Page 37 of Captive Hearts
‘We wait.’
Gina coughed. ‘Hey Rick, while we wait, might be a good idea to feed everyone?’
Rick looked at his watch. ‘I suppose it is teatime. Should I ask them to send food in?’
Ashley couldn’t believe he could be so media savvy while being so astonishingly dense. ‘It’s a restaurant. You’ve got all the chefs here.’
Rick glanced at the kitchen. ‘Oh. Yeah. But I’ll have to be watching carefully. Don’t want anyone getting any funny ideas about using the knives for anything other than chopping food.’
***
Everyone was crowded into the kitchen, including the soon to be free members of the group. The two hostages in chef whites were working away, one of them on dough, the other prepping toppings. Rick had a gun on them the entire time. ‘Do a meat feast first,’ he told them.
They both nodded and soon they had a huge pizza loaded with every animal under the sun, baking away.
‘What should we make next?’ the female chef asked.
He looked around. ‘Anyone got a preference?’
Lily stuck her hand up. ‘I’m veggie.’
Rick snickered. ‘Of courseyouare,’ he said to the teenage girl. She gave him a filthy look, which he ignored, turning back to the chefs. ‘Do a veg pizza, then. I’m not a monster.’
One of the chefs set to work constructing the next pizza, as the bell dinged on the meat feast, and the other slid it out and divided it up with a pizza cutter. Rick grabbed a slice and stood back eating it, pizza in one hand, gun in the other. ‘Stuff your faces,’ he instructed the crowd. People tentatively began to step forward and collect pizza, Ashley and Gina among them. Ashley was starving. She hadn’t realised it until just now.
As the second pizza came out and the vegetarians tucked in, it occurred to Ashley that people with good blood sugar are less likely to do something crazy. She was including the hostages in that assessment too. Anyone wanting to play hero was gonna get hurt. Thank god Gina had suggested the food.
After everyone had finished eating, Rick went to the fridge. ‘Oh, look. Tiramisu,’ he said. He turned to the woman with the birthday badge. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Leanne,’ the woman said.
‘Happy Birthday to you,’ Rick warbled, bringing the desert out. He shot a death stare at the room, and everyone joined in the next line, albeit with less enthusiasm. ‘Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Leanne, happy birthday to you!’
Leanne looked ready to slap everyone in the room, but she slid a thin smile onto her face. ‘Thanks.’
Rick smirked, plating up a piece for her. ‘Well, we couldn’t leave the big day unmarked, could we?’
Leanne kept the smile on her face with effort as he gave her the plate.
‘So, this was your birthday treat, was it? Coming here?’ he asked. Ashley wanted to tell him to shut up. It was one thing to hold everyone hostage. It was another to wind them up. But of course, Ashley couldn’t risk speaking up. Leanne, all of them, were going to have to put up with whatever Rick wanted.
‘Was your birthday lunch fun?’ he asked.
Leanne shrugged. ‘It was alright.’
‘Alright? That doesn’t sound like you were having a belter.’
‘It was a work thing, not my idea,’ Leanne admitted.
‘Whose was it?’
Leanne nodded at her two buddies. ‘Polly and Tina.’
Rick turned to Polly. ‘You’re the one going out soon, aren’t you? Didn’t you think of giving up your place for your friend? Seeing as it’s your fault she’s here?’
Polly threw a nervous glance to Leanne. ‘I didn’t really want to come either, to be honest.’
Leanne arched an eyebrow but said nothing.
