Abducted for revenge, Bound for love

Chapter 5

The room fell into an eerie silence. Abigail felt her stomach fall as though filled with lead. His words did not make sense, her father was an honest man. She didn't know exactly what the company he worked for dealt in but she knew her father was just a manager. What could he have possibly stolen from a man like this?

She regarded him with a frown. “I told you, my father is not a thief.” Her voice came out low but still firm with conviction.

He was not even fazed by her words or the tone of her voice. “And I am not a charity organization, but seeing as I am missing some substantial amount of millions, and your father is in hiding.” He waved his arm to elaborate. “I don’t need a PhD to put it together.”

Money! He was accusing her father of stealing money? Her thoughts went into overdrive almost instantly. “Then he is being framed!” she declared vehemently.

Lorenzo looked at her for a second without saying anything. He wondered if she would be that passionate to defend her father once he had spelled out all the details. Very calmly he responded, almost feeling sorry for her, “Do I give you the impression of being the kind of man who makes accusations…without verifying the facts?”

Defiantly, she lifted her chin and sneered. “And how do you suppose I answer that?”

He just looked at her and she stared back. She refused to be intimidated by the man. She straightened her back even more and kept his gaze. At the back of her mind she knew she was probably playing with fire, taunting the man keeping her prisoner in that room. 

But after days left to contemplate her life in silence and filth, she was beyond caring. Her life had already fallen apart before this man stepped in and kidnapped her. There was no way she was going to give him what little dignity she had left.

And there was no way she was going to stand by and hear him accuse her father falsely. That was not how her mother raised her. Family stuck together, family defended each other.

Her thoughts got momentarily distracted. The man wore a strong cologne, she caught a whiff of it even through the stench of the room. It was spicy and fresh, made her think of Indian dishes and clean air breezing through pine trees.

She wished she could smell more of it, instead of the foul odor that she had been in for days. She actually wondered how he was managing to stand there, seemingly undisturbed.

Right on cue as though he had read her thoughts, the man sneezed and wiggled his nose. An action that was almost sweet in Abigail’s mind. She immediately frowned, disturbed by the thought. She should not be thinking anything sweet about the man.

His voice brought her out of her private disturbing thoughts. “Alright I think we will need to continue this conversation in more hygienic circumstances,” he spoke with a frown, already turning to leave the room.

“You are an ass,” she shouted to his retreating back. Feeling offended and more self-conscious than she cared to explain.

“I was under the impression we had already established that,” he threw over his shoulder and walked out of the room, closing the door after him.

“Arg!” Abigail was enraged. If she had had something to throw at his head, she would have gladly done it. “The nerve of the man,” she hissed through her teeth.

She wasn’t even sure what pissed her off the most, his comment about hygiene when he was responsible for keeping her in such a human degrading manner, or, the fact that he had stood there all handsome and composed accusing her father and threatening her, while she looked like something a dog had chewed and spat out.

She closed her eyes and flopped back on the mattress. She took a deep breath and quickly regretted it. She was sure she was going to need at least three baths with insanely hot water to wash all the stench away from her skin.

Her mind went back to what the man had said, suddenly realizing that she still did not know his name. However, that was of little importance at that point in time. Her thoughts were fast consumed by his accusation towards her father.

She frowned and vehemently shook her head, she knew her father well. He was an honest man, there was no way he would have stolen any money from this man. In fact she doubted her gentle father would even know a man such as this one, unless he had met him in his line of work and organized a shipment for the man. Which would beg to question, what had her father possibly stolen, the man's cargo? 

The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced, the man was mistaken. Her father was not a thief. 

***

Lorenzo stepped out of the room and regarded Ted who had stood outside waiting for him.

The large black man scratched the back of his bald, shiny head and avoided his boss’s eyes. The man looked far more nervous than usual.

Lorenzo cleared his throat and breathed in some cleaner air into his lungs, while dusting off invincible dirt off his Brioni Vanquish suit. “I take it from your school girl performance that I don’t have to voice my displeasure…” he drawled.

Ted winced slightly. Overcome by the need to justify their actions, he spoke, keeping his voice sheepishly low, “She is a prisoner boss.”

“Whom you decided to kill with starvation and whatever sickness she could catch in that unhygienic condition before I could even get the chance to interrogate her.”

There were times Ted definitely did not understand his boss and it was frustrating to keep up with the man’s moods. The worst of it was that Lorenzo did not shout to express his displeasure, he spoke calmly and it was unnerving. 

He tried again. “Boss, we abducted her to find her father. There is no better way to extract information from a person, than after they have been deprived of vital necessities.”

Lorenzo looked at his man with almost boredom on his face. He knew the man had acted as expected under the circumstances, but he could not shake the irritation and anger that washed over him after seeing the poor conditions the girl had been kept in.

He rarely kept captives and so had even forgotten that the room existed for such occasions. He had been almost confused when he arrived and was informed she was kept there.

Lorenzo smiled at Ted and the big man flinched. Somehow he knew what Lorenzo was about to instruct. After all, it was his trademark.

“I hope you all will enjoy cleaning that room top to bottom. In fact I want it repainted as well and everything in it burnt.”

Ted nodded solemnly, then he asked, “And the girl?”

“Have one of the boys take her to my room.” He answered in a preoccupied voice, his fingers and eyes already on the screen of his phone.

“Your…your room boss?”

“Are you losing your hearing?” Lorenzo looked up and frowned at the man. “You wish me to repeat myself?” he asked with an arched brow.

Not even on his deathbed would Ted have dared ask his boss to repeat himself. “No sir,” he gave a sharp nod and went to do as instructed. Before he could round the corner, his boss’s voice stopped him.

“I want the girl in my room in the next ten minutes. And that room should be cleaned and painted by 5 AM tomorrow morning.”

Ted was almost tempted to remind his boss that it was already 8pm in the night, but held his tongue. And gave a muttered, “Of course, sir.” before walking off to do the task.