Page 2 of Kidnapped By the Beast
“Oh, Lexi-girl!” he exclaimed, when he recognized her. “What are you doing here?”
“I think I’d better ask you the same question, Uncle Herbert,” Lexi told him. “Come on—we need to talk.”
She had gotten her elderly Uncle out of the bar and back to his truck where he confessed something awful—he owed the man named Butcher a huge amount of money.
“Everything’s gotten so high this year and they raised the taxes on the house, you know,” he said to Lexi as they sat in the front seat of his pick-up and stared at the flashing neon signs of the bar they’d just left. “The bank wouldn’t loan me any money—of course they wouldn’t,” he added bitterly. “If we can’t pay the taxes, they’re the ones who get to swoop in and take our house and sell it out from under us! So I went to Butcher, because I heard he made personal loans. Only I never dreamed he’d keep raising the rates on me!” He shook his head, looking defeated. “I only borrowed two thousand dollars, but now I owe him so much more!”
“How much more?” Lexi had asked, determined to know the worst.
Uncle Herbert took a deep breath.
“Twenty thousand,” he admitted in a hoarse whisper. “And he wants it by the end of the month! Lexi-girl—what am I going to do?”
“Oh, Uncle Herbert!” Lexi felt sick with worry for him. He had always been a strong man with an easy, open smile. Now he looked so broken and bent and old. She hated to see the man who was the closest thing she had to a father looking so defeated.
“I don’t know how I’m going to pay.” He shook his head.
“But you shouldn’t have to!” Lexi exclaimed. “Butcher can’t keep raising his rates without telling you! That’s what they call ‘predatory lending practices’. Don’t you have some kind of contract you signed with him telling the original interest rate he quoted you?”
Uncle Herbert shook his head glumly.
“It was a handshake deal,” he said. “Shoulda known better than to trust a fella who looks like him.”
Privately, Lexi thought the same thing, but she didn’t want to make her uncle feel worse.
“Well I’m sure what he’s doing is against the law—especially threatening to send people to come break your legs!” she exclaimed. “We’ll go to the police.”
Uncle Herbert shook his head.
“Did you get a good look at those two who threw me out? They’re both on the Police Force—I don’t dare say a thing or it will get back to him for sure!”
At that, Lexi didn’t know what to say. It seemed like they were stuck—but she had never been a quitter.
“Don’t you worry about this, Uncle Herbert,” she told him, lifting her chin. “I’ll find a way to get that money for you—I promise I will.”
“But how, Lexi-girl?” He shook his graying head. “I don’t see how you could do that.”
“I’ll find a way,” Lexi repeated stubbornly. “Don’t you worry.”
But finding twenty thousand dollars was much easier said than done. Even if she sold her ancient car, she couldn’t get more than five thousand for it and she really didn’t have anything else that was worth selling.
Lexi thought about stripping or trying to be a cam girl, but she didn’t see how she could make that work. She had a pretty face with long brown hair and green eyes, but she was definitely plus sized. She had extremely large, sloping breasts, full hips, and a behind that was much too big to fit the normal standards of beauty. In fact, all of her was too big—even her fingers and toes were chubby.
Plus, she was shy about showing her bare body to men she didn’t know—she felt self-conscious, like they would be constantly judging her and thinking that she needed to lose weight. Also, her career as a teacher would be over if anyone found out she was camming or stripping—and it seemed like someone always found out.
But what else was left for her to do? It was at this point that she called her best friend Natalie. She didn’t expect her friend to loan her the money—Natalie didn’t have an extra twenty thousand lying around either. She just needed a shoulder to cry on and she missed her best friend. Ever since Natalie had been called as the bride of a Blood Kindred and moved up to the Mother Ship, Lexi hardly ever saw her anymore.
To her surprise, though, her best friend had an idea. She told Lexi about a job she’d heard about—a dangerous but high-paying job working for a Kindred scientist named Dr. Brandt.
“He’s interviewed lots of women for the position, but it seems like he can’t find one he likes,” she had told Lexi. “I don’t know what your chances are, but if you come to interview with him, at least you and I can spend the day together on the Mother Ship. There’s so much I want to show you up here!”
Lexi had agreed to come for the interview. It was the start of Spring Break at her school, so she had a little time to spare. After showing her around the Mother Ship, Natalie had taken her to the interview and left her there with a kiss on the cheek and a “good luck, bestie.”
Lexi had knocked on the silver door with 3-D letters floating over it that read simply, “Dr. Brandt.”
When the door slid open, she got her first look at her prospective employer. She’d been awed by the big Beast Kindred who looked down at her coolly from his great height. Natalie had told her that Beast Kindred were supposed to have fiery tempers, but Dr. Brandt seemed the exact opposite of hot-tempered to Lexi. He had nodded her inside, noted her name on a digital clipboard, and asked her to roll up the sleeve of her blouse for some blood tests.
“Er, can you tell me what this job is about? I mean, what does it entail?” Lexi had asked him as he stuck her expertly and removed two vials of blood.
