Back on Solid Ground (28 page)

“Excuse me,
but we have had complaints from several of our other patrons,” the manager
started, but he stopped mid-sentence.  “Mr. Ramos!” he said, smiling.  “I
didn’t realize you were with us tonight!  I’m glad to see you are enjoying
yourself.  Let me buy you a round.”

Ramos shook
hands with the manager.  “Absolutely!” Ramos slurred. 

The manager
went back to the patrons that had complained and Ramos watched as their faces
turned red and then they got up and stormed off.  When the manager returned
with the drinks, the three men were singing
Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay
in drunken voices, and by the time they came to the end of the song, everyone
in the bar had joined in singing. 

Eli came back
over to the table and sat down by Jason.  “We’re going upstairs,” Eli said. 
“Keep an eye on him, will you?” motioning to his brother,

“Yeah.  He’s
fine,” Jason said.  He looked over to see whom Eli was leaving with.  “Which
one are you with?” he asked him.

“The one in
the white shirt,” Eli said.

Jason
couldn’t focus.  “Does she look better up close?” he laughed.

“Fuck off,”
Eli said.  “See you tomorrow.”

“Wait,” Jason
said.  “Who’s Carlos with?”

“The chick in
the red dress,” Eli said, trying to get away.

Jason looked
but he was seeing double.  “Twins?”

Eli rolled
his eyes and moved over to Niki.  “Keep an eye on Jason,” Eli said.  “He’s shit
faced.”

Niki looked
up and there was a long pause while his brother came into focus. “Eli!” Niki
exclaimed.  “Where are you going?”

“Upstairs.”

Niki sat up
straight and looked in the direction of the group Eli had been sitting with. 
“Which one are you leaving with?” he slurred.

“The one in
the white shirt.”

“Should I
meet her?” Niki asked.

Eli was
confused.  “Why?”

Eli had gone
out of focus again and Niki opened his eyes wide and blinked. “Well, I don’t
know.  Do you like her a lot?” Niki asked.

“Not really. 
What difference does it make?”

“The
difference is, if she’s somebody special, I should meet her because I am your
brother.  If she’s not, it doesn’t make any difference whether I meet her or
not,” Niki explained, waving his hand.

Eli laughed. 
“What is that, drunk logic?  In answer to your question, no, you don’t need to
meet her.”

“Oh. Too
bad,” Niki slurred.

“You should go
to bed,” Eli advised.  “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Eli went back
to his table laughing and told Carlos, “They’re both shit faced!  I haven’t
seen Niki that drunk in years.”

Carlos
laughed.  “It’s good for him.  He needs a release,” he said, looking over at
Niki.  He turned back to Eli, “He’s going to be hell to live with for the next
couple of months.” 

“We’re going
to have to take every job we can just to keep him sane.” Eli moved back to his
chair and put his arm around his date. “Let’s get out of here,” he told her,
and they got up and left the bar.  Carlos and his date left shortly thereafter.

Niki, Jason
and Ramos drank long into the night and when they finally staggered to their
rooms it was well past 2:00 a.m.  Niki managed to get one shoe off before he
fell on the bed and passed out. 

Holly drove
Stacy to her high-rise condominium and Agent Parker was coming out of the
elevator as they were going in. 

“Hi, Agent
Parker,” Stacy said.  “Were you looking for me?”

“Good morning,
Stacy,” Parker said.  “Yeah, I’m glad I ran into you.  I have a man posted
upstairs, the name is Kanes.  And another agent will relieve him tonight.”

“Okay.” 

“We’d like to
bring some photos over in a day or so, after you’ve had some time to rest, and
see if you can identify any of your kidnappers,” Parker said.

“Whenever you
want,” Stacy said.

“Good.  I’ll
call you tomorrow.”

Stacy and
Holly took the elevator to the penthouse.  A cute, clean-cut guy in a suit was
sitting outside her door and he stood up when they got off the elevator and
stuck out his hand to Stacy.

“Hello, Ms. Trent.  I’m Agent Kanes with the FBI.  I’ll be keeping an eye on you for a little while.”

Stacy shook
his hand.  “It’s nice to meet you . . . what was your first name?”

“Alex.  Alex Kanes.”

“It’s nice to
meet you Alex.  Please call me Stacy.  This is my friend Holly.”

“Nice to meet
you, Holly,” Alex said.

Holly
unlocked the door with her key and Stacy turned back to Alex before she went
in.  “Can I get you anything?  A cold drink or a snack or something?” Stacy
asked.

“No, I’m
fine, thanks,” he said, smiling. 
She’s beautiful even with two black eyes
,
he thought
.

“Well, let me
know if you need anything,” she said, closing the door.

“I guess I
need to have the locks changed.  And my credit cards.  I wonder where my purse
ended up after the bank robbery,” Stacy said.   Now that she was home, she felt
overwhelmed with things that needed to be taken care of.

“Your cards
were probably canceled already since you were presumed dead, but you don’t need
to be worrying about any of this today, anyway,” Holly said.  “You look tired. 
Why don’t you go lie down?”

“On the
couch,” Stacy said.

“Okay.  Lie
down and I’ll get you a pillow and blanket,” Holly said.  She went into Stacy’s
bedroom and took her pillow off her bed, grabbed a blanket from the closet and
brought them out to the living room.  Stacy was at the window looking out and
hadn’t heard Holly come back in.  When Holly came and stood next to her, Stacy
jumped out of her skin. 

“Shit!” Stacy
said, embarrassed.  “I’m so jumpy.”

“Can you talk
about it?” Holly asked.

Stacy looked
at Holly.  They had been friends forever and Stacy trusted Holly with her
life.  She was trying to figure out how much of the story she should tell her. 

Holly sensed her
hesitation, “Is it too painful?”

“I need you
to swear to me that you won’t tell a soul what I’m about to tell you, Holly.”

“I swear,
Stacy.”

They went
over and sat on the couch and Stacy took a deep breath before she began.

“I wasn’t in Colombia the whole time I was gone,” Stacy said.  “I was actually kidnapped twice.”

Holly’s eyes
got big.  “What the . . .”

Stacy stopped
her mid-sentence. “No.  It gets worse,” Stacy said.  “I really, really like one
of my first kidnappers,” Stacy said, choosing her words carefully.  Stacy
waited for it to sink in, and she involuntarily flinched waiting for Holly to
light into her. 

Holly stared
long and hard at Stacy. “You need to start from the beginning,” she finally
said.

Stacy took a
deep breath.  “Okay. These four guys who robbed the bank took me to an island
somewhere out in the Caribbean.  And while I was there, I figured out that my
father had paid someone to kill me.”

“Whoa, back
up!  Your father paid someone to kill you?” Holly said in disbelief.  “I don’t
believe that for a second.”

“It’s true,
Holly,” Stacy assured her.

“And what? 
Now you think you like some guy whom your father paid to kill you?” she asked.

“No, it’s not
like that.  The guys who kidnapped me were not the ones my father hired, and
they ended up helping me hide my assets from him,” Stacy said.

“But you ‘
really,
really like
’ one of the bank robbers?  One of the guys who shot you?” Holly
asked, not believing what she was hearing.

“Yes, but
they didn’t shoot me on purpose,” Stacy said.  “I know how it sounds, but you
just had to be there,” she said.  “Let me just finish and we’ll go back to that
part.  Three or four days ago, a helicopter landed on the island and they
grabbed me and took me to Colombia.  That was the man whom my father had hired. 
They’re the ones who beat me up, not Niki.”

“Niki? 
That’s his name?” Holly asked.  “And he didn’t beat you up, he just shot you. 
But he didn’t shoot you on purpose.  Do you see how this sounds?”  Stacy tried
to talk, but Holly cut her off.  “Stacy, there’s a name for this – it’s called
Stockholm Syndrome – and you’re a classic textbook example.”  Stacy looked like
she was going to cry.  “I’m sorry.  Go ahead,” Holly said.

“Never mind. 
I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Come on,
Stacy.  I’m just worried about you,” Holly said.  “You’re abducted and reported
dead, you’re shot and beaten, but somehow you manage to make it home alive, and
then you tell me you ‘
really, really like
’ your kidnapper,” Holly said. 
“I’m telling you those are classic symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome that affect
kidnap victims.  You just need to talk to someone, Stacy.  We’ll get you fixed
up,” Holly assured her.

“I’m talking
to
you
, but you’re not listening!” Stacy exclaimed.  “It’s not a
syndrome!  I
love
him.  There. I said it.” 

Holy crap.
She’s worse off than I thought
, Holly thought to herself.  “Okay, Stacy. 
Let’s come back to that.  What happened in Colombia?” 

“Well, the
guy took me from the island at gunpoint and put me on the helicopter and I was
fighting him and that’s when he slugged me.  And they ended up taking me to a
filthy, disgusting motel and that’s where I was able to escape.  The lead guy
left, so there was only one man guarding me.  I went in the bathroom and broke
the mirror and I made a knife out of a shard of glass.  And then I knocked on
the door that he was guarding and he opened it and while he had his hand on the
doorknob, I slashed his wrist.”

“Shit,
Stacy!” Holly said, horrified. 

“I know.  It
was awful. Blood squirted out everywhere, but it didn’t even seem to bother
him.  He threw me down and was beating me up and his blood was going all over
me.  It was all over my face and on my hands. 
Everywhere
.  He pulled
his hand back again to hit me and I managed to get my arm up and I brought the
glass blade down in his neck.”

“Oh my God!”
Holly said. 

“He reached
up and grabbed his neck and I got out from under him and crawled to the corner
while the blood drained out of his body,” Stacy said.  Holly had gone pale.  “I
watched the guy die and I didn’t have an ounce of remorse for what I had done.”

“Hell no, you
didn’t have remorse.  The guy would have killed you, Stacy!  You don’t feel
guilty do you?”

“No.  Not
guilty.  I feel sick when I think about it.  When I think that I was capable of
that,” Stacy said.

“Well don’t. 
You wouldn’t be sitting right here today if you hadn’t done exactly what you
did,” Holly told her.  “So then what did you do?”

“I knocked on
all the motel doors.  There were two cars parked outside, and finally a man
answered and I begged him to help me.  He put me in his car and that’s the last
thing I remember until I woke up here.”

“And he took
you to the Embassy?”

“Yeah.  I
need to get a hold of him,” Stacy said.  “Agent Parker said he could get a name
and number for me.”

Holly was quiet
for a minute then she broached the subject again.  “So, tell me how it all came
about with this Niki guy.”

Stacy sat
straight up.  “I wonder if he knows I’m okay.  Maybe he’s called,” she said,
getting up and going into the kitchen to check her answering machine. 

Holly
followed her into the kitchen.  “You’re thinking he would call and leave you a
message?” she asked in alarm.

“I know he’ll
come after me,” Stacy said.  “But I don’t know if he’ll call or not.”

Holly was
horrified.  “Stacy, you’re freaking me out.  I’m really, really, really worried
about you.”

Stacy
laughed.  “Holly, I know you think I’m being delusional, but I swear to God,
I’m not.  The guy is gorgeous, you couldn’t help but fall in love with him. 
Even when I hated him I was attracted to him.”

“He’s
gorgeous?” Holly asked.

“Yeah, they
all were.  I mean the first group.  The second group were all mean and
disgusting, like you imagine kidnappers to be.”

“Niki is
gorgeous?” Holly repeated.

“Drop dead,”
Stacy said.

Holly stomped
her foot.  “I swear!  Only
you
would be kidnapped by a gorgeous guy
named
Niki
!” Holly said.  “Did you have sex with him?”

Stacy couldn’t
help but smile. 

“You did!  Oh
my God!,” Holly exclaimed.  “I don’t even have to ask if it was good!  I can
tell by the smirk on your face,” Holly said, and Stacy laughed out loud.  Holly
stood back and crossed her arms.  She looked at Stacy and shook her head. 

“You are,
aren’t you?  You’re in love with him,” she said.

“I love him,
Loretta,” Stacy said, and Holly laughed.  “Niki’s brother Eli actually knew
that line,” Stacy said. 

“Get out!  Who
else was there?” Holly asked.

“Well, there
was Jason,” Stacy said, and she filled Holly in on her first encounter with him
on the beach.

“What’s he
look like?” Holly asked.

“He’s tall with
sun bleached blond hair.  A surfer type guy.  Pretty darling.”

“And what
does Niki look like?”

“Niki is tall
with these brown, kind of loose curls.  Great body, awesome chest, nice arms,”
Stacy said, “and green eyes the exact same color as mine.”

“No way,”
Holly said.

“Way.”

“And the
other guy?  What was he like?”

“Carlos was 
different from the others.  He was sweet.  I don’t know how he ended up being a
bad guy.  He’s psychic and he messes around with herbs and stuff.  Apparently
his grandmother was a healer,” Stacy said.

“Who cut your
hair?” Holly asked.

“
The hair.
That’s a story unto itself.  When we left the bank, they crammed me into a
disgusting burlap sack, and then they couldn’t get it off of me because I had
dried blood all over my hair and it was stuck to the sack.  I was passed out
and the jerks butchered my hair to get the bag off.  I was so pissed the first
time I saw it,” Stacy said.