Chapter 8 A DESPERATE SITUATION

I turn away from him and close my eyes, sampling the odds of this day while resting my head on the lift. This is such a cursed day!

"Stacy!" I whisper her name while an inexorable lance of pain sears through my skin.

My sister isn't the only one missing now-I am too. I am in the middle of nowhere, with strange men and strange things happening. Even the people that I thought I knew so well have turned into total strangers to me today. I can only see them as foes from this moment on. It sucks because I did nothing wrong to get here, but it is what it is, and I have to brace it and forge forward.

And this man is just like them. I have to find out who he really is and what the hell he wants from me first. If he has any clues about my sister's whereabouts. I have to know where I am and how I should go about finding my sister once more.

However, I can now be positive that my skew-whiff ex-boyfriend is involved in this whole mess. I know where to start the moment I escape this man. Daniel and that bitch are to blame for all these mishaps. And, oh, they better prepare their rotten asses for me. For messing with my sister, for screwing me this way, and for betraying me in this manner, they better start getting ready, for I will show them no freaking mercy.

The mighty arm snapped me from my engrossing thoughts, cutting the surge of the thirst for vengeance that was crawling in my skin and soul. We take a few corners that I don't really pay much attention to. It is obvious that I am in a place that I don't know in any way, and getting out of a building does not require any magic. What I want to know is the name of this region. That simple.

He doesn't waste any time when we find ourselves in front of a door after a while. After swiping the card, he beckons me inside. The door slams shut, and I lean motionless against the locked door as he takes long, sluggish strides in, shoving the card in his coat.

My eyes take in the space. The room is sufficiently huge to qualify as a house. With an enormous walk-in closet, a vast workspace at the far end, a spacious dining area and liquor parlor, and the most comfy bed I have ever seen in a sleeping area. This actually looks like a real house. The door I see adjacent to the closet possibly links to a jacuzzi, and I believe the door next to it leads to the bathroom. A full house inside a hotel!

It's strange, right??

He is reeking of wealth all the way to the high heavens, so why live in a hotel?

With bewilderment still plaguing me, I look up at him. The coat is off and lying on the bed, along with his wristwatch, the cost of which I can't even begin to guess. It's a Rolex brand. And I attempted to convince myself that everything was okay until I noticed two short guns that he had laid out on the bed.

I freeze. My bones grow weak for a moment. I try to force my anxieties down my throat, but I almost choke on the heavy, empty air. It becomes too much work for me to afford to breathe.

Guns!

So, I wasn't mistaken? My breath caught in my throat again as I gazed up into his eyes once more, which were, unfortunately, burrowing straight through mine.

He is, in indeed, a criminal, just like Daniel and the others that I might not be aware of. His appearance says it all. From his icy gaze to his stone-cold persona, his arctic manner, the compromising place where we crashed on each other, and now the guns... I ought to have trusted what my gut said. These guns are a testament that he is a dangerous person, and he is leaking nothing but dread.

What a predicament! I fled from criminals only to land right in the arms of another. A Godforsaken devil in disguise! What a bad luck!

Then again, he did not disguise himself. Just because he said he was my savior does not mean he meant he was a good guy. I should have demanded that he leave me back there. I should have known better than to follow him. Now here I am, trapped with a gangstar in a hotel room. A giant that I cannot even fight, and what's worse, I don't even know what he wants.

I brush away the drop of sweat that is dripping down my forehead. Some more beads are tingling my back, but I don't worry about those. I'm twitching hysterically. I avert my eyes before the tears fall. I can feel them threatening to break through the walls of my tightly shut eyes.

A wild stream of rage and terror seeps into me. The fear of the uncharted circumstance surrounding me at the moment. There are myriad concerns about my sister's whereabouts and potential harm. The fear of what lies ahead from this point on, the unknown. And the resentment I felt after being betrayed. The frustration of my unyielding, desperate search for my sister. Even though I'm not sure how, given the circumstances, I know I have to find her. The rage of these series of awful happenings that have occurred in the last couple of hours.

"God, this can't be happening! I need to find my sister. I can not be trapped in the world of these criminals. A world that I know nothing about. I can't..."

"Are you hungry?"

Hungry? Like, I am supported to eat in this condition?

I peel my eyes, fury fueling me closer to this man, but I still manage to use my sixth sense and stay a safe distance from him. "For food, No!" I state, our eyes locking after I scour the tears that were making his image vague.

Now we are close, with nothing obscuring us. "But I am damn hungry for answers!"