Young Writers Society

Naya watched Julian walk out and rolled her eyes in annoyance. She could’ve been at her lawyer’s office by now signing divorce papers, freeing herself from this.

Julian re-emerged several seconds later. He had several files in his hands and a serious look on his face as he crossed the hallway and headed out of the house.

“I think he’s ready to leave,” Linda explained.

Naya nodded and rose to her feet. After giving both Linda and Jennifer a hug goodbye she stepped out into the hallway. As she approached the door, she spotted the newspaper Jennifer had shown Jasper, the servants must have left it there after Linda told them to get rid of it. Naya picked it up, intrigued to find out more about this Stacie May Harper girl and why Linda seemed so flustered by the mere mention of her name.

She stepped out of the house and saw Julian already in the truck waiting for her with his usual frown, tapping his wheel impatiently. Once Naya got inside, she put her seatbelt on irritably and began to read the newspaper in an attempt to avoid Julian's gaze.

“I need to pick up Poppy so you can drop me off at Danni’s,” Naya told him, as she turned the pages.

Julian didn't respond...which only irritated her more.

Julian cleared his throat. It was the only response she was going to get from him. Did he like being stubborn? He wasn't sure but obviously he was good at it. He pulled out of the Anderson driveway. There was no trace of happiness oozing out of his body anytime soon. She seemed so content by that paper, as if it held the world in it. He was only happy that she wasn't talking to him. She shifted in her seat.

"You know we all have skeletons in our closets, Julian." She started.

Shit, damnit, hell, he had thought way too soon. He briefly looked at her, honestly trying to pay attention to the road. He gave her a look of annoyance.

"Although that is true, most of my skeletons don't involve my 'equal's' family memebers!" He growled.

She only blinked. "I don't have to explain myself to you." Her bottom lip trembled, and that was it.

"Fine! Shit! Why do you even bother with these conversations? We will never see eye to eye. You need someone who likes to be bossed around, you need someone who's heartbeats so freaking fast everytime they see you. Someone who wants children and a little house wife who has dinner and slippers when they get home. Sorry baby, but I want none of that." Julian never felt so rushed, he said it all while driving. It was the hurtful but simple truth. Maybe simple was the wrong word.

She just sat in her seat. She turned her head to look at him. "Are you at all angry with Jace? What about what he did to me?"

A lump rose in Julian's throat. "I am not responsible for my brother's actions, whatever happened between the two of you is your own damn business. I do apologize on his be-half though."

She looked at him as if she didn't believe he had just said that. "Okay." she said, stiffly the newspaper forgotton. She stared at him, he could see it from the corner of his eye.

He turned to look at her. "What?" he questioned.

She looked down at her lap. "So... You can't love and you don't want children? Why? I mean... You're the oldest, I thought you would be racing towards having an heir or something..."

Julian stared at her as if she had grown two heads. "I'm not the oldest." He said, he turned a curve. For some reason they were deep into the forest roads, there were no cars in front of behind them. "I can't love for lets just say tramatic childhood reasons and no child should have to grow up knowing I'M their father and I can't love them."

"Have you ever been in love before?" She asked, she was serious. Deep into this conversation.

Eww were they... Bonding? After such a big arguement?

Julian thought if he really wanted to answer this question. "No." He said, wondering if it was the all over truth.

"So if you could?" She dragged this conversation out. Why were all women like this?

"Could what?" He asked, still glacing at her and driving. This was becoming a dangerous task. This should become a winter sport. Men driving while the women talked their mouths off.

"You know... Could love someone? Who would it be?" She was looking at her fingers in her lap.

Julian stared at her, and she stared back. "I can't love, Naya but I knew that if I could..." He looked back at the road. Feeling as if they were so far apart. "If I could just flip a switch and all of a sudden, out of no where, love, I would choose you."

Out of all the people in the world...

Naya simply stared at him. She didn’t know what to say. Julian’s words had just stunned her into complete silence. Sure, he didn’t exactly say that he loved her or anything, but he did say that if he could love, out of all the women in the world, he would choose to love her... A strange feeling suddenly erupted inside her, one that she really couldn’t describe. Her heart raced with a mixture of confusion, surprise and...happiness? She couldn’t believe it, a part of her was actually feeling happy? What the hell was wrong with her?

As they progressed further and further through the woodlands, she quickly turned her gaze away from him. All these strange emotions were making her feel uncomfortable. The look on Julian's face seemed to reveal that he'd already said way too much.

Awkwardly, she returned her attention back to the newspaper.

Julian couldn't exactly focus on the road. Yes, he had just blabbed a bunch of stuff he shouldn't have said. What the crap was wrong with him? He was acting like a girl and he knew that if Sergi were here, he probably would have hit him over the head. Feelings equalled weakness. Something Julian would never show. Ever, for anyone anymore. He felt as if he made her feel uncomfertable, which was just so awesome... really. I'm a fucking moron. He added. He had never dropped the f-bomb ever since he had met her. Sure if he stubbed his toe or tripped over something he would curse under his breath but not like that. Naya suddenly turned her head a little and she was staring out the window. Just like that something shattered the window. The entire windshield errupted and glass flew everywhere. Julian braked, hard. Good thing they were both wearing their seatbelts.

"Get down!" He yelled at Naya. This felt like a flash back of the old days... "And whatever you do stay down!" He growled.

Julian began to speed, when something that felt like a rocket pierced the left front tire. Julian's chin hit the steering wheel. The car thumped to a stop. Julian pulled out that brief case the one no one knew what was in it, and pulled out a beautiful yet powerful handgun.

"Oh my gosh!" Naya exclaimed, she was getting up.

"C'mon we have to get out of the truck. We need to run." Julian said all calmly. He opened his door and looked at her. "C'mon lets go."

Julian and Naya had just started to sprint when a man stepped into their path. The man looked dirty and smelled like a sewer. Then, they were surrounded by different men, who were all dirty and smelled the same. Julian wanted to vomit it was so vile. He grabbed Naya by the arm and hoisted her behind him. And he circled the men.

"Who the hell are you?" Julian growled.

The man who had stepped in front of them, first spoke. "My name is Santos. You are the newlyweds Julian and Naya I am correct, no?"

Julian wasn't sure what to say. Or how to say it. Should he lie? No. Never. "We are." He said. Naya made a small sound from behind. The men looked at her. It pissed Julian off. "State your business."

"Our business? Well, son... It is to capture the two of you." He smiled a dirty yellow smile. Someone hit Julian on the side of the head. He saw black dots in the air, someone hit him from the other side, and he fell down. The right side of his cheek was pressed against the dirt and the gun had been taken out of his hand. He fought to stay awake but found there were too many of them. He heard one last thing before he blacked out.

"JULIAN!!!" Naya screamed...

**They can become kidnapped? And then escape and try not to be kidnapped again on the run??**

Naya fell down on her knees and frantically began to try and shake Julian awake. One side of his face was covered with wet soil and grass, a small line of blood began to trickle from his head.

“P-please wake up...” her voice trembled as she continued to try and wake him up. But no matter how hard she tried, he wouldn’t open his eyes.

Tears of panic and fear ran down her cheeks. She slowly looked up to see that the attackers had surrounded her, there were four in total, and each one had their eyes locked on hers, sick smirks spread across their filthy faces.

“Naya du Maurier...” the one that hit Julian on the head slowly approached her, like an animal would just before pouncing on its prey.

Naya’s heart raced as she retreated close to Julian’s body, clinging on to his jacket as if it were her life.

“Don’t be nervous...” he assured her soothingly but Naya could sense the sarcasm in his voice. She nearly choked on her tears as the man bent down to her level and began running his finger down her cheek. Naya squirmed from his touch. “You see me and my friends over there...” he pointed at the other men surrounding her before continuing, “we’re going to take real good care of you...”

The men around her began to laugh. Before she could prepare herself, two of them suddenly grabbed hold of her and taped up her mouth, hands and legs before carrying her off. Naya frantically kicked and screamed as she watched them grab Julian and do the same. Before she knew it, they were both shoved into the back of an old black vehicle which sped off down the street.

Naya trembled from head to toe, thick tears streaming down her eyes. She saw Julian lying beside her, still un-conscious with blood now pouring out of his head...

Suddenly she heard the two men riding in the front of the car begin to argue with one another in Spanish. Naya’s limited understanding of the language meant that she could only pick up a few words here and there. From what she could tell, the driver had forgotten to do something important, something he should’ve done before the kidnapping, and the man riding shot-gun wasn't happy about it.

It wasn’t until they stopped at a gas station, that Naya realised what was going on. Concentrating with every fibre of her being, she began to take in her surroundings. She and Julian were in a car with two of the four kidnappers. One of them, the driver, had just stepped out to fill the car up with gas, and the other man, the one riding in shot-gun, was staying to keep watch over her and Julian.

“Eh, you got some money?” the driver asked sheepishly, popping his head back into the car to ask his partner.

The man responded angrily in Spanish before throwing the driver a couple of notes. Naya used the moment to quickly turn her head in an attempt to see whether the other car which had the remaining two attackers, was also here. It was... directly behind the car they were in, surrounded by other vehicles with married couples, a school bus, and some large delivery trucks.

Taking in deep breaths Naya wracked her brains in order to try and come up with a way that she and Julian could escape. But, the windows were blacked out so there was no way she could catch the attention of any passers-by, not to mention the fact that the man riding shot-gun was watching her every move...

Suddenly, Naya felt the faint touch of a foot touching hers. She jumped as she realised it was Julian.

“What is it?” the man asked her, watching her from the rear-view mirror.

Naya just shook her head. She couldn’t respond because her mouth was still taped up. She watched with discrete relief as Julian slowly opened his eyes before slowly raising his tied-up hands to his mouth, signalling for Naya to stay quiet.

Naya obeyed, her heart racing as she wondered what he was planning. She watched as he waited for the driver to head inside to pay for the gas before suddenly throwing his tied-hands over the neck of the man riding in shot-gun. The man squirmed, kicked and yelled violently as Julian applied pressure to his neck, cutting off his circulation. The man attempted to turn around and grab Julian with his arms but Julian was too strong for him. A few seconds passed before Naya watched with horror as the man’s head finally fell limp.

Hurriedly, Julian heaved himself into the driver’s seat and looked up frantically to see that the driver was still inside, waiting in a long line to pay for the gas.

Naya watched as Julian fumbled through the front seat, looking in-between the seats and the glove box until he pulled out a small pocket knife. With his tied-hand he cut open the tape around his hands and legs before ripping off the one around his mouth and turning to face Naya to help her do the same.

“Keep an eye on the car behind us,” he told her, once he removed all the tape from her, his voice was a centimetre above a whisper. Naya watched as he shakily began to wipe the blood from his forehead before using the pocketknife to hotwire the car.

She turned her head to see the remaining two kidnappers still sat in their car, they appeared to be on the phone, completely oblivious to what was happening in front of them.

“Are they getting suspicious?” Julian asked.

“No,” Naya responded shakily. “No, they’re on the phone...”

Julian suddenly paused and began holding his head in pain, his eyes began to droop.

“You’re hurt...” Naya said, leaning over to check the blood dripping from his forehead.

“I’m fine,” he growled in response before returning to the wires. “Listen, when this happens it’s going to happen fast, alright...just make sure you keep your head down...”

Before Naya could ask why, the car they were in suddenly roared into life. Naya whipped her head round and looked to see if the driver and the car behind them had noticed. They had. The driver frantically ran out of the station, his gun out and ready, the two men behind jumped out of their cars, but they were all too late. Julian had already managed to swerve the car out of the station.

“HEAD DOWN!” Julian yelled as the men desperately fired shots towards the car. Naya threw her head down as she heard civilians around the gas station screaming. Miraculously, Julian managed to avoid most of the bullets...

At this moment in time, St. Lucia sounded real nice. Julian thought as he jerked the car out of the gas station. What had happened? All he knew is that he had a migrane and should probably be in a hospital right now or probably dead. He hoped this wasn't real and this was all a dream. All of it, please...

"You can come up now." Julian said. He felt something warm slide down the side of his forehead. He couldn't think right now. He just wished he knew what the hell had just happened. This was a puzzle and there were surely tons of pieces missing.

Naya came up, her make up was smeared. Now dry tears had made their path across her cheek. She was constantly looking behind her. As if the bad men were on their heels. They had lost them a while ago.

"Are you alright?" Julian forced out.

She nodded. Then pointed out... "You're the one who is bleeding."

Julian looked in the review mirror. "Oh, hey, would ya look at that." He smirked. He had just felt like he had drank a lot, oh wait... He had!

"How can you be so calm about all of this?!" She almost yelled at him. "We could have been killed!"

Julian looked over at her. He had a serious look on his face. "Well Angel, I don't think we've ever had this dissucssion before but I use to be in the Military. There is not a threat I have not seen before."

Now it was Naya who well, kinda smiled. "You were in the Military?"

Julian nodded. "Four years, the Marine Corps." He rememebed the very day his father had told him he was going to be in the Marines. Julian had turned eighteen, and it was his graduation night. Sergi had dropped the bomb on him.

"You either go, and prove to me you are worth my hard earned money or, you will be disowned and you can rot in the streets! Prove to me son, you will do whatever it takes!"

"Did you ever kill anyone?" Naya let the words slip before she realized what she had said. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that."

Julian looked at her. "I did what I had to do." He said. "Now, where to?"

Naya quickly swallowed her fear and responded in a calm voice that shook slightly nonetheless. “The hospital,” she said immediately. “You need to uh get that cut checked out.”

“But it’s fine-”

“No it isn’t,” Naya interrupted, this time her voice was stern. “It’s bleeding badly. It needs to be stitched up.”

Julian let out a sigh before accelerating the speed of the car. Whilst Naya shakily leaned back to her seat, she watched as Julian looked out of the window as if they were out on holiday or something. Being in the military or not, they’d just escaped a bunch of Mexican kidnappers, there was no way he could be so relaxed about everything. Naya was practically shaking with fear.

“So...any idea where we are?” Julian asked.

Naya looked out of her window. They were in a deserted road, no cars in front of them, or behind, ahead of them lay more roads.

“Not really,” she responded.

So they continued to drive until they passed a few signs to let them know that they were approaching a small town just North of where they came from. After driving round the place a few times they managed to locate a hospital.

“We’re not gonna use our real names,” Julian said to her as they got out of the vehicle. “If anyone asks, we were in a car accident...”

Naya nodded. There was no way anyone wouldn’t believe that they’d been in one. You only had to look at their faces to tell that Naya and Julian had just been through hell and back.

They entered the hospital and Naya found her nose twitch. She’d always hated the smell of hospitals. The place was relatively empty accept for a few old people and visitors roaming around the lobby. They progressed towards the emergency building and immediately saw more people sat around the waiting room.

“Can I help you?” a female nurse asked. Her eyes immediately fell on the bleeding cut on Julian’s forehead.

“We were just in a car accident,” Naya explained, she didn’t need to act afraid, she was afraid.

“Follow me, sir,” the nurse said, leading Julian to the back for treatment. Her eyes fell on Naya, “and you are his...?”

“Wife,” Naya responded before realising that this was the first time she publically said the ‘W’ word, and, strangely enough, it didn’t sound as weird as she thought it would.

“And your name, sir?” she asked Julian.

“Nathan,” Julian responded. “Nathan Parker.”

“Right,” the nurse nodded before she pointed at an empty treatment bed. “Mr. Parker, my name is Nurse Margaret, just sit back and relax so we can take a look at that cut.”

Julian obeyed.

“Mrs Parker, if you could please wait outside, we’ll give you a shout when we’re done...”

Naya didn’t really want to leave, mostly because she really didn’t want to be away from Julian, but she figured she’d be a lot safer among a large group of people than by herself.

“Okay,” she nodded before reluctantly walking out towards the waiting room.

All around her people sneezed, wheezed and coughed, children were crying, old women were screaming...great, she said to herself, not trusting to sit next to anyone in case she caught some kind of germ. She leaned her back against the wall and let her mind race. It seemed like a blur, all of it, Julian finding out about Jace, Julian getting drunk, the kidnappers...it was all insane! How could this have happened, and more importantly, why?

What would they do now? Naya figured they'd have to lay low for a while. Her mind wondered to her family, should she call them and tell them she and Julian were alright, oh my God, Poppy...she'd almost forgotten about her. Naya closed her eyes and thanked God that Poppy hadn't been in the car with them. If something happened to her, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself.

Nurse Margarett suddenly walked out of the double-doors and approached Naya with a smile.

"Your husband is fine," she said before Naya could even ask. "The cut was quite a deep one so he will be needing stitches, but as soon as that's done you can be on your way."

"Okay, thank you," smiled Naya.

"Your welcome," the nurse responded. "Can I get you anything? Car accidents can be a bit of a shock-"

"No, I'm fine," Naya interrupted. Suddenly, a thought popped into her head. "I would be grateful if you could suggest a nearby motel. Since the car's damaged, we're probably not gonna be able to get home until tomorrow so we'll need a place to stay..."

"Oh, of course," smiled the nurse. "Yes, there's a small motel just a few blocks away from here called Jamie's - it's not a Hilton or anything but it should do just fine."

"Jamie's'" Naya repeated, more to herself than anyone else. "That's perfect. Thank you."

The cut on is forehead burned. He knew that it wasn't the worse injury he had but it was still very painful. Julian was anxious. He hoped that they had truly lost the kidnappers.

"Mr. Parker? We're finished here. You can go after filling out these papers." A young blonde nurse smiled. She looked like she was from the olden days, only she wore scrubs.

"Thank you." Julian managed a smile. He started to fill out paper work.

"Would you like for us to call the two of you a cab?" The nurse asked.

Julian nodded. "Please."

***

Finally a hour later they were checking into a hotel....

As the car drove to Jamie’s motel and the skies grew darker, Naya’s paranoia and fear only grew worse. Despite the fact that Julian kept assuring her that the Mexicans were long gone, she couldn’t fool her, she could tell that he too was expecting the Mexicans to catch up and track them down.

In between her worries and fears, Naya had perhaps fallen asleep because the next thing she knew she was jolting awake as the cab jerked to a halt. She ran a hand through her curls and looked out of the window to see that they were parked up outside the motel which was close to the local bus station.

Slowly, she and Julian got out of the car. He paid the driver and Naya followed him through the front door. They were immediately greeted by a teenage girl who sat by the reception desk blowing bubbles with her gum whilst listening to music. As soon as she spotted Naya and Julian she rolled her eyes in annoyance and pulled out her earphones.

“Hello, welcome to Jamie’s motel, how can I help you?” she said in a half-bored way

“We’d like a room,” Julian responded.

“Just for the night?” the girl asked, pulling out a book from the desk.

Julian thought for a moment before replying. “Uh maybe a week...it depends...”

The girl didn’t bother to question him, instead she pulled out a pen. “Your names are?”

“Uh Nathan and Emma Parker,” Julian lied.

Naya watched carefully as the girl uninterestingly checked both of them in before handing Julian a room-key.

“You’re in room 8. Enjoy your stay...”

Julian didn’t bother to say thank you. He grabbed the key and strode down the hallway into their allocated room. As soon as Naya entered, he closed the door, locking the chain before walking around the small room, checking the locks on the doors, the strength of the windows and looking for the fire exit. Finally, after deciding that everything was alright, he walked over to the bed and sat down.

There were two beds which was typical. The placed looked like the roach motel, "They check in but they don't check out." Julian really hated his dark humor sometimes. He sat down on the bed and pulled off his shoes. He was really impatient, and hungry now. Since they had no clothes this wasn't going to be very enjoyable.

"What do we do?" Naya asked, she was ringing her hands. She was nervous.

Julian shrugged. "We wait."

She looked at him as if he were mad. "Wait... What do you mean wait? We have no weapons, no way of protecting ourselfs. We don't even have extra clothes."

Julian looked around the room and then looked back at her. "Alright, at about ten we'll go get some stuff."

Her face instantly brightened. "You mean like... Shopping?" She smiled.

Julian exhailed. He nodded. Come to think about it, it'll be there first time shopping together. Julian layed down on top of the bed, on top of the covers. He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.

"Julian..."

He opened one eye.

"No stores are going to be open."

He smiled. "Wal-mart is."

Her face paled...

Wal-mart. Naya's nose scrunched up at the mere mention of the name. How could anyone associate the word ‘shopping’ with Wal-mart? It was like associating the word ‘car’ with a bicycle...

As Julian rested, she decided to head for the bathroom. It seemed that her little nap back in the cab had been more than enough for her. Too much was on her mind, for her to fall asleep again.

She stepped inside the bathroom and saw, to her luck, that it was cleaner than the actual room. With a sigh of relief, she closed the door behind her as she remembered all her stuff back at the trailer...for a brief moment she wondered whether they’d ever be able to go back there, but then she remembered there were more important things to worry about than her creature comforts, like staying alive.

She ran the tap and began to splash cold water on her face before tying her curls up in a loose ponytail on the side and then headed back into the room and took a seat on the second bed. She looked up to see that Julian had fallen asleep, his hands were behind his head revealing new bruises on his arm that he must have gotten from being kicked by the kidnappers.

She could still remember the fear that rose through her body as she watched him topple to the floor. Her heart had stopped. Suddenly she imagined what would’ve happened if he didn’t wake up in the car, or worse, if he ended up dying.
She shook the thoughts violently from her head and tried to focus. He was alright and so was she, they had managed to escape, all they needed to do now was stick together and hopefully, they could pull through this...

Wal-Mart. Julian hadn't been in one since he was a child. Things change. There were so many peole it was hard to believe. It was like walking through a mosh pit. Naya, he noticed, was walking behind him the entire time. As if she were afraid to even come in contact with these people. Julian passed a small mirror and caught a glimpse of both of them.

"We look like hell." He commented.

She gave him a dry look, like she would rather be somewhere else. He and her had a common goal; get out of here as soon as possible...

Survival shopping. Naya had never done anything like it in her life and she hoped she’d never have to do it again. She followed closely behind Julian, frightened she’d lose him in this sea of Wal-Mart loving people. As they headed to the clothing section and walked up and down the racks of outfits Naya would otherwise never be seen dead in, she would every so often glimpse at her reflection n the mirror and frown.

God, Julian was right. Giving her face a wash and tying her hair hadn’t helped at all. She looked awful and that, adding to the fact that she’d nearly been kidnapped only a few hours ago, didn’t help to improve her mood at all.

Irritably, she began picking up items of clothing randomly from the racks she passed; a few long cardigans in the dullest shades possible, some dark skinny jeans, a woollen scarf, a pair of snow boots. She looked around to see Julian, fortunately, he seemed as keen as she was to get out of this place.

Suddenly, a member of staff wearing a ‘How can I help you' t-shirt approached her. He was a spotty-looking pale-faced teen with yellow teeth. Naya couldn’t help but cringe at the sight of him.

“Would you like a trolley?” he asked her, smiling in a really creepy kinda way.

Dear Lord...

“Um no thank you,” Naya tried to be as polite as possible, as she gathered her shopping and hurriedly caught up with Julian.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, seeing the look on her face.

“Nothing,” she responded quickly.

Julian gave her a confused look but decided not to press further. “Did you get everything you needed?”

“Not everything,” Naya replied. “We still need some stuff for the motel; food, shampoo...”

Julian nodded. “Let’s get going then.”

Naya followed as Julian headed towards what looked like the grocery section. From the corner of her eye, she could still see the spotty teen stare at her whilst stacking some shelves in the isle opposite. His gaze made Naya feel nervous and slightly grossed out. Hoping to send a clear message, she slowly walked by Julian’s side and tentatively linked arms with him.

“Uh what are you doing?” he asked, looking down at her arm with a raised brow.

Julian felt a little caught off guard when she lock arms with him. In fact, he almost lost his balance. He raised an eye brow at her.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

She shrugged. "Trying not to get lost." She smiled.

After getting all their supplies, they finally checked out and caught another taxi to the hotel room. They lived in California, and as they passed by a couple of cars the plates of the car said "Washington". Wow, they had traveled that far? They were three states from where they should be.

"We're in Washington?" Julian almost choked. Where had the mexicans intended to take them? How far? Why? Who did they work for?


**Sorry I'm all out of ideas**

Once they got back to the motel, they headed to dining room where random clusters of people sat around small tables eating their meals.

Naya took a seat opposite Julian and buried her face in her hands. She couldn’t believe that they were so far away from home. Washington? She couldn’t understand how and why all this had happened.

Horror suddenly charged through her veins as a sound from the small television hit her ears.

“...the newlywed’s truck was discovered just outside Haven Park only a few hours ago...”

Naya felt her heart race. Her eyes immediately found Julian’s. He signalled for her to relax before casually turning around to face the screen on the wall

“The extensive damage to the vehicle has prompted Police to treat this as a kidnapping case and have urged anyone with information on the possible whereabouts of both Julian Anderson and Naya du Maurier to come forward immediately...”

Naya desperately looked around the dining room expecting to see all eyes on the pair of them. Luckily, the people around them seemed either uninterested or too hungry to pay any attention. Suddenly, Naya's cell phone began to ring, making Naya jump. She’d almost forgotten she had it on her. Looking down at the screen, she saw Danni’s name. Her heart sank.

“Don’t answer it,” Julian’s eyes immediately whipped towards her.

“What? Why?” asked Naya. “She must be worried to death about me. I have to tell her-”

“No,” Julian whispered, taking a look around him to see if anyone was watching, before grabbing her cell phone from her hand. “Listen to me, you can’t tell anyone anything, alright? No one can know where we are...not yet...”

Naya watched as Julian pocketed her phone.

“We need to find out what’s going on,” Julian continued, his voice still in a whisper. “Only after we find a way to deal with this situation, can we make contact with our families.”

“But, maybe they can help us!” pressed Naya. “Your dad and my dad have connections and friends from high places, if we could tell them what happened, they could try and work something out.”

Julian laughed dryly. “It’s not gonna be that simple, Angel, trust me.”