There was absolutely no reason I couldn't get out of this situation unscatched if my father had just paid the ransom money. But instead, Matthew had convinced him to call the cops instead. Matthew was an idiot.
The black eye was from my father, actually, who threw a vase and got lucky and hit Matthew in the eye. He put on a tough face and assured me he was okay, but deep down I knew he was a wimp.
"Release the hostage and no one gets hurt," the policeman's voice came over the phone the police had sent in with three cheese pizzas. I scoffed when I saw they were made of the cheap cheese from Cici's and not Domino's with garlic crust. Wow, a possible hostage's life was at stake and they decided to send in cheap pizza to feed them? What if they gave some to the hostage? I'm sure the hostage wouldn't want their last moments of life to be spent eating cheap pizza.
The entire warehouse was in turmoil; no one seemed to know what to do since Mr. Beer Belly wasn't around. It turned out Mr. Beer Belly was Matthew's step-father and called the shots. I sighed in relief since the two of them weren't genetically related. Any good genes I had (which probably weren't many except for my ability to sneeze several times without stopping) would not have survived contact with Mr. Beer Belly's genes.
"Tell me about what happened," the policeman continued, his voice soft.
"Give us the money and the girl leaves," a random guy barked into the phone, and then shut it off. "WHERE IS THE BOSS?" he shouted, leaving everyone else stunned. I sat back in the chair, wrapping my ankles around the front two legs.
"We should just let her go," José suggested, shrugging his shoulders. "We can leave through the tunnel exits, and then once we're out they can storm the place whenever."
"You have tunnel exits?" I asked, not thinking.
The guys with guns turned towards me and narrowed their eyes. "Hey, I just want out of here, okay? I have an idea."
They all scoffed and were about to turn away when Taylor said something in spanish. They stopped and turned back around. "Fine," one of them sighed reluctantly, and sat down in the chair in front of me. "Tell us what you have to say."
"Thanks," I mouthed to Taylor, and began laying out my master (but not really) plan.