“Five hundred.”
“Ouch.”
“Not really. She returned it.”
“Returned it?”
“Yeah, she said she was playing for fun and didn’t want my money. I tried arguing which didn’t go over so well. So, in the end I took my money back.”
“And that was it?”
“We sat and talked for a while and had a drink. That was pretty much it. I haven’t seen her since she was in DC.” He told me.
I felt pangs of jealousy in the pit of my stomach and I didn’t like it. It tasted bitter and I had no reason to doubt Mac at his word. But I felt like he was holding something back. He had a good poker face, but I got the impression there was more to him and Kay than he was telling me. If I was right, it would explain her reaction the night she dropped off the pizza and saw Mac here.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kay
I thought I was having a dream induced by too much scotch and too many B movies, but when my head hit the floor with a thud, I realized it wasn’t a bad dream at all. I tried to focus, but my vision was blurry. I’d never had this problem with scotch before and I hadn’t really had that much. I could hear sounds like maybe someone talking but it sounded distance and garbled. I tried to move but I felt like I was moving running in mud, my limbs were sluggish and slow to respond. My brain was screaming loud and clear. Get up! Move! I tried with all my strength to do just that. Thoughts of Ethan filled my mind. Why was it in a moment of crisis I always thought of Ethan?
Things began to fade in and out and I felt like I was moving effortlessly like I was flying or something. I opened my eyes, and everything was dark around me. I couldn’t see anything. I concentrated on listening. I could hear a hum of some kind. I shook my head to try and clear it. Big mistake. The world began to spin in the wrong direction and then nothing.
I came to again and this time there was some light and I could at least see my hand in front of my face. I could hear voices shouting but I couldn’t understand the words. My head felt fuzzy and I managed to sit up. My hands and feet were not bound, that was a good sign.
I sat still for a moment and looked around trying to let my eyes adjust and try to figure out where I was. I was thinking more clearly this time and it was obvious I had been drugged and brought to wherever this place was. I put my hands on the floor and it felt like metal. I looked up and the light that was coming in was through little round holes high above my reach. I stood up and touch the wall behind me and it felt like corrugated metal. I felt around some more. I was in a box. A metal box. Great. I felt around and found what had to be the door and pushed just in case this was some mistake and I had crawled in here for shelter or something. No. The door was locked or jammed and either way I wasn’t getting out. I started to yell for help. No response. The voices had disappeared, and I could hear a distant hum again but this time it was different. There was another noise too, but I couldn’t quite place it. I put my ear to the seam of the door and listened. It sounded like water slapping up against a bulkhead or something. I began pounding on the walls. First the back, then the sides, and finally the front. I kicked and screamed and waited. Nothing.
I sat down to try to think about the situation and figure a way out of this mess.
Okay, clearly someone had put me in here, so who and why?
I stood up and pounded on the walls some more and I shouted upward towards the holes near the ceiling.
I had no idea how long I had been out or how long I had been in this box. Surely someone would have noticed I was missing by now. I had no phone. That would have been too good to be true. If I had wondered in here on my own, Again, I tried to think who or why someone would do this.
I thought about my grandfather and wondered if I was leverage for someone who wanted something from him. He received threats all the time. Maybe, someone had finally figured out the connection between us and kidnapped me. I hoped my grandfather was refusing to comply with whatever demands some terrorist group or psycho individual was asking of him.
I prayed that he was okay and unharmed.
Then I thought about anyone who might want to hurt me and the only thing I could think of was the buyout proposal; was InDesign so desperate to have my company that they would kidnap me? Would they demand that the shareholders turn over their shares to them? That wouldn’t help. I still had more shares than the rest of them. Besides, basic greed would solve that problem they would offer them more than I did for the tender offer and get control of forty-eight percent of the company. What they needed were my shares. Maybe they planned to kill me thinking that would be the best way to get the company. Maybe, they thought with me out of the way Michael would cave in. Even Michael didn’t have the authority over my shares. He didn’t have the authority to sign for me in such matters. He did have power of attorney but not over everything. That had to be it. InDesign must think that if they got rid of me then they would take over the company more easily. They hadn’t done
