His Choice - Rafe Cameron

26. Taken

Extreme nausea rises from my stomach, up to my chest. It feels as though I have been asleep for weeks because my body is weak and limp. As I slowly open my eyes, my vision is blurred. I blink a couple of times, to try and figure out who the figure belongs to on the other side of the room. I can hear heavy footsteps pacing back and forth and deep panting coming from their breath. 

"Think Rafe, fucking think." I hear him mumble and that's when my vision allows me to see who is in front of me. I sit up frantically and glance around the room. I am not in Rafe's room anymore. That's the last memory that I have. 

I feel my body rocking side to side. Are we on a boat? 

"Rafe." I quietly call out to him and his head snaps in my direction. He instantly walks over to me and crouches down beside me. 

"About time you woke up." He touches my forehead with the back of his hand. "Are you feeling alright? Did they hurt you? How did you even get here?"

"I don't remember."

When I close my eyes again, everything comes flooding back to me. 

"I left your house and seen that the security gates had been opened. I called out to Matteo and found him laying on the ground in his security booth with a stab wound on his lower stomach. He was losing a lot of blood so I used your jumper to apply pressure to the wound. I tried to call for help, but a man came up from behind me and dragged me away from Matteo. He put a cloth over my face which knocked me unconscious. Then I woke up here."

Rafe mutters profanities under his breath. "Fuck, Matteo. How was he when you were with him?"

"Not good. Rafe, he lost so much blood."

"Fuck, he was the only guard that I could actually tolerate. Mostly because he wasn't a snitch and wouldn't always tell my dad of my whereabouts."

Matteo was a lovely man. Why am I speaking about him in past tense? Matteo is a lovely man. He is still alive. He has to be. 

"How did they capture you, Rafe?"

"You must have only just left when I heard the alert on my phone. Matteo pressed the emergency alert and it woke me. I looked at the security cameras on my phone and seen two men making their way through the gates. 

"How did Matteo press the emergency alert? He looked like he had been there for a little while by the time I got to him."

"He has one in the pocket of his uniform. It is built into the underside seam. He slips a little device in there when he is on duty and that is the emergency alert incase he isn't in his booth and he can't call in on his radio."

That's very smart, I'll give Ward credit for that. He always did know how to utilise technology when it came to security and of course scheming too. 

"So I got up and ran straight to Wheezie. Once I knew she was safe in her hiding area, I went to look for those bastards."

"Why didn't you call the police?"

He stares at me blankly. "Scarlett, has your cousin not informed you of how unreliable the cops are? They are more sketchy than I am."

Kudos to him for being honest. 

"Did you call anyone?"

"I didn't think, alright. I thought I could take them on. I had taken them on. I just didn't realise that they had a third person who came at me from behind. My main concern was getting Wheezie to safety."

"And is she safe?"

He nods his head. "Yeah, she would have told my Dad by now. He will find us Scarlett. For now, we just need to survive."