Chapter 2

A week and two planes later, to be sure they weren't followed, found them pulling up to a beautiful house on the coast.

"So what is this place? Does any one live here?" Sam asked when they got out of the car; two days earlier, they had exchanged the limo for a smaller town car.

"Anyone of the family can use this house. Usually it's used for honeymooning." Sam looked over at him to find he had turned a cute shade of pink.

"So how long will I be here for? Will we be going somewhere else?"

"No, this should be good. Unless something happens, of course."

By the end of the conversation, they had all of the luggage and supplies out of the car and were starting for the house. The inside was as nice as the outside, with its simple and rustic features; this was more Sam's style than some of the fancy hotels that they had stayed at. The house was actually two apartments; one the main part, with two bedrooms, a good size living room and kitchen, the other was a one bedroom, and living room/kitchen. This was where the guards were staying. It also held all the equipment that watched the house and area around, because the house had a state-of-the art surveillance and security system installed.

Don hardly left Sam's side, even with the two other men that were with them. When they had gotten to the first plane, the second man had joined them and had news that the cops were looking for her because they were sure she had Carl killed for ripping her off. Mr. Machiavelli ordered that Carl was to be delivered to the D.A.'s office, where he would confess that he had not only ripped off Sam but had orchestrated a kidnapping of her. The D.A. did ask were Sam had gone and was told that because of what Carl had done, also because some over zealous cops thought she was more involved than she let on and were staking out her apartment and scaring the hell out of her. The stress of which she didn't need, because of a medical condition, she had gone on an extended vacation. Don started laughing and Sam did hit him on the arm, not very hard, to get him to stop but she was smiling despite herself.

Don stayed for another week with Sam. He had shown her everything that the house had to offer as well as the fact that they were on the coast. It was beautiful to watch the sun go down, especially together. Sam realized that she was having trouble trying not to think of him as her boyfriend, rather than a dangerous mobster. When Don did leave one of the guards went with him and they other stayed. Don told Sam that when he had finished with some business that just couldn't wait, which Sam told him she didn't want to know anything about, he'd be back and he would bring more supplies and stuff that Sam might need to keep from going crazy with cabin fever.

Three months later found Sam still at the ocean cottage. She had spent her time either; reading, playing video games, which she would beat the pants off Don at, watching moves, or taking long walks on the breach, usually with Don.

It happened three weeks earlier, though, that Sam really let herself believe that she was in love with Don; She just couldn't bring herself to call him Dante. Don showed up with his arm in a sling and she was so worried that it was worse than it was, that it made her crazy, as it was, he had only fallen and had a small fracture.

Sam had made up her mind that she needed to know if he felt the same about her, also she was in need of some very personal comforting. So, as they had just finished watching a movie and were still sitting on the couch, snuggling, Sam turned and looked him in the eye. "Don, how do you feel about me?"

As a response, he reached out and caressed her face then down her neck to her shoulder. "You have captivated me since I first saw you. I feel empty when you're not with me. I think I'm in..."

Sam stopped him by kissing him passionately. Don returned the kiss with equal intensity but with care as not to frighten her, he was going to let Sam make the first moves. For a long time, all they did was kiss. Finally Sam pulled away from Don, but only to take him by the hand and lead him to her bedroom, where they picked up from where they left off and continued to it's logical end.

The next morning after sleeping in, Don took Sam to a larger town to do some shopping, she needed some things that he had forgot to bring as well as he wanted to get her something special from a store he knew was in the small mall there. Sam was thrilled to go out and do some shopping. She was even more thrilled when Don took her to the lingerie shop and had her try on several negligees and some new bra and panty sets too. Sam was being treated like a queen and she loved every minute of it. That night Sam and Don made love several times because Don had to leave the next day to go back to work.

Don had left three days earlier and Sam was just settling down to watch a movie when suddenly the power went out. This was something that happened at least once a month for some reason. Sam got up and got the flashlight then the lighter so that she could start lighting candles. When she had finished, she realized that Max, her bodyguard, had not come in to check on her. 'Maybe he's trying to get the power back on.' Sam thought to herself. Then she heard it, a soft sound like a distant car back firing. Sam turned and was about to run to her room when several masked men came running in. They grabbed Sam; she started screaming, then a hood was thrown over her head and she was dragged kicking out the door.

Sam must have been shoved into a van, then after who knew how long, she was dragged out of it only to be thrown into a cage or box. Sam could tell there were several people there because she could hear their breathing. Finally someone spoke, "Well I hope you will excuse the way we brought you here, we didn't think you would have come if we had asked."

Still with the hood on, "What the hell is going on? Please, why have you done this? Who are you?"

"Well, aren't you full of questions. Well, you're gong to be our guest for some time, so I guess I could tell you I'm Mr. DaVenchi. I've been having trouble with a friend of yours and some real estate that I'm interested in. Now that friend is going to have to work out the problem."

"Please, I don't care what business you're in. Please, I just want to go home."

"Well let's just hope your friend agrees to my offer quickly. You might as well take off that hood; you're going to be here for some time. Someone will come every six hours to let you out to go to the bathroom and to give you food. Other than that no one will be with you and no one will come to see why you're yelling."

"Please you can't do this, I know nothing."

"That's fine. Now take off that hood or I'll have someone take it off you." Sam could tell he was getting angry.

"Please don't hurt me, please."

"Then do as you're told." Sam heard the anger in Mr. DaVenchi's voice. Sam slowly lowered her head and took the hood off. "Good, that's more like it. Now relax, behave and nothing will happen to you. When your friend agrees to my terms you will get to leave."

Sam could do nothing but sit in a cage of bars with a wood top. Sam also knew that if she let herself get too frightened that she could have an attack, and she was almost certain that these men would not help her. The men who were around her slowly left the room, until she is the only one there. Sam sat back against the bars and tried to get some rest.

As promised, six hours later, a man came into the room and opened one side of the cage. "Alright, you can come out. You have ten minutes to take care of business. Come on, I won't bite, surely you have to go, you haven't gone since before you got here."

As the man was talking, Sam realizes that she did have to go and slowly got out of the cage. The man pointed to a door, Sam took the hint. Once in the room, she found that there wasn't a lock on the door but she had the feeling that this man, anyway, wouldn't bother her. She was just about finished when there was a knock on the door and she heard someone telling her that she needed to finish. Sam did finish and as she left the room, the man pointed her back to the cage. "Please, do I have to be in there? I promise I won't cause any trouble."

"Yes, you have to. Now get back inside like a good kid. I put your food in there already. No one told me what to bring, so I just brought some of the spaghetti that was being served upstairs."

"Thank you. Are you going to stay till I'm done?"

"Yes, I need to take the tray back."

Sam crawled back into the cage and ate. Thankfully, the man didn't close it up after she got in. When she was finished, he took the tray, locked up the cage and left. After that, there was nothing she could do, so she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

10, 15, 20, rotations, Sam couldn't keep track any longer of how long she had been there. There were some men that came to open the cage that were nice, then there were a few that made her skin crawl. There was one man in particular that she was sure was going to try something and prayed that someone would listen to her when she told them; so far, no one had. She woke with the feeling of being watched and when she opened her eyes, she was right and it was him. The man opened the cage and roughly ordered her out of the cage. When she didn't move fast enough for him, he reached in and pulled her out. He shoved her roughly towards the bathroom door and she was only too glad to be in it, even if it didn't have a lock. When she had just finished and was bringing up her pants, the man opened the door. He had a strange look on his face and it made Sam very frightened. The man pulled her out of the room but didn't shove her towards the cage. He pulled her close to him. He made a move to touch her and Sam jumped back and told him he wasn't allowed to touch her. The man told her that he could do whatever he wanted. Sam turned and started walking back to get in the cage. This made the man angry. He grabbed Sam and spun her around to face him. Sam started to beg for him not to do this; but that only made him want to even more. Sam tried to pull away from him, but he was stronger. Finally, she kicked him and tried to throw herself for the main door, hoping that if she could get it open that someone would hear her yelling for help. The man pulled her back and struck her hard across the face, yelling at her. Sam turned into a frightened animal but the man countered every try she made, hitting her, even harder, the more she fought him. Then after one to many hits to the stomach, Sam dropped. That was when the man was on her. He ripped off her pants and did what he wanted to. When he was finished, he even put her pants back on. Sam hurt but she knew that if she could just get to the door she'd get help. Slowly she began to crawl for the door. The man pulled her back and shoved her towards the cage. She then shoved herself away from the cage in a hope to still get too the door. The man started yelling and cursing again. After hitting her across the face and in the stomach enough to make Sam drop to the floor again, then he began kicking her and continued to kick her until she couldn't move at all. When he was finished, he dragged her back to the cage, shoved her in and locked the door.

Sam floated in and out of consciousness as she waited for the next man to come. Luckily, for her, she passed out before the time the next man did come. That man was one that did feel sorry for her and would even let her stay out of the cage longer than he was told to do. He called to her to wake up as he came in and began opening the cage.

"Sam, hey Sam, Wake up sleepy head! I can't stay as long today, come on, wake up." He crawled into the cage to give her a shake since she was lying on her side facing away from the door. When he touched her shoulder, Sam gave a small whimper, but didn't move. "Sam, wake up, what's with you today? Sam?" His voice was soft and caring. Slowly he rolled Sam onto her back to find one of the most horrid sights he had ever seen. He threw himself from the cage and ran to the door. He called to anyone and everyone in the hall to get a doctor and to get Mr. DaVenchi. Several men came running, asking what was wrong. He showed them; one turned and ran to the bathroom to be sick, the other ran to get Mr. DaVenchi and the doctor.

A few moments later several people came back, including Mr. DaVenchi, "What the hell is going on? Jack said she's been beaten."

"Sir, I found her this morning like this." The man having crawled back into the cage with Sam. "I called to her and she wouldn't wake so I crawled into the cage and was trying to wake her. She wasn't like this when I left twelve hours ago. Marco was the next to tend her. Sir, she needs a doctor, her breathing is really bad, I can hear rasping noises."

"Call for a van and get her out of there, gently. What the hell was he thinking? Get her to a hospital. John, she hasn't been hurt elsewhere, has she? I mean he didn't..."

He paused, closed his eyes for a moment, opened them again and looked to the area between her legs. He didn't need to take her pants down to know that she had been violated; she'd been bleeding. John closed his eyes again, then looked up at Mr. DaVenchi and nodded. This was all Mr. DaVenchi needed to see.

"Find me Marco!!!! Bring him to me so that I can kill him." Just then, several men came in with a stretcher and very carefully lifted Sam out of the cage. Mr. DaVenchi came to her side, placed a hand on her head and softly said he was sorry. After that, the men were like lightning getting her to the hospital.

Mr. DaVenchi knew he was going to lose in this and in more ways than one, but he never wanted this to happen. He made the call to Mr. Machiavelli, who was livid when he heard. He ordered Mr. DaVenchi to turn over the bastard as soon as he had him, which Mr. DaVenchi was going to do anyway, of course, after he was dead or maybe not. Now it was up to Mr. Machiavelli to tell Don.

Don couldn't get to the hospital fast enough. When he got there, several men were waiting for him. Mr. DaVenchi's men told him that Sam was now in surgery that she had several broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and some other internal injuries. Don order the men to leave and all but one did, "I have to tell you, she's been hurt bad, I swear when I find Marco I will cut of his balls and stuff them down his throat for this. Sam told me just before, that she felt very uncomfortable with him. I told her that he would be leaving after his last turn. I should have been there. He was brutal to her, not just with the beating. The hospital did a rape kit, they had to and had to call the cops but we got them to send our guys to investigate. I'm very sorry. She's a good person. If there's anything, I can do for her just tell me. I just thought you should know."

"Thank you, now get the hell out of here and catch that bastard. When the rape kit information comes back have it sent to me." With that, the man left and Don started the long process of waiting.

Sam woke feeling cold, numb, hot and in pain, all of which meant she was alive. She remembered what happened and knew why it hurt like hell to breath, broken ribs. Then she heard someone talking. "Doc., when do you think she's going to wake up? It's been over a week."

"Sometimes it takes longer. She's in a light coma; it's the body's way of stopping the pain for her. When her body knows it's safe and the pain is no longer a problem she'll wake. If it goes on for more than another week, though, that's when we start to worry, but she is breathing on her own and that's the best that we can hope for."

"Thanks, Doc."

"You're welcome, but you should go and get some rest. I'll have someone call you if there's any change."

"No. I won't leave her alone. Not again."

"Try to get some rest then," and with that, the doctor turned and left the room.

Don walked back to his chair and took hold of Sam's hand. "Sam, you have to be alright. You can wake up now you're safe. I'll never let anyone hurt you ever again, I swear. Please, just wake up. Please, I love you, you have to wake up."

"I love you, too," whispered Sam. Slowly she put out her hand and touched him on the face. "I prayed you'd come and find me. Why didn't you come and find me?"

"I tried, I really did. I never thought the DaVenchis' would go so low. Mr. DaVenchi is mad as hell at the man that did this to you. They're looking for him, but they haven't found him yet. When you got here, the hospital did a rape kit, you'll never believe this, he's the same man that raped you six years ago. There were also 8 other unsolved rapes that matched his DNA. If there's anything left of him, they'll turn him over to the cops. Mr. DaVenchi himself has come by to check on you. He's madder than a wet hen that he's been protecting a rapist."

"Good. Now go. Please."

"Now that you're awake I'm not leaving you. I'll never leave you again. I love you."

"I know and I love you, but I can't take anymore. You promised that you would keep your work outside. Well, it got in. Now please go." She didn't give him time to reply because she passed out again as the painkiller kicked in.

A week later found Sam doing better. She was healing and taking fewer painkillers, also she was able to get out of bed and walk the halls. Sam was never alone, though, there was a man outside her room, and of course, Don in the room with her. One night Sam slipped one of her sleeping pills into a drink that Don had and soon he was asleep. Luck was also with Sam that the man who was supposed to be outside her room was either answering a call of nature or off chasing a nurse somewhere; she didn't know or care. Sam got out of bed, put on what clothing she had and left a note to Don telling him goodbye and not to come looking for her; also that she was sorry but she needed money. So, she took all of the money out of his wallet.