Chapter 31: That hurt
Meera

Darkness. Meera was surrounded by utter darkness. No, no. She was dreaming. This was all a dream, she willed herself into believing. A really bad, terrible, weird but adventurous dream.

Wake up Mia, throw some water on your face! This was a way too long dream.

But she would be way out of her mind to ever think that this was all real. Seriously, how could Dino- Meera jumped up with a loud yell. This was not a dream and this was not her house...or her bed!

She shot up from the-was she on a chair?-only to be pulled back to her previous spot. What? Since there were no lights, it was impossible to see where she was but it was quite obvious that her hands were handcuffed together and her legs were tied to the damn chair. She could not go too far.

She heard a noise, like the squeaky sound of a door opening yet she could not tell if it was from the room she was tied in. Next, a light came on. Yeah, they were here for her.

"Argh!" She shut her eyes tight, trying to block away the brightness with her handcuffed hands. Who was dumb enough to place her directly under the only light bulb in this stupid dark room?

"What happened?" She heard someone enter and call from the door. His voice held anger. Slowly opening her eyelids until they fully adjusted to the brightness change, she examined the well-built figure ahead of her.

"Where am I?" she shouted back, "And who the hell are you?"

The figure grew closer. Wait a second...Meera knew this guy. She had seen him before but where? He looked about the same age as... "Where is Dino? Yeah, don't think that I don't know that he is also a part of this! How dare you kidnap me and bring me to this...dump! Whatever this place is!

"I'm not scared of you! Or Dino and those people that attacked us last night! You ruthless piece of shit! Open these damn handcuffs before I make you open them!"

A second figure appeared at the doorway but this time, Meera didn't need to see a face to know who that was. "Whoa princess, slow down! Throwing a lot of accusations there!"

"As if! Open these damn handcuffs and let me go now!" "See, that hardly seems like a favor Meera. Ask nicely and maybe I'll oblige."

Argh! The nerve! She could punch him in the face right now or even break a brick into his skull. Deep breaths Mia. "Dino, I'm warning you..."

"Nah princess, you don't get to be in control here. I'm not the one handcuffed to a chair and you not the one with the key around your neck." "So consider this your warning," the other guy took over, "Don't try to do anything stupid please. Besides the fact that you're outnumbered, you'll just end up hurting yourself...oh and not to mention, you are kidnapped so this place is on a lockdown."

Did he just say kidnapped?

"Yeah love we can-" A phone interrupted and Dino showed the 'please be quiet' sign to the other guy before leaving and shutting the room door behind him. Yeah like she could physically go anywhere. She was practically in a prison room. And was been starved to death.

Meera sat back on the chair, realizing she had no way out of here. Tears filled her eyes. How could she be so stupid? Dino was the villain from the beginning. He had Randal arrested, was responsible for giving her dad that story and he called attackers to their house yesterday.

Oh-my-God! Dino wanted them dead! On second thoughts, no. If he wanted her dead, she would have been a long time ago. He was using her as bait to get what he wants and it was working.

Things had gone haywire at the party last night. Firstly, let's not forget that she spent half the night with a flippen murderer, believing his ruthless lies until her sister was nearly killed. Then, Dino still pretended to be the hero by saving them both. Meera felt like kicking herself. She was an idiot. She should have known that Dino had been upto something the moment he'd taken her phone away from her.

But how did it all go down, in Dino's favor that is? Ziesha had been the one to save Meera from those vicious hired attackers, and then blacked out after. Meera had managed to alert her dad on the attack, even let him know that Ziesha had been hurt. Afterwards, a bomb went off at the house. Again, probably Dino's men. Yet she still didn't catch on because she still headed back up to her room when Dino had asked her to meet him there.

But Meera taught that she had been one step ahead because she had Dino's number on speed dial when she went back upstairs-just in case. And it did infact turn out to be handy but not for the purposes she intended it to be used for.

"Dino?" Meera had called once she'd entered her room. Downstairs, people were yelling and shouting for help and in the distance, she heard police sirens pulling up. "Dino? Are you here, this isn't funny!" Her mistake, she'd walked right into their trap without closing her room door or even checking behind her.

"Do not move!" The sound of a gun being triggered behind her had stopped her dead in her tracks. "Turn around and don't make a sound." The voice was a gruff one, forced as if trying to fake an accent. And again, used a mask-this time, a different one. Meera had did as she was told, pressing buttons on her smartphone without looking at it.

"Now you are gonna do as I say and there will be no-" His phone had went off. Confusion had swept over Meera. The masked man pulled out his phone, read the caller id. "Fuck!"

"Dino...?"

And that was all that she remembered. Oh and that two seconds after she found out that she was being played, another hand closed over her mouth and nose with a funny smelling cloth. She'd fainted...

Meera smiled despite her situation. At least she was not a total fool and even Dino knew that. In just a matter of seconds, she'd managed to find out the full story-that Dino was behind all of this. Ziesha, Caleb, even Randal bought into Dino's sweet act. She never completely trusted him. And to make matters worse, they all still believe that he was the innocent one.

Which brings her to phase two: get the hell out of here. Any ideas on how to do that? Plenty flooded through her mind but none of them were possible with her hands and legs tied to a chair. She needed to concentrate and pacing usually helped her accomplish that, not glued to this stupid chair. Yeah, she really hated this chair right now. Could even destroy the thing to pieces.

Her bum was beginning to ache, her wrists were already swollen and she was hungry as hell. It was frustrating.

Dino had said that he held the keys, around his neck. Which was tough but if Meera could find a way to attack him, hurt him, grab the key out of his neck then she was a free person. That could work right? Meera sighed loudly. Just one problem-she was not Ziesha. She could not fight. So the only possible way to get Dino down was to kick him in the-

The door flew open again, bringing in lots of sunshine with it. Hmm, so it was day. Morning probably? Meera couldn't tell. Dino entered, alone this time; closed the door behind him and locked the latch.

Dear god. There was absolutely no chance in hell that Meera could take a man the size of Dino down. Was never going to happen. That required a miracle, and not to mention, she wanted to leave here alive.

"Alright princess, are you hungry?"

Her eye caught a take-away bag in his hand. Even though the smell blurred her focus, she stood her ground. "And risk being poisoned? No thanks Dino." If that even was his real name.

Somehow her very serious comment amused him. "Meera, if I wanted to hurt or kill you, don't you think I would've done it by now?" Made sense, she silently admitted yet still refused to eat. Dino rolled his eyes. "Suit yourself then."

"How am I supposed to eat with both my hands tied together? And could you please loosen these stupid cuffs...they hurt!"

Dino eyed her closely, squatting down a few feet away from her. "Why are you so mad princess?" Now he looked dead serious-eyesbrows creased, forehead lines deepening blah blah.



"Mad?" Meera shot out a loud laugh, "You asking me why I'm mad?" "Yeah." "Oh I don't know Dino. Maybe because I'm kidnapped by someone who pretended to be my friend-to be everyones' friends then backstabbed us!"

"I'm sorry, what?" Great. Perfect. Here goes the famous saint act. "I'm not an idiot Dino. I know that you framed Randal. You gave my dad that tape. You working with that Brad Wyatt guy to-"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Dino didn't let her finish, anger evident in his tone. "I know everything Dino."

"Know what?"

"Caleb trusts you. He took you in, gave you a home. So did Randal and this is how you repay them. I don't understand. You got everything here. Are you doing this for money? Do you have something against the Zevons? Cause you are sick, disturbed! You disgusting!"

When she stopped to catch her breath, Dino stood up and walked towards her. He bent down using the arms of the chair as a handle to reach her height. He looked murderously angry yet still trying hard to keep his cool.

"You. Know. Nothing. About me."

"Yeah just like how Caleb and Randal know nothing about you." Meera wasn't giving up either. "Oh my fu-"

"Why am I here Dino? You almost got my sister killed yesterday. You hired men to kill her...imagine if Caleb hadn't gotten there in time...then you bombed my house, fooled me!" Just mentioning those terrible things made her feel sick. Dino seriously needed help.

"Wow Meera, you really surprised me this time." His voice came out soft, hurt. Wait, why was she falling for his act-again!

"After all the time we spent together, after the stuff about my past I shared with you, I taught you would've learnt some things about me." Yeah, like he was cold-hearted killer that belonged in hell, Meera almost blurted out.

"I'm sorry Dino if the truth hurts but I learnt nothing about you. Everything that you told me was a lie."

He nodded, looking more disappointed than impressed by her intelligence. He moved away, turning his back towards her. "So what exactly do you think I kidnapped you for Meera?"

Pssht! That was easy and kind of stupid of him to ask. "Money!" she said in an obvious tone, "You using me to blackmail my dad for money."

Another stupid nod with a stupid "hhmm" to it. Meera waited patiently for Dino to sink in her accusations, hoped that some of the stuff she'd said to him would at least make him think twice about his actions. Surely, he still had an organ called 'heart' somewhere inside of him. He didn't need to kidnap her to get money from her dad, he just needed to ask. Her father would do anything for his daughters.

"So if it's money that I'm after...why didn't I just kill Randal?"

She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it when she realized she didn't have an answer for that.

"You do know that by throwing Randal in jail, all of his accounts were frozen? Including Caleb's. No one can access anything."

Meera hated to admit it but the villain had a point. So...was she wrong? No, she was never wrong. And she was still kidnapped. She must be just missing some important detail or getting her story twisted somewhere but the bottom line was that Dino was the bad guy behind all of this.

Silence fell between them. A couple seconds passed, none of them saying anything until the tension became too much for Meera to handle. "Okay! I give up Dino! I have no idea why I'm here or what the hell you are doing." That was what he wanted to hear right?

"I can tell you. I did come to tell you the truth but..." He shook his head. "...you probably not gonna believe me." At least he established that.

"I did not kidnap you for money or blackmailing purposes. We kidnapped your'll to buy time."

That should have come as such a shock to Meera but it didn't. And not for the reasons Dino taught it did. The words "we" and "your'll" were the all she had heard. What did he mean?

Did "we" imply Dino and Caleb and did "your'll" mean Meera and....Ziesha?

Dino

Dino watched the woman explode in front of him for the third time in just under an hour. She'd pissed him off-bad yet he still could not find it within him to bitch out on her like he usually would. She was just feeling lost and confused. Didn't know who to trust. New environment and all that.

But even Dino knew that those reasons weren't enough to justify her accusations. He cared about Meera-that was the ugly truth; more than he should. And the fact that she'd assumed the worst about him actually hurt.

Right, he got it. He ain't no damn rich spoilt guy. He was the devil. And even with his reputation, he hadn't expected that from Meera.

"So Caleb and you last minute planned this whole thing?"

It was minutes after Dino had told her, or rather, explained their plan. "It was my idea," he made it crystal clear that he was taking full blame for everything if things didn't go as planned.

"So you still on our side?" she still had to ask. Dino rolled his eyes, the rage returning. "The fact that you taught I wasn't makes me wish I was not Meera." He couldn't quite hide all the anger in his voice.

"Hey don't blame me for this whole situation because FYI, you acted really villain-ish."

He didn't say anything but she did manage to crack out a smile from him. She always did.

"And quit sulking," she added, "It's a terrible look on you. Plus you know how this all looked in my head...dark room, starved, handcuffs."

"Like I said, I'm no hero Meera."

"Yeah yeah," she still took him so lightly as if he wasn't capable of hurting her. She underestimated him yet people usually overestimated his power. "Can you atleast uncuff my hands? They hurt." She paused, narrowed her eyes. "So my dad knows that we here?"

Inhaling out loudly, he first freed her hands and then untied her legs. She couldn't escape even if she wanted to and if she was as smart as she claimed to be, she would pick that up by now.

No, her father knew absolutely nothing about their plan. The man loved his daughters, would risk it all to keep them safe. That was the main purpose for this mission. So Bruce Calbe was firstly unaware that Dino and Caleb were in possession of his precious daughters. Secondly, he was under the impression that legit dangerous people had them and were gonna kill them if he didn't lose the story and hand over the evidence.

Of course the man could not know the truth...and of course, Meera could never find out.

"Yes, your father's aware that you are with me and Zie is with Caleb," he answered smoothly, no hints of lies dictated. "Oh-kay," Meera digested that in, "And Caleb and Ziesha are with us right? Like in the next room?"

"No," he answered immediately, aware that there was going to be another scene coming up shortly. "Princess, we are in Johannesburg. Ziesha is in Cape Town."

He waited. Then... "What? I'm sorry, what did you just say? We are where?" Her voice echoed throughout the room, no doubt into the next. He was prepared for that.