Kidnapped and a Daring Escape Read Online Free

"Oh, the thanks are mine. You’re a joy to dance with, but I think I
should apologize to your fiancé for so rudely snatching you away."
         "There’s no need for that, really."
         "Still …," he murmurs, leaving the sentence hanging.
         He follows her to the bar where Visconti is engaged in a conversation
with a young man, one of his students, he figures, although he gets the
distinct impression that it is a rather one-sided conversation, more like
a lecture.
         Visconti briefly turns to Bianca, saying: "Ah Bianca, here you are."
         "Franco, André …," she turns to him, "I don’t even know your last
name."
         "Villier."
         "André Villier would like to apologize to you."
         "Yes, Professore , please accept my apology for having so rudely
interrupted your dance and taking your fiancée away from you."
         A fleeting frown flits across Visconti’s face, replaced by a condescending smile. "No need to apologize, young man," he answers. "As I
said, Bianca was surely grateful to you."
         His haughty tone and mien toward both his fiancée and him provoke
an almost instant dislike for the man.
         "Oh, Franco, you know that isn’t true," she exclaims, sounding hurt.
"I love dancing with you."
         "Dear girl, it is all right. I do not have to be an expert in everything."
With that he turns back to his student and resumes his lecture.
         "Good night, Professore , thank you again, Bianca," André murmurs.
"It was nice meeting you."
         She still looks hurt and fails to acknowledge him.
         This young woman is wasted on the professor, André muses, as he
makes for his room. On the writing desk is a note from the concierge
with the details for tomorrow’s excursion and his share of the cost.
     
    * * *
     
    Sleep is hard to find. The moment he is horizontal, fragments of that
overheard conversation surface in his mind. He dissects the separate parts
he recalls, trying to fill in the missing words. Some are obvious, like ‘ I
have received advice from my bank this morning that 200,000 Euros
have been credited with your agent in Antigua.’ What makes him uneasy
is the part about keeping her alive. The people blackmailed would want
proof that the woman is still alive before paying the ransom. That part is
obvious. But the exchange that followed sounded ominous. It could
imply that ‘ le richard ’, the person arranging the kidnapping, would prefer
that the woman be killed or maybe worse, forced into sex slavery. His
laugh sounded hellish.
         The fact that they also may have made a drug deal at the same time has
slipped from his mind.
         He berates himself for not having done something right away. He
should have tried to get a good look at ‘ le richard ’, even followed him,
and then maybe notified the police anonymously. But he felt impotent at
that moment, frustrated by the lack of an obvious course of action —
reporting it to the police — as he would have chosen in Europe without
much deliberation. He curses the pimp, if that was his trade, for
interfering right at the crucial moment.
         Finally, he makes a concerted effort to forget about the whole thing,
reminding himself again that it really is none of his business. He
deliberately brings up the vision of Bianca, as he first saw her from the
balcony, her laughing eyes, her impish plea with folded hands enticing
him down, her sensuous movements in the rhythm of the music. He
cannot help smiling. It was the highlight of his day.
     
     
    2
    Bianca watches André walk away. Franco’s unjust accusation that she
prefers dancing with somebody else has soured her joy of doing the salsa
with the Swiss. On the dance floor, she had seen her fiancé’s remark as
a joke, maybe a shade cynical. But repeating it in front of a fellow
student and a stranger can only imply that he really meant it. And it
wouldn’t have happened if the Swiss hadn’t insisted on