One Good Reason (5 page)

She
continued to hit the door long into the day. When she’d finally given up that
Hayden wasn’t coming back, her shouting became whispers and cries for help, and
then she walked over to the mattress and laid down, crying once again for the
life she had lost. How would she get out of this when they believed she knew
information about this
Thornakorn
person, when she’d
never even heard of him before?

She
cried into the night until she fell asleep thinking back into all of her
memories, trying to see if she had in fact heard of the name, and why it meant
so much to these people.

***

Stevenson
pressed the ground floor button of the empty lift as he walked in; frustrated
at the meeting he’d just had with his secretary.

Just
as the lift doors were about to close, a man’s foot and arm stuck through the
lift, forcing the doors back open.

Stevenson
looked at Riley’s flushed face. “Riley.”

“Sir.
Sorry for the intrusion,” Riley said out of breath, “but we have news that the
girls’ friend, Olivia, is taking the kidnapping to the media. Thanks largely
due to our insiders in the police department in Thailand for not taking the
kidnapping more serious, she is now hoping the media coverage will create
urgency.”

“Good,”
Stevenson replied.

“Good?
Sir?” Riley replied confused.

“Well,
it’s clear that Harris had more of a bad relationship with his daughter than we
had first thought. If the girl’s friend had contacted him by now telling of her
kidnapping, he would have come forward by now. It’s clear that either he hasn’t
in fact been contacted, or he is so deep in hiding that he has no way of
knowing what is happening.

 Of
course, it would have been more ideal if this had of stayed quiet. It’s going
to be harder now to keep it under wraps with the media coverage and to make
sure no other journalist, like Harris, gets too noisy and find out that we’re
involved, then it should be good for us. News should eventually reach him,
wherever he may be in the world, and he will seek us out.”

“So
what do we do now?”

“We
wait,” replied Stevenson. “Price is the best at what he does. There is no way
anyone will find her, and no way will she escape. Harris will come forward. He
may not have been in her life very much, but she is still his only daughter. He
will give us what we need, mark my words.”

Stevenson
pressed the ground button again. “Now, excuse me.”

Riley
nodded and stepped back, letting the lift doors close.

If
Harris wasn’t going to cooperate with Stevenson, then he would have to do what
he has had to do so many times before. Flush them out, and silence them
forever.

Damn
journalists
,
Stevenson cursed to himself.
One day they will get the hint. You mess with
me and the consequences are life altering.

***

Day
8

The
sound of the locks opening on the bedroom door woke Ava.

After
two days of being given water only, Ava was starving. Hayden didn’t have to
tell or and neither did the Thai men, she knew this was their way of punishing
her for not giving information about
Thornakorn’s
whereabouts and activities.

How
was she meant to tell them anything about the man when she had no idea who he
was?

Hayden
had come to her earlier in the evening, trying to bribe her with food. He told
her if she told him anything at all about
Thornakorn
,
he would give her any type of food she desired, and she would be rewarded with
things like toiletries, a bedroom with a window, etc.

Ava
wanted those things. Ava craved those things. She begged him to give them to
her, but she could not tell him anything about
Thornakorn
,
because she didn’t know who he was.

After
an hour of trying to sweet talk her, and teasing her with a plate of food, he gave
up and left her with nothing.

She
could barely even cry when he left. Her energy levels were so low, crying only
made her more exhausted.

It
must have been only a couple of hours after Hayden had left her in the dark room
again, that she had woken to the door being opened. She opened her eyes slowly,
still curled up on her bed, expecting to see Hayden at the door; instead, she
saw the shadows of two men walk in.

She
heard their voices whispering to each other. The hairs on her body stood up,
she knew whom these two men were. It was the Thai man who had kicked her in the
ribs on the second day, whose name she found out was Aran. The second man, also
one of the men who guarded her door, was Daw.

She
quickly pulled her body up on the mattress against the wall as the men walked
towards her. They had never been in her room before. They had only stood at the
door and passed the food through the doorway, and it had only been one of them
doing it at a time. Now there were two of them walking towards her in the
darkness.

She
had not had much contact with Daw, but she feared Aran, and Aran knew this.

“What
are you doing in here?” Ava asked as they approached her. “Does Hayden know
you’re here?”

The
men didn’t reply, instead, they quietly laughed.

Ava
stood up on her mattress, preparing herself to make a run for it.

“Answer
me!” she demanded, but the men took two more steps and were directly in front
of her mattress.

She
could see the expressions on their face now, and it frightened her to the core.
She looked between them, then at the open door behind them.

She
took her chance and quickly jumped off the mattress to run for the door, but
the men were expecting it. Daw grabbed her arm and slammed her up against the
wall. Just as she was about to scream, she felt a jab against her stomach.

Her
eyes followed the direction of the stabbing pain. She saw a long knife pushed
up against her dress below her left breast. It hadn’t punctured her skin, but
she could feel the pressure of it just about to.

She
looked at the Thai man’s eyes. He shook his head and put his finger to her
lips. She sucked in a deep breath. He didn’t need to tell her to be silent or
he’d kill her, his actions were enough.

Daw
nodded to the mattress, instructing her to lie down. She shook her head
fiercely in response.

“Please,
no. You don’t have to do this,” she pleaded.

Aran
stepped forward. Daw drew back his knife. She looked at Aran’s eyes, the hate
inside of them.

“Yes,
we do,” he blatantly replied, and then he slapped her hard across her left
cheek. If Daw had not been holding her right arm in place, she would have
fallen to the ground. Her feet were already unsteady, and the power behind the
slap was enough to knock her completely off her feet.

She
hung her head low, clasping her hand on her cheek.

“Bed,”
Aran demanded.

Ava
looked up at him, a tear falling down her bruised and tender cheek.

With
all the courage she had, she spat in Aran’s face. “No.”

Daw
stepped forward with his knife still in hand, but Aran stopped him with his
hand. He wiped the spit from his face, then placed his fingers in his mouth and
sucked her spit from them.

Ava
watched his mouth turn up into a smile.

With
one quick movement, he grabbed her and threw her onto the mattress. She
struggled as she hit it, trying to scramble to her feet to get away, but Daw
used his strength to grab her wrists and hold them above her head, while Aran
quickly covered her mouth to drown out her screaming.

Aran
used his body weight to keep her still. She could smell the tobacco on his
breath as he dipped his head below her jaw and licked her neck.

She
cried out, but all that was heard, was muffled sound. She tried to move her
body beneath him; he was twice the size of her.

She
felt Daw tie a rope around her wrists so he could hold her with one hand, and
use the other to cover her mouth so Aran could remove his hand. She looked at
Aran in horror, as he moved his head away from her neck to look down at her so
he could see her reaction when he grabbed one of her breasts with his hand and
squeezed so tightly she closed her eyes in pain.

This
cannot be happening
,
she thought to herself.
Not this. Not after everything...

She
wanted to let her life be done with now. She had been kidnapped, abused,
starved, and now she was going to be raped. Her life was over. Everything she
once loved about life was gone. Everything good about life was long forgotten.
There was no way out of this torment. It was only about to get worse. She
couldn’t live a lifetime of this.

She
closed her eyes as tears fell, hearing the sound of Aran’s pants zipper.

This
was it.

Hayden
awoke in a sweat. He had a dream about one of his missions; a mission that had
ended with his best mate, Julian, being killed. A memory that haunted him every
night. They had been called in the early hours of the morning to transport a
person of interest between the city and their safe house.  They knew
nothing of the person of interest, and only operated on the mission they were
given. Retrieve the person; take them to a safe house until they would get
further instruction on their task. Hayden’s speciality was gathering
information. He’d been able to get information successfully from every person
he’d been assigned too. The information he gathered from his missions around
the world, had led to the capture of many terrorists.

Julian
was helping him on this particular mission; all was going smoothly until an
ambush. Julian and Hayden fought hard against the rebels, but Julian lost his
life that day.

Two
years had passed since, and Hayden was still haunted by the events that took
his best friend.

He
wiped the sweat from his forehead and got out of bed. He needed a drink to cool
his body and his head. He walked downstairs, when he got to the bottom stairs,
he turned, expecting to see Daw on guard outside Ava’s door; instead, he saw
the door half open.

Hayden
marched towards the door, pushing it fully open.

There,
crouched over Ava, was Daw and Aran. Hayden could see Daw holding Ava down
while Aran pulled his pants down. Without a second thought, Hayden ran over and
grabbed Aran around the arm with his left hand, and then used his right to
punch him square in the face. Aran fell flat to his back. Daw let go of Ava
quickly, standing to his feet. Hayden grabbed the scuff of his shirt around his
neck and lifted him off the ground.

“What
the hell do you think you’re doing?” Hayden yelled at him.

Daw
looked at Hayden fearful of what he was about to do.

Hayden
heard Aran’s voice behind him. Holding tightly onto Daw, he looked over to see
Aran holding his nose, bright red blood spilling from it. Aran started
screaming at Hayden, Hayden didn’t know Thai very well, but he could make out
the obscenities good enough though.

“What’s
going on?”

Hayden
turned his head to see
Aun
standing at the door.

“I
found your men in here abusing her. I want them gone NOW,
Aun
,
or so help me God, I will kill them with my bare hands!” Hayden was dead
serious. Never in his career had one of his captive’s been physically abused.
Hayden Price had a unique way of getting the information he needed, and it
never involved physical abuse.

Aun
ordered the men to come with him. Hayden
watched and waited until they were all out of the room and he was left alone
with Ava.

He
crouched down next to Ava who was staring up at the ceiling, tears staining her
cheeks. He carefully untied her wrists and looked over her body, relieved to
see her dress had only ridden up her thighs slightly, her underwear still on
and intact.

Ava
let her hands drop to her sides. Hayden expected her to say something, or even
look at him, but she didn’t. She only kept her eyes focused on the ceiling.

“Are
you okay?” he asked. “Did they hurt you?”

She
turned her head towards him; he could see her bruised cheek in the light. He
held his hand up over her cheek. She looked so vulnerable, so innocent. In that
moment, all he wanted was to protect her.

“Get
away from me,” she whispered, tears falling from her eyes.

Hayden
withdrew his hand and stood, shaking himself out of the trance he’d been in.
He’d been staring at her eyes, her face, her hair. He’d lost himself in that
moment, thinking he was saving and protecting her from harm. That she would be
safe with him, when really, he had put her in this situation. He’d organized
her kidnapping. He wasn’t her saviour or her protector. He was her captor.