Page 80 of Billion-Dollar Ransom

THEY WERE TALKING excitedly to someone over the speakerphone, but Cassandra Bart didn’t know enough Spanish to keep up. The single course she’d taken in her sophomore year of high school wouldn’t be helpful unless she needed to ask her kidnappers for directions to the bathroom: ?Para bano?

But that was also not an option; she was still bound to the chair and blindfolded. Tyler was also bound and seated to her right. She could hear his annoyed grunts and snorts. And then, a mumbled question: “Hey, Cass. You there?”

She swallowed, wondering what she’d have been doing right now if she hadn’t foolishly agreed to this midweek getaway with Tyler Schraeder.

“Yeah. I’m here.”

“Do you understand a damn thing they’re saying?”

“A little.”

Which was true. Certain words jumped out at her, like actriz and dinero (which, granted, didn’t require advanced degrees to translate).

But little phrases alarmed her, like something that translated to “taking them out.” Did that mean taking them out of this place and moving them elsewhere? Or did that mean… taking them out ?

“Something about us and money,” she said quietly.

“That means the old bastard is paying up,” Tyler said. She heard him exhale as if he’d just received the best news of his career. “We’ll be going home soon.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“My father must know these people,” he said. “I’ll bet he arranged all this to get us out of the hands of that idiot who grabbed us.”

Do you mean the idiot who beat the living hell out of you, Tyler?

Cass wanted Tyler to shut up so she could focus on the words.

She also fervently hoped he was right and that this would all be over soon.

She tried to think of it as an interesting anecdote to tell on a press junket someday.

How did I prepare for this Martin Scorsese film?

Well, I was once held for ransom by a violent Mexican cartel, and let me tell you…

But there wouldn’t be any more press junkets, Cass was certain. Not for her, anyway. Everybody in the world wanted to be famous; people would do anything for their share of the spotlight. But why? So you could be famous enough to be used as a pawn in a massive kidnapping plot?

Now the excited conversation stopped; the conference call was over, important cartel business tabled for the moment. Cass thought it sounded like a decision had been made.

Footsteps approached. A gruff voice asked them both: “?Encendido o apagado?”

“What are they asking?” Tyler asked.

“‘On or off,’” Cass translated, not understanding what they meant by that.

“Oh, shit,” Tyler said. “The blindfolds. They’re asking us if… listen, tell them we want to keep them on. We absolutely do not want to see their faces! Tell them, Cass!”

Cass, however, wanted very much to have this gross, scratchy rag removed from her eyes. She’d spent enough time in the dark.

“If we see their faces, they’ll have to kill us!” Tyler said.

Was that true? Cass didn’t know what to think anymore. Even if they were going to kill them both, she didn’t want to die blind. She wanted one last glimpse of this strange world before it was snatched away from her.

“Listen to me,” Tyler told their captors. “Leave the blindfolds on. You will be rewarded handsomely! You know who my father is, don’t you?”

A quiet voice whispered in Cass’s ear, “Miss, on or off?”

“Take it off, please,” she said.

“Cass, no ! You don’t understand !”

Immediately her blindfold was removed, and the harsh warehouse lighting stabbed her eyes. When her vision finally cleared, she saw that one of their captors was holding a pistol to Tyler’s forehead as he continued to writhe in his chair and plead for them to leave his blindfold on.

He’d get his wish.