"You're not going to sign it." Josh told me, his voice hard. I rolled my eyes and treated his eye with some gauze.
"You have a better solution?" I inquired, ignoring his wincing as I cleaned it with alcohol. "You know that if I don't do this, it's only going to get worse." I said, placing a clean band-aid over the cut that seemed too deep for only a band-aid. "He will go after our family, Joshua." I stood in front of him, wrapping the clean gauze tightly around a tube.
"I know that." He scowled, and stood up, walking over to the window.
It had been about a week, although I think we were halfway through the second one now. We were still stuck here, the only difference is that our rooms had been changed. We were moved over to rooms that had the items needed for human living such as a bathroom, a bed, a window, and food that was delivered three times a day, sometimes only once if the man in charge felt like it. Josh had also gotten better. Since the man in charge, I had yet to know his name, needed Josh alive, he had a doctor go and check him out. Josh was treated, but since his wound had started healing by the time the doctor came around, he thought it was best to just leave the bullet inside. I didn't care much as to what he did or didn't do, as long as Josh could live.
Right now, we were arguing over whether or not I should sign the piece of paper. This was also the reason of why he had a cut near his brow. For every day that passed after Josh had healed, if I didn't sign the form, Josh would get beat up. This had been the third time, and I was having a fit. Josh insisted that I shouldn't sign it, it was basically selling my soul to the devil. It was true, I would be giving up my whole life for this, but I couldn't just sit while Josh was over in the other room getting the beating of his life.
"I'm signing it, Josh, and that's final." I declared while walking to the bathroom to put away the first-aid kit. Josh never responded anything, and I was glad. I didn't want to argue him anymore, but I was also hoping that he would pipe up with a better idea. Any idea would've been better than this one, but unfortunately, not every idea would end up with both of us, and our family alive.
Once I exited the bathroom, Josh was gone. I sighed, looking at the camera that was in the corner of the room. It was in perfect view to spy over our every moves in every corner of the room. Only exception was the bathroom, but there were no windows, or any possible way that one could leave, not that I would dare to anyways.
I always thought that if I was ever kidnapped, I would find a way to escape. Kill my kidnapper, run through gunshots, jump out a window, jump out of a moving car, anything. Now, that I really am kidnapped, I don't see myself doing that anymore. The risks were too dangerous and real. Let's be honest, no one ever really made it out from running through various gunshots. Besides, if I even tried to escape, the man in charge wouldn't think twice about killing me, and I wouldn't really care if a bullet went through my brain. The only problem was, this guy knew my family, and the only person that was truly safe, was Joshua. They needed him, for whatever reason, Josh was the person they couldn't kill. That gave me a little bit of peace, knowing that he wouldn't die, but I also knew the things they would do to him while he was living, and they were not good.
I sighed, and shook my head, Josh didn't need to suffer anymore. I picked up a pen from the nightstand, and signed my name on the bottom line of the contract. "You've got to be kidding." I muttered to myself, seeing as the pen had no ink left. I licked the tip and tried again, but to no avail. Licking it again, I scribbled on my palm, seeing if that would work, but it didn't. I tossed the broken pen to the side, and reached for the drawers. If he had one pen, he had to have more lying around. I shoved every piece of paper to the side, nothing in the first drawer, but after getting several paper cuts, I finally found one. "Please work." I prayed quietly and licked the tip. I scribbly on the bottom line and smiled as a dark line appeared. I quickly signed my first name, and moved on to my last name when I felt the ground beneath me move.
I stopped moving and looked out the window that was behind me. The sun was still out and shining down brightly from the blue sky. I didn't even know Chicago got earthquakes.
"Get the guns!" Someone loudly demanded from outside, and I stood up from the bed. I was barely able to make it to the door when another rumble came throughout the building and I fell. That's when the gunshots started. I quickly retracted from the door and crawled over to my bed as more yelling echoed through.
"Get Collins!" Someone yelled from outside my door as it was being knocked down. "Come on, let's move it, Boss wants us out now!" A tall man came through my door with a gun pointed in the air. "I hit jackpot!" He called out, his voice thundering as he picked my up by the arm.
"Hold on, my-" I stopped talking when a gunshot fired and hit the tall man in the arm. "Oh my God!" I covered my mouth with my hand, but he didn't even flinch.
"Less overreacting, more walking, I ain't got all day." He took long strides, clearly he knew where we were going. "Boss needs us out now, boys, gather money and weapons, got the girl." He said through his hand-held radio.
"It's a girl?" Another man laughed loudly, followed by a bunch of gunshots. "Bro, I get twenty points for that kill."
"Silvano!" The guy holding me growled, "I'm not thinking twice about leaving your petty ass out here if you're not in the car by the time I get there."
"Ah," Silvano scolded, sounding goofy as another gunshot was heard. "I just scored another five. Five, because he wasn't armed, and then it wouldn't be very fair."
"Silvano, quit fucking around and get here, now, everyone." Another voice came through, this one serious and bored.
"Yes, Boss." Silvano said, all playfulness of his voice gone.
Their boss wasn't the man that was keeping Josh and I here, this boss was their boss. "Hold up," I slipped my wrist through the guy's grip and kicked the back of his leg so that his knee bent. "I'm not the Collins you're looking for." I pushed him to the ground completely, and turned around, running back inside the building as fast as I could.
"Fuck, get her!" The guy hollered as I saw black Escalades coming around, men coming out as I made it inside the building.
"Not so fast, princess." The same goofy voice said from behind me as I was yanked back by the arm. "We've got go." He threw me over his shoulder, and turned around, walking back casually.
"Stop it!" I yelled, pounding his back with my fists and kicking my feet. "This is a-"
"Alright," Silvano held onto my feet tightly, preventing me from kicking anymore. "Calm down, else, Vescovi won't think twice about shooting you." He told me, opening the door to one of the Escalades. "Here she is, Boss." He tossed me inside, not caring if I hit my head on the roof of the car, or if my butt his the seatbelt thing on the bottom.
"Now let's go." The man responded, not looking up from his phone. "Get in," he ordered and Silvano listened, climbing in beside me. "Where's Linia?" The 'Boss' finally looked up and I was taken aback by his eyes. Those had to be the darkest shade of green I had ever seen in my life. Sure, I had green eyes, but the were barely noticeable, they looked almost brown. In fact, in the summer, they were a greenish color and then in the winter, they turned a light brown. Not this guy, there was no way that those were his real eyes, but judging by the fact of his leading and authority figure, I doubted he took the time to worry about buying green contacts.
"Probably still on the ground." Silvano snickered, bending his head to look back. "Little miss Collins decided that she was going to play around and tr-"
"I have a meeting with a really important client," the boss interrupted and looked back down at his phone again, not caring to even look at me. "Tell Linia to get her situated while I worry about bigger things." He trailed off, frowning down to his screen. I forced myself to look away from him, fearing that if he caught me, not only would it be embarrassing, but I could die.
Instead, I focused on the fact that I had just been kidnapped from my kidnapper. Not something you hear quite often. Josh was nowhere to be found, least not by me, but I could only hope that he was okay. I had left the half-signed paper on the nightstand in the room I was staying in, so hopefully that was enough for the man in charge over there to know that I was willing to help him, and for him not to hurt Josh anymore.
Besides, these men were looking for 'Collins'. Sure, my last name was Collins, but something tells me that I'm not the person they wanted. They probably wanted Joshua, but got me instead. I could only imagine the anger and frustration they were going to feel when they found out that they bombed the house of another gang member just to kidnap the wrong person. I sighed and pulled at my black tights, ignoring the look I was getting from Silvano.
I'd just tell him. He seemed like a nice guy. He even warned me about their boss before I could make a scene. I'd just try to explain that I'm not the person that killed that Moretti guy, that it was a guy named Josh. I couldn't put Josh at risk, though. I had just finished signing a piece of paper where I sold myself to the devil just to try to protect Josh and my family, only to sell him out at another gang group. No, that wasn't okay. I'd just have to make up a story about why the Moretti guy was dead and play along. They were just as clueless as I am in this whole situation, and I could use that to my advantage.
"We're here." Silvano announced as he opened the door and got out, tucking his gun in his suit jacket.
"Tell Linia I'll be back in two hours." The boss man demanded, still not looking up, and I quickly climbed out to the SUV. "Take care of what I told you, Silvano." The man finished saying as Silvano shut the door on him.