Chapter 11

A/N: Please like, comment and share your thoughts on the book.

This is my first work, and I'll appreciate critical comments on the work please.

I'm very sorry I've been unable to post any chapters for so long. I'm looking to post more frequently. Please understand, I've been real busy with school. Thanks Birds.

"Stacy! Stacy!" Mark yelled. She wasn't even listening to him. His only line of defense was he knew she loved him enough to let him in the house no matter how late he stayed out. She was his life and she knew it, but his job now needed him more and more, and that was messing with their lives; as he was increasingly drowning in piles of paperwork as the days go by.

"You have no dinner Mr." was what came back to him as he listened to his wife sniffling over the phone. "And I won't wait up"

Mark knew the dinner part was not a bluff and she was really not going to wait up for him... at least, not in front of the door like she used to two years back.

He was once again consoled by the fact that in half-anticipation and half-hope of retribution, he had bought her favorite snack; a bagel with chocolate fillings and toppings with little red and white sprinkles on it. She basically loved chocolate so much that the bagel could as well be made out of only chocolate. He smiled as he unwrapped one of the three he had with him to use as supper. He missed his wife and only wanted to be by her side all the sooner to hold and comfort her.

"Oh shit!" the bagel dropped from his hand as he was trying to see how to hold it best with all the chocolate dripping and smeared on the sides. "How does Stacy even eat this?" He wondered as he looked for it.

It had rolled under the shotgun seat and he needed to let go of the steering wheel to be able to reach it. He grabbed it and looked back up, only to see two lunatics holding hands and standing right in the middle of the street. He braked so hard he almost smashed his brakes and coming to a screeching halt and veering to the side to avoid hitting them, he stopped just foots away from a large tree.

"You're a mad person!" Sarah shouted. "Let go!" She ran towards the driver's side of the car that had stopped just moments away from turning into a sandwich. “Are you alright?” Sarah was concerned. There seemed to be some screws loose with this man named Ramsey and she wanted nothing more to do with him.

The man looked up at her after taking a moment to clear his head, and asked the blue eyes in front of him “Huh?”

“I said, are you hurt?” Sarah repeated and this time the man replied by shaking his head from one side to the other. “Please I need your help. I was kidnapped in the early hours of today while on my morning jog, and I found a way to escape from them. However, I believe they are still in pursuit of me and are not far behind either."

“Huh?” was all Mark could say... again.

The driver pushed the door open and stepped down shouting in Sarah's face with a Scottish accent. "What is wrang wit the lot of yeas?" Mark asked as he got down. The lady repeated what she said about a kidnapping, and Mark felt like he really didn’t want to be there any longer. He tried to get back in the car, and Ramsey stopped him, grabbing him by the arm. He had come up behind him silently and in his fury and confusion, Mark had almost forgotten about the Gorilla-looking young man standing beside her earlier. He shuddered. Ramsey asked him if he would be willing to offer Sarah a ride back into town. “What town?” Mark needed to go fast.

"Dustin" Sarah said "Can you take me to Dustin? I don't even know where we are at the moment."

"Dustin is the next town over from my place, and I can't risk taking you all the way." Mark said. Mark looked at them, and nodded. “I’ll take you to Cresta and you can find your way back to your rat’s hole afterwards. That’s all I can do for you.” Sarah didn’t miss the ‘rat’ reference. He definitely was one of those big shots who thought their lives were better than others simply because society favored people who sucked up to her shits. Sarah got in the car and sat down beside the driver's seat. He had a very clean car except for the junk he apparently was just eating, his car smelled like Orchids after a rain. Ramsey came over to her side of the car, and looked her in the eye... "Take care, and if they come again, and you manage to get yourself to a phone booth, call this line..." he told her "But you can make use it only twice.)

“That’s fine.” Ramsey said, and looked at Sarah as though he didn’t expect any complaint.

‘this is gon’ be a very long night’ Sarah thought to herself.

Ramsey watched as Mark drove off. He then turned and headed back smiling and hating himself. He needed to do some digging on the Ambassador’s secretary. She didn’t strike him as anything more than the ordinary girl that she looked, but he needed to be sure. Also, Lily must be getting stressed just sitting and waiting for him. His steps quickened.

Mark and Sarah drove in silence; a chasm built between them by Mark’s earlier remark. Sarah looked at him at intervals. He didn’t look like a bad person. He probably only calls Dustin ‘rat’s hole’ out of habit. Many of the rich families never even set foot in Dustin. The Ambassadors –Past and recently past- never really did anything to change her standing in society. Dustin was the dump yard for the bigger cities the Government never cared for it, as long as it stayed silent and dying.

They drove for about Thirty minutes, and then left the forest area, and Sarah saw what looked like the biggest building she had ever seen. Mark glanced at her, and saw how distressed she seemed. “You’ve never been in the City, have you? What’s the name? I’m Mark”

“No, I have not, and my name is Brenda” Sarah looked at him to see a hint of a smile on his face. She felt uneasy at that and wished she had not gotten in the car with him. Mark noticed the change and spoke up. “I’m sorry, I’ve just never been this close to someone from Dustin before and I didn’t know they had such pretty ladies down there.”

Sarah felt even more uneasy. “I didn’t know they had such disgusting people up in Cresta too” She retorted, and felt satisfied when she saw his face drop and his features stiffen. ‘That’s what you get for growing fat at our expense’ she thought.

‘Are they all like this?’ Mark asked himself. ‘Maybe I’m only being illogical in hastily concluding on the whole division because of one encounter, and even worse, with one remark. I only wished to start up a comfortable conversation, and this is the reply I get? And after I helped you get off the roadside out of nowhere.’

”I don’t think I like that remark” Mark spoke up first.

“I don’t think I like that you call me a rat, or my home a rat’s hole” Sarah retorted, and it dawned on him. He was the one in the wrong all along.

“I’m so sorry, that’s just how it’s called where I come from” Mark tried to defend himself.

“Yeah? And somehow, that makes it all the better; right?” Sarah wasn’t having any of it.

He kept driving and came to a closed off road. He nodded to the security detail at the entrance to the estate, and they waved him on, releasing the gates to allow him entrance. ‘He sure is known here’ Sarah thought. He continued driving and in about twenty-three minutes, they got to the front of a small mansion. Everything looked just majestic and it was all Sarah could do to stop herself from gasping at how beautiful it looked.

The house, no, mansion looked like it stood on water. It was basically made of glass and old bricks, giving it a modern but reassuring and ancient feeling. Mark drove towards what looked like another house, and Sarah realized that it was only the parking lot, and she felt so small at how much difference existed between their lifestyles. His parking lot was bigger than her entire apartment building, and she shared that small space with about 20 other two and single-room rentals. She felt so insignificant.

Mark drove the car in, and parked it next to his Porsche, stepped out and gesture to Sarah to follow. He then led her to the mansion and waved her on inside the house with him. She had never felt so dirty and small in her entire life. While she stood still, trying to comprehend the size of the house, number of cars, beauty of the place, and the mystery of the man that brought her into his home; she heard someone sniffle, and ask softly “Who is this Mark?” A woman stood before her, dressed in a skimpy night dress looking like an angel.

“Brenda, meet my wife ‘Stacy’. Stacy, this is Brenda. I picked her off the road.” Mark said smiling.