Friends and Enemies

“Ahh!” A sudden drenching of water over my head woke me. Confused, I tried to move my arms to clear my now sopping hair out of my eyes, but they wouldn’t move. Wincing from the pinching of my skin, I realised my arms had been restrained behind my back and legs bound to a chair. I took a deep breath and lifted my head slightly, managing to flick my hair out of my face. The sudden motion made me wince from the headache I had had likely from dehydration. The room smelled damp and mouldy. It appeared to be a cellar or somewhere underground. I wrinkled my nose in distaste. So, this is how I die? “ You're awake.” I looked towards the voice and realised this is the arsehole who just drenched me. The lighting in the room was low and so I could not make out all his features, but he was tall and broad. He dragged another chair over to sit in front of me and sat on it backwards resting his arms on the back of the chair. He was grinning at me. I could hear the amusement in his voice. I didn’t say a word to him, just smirked. Arsehole was an opportunist. Probably thought that he would get some money out of taking me. He was wrong. I’d have to have a family or husband that cared for that to be the case.   “Mrs Kavanagh, I was worried for a minute we might have given you too much sedative” Arsehole gloated. Interesting that Arsehole used “we.” More than just Arsehole is involved then. Well, that explains how I got here and why my head felt so fuzzy still. I couldn’t remember being attacked. I had just finished my shift, that much I did know because here I was still sitting in my scrubs. 12-hour shifts at a hospital with no break and Arsehole is wondering why it took so long to wake me up!   Arsehole picked up my phone. Shocker, no missed calls or messages. “We are going to send a little video to your husband.” Arsehole was delusional. That’s the only way to describe what is happening now. Sebastian wouldn’t care that I was missing. Hell judging by the lack of messages or missed calls on my phone he didn’t even know. This made me laugh. “What’s so funny?” Arsehole really was clueless. My laughter seemed to make him agitated with me. I could see his lips had thinned into a straight line, his jaw had clenched and his hand had started to raise like he was ready to strike me. I braced myself for the hit. There wasn’t much I could do to defend myself but wait for the pain to come. “Leave us!” Ah, this must be Arsehole’s partner in crime, Dickhead. Well Arsehole and Dickhead, you took the wrong girl. The one he cares about is probably with him right now. I could feel hysterical laughter bubbling up inside of me again and I was trying damn hard to supress the urge to let it out. Maybe they’d finally cracked me and caused my mental breakdown? I watched as Arsehole got up with his jaw still clenched and walked away from me leaving Dickhead who had been silent and hiding in a dark corner and me. I looked up at Dickhead, he pulled the chair closer to me sat down and got in my face. Here comes the intimidation technique. He wasn’t ugly. He had a sharp jawline and dark hair. He had brown eyes that seemed older than his years. If I estimated his age, I’d say he was late 20’s. He was smirking at me. I guess Arsehole and Dickhead thought they had won the jackpot with me. Dickhead was clearly the ringleader in this so he was the one I’d have to negotiate with knowing there was no way on God’s green Earth Sebastian will help me. “Let’s try this again Mrs Kavanagh.” I could hear the confidence that he thought he had won his prize dripping from his voice. Time to knock him down a peg or two. This is going to hurt. “Johnson” I coughed. Dry throat. Side effect of the sedative. He looked at me confused and titled his head to the side. Guess he thought I was trying to convince him he had the wrong girl. I wasn’t. I just didn’t want to use his name anymore. Why should I? We were married on paper only. Why he had married me in the end was beyond my understanding. Misplaced responsibility is the only explanation I could fathom at this point. “You are Sebastian Kavanagh’s wife are you not?” Dickhead asked me. He was clearly confused that I had denied being Mrs Kavanagh. “In paper only Dickhead.” That earned me a slap. Jesus my throat was raw. I could feel the blood start dripping from my newly split lip. “Could I please have some water?” I knew the answer before I’d asked the question though. I wasn’t here for comfort after all. Dickhead laughed. He laughed long and loud. “Do you have a death wish Mrs Kavanagh?” I could still hear him chuckling as he gave me the dangerous warning without threatening me. Urgh, all I wanted was a divorce. Why Sebastian was still refusing to sign those papers was beyond me. I had moved out of marital home so she could move in and be with him. I had gotten a job as a nurse and no longer relied financially on him and now here I am tied to a chair all because he wouldn’t sign some damn papers out of arrogance, I guess. In fact, Sebastian and I hadn’t spoken since he had been served the divorce papers. He wanted mediation and counselling, and I wanted my freedom back. “Listen Dickhead, Sebastian isn’t going to care that you have me here.” That earned me another slap. s**t, my face was stinging now. Dickhead laughed harder at this. I don’t know what he found so funny. It was sadly my reality. I could feel the side of my face burning from the repeated impact. It was bound to be bruised tomorrow. Not that it mattered, after all, who would see me? “My dear Mrs Kavanagh, you are worth more to him than you realise. Why do you think he hasn’t signed those divorce papers?” Dickhead’s gloating was starting to irritate me now. Huh, how did he know about the divorce? It was kept off public record after all. Well that narrowed down the list of suspects that hired these goons. Sebastian had never officially announced me as his wife. If he had events or parties to attend, she always accompanied him. To the public eye it looked as if Sebastian was seeing her and wasn’t in fact married to someone else. “If Sebastian values me so much care to explain why he hasn’t realised I am missing yet?” There was sarcasm dripping from voice as I asked Dickhead this. I knew the answer. I fooled myself for long enough that I was the only woman in his heart but after the car accident 6 months ago where I recuperated alone my eyes were opened to my sad reality. 3 years of my life were wasted in a marriage where my love was unrequited. Dickhead opened his mouth to speak again when my phone chirped. He turned it to face me so I could make out the name of the person calling me, and he grinned with his right eyebrow raised expectantly, this caused me to roll my eyes. Dickhead thought he’d won this round. “Well, guess he cares after all. Let’s see how much.” And there it is ladies and gentlemen, the value of my life in an ambiguous statement. I watched him slide the answer button and place the phone on speaker. If Dickhead thought I was about to beg Sebastian for my life he was very, very wrong. The call had connected but neither Sebastian nor I spoke. Finally, Dickhead realised I wasn’t about to beg for my life and decided to speak on my behalf. Here we go. “Mr Kavanagh.” Dickhead began but Sebastian cut him off. “Look if this is another stunt for attention from you Emily I’m not interested. I’m not signing those papers; you are MY WIFE.” I looked at Dickhead and I grinned. I knew Sebastian hated me, but I never knew why. Maybe Dickhead wouldn’t win this round afterall. Dickhead cleared his throat and began again. “Mr Kavanagh, your wife is in a very delicate situation.” Dickhead was losing his confidence now. Guess he never thought a husband could treat his wife with such disdain, but then he hadn’t been married to the guy for the last 3 years. I had. “We have her hostage here and we will not release her without ten million pounds transferred to our account. I’ll send you the account details shortly. Once received Mrs Kavanagh will be released safe and sound to your care. Failure to send the money to me within the next 72 hours and Mrs Kavanagh will be returned in pieces to you.” Dickhead looked at me and he seemed confident that he had managed to negotiate this well. That hysterical laughter I had been holding in? Yeah, I couldn’t anymore. It came bubbling out of me. And I did not hold back. I looked Dickhead in the eye, I could see the call was still connected. “Ten million? My life is worth ten million? Well once you idiots start chopping bits off me to return to my husband” I curled my lip back as I said my husband “I guarantee he will re-negotiate the ten million.” I flung my head back and laughed harder. “I want proof that this is not another attention seeking episode from Emily first.” Sebastian stated. I knew this was coming. That man would not part with a penny without seeing I was genuinely in trouble. Dickhead looked stunned. “Mr Kavanagh I can assure you the situation with your wife is dire. We will send you proof and leave it to you.” With that said Dickhead hung up my phone and took my picture. Dickhead showed me my depressing state in the picture before sending it to Sebastian. I looked back at Dickhead with the most serious look I could muster given my depressing situation and said, “Let’s make a bet, shall we?”