Dear Adam (38 page)

Eden was too excited to eat, but she ordered
plate after plate, one every hour. She was willing to pay for
occupying her window-side table for four hours, until the bookstore
closed. She was careful not to consume too much water. She couldn’t
risk going to the bathroom and missing Adam altogether.

The afternoon went by slowly. Only two more
people entered and left the bookstore after she did, an elderly
couple. When the bookstore closed, Eden finally paid up her bill
and left a big tip. She wanted to be welcomed when she came back
tomorrow and quite possibly the days after that.

Despite not finding Adam that day either,
Eden was far from let down. She was much closer than she had been
the day before. She felt almost happy as she went back to her hotel
room. It had been a fruitful excursion. As she unlocked the door,
her thoughts went back to Jack Knightley. Who was he and why was he
so intent on her?

She entered her room and was immediately
pulled in, the door slamming shut behind her. A large hand clamped
down on her mouth as she was pinned from behind. She struggled but
an arm held her fast, crushing her chest so she couldn’t
breathe.

“
Listen to me, you stupid
bitch,” growled a man’s voice in her ear, deep and low. “I’ll crush
your stupid little head if you don’t stop moving.” She stopped
struggling. In an instant all her pores started sweating with fear.
She could feel it rising in her body, pouring out of her. Her mind
had gone into panic, blank except for one thought. Whatever this
man was about to say, it didn’t matter. He was going to hurt
her.

With her hand still on her mouth, he stopped
pinning him to her and quickly ripped the purse from her shoulder
and threw it on the bed. He then grabbed her long hair and wound it
tightly around his hand.

“
You’re not going to scream
because the second that you do, I’m going to smash your face into
the wall. I’ll be gone by the time they find your dead body. Nod if
you understand.”

Eden nodded.

He took his hand from her mouth, then jerked
her roughly by hair further inside. She bit back a gasp of pain.
She stumbled but he pulled her up by her hair then dragged her to a
chair and shoved her down. He had been behind her the whole time so
she still did not know what he looked like or who he was.

“
Now. I can see that you’re
going to be good. You’re going to do exactly as I say and tell me
everything I need to know because at any time, for any reason, I
can snap your neck in two.” He put a large hand around her neck and
squeezed hard until he extracted a strangled whimper out of her. He
eased but his hand remained on her throat.

“
You’re not going to lie to
me because I already know why you’re here.”

No. It couldn’t be. She couldn’t have been
this wrong about him.

“
I’m going to ask you a
question and you’re going to answer truthfully. Where is
Adam?”

“
I don’t know what you’re
talking about. I don’t know anyone from around here.”

“
Dear Adam,” he recited as
he began choking her, squeezing her throat tighter and tighter with
each word. Eden put her hands on his, tearing at it as she thrashed
in the chair. “I’m here in Agrigento until Sunday. I know this is
very sudden and unexpected but I would like to see you and talk.
I’m at the Hotel Della Luna, Room 103. Please meet me. It would
mean the world to me. Eden.” He let go and she gasped, taking big
gulps of air. Her throat burned.

“
Where is Adam?” he asked
again.

“
I don’t know and that’s
the truth!” Eden cried. “If I knew do you think I’d leave that note
for him?”

“
You’re a very stupid
bitch,” he whispered. “But useful.”

“
Who are you?”

Instead of answering, he pulled her hands
behind the chair and tied them together with what felt like rope.
He started moving around behind her and then went to the window. It
was still dark in her room, so she could barely make him out. He
opened the drapes just an inch and scanned the outside quickly
before shutting them again. From the small slant of light that
briefly shone on his face, Eden was able to recognize him. He was
the man from the bookstore, the one she had bumped into and who
then followed her in.

Memories of the self-defense classes ran in a
confused jumble in her mind. Eden tried to sort them out. Images of
her instructor demonstrating how to react when being attacked from
behind, when being choked, but she remembered them too late. There
had never been a class on what to do when you were tied to a
chair.

This was it. Her worst nightmare come true.
She was trapped and helpless with no way out. She could feel
herself shutting down, an old mechanism from her failed marriage
being triggered into life. Becoming numb. Starting to pretend this
isn’t happening. Telling herself that he’ll only hurt her worse if
she fought back. Be as quiet and as still as possible and she’ll be
fine afterwards.

But she won’t be fine afterwards. This stark,
cold knowledge cut through the cottony numbness that was spreading
through her mind. He wasn’t going to let her go unharmed if she
cooperated. Once he gets what he wants, which is Adam, she’ll be of
no use to him. He’ll kill her. And if he doesn’t get what he wants,
he’ll still kill her. She will die no matter what.

Eden remembered the same thing her instructor
always said just before class ended: “Do whatever it takes to come
out alive.”

She began to sob and slumped down on the
chair. “Please don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything you want.” She
didn’t need to fake sounding scared.

She bowed her head in submission but watched
him move around the room. He had a British accent that was rougher
than either Adam’s or Jack’s. About 5’9 - 5’10”, with a stocky
build. Very strong and muscular. In a struggle between them, he
would overpower her easily every time. But she can’t think about
that now or else she’ll remain paralyzed with fear. She forced
herself to remember the ultimate outcome if she did nothing.

The rope around her wrists was very securely
fastened, no wiggle space whatsoever. She surveyed her room without
moving her head, continuing to sob quietly and cower. If she could
somehow free herself, it would take at most 10 seconds to run to
the door, undo the locks, open it, and run out. Out the door, she
had to run down the long hallway, and the stairwell was somewhere
to her right. She couldn’t remember exactly where. All she had to
do was free herself and get to the door, but she had to go through
him first.

He dumped the contents of her purse on the
bed and picked up her iPhone. He pressed the home key and up came
the lock screen. It illuminated him. His face was nondescript,
bland. Forgettable. He didn’t look like he could hurt anyone.

“
What’s the
password?”

“
There isn’t one. I have to
be holding it for it to open. It scans my thumbprint.”

He went behind her chair and put the iPhone
in her right hand. She gripped the phone and pressed on the screen
with her thumb.

“
It’s not
working.”

She tried again. The iPhone slipped and fell
to the floor. He shoved it back in her hand. She pressed on the
screen once more but the frustrated sound he made indicated that
her phone was still unlocked.

“
It was working just now. I
used it all day today. But not like this.”

He grunted. He took the phone away from her
hand.

“
Don’t fucking try
anything.” He started undoing the rope. Once it was loosened, her
right hand was free. But he was still holding onto her left
hand.

“
Try it again. The way you
normally do it.” He placed the phone in her right palm.

She brought the phone in front of her and
pressed her thumb on the screen while her fingers gripped the back.
It instantly unlocked. He took the phone from her and immediately
tied her hands together again. Once he was done, he came around to
her, holding the phone and looking at it with marked interest.

“
Where’d you get
this?”

“
From my phone
company.”

“
No, this app.”

“
It’s not an app. I don’t
know what it is. He – Adam – sent it to me and had me install it. I
don’t know how it works.”

This interested him even more. She could see
the excitement on his face.

“
Did Adam call you on this
phone?”

She hesitated. But all he had to do was
scroll through her old calls and Adam’s name would pop up. “Yes.
But the number doesn’t work anymore. You can try it and see for
yourself.”

He pressed on her screen a few times and then
held the phone up to his ear. He must have found Adam’s old number.
She could hear it ring from where she sat. She looked at him,
shocked.

He ended the call.

“
It wasn’t working before,
I swear!”

He slammed his fist against her cheek hard.
Eden blinked as the sudden shock of pain made her vision go
temporarily black. Her vision returned after a few seconds, but her
cheek throbbed. This was nothing like getting punched in the head
during boxing. At least she had protective head gear then. She
opened and closed her mouth. Her jaw ached, but was fine.

He went back to the bed and plugged in her
phone to an open laptop.

“
I’m going to call Adam in
a few minutes. You’re going to ask him to meet you here. And you
had better be convincing.”

“
I don’t even know if he’ll
come,” Eden sobbed. “We haven’t talked in six months. We’ve never
even met!”

He swiftly got up from the bed and approached
her with his hand in a fist.

Eden turned her head to avoid being hit and
squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s the truth! I’ve never met him. I
don’t even know what he looks like!”

Her phone started ringing. It was Adam
calling back.

He let it ring but went back to typing on the
laptop, even more quickly now. He was composed but Eden could tell
he was very excited.

The call went to voice mail. They both stared
at it, waiting for a message to pop up indicating that he left a
message. It remained silent.

He went back to working on the laptop. Eden
looked around desperately for anything that could function as a
weapon.

“
It’s locked again,” he
said with impatience as he lifted her phone from the
bed.

“
It’s programmed that way,
automatically locks after 5 minutes if I’m not holding
it.”

He untied her right hand again so she could
open the phone, then immediately tied her once she was done. She
tested the rope. It was as secure as before.

He plugged her phone in again to his laptop.
He appeared to be downloading information from it and was scanning
through the data. Although he was excited before, the more he
scanned, the angrier he became. He started swearing at the screen.
He wasn’t finding what he was looking for.

“
He fucked up your phone
didn’t he?”

Eden didn’t say anything. Adam had called it
“encrypting” her phone so it would be safe from being hacked. She
had thought it was paranoia at the time but now she realized what
he was afraid of. The man in her room and others like him.

He had at least 80-90 pounds on her. And it
was all muscle. He was bigger, stronger, and had done this before.
Probably killed before, judging from his ruthless detachment. She
felt herself shaking and started sweating even more. Just the
thought of attempting anything and imagining his punishment made
her even more afraid.

“
Fuck.” Her phone had
locked again.

This was her only chance, Eden realized. When
he untied her, she had to be fast and she had to be sure. All she
had going for her was the element of surprise and that was a
one-time deal. Could she do it?

He untied her and for one agonizing moment
she weighed her chances and tried to summon some courage. But her
fear was too great. She unlocked the phone and he tied her up once
again. And once again, the rope that bound her was unbreakable. She
started crying quietly, not for show this time, but because she
felt the crushing weight of hopelessness.

He didn’t pay attention to her, too intent on
trying to figure out how to get into her phone’s inner workings.
There was no doubt that once he did, it would be straight path to
Adam and then she would be needed no longer.

Her phone vibrated and made a bell sound. It
was a text message.

He glanced at the screen. “Who is Dante?”