ADBUCTED

Chapter 2.

‘If that little speech is calculated at upsetting me, I must warn you that you are wasting your time, brat.’

‘What did you just call me?’ she demanded, affronted.

‘Brat. Spelt as pronounced just in case you didn’t know.’

She recognised an insult when she saw one.

‘I’ll have you know that I have a first class degree and Masters from Harvard University.’

‘How exciting,’ he said, sarcasm apparent in his voice.

‘It’s not my fault that you lack basic education, half breed.’ She told him nastily.

She realised she had gone too far when his eyes narrowed dangerously.

‘What did you just call me?’

Common sense warned her that she was already stepping on dangerous ground, but she still responded all the same.

‘Nothing more derogatory than what you used on me, half breed,’ she said.

He moved so quickly that she didn’t even see him coming until she found herself pressed against the wall, his fingers digging into her shoulders, his breath warm against her skin. His eyes were dark with fury.

‘Get your filthy hands off me,’ she ordered.

‘Or you’ll do what? Tell daddy?’ he mocked.

‘You’ll be in real soup when he gets hold of you. Death won’t even provide the relief you seek,’ she threatened him.

‘And I am so scared,’ he taunted. ‘Now, call me half breed one more time and I -’

‘Do you prefer cross breed? Because you are neither black nor Caucasian.’

His fist slammed on the wall on the left side of her head and she flinched.

‘I am not scared of you,’ she told him boldly, thinking inwardly how much she would like to torture him by chopping his unfortunately great physique into tiny pieces and feeding each piece to him. ‘There are only two things you can do to me: kill me or r**e me and neither of these two can make you a real man.’

He gave her an insulting once over.

‘That’s where you are wrong. Call me a half breed once more and you will find out that there are worse things I can do to you than r**e and kill you.’

She parted her lips but sensibly shut them up once more.

He returned to the pot and she watched his back for a moment, hating him. He didn’t know who he was dealing with. Who the hell did he think he was? Filthy peasant and not worthy so much as to clean her sneakers, let alone breathe in the same air that she did. He might be handsome with a good physique, but without money to his name, his physical appearance was useless unless you were looking for a temporary distraction.

Well, first things first. She had noticed the protector before one of the doors in the sitting room and it had been unlocked. If she was lucky, the door itself would be unlocked and she could make her escape. Her eyes scanned the tiny room once more in search of a weapon and she found one.

A rolling pin.

It was the last thing she expected to see in a bachelor’s kitchen, but it was just her luck. Moving slowly as he dished the jello rice into a bowl, she reached for the rolling pin and before it occurred to him that he was about to be attacked, she sent the rolling pin down on his head. She took off even as she heard the shattering of a plate. She shut the kitchen door behind her to delay him. The wrapper made running difficult but she was soon at the door. Her prayers were answered: the door was unlocked.

She shut it behind her and raced into the night. There was no light indicating nearby homes, just grass, but she didn’t let this deter her. She heard her abductor’s movements behind her. She gave him a good run, showing off her skills as a one-time 100 metres champion in her secondary school, but the night and the lack of knowledge of her surroundings were her undoing and he finally caught up with her. As she screamed, a large hand closed over her mouth and another clasped around her neck.

‘Brat!’ he swore.

She tried to bite into his palm but found it impossible to do so. His hold pressed her against his body so she could feel the heat emanating from him. She struggled with him and the grip on her neck tightened. She lifted one foot and brought it down on her own with all the strength she could muster, but it didn’t have a satisfying effect, since she was barefooted. If she had one of her long stiletto-heeled shoes on, she would have successfully and satisfactorily maimed him for life!

He lifted her fireman style and ignored the punches she gave his back and neck as he headed back into the building. He released her, tossing her on one of the chairs. She landed with a thud. Before she could protest, he assured her that the next time she tried to escape he would shoot both legs and let her go through life as a paraplegic. His cold eyes dared her to contradict him and she sensibly didn’t.

He locked up and returned to her.

‘Let’s get one thing straight. I am not your babysitter. You are my prisoner and you shall do as you are asked.’

She eyed the gun he was waving over her face, not sure whether it was a real one or a fake one, but not prepared to find out. Besides, she had heard of accidental discharges, and although he appeared to be in control, he could do it just to spite her.

‘Do you mind keeping that where you got it from,’ she told him, moving out of its range, ‘before you hurt somebody.’

‘It would serve you right,’ he told her before sticking it into the waist band of his jeans.

‘And it would serve you right if you accidentally shot yourself in the groin. That way, the world wouldn’t worry about you producing more of your likeness,’ she returned. ‘Now, what do you want from me?’

He warned her to stay put while he hurried into the kitchen and returned with a tray and a big bowl of food, 2 ceramic plates, 2 aluminium cups and a bottle of water. One look at the water told her that he hadn’t bought it but had perhaps fetched it from a tap outside.

‘I am not hungry,’ she informed him, folding her arms across her chest.

Did he really expect her to eat anything he had cooked? Or even worse, use a ceramic plate? She had never eaten in one. Even as a little child. And aluminium cups? God forbid!

‘Starving yourself isn’t going to make me sweet on you.’

He picked one of the ceramic plates and dished out food for himself.

‘I’ll pass,’ she told him stubbornly. ‘You eat your own poison.’

He ignored her and began to eat.

‘Where are my batteries and sim cards?’

‘In safe custody.’

‘I want them back.’

‘You’ll get them when I am ready to release them to you.’

‘And my purse and chequebook?’

‘The same applies to them.’

‘I don’t trust you.’

‘I will be feeding you for the duration of your stay here and it is only fair that you pay for your keep,’ he simply told her.

‘And I didn’t ask to be abducted. Look, this joke is getting too expensive. Which one of my friends put you up to this?’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’

‘Don’t you? If you had been a regular kidnapper you would have made a call to my father by now and asked for a ransom.’

He ignored her and walked over to the television, turning it on.

‘And to my surprise, you didn’t have to hit it for it to start,’ she said sarcastically. ‘And look, it actually shows colours beyond black and white.’

He ignored her.

‘Well, who put you up to this?’ she asked, returning to her earlier question.

He picked up his plate and focused on the programme that came on and this annoyed her. She rose to her feet and stood between him and the television.

‘Get away from there this minute,’ he told her.

‘Or you’ll do what? Assault me?’

‘I am sure you would love to have my hands all over you,’ he said insultingly. ‘You can come to my room later tonight and I will give you the night of your life, but at this moment I have no use for your body. Now move!’

‘You bas***d!’

‘Move Ibitoru.’

The dangerous glint in his blue eyes made her move aside even though she was physically steaming.

‘Enough is enough. I want my things now,’ she insisted.

‘And you are becoming a nuisance.’

‘How dare you speak to me like that?’ she demanded with righteous indignation. ‘Don’t you know who I am?’

‘Ibitoru Davids, the spoilt and undomesticated daughter of Senator Sotonye Davids. Now leave me in peace, woman.’

‘Woman! Don’t you dare use that condescending tone on me. On a good day you wouldn’t have the guts to speak to me.’

‘You are trying my patience.’

‘You should have left me in peace. By now, I should have been in Lagos.’

He ignored her and continued eating.

‘I’ll pay you N1,000,000.00 to free me.’

I am being too generous, she thought.

‘All right, N3, 000, 000. 00,’ she amended when he said nothing. ‘I am sure it would make a huge difference in your life. I’ll get the money back from my father and we can both pretend this incident never happened. You’ll have your money and I’ll be on my way to my vacation. I am sure I can get another flight to Lagos tomorrow morning.’

‘Shut up.’ He snapped at her.

‘I can pay you. Keeping me here is very risky. My dad has his connections and when they find you what will happen to you, they will make the h*******t look like a Sunday picnic. I am actually doing you a favour, you know. I don’t owe you one and if you have any sense at all you will take it.’

‘If I need your money, I’ll let you know.’

‘My father may not give you that amount of money. Even if he does, you will have to pay through your nose and you may not be able to raise N3,000,000 even if you were given the rest of your sorry life to do so.’

He didn’t bother responding.

‘N3,000,000 is a lot of money,’ she continued. ‘I won’t ask for a refund.’

‘I am sure you won’t,’ he ground out. ‘But one more word about your money and I shall silence that thing you call a mouth.’

Her lips parted to make a suitable retort, but his look shut her up.

‘Ill-tempered mule,’ she thought as she headed for the bedroom he had kept her in.

He ignored her completely to her annoyance and she banged the door with relish.

The young man told himself that he had his hands full keeping Ibitoru there with him. She was proud, saucy and stubborn, a total spoilt brat, but he was going to tame her. He was going to make her useful to herself and to others. He wouldn’t have wasted his precious time with her if he didn’t have to pay her father back for a wrong he had committed while he was a serving Governor and thus immune to criminal and civil suits. He could call her father’s line right now and make a huge demand on him, but that wouldn’t make up for what her father had done. Keeping his only child for a long time would have more effect.

He was no r****t. He believed that only a man who had serious issues with his sexuality would force himself on a woman and he frowned strongly at that. But Ibitoru didn’t know this and that would work to his advantage. She said there were only two things he could do to her: r**e or kill her. And for all her boldness, she wouldn’t survive a r**e. She hadn’t kept her virginity this long only to have it taken by force. It was something she used as a bargaining chip, to get the guys interested, dangling it over their noses like a bone before a dog.

She was beautiful. He would give her that. She took after her paternal grandmother who, at the age of seventy-nine, was still breathtaking. But her parents hadn’t given her the least home training, unlike her mother who had domesticated all her sons.

Let Chief Davids lose sleep wondering what he was doing to his beautiful little girl. When he was tired of keeping Ibitoru, he would make his request known.

‘Have you ever heard of the word courtesy?’ Ibitoru demanded when the man came into the bedroom without so much as a knock on the door. She pulled the wrapper to herself, glaring at him.

‘It’s my house so I can do as I damn well please,’ he told her simply, ‘now you are going to make a call.’

‘Finally, for a moment, there I thought you were going to keep me here beyond tomorrow. Satisfy my curiosity, how much do you intend to ask for?’

‘N 10,000’

‘What!’ Her jaw dropped but she quickly shut it back. ‘Are you trying to say that I’m worth only N10,000?’

‘Or less,’ he continued unrepentantly, adding before she could flare up. ‘This call is not to your father.’

‘Then who the hell do you want me to call?’

‘Such language is not befitting of a lady.’

‘You use it so don’t be quick to judge. Who do you want me to call?’ She asked again, eyeing the old Nokia phone in her hand, the type you could easily get for less than

N4000.

Was the guy so poor that he couldn’t afford a decent phone? She wondered.

His ridiculously tiny house with two tiny bedrooms was a little above that of a man living in abject poverty, but that was not to say that somewhere along the line this man had not run short of money.

‘A week ago you had a man detained simply because he offered himself as one of your suitors.’

‘That little nobody! He deserved it.’

‘May I remind you that he is a family man with two little children?’

‘Like I care. He insulted me by approaching me to begin with, like I have no taste. He came to me reeking of abject poverty expecting me to accept his proposal so he could use my money to better his life.’

He glared at her.

‘You had no right to have him detained. All you had to do was say no.’

‘Just no? You must be joking. A riff-raff, a good for nothing gold digger insults me and you expect me to leave him with a simple no! You are not serious. If he had looked for a classless citizen like himself, he wouldn’t be spending his days and nights in jail.’

Her snobbish attitude pissed the man off.

‘You are useless, so you ought to be filled with gratitude that he saw something good in you.’

‘Don’t you dare insult me!’

‘Afraid of the truth? You are a spoilt brat with nothing to recommend you but your beauty and wealth. Your brain won’t take you anywhere outside the business area. That someone took the risk of coming to you is something to give thanks for knowing that you are not worth it.’

She slapped him and he caught her wrist in a vice grip, releasing her when she cried out.

‘You are going to call your police friends and tell them to release that man tonight.’

‘What is ‘saucer eyes’ to you anyway? You don’t look alike.’

‘He doesn’t know who I am.’

‘And yet you are getting involved in a matter that is no business of yours.’

‘I am making it my business.’

‘Are you one of those human rights freaks?’ she asked.

‘Whatever. Now call him.’

He gave her the funny looking phone.

‘And if I don’t?’

‘You don’t have a choice.’

Suddenly that gun was before her once more.

‘Weren’t you taught that it is impolite to threaten a woman with a gun? – never mind, a man like you certainly can’t have been in a woman’s womb for 7 or 9 months or you wouldn’t be acting in this manner. You probably dropped out of space. Yes, that’s it. You are a Martian.’

‘Shut up, brat!’

‘Stop calling me that!’ she yelled at him.

He leaned forward until his face was inches from hers.

‘You know, accidents do happen. I might get so upset that I might reflexively pull the trigger, and Boom!’ She flinched, ‘And you are in trouble. Now look for that number and call.’

She glared at him.

‘Which one of my lines is in there?’

‘MTN,’ he replied.

She thought of lying that she had saved the ASP’s number on her globe but thought better of it. She scrolled down the names that appeared on the screen of his phone, then pressed the call button when she got to the name she was searching for.

‘Tell him that you have decided out of the goodness of your heart to set the guy free,’ her abductor told her.

‘ASP – Good evening, this is Miss Davids. I am fine. Is that man still in your custody? He is? Okay, you can release him.’ She said, her eyes on the gun before her. ‘But leave him with a warning that next time he comes within a mile of me, you shall rid the world of his sorry self. Do just that, ASP.’

‘No funny games,’ her abductor warned in a whisper.

She returned the phone to him, saying ‘This phone is out of date. You should get something better.’

‘As long as I can call and receive, that’s all that matters.’

‘What planet did you come out from of Zusky?’

‘The same one you did, Kaput.’

‘Touché’

Kaput and Zusky were characters from their own cartoon who were always trying to take over planets.

‘When do you want to call my father?’ She enquired.

‘When I am in the mood.’

‘My vacation begins tomorrow.’

‘Of course, but you will be spending it here.’

‘Oh puhleeze! Like I’d want a vacation at your company.’

‘You don’t have a choice.

He began to walk away.

‘You can’t be serious about keeping me here for the next three weeks, or are you?’

‘I am dead serious.’

‘You are asking for trouble. My dad-’

‘Would be restless, imagining all the wicked things I am doing to his little girl, wondering if you would be with child by the time I release you.’

‘You wouldn’t dare!’

‘Oh I would. Make no mistake about that,’ he told her, then added, ‘for all you know, I may be intending to use your child to secure a ransom.’

‘What are you talking about? I don’t have a…’ she paused, her eyes widening in horror as his words became clear.

‘That should give you something to think about,’ he said, enjoying the shocked look on her face. ‘You should consider yourself fortunate that I have no time for your kind.’

‘You think you are too good for me?’ she blurted out affronted. ‘May I remind you that you are a peasant? A mere commoner under a jurisdiction that was once my father’s! If I so much as offer my fingers to you, you should feel highly honoured, let alone my hand.’

‘The problem with you, Davids, is that you think you are God’s gift to the male folk but welcome to the real world. No man is genuinely interested in a spoilt brat who can’t do anything on his own. The only use you are good for, if I decide to go ahead with it, is providing me with a child that I will use for a bargain.’

He walked out of the room.

‘Beast!’ She ground out.

Ibitoru felt hot and in need of a shower. She also needed to attend to her private needs. She found him in the sitting room, his face hard and unsmiling. What was his problem, anyway?

‘Excuse me.’

‘What do you want?’ he snapped.

‘I need a bath.’

‘Do you expect me to bathe you?’ he asked, deliberately misunderstanding her words.

She flushed angrily. ‘Pervert. You know that’s not what I meant. I need hot water to bathe in. I doubt if you have a heater.’

‘You'll have to get your own water, whether cold or hot,’ he informed her, rising to his feet and walking across the sitting room, towards the kitchen.

‘I can’t believe this! There is no water running in the house!’

‘If it ran past, then I didn’t see it.’

‘And you have a warped sense of humour.

‘Ha! Ha! Very funny. You fetch water from the well.

‘So you brought me here knowing that there is no water. In my home, there is constant water and I can use a heater when I need a shower.’

‘Here, if you want something, you get it yourself. You want hot water, you heat it if there’s light or boil one in the absence of light.’

‘You are no gentleman.’

‘I never claimed to be one.’

‘If you were going to abduct a woman with class, common sense demands that you take her to at least a four-star hotel,’ she told him, wrinkling her nose as she looked around the room.

He ignored her, retraced his steps and walked through the corridor opening a door. He returned with a bucket which he thrust in her direction. She looked at it, her expression fierce.

‘I have never carried a bucket of water in my life.’

‘There’s always a first time for everything.’

He thrust the bucket at her once more, wrapping her fingers about its iron handle, and asked her to follow him. They went through a door in the kitchen, ending up outside. The well was a few feet from the wall and covered. She had only seen well in pictures and programmes on the television. She could just imagine how many diseases she would have to treat once she got back home. The mere thought gave her goose pimples.

He stepped aside.

‘Well?’ She demanded.

‘Well what?’

‘Aren’t you going to help me out?’

‘Why should I?’

‘Because I don’t know how to.’

‘Spoilt brat!’ He muttered.

He took off the cover of the well and threw in a rope with a small bucket, pulling it up to pour clean water into the bucket. She could tell it was clean, courtesy of the light from the kitchen door, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t hidden bacteria that could be caught beneath a microscope. He handed the rope to her and she realized that he was not going to offer further help. She decided to do it herself and teach him that she could do it as well as him.

It took her minutes to fill the bucket, pouring more water on the soil than into her bucket. He watched her amused and she cursed him with words that could render a puritan deaf.

She hefted the bucket with both hands past him, leaving a large drop of water in her trail as she struggled with the bucket. He didn’t offer to help her.

She dropped the bucket before the bathroom door and pushed the door open. The bathroom was tiny with a flat tiny white bathtub, with just enough room for you to stand, a toilet and a sink. She noticed a big barrel that occupied a major space in the tiny bathroom, enough to make one claustrophobic. Heck, the entire house was small enough to make one claustrophobic!

She deposited her bucket in the bathtub and lifted the lid of the barrel, shocked to find it filled with water. And to think that that nameless man had made her fetch her own water.

She told him her mind as she left the bathroom.

‘The water is mine,’ he informed her. ‘You want water, you fetch it.’

He held out an old towel to her.

She threw back her head in disgust. ‘Surely you do not expect me to bathe with that!’

She thought of the rashes the use of such a towel would leave on her spotless body. This man was just desperate to give her craw-craw before he freed her!

‘I didn’t ask you to. I expect you to use it to mop the water you spilled.’

‘There is no way I’m going to-’

‘Don’t make me mad, brat! You pour water, you mop.’

He thrust the rag at her and compelled her to bend over and start cleaning the trail of water she had left behind, supervising her.

‘I have never been so humiliated in my life,’ she cried.

‘Look at the bright side. At least you can add this to your curriculum vitae: you can clean exceeding well.’

‘Don’t you dare mock me. I have never done this before. Not even in my own home.’

‘That’s just too bad. Now clean up.’

When she was through, he made her rinse the towel and showed her where to spread it. She glared at him but it had no effect on him. He took the back door keys with him, taking the short corridor and going into his bedroom.

She marched towards the bathroom, upset, but his words “Aren’t you forgetting something?” stopped her.

‘What!’ she snapped.

‘Soap, towel and sponge.’

‘I’ll manage.’

‘You’ll do no such thing.’

‘Surely you don’t expect me to share such private things with a peasant!’

‘You don’t have a choice.

He forced them into her hands and pushed her gently into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

She seethed in there, hating him. She deposited the items in the tiny cabinet attached to the wall and walked over through the tight space to the sink where she found a new toothbrush besides an old one and a Maclean’s toothpaste.

She tore off the seal and pressed the toothpaste into the brush. She missed her very expensive toothpaste at home. She thought as she began to brush her teeth.

She was going to leave this place one way or the other before she lost her mind. She never bathed with cold water but she was going to cope with it rather than give him the pleasure of knowing that she couldn’t do the simple task of heating water.

She unwrapped the luxury soap he’d given her. It had a nice smell but lacked the fragrance of the soap she used back at home. A big pink soap and very expensive.

She spent over half an hour in the bathroom, washing herself clean of the sweat that clung to her body. When she was through, She wrapped herself in his big blue towel.

She left the bathroom with the towel, her undies and the wrapper in her arms. He gave her a disinterested look before returning his attention to the television screen.

She went into the bedroom she was occupying and returned a moment later.

‘Hey!’ She called to him insultingly.

He didn’t even look at her.

‘Excuse me!’ She amended.

He turned. ‘What do you want?’

‘I need my clothes.’

‘And I won’t have you trying to escape.’

‘I can’t move around in this towel.’

Without saying a word, he went into his bedroom, returning with a T-shirt and boxers which he tossed to her.

‘Weren’t you taught hygiene in school?’ She asked insultingly. ‘You don’t share clothes and definitely not inner wears.’

‘You are in no position to complain.’

‘Excuse me! Well, I’d rather have the towel.’

‘Suit yourself. But I’ll need it when I take my bath in less than an hour’s time and I won’t have you strutting about my house in your birthday suit.’

She flushed angrily. ‘This is a deliberate attempt to annoy me, isn’t it? What’s your name anyway?’

‘That is not important.’

‘Then I’ll call you, stoneface.’

‘You do that and I’ll give you so hard a paddling that you won’t be able to sit for a full month.

‘Then give me a name.’

‘I’m sure you can come up with something better.’

‘Like Amos?’

‘Very funny. But I’m not amused.’

‘All right, Richard. That’s one of my favourite English names. So you should feel privileged.’

‘I hear.’

‘So Richard, were you serious about keeping me here for three weeks? My N3m offer is still open.’

‘Two to nine months, depending on my mood.’