“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.
“Babe, we can’t. I have three guys in the group downstairs and I’ve worked for years to catch Gino. This has to end with him in jail and I’m going to be the person responsible.”
I shook my head in understanding as I looked at Chris. He seemed intent on staying for the night and I couldn’t argue. I didn’t have enough energy to move on my own so I was going to be at his mercy. I had to trust that he knew what he was doing.
“Are you hungry?” he asked as he handed me a sandwich. I looked around to see if anyone was coming since I had heard Gino tell him not to give me anything to eat.
“Don’t worry, I checked. Everyone is asleep downstairs, even Gino.”
I ate the sandwich quickly and then drank the bottle of water that Chris gave me. I was starving and it felt great to get some food.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked Chris as I finished drinking.
“Well, there is a large swat team coming to raid this place in a couple hours. They should get here just before dawn, so we just have to tough it out and sit quietly for a couple hours. Should be easy, everyone is asleep and the raid will wake them up and Gino can be taken into custody before he knows what happened.”
Chris seemed so calm and at ease about the situation. It was hard for me to fathom being able to control my body and calm myself as well as he was able to do. I leaned in and let my head rest against his chest. I felt safe there. At that moment, with his arms wrapped around me, I felt safe. Even though there were dozens of people just a few hundred yards away that would easily kill us both, in that room and at that moment, I felt safe.