As he watched her closely, he could see her chest rising and falling quickly. With her breath that shallow, her lungs must be slowly filling with blood. He was not sure how much longer she would last. The blonde next to her began to stir. Great, just what he needed. He only hoped that she would not freak out and draw attention to them.
Sophie slowly regained her consciousness and tried to sit up. A sharp p ain ran through her head, causing her vision to blur again and lie back down. Adrian moved over to her, rolled up a towel and slid it under her head. “Be careful and stay calm. We cannot draw any attention to ourselves right now. Do you know where you are?”
“ Ughh….What happened? Why does my head hurt so much?” Sophie asked weakly.
“You are in Rome at the hotel. We have all been taken hostage, do you remember that?” Adrian asked calmly.
Sophie winced in pain as she forced herself to sit up. As she looked around the small space, a look of recognition came across her face . “Oh, that spoiled little witch! Where is she? I am going to….”
Adrian reached out, putting his hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “Shut up! Do you want to get us killed? Do not worry about Miranda. She is not here right now. The only thing you need to worry about is keeping quiet and staying alive.”
With the shocked look on Sophie’s face, Adrian would have thought that he struck her. Regardless, it worked and Sophie lowered her voice calmly. “I…I am … sorry. It has just been a rough day and I was not expecting to be punched in the face.”
A drian almost felt sorry for her until he remembered that she deserved to be put in her place. It was women like her that ignored him his entire life and just when he meets someone interesting they try and mess it up for him. Adrian realized that his hand was still on Sophie’s shoulder and recoiled. Outside the door, he heard footsteps and some muffled voices speaking in a foreign language. In a sudden panic, Adrian jumped to his feet, looked around for a way to distract the men if they were to enter into the room.
The door knob slowly turned and Adrian was out of options. If he did not think of something quick, they would notice that Miranda was not in the room. Adrian grabbed as many towels as he could and threw them in a pile. Just as the door opened, he threw a sheet over himself and the pile of towels, his back to the door. “It will be ok.” Adrian started to say and rocked back and forth. An Italian man poked his head around the door and quickly scanned the room.
“Keep it quiet in here and stay calm. We will bring some food and water soon.” Armando shut the door and continued on his rounds.
Adrian threw the sheet back with a sigh of relief. Sophie looked at him with surprise, “I cannot believe that worked. Where is that girl…..Miranda, you called her?”
“She went throw the air vent.” Adrian pointed to the air vent above the shelves.
“Impossible. That is too small for a person.”
“That is what I thought too, but she made it in and hopefully can get us some help.”
Chapter Nineteen
Miranda made her way through the vent slowly. At first, she started to get claustrophobic. The confined space was too much for her to handle. She closed her eyes and thought about Adrian. He was counting on her to come through. It took her twenty minutes of snaking her way through several turns before she ended up at a grate in another room. She peered inside to see another group of hostages huddled together in a corner. She waited for a couple minutes to see if they were alone.
When she did not see anyone guarding them, she called out, “Hey, up here! In the vent!”
One of them looked up just as the door opened. Armando walked in, looking around. Apparently, he was still making his rounds. Miranda slowly moved back away from the grate in case he looked up. He muttered something that was too quiet for her to hear and then he was gone again. She remained still for
Marian Tee
Tori Kiss
Veronica Henry
Lynda La Plante
D. H. Sidebottom
Sue Margolis
Randall Wallace
Roman Gitlarz
MAGGIE SHAYNE
Randy Wayne White