The Oval Office ✓ (Book One)

Chapter Five

                                 Lauren's P.O.V

  James got me across the border and put me on a plane to wherever the hell I am right now. I still can't believe it, James of all people. The same guy who took multiple bullets for me at the Vice Presidents inauguration. The same one  who shielded me with his own body, and asked me if I was okay afterwards as his arms and chest were dripping blood. The one who was stayed outside of my door while I was in the hospital again after losing the baby out of stress.

  There's got to be something more to his betrayal, I refuse to believe otherwise. A masked man comes to bring me lunch, but I haven't even touched my breakfast. It smells in here, and I lost my appetite the second my senior security agent handed me over to terrorists. The water from the tap in the wall tastes like dirt, but they claim it is safe to drink. Normally I wouldn't take my chances but I don't have much of a choice if I want to stay alive.

"You have to eat." The masked man utters the first words I've heard him say.

"The human body can survive up to two months without food." I stare at him right where I think his eyes would be.

"Eat, now. We have bigger plans for you than starvation, Ms. Wells." He chuckles.

"The come in here and make me." I say,taunting. If he's dumb enough to do it,he's got another thing coming. Never mind that he's about a hundred pounds heavier and two feet taller than me- I worked for the FBI for ten years.

  "You really are as stupid as James says you are." He presses something on a device I've seen him use a couple of times, and I feel a sharp, searing pain on my shoulder. Tiny,  round, plastic bullets- enough to cause severe pain and bleeding but no real damage. I stare at him again as I dig the bullet out of my skin with two fingers, and can almost hear him vomiting under the mask, but I feel nothing.

  Then there's two more. "Eat." He repeats.

  "Fuck you." I fake smile, innocently batting my eyes.

  "Alright- I guess we're gonna do this the hard way. Just remember, it was your choice." 

———20 years ago———

  "I'm just saying, you're both so young- why not wait a couple of years? I mean, he won the school board election at seventeen, I don't think that's even legal-"

  "Yeah well, you decided to wait until my wedding day to bring that up so your opinion is no longer valid." I angrily sit back. "And it is completely legal in New York."

  "It's a little suspicious. That's all."

  "What the fuck is suspicious? Him winning the vote because he's a genius? Or him caring about me more than you ever have?"

  "Lauren-"

  "No- just... get out." I bury my face in my hands- she never thinks that anything is good enough. I could be the president and she still wouldn't be happy for me.

  "Family drama?" I hear Kyle's voice in the doorway just as my mother is storming out.

  "She's impossible-" I shake my head. "I just.. I can't deal with her anymore."

  "She just wants the best for you-is that so bad?" He places a kiss on my forehead.

  "No, it's not that. I could be the dictator of an empire and she'd still say I should try harder."

  "Well-" he says. "I think you're perfect."
——-

"Kyle Wells,  from the moment I met you I knew you would be my one true best friend. I promise to be there and love you unconditionally through the good times and the bad. I will be there forever to laugh with you- even at the corny dad jokes ,and to lift you up when you are down, because there's nobody I would rather spend the rest of my life with."

  "Lauren Snipes, As I stand here before you, looking into your eyes, I see all of the things I fell in love with. As I stand here before you, I find myself lost for the right words to say, but I am reminded of how complete you've made my life. How you brought me out of a deep depression and motivated me to start taking care of myself, because I never wanted to end up in a ditch somewhere and leave you alone. But through every hard time we've had, you were right there beside me. I give you everything I am today as I stand in front of you, the good and the bad.  I promise to love and protect you- and god, I love you. I promise to be with you for all of eternity, til death do us part."

—-

My nostrils are still burning from the tube they shoved down it. If they don't want me dead- then what the hell am I doing here? If they're trying to use me as some sort of leverage- I know Kyle, he won't agree to anything unless he knows I'm alive, which currently is not the case. Last night they played loud, heavy music so I couldn't sleep, and now, during the day, I can hear the distant screams of a man. I don't want to imagine what they're doing to him- if they're going to do it to me next.

I'm going to survive this. I won't allow anything less. "Get up-" One of the individuals guarding me says. "Your presence is needed in communication."

"Over my dead body."

"We can arrange for that to happen in forty eight days if both you and your husband do not cooperate with our demands. Might as well take him out to while we're at it." Alright. Maybe I don't have a choice but to play by their rules. My hands are cuffed- but I know how to get out of them. My legs are free so that I could run, but they are heavily armed and I have no idea where I am.

"Do whatever you have to do to survive." Kyle told me once. I take a deep breath and follow the guards, two more behind me. I might have been able to take two out- but four is out of the question. This place has basement vibes, cameras everywhere- and is probably only accessible by some sort of code. If I could just speak to James, get in his head enough to make him spill it, maybe-just maybe i would have a chance of escaping then.

A guard pull my arm and shoves me into a room with three familiar faces, forcing me to sit down in the only empty seat left. The other two are filled with twenty five year of Princess Ariyah, and the Canadian prime minister's thirteen year old son. He looks the worst out of all of us- large bruises and cuts all over his body, a split lip and missing teeth, he can't be still, almost as if they used electric shock on him.

"Amber-" I try to talk to him before I'm interrupted.

"No talking!!" A guard hits me with a baton. "Lauren- you will read this script word for word or you will look like  him in an hour." He gestures to Amber." You u two will sit there and shut up."

  He plasters it on the wall directly beside a camera, and my facial expression changes as I read it. "Remember Lauren, word for word." He smirks. "Ready, set Action!!"