Page 77 of For Better or for Ransom

“I guess I am.” The actor shrugged. “Still. The guy was suffocating me. And he would not hear about letting me go unless I accepted his proposal.”

Perhaps it was because of what had been transpiring in her own personal life lately, because she found herself asking Leonardo: “Did he want to marry you?”

The actor slanted his eyes, as if analyzing her words. “Not quite, but almost.”

Even if Sol would love to keep asking questions about the kidnapping, there were more pressing things at present.

“Have you seen Luke and Divya, two extremely competent private detectives, looking for you in the villa?” She raised her eyebrows and signaled the rustic Mallorcan-style villa behind them.

Something like realization flickered on Leonardo’s face. “Oh, they must have been the ones who caused the racket! You see, it’s been quite the much-needed break this abduction of mine, but I was starting to feel restless—I feared this would become a permanent thing if I didn’t accept his conditions, not just an escape to catch up on my sleep and get a nice tan. And then tonight, while I was seriously thinking about trying to maybe run away, I heard some commotion, screams. And I just took the opportunity and ran… You know the rest.”

“I hit you with my giant purse and you’re here. I need to get inside the villa and look for Luke and Divya. You can wait inside the car, you’ll be safe there,” Sol told Leonardo. “And please call the cops and tell them to come.”

She gave the actor her cell phone, pointed to the open car door, and turned toward the house. Before he said anything, she jumped the shrubbery, which was easy because with so much going on it was much lower than when Luke and Divya had first gone through it.

She had relinquished her cell phone, but she was still clutching her purse with ferocity. This kidnapper didn’t know what was coming for him.

45

Luke

Bloody hell, they were fucked. By the looks of it, FadeToBlack had no intention of letting Divya and Luke go. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there was no trace of Leonardo in the villa. Where on earth was the actor?

“And then of course, I told him: ‘Leonardo, you need to come with me. I have a place in Mallorca which is divine!’ And we came here.” FadeToBlack extended his arms to encompass the grandiosity, and luxury, of the open-concept living room with a giant flat TV screen and a not necessarily elegant leather modular sofa. The swimming pool, which was big enough for laps, could be seen through the French doors overlooking the back garden. “But I’m so glad you guys are here, because Leonardo…how should I put it? He can be a lot!”

Luke squinted his eyes at FadeToBlack. The Londoner was still trying to decipher the situation and the threat level. Could it be that the man was completely unarmed and simply a bit—or a lot—obnoxious?

“I guess Meshflixx sent you,” FadeToBlack continued. “How much are they willing to pay?”

Luke blinked. “Pay?”

“In exchange for Leonardo.” The matter-of-factness in FadeToBlack’s words was difficult to digest. “I won’t accept less than twenty million.”

“Twenty million?” Divya’s voice was edged with incredulity. The amount also seemed outrageously high to Luke.

“Euros,” FadeToBlack said, seemingly unaware of how bizarre the whole scene was.

“How do we know Leonardo is all right?” Luke asked.

“Because I’m telling you that he is,” FadeToBlack said. “And you’ll see him when I get the twenty million. This is not how I wanted things to end up. But if he won’t work on my masterpiece, I’ll have to do with the money.”

Luke noticed Divya’s stare on his periphery. Even though he couldn’t look straight at her because he was focused on FadeToBlack, he understood the gesture. She also believed the guy was making the amount up as he spoke.

But there’d be time for analyzing the case afterward. Luke hoped Divya had also noticed the apparent lack of weapons on the captor. They should take the next opportunity to move on FadeToBlack.

“It took you guys long enough! I just imagined once I started posting as FadeToBlack you’d be all up in my DMs and we’d negotiate the amount of my compensation fee that way. But I like the old-school approach, I guess,” the kidnapper continued.

“Compensation fee?” Luke asked. So many things still made no sense.

But FadeToBlack didn’t have time to answer. A dark, small figure appeared surreptitiously behind him. Before Luke could even realize what was going on or who it was, the figure jumped on FadeToBlack and hit him on the back of his legs with what looked like a giant black sack.

“Ouch!” FadeToBlack screamed, falling to his knees on the floor.

“Sol, stop!” Luke told the small figure, before she’d hit the kidnapper a second time. Both he and Divya ran toward FadeToBlack and pinned him down.

“What’s going on?” FadeToBlack screamed, his right cheek plastered against the floor, as his whole body lay on the ground, with Luke grabbing one of his arms and pushing a knee against his back, and Divya immobilizing the other arm. “I thought this was a bidding negotiation!”

“Wait a second!” Sol dropped the weapon she’d used on FadeToBlack, which Luke recognized as one of her ridiculously too big bags, and she looked at the man on the floor. She focused on him. “Aren’t you Theo Summers?”