Page 42 of Need to Know

“No, no, I wanted to speak to you first. We don’t know what to do for the best.”

“Are you injured? Do you need medical attention?”

“We got roofied and we’re a little bashed up. They locked us in a cabin on a river boat.”

“I didn’t get a ransom demand,” Roz stated.

“We got out before they could do anything like that…but we’re gonna need a make-up artist to cover our bruises.”

“Feh! First the attempted stabbing in Paris, and now an abduction? Do you have another stalker?”

“No, I don’t think I have another stalker. No idea who did this,” I insisted.

“Jack, have you spoken to Lucy?” Roz enquired.

“Not yet. We’ve just had breakfast and we need a nap first, we’re exhausted,” he said meekly.

“Damn it, Jack. This is serious, you need to call her. I’ll give you ten minutes to fill her in, and then I need to get Freiberg and Maritime on a conference call to decide what we should do. I don’t want you or Nate to leave your hotel rooms, you hear?”

“We’re together. The manager put us in the penthouse suite,” I informed

“Good. Jack, call Lucy, and then get some rest. I’ll be in touch as soon as we have a plan.” Roz hung up and I slumped down into the couch. I was overtaken by a wave of exhaustion that made my need to go to bed stronger.

“Rain check on the fucking?” I suggested sluggishly as I leaned over and kissed Jack on the lips.

“Yeah,” he said, sounding as dog tired as me. I made my way to the enticing huge bed, and pulled back the light summer duvet. I dropped my bathrobe to the bedroom floor and climbed naked onto the cool sheet, laying my head back against the soft buoyant pillows. I faintly heard Jack on the phone, speaking with Lucy I supposed, but I was asleep in seconds.

“Hey, hey, time to wake!” A rough male Asian voice said. The words were followed by a sharp slap to my cheek. What the hell? That hurt! My head felt swimmy and my limbs heavy, like a dream where you can’t move or escape. I hated dreams like that.

“Come on, come on, I know you faking.” The slaps became rougher and my tooth caught on my lip. I winced, tasting copper on my tongue. My mouth was an arid desert and it wouldn’t work properly to tell the man to fuck off and let me sleep. Was I drunk? I tried to open my eyes to find out what the hell was going on?

Open, close, open, close.

Each time the blurry vision before me was of a grinning Chinese man, way too close to my face for comfort and his breath smelled awful. There was a bright, blinding light around him like a halo and he wore the malevolent grin of a fairy-tale villain. Was I being assaulted by that evil dude from The Smurfs, what was his name…Gargamel?

“Jun Hie, we don’t have time to wait for this prick to wake up himself, try this,” another voice said. This one had an East Coast American accent with a brutish, military edge to it. The splash of cold water over my head made me startle, and then my chin was gripped and water was forcibly poured into my mouth. Reflexively I swallowed it. I knew I was sitting, my legs were tied to a chair, my hands bound behind it. To my left there was a gargling, then coughing sound.

“Don’t give too much or he choke. He a fucking movie star. Do you know how much he worth in ransom?” another man scolded.

“What the fuck?” Then I heard a scuffling sound, “Hey, what the hell is this? Untie me fuckers! This isn’t’ funny!” a terrified British voice said. Jack…Jack was with me, he was tied up too, and he was scared. That woke me up; I didn’t want Jack to feel scared. I opened my eyes to see construction lamps surrounded us and the bright light stabbed at my eyes. There were four men, the ugly one, and further back, outside of the ring of light was the silhouette of American one, while two thuggish men stood over Jack. I considered them for a moment, raking my eyes over them all, committing what I could see of their faces to my memory for when we escaped and we went to the authorities. Then it hit me…something I’d learned from interrogation training. If a criminal lets you see their face, they don’t care that you can ID them because they plan to kill you. I hoped that wasn’t true because my life had just started to get really interesting again. I wanted us to survive and finally make good on our sexy promise to one another.

“Did…did you drug us? That’s just so…fuckin’ unnecessary, man!” I slurred petulantly as I wriggled, trying to break the cable ties on my ankles and wrists. It had been way easier during training, but I guess then we weren’t recovering from sedation.

“Ah, there he is, a cheeky little shit, just like papa!” a man said. What the hell did he mean I was just like papa? My dad passed away a long, long time ago so how did he know anything about him? I tried to sit straighter and pin the man with an angry stare.

“Looks just like him too,” he laughed. “All bark, no bite,” he lurched for me, “ARF, ARF, ARF,” he barked like a rabid mutt and I reared my head back.

“The movie posters all over the city…what a gift they were!” the American said amusedly. “We knew he would find a way to get in touch.”

What the hell were these guys talking about? The American stood far back and I couldn’t see his face clearly, but his form was a little lopsided.

“Hey, Jack, Jack, you okay?” I called.

“Uggghh…What’sss okay even mean?” he moaned. “My head feels like it’s been dipped in toffee,”

“Where is he?” The Chinese brute roared.

“Fhuuuck sake,” Jack slurred. “Can you keep the volume down? Have a little consideration…headache!” he huffed. The brute stalked over and stood in front of Jack; his feral stare pinned on the man I wanted to be my boyfriend…even thinking the word felt strange…but that thought was a revelation! I wanted to date Jack Boyd, not just have a short fling.