Taken and Misused.

Vaughn’s Point of View

Two more weeks went by without a hint of pursuit from Semyon. The news seemed to thrill Elisabeth; she took it as if we were saying we could go back to New York and resume our normal lives. Stephen and I knew that this had to mean Semyon was planning something big, we had killed a few of his men in the explosion at the gala, I had humiliated him at the event as well by foiling his plan to kill Elisabeth and myself, and now Stephen told me that he probably blamed me for Stephen helping myself and Elisabeth. Stephen’s exact words were, “he’s killed men just for speaking badly of him, there is no way he will give up trying to kill you and Elisabeth.” That was his version of being comforting, with me anyways. With Elisabeth I could not believe the man was the son of a black market boss, he was just so damn sweet and she would smile for him. Ever since I kissed her Elisabeth was even worse than before, at least before I had kissed her she would send me snide comments and make an effort to bug me. Now she just ignored me completely and no matter how many times I would try to provoke her all I got was this thoughtful look that I couldn’t read for the life of me. I so desperately wanted to her hear her voice, telling her that I loved her out loud seemed to make the emotion more real for me. It had always been in my mind but never had I thought I’d act on it and tell her, but the thought of nearly losing her at the gala event had my mind reeling with just how easy it was to lose a loved one. I had needed her to know how I felt and now she still hated me, good lord, why did I have to fall in love with a woman who wouldn’t even spare me a glance?

“Elisabeth, would you like to go for a walk before we get ready to leave?” Stephen asked the girl I loved. She was sitting on one of the two beds in our crappy hotel room watching QVC again. She was wearing a long sleeved, grey shirt and denim jeans. It was still cold outside so her feet were covered in thick socks. She smiled up at him and slipped off the bed.

“I would love to,” she replied. I nearly snapped the pencil I had in my hand in two, why could Stephen make her so thrilled and I couldn’t even get a smile. I fixed my eyes on the map I had spread out in front of me with our next route mapped out, but my concentration wasn’t on that, it was on the sounds of Elisabeth pulling her boots on and then came her deep green parka I had snagged for her from a store.

“We’ll be back soon, start putting everything in the car so we can head out quickly, I’m taking her down Walker Avenue” Stephen called. I lifted a hand and made a thumbs up gesture to show I’d heard. Once the door closed behind them I decided to pack our things up.

As I was closing the trunk to the car I had lifted a few days ago I caught sight of something out of the ordinary. Parked behind a semi-truck and nearly invisible was a black Mercedes. Call me crazy but I doubted that someone who drove a Mercedes stayed at a crappy motel like this. The window rolled down and I saw Semyon’s grinning face staring back at me with a cell phone to his ear, my cell phone rang and I picked it up, knowing who it was.

“Hello Vaughn, seems as if you’ve been very naughty,” Semyon taunted. I glared at him and my hand went to pull my gun out of the back of my jeans, “tsk tsk, look at your chest Vaughn,” I glanced down to see three laser dots zeroed in on where my heart was, “if you pull your weapon I’ll have my men shoot you.”

“How did you get this number,” I growled, holding my hand up to show it was free of any weapon. The cell phone I had, just like Stephen’s and Elisabeth’s, was new, and had purchased them with cash.

“I’m not so easily avoided Vaughn, now I’ve not come here to kill you, I just wanted to let you know your beloved Elisabeth won’t be alive much longer because of you,” he said the words so nonchalantly, as if he wasn’t speaking about killing the woman I loved.

“If you lay a fucking hand on her I will personally shove a gun in your mouth and pull the God damn trigger until there’s no hope of you having an open casket funeral,” my tone was deadly quiet as I said the words into the cell phone. Semyon just grinned, his eyes holding no emotion but a sick humor.

“Good bye Vaughn, I’ll be seeing you soon,” he hung up and the Mercedes left the parking lot and sped away.

“Dammit!” I shouted, hurrying into the driver’s seat of the car and starting it with my makeshift key. I dialed Stephen’s number and sped down Walker Avenue, looking for the two of them. Semyon was playing games with me; the thought irritated me to no end. Stephen didn’t pick up and I cursed once more.

“That fucking Russian idiot,” I cursed, not sure at the moment if I was talking about Stephen or Semyon.