Family Business

Trouble In The Camp

Thursday May 30th Lake Mohawk, Sparta, New Jersey, 2.35am

Richie walks the motorcycle in complete darkness up to the house, his heart still racing, he didn't want to take any chances and wake people up.

Slowly he raises the garage door and once it reaches a level he can get the bike in he does. The Dodge Charger is parked up beside the van. He wonders if Henry made the ransom demand. He enters the hallway from the garage and can hear quiet muffled chat in the living room. He slowly opens the door. Standing in the dim light of a stand alone light were Henry, Gretchen and Florence, they look at him anxiously "What kept you?" whispers Gretchen "I was worried".

"Oh I got lost" lies Richie, I tries to take the attention off himself "Did you make the call!"

"Yep" states Henry, still flush from making the demand "but, they want to know she is still alive and they say they don't have Bitcoin!".

"Shit, did you ask RolyPoly?"

"Not yet!" groans Henry, just having a group meeting first. "Did you get to drop off the SUV and phone love?" asks Gretchen as she hugs him in a tight brace.

"What's this about a phone!" asks Florence her phone concerned.

Richie gives Gretchen a disapproving look. This was a idea of his that he forgot to share with the rest apart from Prudence.

"Well I er, thought we could get some extra cash for her cellphone so I brought it to guy that deals in stolen phones!"

Henry gasps in dismay, struggling to keep his voice low "For fuck sake man, look at you was the extra one thousand dollars worth it!"

Richie closes his eyes momentarily "He wouldn't take it, it wasn't off but-"

Florence smacks her palm off her forehead in frustration "You idiot, they will trace it to here!". Her face now a paler shade of pale.

"No I dumped it into a truck at a service station, don't worry it's far from here!".

"That's not the point Richie" barks Henry just above a whisper "We have to stick to the plan, you could have screwed this up"

"Well I didn't I sorted it!".

"You put us at risk, with your stupidity over $1000, how stupid can you be!", Florence's tone now raised and then they began to argue.


Prudence drifted in and out of sleep her back and buttocks ached from the chair but still it was more comfortable then the mattress could be. She was awoken by the sound of voices, she looked around the room trying to remember where she was. She listened carefully, 'are they are arguing, they are arguing!". For the first time since abduction she smiles 'I hope you all have fucked up' she says to herself.
After a few moments the shouting stops and the tones lower, then she hears footsteps walk up the stair well, her heart begins to pound, her breathing intensifies as the footsteps stop out side her door and the key is twisted inside the barrel.

She groans as she stands at her chair

The door opens and in walks all four "How much bitcoin have you got fatso?" demands Gretchen.

Prudence gives a half chuckle "I have none at present, nor does any of us, virtual currency isn't regulated" She sees Gretchen's face turn beetroot red.

"Oh, oh don't tell me your ransom is for Bitcoin, you really are more stupid than I thought, do you know how-"

Before she can finish her face is numbed on her left cheek by a smack from Gretchen. She readjusts her glasses on her nose and massages her cheek, she is paralysed with fear "You'll pay for this".

"No your family will pay!" retorts Richie as he sticks his face directly into hers, her deep breathing intensifies with this "Now tell us the truth".

Prudence tries to move her face away from his but she can't, her eyes begin to well up "I'm telling you the truth we have none"

He proceeds to jamb his right index finger deeply into her extensive chest "Well you're going to be telling your uppity family that they better get it because your life depends on it!"

As they turn away to walk out Gretchen reaches out and snatches her glasses off her face. "Hey" she gasps in panic. Her world now blurry, she wore them virtually every minute of the day "Give them back!" she whines "Please". They walk out and lock the door, she can hear muffled voices as they walk down the stairwell, each talking over each other.

She massages her burning cheek, the aftershock still vibrating in her face, she cannot spend captivity i living in a blurred world. She squints to identify the chair easier, she realises she has to do something. She lifts up the chair, the first physical exercise she has done in a while. She strides towards the window squinting hard until she is at the window. She begins to smash the chair off the window and screaming. She pauses after each attempt at smashing the window to catch her breath. She curses her lack of fitness. After a few attempts she is already pumping sweat. Her business suit was never designed for physical exercise. She takes a few shallow breaths, recommences a gaspy scream and smashes the chair off the window again, her heart pounds. She acknowledges she can only maintain this activity for a short period of time, she wonders is she better to keep her energy to try again in the morning.

"Outside she can hear footsteps in the hallway and the door unlocks. "What are you doing!" It's Florence, someone else is with her.

Florence places the glasses back on her face, she can see again. She is with Henry. Florence places an ice pack on her cheek, hold this?"

Prudence holds it, her hand still shaking, she wonders if now she could hold Florence hostage but she is exhausted and Henry would be on her in seconds "Try not to make her angry?" advises Henry

"For your own sake if not for anyone else's" adds Florence.

As they go to make an exist Henry turns around "oh and one more thing, no more trying to smash windows and screaming otherwise your fat ass will be permanently tied to that chair and your huge mouth filled with a ball gag".

The door locks, she places herself back on the chair with one hand holding the ice pack against her cheek and the other drying her tears.