The first thing I noticed when I started to wake up was how bad my head hurt. I couldn't help the groan when I blinked, the bright light shining straight into my eyes. It was only when I tried to rub them was I noticed that my hands seemed to be unable to move.

"Princess, you're awake," Someone sneered, their deep tone easy to recognise.

Marcus.

I started to panic, trying to pull my hands from behind my back, the pain in my head now forgotten. A stiff band was digging into my wrists, holding them together securely as I struggled. I dug my feet into the ground when I realised that they were free, trying to use more force to pull my hands away.

"Give up, you're not going anywhere," Marcus cut in. I forced myself to calm down, taking deep breaths and looking around, still trying to get my hands free just without so much focus.

We were in a small study room, with Marcus sat behind a dark wood desk, elbows resting on the table as he looked at me as though I was a toy or a pet about to do something interesting. I flinched under his gaze, focusing my own to the walls and desk surrounding him.

"So, you've had a busy week, huh," Marcus chuckled. I was thrown off by how casual he was acting, like I was for some reason here willingly and knew exactly what was going on. I took his comment as rhetorical, remaining silent.

"Want to tell me what's going on?" I stayed silent. He chuckled again, shifting until he was leaning backwards. I couldn't see anyone else in the room, but he obviously signalled towards someone, as footsteps left the room, slamming the door shut behind us. I tried to ignore the thought of someone else being here without me realising, instead focusing on the man in front of me, who I knew to be far more dangerous. The chair scraped back and his footsteps traced around his desk until I could see them in front of me. My eyes flickered up, only to see him leaning against the desk, glaring down at me, arrogance seeping out of him in waves.

"Why don't I tell you, huh?" He leant down, putting his face up to mine until we made eye contact.

"I'm going to return you to you father, and you're going to be a good girl and cooperate, or else we will be having problems, understood?" One of his eyebrows raised at the end of his condescending speech. After a second, I gave him a small nod, biting my lip and holding back tears. If he gave me to my father, I was going to die, and I think he knew this, which only horrified me all the more. I could feel his breath against my face as he continued to glare at me, until a phone rang from behind the desk. He finally pulled away, leaving to pick up the phone. The tension from the closeness between us fell away from me, leaving me in a shaking mess.

"Hello," He said into the phone. Murmurs snapped back, and Marcus replied in another language, not sparing me a glance. Although I recognised the language as French, my mother tongue, I couldn't pull apart what they were saying, it having been so long since I had last heard it. With one last sentence snapped over the phone, Marcus slammed it down, falling back into his seat and sighing heavily. I looked up at him, and accidently made eye contact before I could look away.

"Well, unfortunately for you, Mia, we'll be leaving much earlier than intended," I flinched as he slammed his hands down onto the desk, pushing himself up and walking past me. He paused beside me, a hand reaching out and twirling a strand of my hair between his fingers. I tried to pull my head away, but there was only so far I could go, and my hair had grown much longer since being here.

"Shame, really... If you and your friends hadn't tried to fuck up my career, we could've let this go," A bead of blood fell into my mouth from my teeth tearing at the same rip that was still trying to heal from where I had last bitten it. Thankfully, he lost interest quickly and I listened to his footsteps leave and the door shut behind him.

For a second, all I could hear was my breathing, and then I started to struggle with my restraints once more. I clumsily pushed myself up and off of the chair until I was stood in front of it, spinning around and checking if someone else was in the room. I realised that no one was there and quickly stepped over my legs, manoeuvring my hands in front of me. Once I twisted my hands into the right place, I bit down on my lip, shut my eyes and counted back from three in my head, before raising my hands up and throwing them down as fast as I could. I almost burst into tears from the mixture of pain and gratefulness at how the zip ties had broken first time.

It took me a second before I turned and locked the door that Marcus had left out of, lifting the heavy chair and barricading it shut so they hopefully would be slowed down if anyone tried to get in. I then turned to try the window, peering out, only to find that I was four storys up with no way to climb up or down.

My hope was fading fast.

I started to cry, using the desk to hold me up. There was no way I could think to escape, no other exits other than the door and the window. There was no promise that I would survive either exit either, which gave me no choice but to wait it out and hope that someone would feel sorry enough for me to help. Maybe my death wouldn't be so painful, but knowing my father, there was no promise of that.

"Love," My head shot up at the sound of someone's voice. I couldn't see anyone in the room, no one had come in, no one was hiding, so where was it coming from?

"Love, here!" I looked up and gasped at the sight of Alex's face.

The ceiling.