Love Condemned: Beginnings (9 page)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Miranda's gaze wandered through the rest of the room, pausing momentarily at the shelves that Adrian had been moving. Looking for an escape? It was possible. But she didn't see how the shelves were going to help. Miranda gazed at the air vent. It wasn't very big, but possibly she could get in there and explore where it led to. Her yoga skills might come in handy here. But just after she proposed this to Adrian, the sound of a gun going off reverberated through the building and cut off his reply, leaving both of them startled and staring at the door. It was not that they had not heard it before. But it sounded different this time. It had a hollow, empty sound at first, whereas now it sounded very much like a bullet had actually left the barrel. Miranda's eyes found Adrian's, searching for something resembling comfort. He was just as shocked as she was.

“Did that sound………real?” Adrian asked.

Miranda still could not find her words, so she shook her head in agreement.  Adrian got up from the floor and quietly walked over to the door. He pressed his ear against it in an attempt to get any information. He concentrated really hard to get any sense of what is going on, but all he heard was a couple of muffled voices.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Clean this up and get her out of here….now!” Giorgio commanded to the guards standing at the door. The sudden outburst shocked them, making them hesitate to respond. Giorgio turned and stormed away without another word. The body on the floor quickly started to spill blood on the floor; a growing pool of red invaded all the space around it. The body stirred a little, making a groaning noise. Alice was wounded badly, but not dead yet. The bullet went through her shoulder, missing her heart and vital organs by inches, but the blood flowed freely.

The men grabbed her roughly,
which caused the pain to shoot through her body. Flashes of intense heat ran down her spine, her vision blurred instantly. They dragged her away from the front doors and towards the closet to put with the rest of the hostages that have been ‘killed’. One of the men dropped the arm he dragged to open the door. He pushed the door open very roughly, which caused Adrian to fly backwards, where he tripped over Sophie and crashed into the shelves. The men did not even look at Adrian as they dragged Alice into the small room. They dropped her body next to Sophie and walked out of the room.

Adrian slowly got back up as he heard the door slam shut and the lock click
ed back into place. He walked over to the body that was dropped on the floor, streaks of blood made a trail from under the door. Adrian reached down and turned the woman on her back. He quickly recognized it to be Alice. Adrian looked at Miranda with great shock. She did not look at him, but continued to stare at the woman who had betrayed them all. The blood continued to create a small pool around her.

Chapter Eighteen

The things that flashed through Miranda's mind when she first heard the gunshot were nothing compared to when she saw Alice's tangled body laying helpless on the floor. While the horror of realizing they were actually kil
ling people now washed over her. An even greater terror bubbled up inside when it occurred to her that when the terrorists were killing amongst themselves, things were really getting serious. When Alice moved slightly and groaned in pain, Miranda blinked. She was not dead yet. That was sloppy of them.

Miranda was conflicted
. On one side, her humanity and principles were pulling at her to get up and help Alice. On the other side she was revolted by the woman for what she had done. Miranda’s rational side took over. If Alice would live through this she might be able to help them escape. That tiny possibility was the motivation she desperately needed. With a sigh, Miranda moved towards Alice on her hands and knees, pulling a clean sheet from one of the shelves which she ripped into long bandages. She wrapped them firmly around Alice's shoulder, hoping she would stop the bleeding this way and that Alice might have a chance to live. Her eyes opened momentarily and gazed at Miranda in a way she couldn't possibly define. It lingered between disgust and gratitude. 

Adrian did not know whether to help this woman or strangle her. But to his surprise, Miranda got up and started to make a bandage to try and stop the bleeding. He checked on Sophie to see if she was awake yet, but she was still out. That probably was the best thing. The last thing that he needed right now was a crazy blonde freaking out about the almost dead woman on the floor next to her.

When she was done, Miranda stood up with a frown on her face, and eyed the shelves that were placed right beneath the air vent. She guessed that if she tried hard enough, she could get through the narrow tube without getting stuck. Adrian was still sitting on the ground, in between Sophie and Alice, looking from one to the other and then to Miranda. His eyes were inquisitive. He must think she was crazy for helping Alice instead of Sophie, whose crime was much greater and deserved a broken nose more. 

"I want to try and get in there," she said, pointing at the air vent. "I can at least see if there are any exits or many terrorists standing guard. Can you help me get up those shelves?"
He regarded the air vent before and thought that it was too small to be a possibility, but the more he compared Miranda’s small frame, it could be possible.

“Sure. It might be too small, but it is definitely worth looking at. We will have to be quiet and quick. We cannot alert the guards to what we are doing.”

Miranda got up and walked over to the far shelf, trying to find the best way up without making noise. Once she found the perfect spot that would give her access to the vent, she motioned for Adrian to lift her up. He was stronger than she thought. He lifted her with ease, almost throwing her up to the top of the shelves. She climbed up on the top and started to work at removing the vent cover.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Giorgio stormed into the back room where he had set up his command post. As the door crashed open, several men jumped to attention. They could tell that their boss was not happy. The way he walked around with his gun in his hand, they did not want to cross his path.

“Get out of here.” Giorgio said calmly with a low tone. When that did not get a response from the men, Giorgio snapped, “I said get the hell out of here! Now!”

It did not take another word for all the men to scramble for the door. Each hoping that they can get out before Giorgio really loses his temper and shoots one of them. As the men fought to get out of the door, Armando walked in calmly. Being Giorgio’s second in command and usually the voice of reason, he always had his hands full with Giorgio’s fits. But this one seemed to be more extreme than the others.

“You didn’t have to kill her, you know.” Armando approached calmly trying to Giorgio at ease.

“She killed my best friend. Am I supposed to look the other way?”

“I suppose not. But you could have exacted your revenge at a later time. Now we have to find someone new to be our scapegoat when this all goes down. She was supposed to be the mastermind behind this, remember.”

“You do not have to tell me the plan, Armando. I am the one who came up with it.  This just changes things a little. I will have to clear my head and think.”

“We do not have time for you to think. We are surrounded by the
police; we have a hotel full of hostages and trying to keep up this charade of killing two hostages each day. Eventually, someone will catch on.”

Giorgio reacted like the madman he is. He pushed the gun underneath Armando’s chin,
which silenced the man immediately. With a stare as cold as death, he spat through gritted teeth, “Don’t ever tell me how to run my crew. Know your place. I could put you down just as fast as that piece of trash that killed my friend.” He pushed Armando back a couple steps with his gun. “Now go make sure that the hostages are in order. We do not need any heroes today.”

Without another word, Armando turned and walked out of the room
. Under his breath he whispered,
‘If that is how you want to play it. Act like a dog, you will be put down like one.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once on the shelves, Miranda pushed aside some rolls of toilet paper, intensely grateful that these at least didn't make noise when they fell down the shelves. She sat on her knees on the narrow ledge, the air vent just in her reach. She analyzed the screws, trying to come up with a solution. “I need something to turn these screws.” She called back to Adrian.

He reached under his shirt and pull out a
small silver cross on a chain. “Here, try this.” He passed it to Miranda.

S
he managed to turn it so the air vent would open. Careful not to let the metal cover make any noise on the metal shelves, she put it down on the remaining rolls of toilet paper. Miranda eyed it in doubt for another couple of seconds, figuring that if anyone would come in and find both her missing 
and
 the air vent cover gone, even these men could put connect the dots. They might even punish Adrian for her disappearing. 

Miranda called down in a whisper. "When anyone comes in and they find me missing, tell them that some of their buddies just took me away. And try to look worried, as if they were looking like they were going to rape me, or something."
 

Without waiting for his answer, she took off her shoes and threw them down the shelves in Adrian's arms.
 
Hide those,
 she mouthed. Miranda did not want to risk making noise with her shoes on the metal air vent. The same counted for her necklaces. She left them behind in some of the cardboard tubes that were the core of the rolls of toilet paper and hoped to God that no one would be in desperate need of those for a while. 

S
he climbed in the air vent, feet first, grabbing the cover while she wriggled herself backwards. It was narrower than she had thought, but she should be able to turn around eventually. Miranda threw one last look down, at Adrian, hoping she could find some way to get them out before she put the air vent back in place. There were no screws to hold it this time, but it fit quite firmly. She had to hope it would stay in place until she got back. 
Wish me luck,
 she thought to no one in particular as she pushed herself backwards through the metal shaft, looking over her shoulder after every push.

Adrian watched as Miranda squeezed into the tight space and refitted the cover. He could not believe that she was small enough to fit in that little hole. Now that she was gone, the small closet seemed almost empty to him, despite the fact that there were two people unconscious on the floor.
Adrian placed some of the toilet paper rolls neatly on the shelf and straightened the towels that have been misplaced. It was for two reasons, really. He wanted to keep himself busy and he wanted to keep from drawing any attention to the shelves if someone came.

He stood there for a moment and looked at the two bodies on the floor. Alice had finally stopped bleeding, but her skin was pale and full of sweat. As he watched her closely, he could see her chest rising and falling quickly. With her breath that shallow, her lungs must be slowly filling with blood. He was not sure how much longer she would last. The blonde next to her began to stir. Great, just what he needed. He only hoped that she would not freak out and
draw attention to them.

Sophie slowly regained her consciousness and tried to sit up. A sharp p
ain ran through her head, causing her vision to blur again and lie back down. Adrian moved over to her, rolled up a towel and slid it under her head. “Be careful and stay calm. We cannot draw any attention to ourselves right now. Do you know where you are?”

“
Ughh….What happened? Why does my head hurt so much?” Sophie asked weakly.

“You are in Rome at the hotel. We have all been taken hostage, do you remember that?” Adrian asked calmly.

Sophie winced in pain as she forced herself to sit up. As she looked around the small space, a look of recognition came across her face
.
“Oh, that spoiled little witch! Where is she? I am going to….”

Adrian reached out, putting his hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “Shut up! Do you want to get us killed? Do not worry about Miranda. She is not here right now. The only thing you need to worry about is keeping quiet and staying alive.”

With the shocked look on Sophie’s face, Adrian would have thought that he struck her. Regardless, it worked and Sophie lowered her voice calmly. “I…I am … sorry. It has just been a rough day and I was not expecting to be punched in the face.”

A
drian almost felt sorry for her until he remembered that she deserved to be put in her place. It was women like her that ignored him his entire life and just when he meets someone interesting they try and mess it up for him. Adrian realized that his hand was still on Sophie’s shoulder and recoiled. Outside the door, he heard footsteps and some muffled voices speaking in a foreign language. In a sudden panic, Adrian jumped to his feet, looked around for a way to distract the men if they were to enter into the room.

The door knob slowly turned and Adrian was out of options. If he did not think of something quick, they would notice that Miranda was not in the room. Adrian grabbed as many towels as he could and threw them in a pile. Just as the door opened, he threw a sheet over himself and the pile of towels, his back to the door. “It will be ok.” Adrian started to say and rocked back and forth. An Italian man poked his head around the door and quickly scanned the room.

“Keep it quiet in here and stay calm. We will bring some food and water soon.”
Armando shut the door and continued on his rounds.

Adrian threw the sheet back with a sigh of relief. Sophie looked at him with surprise,
“I cannot believe that worked. Where is that girl…..Miranda, you called her?”

“She went throw the air vent.” Adrian pointed to the air vent above the shelves.

“Impossible. That is too small for a person.”

“That is what I thought too, but she made it in and hopefully can get us some help.”