3

Ava Martinez

~•~

“I have shed enough blood in the last couple of hours and I don’t want to spill more, so get up and come with me,” Ruiz commanded, his voice firm and serious. “Lorenzo here wouldn’t have a problem killing you.”

Lorenzo nodded his head when Ruiz gestured to him.

I couldn’t believe them. They just murdered my entire family and they wanted me to leave with them. I had no idea where they even wanted to take me.

“You heard him, get up now or I’ll shoot you.” Lorenzo threatened and trained his gun at me but I remained still. I didn’t mind dying. It was better than living with the memories of my family dying right in front of me.

Lorenzo was about to pull the trigger but before he could shoot, Ruiz stopped him and grabbed the gun from him. “You made me do this.” Ruiz lifted me by the waist and flung me across his shoulder.

I tried to squirm away but his grip was too tight.

He carried me out of the house, ignoring my continuous yelling and screaming. He was literally kidnapping me.

My heart broke when I saw the lifeless bodies of the security guards lying on the floor. Out of frustration, I hit him multiple times on his back but he didn’t react to it.

“Where are you taking me to?” I asked through gritted teeth as he dropped me inside a black SUV. He killed my family and now I was being kidnapped?

“I’m taking you to my house.” He forced a pill into my mouth, tied my hands with a piece of cloth, and slammed the door before walking over to the driver’s seat.

He waited for Lorenzo and some other men to drive off before starting the car. “What is your plan, huh?” I aggressively kicked the back of his seat with my legs. “Wha….a?” Before I could complete my sentence, everywhere became dizzy and I slept off.

The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself in a dimly lit room. It didn’t take a few seconds before the memories of the last hours came replaying in my head.

I sat upright when I realized my family was gone.

I let out a blood-curdling scream when the memories of my family being brutally murdered replayed in my head. So it wasn’t a nightmare. It was real.

The worst part was that I had no idea where I was. He had taken my family from me and he wanted to take my life too. I wasn’t with my mobile phone so I couldn’t reach any of my friends in Spain or even in New York.

My whole world was falling apart and I couldn’t do anything about it. I felt helpless. I thought about what my life would be like. I thought about medical school. But all those things didn’t matter anymore.

The only thing I could think of was ending my life.

I didn’t have any purpose and life wasn’t worth living anymore. I tried my best to get up from the bed because all the parts of my body felt weak.

Dragging my legs to the door, I twisted the knob multiple times but it was locked from outside. “Fuck!” I yelled out of annoyance as I banged on the door multiple times.

I was hoping someone would hear and open the door.

No one came.

But I didn’t give up. I kept on hitting the door. If it wasn’t so strong, I would have broken it down with my persistent banging.

Suddenly I heard footsteps coming in my direction. I paused for a while, hoping the person was coming to the door.

I was a bit relieved when I heard someone unlock the door from the other side. Without waiting for the person, I forcefully opened the door when it was unlocked.

I took a step back when I saw who it was. “You.” My face twisted in disgust and I was about to walk out the door when he pushed me back.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” Ruiz said, giving me a mischievous grin. “Or should I say Ava? Why did you refuse to tell me your beautiful name?”

“Morning?” I muttered under my breath. That meant I had been passed out for so many hours. “Please, I want to go back home.” I ignored his comment and pleaded.

Ruiz's expression turned sour. “You don’t have a home to go back to.” He clicked his tongue. “This is your new home.” I wanted to hit him hard across his face when I heard him say those words.

But he was right. I didn’t have a home to go back to because he took everything away from me. He still had the guts to take me back to his house.

He was a sick individual.

“I have a home. I have medical school. I have friends.” I replied, trying to beat back the anger in my voice. I wanted to try being reasonable with him, hoping he would change his mind.

The room fell silent for a while before Ruiz cleared his throat and spoke. “I’m actually doing you a favor.” He scratched his brows and bored his eyes into mine.

“Why did you kill my parents? My family?” I asked in a slightly cracked voice when my mind wandered back to my dead parents.

“Your father stole from me, so I had to do it.” He replied nonchalantly. He had no remorse about what he had done and it made anger course through my veins.

“And my siblings, did they also steal from you?”

“I didn’t want them to have a life without their parents, so I had to kill them too.”

My eyes glistened with tears as I heard him speak about my family in that manner. He spoke like their lives meant nothing.

He took my parents from me. He took Nina and Diaz from me. As I thought about it, I got angrier. I didn’t even know when my hand landed across his face.

I pushed him with all my strength and ran into the hallway. He looked like someone who didn’t have a lot of patience and I had made him angry.

I didn’t look back, I kept on running until I saw a staircase. The house was huge and my legs were getting tired. I ran down the stairs but unfortunately enough, someone was at the edge of the stairs waiting for me.

“Get the fuck off me!” I struggled as a random man held me down. “Leave me alone!” I spat at him but he remained still. I paused for a moment and tried to catch my breath because I was breathing heavily.

Suddenly, I saw Ruiz descending the stairs.

“Just kill me! Monster!” I yelled at him as he approached me. His eyes flashed with anger and my lips pressed harder in annoyance.

“You should choose your next words wisely.” His voice was low and venomous. The other guy who held me down released me and pushed me gently over to Ruiz.

Was I just a toy they could toss around?

“Just let me go, I won’t report you to the authorities,” I said calmly when Ruiz’s grip tightened around me. I was fuming with anger but I needed to say anything that would make him change his mind.

I was lying. The first thing I would do was to go to the authorities whenever I made it out of his house. Rather, out of his prison.

Ruiz's stern expression twisted into a mocking laughter and my anger flared hotter. What was so funny about what I had said?

“You haven’t had anything to eat for hours, the chef will make you something. Go upstairs, take a shower, and have a change of clothes.” Ruiz instructed, ignoring every other thing I said.

Without giving me the chance to say anything else, he released me from his grip and walked away in the direction of what I assumed was the front door.

I wanted to run after him but the other man held me back.