Chapter 116

**Blue**


After Tet spoke with Artemis and knocked me around a bit he covered my eyes with something and used tape on my wrists, feet and mouth. I’m not sure how long we drive for but the bumps we go over send shocks of pain from my incision throughout my body. Tet’s phone rings several times before he answers and although I can’t hear what the person on the other line is saying, they’re yelling loud enough that I can hear the muffled sound of their voice. They sound pissed.

“I did what I had to! It’s not like you were doing anything to fix this mess.” He yells before going silent again. “Please you’re glad I’m taking care of the bitch. I told you I can handle this, so stop questioning my methods. Arty would give me anything I ask for to get this girl back. Now you work on your end of things and stop worrying about me.”

I don’t hear him talk anymore for several minutes so I’m guessing his phone call is over.

Who was he talking to? If I had to guess it was probably his dad. Is he and Mrs. Rhodes in on this plan or did Tet go off on his own with this?

The car finally slows down to a stop and the engine dies followed by the sound of one of the doors opening. It goes silent and for a second I think maybe he decided to leave me here and ditch the car, but then rough hands are grabbing me and pulling me out. My feet feel numb from being tied so tightly together and the fact he didn’t cut the tape makes me trip and when he tries to stand me up. Did he really think I would be able to walk with my legs taped together?

He isn’t a pro at this obviously or he’s too paranoid for his own good. Eventually he seems to get the idea and I feel the restraints on my ankles loosen and I’m finally free of them. He pulls me up on my feet again and this time I’m able to stay standing. I’m in a lot of pain but the urge to run away is far stronger. The only problem is the fabric covering my eyes. I can’t take off running when I have no idea where I’m going. So for now I let him pull me along.

We stop at some point and I hear the sound of beeps like maybe from a keypad. Are we at his house? He pulls me forward again and the scent around me makes me throw out the idea that we are at a house. It smells like wood and burning rubber. Where the hell are we?

He drags me further and I heard the sound of him opening another door. I’m thrown into a chair next and he ti3s my legs together again. Once that’s done, he finally removes my eye coverings. There isn’t much light here so I can barley make out his face other than the sliver that the light is shining on. He looks at me for a minute before pulling another chair over and setting it in front of me.

“How did you get my brother to fall for you? All those other women were far hotter than you and had more to offer. What exactly do you offer my brother? Are you good in bed, is that why he picked you? You obviously have a magic uterus to be able to give my brother three kids in one go. What I don’t get is why you bothered to adopt that crippled girl. Was that a publicity stunt? I mean you could have just given her a fancy wheelchair and be done with it, but no you adopted her. You know she wouldn’t fulfill the conditions of Artemis’s inheritance so why would he agree to it?”

It doesn’t seem like he wants me to answer any of these questions sine he still has my mouth taped. So I glare at him instead. That only makes him laugh.

“Well get comfortable because until Artemis agrees to give me the money I asked for you’ll be here for a while. Can I get you anything? Food? Water? No? Good. I’ll leave you to it then.” He stands and strolls out of the room with all the cockiness in the world.

Once he’s gone I glance around the room and from the few items scattered around it looks like it was once an office. The condition of it makes me think no one has been here in a long time. Even the chair I’m sitting on has had better days. I try to adjust myself in the chair so that I’m sitting up straight but the movement hurts like crazy. The pain meds I was on must be starting to wear off which means soon I’m going to be in a lot more pain. I need to find a way out of here and figure out how to get help!

First things first…how can I get duct tape off me?

I try to think back to all those times Bucky would rattle off lessons about be captured and held hostage. As much as I liked him sometimes I zoned out, but there was a couple of things I can remember. A lot of it involved ropes instead of tape but there was something…

He told me to use my body as a wedge. That doesn’t make much sense until I pull my taped hands back toward my chest. My arms spread apart and I feel some tension. If I pull my hands hard enough toward my body maybe the force with break the tape.

This is going to hurt…

I hold my hands in front of me and pull them into fists then pull them hard toward my chest. The heels of my hands slam into my chest hard enough to make me cough. It takes a second for me to catch my breath and then I use my hands to push myself off the chair and attempt to stand. I wobble for a while but eventually I am stable enough to stay standing. My last attempt at getting free hurt but I’m not about to stop now. I bend down in sort of a squat position and as with my hands I feel a good pull.

So I bend down quicker and squat hard. Just like with my hands the tape rips apart. I bite back the pain but I stumble to my hands and knees. The pain is excruciating now which is not ideal since I did all this so I can run, but I might not get far. I suck in a few deep breaths and push through the pain until I’m on my feet again. My head swims but I ignore the dizziness and walk toward the door. I haven’t heard anything since Tet moved me in here, but I doubt he left all together. Just to be safe I open the door slowly and peek out. Just outside of the office is a metal platform that runs along this side and the other side of the very large room.

In between is a huge open space, it’s a warehouse! Tet could be anywhere but since I don’t see any sorts of guards I’m assuming he didn’t think he’d need them. From what I can tell, I can get out of here easy. I don’t wait for doubt to creep in and I take off down the platform toward the stairs that lead to the main floor. I’m still in a great deal of pain but I think the adrenaline I’m feeling is helping to dull the pain. Focusing my strength on running I quietly run toward one of the doors I spotted. I can’t say for sure that it will lead me outside but I’ll take the chance.

The sound of a slamming door echoes through the huge building and almost feels like an earthquake inside of me shaking all my hope and confidence loose. What if Tet sees I’m gone? Maybe he has guys somewhere else that I can’t see and ready to grab me before I can get out. I don’t stop but I take a little extra time hiking every few steps against a random item and listening. It’s too quiet and it’s making me even more anxious. My heart is racing and my whole body starts to feel warm to the point I can feel beads of sweat rolling down my back. Who turned the heat up?

I run closer to the door and feel something warm running down my leg. There’s no time for me to check and see what it is so I keep on moving. When I finally reach the door and try to open it, a loud blaring alarm starts to go off. We’ll if Tet didn’t know I was gone before he knows now, so no point in trying to sneak around. I pull the door the rest of the way open and take off.