She had fallen asleep in the chair next to him and fallen into a sleep that was filled with accusations and yelling from every angle.
Tart! Mathew called her. With condemnation in his eyes.
Loose woman! A shameless, loose woman! Her mother-in-law shouted so viciously her veins seemed as if they would pop out of her neck.
I did not raise a daughter like this! Her mother shouted. I raised a proper lady, her mother's face twisted in her disappointment. Not a disgrace like you! Go back to your husband and seek forgiveness!
Then she was spinning again. Farther, farther away and she seemed to be looking for something. For someone.
Amara? She was not sure. There seemed to be someone out there waiting for her. Maybe, she wouldn't be a disgrace to that person. Maybe she wouldn't be a tart. Maybe he wouldn't call her loose and shameless.
He?
She jerked awake to a sound close to her and she was blinded for a while by the glare of morning light that penetrated through the windows. The sky looked purer, more colourful from up here. She thought before she realised that something had woken her.
She looked beside her and her heart thumped hard against her chest. Where was he?
She sat upright as she saw that the harness had been unlocked. What? She almost looked outside before she realised the ridiculousness of her actions.
She was about to call out to Bassett when she heard a groan from… beneath! She bent down and there he was. The idiot.
He was trying to turn himself over. He must have fallen off while he was trying to walk after removing the harness. Again, she thought. Idiot.
"Hi" he grinned at her, more like gritting his teeth "I know that this is embarrassing but do you think you could probably help me up? It is not comfortable down here"
She realised she was just crouched there, gaping at him. She quickly get up but before she could get to him. She heard Basset's voice "I heard…Cade!" he shouted as he saw him on the floor.
Together they lifted him back to the bed and she saw that his wound had opened again.
"Are you bent on finishing yourself off? This is the second time you are reopening that" she pointed accusingly at him.
"Really? When was the other time?" Basset asked in surprise.
"Last night" she answered grudgingly as she went to the built-in cabinet to get the medical kit again. She sighed heavily and asked Basset to help her.
Together they changed him again.
Serena told herself that she was not fazed by his boyish grin nor was she charmed by the fact that he cuffed his brother on the side of his head when she told him that she was kidnapped. No, she was not amused by the fact that he tried to give her a half bow in his sitting position, for saving his life.
The bow had ended in him grimacing in anguish and earned him a scolding from her.
He was able to eat some food but he tired easily and was unable to complete the discussion he wanted to have with his brother before he grew drowsy again.
Serena had gotten some things though. He was betrayed by his aide and from the little she heard, the man had better run as far as he could get. Heads were going to roll. She shivered a bit when she realised that that statement applied literally to these people not figuratively.
From the burly men surrounding them to the way the younger brother whisk out the gun at the slightest provocation, she had known that they were no simple people but now she wondered what exactly were they. Gangsters? Drug Lords? Organised crimes? Oh God, what had she gotten herself into?
She wondered as she watched him sleep. Basset had gone back to give instructions to the men. As if he could read her thought, Kincaid opened his jade green eyes and winked at her, that roguish wink of his in place. Serena looked away and prayed that she could get back home on time. On time for what, she had no idea since they would already discover her missing by now anyway.
Basset became more agreeable after his brother woke up and he answered her question when she asked him where they were going. She had asked him before of course. When they were sniping at each other. Right before she was cuffed.
The mood in the plane seemed to have lightened considerably after Kincaid woke up. The men talked more freely though in hushed tones so as not to wake him up. Serena did not need to be told that he was their leader.
Basset told her they were from the Island country of Kiribati, a country that consisted of 33 Islands with a total population of 123,573 people in all the states. Aslanov Island was the biggest of all headed by the Aslanov clan. Their family was like the supreme power of the Island even though there was an executive set up in place.
Serena couldn't believe her ears. A whole country with a population just a bit more than that of Chevsko? She couldn't believe it. She had never paid much attention to the geography of the world. The only time she had travelled beyond the shores of Chevsko had been when she had gone to Inglewood for her studies, where she met Mathews.
She had been elated back then and thought it fate that they were from the same hometown. Now, she realised how much she had lost. Just like a fish in a well, she knew little of the world outside Chevsko.
Kincaid was still asleep when they arrived at the private landing pad that belonged to the Aslanovs. He smiled at her and informed her that he would be a better host when he got better. He merely closed his eyes back when she told him that she just wanted to go back home as soon as possible.
She and Kincaid were in the backseat of the Lamborghini Sia Roadster while Basset was in the front with the driver. A few paces away from the pad, a man hailed them and Basset told the driver to stop.
Serena had no idea what they were saying as they were speaking in a native language. She guessed. All of a sudden the man was gesturing wildly and just as Basset told the driver to reverse, Serena heard it.
The unmistakable sound of a gunshot!
"Get down!" Basset shouted as he whisked his gun out and tried to get his bearings.
Serena's eyes widened when she saw the man who was talking to Basset earlier jerked violently and went down with a great thud.
"What is…" Kincaid started to say as he woke up groggily but he became alert instantly. "What the hell, Bass?" he yelled.
"Get down, Cade! They are up there" he pointed at the top of a building close to the road.
"The hell I would get down! Get me a stick!" he shouted back, stretching his hand forward.
Serena almost asked "What stick?" before she saw Basset toss a mean-looking gun to his brother even while returning fire. The driver drove at a crazy speed trying to lose them.
"Get down" Kincaid yelled at her before rolling down the window at his side.
Serena vowed that if she escaped this, she would never complain of how ordinarily boring her life had become again. She did not want this kind of excitement. She wanted to go home.
"Shit! Oh fuck shit!" she heard Bassett say and when she chanced a look out the window, the sound she had been hearing was not in her imagination.
Masked bikers were rotating them, almost as if they were taunting their helplessness. Their sinister look was nothing compared to the pumping action guns in their hands even as they revved their bikes.
Serena saw her life flash before her eyes. She was going to die.
A little rebellion and she was going to die.
On an island in the middle of nowhere