Copyright 2016 by Canton E. Eaves/Susan Preflatish/Cook
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
I would like to thank my dear friend, Carol (Ubelhor) Troesch, for being the first to read this book in all of its stages, for giving me her honest feedback on the story line and for even offering to be my editor! But, most of all, for putting up with my numerous phone messages, cell phone text and visits where she works to listen to my crazy sounding stories about the serendipitous things that went on during the writing of this book. A writer herself, she understands the writer’s mind, or just being my friend, understands mine!
CHAPTER 1
Elaine was at the airport, dropping off a friend, and was heading back to her car when all of a sudden, she felt someone grab her arm from behind and put what feels like a gun, in her side! A male voice with an accent said, “Don’t say a word and keep walking”. Fear took over as her mouth and throat felt tight at that command. She managed to regain a bit of survival response by looking anxiously around the parking lot to see if anyone was around or watching. They seemed to be alone as he directed her by pushing her arm toward a lone jet, sitting on the tarmac. She was thinking that, in this day and age there HAD to be a camera somewhere with people watching her abduction and help would be coming any minute. But… it didn’t.
He forced her up the airplane stairs and through its open door. When they turn the corner she sees three other men, in suits and ties, glancing at her and then at their watches as if they had been waiting a while. One man was tall and slender and wore a very dark colored suit and upon seeing Elaine, immediately took out his cell phone, tapped it a few times with his finger and starting speaking in a language she didn’t recognize. She was trying to listen in but she was being pushed towards some seats that surrounded a low table near the back of the plane.
Elaine sat down on the outside seat but was directed toward the seat closer to the window that had the shade pulled down and her abductor sat next to her. She asked, “What is this all about? What do you want with me?” The man on the phone walked over to the table, still having a conversation, and sat down across from Elaine. She thinks the accent they have is Russian and the pit in her stomach gets a little tighter. The man next to her lets go of her arm and puts his gun away. This would have made her feel better but at the same time, one of the other men was closing the door to the plane. It made a loud noise when closing and she soon realized that they were going to be taking off, to where, she did not know, raising her anxiety level.
The man across from her finished on his phone and begins introductions. “That is, Victor”,
he nods his heads toward the man that took Elaine from the parking lot. “I am, Ivan.” He names the others but she’s too busy trying to remember what they look like and any other details she can for when she’s rescued. She keeps thinking that any minute, someone is going to come crashing through the door to save her!! No one comes but she believes in the back of her mind that SOMEONE has to be tracking her.
“What is this all about?” she asks Ivan. He pats her hands, smiles a sheepish grin and says, “Someone wants to meet you”. Just then, the engine to the plane revs up and they start moving. Elaine tells Ivan that whoever it is can just call her! He replies with a snort and says that isn’t possible and they are going to meet this person now. She says, “Just where are you taking me?” and having the feeling she KNOWS where, takes a risk and asks, “Russia?!” Ivan looks at Victor with surprise, which lets her know that IS where they are headed and she states, “I can’t leave the country, I don’t have a passport! I won’t be able to get back home!” Ivan tells her not to worry gets up and walks to the rear of the plane out of sight.
Well, this makes Elaine even more nervous and she tries her best to get past Victor to no avail. So, she tries to get up and climb across the table but is pulled off, into a row of seats that line the wall of the plane. She doesn’t think about the closed plane door or the other men blocking the exit, she’s just trying something, anything to get away. As she struggles to get away from Victor again, Ivan appears with a cloth in his hand and moves towards the two, speaking in Russian. Elaine tries harder to escape Victor’s grasp but Ivan covers her mouth and nose with the cloth that has some kind of chemical on it and shortly, she finds herself unconscious. The two men lay Elaine across the seats on a pillow and cover her with a blanket as the plane leaves the ground....and her country…
She was awakening hours later by the strong smell of ammonia as they had broken a capsule and was waving it under her nose to wake her up. Slowly gaining her senses, they told her they were landing soon and they helped her to sit up. Still feeling groggy, she told them she was sick to her stomach and they helped her to the bathroom. She wasn’t really sick she was just trying to come up with some kind of plan before they left the plane. She managed to lock the door behind her which gave her a slight feeling of security but she knew it wasn’t much of a barrier between her and what was waiting on the other side of the door. Looking around the small room for something she might be able to use as a weapon, there was a knock on the door. She turned the water on and splashed some on her face, saying she would be out in a minute. Looking through the cabinets, the knocks on the door were harder and faster this time with a raised voice being heard saying, “You must come out now, we are landing”.
Unable to find anything that she could use in her defense, she just tried to stall, thinking once she left the plane, there was going to be less she could do to escape. All of a sudden, they busted in the door, grabbed her and started walking back to their seats as the plane landed.
Victor and Ivan each grabbed an arm of hers pulled her to her feet and she acted like she was still weak and buckled at the knees a little, making it more difficult for them to get her off the plane. They made their way to the door after the other two men had exited the plane. Waiting at the bottom of the stairs there was a long, black limousine with one of the men standing beside its open door. She still feigned weakness and they took each step slowly as she was still trying to stall and take in her surroundings.
Some signs that were possibly written in Russian were all she could see as they were in a private airplane hangar. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, she once again fought them as they put her in the car, scooted her over and each one took a spot beside her. The other man got in the driver’s seat, started the car and they left the airport, heading to an unknown destination.
Elaine tries to watch for some kind of landmarks to keep in her memory as Ivan takes out his cell phone and makes another call. About twenty minutes into the ride, she decides to try again to stall and says she thinks she’s going to be sick, hoping they might pull over and let her out, giving her a chance to run. Unfortunately, Victor pulls a plastic bag out of a small cabinet, hands it to her and says, “Here, use this”, foiling her plan.
She takes the bag, thinking she might be able to use it in the future. Victor tells her it’s a long ride and to get comfortable. She says, “It’s hard to get comfortable being squished between you two.” Even though Ivan is still on the phone, he hears Elaine and moves to another seat, but not too far away, giving her a look interpreted as: don’t try anything.
Thinking about the distance the two are from her, she wonders if she could make it to the door, get it open and jump out without them catching her. The injuries she might incur and where she would go if she makes it out of the car doesn’t cross her mind. She just wants away from these two and wherever they are taking her. As if Ivan knows what she is thinking, he gives her a disapproving look and ends his phone conversation.
He speaks to Victor in Russian and they seem to disagree about something as Victor’s voice gets a little louder and angrier sounding. They calm down after about ten minutes of arguing and Ivan returns to sitting next to Elaine, removing the bag from her hand that Victor gave her. They all sit quietly but she is still trying to come up with the next plan.
She has noticed they have left the city and seem to be heading to a hilly, wooded area. Road signs pass but are illegible to her, especially as it grows darker. All she can do is try to remember the way back to the city for if she does escape. They pull into a black, paved driveway that has a very tall gate which is closed. Ivan gets out goes up to a box with numbers on it and pushes in a code that opens the gate. As Elaine thinks about running out of the car and leans slightly in the open doors direction, Victor grabs her arm tightly and pulls her closer to him. The driver pulls the car up through the gate, Ivan gets back in and they drive down, what seems like a mile long driveway.
It is a lot darker now but Elaine can see a rather large, brick house, with four columns in the front and a very big water fountain in a circular drive, surrounded by manicured bushes. The limo is driven up as close as it can get to the front door and stops. Ivan opens his door, steps out, turns around and signals Elaine to exit as well. She hesitates saying, “Please take me home, don’t do this”, but Victor pushes her to the car door while Ivan lifts her feet out and they both manage to get her out of the car. Once again she acts weak to make them have to help her and fights them even harder as they take her through the door of the house.
She is put on a couch and told to stay there while the two talk in Russian again. With raised voices, they walk toward the open front door. Ivan points at Elaine then Victor, takes his cell phone out again and while still arguing with Victor, gets back in the car, begins to make a phone call, closes the car door and is driven down the driveway. Elaine starts to get up but Victor puts his hand on his gun as a silent threat. She decides to stay put.
CHAPTER 2
“What were you two arguing about?” she asks bravely. He says nothing, goes over to a bar that takes up a whole wall in the room and makes a drink. He throws it back, makes another one and drinks it while he heads over to the couch and sits down, sitting the glass on the coffee table in front of them. Elaine has been looking around and notices her astute surroundings. Obviously, whoever owns this place has a lot of money with the locked gate at the entrance, the large water fountain and the expensive looking furnishings in the house. And it is obvious they have a lot of power to send a private jet into the United States, kidnap her and fly out of the country, undetected. She doesn’t know anyone who lives in Russia let alone anyone with this kind of money and power. Who could possibly be the one that wants to meet her, that would take such risks? She doesn’t find it flattering; she finds it very scary and just wants to go home.
Getting away is looking more and more impossible as she noticed an alarm box at the front door and bars on the windows and Victor doesn’t go far. She was just about to ask a question when Victor says, “This is how it’s going to go” in a very stern sounding voice. “You do what you are told and you won’t get hurt.” He stands up, motions for Elaine to stand up as well, which she does, and he directs her down several hallways to a bedroom. He tells her this is where she is to stay, pushes her into the room, closes and locks the door behind her.
She listens at the door to make sure he is gone and can hear him talking in the hall, presumably on the phone. The sound gets fainter and fainter as if he’s walking away. She starts checking the two windows that are in the room, to see if she can get them open. Not only do they have bars on them but they are connected to the alarm system as well.
It’s a very large room with a king size, four poster bed between the two windows with tables on each side, holding lamps, a large ornate rug that almost covers the whole floor and a couch that lines the opposite wall of the bed. A live, potted tree is in one corner as well as plants and flowers in other locations throughout the room and on the edge of a fancy make-up table. There is a closet door and another door that leads to a big bathroom.
The bathroom has a Jacuzzi tub, double sink, tile floor and a shower that takes up half a wall, with a glass “door” that takes up half the size of the shower. The commode, a crystal looking chandelier and more plants round out the rest of the bathroom with no other door to the outside.
She knows that it is dark outside but she isn’t sleepy, probably from jet-lag. She sits on the couch, thinking about what all has happened, her family and friends back home and any way possible to get out of where she is. The clock on the wall says it’s about eight o’clock so she thinks it’s about noon at home. No wonder she isn’t sleepy and thinking about what she would be doing now if she was still home, helps to take her away from where she is for a while.
She drifts off in her mind then hears a key being put in the door which brings her back to reality. Victor comes in and asks her if she’s hungry. Her stomach is in knots from all the turmoil so she tells him no. He has a bowl of fruit and a bottle of some kind of drink that he sits down on the make-up table and while doing so says, “You should eat something” and leaves, locking the door once again. She understands now what the two were arguing about before. Victor has been made her babysitter and he doesn’t seem too thrilled about it.
There isn’t a television or books in the room so she starts looking through the walk in closet to kill some time. In it, she finds expensive clothes and shoes in her size. Do they belong to some female that lives there that happens to be Elaine’s size? Or were they bought just for her? It’s a scary thought to think they were bought just for her. Someone would have to be close to her to know her sizes. Had someone been stalking her at home? This keeps her up for hours, wondering what was going on and who could be behind it.
Victor comes in again but she’s too caught up in thought to have noticed. He tells her to go to bed. Startled, she says, “I’m not sleepy. Haven’t you heard of jet-lag?” He doesn’t seem happy with her answer and takes steps toward her. Knowing she’s about to be “helped” to bed, she stands up and starts walking toward the bed before he makes it to her. “Clothes in closet” he says, and points at the closet door. As he heads toward the bedroom door to leave, she acts like she’s going to look in the closet. After he leaves, she just crawls into the bed with what she is wearing, since it is the only thing from home she has now and it’s a small comfort to her. As she lays there with her mind racing about everything, she falls asleep.
At some point, through the night, she hears someone come into the room. She assumes it is Victor, coming to check on her. She acts like she’s asleep, hoping he will just go away because he makes her nervous, knowing he has a gun. She can sense him standing next to the bed, looking at her. Not sure what he is going to do, she lies motionless. He goes back out, and she gives a small sigh of relief, falling back to sleep.
Morning comes and she awakens to Victor prodding her to get up. She says, “Leave me alone” and rolls over. Not happy with this response, he pulls the covers off her and proceeds to physically remove her from the bed. “Why don’t you just leave me alone?” she repeats as she kicks and fights him the best she can as she is still half asleep. Not saying a word, he stands her up, gets her in a “head lock” and takes her to the bathroom. There, he sits her on the commode and hand-cuffs one of her arms to a towel rack that is beside her on the wall.
She is stunned as he starts taking off his clothes. As she averts her eyes away from him she asks, “What are you doing?” as a silent, now naked Victor, gets in the shower and turns on the water. Even in her peripheral vision, she can see that he is a well-built man. Most of the time, he has been behind or beside her. She hasn’t really been able to see what he looks like, until now.
Still looking away, she hears his wet foot-steps walking out of the shower. She can “see” him dry his hair and body with a towel then wrap the towel around the lower naked half of his body. Elaine gets nervous as he walks in her direction. He uncuffs her from the towel rack and says, “Take shower”. She replies that she doesn’t want to only to find her in a head lock again, being forced into the shower, clothes and all. Fighting him is useless as she stands, under his control, fully clothed, under the water, getting soaked. “Fine!” she yells, “OK, you win” and with that, he turns her loose, grabs his clothes from the bathroom floor and leaves as she sobs and finishes what he started. Even without his gun, she is powerless against him.
She returns to the bedroom and the closet is full of things for her to choose from but she would rather just put her own clothes back on. Since that isn’t an option, she picks the most comfortable looking thing she can find, a pair of pants and a top. There is a hair dryer in a drawer of the make-up table so she uses it and uses the make-up in it as well as she’s pretty sure it was bought for her anyway. She’s almost finished when Victor unlocks the door, pushes it open and tells her to follow him.
Walking through a part of the house she hasn’t seen yet, passing closed doors, the smell of food gets stronger as they enter a very large half kitchen, half dining room. He motions for her to sit at the table that already has places set and orange juice poured as he picks up a full coffee pot and walks to the table as well. Other than scrambled eggs, there are bowls and plates with food she doesn’t recognize already on the table.
After she sits down and drinks the orange juice, he places a spoonful of different foods onto her plate. Saying she isn’t hungry doesn’t stop him from adding toast. Sitting with her hands in her lap aggravates him as he says, “Eat something” and moves her plate closer to her. She repeats, “I’m not hungry” as he continues eating, removes his gun from its holster and sits it on the table where she can see it but not get to it as a reminder of who is in control. She sits quietly with her arms crossed at her chest, in defiance, while Victor eats. He finishes eating and returns his gun to its holster. He stands up, picks up his plate and Elaine’s, takes them to the sink and returns to remove the other dishes, two at a time. Not pushing her luck, she sits waiting for his instructions.
He scrapes off the dishes into the disposal and puts them into a dishwasher. He returns to the table and puts all the food into the refrigerator. He turns and tells her to get up and follow him. They walk down another hallway, into a living room and he says, “Couch” while he goes over to a television and turns it on. It’s better than staring at the walls but of course they are speaking Russian so she doesn’t know what they are talking about. He leaves the room and returns a short time later with the two cups of coffee, hands Elaine one and sits in a recliner to watch the TV, sipping on the other cup.
His phone rings as what looks like the news comes on the TV. She watches to see if there might be any mention of her abduction, a picture or something but what she can make out, there isn’t. The news finishes and Victor is still on the phone. She drinks the coffee and watches the next thing that comes on and listens to the tone of his conversation. He looks over at her while she sits her coffee cup on the table between them and she lays down on the couch to get comfortable. It could be the dullness of the TV or his voice or jet-lag but she finds herself falling asleep.
She wakes up hours later to find she is alone in the room. Was she drugged or was she that tired? She stands up, grabs the cup to take it back to the kitchen and starts down the hall in that direction. She doesn’t get far when she’s grabbed from behind and feels a gun in her side again. “I’m just taking this back to the kitchen” she says. Victor walks in front of her, still pointing the gun at her, takes the cup and motions for her to walk down the hall, in the direction of the bedroom. He clearly is upset she was walking around without him as he’s yelling at her in Russian. Pushing her down the hall with the gun in her back, makes her walk faster as they reach the bedroom door she’s shoved in, the door is slammed shut and is heard being locked behind her. She sits on the couch, knees to chin upset at what just happened. She can still hear Victor yelling as he walks away. Its hours before she calms down.
Tired of sitting, she goes over to the window to see if there are any landmarks to remember. It looks like they are in a forest as all she can see are trees. This doesn’t help her spirits as she was hoping there might be a way to send a signal to someone to help her. Feeling depressed, she crawls into bed and pulls the covers over her head.
CHAPTER 3
Waking up to find its still day light, she doesn’t want to get out of bed but Victor enters, telling her to get up. Remembering what happened last time he said that, she sits on the edge of the bed, glaring at him. “You have twenty minutes” he says, going back out the door. “Until what?” she asks back snidely. He stops and tells her to get herself together, that “He is coming” and to change her clothes.
Maybe that’s why he was so high strung earlier. Whoever “he” is, told Victor he was coming, it upset him and he took it out on Elaine. He clearly does not like being Elaine’s handler. This guy must be the one she’s supposed to meet. This brings that anxiety back, that pit in her stomach. He seems to make everyone very anxious.
She rifles through the clothes in the closet again. What is she supposed to change in to? She was surprised that Victor didn’t tell her what to wear. She doesn’t want to upset him again. He didn’t say anything about what she is wearing so she picks out something close to that. She fixes her hair and re-does her make-up. And she waits.
Watching the clock tick away the minutes she grows more nervous. The time limit she was given comes and goes. About forty minutes after her deadline, Victor silently comes back, grabs her by the arm and walks her down the hall that she walked down this morning but goes past the kitchen and living room, into a large office. She can hear male voices coming from somewhere, speaking in Russian so she can’t make out what they are saying.
The first half of the room is empty except for fancy carpeting. There is a big, ornate desk in front of a double window which is covered by heavy looking drapes in the other half of the room. Victor stops, puts handcuffs on her behind her back and sits her down in a single chair that sits facing the desk about three or four feet away. She turns around to see Victor at the door. He turns around and tells her to stay there and has that strong sound in his voice again.
The lighting is low but she looks around and on the desk to see if maybe there is a picture of this guy. The pictures on the wall are generic pictures of what looks like the surrounding woods. Some kind of flag, a couple of big, potted plants and two standing lights are the only other things she sees. Her nervousness increases as she hears the door open. She doesn’t turn around afraid it will be Victor with that angry look again.
A man in a suit and tie walks beside her then leans against the desk in front of her. She looks up to see his face. He smiles, hesitates and asks in a heavy Russian accent, “You know who I am?” Terror comes over her as she does recognize the man before her. Standing to her left, Victor bumps her arm as if to say, “Answer him”. He tells her to stand up but before she can, the man points to her arms, says something in Russian to Victor and Victor replies in the same. After a short conversation, Victor removes her hand-cuffs. She rubs her wrists as he put them on quite tight this time. The man bends down, picks up her hands and rubs her wrists. “He thinks you will try to hurt me”, he says smiling and shaking his head to say he doesn’t believe him.
He asks, “You know me?” Shaking, she nervously nods, “Yes”. He tells her to not be afraid but she can’t help it. She knows him to be the Russian President. She has heard on the news about things he has done, people he has had killed, and here he is, rubbing her wrists!! He obviously tells Victor to leave the room as he speaks to him causing Victor to leave. For some reason, this makes her even more nervous. Maybe because she has sort of gotten use to Victor. The only thing common to her since she left home has just gone out of the room.
His English is somewhat broken as he apologizes for not being there last night when she arrived. What? HE is apologizing to HER? “What do you want from me?” is all she can think to say at the moment as she is in shock. She takes a deep breath and bravely adds, “You kidnapped me and took me away from my home.” He smiles, pats her hands and says, “We have much to talk about. We talk again soon” he says as he bends over, holds her head in his hands and kisses her on the forehead. He leaves the room and leaves Elaine stunned, sitting in a chair wondering what next?
Afraid to move and so stunned she couldn’t if she wanted to, she just sits there and waits for Victor to come back. It seems like forever before he returns. She really does feel sick to her stomach at this point, coming face to face with the president of the largest country in the world, who had her kidnapped and taken out of her country. He rubbed her wrists and apologized to her. What could he possibly want with her?
Victor finally returns and escorts her back to her room. She can hear the male voices again in the distance as they walk down the hall that now smells of food. He still seems uptight as he slightly shoves her back into her bedroom door, locks it and double checks that it is locked this time and leaves. She puts her ear to the door to try to hear the tone of what is going on in the other room but she only hears muffled voices and can’t tell how many there are.
She paces back and forth, a nervous wreck. How could she be more nervous now than she has been over the last few days events?! A half hour or so goes by, Victor comes in and picks out a dress for her to put on and tells her to put her hair up. What now, she thinks…. She follows his instructions and he returns, looks her up and down this time, making sure she is suitable and they head to a dining room.
There she finds sitting at a table, Ivan has returned as well as the other two men from the plane, and the president is at the head of one end of the table. There are two empty spaces together by the president and she is directed there. She goes to sit in the one furthest away, with Victor in the other one but the president motions for her to sit closer to him. Victor seems to disagree with that decision and verbalizes such, only to have the president reiterate that he wants Elaine to sit closer to him. Victor pulls her arm over to the requested seating arrangement but gives her that look again, letting her know he is watching her. The president seems to look her up and down and gives Victor what looks like a nod of approval on her wardrobe change.
An unknown man pours red wine into a glass in front of her as all of the men are conversing, drinking and laughing. The president stands up, picks up his glass which seems to have something other than wine in it and the men follow suit. Elaine sits still and no one tells her to stand up, as if it’s a man thing. A toast is made then they all take a drink and sit back down.
A salad that looks like it’s made with potatoes, onions and mayonnaise is set before her. Victor elbows her, trying to prod her to eat again. The president grasps her hand and says, “It’s good, eat!” How can she? She should be hungry at this point since she really hasn’t eaten anything since she left her country but her stomach is still in knots. Still hesitating, Victor picks up her fork and hands it to her and she takes it in the spirit it was intended, knowing he wasn’t doing it to help her but to tell her she better start eating.
She takes the fork from Victor and takes a small bite of the salad. “Good? Uh?” The president asks Elaine. She tries to smile a bit and nods her head in agreement afraid of what Victor might do after everyone else leaves and it’s back to just him and her. “Drink” he says as the unknown guy refills everyone’s glass. Before she is prodded again, she picks up the wine glass and takes a sip. It is a very strong tasting wine. Something she isn’t used to but she knows she better try to get it all down one way or another.
Once again, the president says, “Eat, eat” to Elaine and she replies, “I’m not very hungry”, putting a hand on her stomach,” I have an upset stomach” to Victor’s everlasting chagrin. The president looks at Victor with a questioning look as if he doesn’t understand Elaine’s response. Victor seems to explain to him about Elaine’s earlier bout with not being hungry as she slightly hangs her head. He nods his head to Elaine in understanding.
The “waiter” comes by and removes everyone’s salad plate and returns with a plate that has, what looks like, meatballs, mashed potatoes and pasta. Various baskets filled with rye bread are also put on the table. It looks like vodka is added as an option as well. She has had a screwdriver before but never vodka by itself. This may not go well if she refuses it as she knows how Russians feel about vodka! She can feel the president’s eyes watching her, as well as Victor’s but she isn’t sure who she’s most afraid of at this point.
She takes another sip of wine, hoping it might numb her to all that is going on and hoping it might help her get through this meal. She tries a bite of each food, eating most of her mashed potatoes and about half of the others, hoping that will please everyone watching her. Nothing else is said about her eating habits which eases her mind.
Those plates are removed and yet another one is brought with what resembles a marshmallow cake, covered in chocolate. Tea is also served. She samples the cake and drinks the tea, happy the meal is over and her overseers seem pleased as well.
This good feeling is short lived. Elaine decides to ask her captor when she will be going home. He cocks his head to one side, picks up her hand, kisses the back of it and says, “You ARE home”. Shaking her head in disbelief she replies in a loud voice, “This will never be my home, please take me home.” He says something to Victor, who drops his fork, immediately stands up and pulls Elaine out of her chair. Tears start to well up in her eyes and she repeats, “Please take me home” as Victor is pushing her out of the door. This time, she fights Victor as he pushes her back to her room. He manages to get the hand-cuffs back on her, and after locking her in, she bangs and kicks the door, yelling, “Please take me home” over and over again until her hands and voice hurt.
She finally sits on the floor with her back on the wall, face in her hand-cuffed hands, crying harder than she ever thought possible. Is she really destined to never see home again?
CHAPTER 4
She sits in the dark, on the floor, leaning against the wall, not seeing any way out of the situation. Thinking about how her life has changed in the last few days and how it is going to change, brings tears to her eyes again. She takes her shoes off, one by one and as hard as she can, throws them into the darkness. She takes her hair down and crushes the clasp that was holding it up, throwing the pieces as well.
As she sits sobbing, someone comes through the door, looking around the room trying to locate her. The light from the hall shines in enough for her to see that it is Victor. He finds her on the floor, bends down to her level and removes the hand-cuffs saying something in Russian. Before leaving, he walks over and turns on one of the bedside lamps and looks around the room. She buries her face in her hands again. She hears the door shut and lock and Victor double checks to make sure it is locked again.
Too exhausted from the night’s events to get up, she stays where she is and winds up falling asleep. Male voices and laughter in the hall wakes her up. It’s very late. Why are those guys still here? They wouldn’t stay unless… Unless the president is still here as well. But, why would he stay there? Something tells her they will be speaking again tomorrow.
That’s probably why Victor checks the door twice since the president is there. He still thinks Elaine might try something. She’s beginning to think Victor is more afraid of the president than she is! She will be careful not to bring that up though.
The commotion in the hall settles down and she watches as the light under the door goes out. She pulls herself up from the floor and too exhausted to change clothes, gets into bed and turns the light off. The light from the moon peeks in through the curtains. Wondering what is going to happen tomorrow, she falls asleep.
Her first full night of sleep leaves her still feeling tired. She is surprised to not have a rude awakening like yesterday morning. As she is thinking that, the door is being unlocked. She closes her eyes and pretends to still be asleep. She feels someone move her hair off her face and kiss her on the cheek. Knowing it isn’t Victor only leaves one other person it could be and she tries to not start shaking. Should she “wake up” or still keep pretending to sleep? She decides to roll over and pull the blanket up further, burying her face halfway in the bed.
Something Russian is whispered in her ear and he leaves the room. How is she going to deal with this? Will she fight every day, believing she will wear them down and they will eventually let her go home or kill her? Or does she give in and try to conform, knowing the background of her captor? Victor could have killed her at any minute, and still could but she knows the president is calling the shots and after going through so much to get her here, he probably wants her around a while longer.
She knows staying in bed isn’t an option so she slowly gets up, grabs something to put on and heads to get cleaned up. Coming out of the bathroom she is met by Victor, holding other clothes for her to wear and a clip to put up her hair again. She must be going to meet with the president again as he seemed to like what she wore last night and what Victor picked out resembles that. The bed has been made and the room cleaned. That was all done while she was in the shower? That gives her a creepy feeling. She didn’t think to see if the bathroom door would lock but she will the first chance she gets.
Even though she wasn’t given a time table to get ready, she’s already conditioned to do so in about twenty minutes per Victor’s previous orders. She is escorted down the hall and into the room with the bar, where the president is standing by the front door. He holds out a hand in her direction as Victor walks over and opens the front door. Since she didn’t take his hand, he takes her by the elbow and walks out the door, toward a waiting limo.
Did he see how upset she was last night? Is he letting her go? For a moment she’s overcome with the thought of going home. She starts to get her hopes up as Victor enters the limo, then Elaine sits across from him, then the president sits next to her. Her heart swells and she starts to shake a little with hopefulness as they go down the long driveway and turn, if she remembers correctly, in the direction of the airport.
The two men converse as they travel down the road and she starts to see city buildings. Victor bangs on the glass to the driver, the car pulls over, stops; Victor gets out and then gets into the front seat of the limo, leaving the president and Elaine alone. This is somewhat disconcerting as Victor seems to be an interpreter for the two. This is quickly remedied by the president pulling out a cell phone, tapping on it a few times then speaks Russian into it. He holds it over to Elaine and a male voice is heard saying in English: “You are shaking?” She replies into the phone, “I’m nervous.” He grows a perplexed look on his face, speaks again into the phone…“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you”.
“I’m sorry you were so upset last night. I thought you could use some different scenery”, his phone responds. She is starting to think he isn’t letting her go that they are just going for a drive. This is confirmed when the phone says, “I like you in a dress, with your hair up” and rubs her folded hands that are in her lap.
This isn’t the action she was hoping for and they seem to just be driving around with no foreseen destination. He sits the phone on his knee and puts that arm around her shoulders. Her breathing increases as his other hand moves from hers to her knee. He picks up the phone, speaks, then aims it at her so she hears, “I think you will come to like it here”.
She takes the phone off his knee and says “Why did you kidnap me?” tired of not knowing. He removes his hand from her knee, takes the phone and replies, “I read a book you wrote a few years ago and wanted to meet you. Now that you are here, you will stay.”