"Yeah, right. And I'm the fuckin' pope."

"Well, obviously not, you're Jewish."

"Shut up."

This is the third time since waking up that I've been hit in the face by that fucking pistol. I guess I should've been a little more blunt with my demand.


"I won't cooperate unless you let me make one phone call." The edges of my mouth twist upward into a crooked smile as I turn my head to face him head on. I spit a mouthful of blood onto the ground centimeters away from his feet and look him dead in the eye. He chuckles and shakes his head.

"Then don't cooperate; and I'll put a bullet in your head."

"You wouldn't," I say with about a million voice cracks as he continues to smile down at me, pointing the barrel of the gun right where he previously smacked me across the face the most recent time. The binds around my wrists begin to cut into my skin as I frantically thrash about, trying to slip out of the rope but to no avail and I can't bring myself to look him in the eye any longer. He leans in closer, pressing the gun into my jaw and breathing his heavy, stomach churning breath past my nose. I gag but manage, however barely, to stop myself from puking as he jams the barrel further into my face.

"I will."

"Then, then, my uncle will kill you."

He loosens up slightly.

"Ye-yeah, he'll get all your friends to sell you out, and then he'll gut you like a fish!" The fact that I've broken down and have now commenced the water works is doing wonders for killing my credibility right now, but as long as he has the gun drawn on me, I could die at any second. And seeing as though he's proven himself to not be the type to give someone a heads up before he splatters their insides all over the wall, I probably won't even know when he does. Again, being shot in the head while being held hostage wasn't how I pictured my death to go.

"That's all fine and dandy, but what you don't realize is that it won't happen. They'd never sell me--"

"What are you doing, Daniel?" interjects another voice, belonging to a person unfamiliar to me as the door leading into this room that seemed mere seconds removed from being my death site. Two sets of feet shuffle frantically into the room as I feel the gun pull away from my face and out the corner of my eye I see him turn away from me to look at the new additions to this ever so charming and inviting room.

Disregard the dead guy.

I too take a peek over at the two people who inadvertently saved my life. One, of course, is Samuel. The other? I have no idea, but he certainly seemed to have much more energy than his elderly exterior would lead someone to believe. Daniel backs down, lowing his gun down to his waist, where he pulled it out from in the first place. Samuel looks just as mortified as the old stranger, though I'm certain it's an act for him.

"She thought it would be a good idea to threaten me--"

"With what? She isn't exactly in the position to be doling out anything physical, is she?"

"With Rockwell."

"This is Rockwell's niece?" he asks, surprised. I start to wonder whether or not there's others locked up here like me: other victims of circumstance caged up to play with the fears of the people they're actually striking at. Or, whether the dumbfounded reaction came from a legitimate ignorance of the situation at hand. Either way, Daniel nods, much to the chargin of Samuel, who was trying to lead him into saying no by shaking his head out of the older man's view.

"And you have her tied up, and put a gun to her head?"

Once again, Daniel nods and gets slapped upside the head for his troubles.

"I told you to send a message; not start a war!"

"I can guarantee you that James is too smart to let it escalate to that level."

"You think I'm worried about James? No, I'm more concerned about this girl's psycho uncle leading an army right to our front door!"

"Do you really think that he'd do that?"

"I don't think; I know. Unlike you, I have experience dealing with gangsters and they don't tend to be too happy when a family member is put in trouble."

"Sorry to tread on your little quarrel here, but are you just going to forget about the dead guy over there?" Without anyway of motioning it to the new guy, I watch as he looks around the room before finally seeing Abraham's body laying against the wall.

"Abraham! What happened here?!"

"See how fucked up her face looks? That was Abraham's work."

I start to pipe up, but Daniel jabs me in the ribs with his elbow, leaning in and whispering "Go along with this and you can get your phone call."

I nod in silent agreement once the old man looks away from the body and back at both Daniel and I. Looking just as dumbfounded as he did when he figured out who I was, he looks down at the ground and shakes his head in what I assume to be disbelief.

"Has anyone told Rockwell about this?"

"He was there for it; I think he got the message."

"For our sake, I hope he did."

"I don't see what the big deal is. You make it sound like Rockwell and his boys are something to be reckoned with; they aren't. It would literally be an army of twenty converging on our compound. We have more guards than that patrolling!"

"Rockwell ain't nearly as dumb as you make him out to be, Sam. I ain't worried about that."

"Isn't that what you just--"

"I know what I said, Samuel. You and I need to have a long talk regarding this, out of earshot from our new guest and your little lapdog."

"Hey!"

"Shut up, Daniel."

With that, both Samuel and the older man exit the room through the same door they entered from. Once again leaving Daniel and I alone. He kneels down by where my hands are tied and loosens the knot before letting it drop to the ground entirely. I pull my hands back to my lap, examining the ligature wounds around my wrists as Daniel produces a cell phone from his back pocket and hands it to me.

Without hesitation, I snatch it from his hand and dial the first number I can think of off the top of my head that doesn't belong to my uncle. The person on the other end answers on the first ring.

"Who the fuck is this?" Kara asks before I can even breathe.

"I was just calling to see if you got the package I was trying to send you. Not sure what your issue was, but I thought that it would help."

"What in the... Kendall?"

"Yeah. Sorry, don't have time to chat much right now. Just check for the package. I was trying to send it to you from the hotel room I'm at. I do seriously think it'll help."

"What the actual fu--"

I hang the phone up and hand it right back to Daniel, who appears just as confused as I assume Kara will be before she puts two and two together.

I just hope she figures it out sooner rather than later.