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those
eyes.  The color was actually very much like hers, only on him, they were
unbelievable. Stacy sized the guy up to be in his early 30’s.  He reminded her
of Jim Morrison.  She dragged her eyes away. All she needed was to be attracted
to some bank robbing, low-life kidnapper. 
    “Why did you
bring me here?” she said, regaining some strength in her voice.
    Niki looked
at Carlos and Eli.  He didn’t intend to tell her anything, but he felt like he had
to say something .  Stacy looked over at the two and recognized Carlos as
the man to whom she had talked to on the plane. 
    “Why hello, Carlos ,”
she said sarcastically.  “How nice to see you again, not. ”
    “Good
morning, Miss Trent,” he said smiling.  “I trust you will feel much better
after a nice hot shower and some breakfast.”
    Trust, my
ass, she thought.  “You didn’t answer my question.  Why did you bring me
here?”
    She went from
Niki to Carlos, looking each directly in the eye, then she looked over at Eli
and sized him up. Another 6-footer with light brown hair and matching eyes.  He
had a cocky smile on his face and Stacy disliked him immediately.
    “You
obviously didn’t choose me at random,” she said, looking back over at Niki. 
“What, are you going to ransom me?   Is that it?  Because, if it is, believe
me, you’re wasting your time.  My family would never cower to the likes of
you,” she lied.
    Carlos
interrupted before she could go on.  “There’s no need to get into it right
now.  We should all go and enjoy this beautiful morning, have some coffee on
the veranda and a delicious breakfast.”  He offered his hand to Stacy and she
took it because she wasn’t sure she could get up on her own. 
    Niki and Eli
walked ahead as they headed back to the villa.
    “She’s a fighter,”
said Eli, clearly amused at what he had seen.
    “No shit. 
She hits like a guy.”  Niki rubbed the spot where Stacy had pounded him in the
chest.  “Look where she slugged me,” he said.  Eli checked it out and sure
enough, there was a deep red fist mark imprinted on Niki’s chest.  “And last
night I actually thought she looked frail, ” Niki laughed.
    Jason was
walking in their direction with a mug of coffee in his hand.  “Hey, did I miss
the action?” he yelled to the group.  He met up with Niki and Eli, “So, she got
her memory back, huh?”
    “Apparently
that’s not a problem anymore,” Niki said.
    “Look where
she hit him,” Eli said  “You should have seen it, it was priceless!” he
laughed.
    The brothers filled
Jason in on what had transpired, while Stacy and Carlos caught up with them. Jason
broke away from the two and walked up to Stacy.  He looked like an all-American
surfer, tall and tan, with sun-bleached blonde hair.
    “Hey, I’m
Jason, and I guess you met . . .”
    Stacy covered
her ears.  “Don’t tell me your names!”  
    Jason
laughed. “It doesn’t matter. We’re anonymous.  That’s Niki, Eli and Carlos,” he
said, pointing to each respectively.  It was an awkward moment for everyone
except Jason.  Nothing much fazed him. 
    Stacy, on the
other hand, was feeling the brunt of her combat with Niki and knew it was going
to be a rough walk back to the house. Her head and side were killing her and no
sooner had Jason made the introductions than she grabbed onto a palm tree for
balance.  Jason caught her just as her legs gave out.
    “Whoa,” he
said, maneuvering his arm behind her back to hold her up. He handed off his
coffee mug to Carlos.  “You don’t look so good.  Let’s get you back inside,”
and he picked her up before she could protest, and started off toward the
villa.  “What are you, about 100 pounds?” he laughed.  He walked with a skip in
his step the whole way back to the villa.
    Stacy was mortified.
She couldn’t stand helpless women who needed a man to do everything for them,
and here she was being carried by a damn kidnapper.  It was