The Billion-Dollar Marriage Contract(36)

Cassia screamed but her loud cry was drowned out by the sound of more shots fired. There were muffled thuds as bodies fell onto the wooden floor. Then there came the metallic stench of blood. Quick as a flash, she was jerked upright and shoved behind Nikos.

“Greetings, Mr. and Mrs. Demakis,” one of the masked men approached them.

“Stay back!” Nikos shouted.

“Don’t worry. We’re not here to hurt you. We only need you to come with us willingly.”

“What do you want? The boat? Take it! It’s yours!”

“I already told you what we want. We want you to come with us willingly and no one gets hurt.”

The man approached them and Nikos aimed a kick at his groin. He landed a solid hit to the man’s privates and he doubled over in pain and growled something in Greek that Cassia didn’t understand.

All the remaining armed men quickly rushed towards Nikos and separated both of them.

“Cassia!” he shouted as he kicked and punched his way towards her.

But he was trapped and he was only one man against many.

“Nikos...please...stop it. You’ll just hurt yourself further,” Cassia pleaded.

Two men also grabbed her and tied her hands behind her back. This caused her arm to throb painfully and she felt as if her wound was reopened. She was not able to stop the gasp of pain that escaped her lips.

“No! Don’t touch her!” he shouted.

There was a crazed look in his eyes and it made Cassia very afraid of him. She remembered the rumor about his kidnapping. Now, she was thinking it wasn’t a rumor at all. Nikos wouldn’t be this afraid if he had not experienced it firsthand.

“Stop struggling, Mr. Demakis, or we’ll carve her skin,” one of the men shouted.

He appeared to be their leader. He grabbed Cassia, retrieved a serrated knife from his pocket and held it against her neck.

Tears spilled from her eyes and Nikos’ throat clenched with fear. When he was kidnapped, he was also held like that. He could still recall the fear he felt then and how he felt when he thought he was truly going to die. Now, his wife was facing that.

“Let her go!” he snarled.

“Behave and we will,” the leader replied.

Even though it was hard, Nikos let the fight leave him and he just slumped forward in his captors’ grasps.

“Good.”

He was hauled to his feet and then dragged from the lower bunk. Cassia was also dragged behind him and he winced with her every gasp of pain. They were led up the deck and transferred from his yacht to one of the boats.

They were forced to sit on the edge and their hands were tied to the railings on each side of the boat.

When the men left them, Nikos moved closer to Cassia.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded.

“I swear I am going to get us out of here. I won’t let them do to you what they did to me before,” he vowed.

Her eyes widened. “I had no idea that the rumors were true Nikos. The company’s PR department covered it all up. They didn’t even tell me what happened. I’m so sorry.”

Nikos’ gut clenched. Antonio was right. It was not that she didn’t care what happened to him; she simply did not know.

“Don’t be. It’s all in the past now. But I won’t let it happen again. We will escape as soon as we can,” Nikos replied.

The men approached them again and placed blindfolds over their eyes. They’ve been travelling maybe over an hour or close to an hour. Maybe they were already near and the men didn’t want them to see the location. Their bound wrists were removed from the railings and then they were tied together. Nikos’ right hand was handcuffed to Cassia’s left.

They were led from the boat toward some sort of vehicle. More minutes passed before the vehicle went to a stop and they were dragged by their kidnappers once more.

Their blindfolds were finally removed and both Cassia and Nikos blinked at the brightness of the lights.

“Welcome to your new place. It isn’t as good as the luxury you’re used to. But then again, you don’t have any choice,” the man laughed and his men followed.

It was a small, windowless cell. There was a pallet and some blankets in one corner and then a toilet and sink in the other one. Aside from those items, there was nothing else. The walls were also bare and it was made of cement and not bricks.

“What do you want with us?” Nikos growled.

“Man, I just work here. Save your questions for the boss. But what I can tell you Demakis is that you seem to have pissed off the wrong people.”

What?

Where did that come from? Nikos racked his brain for a list of his enemies.

He knew he had many because of the competition in the business world. But he didn’t know of one who would go to great lengths such as kidnapping him.

He simply had no clue.

“Money? How much do you want from us?” Cassia asked.

“Ma’am, again, I just work here. Better ask the boss. I think he’ll be arriving pretty soon,” the leader sneered.

Who could these people be? Was this truly just all about the money? If it was, it would be easy. Once he gave them whatever they wanted, they’d be set free. But if the leader was right and there was something about revenge in this, then they were doomed. They wouldn’t be leaving this island at all until the person’s idea of vengeance had been satisfied.

“You two best behave until the boss arrives. If I catch anything funny, you’re in for some serious trouble,” the man told them before he turned around and left.

The door shut after him and they were plunged into total darkness.

Cassia panicked instantly and Nikos felt her jolt. He quickly wrapped his arms around her.

“It’s okay. I’m still here,” he whispered softly.

She relaxed a bit and he felt her lean against him.

“What are we going to do now?”

“We are going to find a way out of here. I do not know if this was the same island that Antonio and I escaped from but I have a feeling it is.”

“Can’t we just give them whatever it is they need?” Cassia asked hesitantly.

“If there was one thing I learned before, it was that these people never really negotiate. If they’re in it for the money, it would be easier. But you heard what the man said. If I pissed off someone then this may be something about revenge. Maybe one of us pissed someone off enough that they had us kidnapped.”

Cassia was silent for a long time as she tried to recall if she made any enemies.

“I don’t think someone hates me enough to do this. Well, maybe my grandfather then,” she scoffed.

“Why would Costas want to do that?”

“I don’t know. He hates me. If ever I pissed someone off, I think it’s him.”

Nikos gritted his teeth as he let her lie roll through him. How dare she lie to him about her grandfather again? It was a well-known fact that Costas doted on her. She was his only granddaughter and heir! He gave her everything! He even caught him for her when she set her eyes on him. How dare she say this now?

“Cassia, stand up,” Nikos ordered. “I need to check our cell for anything we can use and if we could really escape.”

They were still handcuffed together and in order for Nikos to walk around their tiny cell, he would have to drag her with him. Cassia stood up but she winced in pain from her wounded shoulder. Nikos approached the bars and tested their strength as he pulled. They didn’t budge.

He sighed and slammed his palm forward.

“Now what?”

“We watch the guards. We find one that would be easy to bribe.”

“Bribe?”

“Ne. In these men’s world, money is everything. If we find one that would clamp its jaws on the bait then maybe we could escape.”

“I hope we find one,” she sighed heavily.

“I will keep watch. You take some sleep first.”

She nodded and they both settled back to one corner of their cell. Nikos grabbed the blanket from their pallet and wrapped it around his wife as best he could. When her breathing evened and she was deeply asleep, he bent his head just so he could inhale her sweet vanilla fragrance – a small reprieve from all the chaos.



**********



“Call whoever has access to your money and tell them to wire one hundred million dollars to your account now! We also want you to transfer your company stocks to us! Have them ready the certificates!” the harsh words were followed by a punch that made Nikos’ lips bleed.

He was sitting on a simple wooden chair with his hands tied behind his back. He was so weak from the beating he received that he was barely awake. His kidnappers then doused him with cold water which instantly made him alert.

“No,” he growled.

The leader of his kidnappers raised his hand and his goons began to punch Nikos in the chest and in the stomach. He tried to curl into a ball to avoid the pain but his bindings restricted him. One punch to his chest knocked all the breath out of his lungs. He also felt that his wound reopened and that it was bleeding freely again. He spat out blood but still he refused to do what they wished.

“Last chance, Demakis. Do it!”

“No!”

“Have it your way then.”

The leader then reached into his pocket and withdrew a jagged knife. He approached Nikos with an evil glint in his eyes and waved the knife in front of his face.

“Let’s see if you’ll still look that pretty when we carve the hell out of your body,” his captor said and then all the men inside the room chuckled.