Dylan away from her, taking him back to the door of the motel room.

Mark spoke quietly, almost too quietly for Lexi to hear, but she could hear Mark telling Dylan to not be so connected, that he needed to remember that this was the reason he'd pursued the "girl" in the first place.

Lexi closed her eyes, blocking out the rest of the world. She focused on steadying her breaths and stopping her mind from racing. She wasn't dying. Not yet at least. She needed to stay focused, or she would never get out of here. After a few more seconds, Lexi was nearly back to normal, but she didn't open her eyes again for a very long time.

When the door opened again and Mr. Peterson returned, Lexi's eyes shot open.

He turned to the guys and grunted, "The message has been received. We'll go to the meetup at sundown tomorrow."

Dylan glanced at Lexi, then straight back to his father. "And if he doesn't show with the money?"

Mr. Peterson glared disapprovingly at his son. "You should remember what happened to the last one."

~~~~~~~~

After the longest night of Lexi's life passed, she was starting to ache from sitting in the same position. She convinced Dylan to let her stand and walk to the bathroom in this cheap motel. There were no windows or any way of escape that she could find in the few minutes she was left alone in there.

She returned to her chair and didn't fight the tape they reapplied around her ankles. She tried not to let her worry get to her. Would help ever come?

~~~

"Dad had to stay all night again?" Lily asked her mother with a slight whine to her tone.

"Unfortunately," Jenny said, focusing on the eggs she was eating, trying not to look at Lily.