Beyond Duties

Chapter 19

A/N

I am back!!! :-)
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Here's the much awaited continuation of Jordan and Vee's adventures...

Enjoy!!!

^_^

*****

Vee gained her consciousness back when one of the men poured cold water on her head. She instantly tried freeing herself again when she realized that she was tied against a chair, but the ropes were too tight and her arms ached with every move she made since they were stretched behind her. She also tried moving her legs which were spread apart, and the pain on her knees made her notice that she got a nasty cut. Fresh tears spilled from her eyes as the men noisily chattered in the room. 

Looking around, she knew that they were in one of the offices of the left wing. She noticed a huge world map behind the main desk where a pair was studying a leather-bound book. There were two others who were rummaging through cabinets, another one was a few meters away from Vee, and the last one was standing close to another desk where a familiar-looking backpack lay dismantled. Vee recognized it as her travelling bag where all her important documents were kept. She instantly knew that the men have been trying to look for anything useful which was related to the clue-finding mission she started with Jordan. 

"Your code to the mobile phone, princess?" The leader approached her with menacing eyes. She shook her head, not willing to give anything away. She didn't expect the hard slap which she received from the man, but she tried not to show that she got scared.

"You give me the code, or I take away some of your clothes..." He drew out a sharp knife and started cutting on the waistline of Vee's pants. Not getting any reaction from her, he furiously ripped the front part of Vee's pants off, exposing her skin and underwear. He felt pleased when Vee started crying again, and tried pressing her legs together. Knowing that she would likely cooperate, he removed the duct tape from her mouth.

"My... right index finger..." Vee said in between sobs. She cringed as the man chuckled and gave her a wet kiss on the cheek. She felt him loosen the rope which tied her hands together to expose her index finger. She tried to twist her wrist to make room for her other fingers, as she felt the man thrust the mobile phone closer for her to touch the fingerprint scanner. Upon grasping her phone, she did her best to hurl it away in the hopes of breaking it to pieces. Thanking her stubbornness for not using protective casing for her phone, she heard it crash somewhere against the wall and split in half. 

Realizing what Vee planned all along, the man angrily hurled her with the chair against the glass window. Broken glass fell on Vee and injured her, adding to the heavy rain which met her skin after being thrown out of the room. 

Apparently, heavy rains had started pouring as the storm landed. Bolts of lightning hit the high ground and gave the castle's surroundings an eerie view. Claps of thunder followed, reverberating through the halls. At first, Vee thought that the men would let her be soaked outside, but as the leader regained his composure, he pulled the chair back inside the room and talked to her again.

"Do you realize that it is pointless to resist?" He spat, his face contorting in suppressed anger. "I can easily throw you out and let the ocean swallow you, which I am sure you would prefer... But no, my princess... You are not dying that easily..."

Without the glass windows to block the noise from the outside, the room was filled with loud whistles of the strong wind and heavy rainfall. The irregular wind gust also made the huge map flap uncontrollably, and all light materials in the room got scattered. The men tried recovering most of the items which got blown off, but eventually gave up and decided to move to another room instead.

The noise coming from the outside was slightly blocked by the thick walls of the room, but the frustrated conversation among her captors kept Vee alert. While her stinging wounds and bloodshot eyes were screaming in pain and made her want to recoil, she tried to stay focused on what the men were talking about. She realized that they were trying to figure out how to move on with only the information they have and without the need to rely on her. It alarmed her a bit, knowing that if the men decided that they wouldn't need her, she might end up dead.

Adjusting her body to be in a less contorted position, Vee realized that one of the chair's feet got broken when she was hurled away earlier. She moved discreetly, trying to gauge whether another sudden movement could free her limbs.

You messed up with the wrong bitch, she mentally slapped the men's faces as her fingers slowly fumbled for the shard of glass which she tucked behind the ropes that held her wrists. She took it from when she got hurled outside the other room several minutes ago. The skin of her fingertips got cut in the process, but her plan of using it to sever the thick knot slowly worked.

Vee was getting a bit frustrated with her slow progress that seemed to have been several hours ago - she wasn't sure. The men had decided to leave her and go to the kitchen to get some lunch, and one of them had already finished and gone back to watch over her.

"What are you thinking about, Yates?" The man asked. "Trying to cook up some ways to escape?"

Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Vee simply stared at the man. She tried to keep her cool by asking for his name.

"Winston," the man replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Is it bad to know my captors' names?" Vee retorted. "I don't think you would want to go nameless when the police finally catches you." She smiled innocently which she hoped would irk the man - and she was successful.

It only took Winston four wide strides to reach Vee's chair, and he angrily grabbed a fistful of the latter's hair. He pulled her head back and forced her to look into his eyes.

"Dream all you want, princess," he spat. "Authorities can't touch us. They don't even know we exist. They will see our doing, but they will never know who we are."

Winston's words made Vee wonder what kind of people she was dealing with, and how her family and Jordan's ended up crossing paths with them. She put her worries aside, though. For now, she wanted to be able to get out of her situation and seek help from anyone. From Jordan.

While faking a frightened expression, Vee watched as Winston's face brightened up. He obviously had his guard down, seeing how scared she was. And that moment was what she was waiting for.

Gathering all her strength, Vee yanked her arms from the severed ropes which confined her, and jabbed the shard of glass she was clutching onto Winston's exposed forearm. The latter yelled in surprise and pain, staggering away from Vee.

Finally free to move her arms, Vee used the same shard of glass to hurriedly cut through the ropes tying her feet. Just as she was almost done, her peripheral vision warned her that Winston was angrily charging at her. Thinking on her toes, she hurled the chair which held her prisoner and smashed it against the man's head. Before the latter could recover, Vee quickly ran towards the exit and headed to the castle's main doors.

She barely reached the hallway leading to the staircase when a strong arm snatched her and half-dragged her into a room. Too surprised to react, Vee only regained her composure when she felt her feet flat on the floor again, and her instinct told her to attack. Trying to remember her rusty self-defense knowledge, she formed a fist and aimed at the spot where her new captor's face was supposed to be.

"Whoa!"

Vee frowned as she missed, and tried to attack again with a kick. She felt alarmed when her leg got caught and the next thing she knew, she was already trapped in between the wall and a strong man's body. Her face was gently cupped in the hands of the man which she realized was Jordan.

***
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Lovelots,
liquidfiredragon