Mistakenly Taken

Chapter 7

Just as Anthony told Rachel that she was on a private island every part of her body suddenly felt losing all hope and strength as she bent down on her knees on the cold, damp sand.

“What does this Santiago man want from me?” She asked Anthony who signaled one of his men to go and pick Rachel up.

“Only he will be able to tell you.” He told her truthfully as a large man cradled Rachel and picked her up over the back of his both shoulders, like any wrestler would pick up his opponent.

She felt exhausted but couldn’t miss the opportunity to notice the whole way back inside the estate. The man who was holding her mistakenly on purpose hit her head up with a bark of a tree making Rachel whimper as he scoffed in response.

“Son of bitch.” Rachel whispered near his ear knowing that she could as well irritate him but he didn’t react much.

She noticed a clear pavement towards the private estate which had in turn another steps of cleared stoned pavement in the middle of the grass that lead to a beautiful brown manor. The house seemed like an ancient Rome building had s*x with fairy tale architecture. It seemed like an ancient castle. Rachel couldn’t help but notice the royal essence of the entire manor. The brown front walls with large windows, blue sliding roof heads and separated wings. It seemed like it had popped right out of a fairy tale. As they went inside, the marbled floor reflected Rachel’s image as it was pure creamy and cleaned so well. The walls had a huge creamy wallpaper textures and ran at a large height along the distance of the roof. Rachel looked down still hanging over the shoulder of the man and noticed the circular patterns on the tiles above, she tilted her head above and noticed the engravings on the ceiling above.

The huge guy let go off of Rachel as she stood on her feet but hissed as the pain in her foot stung.

The same old woman who had scared her earlier walked up to her, wearing a blue buttoned up dress covered with a black apron from her waist below, her eyebrows were furrowed and her forehead was wrinkled more than the corner of her eyes. Rachel could instantly tell that she was in her early fifties and was definitely a housekeeper.

“Oh my dear Lord! Are you alright?” she spoke to Rachel in a thick English accent taking her a little aback. Previously Rachel had heard her yelling Spanish words and now she was speaking fluent British accent. “Dear, your foot seems to be bleeding.” She looked down at Rachel’s bare feet and saw the red pooled in the middle of her foot.

“You need to take a shower and some rest. If you can walk, then do follow me.” She told Rachel, making her follow her through the large spiral staircase that lead towards a large corridor on both of its side, leading Rachel towards the right side, walking up to the corner, passing a large number of large double doors and finally ending in front of the last room to which Rachel seemed hesitant to walk in but she also knew that there was no point of running away and ending up in the ocean and feasting her body to the sharks.

“Miss, you should sit down and I’ll run the water warm for you, for your shower.” The old housekeeper offered Rachel making it convenient for her that she was going to be part of a human trafficking chain where she’ll be sold to some old wrinkled guy. She had read too many books on virgin girls being targeted in s*x trafficking.

She stood her ground firmly refusing to follow The old lady’s orders, “No!” she firmly spoke.

“Pardon me?” She stood with shock and confusion.

“Oh don’t you act so naïve.” Rachel spat back at her.

“I’m sorry Miss, you must be having some wrong impression here.” She tried defending herself.

“Oh no I don’t. you have the wrong impression. You think this all is going to work.” She pointed at the confused lady and the room. “Don’t you think I know why am I brought here? On a private island? Some Italian Mafia name guy who kidnapped me? Why would he do that? And above all, all those large closed rooms? How many more girls are there in this house? Behind those doors.” she nonchalantly chattered blatantly challenging the old housekeeper.

“Miss, there is no other woman in this house behind those close doors. They are mere empty rooms.” She gritted her teeth trying to control her inflating temper.

She was an old entrusting housekeeper to the Santiagos. Josie – She worked respectably for all these years, serving for almost three decades, looking behind the junior and senior masters, being the sole decision maker of the entire manor, she had earned and treated with nothing but love and respect and listening to those character assassinating blames by the young woman of today, made her blood pressure shoot up high.

“Don’t you ‘miss’ me!” Rachel spat back at her, “I am not too dumb to know…”

“Enough!” Josie spat in anger making Rachel shiver in response.

I have seen Texas chainsaw m******e, the next thing you know, this woman might hold out a chainsaw from her apron and cut my little fingers. Rachel thought looking down at her fingers and scared to lose any precious part of her body.

“Miss I am sorry for an inconvenient manner with which you might have brought here but I am Josie Peabody, I am the oldest and head of housekeeping staff at the Santiago Island. We here do not run any inappropriate show. I myself am I respectable woman, who knows how important a girl’s body and consent is to her. So for one I ensure you that nothing shall happen to you.”

She softened her tone noticing Rachel’s tensed expressions.

Rachel looked at her head to toe, never falling for appearances but some part of her heard told her to go with trusting her. No one so far tried touching her or even hurting her not unless she had kicked them in the face or nuts. She also noticed that Josie seemed worried about her comfort and injuries. There was no way she would want to hurt her.

“But I was abducted and tased.” Rachel complained with a low mumur, slipping down at the edge of the bed. Tears had clouded her eyes as she thought about the suffocation of being stranded hopeless into an entire a*******n, not knowing what would happen to her.

From being a woman who always decided her own destiny from a very young age to being stranded at a position where she didn’t even know what else would happen next to her, she felt hopeless and tired from struggling anymore further.

“Oh my dear!” Josie sat down right next to her, wrapping an arm over her shoulders, “Listen my dear.” She patted her head slowly trying to sooth her shaking body down, “I might not know why have you been brought here but I know Alejandro, he is a guy with a nice heart. He must have his own reasons but hurting you would never be one of them.” She smiled cheekily.

Rachel looked at her with teary visions and blinked twice a lot that sprung tears down her cheeks, “You won’t turn out to be like those mean women who would later laugh at me for trusting you would you?” she asked sniffing her cries.

Josie chuckled at her words, “No I promise you. I am neither evil nor mean. Here this might give you strength.”

She pulled out the shiny silver locket on her neck that was embedded within her blue conservative dress and handed it over to Rachel.

Rachel looked at it for a few moments before grabbing it reluctantly. It had silver chain that smelled of lime and shined just like the round silver pendent attached to it. Rachel looked at it keenly studying it in her palm as she grabbed it closely and clicked the small curve on side of the circular pendant.

It clicked open revealing a picture pendant. The both sides had two small pictures both in brown shades, seemingly looking rustic and old. On one side was a picture of a couple, both smiling looking at the camera, dressed up as a wedding couple. The woman uncannily resembled Josie which made Rachel look at her in surprise.

She smiled at Rachel, “This is my husband and that…” she pointed at the other picture to which Rachel noticed was the picture of an infant wrapped in a swaddling cloth, “She was my daughter, six months old.”

Her smile seemed to vanish as Rachel felt the emphasis on the word ‘was’.

“The two died in a fire, burning every memory of theirs into ashes, except for this necklace. It is all I have left of them because it was clinging to my neck. I was left hopeless just like you are, wanting to quit life, but every night when I would decide to give up I would look at these pictures and suddenly an urge to struggle and survive would hit me and that lead me to here, alive and in front of you.”

Despite of blurry vision, filled with tears, Rachel managed to smile as she looked at Josie smiling at her. She handed back the necklace to Josie, “It belongs to you. It is your hope; I can’t take it away from you.”

Josie couldn’t help but feel enlightened to know that Rachel was just as innocent, naive and pure as she thought of her and she was able to take care of her restlessness.

She made sure that Rachel could have a comfortable and warm shower and left her inside to get cozy, lynching downstairs, to look at the matters of the house.

She once reached down and went towards the left of the main hallway where one of many living rooms of the entire house was. The three main men who had initially brought in Rachel, without Josie’s consent sat at the two seat near the large window that lead outside towards the lawn. One of them sat at the piano seat infront of the wooden piano, trying to touch the keys.

“You are staining the living area.” Josie hissed at them.

Partially she was annoyed at them for bringing in someone at the private manor where she hated any sort of business or violence to be brought at. She knew exactly the kind of business Alejandro did as she worked for him since he was inside his mother’s womb. Yet she had made sure that he grew up to be a fair man and she had thus succeeded in it. She knew that Alejandro would never hurt anyone innocent and Rachel seemed to be too pure to be hurt. Josie recognized her to be mere beauty and innocence.

“Where’s that freak?” Anthony asked getting up from the royal sofa.

“Martha!” Josie yelled out loud calling one of the younger housekeepers.

The poor young lady rushed in at the harsh call of her voice, she held a dusting cloth in one hand as she rushed in. She wore a black instead of blue dress, with half sleeves and white apron covering from her waist below. Her black hair tied in a bun, emphasizing more on her squared forehead, sharp jawline and big bulging brown eyes.

“Get these idiotas, some clean clothes, they are ruining my living area.”, Josie yelled out loud at the three men who despite of their tall and broad structures, being assassins were still scared of the old lady who they knew were at a higher authority then them.

She gulped down at her orders and rushed towards the laundry room.

“Did you put a lock on her?” the ginger beard man, Jason asked, getting over from the piano seat.

“Lock on her?” Josie squinted her wrinkled eyes at them with anger, “She is innocent. Why did you even take her?”

“Innocent? Well that innocent did this to me.” Anthony spoke with offence pointing towards his swollen face that had bruises at his left cheekbone and right jaw.

“And this to me.” Jason pointed at his bruised bald head.

Derek laughed at the condition of the two, earning a look from everyone in the room which made him immediately shut up.

“Why did you abduct her?” She spoke with gritted teeth, anger evident in her tone.

“We told ya already.” Jason spoke with annoyance, “Boss ordered us to.”

They have been telling her the same thing ever since they brought Rachel to the manor at first place.

Martha rushed in, carrying clean clothes in her hands. Josie grabbed onto them from her hands and threw it over at three men, “Get clean and spot mucking my house.” She yelled.