SO I ALMOST MARRIED A HIT MAN
By Greg Emerson
thedistresser1963@yahoo.com
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
A log had more life than I did that night. I slept all the way through, like the dead.
The next thing I knew, it was 6:30 in the morning-Travis's waking up time.
If Brick did any tossing and turning, I sure didn't feel it-and he's a huge man.
Travis nudged me awake, as he did the day before.
I turned onto my back, blinked, and made out his shadowy form. The drapes were pulled shut and so there wasn't any exterior light to speak of, flowing into the room.
"Mmmmmm?" I said, still sleepy.
"If you need to use the bathroom, now's a good time. I'm taking a shower soon," Travis said, huskily.
I slowly nodded, trying to blink the Sandman out of my bleary eyes.
I felt good, though-I got about six hours of straight sleep.
Travis pulled the covers away from me and sliced my wrists and ankles free. As usual, he made no move to nor showed no interest in ungagging me.
I was a little sad but certainly not surprised. I'd been gagged pretty much the whole time since Friday at 6:00 p.m., and it was now Sunday at 6:30 a.m.
I'll do the math for you: I'd been gagged for probably 34 of the past 36 hours.
But that was too depressing to dwell on, so I marched to the bathroom.
This was the morning when Travis had agreed to let me call my mom regarding Jeremy's birthday party.
Last night, the idea of calling her while being held captive seemed desirable. But now, I wasn't so sure.
What if I gave myself away? What if mom gave me a hard time? What if Travis disapproved of something I said?
But that phone call was still several hours away.
"Sit," Travis said, pointing to the chair.
Brick was stirring.
Sighing, I sat.
I looked up at him, almost defying him to tape me up again.
"You hungry? Or is it too early?"
Oh, good-he wasn't thinking tape, at least not yet.
I shrugged. I could eat, but I wasn't famished.
Folding my arms across my chest, I then nodded. My toes dug into the carpet once again.
"I'll get Brick to pick us up some breakfast. Hey SLEEPY HEAD!" Travis called to Brick before tossing a pillow at his head.
I almost giggled as Brick reacted by nearly jumping out of his skin.
Brick cursed at Travis and scrambled out of bed. He caught a glance of me sitting in the chair and-get this-he actually TALKED to me!
Woo hoo!
"How did you sleep?" he said, mindful of keeping his questions of me to the yes or no variety because I couldn't offer a spoken reply.
I was so enamored of him being kind enough to ask that I didn't answer.
"Well? How did you sleep?"
I nodded eagerly, trying to smile but the gag prevented it.
Brick padded to the bathroom.
Travis had the nerve to be jealous.
"You like that, huh? Asking you how you slept?" Travis said, sardonically.
I looked at him, furrowed my brow, then narrowed my eyes. I'd have told him that yes, he could pick up some pointers from Brick on how to treat a woman. But, as with everything else I wanted to say, the words would go unrealized.
Travis said, "Get over yourself. He's not THAT interested. It was a throwaway remark."
I was amused that Travis found Brick's courteous question relevant enough to laboriously talk about it. Me thinks he doth protest too much!
Travis told Brick what to fetch for breakfast. It was going to be another long day. I was dreading the phone call to my mother.
I sat, gagged but unbound, as the men slowly and tiredly, between yawns, unpacked some of their equipment. They didn't so much set it up as they arranged it approximately where they wanted it to go. No wires were connected at this point.
As usual, they paid precious little attention to me. I was wondering now why Travis and Brick bothered to take me with them. If they were afraid I'd tell the police, they could have gotten a several day head start, most likely, by leaving me bound and gagged, because Travis was doing his level best to feign my illness via Facebook and e-mail.
But I was hauled with them, like so much of their other cargo, and now I sat in the chair, my knees bunched up to my chin, feet on the seat, waiting for them to spare me some of their time.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Brick was gone now, in search of breakfast. It was just Travis and me. The time was approximately 7:45 a.m.
He had kept me unbound, but the tape was still tightly over my mouth. It had been there so long-since 10:00 or so last night, that it was beginning to feel like another layer of skin to me. My lips were glued shut, and the tape wasn't losing any of its adhesive strength. I should know-I tried several times to pry my lips apart and it wasn't happening.
Travis pulled up a chair, turned it backwards, and sat in it. That was another pet peeve of mine that men do: sit backwards in chairs.
Hey, guys, take it from a girl-it doesn't make you look cool, OK?
"How you holding up?" he said, tilting his head and looking at me. No doubt he thought he was coming off as sincere and genuinely interested.
This was insane. Travis was the one keeping me prisoner, and he was asking me these questions as if someone else was perpetrating these acts on me.
I didn't give him the courtesy of a reply. Two can play the rude game!
He smirked. Travis liked a challenge.
I stared at him.
He stared back.
"You hate me, don't you?"
I stared at him.
Travis shifted in his chair and tried again to engage me.
"We couldn't leave you behind," he said, and now I was interested.
I tilted my head. "Mmmmm?"
"First, you'd have called the cops."
I shrugged and then nodded slightly.
"Second…"
What was number two? Travis was hesitating to tell me.
My eyes narrowed and I made an urgent sound, encouraging him to expound.
"NNNNGH!"
He sighed and said, "Second, and I know this might be a long shot…"
Oh, for God's sake! Just SAY it!
"MMMM?"
"…but I thought that it would be nice to have you around in case we ever found a need for you that could help us out."
I was stunned.
Travis hadn't shown one ounce of interest in letting me assist him thus far; now he was admitting that one reason Brick and he kidnapped me was that I just might be kinda, sorta valuable to them later on?
I literally didn't know how to react to this revelation. Robbed of speech, all my questions went unasked. All my pointed remarks would merely be played out in my head, not audibly in the room.
But I had to react somehow, because this was a big revelation.
So I said, "Why all of a sudden now?"
It came out, "Wummm awwmm umm a ummem awm?"
Travis ignored my gagged words and pressed on.
"With Battey on the move, our operation changes now from one of surveillance and action to more pursuit and action" Travis said, and while I wasn't totally sure what that meant, I'm certain somewhere in there it meant that I would be their prisoner indefinitely, until Travis saw this mission through.
I nodded, but not because I understood; I nodded because I was thinking, "Great! Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse! Perfect!"
Yes, that was sarcasm dripping.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
I sighed. Travis, for whatever reason, was getting off on these one-way conversations. This was clearly stuff that should have been discussed between the two parties, not dictated sans reply.
I narrowed my eyes at him; he knew darn well that I had loads to say about all this-what girl wouldn't-and he simply wasn't going to allow it.
Brick broke the silence by popping through the door, food in tow.
It didn't take long for the delightful aroma of breakfast to seep through its paper bag prison.
I smelled eggs and bacon (!) and toast and, above all, coffee.
I'm a coffee girl. I could make a pot at midnight and not think twice. I long ago became immune to caffeine's "upper" properties.
Brick set the bags of food on the table before me. They were plain brown bags so I didn't know where he went to secure us the vittles.
Who cares? I was going to eat and I was finally going to get this duct tape off my mouth, where it'd been residing for damn near 12 hours.
I watched as the food was lifted from the bags, in their Styrofoam containers. I think my stomach actually said, "Feed me!"
I settled properly in the chair, and looked at Travis, pointing to my gag.
"Mmmmm?"
He nodded and said, "Well, you have to eat."
What a romantic, that Travis!
I peeled the tape off my mouth, slowly. It had been on so long, that when it was removed, I still had the sensation that it was affixed against my skin.
It felt weird to not be gagged. I worked my jaw and licked my lips, which felt plump and a little puffy from being gagged almost 24/7.
I looked at the men.
In almost a whisper, husky and croaky from non-use of my voice for so long, I said, "Am I allowed to speak during breakfast?"
I wasn't being a snot or anything-I just wanted to know.
Travis said, "If you keep it to a minimum," he said.
Hmmph!
But I let that comment roll off my back and said, "Thank you."
The food was delicious. I cut into a sausage with the plastic knife and fork and shoved some into my mouth.
"Thank you for this," I said, my mouth partly full. "I needed this."
Travis nodded.
Brick said, "There hasn't been any movement from the GPS since late last night. So Battey hasn't moved from where he stopped last night."
I didn't know if he was speaking to just Travis, or if I was being included, which stirred me-to actually be part of a conversation, with my mouth free.
I wasn't shy; I plopped myself into the discussion, whether they liked it or not.
"Where is he?" I said, "I mean, relative to where we are now?"
I looked at Brick from over the coffee cup I was tilting against my mouth.
Travis said, "None of your business."
I rolled my eyes. "Fine. But can you tell me if he's five miles from us? Ten miles? Help me out a little bit here, guys."
The men exchanged brief, "should we tell her?" glances before Travis said, "Let's just say that he's close enough, with the GPS, that we can keep up with him with little trouble."
Without pause I responded, "But…not kill him, correct?"
You could have heard a pin drop.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
"What makes you think I want to kill him?" Travis said, and actually, I could see his point. I had made all sorts of assumptions, but Brick had confirmed that Travis was a killer, hadn't he?
I shrugged. "Isn't that your 'day job'? Or should I say, your 'night job'?" I said, arching my eyebrows.
Travis said, "All I told you is that Battey is a bad man and I've been hired to take care of him."
"That means 'kill,' doesn't it?" I said.
He smirked. "Maybe on Lifetime Network or in novels," he said, managing to both patronize an entire gender and dismiss novels as a source of "real life" information.
"I don't watch those movies," I snapped, as if that meant a hill of beans at the moment.
After a pause, I said, "So? You never answered my questions. Are you going to kill him or what?"
Travis was getting his fill of me already, I could tell. My talking time wouldn't be terribly long, I didn't think.
He cleared his throat and said, "You finished eating?"
I shook my head sardonically. Fine-he wasn't going to clue me in about Battey's fate. I sighed and nodded, in reply to his food question.
"So…more hours of being bound and gagged are on my schedule for today, I assume?" I said, tossing my head to get the hair out of my eyes and to help punctuate my words.
Travis looked at me. "Afraid so, Lauren."
Well, at least he was honest!
"But don't forget I have to call my mom," I said.
He sighed sadly and nodded in confirmation.
After the breakfast dishes were tossed away and I was allowed to pee and wash my face-there was residue from the tape on my cheeks and chin-I was back into "my" chair, settled in for another day of enforced immobility and silence.
I was literally spending my entire weekend bound and gagged and I wish there was some exaggeration to that statement but there really isn't.
Now the men were setting up the gear. I watched, because I had nothing else to do and nowhere to go.
My wrists were again taped to the armrests. Travis didn't secure my ankles this time, for which I was grateful; a girl takes anything she can get with men like these.
My gag was simple yet effective: a rolled up sock shoved halfway into my mouth-enough to keep my mouth stopped open, but not entirely in my mouth, filling it up. The result was that I bit down into the sock and an inch or two was sticking out of my mouth.
I looked rather silly-I caught a glimpse of myself in the room's mirror-but who cares?
The sock did its job in that it prevented me from forming words, and it was still large and cushy enough to dampen sound.
It wasn't too uncomfortable, thank goodness.
The men didn't unpack all of the equipment-not even close. Instead, they only broke out the stuff they needed to go back over their data. At least, that's the impression I got. I would have loved to have been able to ask them.
Travis and Brick did their thing as I sighed and got bored again. It was almost 9:00; soon I'd have to call mom. I dreaded it, not only because I had to cancel, but because I had to balance the news of my absence with the need to keep the phone call as short as possible. Travis would want me on the phone for the least amount of time as possible, and mom might grill me. They were competing forces.
I was thinking about all this when I heard my name called.
I snapped out of my daydreaming to see Travis approaching.
"Want some water or something?" he said as I gathered myself.
The room had a mini-fridge. It was cute.
Water meant gag off, so I nodded.
Travis opened the bottle and grabbed hold of the sock protruding out of my poor mouth.
I opened my mouth and he yanked the sock out.
"Thanks," I said huskily.
Travis tilted the bottle and I drank, thirstier than I thought.
As some dribbled down my chin, I pulled my mouth away and said, "I should call my mom soon, Travis. It's 9:00."
He nodded. "OK," he said, "But make it quick."
I rolled my eyes.
"Travis, you know her enough to know that she's going to say what she's going to say and I just have to listen. I can't control her!"
He frowned and nodded. "True enough. OK…just don't make her think that anything's wrong beyond you're sick. Can you do that?"
I bit my lower lip, nodding.
"Yeah, I think so."
"You better KNOW so, honey," Travis said.
I made a face. "Quit pressuring me!!"
Now we were acting like a couple, and Brick, I could see, was amused by this exchange.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Travis showed me my cell phone, producing it from his pocket.
"Ahh," I said, "THAT'S where it's been."
He smirked. "I put it on vibrate. Didn't want you to hear when you were getting calls."
I arched an eyebrow. "And, have I? Beyond Mike and Holly?"
He shook his head. "Nope, nobody loves you."
I frowned. "Ha ha."
I nodded to the phone and said, "Any chance I can actually hold it?"
Travis looked at it, then at me, and shook his head no.
"Why do you need to hold it?"
Fair enough, but it was just another example of his being anal when it came to controlling me. I could think of no reasonable security risk that my holding the phone while I spoke would pose to him, but that almost didn't seem to matter to him. He was being over-the-top with keeping me in my place, and I didn't know whether to be hurt by that or frustrated-or both.
Travis gave me some last-minute instructions.
"Just relax. Pretend like you're at home," he said. "Act normal."
As if!
"Lord, I WISH I was at home," I said. "I wish I was at home, in a bubble bath, sipping wine-wine that wasn't drugged. What did you put in it, anyway?"
Travis smirked. "Does it matter?"
I shrugged. "I suppose not but I'd like to know, just the same."
He shrugged, too. "OK, fine. It was amytal."
The expression on my face must have said, "WTF?" because Travis said, "It's a brand name for amobarbital. A suppressant. A barbiturate. I gave you three times the normal dosage."
My eyes widened. "Travis!"
"Relax. I had it 'cut'-meaning its properties have a shorter time of effectiveness. It's a trade-off-speed for duration."
I frowned. "Who did that for you?"
"I know people," was all he would reveal. "You do this long enough and you make friends in different places."
"I see," I said with some disdain. "Did your 'friend' know that you intended to slip it into your girlfriend's drink?"
"He didn't ask what I needed it for," Travis said, and that alone gave me the willies-that the person doing the 'cutting' took no interest as to whether the drug was intended for a kid, for example.
It was all business, I'm sure.
Travis dialed my mom's number and held the phone to my face. I took in a deep breath, let it out slowly. Here we go, I thought.