Them

Janelle Stone was becoming increasingly worried. The guys were starting to press her for the extra money she promised. A part of her was beginning to regret her decision to come back to the U.S. in the name of revenge. Her biggest fear was that the guys would turn on her. She tried to console them by promising them that they would get their money. To try to convince them that she was going to make good on her word and pay them the remaining 25 grand they agreed on, she dropped a grand of Bitcoin on them each day. “I don't understand why we can't be paid all at once,” one of them had asked her. “Because I have to wait until I get paid,” she told them. But they now knew who she was and that she had received a huge sum of money. She tried to convince them that she couldn't access it all at once. “What do you mean?” another one asked. “I mean, I never got the money in one big chunk. They pay me in installments.” The guys glanced at each other skeptically. “Believe me, I'm good for the money. I may very well need you guys for future jobs, so I'm certainly going to keep my word so that you'll trust me enough to work for me again in the future.” The real truth was that she didn't intend to pay them anymore at all. She was supposed to stay there another week, but the guys were pressing her more and more, and she feared them taking off and turning her in anonymously. She couldn't let that happen. She had to get out of the country, and she had to get out fast. The question was how. If she left with her luggage in hand, they would know what was up. There was always at least one guy, but usually two, on the ground floor, so there was no way she could sneak out. She was going to have to sneak out in the middle of the night while two of them were in bed and one was down in the cellar on guard. She knew this meant that the guys would leave once they discovered she was gone, which also meant that Boris and Lauren might starve to death before the owners returned, or at least die of dehydration. And so she concocted a plan. She would escape in the middle of the night, and then once she got to Montenegro, she would use the same Tor browser and VPN she had used when accessing the dark web to tip off the police. She did not want Boris and Lauren to die. She wanted them to live with the consequences of what they had done to her all those years ago. The reason she wanted to stiff the guys out of the rest of the money she promised wasn't just because she was mean and selfish, but because she didn't want to run out of money before the end of her life. Approximately half of the money she was awarded was gone. She had to start being a little more careful. She’d done what she’d come to the country to do, and now it was time to make her exit. She just had to do it at night. There was never a time when all three guys were out of the house. They had agreed that the less they went out, the safer they would be. In the middle of the night, two of the guys would be asleep in the bedrooms they were using, while one guy would be downstairs, probably dozing if she had to guess. Even though she told whoever was guarding her captives to stay awake, she hoped they would be too tired to follow those orders that night. She set the alarm on her phone to 2:00 AM and drifted off shortly before midnight. When the phone vibrated, she woke up horribly exhausted, but her survival was more important than how she felt. These men had guns. If they even so much as suspected she wasn't going to make good on her word, she wouldn't put it past them to kill her even if they'd already gotten plenty of money. Quietly, she used the bathroom and then got dressed. She then grabbed her suitcase and carry-on and crept as quietly as she could down the stairs. The other bedroom doors were shut, and she could hear soft music playing behind one door and snoring behind another. Good. That would hopefully mask any sound she made. The house was old, and certain stairs and parts of the floors creaked. She was about to cross through the living room to the front door when she heard footsteps coming up the cellar stairs. Fuck! Thinking quickly—something that was unusual for her—she shoved the suitcase and carry-on behind a plush chair and whipped a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket just as Charlie came into view. “What's up?” he asked. “Couldn't sleep. Thought I'd head out back for a smoke.” “Want some company?” he asked. “I would, but they really shouldn't be left alone." "It'll only be for a few minutes.” She decided to give in, thinking it might be suspicious if she protested too much. So they went out back and quietly smoked, exchanging very few words. “Damn, it's cold out here,” Charlie said. “It is,” Janelle agreed. “Why don't you go back inside and downstairs? As soon as I finish this, I'll be crashing.” Janelle wasn't sure if Charlie was suspicious of her or not. He almost seemed to be, but she realized it could simply be her paranoia. Finally, he stubbed out his cigarette, exhaled a huge plume of smoke, and headed indoors. She waited a moment and then also went indoors. She quickly glanced around the ground floor. Satisfied that no one was around that could see her, she quickly grabbed her luggage and unlocked the front door. Her heart pounded fiercely in her chest as she pulled it open, afraid to suddenly feel a gun pressed against her head. She stepped out and placed the luggage down, and then closed the door behind her as quietly as she could. Then she grabbed the luggage and raced down the street as fast as she could with the bulk she carried. She pulled out her phone and summoned an Uber. After the Uber dropped her off a few blocks away, she then summoned a Lyft just as she had planned to do all along, even if it was a week sooner than expected. Relief flooded through her when she arrived at the airport, but not as much as it would when she set foot in Montenegro. She wasn't happy to learn that she had a three-hour wait until the next flight to Montenegro, but then she realized that her accomplices had no idea where she lived. She could live in town for all they knew. Still, it was one of the longest, most suspenseful three hours of her life.