*BAM!* Vladimir kicked Kevin on the shoulder.
"Arghh," Kevin groaned, shutting his eyes and clenching his jaw to endure the pain. He had already been brutally kicked and punched by the evil man but he wanted to remain strong.
Vladimir was having so much fun while he kept on beating Kevin. "Where is it?! Return my cargo!" He looked like a maniac as he smiled and got angry at the same time.
"Kevin!" Daniel shouted, his hands stopped moving when he saw Kevin being unfairly beaten up. "You son of a bîtch! Why are you hitting someone who"s already tied up?!" He spat out, his heart ached upon seeing Kevin all black and blue.
Vladimir turned towards Daniel and looked at him from head to toe. "You, pretty boy! You shouldn"t have been in here had you not been friends with these two fools. Or are you also a part of their family?
Daniel glared at him in the eye without fear even when Vladimir dissed him, "Huh! What do you know? You"re just a pretty face and a driver who knows nothing. You"re actually useless to me here. Tsk." He scoffed.
"You-" Daniel"s rage was already through the roof yet he suppressed himself as he needed to be able to think clearly. If his anger gets the best of him, it will only endanger them more. So even if he wanted to bite back, he had to swallow his words.
Turning around, Vladimir shouted to the guards outside the room. He spoke to them in a low voice that Daniel could not clearly hear. While he had his back turned, Daniel continued to create friction from the rope around his wrists and the small sharp edge on the pipe where he was tied to.
He tried to feel the rope and was relieved to know that the threads had started to loosen. If he kept on going, he"ll be able to free his wrists soon. Daniel started planning their escape in his head, observing Vladimir and his men carefully. Although he did not know what was beyond that door, he was confident that as long as he gets out of his restraints, there is a chance for them to escape the place.
Vladimir walked out of the room while his men entered. Daniel watched them closely as they untied Kevin"s ropes, "What are you going to do?" He asked nervously.
After removing his ties from the back, they tied his wrists again but this time, his hands were in front of him.
The men ignored his question and proceeded to hold Kevin"s limp body up and brought him towards the center of the room. "Ngnnn…" Kevin groaned as they dragged him, everything in his body hurt – his face, his torso, and his injured leg. He tried to resist but their grip on him only got stronger, adding more bruises to his arm.
One man held him up and the other attached the rope connected to the tie on his wrists to a metal hook on the roof. Kevin was then raised above the ground and he was then suspended in the air, a foot away from the ground. "Aaahh!!" Kevin screamed when he felt his body stretch and being pulled by gravity, he no longer knew which of his wounds hurt more than the other as everything seemed to be extremely painful.
Daniel"s eyes grew wide seeing his friend was elevated and dangled in the air. He quickened the movements of his hand behind him, eager to get out of the stupid rope.
When the men were satisfied, they walked out of the room and locked it.
"Kevin!" Daniel called in a voice full of worry.
Kevin"s eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow. Upon hearing Daniel call his name, his eyes fluttered and slowly opened until he was able to see where his friend was. When he met Daniel"s hurt gaze, he smiled at him, "What are you… frowning about? I"m… fine... It"s… actually comfortable…" He chuckled, trying as hard as he can to show that he was a strong person in front of his friend.
"Come on, man. You don"t have to pretend with me. I know you"re in pain. Just hang in there for a while… I"ll get us out of here." Daniel responded, gritting his teeth as he hastened his movements.
"Hang," Kevin chuckled once again for the unintentional pun. "Sure, it"s not like... I have anything better to do in here anyway."
Daniel lowered his head and laughed with him. "That was stupid," he told himself. While he was trying so hard to free himself from the ropes, Kevin was slowly getting very drowsy. His gunshot wound opened and blood started to gush out.
"AAAAAGGGHHHH" A loud scream was heard from the other room, startling Daniel and Kevin. The two of them looked at each other and they knew that it was Lucas.
Seeing the horror in Daniel"s face, Kevin decided to lighten the mood and snorted, "He had always been a screamer. When we were kids... he tripped on his own foot and fell. He sc.r.a.ped his knee and he screamed like a baby." He chattered. He could see from where he was that Daniel was trying so hard to cut the rope behind him.
Daniel knew what Kevin was trying to do but with his heart rate increasing every time he heard Lucas scream in agony, it just made everything even more difficult – but he dared not to give up.
Just then, the door swung open and Vladimir walked in with a baseball bat in his hand. Daniel felt a chill ran down his spine, realizing that the maniac was going to use it to Kevin.
"That idiot cousin of yours. He was actually the son of Ben Olsen and you…" Vladimir chuckled, "You dared to trick me so that you could protect him? Tsk Tsk Tsk. You see… I don"t like being tricked. But you… you are the son of Eddie who stole my cargo, I will play with you instead."
With a smile on his face, Vladimir raised the bat and used it to lift Kevin"s chin. "Hey! How about we play a game?
"I ask, you answer. If I"m not satisfied with your answer, I"ll give you two hits. Otherwise, I"ll give you only one. How about it? Interesting, no?" He spoke in a low voice, enunciating the words carefully that his accent was very apparent with how he rolled his R"s.
Daniel thought that he was insane because either way, Kevin was still going to get hit!
"Are you f*cking crazy?! You"ll kill him!!" Daniel growled, his body was on fire — he couldn"t wait to get his hands on Vladimir and strangle him.
As if it was no big deal for him, Vladimir just shrugged his shoulders, "Meh, maybe I don"t really care. If I kill him right now, maybe I can get to his father faster." He answered casually, making Daniel"s blood boil. He was disgusted by how easily Vladimir can speak about killing someone.
"OK, let"s start. Why did you steal my cargo?" Vladimir walked back and forth in front of Kevin.
"I already f*cking told you! We did not steal anything! Maybe your own men stole from you, you psycho!!!" Kevin spat.
"Wrong answer!" Vladimir raised the bat and sw.a.n.g, the metal baseball bat hit Kevin"s injured thigh and his blood dripped onto the floor. Kevin screamed in pain but before he could recover from the blow, Vladimir sw.a.n.g the bat and gave him another hit. The hit landed on Kevin"s left side. He swore that his ribs broke, making it difficult to breathe.
"Stop!!!" Daniel could only shout. His heart pounded heavily in his chest, he felt like he was suffocated. "You mother fu-!!
Vladimir turned his head towards Daniel and gave him a menacing stare, "If you don"t shut up, I will hit him twice as much."
Daniel clenched his jaw and looked away. He could no longer bear to watch his friend getting hit. His hands formed into fists, he gripped it so hard that it went white.
Vladimir continued to question Kevin and in return, Kevin had been receiving countless blows everywhere on his body. He was already very pale and his voice was barely audible.
Closing his eyes, Daniel concentrated on loosening his rope and just as he put more pressure on causing friction, he felt the rope loosen from his wrist and had fallen on to the ground.
His eyes slowly opened when he realized that his wrists are already free. Although that was the case, they had tied his upper body to the pole really tightly that he could not get out of it easily without being noticed. The moment was crucial for him because the second that they would know, he was sure that they will lose their chance of escaping.
Struggling with his inner thoughts, Daniel decided to put his focus on the second rope around him. This time, he doubled his efforts.