Chapter 7
1656 Words
Lorenzo closed the bedroom door as he left, punching his secret code into the keypad. A necessary security measure when you had so many enemies.
He started down the hallway and found Maxwell and Ted waiting for him around the bend. One look at their faces and he could tell what they wanted to discuss. He was not surprised, in fact he had expected to find them camped right outside his bedroom door.
He quietly walked past them and headed to his office, where they silently followed behind.
Lorenzo sat behind his desk and regarded the two bulky men standing at the office doorway awaiting permission to enter. It sometimes amused him how these men built like tankers feared him. Though he liked to believe it was more a case of respect and loyalty, but, he also knew on a simpler more basic instinct, they actually feared him.
“Since you have already invited yourselves to the door, you might as well enter,” Lorenzo said in a bored tone and turned his attention to his laptop screen.
“Sir, we think it is a very bad idea to keep this woman in your private rooms…a serious security risk.” Maxwell’s voice came out strong and confident. He still stood just inside the door with his arms folded over his beefy chest and a frown on his face.
Maxwell was head of security so it made sense those would be the first words out of his mouth over the matter.
Ted, who had walked in all the way and was now standing next to the desk, nodded in agreement with what Maxwell had just said.
“I will take note of that,” Lorenzo simply answered and returned his eyes to his spreadsheets on the laptop. He could practically sense their confusion and undecidedness.
“Was there anything else?”
This time it was Ted that spoke, “Mr. Renzo, the outcome of such a decision could be…fatal. Allow us to lock her up in another room, even one of the guest rooms. Although… we shouldn’t forget, she is a captive, we got her to get information about her father…”
“Did I by any chance hit my head and declare my house a parliament of democracy, open for debate?” he interrupted and asked with a hard stare.
Both Maxwell and Ted remained mute.
“I didn’t think so. Maxwell, ensure security is tight as usual, no mistakes. Ted, I believe you and the boys have a room to clean and repaint…I think I will come and check it at 3AM…no need to mention it should be done by then.” Lorenzo gave them a stare that dared them to say more on the matter.
When both men wisely kept their mouths shut, he returned his eyes to the laptop, effectively dismissing them from his presence. He heard them leave but did not bother to look up. He spared a moment to think over the matter though.
It bothered him a little how both men had been too eager to relocate the woman. He wondered if it was only their concern for his safety or if there was another reason he was not aware of. After a few seconds of thought, he dismissed the idea and focused back on work.
An hour later, he walked back to his room carrying a glass of warm milk and some biscuits, he actually felt a wave of excitement he did not wish to analyze at that very moment.
He let himself into the room quietly. He had expected to find her laying on the bed or snooping around his possessions, as any normal red blooded human would do when left free to roam in their captor’s room. But he found she was not in their room.
With a puzzled frown he set down the glass and plate of biscuits slowly taking in his own room, almost expecting her to try and ambush him. After a few seconds he realized she was still in the bathroom.
He checked his watch and confirmed it had been an hour since he left her. He knew she had been in desperate need for a bath, but an hour was just pushing it, was she that dirty?
He went to the bathroom door and gave it a light tap before speaking, “Did you drown in the tub or did you melt away with the dirt into the drainage?”
He heard the wave of water moving, indicative of someone sitting up abruptly in a full tub of water.
“Ass,” she whispered under her breath. Gingerly she stepped out of the now cooling water. She felt a hundred times better and more alive.
She found a towel and dried herself, then realized she had a problem. She had no clothes to change into. There was no way she was going to wear the same clothes she had worn for so many days. A search around the bathroom only revealed more towels and no gown, unless she wanted to wrap herself up like a mummy, she was out of options.
She took a sniff at the clothes. “God, that’s awful.” She recoiled and grimaced. Nope, this is not an option, she thought.
Lorenzo sat at the small desk in his room by the window, he could hear her fidgeting in the bathroom. He smiled to himself and continued browsing. There was no way she was going to stay in the bathroom all night, he was just going to wait till she finally came out.
He didn’t have to wait long. Five minutes later, the bathroom door opened very slowly as though she was hoping he wouldn’t notice. He smiled and looked up at her.
Abigail was self-conscious to say the least. She gripped the towel around her body with so much force, Lorenzo feared he would soon hear the material tear. Although, such an eventuality actually made him mentally smile. He couldn’t help but wonder what her body looked like under that towel.
“I need clothes,” she announced through clenched teeth.
Lorenzo looked at her, up and down with a baffled expression. He almost wondered if she had read his thoughts. “I don’t see why…”
Her mouth fell open in shock. “You are joking right?” she felt the irritation and frustration with the whole situation beginning to boil in her. She gestured at her body covered in a towel. “You can’t seriously expect me to remain like this.”
He gave an indifferent shrug and returned his eyes to his laptop even though he wanted nothing more than to continue studying her body. With a jerk of his head he pointed at the milk and biscuits on the coffee table. “Eat something before you faint.”
She gave the milk and biscuits a suspicious look. Although she was hungry and just the sight of the treats was enough to make her stomach rumble, she was not prepared to give in that easily.
“I said I need clothes.”
Lorenzo slowly looked up from the screen of the laptop and gave her a hard stare. “And I need information. Where is your father?”
His voice though was deep and sexy, the tone he used was entirely a different story, and it sent a chill down her spine and made her flinch.
“I don’t know where my father is,” she answered in a clipped tone.
“Then we have a problem.”
Abigail clenched her jaw hard to stop from screaming at him. Then very slowly in a controlled voice she spoke, “Whatever you think my father did, you are wrong. John Summer is an honest good man. I highly doubt he even knows a man like you. Just let me go and I promise I won’t go to the police with this…I don’t even know your name, so you have nothing to fear.”
Lorenzo watched her as she spoke with an almost amused expression on his face, like he was listening to a very stupid person trying to make a point. The look rubbed her the wrong way but she bit back an ugly response she would have thrown at him, and waited for him to say something.
After almost a minute, the man still just watched her, he had not responded to her statement and the annoying amused look was still firmly pasted on his face, tempting her to slap it off.
She unclenched her jaw. “Well?”
“Well what?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you have something to say? Will you let me go?”
“No.” The man went back to looking at something on his laptop with great interest.
“What do you mean, no? No, you have nothing to say? Or no, you won’t let me go?”
He smiled. “Next time learn to ask one question at a time so you are not confused. But to clarify it for you…No to both your questions.”
She glared at him. “So you just plan to lock me up in your house on your false accusations against my father. Then what?”
He sat back in his chair and narrowed his eyes on her. “Firstly, the accusations are not false. I have all the proof I need to confirm that, yes…your father is in fact a thief.” He stood from the chair and lazily walked towards her. “Secondly, I will indeed keep you in this house, specifically this room…until you either tell me where your father is, or my men will eventually find him and bring him to me.” He now stood in front of her and smiled a wicked smile that sent tremors through her body. “And the name is Lorenzo, pleased to meet you Abigail Summer.”
- Writer
