Gaia
Iopened my eyes when a splash of water hit my face. The room was dim. I tried to move my hands, but they were confined painfully behind my back. I was lying on a carpeted floor, my ankles also bound. My vision cleared, and I realized I was in my father's office. My mouth was filled with some sort of material. I viewed the world sideways from the angle I was lying, seeing my father sitting in his chair, a gun in his hand, resting on his knee.
“Up so soon, princess?”
I tried to say something, but it just came out muffled. The door opened, and a guard dragged Gabriel in. He was hurt, he had one black eye. I tried to move toward him using my shoulders, my eyes pleading with him, apologizing for what I’d gotten him into. Sure, Gabe had made the decision to stay and work for Arthur, but I’d become involved with the man, causing us to be sent home. Charles stood, pulling the hood of my jacket until I was in a sitting position. Then he removed the gag from my mouth. “Gabe!” I shouted, earning me a slap across the face.
“You will speak when you are spoken to.”
I nodded, looking at my brother whose head was hung low. The guard pulled up a chair and placed Gabe in it.
“So, you two heroes thought you’d help get me ambushed, did you?”
“That wasn't-”
“Did I ask you to speak?” He growled, kicking me in the stomach so hard I curled. “You will listen, and you will answer only when asked to.”
I looked at my brother who was tied to the chair His eyes were rolling back, and he had a blank look on his face. They’d drugged him. Oh, Gabe. I am so sorry.
“What is Arthur’s plan?”
“I don’t know.” That earned me a punch to the head so hard I saw a flash of light on the inside of my eye.
“If you aren’t going to tell the truth, I am going to have to hurt Gabe, and you wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“Char-Father,” I corrected, hoping to at least use his paternal position against him. “I do not know anything. They held me captive in a mansion, here in New Orleans. They kept me in a guest suite. I did not see any men meeting or anything like that. I only saw that he had guards, like you do.”
I didn’t mention the dungeon or the room with the thirteen-seat, round table. I didn’t mention the cells, though for the life of me, I could not understand why. And when the guard stood in front of my brother and shot him in the leg, I wished I’d said it all. Guttural screams fell from my lips as I fell on the floor staring at the blood oozing from the wound, Gabe’s vacant eyes staring back at me. “Gabe!” I yelled, not caring how much they hurt me. Gabe’s head drooped, swinging back and forth. At least he didn’t seem to feel the pain.
“We’ll shoot his brains out next. I want you to call your boyfriend, and tell him to come to get you. Not his men. He has to come to get you himself.”
I nodded, and he untied my hands, handing me a phone.
He dialed Arthur’s number, and handed the phone to me. A numbness overcame me. Arthur didn’t love me. He would not be storming in here to save me. But my brother's life hung in the balance, so I did as I was told.
