My heart is hammering in my chest as we quickly walk down the corridor.
“Don’t look back.” He growls.
Thankfully, the corridor turns a corner, and for a moment we are shielded. I’m not sure if they are coming after us, but damn, we are doing a bloody good job of acting like we don’t have a care in the world. We start to run.
We pass by a cleaning cart parked in the hallway. The maid is in the adjacent room with the door propped open and a lanyard with a card key is hanging from the top of her tea and coffee tray. Stace casually picks it off and we continue up the corridor a bit and he swipes the key and the door unlocks. We scramble inside and he closes the door quietly. He immediately looks through the security peephole.
“Fuck, that was close?” he whispers.
I stand still for a moment, in shock. “Stace. They… they are in our room and they have our things,” I stammer. I put my hands on top of my head as I try to grasp the situation.
He continues to look through the hole. “It’s definitely them,” he whispers and he moves back from the hole to let me see. I stand on my tiptoes and peer through the small glass hole and see the three men walking down the hall looking for us.
“It’s one of the men from Bogota that was outside the bank,” Stace whispers.
“Shit.” I look around the room and, thankfully, it doesn’t appear to have anyone staying here. The room smells of cleaning fluid and has obviously just been turned over by the maids.
“What are we going to do?” I whisper. “All of our money, our clothes.” My eyes widen. “Our fucking passports are in that room.”
“Where are the diamonds?” he asks.
“I unscrewed the light fitting in the room and hid them in there. Nobody should find them.”
“We get new passports tomorrow and you still have four chips, right?”
“Yes.” I scramble through my bag and retrieve the four chips and hold them up to him.
I start to pace as Stace continues to stare through the peephole. My heart is hammering. “What if someone checks into the room?”
“Then we’re fucked,” he snaps.
“Holy shit.” I drop my head into my hands.
“How did they find us?”
“Vernon.”
I shake my head. “Fucking Vernon.” I continue pacing with my fingers on my temples. “I fucking hate that guy. I knew I hated that guy.”
* * *
For the next hour, Stace watches through the peephole as the men walk up and down the corridor looking for us.
I’m nearly in a fetal position on the bed.
“They’re not leaving, in fact, more and more are arriving. They are all waiting in and around the room for us to return.”
A heavy sense of dread hangs over me. Like mice, we are trapped. “Stace, what are we going to do?” I whisper in despair.
His eyes hold mine for a moment and I know he feels as desperate as I do. “Just turn the television on and try to rest for a bit while I think of something.” He walks over and brushes my hair back from my face. “Just try and rest, baby.” He gently kisses my lips. “It will be okay. Try not to worry.”
With a deep exhale, I go to the mini bar and take out a can of Coke and a chocolate bar. I need to try and fill my stomach. I feel sick I’m so hungry. This is supposed to be my wedding night, but no… my prick of a father had to ruin that, too. I lie back on the bed and try to calm myself down as I flick through the channels. Suddenly, a face I know all too well comes across the screen with the headline.
Breaking News:
My mouth drops open. Oh my God. “Stace,” I whisper with wide unbelieving eyes. “You might want to come and watch this, honey.”
He turns from his pacing and walks into the bedroom, his face falls as I turn up the television.
Breaking news in the Roshelle Myers kidnapping case.
Key suspect Joel McIntyre has been sighted in security footage from Las Vegas airport on Tuesday night where he landed on a plane from Columbia. He was travelling with a female passenger who is believed to be Roshelle Myers. She may have been under the influence of drugs and grave concerns are held for her safety.
Joel, who goes under the alias Mac, kidnapped Roshelle at gun point in the middle of the night 31 days ago from a nightclub parking lot. The ground search for her body has been extensive.
It is believed he is on the Las Vegas strip and police are combing the area. If seen, do not approach the suspect. He is armed and extremely dangerous. Please call 911 immediately for police assistance if sighted.
The newsflash ends but we both still staring at the screen, bewildered by what we have just watched. My mouth hangs open and my eyes flicker to him. His face is solemn with no expression.
I shake my head. “Stace,” I whisper. “How did they know about the kidnapping?” I shake my head. “They’ve been looking for me this whole time?”
He storms past me into the bathroom and shuts the door behind him and I put my head into my hands.
This is a nightmare that just keeps on giving out nightmares.
* * *
It’s 3am, and Stace and I lay facing each other on the bed. We can both sense the end is near. The corridor outside the room is buzzing with Vikinos’s men, there is no air-conditioning vent large enough for us to get out of. There is no exit from this Hell. The men are guarding the lift doors, probably on every level as they wait for us to arrive back to the room. If we do get out, we have no money and we can’t even cash our chips in because the police are probably combing the casino floor. They would have watched the CCTV footage by now. They know we have chips that need to be cashed.
Stace brings his hand up, cups my face, and kisses me tenderly. My eyes fill with tears. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this.”
He holds me close to his chest. “I was already in it. It’s me who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you back here.”
“Some wedding night, hey?” I smile sadly.
His face falls and I know what he’s thinking. I shake my head. “Don’t think that.”
“Shh.” He tries to calm me.
“We will get married,” I whisper. “Promise me, we will get married.”
“Rosh.” He pauses and the emotion in his eyes breaks my heart.
“No,” I whisper.
“I need to hand you into the police, babe.”
The tears break the dam and run down my face toward the pillow. “No.”
“You will be safe with them.”
“And you will be dead. If you go to prison, you will be killed immediately. We both know how many men are on his payroll.”
“I can’t protect you,” he whispers.
“And who will protect you?” I cry. “I will not leave you out here where they will kill you.”
“But you will be safe. That’s all I care about.”
I put my head into his chest as the lump blocks my throat. “There’s another way, Stace. We just have to think of it. Stop thinking like this.” I kiss him softly through my tears and he holds me tight.
“Rosh.” He shakes me awake. I squint as I try to focus, and I glance at the clock. It’s 5am. “The coast is clear. I’m going to go and see what’s going on.”
I sit up. “No. What?” I try to make my brain wake up.
“I will be back soon.”
I frown. “Where are you going?”
“I just want to go and see where the fire stair exits are so we can get out of here. I will be back, but you need to stay here.”
I grab his arm. “No.” I shake my head frantically. “I’m not staying here without you.”
He grabs my face in his two hands. “Listen to me. Let me go and see if I can find an exit. We are more of a target together.” He kisses me as he holds my face in his two hands. “I love you.”
I watch him through tear filled eyes. “I love you, too,” I whisper.
“If I don’t come back, stay in the room and call the police.”
I screw up my face in tears. “No, Stace, don’t go.” I try to grab hold of his arm to make him stay where he is safe, but with one last long look he disappears from my sight. I hear the latch on the door quietly click shut.
He’s gone.