Mia Mills heard her father's voice coming from the phone: "Mia! Are you alright? I just heard what happened! I have been trying to call you until now! Where are you?"
"I am alright. I told your assistant where I was, but I lied and told him I was in a coffee shop. I saw the same two men who tried to kidnap me enter a coffee shop almost fifteen minutes after talking with him. I don't know if he is working with those guys or if someone bugged my phone."
"I… don't think he did it… He has been by my side ever since you were little! Are you alone? Because I heard you left with one of my security guys! The other one that was in front of the building was sent to the hospital, beaten up but alive. He was shouting that his friend had taken you, so I didn't need to worry. He is with you? Call him! I must talk to him!"
Mia signalled Jack to approach and handed him the phone while saying, "My father wants to talk to you. Your friend went to a hospital, beaten but alive."
Jack sighed and grabbed the phone. "Hello. Can you send someone to get her? I am not paid enough for this, and I can't be in such a dangerous situation."
"What is your name? I know the other guy who went to the hospital is Billy Patel, so who are you?"
"I am Jack Cross. Your daughter told me you received some threats, but it seems she didn't do what you told her, to be careful, and carelessly went to see you this morning."
"Yes, she is very stubborn, and she never really does anything I tell her. If it wasn't for you, I don't know what could have happened, so I must thank you for keeping her safe. But this puts me in a dilemma. I need to find out what really happened and who is behind this, so I can't have her walking around so carelessly, so I need to ask you something."
Hearing that, Jack complained, "You are about to tell me to stay with her for a while, aren't you? Sorry, but I can't. For as much as you pay me, it is not enough to leave my daughter alone to be with yours."
"Right… But can't you take her with you? Do you have a safe place where she can hide for a few days until I figure this out? I won't tell anyone with whom she is, because it will be safer if no one knows who you are."
After some seconds of silence, Jack spoke, "Even if you say my name, the address your company has is my old address. I haven't updated my address yet in Human Resources. But by only knowing my name, some people could find out where my daughter studies and, from there, arrive at our home, so it will be better if you keep this secret. But having your daughter with me won't be free. Considering how much she annoys me, you will have to pay me a colossal sum of money for me to even consider this."
Mia was about to complain, but Jack put his open hand in front of her face and warned her, "Shut up. Grownups are talking here."
"Did you just tell me to shut up? Do you want to die, moron?"
Without even answering the angry young woman, Jack spoke to the phone, saying, "Make me an offer. A pretty good one or I am going to leave, and you have to send someone to get her. And don't even think about threatening to fire me, because I don't mind losing my job as long as I don't have to deal with any of this."
"What about a month's pay to keep her safe until I figure out all this?"
"One month's pay per day, just to make sure you won't drag this on forever."
"That would be a fortune! What about one month's pay and a raise after all this ends?"
With a grin, Jack retorted, "What about if I leave her here? One month's pay per day and a very good raise."
On the other side of the phone, the voice almost screamed, "What? It was only one month per day, and now you want a raise as well?"
"Have a good day." Jack answered, gave the phone back to the still angry young woman, and turned around towards the door.
Mia heard her father shouting over the phone and called Jack back, "Wait! My father agrees! Come back here! Are you really going to leave me?"
"First, I am not your servant. You can say, come here please, and I will go if I feel like it."
"What… do you…"
Seeing him go to the door again, Mia almost shouted, "Wait! Come here… please… I just… don't want to be alone here."
As he was walking back to the woman who was looking nervously at him, Jack warned her, "You need to mind the way you talk to me. If you want something, you say please, and then you say thanks if I do it. Also, you should immediately apologise if you did something wrong. I have no idea, nor do I care about how you were raised, but I don't like to be around rude people."
Jack grabbed the phone and said to the worried father on the other side, "She will call you back tomorrow and every day until you say it is safe for her to return. I am going to hide her like you asked, and I hope you don't forget your end of this deal."
"Of course. I never back down on my word. Just make sure nothing happens to her."
"I will definitely try. It will also depend on whether she does as I say. But I must warn you. If by chance we are found out and I have to choose between my daughter and yours, I will leave your daughter behind and escape with mine."
"I understand. I am also a father, so I know why you would do that. I only hope that decision won't be necessary. Let me talk with her again."
After receiving the phone back, Mia heard her father for a while, and she only nodded and agreed with him a few times. She would glance at Jack, who was looking through the window again, and before hanging up, she said in a low voice, "I will try to behave, father. But he annoys me so much! I have no idea what I did to him, but he really seems to not like me at all!"
When Mia hung up, she stared at Jack's back in silence, and if he sensed her stare, he returned to her side and called the selling lady.
When the woman returned to the front counter with a slight smile, Jack asked her to find some normal clothes for Mia, like some trousers and a blouse or something like that, with Mia looking at him, completely dumbfounded.
The sales lady took a few measurements of the still puzzled young woman and went to search the shelves, with Mia complaining in a low voice, "You want me to dress some of these clothes? Not even if I died!"
"You can't be in those clothes when we get out of here. You can keep those dark glasses of yours, but not the hat or the dress. Those guys saw how you are dressed, and they could still be searching for you."
Mia Mills bit her lower lip and nodded in silence. She peacefully followed the seller to the changing rooms and tried on the clothes she handed over to her.
After some time, she got out and waited for Jack while he was checking her. He made a single nod and returned to the front window, with her sighing and following the selling lady to pay for her new clothes, receiving a bag where she put her extremely expensive dress, purse, and hat.
The selling lady called Jack, and they both left through the back door, thanking her for all the help.
While accompanying Jack along the alley, Mia asked in a low voice, "Where are we going? Do you have someplace where I can wait for my father to fix all this mess?"
"We are going to the next subway station and then make a quick stop at a grocery shop. We are going to my place to wait for my daughter. I was supposed to go get her after school, but I think that as soon as she realises I am not going to get her, she will come home by herself. You better lower that arrogant attitude of yours next to her, or things might not end well for you. My daughter is still very young, but she has a really bad temper, and if you annoy her, she will for sure knock you out."
"As if a kid would ever lay a hand on me!"
"Don't tell me I didn't warn you, then. Let's go and look around as we go to check if you see any of those guys."
When they exited the alley, Mia pulled Jack's arm, pointed to a bank on their left side and said, "I need to get some cash from that ATM. We might need money to pay stuff, and if I use my credit card every time and those guys can track it…"
"Okay. Let's go then. I will stand on watch, but try to be fast. We can't be out in the open like this. I prefer if we are out of sight, just in case those guys are still around here."
While looking at both sides of the busy street and checking the cars that were driving along it, Mia asked, "Do you really think they didn't give up on me yet? We saw them leaving, so they are probably already far away!"
"We never know. Go take care of the money, and let's get out of here. All these people around make it difficult for me to figure out if we are safe or not."
While taking her bank card from her purse, Mia said, "Well, even if you don't like how this turned out, you are not doing a bad job as a security guy, you know?"
"Right… less talk and more movement, lady! We don't have all day!"
Frowning, Mia put the card in the ATM and mumbled, "Rude guy… What did I ever do to him? I just tried to compliment him, and he answered in such a way…"
After retrieving the money and placing it in her purse inside the bag she was carrying, Mia followed Jack along the sidewalk, down the stairs to the metro entrance, then to a machine to buy her ticket, through the automatic tools, and then to a seat near a wall.
In silence, Mia looked around, looking at the faces that were like her, waiting for the subway, trying to see if she saw one of those men who tried to grab her in front of her father's building.
The memory of all the violence she saw, together with the unknown about her safety that she felt at that moment, came rushing in waves, and she started to tremble.
Jack noticed, and while gently squeezing her hand, he whispered, "Pull yourself together! This is not the time for you to call attention to us! When we get to my home, you can be scared or cry all you want, but not now!"
"I don't want to cry… I mean… Aargh! You are so annoying! I am just nervous! All this is too much! I was supposed to be with my friends doing some shopping, but now I am stuck with you and all these people around in this filthy place! How can people stand this stench? I think someone puked around here! The smell is making me nauseous!"
Noticing that Mia was quickly cleaning her eyes with the back of her hand, he made a slight smile while saying, "Yes, be angry about the smell and forget everything else! Be angry with me if you want; it might help you not to notice the stench."
With a frown, Mia was about to say something, but she realised what he was doing, and she almost smiled at him. Instead, she kept complaining in a low voice about everything, like the surrounding noise, the lack of fresh air, or how there was not enough light for her to see clearly the ugly faces around them.