Page 63 of Home Again

18

“Wake up!”

Gianna heard something, but it didn’t make sense.

“Wake up!”

Pain shot through her upper arms, and her body shook. Pain speared through her head.

“Wake up!”

Water exploded across her face. “Ahhhhhhh. Stop,” she pleaded. When she lifted her lashes, water dripped into her eyes so she slammed them shut. She tried to rub her eyes but someone’s hands held her arms so she couldn’t.

“What’s happening?”

“Get her cleaned up. We need to start the video,” a familiar voice spoke.

Something rough scrubbed her face and she started to cry; the pain was excruciating. “Please stop,” she begged.

It was a towel. When she realized her arms were loose, she tried to push him away when he started to rub her hair. “Stay still or I’ll hit you,” he growled.

Gianna opened her eyes again. She could barely make out anything in the dim light. Then someone sparked a flame, and she saw Bradley Fontenot’s face while he lit a cigarette. He was watching her dispassionately.

“Be sure to get off all of the blood and mud, I need them to be able to clearly see her face.”

She remembered now. They were going to make a video and then kill her. Gianna started to tremble. It got so bad that she listed, and would have fallen off the chair if the man drying her hadn’t shoved her back on it.

“Brad, she can’t sit up,” the man said. “I’m not sure she can do the video.”

“I don’t care if we have to do it with her lying on the floor. We need to give them the first one tonight. Got it?”

First one. Thank God. They were going to do more than one. I still have a chance to live.

“How’s that?”

Fontenot walked over to her, bent down, and grabbed her by the chin, forcing her head up. “Not good enough.” Gianna saw him reach down to the floor, pick up a bottle of water, and open it. He poured it over her head.

“Goddammit, that was my only dry towel,” the other man complained.

“Use your shirt.”

Gianna was able to sit upright in the hardback chair as the tall, skinny man stepped back and pulled off his shirt, then he threw it over her head. She gagged at the overpowering smell of body odor. He rubbed the foul-smelling cloth all over her head, making her eyes water. She tried to get away from him, but she couldn’t. Finally, he ripped the rank shirt away.

“There, does that meet with your approval?”

“It’ll do,” Fontenot said as he threw down his cigarette.

He pulled a phone out of his back pocket and fiddled with it.

“That’s not your phone,” the skinny guy said.

“Of course it’s not,” another voice chimed in. That’s when Gianna realized there was someone else in the room. “Our cuz wouldn’t use his real phone; that could get traced back to him. You really are a stupid fuck.”

“Both of you shut up. I need to concentrate. I need to make sure the flash is working.” Fontenot was still looking down at his phone and Gianna was desperately trying to think of something to say or do. Anything.

“Got it.” Fontenot looked up at her and grinned. “Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to tell lover boy that he needs to cough up five million, or you die. How Armand explains it, it’ll take a few days for him to get access to it, but after he does, Armand will give him wiring instructions. You tell him I won’t hurt you, and I’ll let you go.”

“I don’t have a lover,” Gianna protested. “And I don’t know anybody who has that kind of money.”