Taken

Chapter 31

RIKKI

 October 16, 2013 5:55 p.m.

 “Finally, we’re done,” I said, flopping down on an expensive-looking leather couch in the men’s living room.

 “Yeah, I’m exhausted,” Kelsi chimed in as she flopped down next to me.

 “Hey, look at that,” I said, pointing to a Miami Flames-themed clock. “We finished with five minutes to spare.”

 “Wow, we really cut that close,” commented Kelsi. Right on cue, Carlos and Troy entered the house.

 “Wow, the house actually looks clean for once, huh, Troy?” said Carlos as he nudged Troy.

 “Yeah, you girls did a nice job,” Troy affirmed as he smiled at me. Man, he was attractive when he smiled with those white teeth.

 “Thanks,” I replied sarcastically.

 “My, aren’t we sassy?” laughed Troy as he walked up closer to me. I kept my arms crossed and stood my ground.

 “My, aren’t we a little close?” I mimicked.

 “You’ve got an interesting sense of humor, Roberts. Anyway, my dad’s off running errands, so he left Carlos and me in charge of you guys. What do you want to do?” asked Troy.

 “Is this some kind of trap?” I asked, not sure of what the guys were going to do.

 “Nope. Right, Carlos?”

 “Right. We think that Jeff’s been a little hard on you, so since he’s gonna be gone for a month, we decided to move you in here so it’s like you’re at home,” explained Carlos.

 “Why don’t you just let us go home?” Kelsi asked.

 “Jeff would kick our butts,” said Carlos seriously.

 “Jeff’s old, what chance does he have against two buff basketball players?” I asked.

 “He’s got guns. Lots of guns,” stated Carlos.

 “Sure,” I said, not convinced. “Why are you doing this, I thought you hated us?”

 “Naw, we act all tough in front of Jeff, but we actually like you girls,” said Carlos like he wasn’t an evil person keeping four kids hostage.

 “What about the guys?” I asked, glancing at Troy. “Oh wait, never mind.”

 “So anyway, what do you guys want to do?” asked Troy again.

 “Honestly, I just want to be back with Kade,” I admitted.

 Troy glared at me while Carlos said, “That’s not an option. How about we watch a movie? How does The Hunger Games sound?”

 “Sure!” replied Kelsi excitedly. She went over and sat on one end of the leather couch. I sat next to her and then Troy came and sat next to me.

 “What do you think you’re doing?” I asked Troy.

 “My house, my couch,” he replied simply. Carlos put the movie in and went to sit down in a leather chair all by himself.

 Throughout the movie, I couldn’t concentrate on it. I kept glancing out the living room window to look at the bunkhouse. I saw something move to the bunkhouse window. It was Kade. Kade looked out the window of the bunkhouse into the living room of the house. He smiled sadly at me and waved. I smiled back the same way and waved. Troy saw what I was looking at, got up, and went and shut the blinds on the window.

 “What the heck!” I yelled. “What was that for?”

 “You don’t need to see him right now. It’s not important,” Troy replied, looking at the flat screen T.V.

 “Um, he’s my boyfriend. I think I should be allowed to see him.”

 “No, now watch the movie or else I’ll shove you back in the basement.”

 I sat back down next to Kelsi, defeated. I finally got into the movie, and all of a sudden, I felt something touch my shoulders. I looked behind me and saw that Troy had put his arm around me.

 “Oh, no you don’t,” I said and threw Kade’s arm back down to his side.

 “What was that for?” asked Troy.

 “I don’t like you, and I have a boyfriend,” I explained slowly, like I was talking to a child.

 “Would you two just shut up already?” hissed Carlos.

 “Yeah, it’s really annoying,” agreed Kelsi. Troy and I both shut up after that. When the movie was over, Kelsi and I started to head back down to the basement, but Carlos stopped us.

 “You guys can sleep in the guest room, if you want,” he said, pointing in the direction of the room. “It’s the second door on the right. The bathroom is the first door on the right, and Troy’s and my bedrooms are across the hall. Holler if you need anything.”

 “Aren’t we supposed to be your hostages and not get any privileges?” I asked.

 “Well, we aren’t like other kidnappers,” replied Troy with a smirk. I rolled my eyes at him and went into the bedroom with Kelsi behind me.

 “Wow, this place is huge!” exclaimed Kelsi. She was right. The room was huge. It had a king-sized bed against one wall. There was a dark wooden dresser and desk across from the bed, and on the other side of the room there was a huge walk-in closet with no clothes in it.

 “Yeah, it is,” I agreed. “Well, I’m going to bed. ‘Night.”

 “Good night, Rikki,” Kelsi replied as she crawled into bed with me. “Rikki?”

 “Yes, Kelsi?”

 “What do you think about all of this?”

 “Well, I’m not sure, but I know that I don’t trust those guys, especially Troy. I think this is some big scheme, but I don’t know what the point of it is. I also don’t think that Carlos is really a nice guy. He just seemed like he was an awful person when he was still playing basketball. Let’s just try get some sleep, and we can figure it out in the morning.”

 “Okay, good night.”

“Good night.”