Bought By The Billionaire

Chapter 34: Bought By The Billionaire - Chapter Thirty-Four

Adele stares at the ring for a moment, unblinking, before fury washes over her features. Her expression changes completely, her perfect features made ugly by rage. As she flushes red, then white, her complexion turns that odd shade of a woman wearing make-up the wrong shade for her skin colour.

“Is that from him?” she hisses. “Did he give you that?”

Nervous now at this further abrupt switch of tone, I babble a little. “Well, yes. We’re engaged. It’s not been made public yet. In fact, we were going to announce it tonight.” Beginning to feel afraid, I want to go. Standing, I say “It’s been nice to meet you, Adele, to finally have a chat. But I need to be going. I’ve got things to do.”

Quickly I stand to leave, then become aware that Adele is looking at someone over my shoulder. Turning, I find a man, no, two men, standing close to me. Too close.

One has something in a pocket, pointing at me. A knife? A gun?

“Don’t argue Elizabeth,” says Adele sweetly. “Just go with these gentlemen where they tell you, and you won’t get hurt.” She pauses. “Not for now anyway.”

My mouth dry, fear gnawing at me, I turn, looking around, wondering if I dare try to break away. This is a public place. Surely I can….

“Don’t even think about it Elizabeth,” says Adele. “No-one else here would see it as it happened and by the time they’d figured it out, it would be far too late for you.”

What can I do?

The security cameras? All they can see is a group of people. Nothing to indicate trouble to a security guard, even if anyone is actually monitoring them. And…… if Adele is not worrying about her face being seen on camera, she must surely have taken some precaution over cameras?

I am walked through the store, the two men flanking me. One of them holds me tight by the wrist, although to any passer-by, it will simply look as though he has linked arms with me.

The other mutters at me “Just look straight ahead. Don’t try to catch anyone’s eye. We’ve just been enjoying a nice afternoon stroll in the shops, and now we’re going to the car.”

Frightened now, I am wondering where Ross is. How long will it be before he comes looking for me?

What does Adele want? To hurt me? Kill me? Ransom me? Or simple revenge against my Master? Plain jealousy?

They march me out through a side door. A limousine is waiting outside, the windows darkened so that the occupants cannot be seen. One of the men with me opens the rear door, apparently smiling at me, but the smile stops at the mouth. His eyes are hard, like agates. “Do get in Elizabeth. Make yourself comfortable.”

I try to resist, to hesitate, anything to give Ross time to realise that I am late, to raise the alarm. What time is it? It must have been long enough now for him to be looking for me. The man behind me raises what looks to the outside world like a companionable hand to the elbow to guide me in, but I can see his other hand in his pocket, something pointing at me.

Can I drop something? Leave a sign to be found? No, they are watching me too closely. As slowly as I dare, I step into the back of the car, still with a man flanking me on either side. My breathing fast and shallow with fear, I try not to panic, to think clearly. What must I do?

My mobile is in my bag, still with me, but there is no way that I can call from it. Might Ross call me? Probably. Did I leave the ring-tone turned on? I can’t remember. If the phone rings, it is certain that it will be taken from me.

Biting my bottom lip to control my panic, I clasp my bag closely to my lap, hoping not to draw attention to it.

One of the men fencing me into the seat says “Keep both your hands in view. No clever moves.”

Saying nothing, I rest both my hands, palms down on top of my bag. Through the soft leather, I can feel a vibration. It is my phone, sound turned off but still with the vibe working. Probably, Ross is trying to contact me. The vibration continues for some seconds then ceases. Then almost immediately, it starts up again.

Ross is looking for me. That means my Master will very soon also be looking for me. My Master has many friends, in the police, on the streets. He will find me. And he will be so angry with these people; with Adele and these men working for her. I have only seen my Master’s rage once before when I upset him. What will he do to these people?

From the front seat, the driver swings around to face me. “Why hello Beth. How nice to see you again.” Mack Kane smiles maliciously at me, then turning away, starts the car and drives us away, to be quickly lost in the city traffic.

*****

As the car drives into the city traffic, I feel the, now almost constant, vibration of my mobile phone through the leather of my bag. Someone, perhaps several someones; Ross, my Master, Francis, is trying hard to contact me. I promised Ross that I would meet him three hours after he dropped me off at the store. The fact that I am not replying to repeated attempts to call me, must be raising the alarm.

The ‘problem’ is that I have been kidnapped. Somehow, Adele, my master’s ‘ex’ and Mack Kane, the man whose fraud against my Master, I inadvertently discovered, have colluded in my abduction, and right now, I am being driven away through the city to destination unknown, by my captors. Both Adele and Mack, I know, wish me ill, but do they simply want me out of the way, or is this an attempt at ransom? A wish to extort money from my Master?

However, whilst having me in their power, they have failed to take my bag. Specifically, it does not seem to have occurred to them that I have my mobile phone and that my friends could be trying to contact me. After a dozen attempts, my Master surely now realises that I am in trouble. If there is an ‘up-side’ to my situation, it is that my friends are certainly looking for me.

The two men sandwiching me in the back seat of the limousine could be straight out of any 1930’s gangster movie; over-built thugs who look as though their knuckles should trail the ground. What did they think I’d be able to do? One slimly built young woman, against these two?

The thug to my left shifts his position a bit, squeezing me further into the already limited space of the rear car seat. At this moment, the phone in my bag chooses to vibrate its call again. Pressed up against me, the thug feels the vibe and turns, startled, looking for the source of the disturbance. Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

Looking down, he spots my bag and, with a curse, snatches it out of my hands, rummaging through the contents. “There’s a phone in here. Someone’s trying to call her.”

“So keep it out of her hands.” comes a calm voice from the driver’s seat. Mack Kane is quite unruffled. “If she can’t reply, then it’s not a lot of help to them, is it?”

The thug gives me a dirty look and shoves the phone in his own pocket. There is no possibility that I can use it now to call for help. Carefully, I paste an upset expression on my face. It isn’t hard. I am already fighting back tears, but this is not the time to break down. And leaning back into the seat, I

reflect that it seems my captors are not all that bright and have not thought their way through the implications of modern technology.

I have to play for time. Time is my friend now.

“Where are you taking me?” Neither man either side of me replies. Mack too is silent.

“You won’t get away with this you know.” I know that I am babbling nonsense, but all I am trying to do is divert their thoughts, to stop them from thinking properly. “Richard has so many friends. In the Police, too. They’ll be looking for me now.”

Mack swings around from the front, the car swerving dangerously as he does so. “Well they’re looking in the wrong place, aren’t they? Now shut your trap, before we shut it for you. Unless you want the party to start right now.”