Hostage Situation
Hostage Situation
“That might have been the hottest thing I’ve ever witnessed.”
She snickered at Cruz’s comment when they were back in the SUV.
“Where to next, boss?” Cruz waggled his eyebrows at her and she laughed.
+15 PES 2
“You were supposed to go to work today and you didn’t. You should probably get something done for your own business.”
He gave a sigh, “yes. I know but this was fun.” He made a face, “I also am not quite ready to let you leave me.” “What if I hung out in your office? Is there anything happening there which is top–secret or confidential? Can I hang out on the sofa?” She’d been to his office earlier in the week and there was a giant plush suede sofa he confessed to having for naps when he needed a break.
“I would love this.”
“Can we swing by my place, grab my laptop, and outline book? I’m feeling really inspired after this morning and I want to jot dot some ideas and maybe begin the framework of my next story.”
“Definitely.”
It didn’t take long before they were back at Cruz’s office and she was sitting stretched out on his sofa, a throw blanket over her knees, headphones on with music blasting and her pen scribbling frantically in a
notepad.
She was lost in her own little world of imagination, where make–believe and fantasy swirled with her creativity. Her pencil was sketching out ideas on one page while words were penned on another. So lost in her world, she jumped when she felt Cruz touch her arm and she laughed, yanking the headphones off her head. “You scared me.”
“I’m sorry. I called your name four or five times, but you were lost in the music and your thoughts.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m going to ask my assistant to order in some food. I’m about ready to eat the desktop. Any preferences?”
“Not really. I’m not fussy.” She smiled at him, staring into his eyes happily. “I like this.”
“You like what?”
“This. Being with you. Here. Doing my thing while you do yours.”
He kissed her lips softly, “I’m incredibly happy to hear this Ladybird. I like it too. I’m glad you’re feeling inspired and able to work with me nearby.”
“I love you,” she cupped his cheek as he hovered over her.
“I love you,” he repeated the words back to her, his lips pulled in a smile. He kissed her one more time, a little more lingeringly and then his stomach growled loudly. “I better feed the beast, or I won’t have energy for my girl later.”
“Your girl, huh?”
He stroked her cheek with his thumb, “definitely my girl.”
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Hostage Situation
She nearly swooned as he winked at her and then rose to go talk to his assistant. She threw her headphones back on and dove back into her universe of aliens and space love, grinning when after talking to his assistant he made a point to pause and kiss the top of her head before heading back to his own desk.
Presley was once again immersed in her work and eventually her own stomach began to rumble with the need for sustenance. She looked over to Cruz’s desk and noted his head bowed as he worked, and she pulled her headphones off.
“Hey Cruz, when is the food coming? I’m getting hungry.”
He looked at his watch and frowned, “it should have been here by now. She was ordering from the little deli
on Cordova you like so much.”
“Yum.”
He lifted his desk phone receiver to call out to his assistant, but nobody answered. “She should be at her desk.” He got up and walked out and then froze as he pulled the door open. “You’ve got to be f*****g kidding
me.”
Something in his tone made Presley dump everything off her lap and rush to the door to duck under his arm and she gave a loud groan.
“Don’t you move!” the blonde woman snarled from her spot where she was holding a knife against Cruz’s
admin assistant.
C
“I’m sorry, Mr. Hawley. She delivered the food to the floor. I don’t even know how she intercepted it.” Tears streamed down the assistant’s face. “I told reception to just let the delivery person up and,” she sniffed as the knife dug into her neck.
Presley used her phone behind Cruz’s back to text her new head of security to let him know there was a situation on the floor, and he needed to come handle it.
“Ramona, how the f**k did you get to Vancouver? Your parents told me they were admitting you to a new
program?”
“I left the program,” she laughed hysterically, her eye twitching. “Nobody can keep me from you Cruz. You’re mine. You and I are meant to be.”
“You are insane.”
“You are going to break up with her right now,” Ramona shrieked loudly, the tip of her blade poking into the other woman’s neck, “or I’ll kill her.”
“You can’t kill someone to make me love you, Ramona. In fact, it will have the opposite effect. Hurt my assistant and I’ll hate you forever.”
“Did you f**k here?”
“Who?”
“Her?!” She shook the assistant. “You f****d her too, didn’t you? She should die.”
“Ramona, you really should start taking your meds again,” Presley stepped out from under Cruz’s arm. “How about you let her go and take me instead? Cruz would never sleep with his employees. He has too much respect for them to put them in a situation where he would be in a position of control over their bodies. Me, on the other hand, he’s f****d plenty of times.”
Hostage Situation.
“Presley!” Cruz hissed at her as he grabbed her and pulled her backwards. “This is not helping.”
“I can’t stand here and let an innocent woman get hurt.” She wrestled her arm out of his grasp. “Let her go, Ramona and I’ll let you take me as your hostage instead.”
“Fine!” Ramona agreed excitedly, her head bobbing up and down with such vigor her hat flew off revealing hair so matted and dirty, both Cruz and Presley gasped.
Presley tilted her head sideways to whisper at Cruz, “what the f**k happened to her? She’s usually so well put together, even for a crazy lady.”
“She smells bad too,” the assistant muttered as she struggled to get away from Ramona.
“I haven’t been able to shower!” Ramona screamed at the trio. “I needed to hitch a ride with a trucker from the
program in Toronto and he only made a couple of stops.”
“Girl you look bad,” Presley commented. “Your hair.” She made a face of revulsion as she looked at it.
Ramona scratched her head.
“Did the guy you were traveling with have lice?”
“Shut up!” Ramona yelled as tears welled in her eyes. “Cruz. Baby, I love you and I know you still love me. Promise me you’ll leave Presley and her slutty ways and come back to me, and this can all be over.”
“My slutty ways?” Presley arched an eyebrow at her. “What slutty ways are they?”
“You write pornography, and I saw the posts which said you were into b**m. I know Cruz would never hit a woman, so it’s got to be you.”
“I’m really tempted to hit a woman now,” Cruz muttered furiously as a droplet of blood rolled down his
assistant’s neck.
In his frustration, Presley was able to wrangle her arm from his grip and she raced around the desk closer to Ramona. “Switch us, please. I’ll let you take me in exchange for her. She’s only an employee and not who you really want.”
She stepped closer to the frantic blonde and noted the unmistakable evidence of bites at her hairline where her hair was pulled in a tight ponytail. The woman was infested. “Jesus, Ramona, did you sleep in his flea ridden bed? I can see things moving in your hair.”
“What?” Ramona suddenly appeared even more wild–eyed than before.
“Lady, I can see them moving.” Presley looked at the admin assistant, “when you get home today, you may want to get treated in case they hopped from her head to yours. She’s holding you pretty close.”
“Shut up!” Ramona screamed and stomped her foot, but the movement made the knife dig deeper into the other woman’s neck causing her to whimper.
“Ramona, please, let her go. I’ll trade places.”
“f**k, Presley, get your ass back over here.”
Presley could tell Cruz wanted to intervene but with the way Ramona’s eye was twitching and her hand was trembling viciously against the other woman’s throat. Where on earth was her security team? Presley kept looking towards the elevator waiting for them, but nobody was showing up.
Presley looked at Cruz worriedly, but his eyes were trained on the knife which was really digging into his
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Hostage Situation
assistant’s throat. At this rate, the woman might need stitches. One false move and she could cut the artery which was likely pulsing as erratically as the woman threatening it was behaving.
“Look, Ramona, you’ve made her bleed. She could die. You do realize if you hurt her, you’ll go to jail, and you won’t get to marry Cruz.” Presley examined things on the desk as she rounded it. “Let me switch places.
Please.”
Ramona was whispering to herself, and Presley was trying to hear what she was saying but only a few words, “mine,” “switch,” and “dead” were audible. However, what was clear was the terror in the assistant’s eyes and while Presley couldn’t hear the insanity spewing from Ramona’s lips, the other woman could, and it was scaring her more than the knife at her throat.
Cruz stepped closer and Ramona let out a shriek, “stay back Cruz. Until you promise me you’ll leave this w***e, marry me, and have the family we always planned, you stay there. I will kill her!” Her voice was higher pitched than normal, spit foaming at the corners of her mouth and her eye was squinting so rapidly now it
was more closed than open.
“Damn, is she going to have a stroke or something?” Presley asked over her shoulder as Cruz’s feet planted where they were at Ramona’s instructions. “You are one crazy–assed b***h!”
Suddenly, down the hall coming through the doors of the fire exit, she noted the dark suits of the men who’d accompanied her to Hawley Telecom and felt a sigh of relief. She noted they were breathing heavily, and it dawned on her they’d needed to come up multiple flights of stairs to get to her.
“You’re going to die today!” Ramona growled at Presley. “All of the women who try to steal my men, both of you” she screamed “are going to die today. He’s mine. Mine. He’s all mine! Get over here, Presley. Get over here and switch places. I’ll kill you and then you won’t be in my way anymore.”
“Sure. Put the knife away from her throat and I’ll take her place. I promise. You have my word.” She was struggling with her own fears as big fat tears slid down the admin assistant’s cheeks. When Ramona shoved the assistant away and lunged at Presley, Presley gasped at the feeling of the cold metal on her neck. She was face to face with Ramona now and the woman was loonier than ever. Yet the only words she could think to say in her terror was “the bugs are really moving in there.”
“What?” Ramona asked.
Presley realized the men were sneaking up behind Ramona and she was adequately distracted by having Presley in her grasp.
“The lice. I swear they are moving. There has to be hundreds. How long were you in the truck with this guy
for?”
“Three days.” Ramona whispered. “It’s really itchy.”
Presley looked downward, “are they down there too?”
Ramona made wide eyes as she looked down her body, “can they go there?”
“I don’t know. Is it itchy?”
The question was all it took to distract Ramona enough for one of the men to snatch the knife from Ramona’s hand and slam her face first into the desk far more roughly than was necessary.
“How the f**k did she get up here?”
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Hostage Situation
The question from her head of security who was holding a hat with the name of the deli on it was the one on everyone’s minds.
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