The Price of Love

◆ 8 ◆

He lost his grip on the Beretta and it clattered to the floor with a noise that sounded much too loud, a crash that made everyone in the room wince before it even hit the ground. 

Silence followed.

Some unfathomable intuition, most likely fueled by the desire to, you know, keep breathing, caused me to open my mouth and apologize, despite the whole spiel about never bowing to the feet of any man. It was just that Caius looked so dangerous in that moment that I knew I'd better say something, so I took a deep breath and whispered, "I'm sorry."

And that might've eased his anger all by itself had I not continued.

"Okay, wait. I'm sorry I knocked the gun out of your hand, but you pointed it at my face and I love my face and would very much prefer to keep my face intact." Shut up, Daphne! "I'm not sure I would land very many magazine covers if I was missing an eyeball. It was a self-defense tactic, I think. You know, if you'd have pointed the gun at someone else's face, I'm sure they would have done the same thing." Oh my God, what was I saying? "It's instinctual, the need to preserve both eyeballs because eyeballs are pretty useful...like, you know....to help you see..." I was slowly drying up, noticing the growing horror in Tommy's expression.

The look in Caius's eyes was unreadable. "Go get it."

"Excuse me?"

"I will not repeat myself, Daphne."

Mortified, I walked over slowly to where the gun lay a few feet away and picked it up, cringing. And then I realized what I was doing. First, an apology, and now this? No way. With the gun in my hand, I turned back to face Caius and gave him an angelic grin. And then I promptly turned the other way and hurled the gun across the room with all the force I could. This time, it hit the wall with a sound that reverberated through the room and clattered to the floor.

"You don't pay me to do your work."

"I don't know if you realize this, Daphne," Caius said, perfectly polite. All the same, I could see his jaw tightening, a mimic of his fingers as if he wished to tattoo them across my face. It was enlightening, to say the least. A certain beauty stayed in cruelty, that much was true. "But this isn't your cute bubblegum pink world anymore. You think I'm above hurting you? You don't know me yet, baby. You better pray you never do."

I watched him with careful eyes, suddenly hyperaware of my surroundings. The terror in Tommy's eyes set off my own, like a domino reaction. The weight of the events crumbled on my shoulders and I noticed, with more than a little trepidation, the silent stance of Caius. There was something in him that spoke of the evilness beneath, like thorns on a rosebush. It was a hidden, waiting danger, so secretive and cleverly facaded by calm. There was a certain deadness to his eyes that showed his true colors, passing by in flashes. It was so easy to miss, so easy to be entranced by the mystery of his strangely multi-colored eyes, that I almost didn't catch it at first. But the danger was there, even without his weapon, even without my smarting remarks. I believed his every word.

No, I probably wasn't going to go home without some damage.

◆◆◆

Earlier That Day

"I don't care what it takes! I want my daughter back!"

The rock hard fist of Frank Evers came crashing through their air and slammed against the marble countertop of the table with a sound that reverberated throughout the room. The numerous files spread across the surface jumped slightly, as did the people surrounding the furious man.

Melanie laid a hand on Frank's shoulders. Her fingers trembled slightly.

Frank fixed his eyes on Richard Lincoln, the lead detective put on the case to find his daughter. As this had quickly become a federal investigation, given that several governing families of the nation had been put into the hospital, the Pentagon had assigned the top detectives to find Daphne Evers. The Evers family was a prominent fixture in the U.S. government, considering the fact that Frank Evers was one of the main suppliers of the nation's military arsenal. Any action taken to harm them, the Pentagon representative had said in a press conference only five minutes ago, was an action taken against the nation. 

New York City was currently under lockdown. The mayor had been moved to a secure location, and anyone with a net worth over ten million was alerted. Not that any more attention needed to come to the Evers household. CNN had done an emergency broadcast one hour earlier that had brought the nation's focus onto the hostage situation pretty quickly. 

The guests, however inclined they were to show gratitude for Frank's business decisions, quickly voiced their displeasure. Injured men and women had already begun threats of lawsuits, including one from Pepper Pauter that would peculate the Evers family from over 85 million dollars if it came to court. The Harringtons were also promising to sue Frank for every penny he had. 

Now, the manor hummed with the sound of helicopters flying overhead, crawling with news reporters itching to get any new information. Security and staff personnel had been banned from the premises after ambulances had come for the injured. It had taken over four hours to restore a sense of calm. The military presence, as ordered by the Pentagon, helped to maintain some composure. A line of defense had been taken around the manor, with armed soldiers guarding every entrance. 

The Evers were in shock. Their only child had been taken, and they had no way of knowing if Daphne was even alive. Frank, after making sure the fire had been put out and the guests had gotten the necessary medical help, immediately turned his attention to his missing daughter. He was a man of action.

"Find her. Immediately, or so help me God, I will burn this city to the goddamn ground," Frank said quietly to the men surrounding his office desk. "Come on, then. There's no point in wasting any more time. I don't care how much I have to pay, I just want Daphne back home. So what do we do now?"

"We wait for contact-"

"No!" Frank shouted. "We can't wait, we have to do something-"

"Mr. Evers, we cannot take any action that will harm your daughter." Richard spoke up. "As of right now, we have absolutely no idea where Daphne is or what happened to her. Anything that we do right now may jeopardize her life. We cannot  do a single damn thing until her kidnappers make contact. One thing that we know for sure is that Daphne has a very good chance of being alive. Mr. Evers, we have dealt with situations like this before. Because she is being held for ransom, her kidnappers would know better than to put her in harm's way because they need the money. If we play our part right, we can get your daughter back."

"And if they don't?" Melanie's voice was slightly hysterical. "If they don't know better? What if she's already dead? How do we know she's not-"

"Nothing is for certain at this point." Richard cut across her calmly. "The truth is, we don't know. We don't know anything right now, which is why it is so fundamental to the situation that we remain calm. I have my best men working on this. As soon as Daphne's kidnappers make contact, we will move in. I know this is a very scary situation-"

"You have no goddamn idea what it's like!" Frank said angrily. 

"You're right." Richard agreed. "I am very sorry for what has happened. Mr. Evers, I give you my word that I will find your daughter and bring her back. Please, just stay calm. We are doing all we can. Her kidnappers will make contact very soon. A situation like this needs to be handled with care. Once they ask for the money, we will be able to track the location."

As the conversation turned to more false assurances from the government detectives, with Melanie becoming more and more hysterical and Frank silently building himself into panic, Richard Lincoln stared down at one of the many images of a smiling Daphne Evers scattered on the marble countertop. Numerous copies had been made and sent to different government organizations and tracker cops already, but the picture was still breathtaking every time Richard laid his eyes on it. He gazed down at the image, his ice blue eyes carefully memorizing every inch of her perfection. Ice blue eyes with the left one holding a patch of brown near the iris. 

Her beauty didn't compare.