Picture of my lovely Danny, who plays Blaine. He looks like a bad boy in that picture. I just loved it and had to put it there. 

Chapter 2

Blaine Hale didn’t wake up the entire car ride.

I tried to complain. The first time I opened my mouth to speak, I was told to shut up. When I yelled, they didn’t touch me. They did however hit Blaine Hale.

After he was punched two times because I spoke, I got the message and kept my mouth shut.

We ended up in what looked like a deserted private airport. The drive had taken us almost an hour and it took me farther away from home.

“Madeline, is it?” Vitaly asked me.

He was sitting down in front of me. He looked calm, and there was a drink in one of his hands. Vitaly had been inside the fancy jet before Blaine Hale and I arrived.

“I don’t have a passport,” I lied, not that it would’ve made a difference.

“You don’t need one. It’s a private jet.”

“You still need-”

“You don’t need anything if you’re flying with me,” Vitaly interrupted.

“So you’re smuggling me out of the country?”

Vitaly laughed at that, but he didn’t answer my question.

I was trying not to panic. Blaine Hale was lying down in the floor.

He was still out cold. Despite how angry I was with Blaine Hale, I felt bad for him. After all, we were both getting kidnapped.

Bruises were forming on his cheekbone and jaw. His light skin color made the bruises more noticeable. Other than that, he looked perfect. Even when he was asleep on the ground, he still looked impressive. The suit jacket was gone, but everything else was fine. His dark hair was disheveled and messy. It made him look better, less uptight and more his age.

“You really like him?” Vitaly asked.

I looked up at Vitaly and found him gazing at me intently.

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Sure,” he said, in what sounded like a teasing tone.

Since the lights in the private jet were brightly lit, I could properly look at Vitaly for the first time.

He was wearing a dark dressy shirt with some black slacks. He looked neatly dressed. His longish black hair kept falling over his eyes. He kept running his hand through it, but not even that made it look messy. It seemed more like a habit for him, whenever he was thinking or right before he said something.

Vitaly was handsome. Even though I knew he must’ve been into some bad business, I couldn’t deny he looked good.

His dark eyes followed wherever I looked, with more curiosity in them than anything else.

“Are you hungry?” He asked.

“No.”

I had a deadly grip on my seat belt. Blaine Hale groaned when the plane began taking off but he didn’t wake up.

“Scared?”

“No, I just hate flying,” I commented, feeling my heart sinking as we started elevating in the air.

I still couldn’t believe where I was. I couldn’t believe Blaine Hale was on the ground, not even buckled up. It wasn’t safe to have him there but Vitaly didn’t seem to care. I couldn’t believe Blaine Hale was getting kidnapped and I had somehow gotten involved in all his mess.

“I imagine you don’t accompany your boyfriend in all his business trips.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I repeated.

I had to shut my eyes. The shaky feeling I got whenever I flew, didn’t go away. I wanted to puke but there wasn’t anything in my stomach. It must’ve been around midnight. The last time I ate had been breakfast. I had only eaten a bagel.

“Here, drink this,” Vitaly said once the plane steadied.

Everything was fine, except I knew that we were in the air. It was enough to make me dizzy all over again. I didn’t like heights and I definitely did not like being in planes.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” was all Vitaly replied.

When I cracked my eyes open, I found him staring at me. I didn’t know if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but he actually seemed worried.

“You okay?” He asked.

“Irony— when your kidnapper asks if you’re okay,” I muttered.

“I’m being serious, Madeline,” he said, shaking his head at me.

“I’m getting kidnapped. I’m flying even though I hate it. I don’t know where I’m going. What do you think?” I snapped.

“Do you have to be so sarcastic?”

“Do you have to be so stupid?”

I regretted my words as soon as they were out of my mouth. My mantra had been not to tick off the kidnappers. So far, it wasn’t going so great.

Vitaly chuckled at my words and shook his head at me. He ran his hand through his hair and got comfortable in his seat.

“Drink up,” he said, handing me the drink again.

“Did you put anything in it?” I asked, looking at the drink in his hand suspiciously.

“Yes,” he replied.

I frowned at his words but still took the drink he offered.

“It’s hot in here,” I told him after my coughing fit had passed.

I was never going to accept a drink from him again.

“It’s not,” he replied.

I narrowed my eyes at him, but that only made him smile.

“Go to sleep. We have a few hours before arriving.”

I was about to argue with him about it, until a yawn escaped my lips. 

Vitaly had returned my bag but he had taken my iPod and my cell phone. I asked him if I could at least listen to music while we flew. He flatly told me no.

My cell phone had been ringing non-stop. When Vitaly got tired of listening to it, he broke it, with his bare hands. It was amazing yet disturbing to watch. When the shock of that had passed, I felt bad for my poor phone. It had taken me three months to save up in order to afford it.

It had been a long flight from the US to wherever we were at. I remembered that I fell asleep. When the plane landed, Vitaly had carried me from the plane to his car. I dozed off after that.

“Wake up,” a voice distantly called.

Somebody was shaking me awake. I wanted to wake up, but I was too deep in my slumber. I had been tired. The plane ride had been horrible, just like all the times before. 

I finally sat up when I felt a stinging sensation on my cheek.

“What the hell!” I yelled, and crawled away from whoever was hitting me.

Blaine Hale was kneeling down in the ground, staring at me with a blank expression.

“You slapped me!”

“You’re awake,” he said, rather flatly considering how much he had been trying to get me to wake up.

I had a small headache. I shook my head in order to focus my eyes.

“Stay away Blaine Hale,” I told him in a raspy voice.

I felt more asleep than awake. The lights in the room were dimmed down, but they were still too bright. My mouth felt dry and my vision was slightly blurry.

“You can call me Blaine. In the situation we’re in, there’s no need for formalities,” he impassively said.

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, standing upright from the ground.

“How long have you been awake?” I got up as well, but only to take a seat on a couch that was placed on the side wall.

“A few hours now,” Blaine replied.

We were inside a decently large room. There was only a couch, a small table, and a single bed. I noticed there was an empty tray on the floor.

“Did they bring us food?” I asked him, nodding towards the tray.

“Yes.”

“Did you eat it all?”

“They only brought it for me,” he shrugged.

“Real gentleman,” I mocked.

It earned me another shrug from him.

Since he wasn’t saying much else, I lied down on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. My bag was resting on the floor. I leaned down to pick it up and tucked it beside me on the couch.

“How did they get you?” Blaine asked.

I didn’t answer anything.

I needed to think. I also wanted to see Vitaly. He was a kidnapper, I couldn’t disregard that. But he had been decently nice to me. He had smacked Blaine around while he was asleep, but it hadn’t been anything too serious. Besides, Blaine deserved some smacking around for being such a jerk.

“Madeline!” Blaine snapped, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, so now you know my name.”

“I remember you from yesterday. You’re the loud bratty girl who ran into my office.”

“Excuse me?” I sat up from the couch and glared at him.

“I had to fire someone because of you.”

“You fired him because you’re an egotistical jerk. And you know what?”

I was trying to think of an insult, but I drew a blank when I focused more on him. Blaine Hale really was an attractive guy. He was a jerk, but he was good looking jerk. It made it hard to throw insults or call him ugly, when I knew that was far from the truth. Blaine Hale was the definition of perfection— but only in the looks department.

“Are you done?” Blaine asked, sounding like he was bored.

“Done with what?”

“Are you done checking me out? You don’t have to be so obvious. It doesn’t impress me.”

“Excuse me?” I asked.

I was a second away from getting closer to Blaine and slapping him. He hadn’t seemed to mind all the slapping when he was out cold.

“You can also stop excusing yourself so much. It gets tiring after a while,” he continued.

“I’m not trying to impress you!”

“Well you’re not.”

“Not what?”

“Impressing me,” he said.

“I’m not here to impress you!”

“Yes, you’ve made that clear. Yet you keep defending yourself. It makes you look guilty,” Blaine said, as he pressed his back to the wall and slid down.

He sat on the floor, with one leg propped up and the other one outstretched.

He looked thoughtful. Other than a few smudges of dirt here and there, and the bruises that had formed on his cheek and jaw, he looked perfect. The way he was sitting down made it seem like he was posing. He just had to be really good looking.

“Vitaly brought you here because I was carrying your bag when they got me. He thinks you’re my girlfriend.”

“Why did you have my bag?”

“You left it in my office.”

“What were you going to do with it?” I asked, narrowing my eyes when I noticed he looked away.

“I wasn’t going to throw it out,” he replied.

“I didn’t think you were. But now that you mention it,” I said, looking at him accusingly.

“I was going to take it down and leave it in the front desk. I knew you would be back.”

“How would you know that? You kicked me out of your building.”

“You trespassed.” There was not even a hint of shame in his voice for kicking me out.

“Trespassed? I just went up there to talk to you!”

“You are persistent. My assistant said you had been calling all week before you showed up.”

“But you still couldn’t make some time to talk to me,” I said, shaking my head at him.

It was my turn to look at him disapprovingly.

“You aren’t the only one who thinks their problem is important and they urgently need to see me. I can give you a long list of people who have the same excuse.”

The way he said those words so calmly bothered me to no end.

Before I got a word out, we were interrupted by the door opening.

Vitaly, along with two other guys following after him, entered the room. They were both carrying guns. Even Vitaly had a gun tucked in his pants. He’d been carrying it around since the night before.

I had already realized they were definitely part of something big, either the mafia or the mob. I didn’t know the distinction, but I knew it had to be something illegal.

“You’re awake,” Vitaly said, closing the distance between us.

He stood right next to the couch where I was sitting in. I had been glaring at Blaine, but my attention focused on Vitaly as soon as he entered the room.

“I woke up a little while ago,” I grumbled out.

I was still upset over how easy Blaine had excused his behavior.

“You and your boyfriend are still fighting?

“He’s not my-” I started to say.

“What Madeline and I do is none of your business,” Blaine interrupted, giving Vitaly a cold glare.

It seemed like both Blaine and Vitaly liked to do that, interrupt me.

“There is no ‘Madeline and I’!” I snapped.

“As long as you know you have options,” Vitaly told me.

He ran the outside of his hand over my cheek, which was something definitely weird. I didn’t know why he was being affectionate towards me.

I was surprised when Blaine suddenly came to my side, wrapped his arm around me, and stood me up from the couch. I ended up pressed against him, with his arm circling my waist.

“She’s mine,” he stated.

Vitaly laughed at that, and put some space between us.

“For now,” Vitaly said, before his eyes landed on me.

“I already told you that I’m not his-” I started to say.

“Madeline and I are engaged. It isn’t just for now, she’s mine,” Blaine harshly retorted, and his arm around my waist tightened.

Blaine’s body was tensed up. I could feel the warmth from his body with how close we were to each other.

Vitaly narrowed his eyes at Blaine. The two guys standing behind him looked like they really wanted to make use of their guns.

I didn’t know why Blaine was stupid enough to confront Vitaly. Sure Vitaly wasn’t such an evil kidnapper, but in the end, our lives depended on him. He had guns and he didn’t look like he was afraid to use them.

“I’m hungry,” I blurted out.

The staring match Vitaly and Blaine had going on broke when I spoke up.

“I’ll have someone bring you something,” Vitaly said, before turning away and walking out the door.

I let out a shaky sigh of relief once he was gone. When I thought I could stand up on my own, I pulled away from Blaine.

Then I proceeded to slap his chest.

“Are you stupid? You don’t talk like that to the people holding you hostage!” I cried, taking a few deep breaths while thanking God that we were still alive.

“That is Vitaly Aminev,” Blaine said, like if that should’ve excused his behavior.

“Aka— our kidnapper,” I pointed out.

“His father, Demitri Aminev, was in a meeting with my brother and me yesterday. They weren’t satisfied with the final decision of our deal.”

“He’s the Russian?” I asked, remembering what the receptionist had shared with me the day before.

“You know about that?”

“You have gossipy people in your building.”

“Someone working for me told you?” He asked, incredulously.

I had no intention of getting anybody else fired. Knowing that the annoying security guard who I’d snuck away from had gotten fired was enough.

“Uh… So these Russians,” I said, hoping that would distract him.

Since he mentioned they were Russian, I was remembering that they had been speaking another language when they captured me. So they had been speaking Russian.

“I didn’t think they would kidnap me. My brother Alex and I won’t change our decision.”

“So that’s the point of this lovely intervention?” I motioned around the room with my hands. “You sure you don’t want to change your mind about your deal with them? Not that being kidnapped isn’t fun and all,” I sarcastically added.

“I don’t know what Vitale is up to. Alex must already know that Vitaly has me. He’ll get us out safely.”

“I’m sure he will,” I said, not really believing his words.

It did explain why he looked so calm though. Only when Vitaly entered the room did Blaine seem upset.

“Won’t they know you’ll call the cops on them once they release you?”

“I won’t do that,” Blaine said, his eyes turning cold. “I’m going to get even.”

“But kidnapping someone? Why go through all the trouble?” I asked, slumping myself on the couch.

I really did not want to be there. I didn’t want to be kidnapped. I was wishing I hadn’t gone to Hale Industries to confront Blaine Hale.

“This deal, it will ruin Demitri. It’s only worth millions, but Demitri invested his life in the company.”

“Only millions,” I said, sarcastically.

Blaine gave me a flat look and rolled his eyes at me.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” he said, condescendingly.

That comment stung. He was making fun of me again. I didn’t want to argue with him. We were alone, we were kidnapped, and it just didn’t seem right. I decided going back to the root subject was probably best. It wasn’t like I already didn’t know that Blaine Hale and I obviously came from different worlds.

“You and your brother want to take his company even if it’s important to him?” I asked, shaking my head.

Rich people and their greed I thought to myself.

“Demitri borrowed money from my father. He has had years to pay it back and he won’t do it. Last year, when Alex and I met with him, he said he wasn’t willing to let any of his money go. We had to take matters into our own hands. His company rightfully belongs to us.”

“What will happen once you two take over? Will you keep it? Maybe Demitri is worried about the employees. I mean, what will happen to them?”

A few years back, the place where my mom had been working closed down. Over one thousand people ended up unemployed and with only a two week notice. Those had not been our best times.

“We’re tearing it apart and selling it to the highest bidder,” Blaine calmly replied.

My mouth dropped open at his words.

His explanation made everything very clear. That was the reason we had gotten kidnapped. If I had been Vitaly, and my father was about to lose his life’s work over what seemed like a tantrum from Blaine and his brother, I’d probably have taken drastic measures as well. 

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