Chapter 3

Ophelia

       When we crossed back into New York, I figured it was time to break the silence and find out what that kiss was about.    

"So, you want to tell me what that kiss was about now?" 

He looked over at me then back at the road, "I don’t know. I’m sorry I did that. You’re my boss’s daughter and I’m not supposed to do that.”

I turned in my seat to look at him and put my hand on his arm, "You don't have to be sorry. I liked it.”

“I know, but your father would kill me if he knew I kissed you. Not to mention, Noah and Oliver would kill me also.”

“I don’t think they would.” I laughed.

He looked at me with a confused look on his face, “We are talking about the same Noah and Oliver, right?”

Knowing that he was accurate about the fact that my brothers were somewhat overprotective of me when it came to guys, I couldn’t help but laugh. “So, we won’t tell anyone.”

He didn't say anything, instead I noticed that he was looking at the mirror watching it intensely.

"Is something wrong?”

"I don't know yet."

He sped the truck up and continued to watch the mirror. I looked out the back window and saw a black SUV riding awfully close to the back of my truck. I saw two more come from behind it. 

"Fuck." Damian said.

He continued watching the vehicle, his facial expression turning more and more angry. He stepped on the gas pedal harder and the truck jolted forward. The SUV behind us picked up speed and was right on our tail in a matter of seconds.

I looked out the back window again then looked at Damian, “Can we make it to the house?”

"I’m trying. Call Ben.”

We weren’t far from the house. I knew that if we could get in touch with Ben, he could send more security to help us. I had never been chased like this; this was scaring the hell out of me and I was trying to keep from having a panic attack. 

My hands were shaking, and my heart was pounding so loud I could hear it in my ears. Trying to focus, I scrolled through my contacts and finally I found Ben’s number, pressed dial, and put the phone on speaker. When he answered, two large trucks with snowplows attached to the front pulled out from either side of the road, facing each other, and blocking our path. “DAMIAN!” I screamed, grabbing his arm as he put it in front of me. He slammed the brakes trying to stop, but it was too late. My truck hit the snowplows hard. Airbags instantly deployed and hit us from all sides. The back of the truck flew up in the air and we flipped over the two trucks in the middle of the road and landed upside down on the other side of the trucks. Everything went dark.

"O, O, wake up," Damian said, shaking me.

When I opened my eyes pain instantly radiated over my whole body. Blood was running down my face and when I looked at Damian, he also had blood running down his face.

Panic set in as I realized that we were upside down in the truck, only thing holding us in the seats were the seatbelts, "What the fuck was that?" 

Before he could say anything else, I saw several men walking up to the truck. Damian started struggling, trying to get out of the seatbelt as they opened the doors. They cut the seatbelts causing us to fall to the roof. When my body hit the roof, I closed my eyes once again being rendered unconscious.

I felt my body being dragged from the truck and I managed to open my eyes. I looked over and saw two men dragging Damian from the driver side. When he stood up, he immediately started to fight. He hit the man on his left and the guy went down, the guy on his right swung at Damian, but missed. When Damian grabbed his gun, another man came out of nowhere and hit him across the back of the head.

  I watched in horror as his body fell to the ground, all I could do was scream, "DAMIAN! DAMIAN!" 

     I started kicking trying to break free from the man that was holding me, "LET ME GO! LET ME GO!"  A man grabbed me by the throat and spoke in a language I was not familiar with. "zatknis', chert voz'mi" (shut the fuck up) he yelled in my face. Fear plagued my body as the man placed a black bag over my head. 

I had no idea who these men were or what they wanted with me. Nothing like this had ever happened before. He tied my wrists and picked me up around the waist. 

"NO! NO! NO! STOP! LET ME GO!" I hollered, as I struggled to break free from the man's arms. I heard truck doors open and was forced inside, then the doors slammed shut.

I kept trying to feel for Damian, but he was not with me. The doors opened to the front and it sounded like two men got into the vehicle. The truck started to move slowly before stopping and one of the men hollered out something, "sozhgi eto." (burn it)

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHAT DO YOU WANT?” 

“PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME GO!"

Neither of the men responded to my cries. I laid there in the back of the vehicle crying uncontrollably. I had no idea who these men were or where they were taking me. Overcome with pain and exhaustion my eyes grew heavy and I passed out once more.

When I finally woke up, I was sitting in a chair; my arms and legs were chained to it. Someone pulled the bag from my head and bright lights instantly came on. I turned my head trying to shield my eyes from the lights. I tugged at the chains trying to free my arms, but it was no use. These were thick chains; my little ass was not going to be able to break them. Once my eyes adjusted to the lights, I turned my head back and saw a man standing there.

"Who are you? What do you want? Where is Damian?" I yelled, but the man just stood there.

"Answer me dammit! What the fuck!" I screamed even louder.

Suddenly another man walked into the large open room where I was being held. He grabbed a chair, brought it over, and sat right in front of me, while another man held a camera. I had no idea who this was or what he wanted. He started to talk but I still did not understand anything that he was saying. "khvatit krichat'" (stop yelling)

I shook my head, "I don’t speak your language. Do you understand anything I’m saying?”

The man spoke with a thick accent that was hard to understand. "I understand you. Now stop yelling."

Satisfied that he understood English, I yelled at him. “What the hell do you want?”   

He stood up and slapped me hard across the face causing me to cry out, then he sat back down, "I said stop yelling."

I pressed the side of my face to my shoulder trying to stop the stinging pain.

"That is better. Now, my name is Anatoly.” 

Before he could finish his sentence, I interrupted him, “What do you want with me?” 

“I don’t want anything from you little one. I want something from your father. He had plenty of time to agree to work with us, but he has refused us. Maybe this will change his mind.” 

He held out a piece of paper and I glanced over what was written on the page. It was a ransom note to my father, but they weren't asking for money.

I shook my head in protest, "I'm not reading that." 

More lights turned on and I saw Damian sitting on the other side of the room, arms and legs chained to a chair also. There were several men standing on either side of him.

 "Damian! Damian!" I screamed, hoping he would wake up. 

I watched as he slowly lifted his head and began to take in his surroundings, "What the fuck?" He growled, as he began to tug at the chains. 

"Now. Look into the camera and read." Anatoly commanded. 

I stared at Anatoly sitting in front of me and suddenly anger came over me, "Fuck you!" I yelled and gathered up as much saliva as I could and spit in his face. He closed his eyes and shook his head back and forth. He looked at me with a malicious grin then stood up, reached back, and slapped me across the face hard once again.    

I cried out again as the side of my face was throbbing in pain. I could hear Damian yelling, "Don’t fucking touch her." Anatoly looked back at the men standing next to Damian, nodded his head and the men started hitting him in the stomach and the face.

"NO! STOP! STOP! DON'T HURT HIM!" 

Anatoly motioned for the men to stop hitting Damian and he looked back at me, a deep growl escaped his lips, "Are you ready to comply?" 

"Why are you doing this?"

He held out the note once more and motioned to the camera, his voice was deep as he yelled at me, "READ IT!" 

Once again, I protested, "No. Tell me why you are doing this." 

Anatoly looked back at the men standing next to Damian and nodded. Again, they began hitting him. He had no way to defend himself, all he could do was sit there while the men continued their assault.

"PLEASE STOP! PLEASE! STOP! PLEASE MAKE THEM STOP!" I cried. 

He raised his hand and the men stopped. I could see blood running down Damian's face, as his head hung down. He wasn’t moving and I feared that if they continued, they might kill him. 

Anatoly looked back at me and spoke, "Now. You will read this. Or should my men continue?" 

I stared into the camera trying to stop my tears and started to read. 

"Mitch...we have your daughter. You have 1 week...."

I paused as I tried to control my tears and started to read again, 

"You have 1 week to comply, or we will be sending you pieces of your daughter."

 I stopped reading again. I put my head down, looked back into the camera, and closed my eyes, "Dad...." The man holding the camera turned it off before I could say anything else.

"Now, was that so hard?" he taunted.

"FUCK YOU!" 

"Podnimi yeye" (get her up) he commanded another man. The man walked over to me and unlocked the chains on my arms and legs. 

“Ophelia run!” I heard Damian yell. 

The men next to Damian began hitting him again. I swung at the man next to me hitting him in the face and took off running.

    "Poluchit' yeye" (get her) Anatoly yelled.

    I looked back and saw a man running after me. I didn't notice the larger man coming at me from the front till I turned back around and was tackled to the floor. The wind was knocked out of me as my back hit the hard floor. The man who tackled me got up and stood over me as I laid there trying to catch my breath. He reached down and wrapped his massive hand around my throat, cutting off my airway. He picked me up holding me in the air, my feet were not even touching the ground. My hands immediately wrapped around his wrist as I tried to pull his hand away from my throat. I could hardly breathe as the man held me, his grip tightening. 

    "DOSTATOCHNO" (that's enough) Anatoly commanded the man who was holding me in the air.

    He dropped me, and I fell to the floor, grabbing my neck trying to catch my breath. He grabbed me by the arm and walked me back to Anatoly.

    "Where do you think you are going? There is no place for you to run." Anatoly scoffed.

    "Zaperet' ikh v otdel'nykh komnatakh" (lock them up in separate rooms) he commanded the men standing in the room.

    The large man who tackled me and another man grabbed my arms and we walked down a long hallway. The men standing by Damian unlocked his chains, lifted him up and dragged him down the same hall also. One of the men opened the door and pushed me into a concrete room slamming the door behind me. I heard another door open and they dropped Damian in a room next to mine. I turned around and started banging on the metal door. A small slide window on the door opened "chto ty khochesh'?" (what do you want) I stepped back and put my head down. I had no idea what the man had said. The small window closed, and I heard the men walk off.

    "DAMIAN! DAMIAN!" I yelled, as I beat on the concrete wall trying to wake him up.

    When I got no response, I stepped away from the wall and turned around to assess the room I was in. It was dark, there was only one ridiculously small window all the way at the top of the wall. It was getting cold and there was no blanket in sight. I looked over and saw a dirty mattress laying in the middle of the floor. “EWW.” I walked over and pushed it to the corner, there was no way in hell I was sleeping on that. I went back over to the wall that separated mine and Damian's room and slid down. I pulled my legs close to my chest trying to stay warm. I put my head down on my knees and started to cry. I had no idea how long we would be here. I had no idea what they had planned. I hoped that my dad would find us quickly.