Hostage

8

"What was that?!?"

In that second, she wasn't a negotiator anymore. None of it mattered once she heard his gun go off. She wanted to run in there, to hell with everything else, James was in there.

Inside the bank, James opened his eyes and started to check himself, if he was bleeding or, heaven forbid, dead.

But he was still breathing. He was still sitting straight.

So he looks around, wondering where that bullet went through. Behind him was a destroyed computer, shot straight through the monitor, still smoking.

"A warning shot. Hindi ako magaalanganin. The next one is for the kill." Joker growled at the phone as he points the gun to James this time. "I'm going to make a pretty abstract painting out of the red stains of loverboy right here. I've got my gun to his throat..."

Nadine looked around the command center, everyone was frozen solid. She wanted someone to speak, to give her an idea, something to help her. It was a matter of one click and James would be dead.

"Keep him calm. Just talk to him and keep him-" was all Eric could say.

And she just about had it with him. So she turns back to the phone, refusing to listen to his advice and taking matters into her own hands. Something she should have done earlier.

Something clicked inside of her and suddenly there was steel in her eyes.

".. if you don't give me my van-"

"Listen to me, you son of a bitch, I cannot control traffic, kaya sa ayaw at sa gusto mo, maghihintay ka-"

Just when she thought she's gotten control of it...

"NO. YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE NOW. ONE MINUTE. YOU-" Joker's voice was booming over the phone as he pressed the gun onto James' throat more.

"No! No. I've. Got. TWENTY."

There was no answer on the other end.

"DO YOU HEAR ME? TWENTY." Nadine's hand held the phone so tight, it looked like it was going to crumble into pieces. "Because once you pull that trigger, I swear to god, I will walk in there and personally put a bullet through your fucking head."

Still nothing.

She waited, for what seemed to be the longest ten seconds in her life.

Then...

"Okay. Twenty."

He drops the call.

It was as if the floor broke beneath her. She felt her shoulders drop and air flood her lungs, not even realizing she was holding her breath for so long.

Her hand flew to her forehead and her head hung, still trying to steady her rapidly beating heart.

"He said yes?" Eric asked.

Nadine just nodded, eyes closing and hands folding as she said a small prayer.

"Hanep yung girlfriend mo ha..." Joker said, a hint of a smile in his voice as he crouched down to talk to James.

He stared at his face, trying to figure out why he calmed down so quickly and why he wasn't panicking at all. "She's not my girlfriend..."

"So you don't have a girlfriend?"

James shook his head.

"How the fuck are you supposed to settle down then?"

James knows he's heard that somewhere. He knew this talk from somewhere.