"Come in." Judah turned his gaze away from the TV once a knock came to the door. It slowly opened, and a girl named Ashley walked in, pushing a cart inside the bedroom with breakfast plated on top of it.

"You want me to leave it here?" She asked, standing on the side of the bed that Kianna slept on.

"Yeah. Hand me a plate." He leaned up from the bed, then sat back against the pillows when she did as told. She gave him a water bottle too, and then dismissed herself, locking the bedroom door.

Judah stuck a piece of turkey bacon in his mouth as he put his attention back on John Wick that was playing on the TV, coincidentally at the same time that Kianna began to twist in her sleep.

She was currently curled up on the side of him, tucked underneath the covers with just her underclothes on. She hadn't woken up since she'd passed out late yesterday afternoon, but of course he checked on her throughout the night. It was now almost seven in the morning.

When Kianna realized that she was holding on to him, she immediately let him go and pushed herself away from him, clutching the covers to her chest.

She stared at him as he purposely ignored her, keeping his eyes on the TV. It was mostly dark in the room, and the only light visible was coming from the movie he was watching. How dare he put her in bed with him after knocking her out? He was a maniac.

"Yo' toothbrush in the bathroom. Go clean up and get back in the bed when you done." He pointed to the bathroom that was on his side of the bedroom.

"Now Kianna." He made sure to not raise his voice, doing a gesture with his head to make her move faster.

"I don't have any clothes on." She mumbled, clearly not comfortable with being damn near naked around him.

"I ain't ask. Go do what I said." He scooped some eggs up with his spoon, and she sighed under her breath before standing up. She didn't even bother to cover herself because her butt was so big, there was no point. The thongs she wore didn't make things any better either.

The toothbrush she used yesterday was laying on the counter in the tube it came with, and there was a fresh face towel and a small bottle of cetaphil there as well.

When she looked at her reflection in the mirror, it seemed as if her face had already been cleaned. There was no blood there and she knew for a fact she was leaking yesterday. The swelling in her lip had gone down, but now her jaw was a bit swollen. It hurt badly too.

She gently washed her face with the cetaphil wash and a towel, and followed up with brushing her teeth. The last thing she did was moisturize her face and her lips with the jar of Vaseline on the countertop.

Then she walked in the bedroom and got back in the bed like he told her to do. She made sure to sit as far away from him as possible though.

"Get yo' plate off that cart and eat somethin'." He instructed, and Kianna looked over at the plate sitting on the metal cart a few feet away.

"I'm not hungry."

"Kianna you ain't ate in four days. Get the fucking plate and stop making me repeat myself." His tone was full of irritation, making her sigh again.

She walked over to the cart and grabbed the plate as well as the cold bottle of apple juice. She opened the syrup bottle and drizzled it on the cinnamon sugar waffles, the sausage patties, and the eggs too.

Kianna turned around to get back in the bed, only to see Judah's eyes lingering on her bare backside. He didn't attempt to look away, clearly not caring about being caught. His gaze traveled from the print of her panties up to her face when she got underneath the covers, still sitting far away from him.

"I'm sorry for hitting you, Kianna." He told her a few moments later. He waited for a response, but she didn't say anything back.

"I told you that if you listened to me, I wouldn't put my hands on you. I wish you would've just fucking listened." He practically blamed her for him punching her in the face, and still, she didn't respond.

Kianna cleared the plate of food within a few minutes, and she downed the bottle of apple juice too. Missing out on food for four whole days had her starving. She could eat a horse right now if it was in front of her.

"Bring another plate up here." Judah spoke, and Kianna assumed he was on the phone. She was glad he could read her mind because she was way too stubborn to ask.

"Go get yo' food mama." He said a few minutes later when a knock came to the door.

"You get it. I don't have any clothes on and I don't want you to look at me." She voiced without looking over at him.

"Aight." He pulled the cover off and swung his legs over the side of the bed to stand up. He pulled his sweats up further over his boxers as he made his way to the door, and he grabbed Kianna's plate and a second bottle of orange juice after opening it.

Once he locked the door, he walked back to the bed to give Kianna the food. Before giving it to her, he leaned his head down to her level to kiss the side of her face where his handprint was. He couldn't stop looking at it.

"I ain't gon' touch you no more, aight? I'm sorry." His voice rasped.

"People who are sorry don't do it more than once. Could you move, please?" She asked as he continued to kiss her bruised jaw. He grabbed her face gently in the palm of his hand and used his thumb to rub over the purple mark on her skin.

He let her go, standing back upright. He passed her the plate of food without saying anything else, then he got back in the bed and underneath the covers.

Judah couldn't front like he didn't feel bad for putting his hands on her the way he did, which was very rare for him. He'd never harmed anyone unless they deserved it, and Kianna honestly hadn't done anything wrong at all.

If his parents knew what he'd done to her, they'd have his head on a silver platter.

"You, uh, you into shopping and shit like that? You wanna send for something? Anything." He looked over at her, watching her put a smoked sausage link in her mouth.

"I wanna go home." She murmured under her breath.

"Anything but that mama. What you want?"

"You don't even need me. What am I even here for? To get beat on just for wanting to go home?" She wiped her face when she realized she was crying, putting her plate to the side.

"I said I was sorry Kianna. Come here." He grabbed her arm to pull her closer to him as her cries became heavier.

"No. Stop trying to kiss me and hug me. You kidnapped me! I won't ever fucking like you East. Get off of me." She pushed him away from her, and he let her.

Kianna turned to face the opposite direction, pulling the cover over her head. She didn't bother to silence her cries because he deserved to feel bad for the pain-both physical and emotional-that he caused her.

She really hated this man.

"Here. You wanna call Amina?" He held an iPhone 11 out to her, and her head raised at the mention of her best friend.

Kianna sat up in the bed after taking the phone from him, dialing Amina's number. She put it to her ear as it rung, hearing the call connect within a few rings.

"Hello?"

"Mina, it's me. It's K-,"

"Kj, bitch! Oh my god. Oh my god, I miss you so much. Are you with East? Is he letting you come home now?" She asked, causing Kianna's expression to drop.

"What? How do you know that?" She looked over at Judah, and he didn't say anything. He only watched her.

"Yo he had these big ass niggas come to my house, they said you was ok but you was with him now. I knew that didn't sound right so I tried to go to the police-but none of them were listening K. I filed a missing persons report but they didn't accept it."

"Keon said he was gon' get you back. I think he knows something but he wouldn't tell me, I'm sorry Kj. I'm trying. I miss you so much." Amina's voice cracked with a soft cry.

"I miss you too. Don't cry. I-I'm okay. I just had to call you and make sure you knew that I was good." Kianna wiped her face, realizing how hopeless her situation was.

Jada was right. Judah really must've had the police on his payroll, and Kianna knew cops were corrupt, but damn. The only people who could help her were on her kidnapper's side.

Ridiculous.

"Ok, I love you so much. Please call me and tell me you okay tomorrow too. I'ma go crazy if you don't, K."

"I will. I love you more Mina." She mumbled, slowly pulling the phone from her ear. She gave Judah the phone after hanging up, and then she laid back down.

"Why can't I just go home? Clearly I can't go to the police anyway." She spoke aloud, although her face was buried into a pillow so her voice was kind of muffled.

"Do you remember your father?" He asked something that had nothing to do with the conversation at hand.

"Is that what this is about?" She picked her head up with a frown on her face.

"When you were younger, he gave you a code to a brief case. You remember that?"

"What? No. Why would I remember something like that?" Her eyebrows furrowed deeper.

"That code worth 62 million dollars. And that's the bounty on yo' head right now, so really, you should thank me for taking you before somebody else did." He wasn't telling the whole truth but technically he wasn't lying either.

"Why would I thank you? You busted my mouth twice and you slapped me. That's not normal, East. You don't just do that to people." She turned her head to look over at him, finally.

"I wouldn't have touched you if you listened to me. Actions have consequences." He shrugged, and Kianna rolled her eyes at him before laying her face against the pillow again.

Judah reached over to grab a blunt off of the nightstand and the lighter next to it as well. Kianna realized that this man was always smoking. He'd probably smoke a blunt in his sleep if it was possible.

"What's your real name?" She asked him after a few minutes of silence.

"Why?" He glanced over at her with a chuckle.

"I think I deserve to at least know the name of my kidnapper." She propped her head up on her hand, watching a small smile take over his face.

"Judah." He answered.

"It's always the men with the Bible names who end up being terrible people." She muttered mostly under her breath, but when he laughed, she knew that he'd heard her.

"I'm growing on you though. You talkin'." He shrugged again.

"Because I have nothing else to do."

"Mm. You wanna smoke?" He held the blunt out to her after taking a hit from it, and she shook her head.

"I wanna go home."

"You are home."

"You're sick." She didn't even crack a grin as he laughed for the second time.

"Can I go back to the room with the other girls?" She asked.

"Nah."

"Why not?"

"'Cause I want you in here with me."

"Why?"

"You nice to look at." He answered vaguely, causing her face to scrunch up with a frown.

"You are a pervert. You're like-what, 40? I'm 22 and I'm gay. I don't want you looking at me."

"Damn. I look 40?" He chuckled, not appearing to have taken any offense to anything else that she said.

"Yes. And your beard is half grown." She told him matter of factly, and he choked on the smoke that came out of his mouth as he laughed again.

"Why you think I'm a pervert?" He then asked, his smile remaining.

"Because you make me undress in front of you, you kiss me even though I tell you not to, and you took my clothes off while I was passed out to make me sleep with you. And like a weirdo, you just said I'm nIcE tO lOoK aT." She mocked his raspy voice.

"It was too much blood on yo' clothes. You wasn't getting in my bed with that shit." He addressed only one thing, making her roll her eyes again.

"I didn't ask to get in the bed with you. You put me here. That's my whole point."

"Jada told me I was your favorite. Is that true?" She asked.

"Precisely."

"How come? I didn't even do anything. There's some girls who are obsessed with you, I heard. Like that one girl-Renee? And Deja too. Favor them." She frowned.

"Nah. I like women who don't like me."

"You are a lunatic. I literally like girls. Do you have a pussy? 'Cause if you don't, this won't work out."

"Do you got one? This might work if you do." He looked over at her with a smirk, and then he laughed yet again when she turned her head to hide her smile.

"Shut up. We are not friends, weirdo. You are so fucking annoying." She turned her whole body to face the wall, tuning out his laughter.

"You funny as shit, I can't lie." He chuckled, grabbing his flip phone off of the nightstand when it started to ring.

Kianna turned around to look at him again as he began talking, seeing how his demeanor instantly changed. He didn't have a smile on his face and his tone was cold again. It was scary how he could transform so quickly.

There was a hard expression on his face; a mug that couldn't be tainted. It was like it was permanent, but she knew it wasn't because he was just smiling a few minutes ago. His eyes were stern again, too.

"Take care of that shit. I'm on my way up there." Was the last thing he said before he ended the call.

"Where are you going?" She asked, watching him swing his legs over the edge of the bed to stand up.

"To mind my business. Something you should be doing."

"Well since you're leaving, can I go up there with the girls now?" She asked, though she really didn't want to. She just needed him to say no so that she could put her plan in motion.

"Nah. I'll be back in two hours. If you need somethin', use that phone right there and press 1." He pointed to the telephone on the dresser that resembled the ones that were seen in hotel rooms.

"A guard gon' be outside this door. I ain't into beefing with you, so don't try no stupid shit Kianna. You understand me?" He now stood at the door, pulling a shirt over his head.

"Yes sir."

"That's what I like to hear." He smirked, and she rolled her eyes as soon as he walked away. The door shut behind him, and she could hear about six locks turn from the outside.

For a few minutes, she didn't move. She had to be sure that he was actually gone and not just testing her to see what she would do, because she was for sure about to fail that test if that really was the case.

After about half an hour, she got out of the bed and went to the same dresser he'd gotten his clothes out of. She pulled on a pair of his sweats and a sweatshirt, both of which were way too big for her, but it didn't matter. She just didn't want to escape half naked.

She glanced at the camera that was in the corner of the room, praying to God that Judah wasn't watching the live feed.

Kianna then walked over to the window on the left side of the room, seeing the bolt locks on it to prevent it from being opened. It made no difference whether it could be pushed up or not though, Kianna planned to punch through the glass.

This room was at the back of the house, so it faced the field that she'd seen during her escape attempt yesterday. She really hoped he was lying about this house being far from any neighbors. Either way, that wasn't stopping her.

"Kj?" The guard questioned from outside of the door as soon as her hand went through the window, sending glass shards everywhere.

She continued to punch a space big enough for her to fit through as the locks on the door began to turn, and she jumped through the now broken window at the same time the guard managed to open the door.

By the time she made it to the back gate, there were three guards running behind her. Her heart pumped fast as she hoisted herself up to jump the gate, totally disregarding the barbed wires that left a few cuts on her.

Kianna ran as fast as she could through the field of tall grass, and luckily for her, running track for damn near ten years came in handy. She outran the guards like it was nothing. She kept running, and kept running even when her legs started to give out on her.

Thankfully that didn't happen until she was a few miles away from the house.

"Shit." Weak and out of breath, she cried tears of relief and exhaustion when she saw a neighborhood in the distance.

She was so ready to get home.

Jokes on her