The Price of Love

◆ 10 ◆

When I awoke, something small and shockingly white was in my face. In my drowsy state, I thought it was a penis. Panicked, I slapped wildly at it and heard a distant "ow!" come from in front of me. As I slowly regained my consciousness, I saw that Phoenix had a penlight trained on my eyes.

Wincing, Phoenix moved away and took a seat. With a little scream, I sat up too and noticed the state I was in. Slumped over in my loss of conscious, an ache had taken home on my neck. We were still in a car. A car that was moving. A car that, as I began to remember the events before the blackness spread, was heading for Portland, Oregon, which seemed like the farthest thing from New York City at the moment. The farthest thing from home, which was where I was supposed to be.

"What's going on? Where are we?" I grappled around like a madman until I latched onto something, which unfortunately happened to be Tommy's face. Holding his cheeks, I pulled his face to mine. "Tommy, tell me what's going on right now or I swear on my mother's Swarovski crystal collection that I will open that car door and forcefully push you out-"

"Daphne!" He whisper-yelled. Tommy took my hands off his face and clasped them in his own. "Relax, okay? You've been asleep for a while now. We're already in Oregon. You were out for most of it, including the plane ride here. Calm down. Everything is perfectly fine-"

"Except for the fact that you are holding me hostage, Tommy-"

"Okay, that's not very fine, I agree." He whispered. "What's also not fine is that you assaulted a crime lord with your own two hands, which look pretty worse for wear. What's your mother going to say when she sees these bloody knuckles, Daphne?"

He held them up to make his point, and even I could wince at the bruises. "She's going to say I did a damn good job defending myself and that yes, five years of self-defense classes was worth the money."

"How good, considering you got knocked out?" 

I fell silent right there and then. Tommy went on, staring at me. He was still speaking in a barely audible voice. "Daphne, you need to get a grip on yourself. I understand that you are going through a lot of heat right now. We all know that. But attacking Caius isn't going to make anything better. He's just going to be more angry now, and that makes him dangerous. Daphne, he will kill you if you keep this up. If he could look into your father's eyes and lie straight through his teeth, he is capable of anything. We are going to Portland whether you like it or not."

"So let me get this straight." I took a moment to look at all three of them, already having taken note of the fact that Caius was nowhere to be seen. "Caius Kennedy is the lead investigator for the Feds handling this situation, which means he has contact with my parents. And considering he was the one that arranged for my abduction, he will do everything in his power to defer the investigators from finding me. He has said nothing of my release or about why he's doing this. And I have a feeling that Caius is not going to let me walk away when I know his identity and all of yours too. And we are going to Portland for what exactly?"

"You have it pretty straight so far, unfortunately." Lee said, also whispering for whatever strange reason.

"We don't know why Caius needs you in Portland." Phoenix added, joining in to the whispering party that I was apparently not invited to. "He didn't say anything. He didn't tell us, which kinda makes me mad because he expects us to follow his orders without knowing why we are following the orders. But he also has access to the United States federal arsenal, so I won't insult him."

"What a guy." I muttered. "Did he tell you why he needs me? I'd just like to know why, that's all. Caius could have abducted anyone. How many billionaires live in America? Why did he target me specifically? Is it something that my father did?"