I looked at the ground as I kneeled and Gino asked another person something about knowing me. My body shook with fear and I couldn’t hear Gino talk anymore because my own heartbeat took over in my eardrums. I was scared, really scared and my body started to shut down as the fear took over. But soon Chris had yanked me up from the ground and had me standing again.
My knees were weak and I started to fall over. The fear that I had felt for the last couple hours was too much for me. I just couldn’t stand anymore. Chris let go of me and let me fall to the floor.
“Jesus Christ Skinner, you could have caught the sweet little thing,” Gino said as he came to my side. “Are you alright?” he asked kindly, for a man who planned to torture and kill me. I just stared at him. My body did not seem to be in my own control anymore and the fear had made me unable to stand or even talk. My eyes just looked at Gino and I wasn’t able to get my mouth to word anything as an answer to him.
“Skinner, take the girl over there to that room and let her rest,” Gino said as he pointed to an old office in the corner of the warehouse. Chris roughly grabbed me and practically dragged me over to the office. He didn’t gently try to support me, he didn’t kindly put his hand on my back to guide me; instead he grabbed my upper arm and walked swiftly to the room. When my legs gave out under me, he just pulled me up with his hand that was on my arm.
“Ouch!” I let out as he pulled my arm.
“Skinner,” Gino said, “try to be nice.”
“Yes sir,” Chris said to Gino.
Chris threw me into the room and I fell against the old metal table that was in the room. Chris banged his hand hard against the metal desk and it made a loud noise that echoed throughout the warehouse.
“Skinner, that didn’t sound nice,” Gino yelled from the other side of the warehouse.
“Sorry boss,” Chris said.
I just stayed there sitting on the floor up against the metal desk. I couldn’t move. My body was overcome with the fear and adrenaline of the situation and I was just slightly relieved to be in a different room than Gino. Chris walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. I let my head lay up against the desk and I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. I wanted to be in control of my body again. I just had to figure out a way to get control over the fear that pulsed through me. I needed to relax.
Gino and his group of workers stayed out in the main warehouse for another thirty minutes or so. Then I heard the crowd disperse and Gino’s voice outside the door to the office I was in.
“Can I trust you to watch over the girl and not kill her?” Gino asked the man next to him.
“I won’t kill her if she doesn’t try to escape,” Chris said in response. “I don’t have to feed her or anything like that do I?”
“That’s a good idea actually, no don’t feed her. She can drink water and there’s a toilet over there, but that’s it. I’m going downstairs to talk with a few of these assholes and see if I can figure out who it might be. In the morning, I’ll bring a couple of them up and you can help me give that sweet thing some pain and see if we can get a confession from someone.”
“I’d love to help with the pain,” Chris said. His voice sounded different and he actually sounded like he enjoyed inflicting pain. I had chills as he said it. Chris was very convincing as the right-hand man to Gino, I could see why he was able to get so far in Gino’s organization.
“Ok, but leave the girl alone tonight. No torture until morning, understood?” Gino said firmly.
“Yes, sir.”
I sat there and anticipated Chris coming through the door as I heard Gino walk away. Any second Chris would come in and help me escape. I looked at the door intently as I waited for him. My mind raced with thoughts of how Chris and I could make our escape without being heard. We could climb out the window and make our way down a drain pipe, or maybe sneak quietly down the stairwell and make a run for it. I thought about every mob movie I had ever seen and how people escaped from their murderers. Surely, Chris and I would be able to make a swift escape.
After a few minutes, it became apparent that Chris did not intend to come into the office at all. I saw him pull a chair close to the office door and he sat down. I didn’t want to yell at him or say anything for fear that there was someone else out there with him. The door was closed so I couldn’t see what was going on. For all I knew there could have been other people still out in that room with him. As the night wore on I could feel myself as I became extremely tired and finally grabbed a work coat that was on a nearby chair and used it to curl up on the floor and go to sleep. My body was exhausted from the fear and stress from the day. I felt my eyes as they got heavy and I closed them in hopes that I would be able to get some sleep.
I took a couple deep breaths and said a little prayer that everything would work out in the morning. I didn’t want Chris or any of his men to get shot and I certainly didn’t want to be tortured by Chris or anyone else on Gino’s team of killers. I hoped that Chris would find a way to save me and we would both make it out of the situation unharmed.
Chapter 54
“Are you alright?” Chris said in my ear quietly.
I opened my eyes to find Chris kneeled down next to me on the floor. I sat up quickly and looked at him. He held a finger to his lips in a motion to be quiet.
“I’m fine,” I whispered. “Where is everyone?”
“They are all downstairs.”
“Can we get out of here?” I said, desperate to leave that warehouse and get to safety. I sat up and started to stand, but Chris put his hand on my leg and held me in place.
“Not yet. We have to wait until morning for backup to arrive.”
I felt my heart sink at his words. My whole hope had been on him to rescue me. The idea of sticking around all night long and waiting to be tortured in the morning did not sit well with me. We had to leave, we had to get out of the building before Gino and his men woke up and started to torture me, or kill people. Didn’t Chris understand the gravity of the situation? Surely he knew this could all end very badly for me.
“We could just sneak out now,” I said hopefully.