Kidnapped By The Italian Mafia

As it turned out, causing two vans to crash into each other was easier than I'd thought. All I had to do was let the drivers of the other two vans know that I had taken over this one and let nature work it's magic. I made sure to speed up, then slow down to a manageable speed that would let me brake without flipping over. Once they took a look into the windows, the rest was history.

I sped up and zig zagged in a way that was sure to rouse suspicion, and since this part of the roads was empty, I was sure they'd try and cut me off. Was I right? Hell yeah! Lo and behold, the two vans sped up at the same time, and since I kept playing around with my speed, the moment the dragged on the road to from a blockade, I hit the brakes and watched with unabashed glee as they crashed into each other, completely wrecking the front of both vans and popping a few tires in the process.

"Strike!" Without missing a beat, I put the car in reverse and backed up enough to gain enough speed, then I shifted the gear to drive and floored the gas pedal. I was sure the van was bulletproof, but the tires weren't, and I wasn't about to cross the border with flat tires. Swerving around the two vans was easy, and getting far away from them was easier because I knew the two drivers were either knocked out or trying to figure out what just happened.

I lost them in the horizon before I knew it, and pretty soon it was just the open road and this big black van. The bodies I'd temporarily disabled in the back of the van were currently beginning to shift, and if I didn't do something about them soon, driving this vehicle would be near impossible. So, since I wasn't one to just kill people just because, I stopped the car, gave the first two a good block of the chi to ensure they'd be paralysed for at least another two hours, then rolled them out of the car and onto the opposite side of the road.

I wasn't going to leave them on the scorching tarmac to get run over, I wasn't an animal. Instead, with my little bit of strength, I pushed and pushed until they were nicely laid face up on the grass. "I should move you beneath the trees," the magnificent grunt I let out as I pushed the bodies to the shade was louder than it probably should have been. "You're so heavy!" What did they eat?!

Once the two guys were in the shade and away from the immediate sun and any other elements, I went back to the van for the guy who I probably most definitely killed, and sighed when his body still hadn't moved except from when I shoved him off the other two. "What am I going to do with you?" It was my first time disposing of a body but I knew the basics. Once I moved the heavy tarp, I placed two fingers on his neck to ensure I wasn't active going to kill someone by thinking they were already dead. "Oh! You're alive!"

Did I break his neck though? Did it matter? He had to be moved with the others. Once they recovered from their temporary paralysis, they could take care of him. Thank goodness this road was empty and in the middle of nowhere, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to do this without trying to evade prying eyes.

After making sure he was completely okay and could at least blink, I dragged him out of the car, trying my best to not fall. This was a two hundred something pound man, it was a miracle I even managed to push him out of his seat in the first place. Was the Saint Perpetua looking over me? I hope so.

It took a lot more effort than I'd calculated to get the big brute under the tree, but once I got the groove, it was a little easier, and by the time I'd gotten him to where the other two were, my breath was nowhere near the vicinity of my lungs. "How much milk do you drink?!" This man's bones weighed a ton!

Finally, the three people were under the shade, away from the sun, away from the rode, and on the soft grass. Nothing could go wrong now because they were safe and I was very free to go on my way with a light conscience. "Good job, Kat. You are not like the Italians, you are a respectable young woman," I settled back into the drivers seat and breathed a sigh of relief, ready to continue on my journey. Now I had to navigate my way around Italy and into France. Considering this van didn't have a gps, I had to read all the signs and hope to God I wasn't going the wrong way.

I was tempted to go back and find my car, but that would be hard because I didn't know exactly where it was. I hadn't had the time to memorise all the turns and distances between them, and also there was the small matter that I had been knocked out cold for part of the journey. Sure, I wasn't soaking wet anymore, but I was F.U.C.K.I.N.G LOST. There, I said it. I was lost. My only option was to keep driving and hope I could figure out where the hell I was.

"Wait, Salzburg?" My father asked them to take me to him in Austria! If that was the case then they were indeed taking me north, all I had to do was find a road west. Whatever happened, I couldn't cross over into Austria because someone would see me and reports would be sent back to my father. Actually the people who kidnapped me could have found their way back to my father, but I wasn't really worried about that because if my suspicion was correct, they would be taken care of.

I continued driving for a few more hours, keeping a steady eye on the gas meter every now and then to make sure I wasn't running out. One would have thought that a Mercedes like this would have chugged petrol the way I chugged vodka, but these vans seemed to be very economic! Obviously part of it had to do with the fact that I'd turned off the air conditioning, but overall, the performance of this vehicle was very smooth. Nothing like my G-wagon back home. The ride was so smooth too, I barely felt any bumps along the road!

No wonder celebrities used these vans so much, they were spacious, economic, and very comfortable to take road trips in. Well, if it wasn't for that blasted vinyl scent, which I still have no clue for the source. Maybe after crossing on over to France I could take a break from driving and try to investigate.

The road stretched on for about another one hundred miles before I saw anything resembling a French name on a road sign. Of course I was excited, but I was driving through a town now so it's not like speeding up was possible, and to make matters worse, I was stuck in a traffic jam. Why was it that every time I was close to tasting freedom, the universe acted against me? Was it really so hard to just let me be happy?

It was another hour and a half before I was ten miles away from the French border, and I could not have been more happy to be there. It was like the remaining thirty minutes until I entered French country were dragging out every single second.

My heart was in my throat as I got closer and closer, and every car behind me felt like it had been following this van for three hundred miles.

I was basically constipated with paranoia by the time the wheels of the car crossed over into France, and once everything was in French, the relief in my soul felt like all my chakras had been opened. Like when Avatar Aang finally reached the avatar state. That's exactly what I felt like.

"Home sweet home."

After so much struggle to get through the border, I was finally in France, the country of wine, cheese, and debauchery. Nothing could contain my happiness, and I was already planning my next move. France was pretty much neutral territory, so I didn't have to worry about anyone finding me here.

Even though it was finally safe for me, I still knew that I had to make changes, so my planning was almost immediate. Throughout the whole drive, I'd been thinking of how to carry out my disguise plans.

There was nothing I needed to do to my body because the type of figure I had was very common amongst European women and all my moles were in fairly common areas. I didn't have any tattoos or distinguishable traits, so I would blend in perfectly.

All my changes were so subtle and simple but so crazy effective that it was almost funny. Nobody would recognise me because I was always a step ahead. Any particular wordplay or physical habit I had was gone because I made sure to completely unlearn them while I was in that horrible bedroom replica cell. My time in solitary confinement had done me good.

Marco never seemed to catch on to the fact that leaving me alone to analyse was never a good thing for him. My secret talent was learning how people's thought process took place very quickly, and contrary to what he might have liked to think of himself, I found him easy to decode. Maybe it was the fact that he had lowered his defenses around me, or maybe it was the fact that I had played dumb just to find all the secrets in the house, I had no idea, but at some point, Marco DiBiancci trusted me, and that became his downfall.

I was beginning to be very hungry by the time I was one hour into French country, but there was still a way to go and I didn't want to risk anything. Even even France was the last place anyone would look for me, the guys my father sent to take me to him would probably tell him that I was heading north when they found me, so I could never be too careful. Thankfully, I'd enlisted the help of some friends to let me lay low unnoticed until the time for my physical alterations came through. Until I looked like a completely different person, I wasn't willing to risk it.

Getting across the border had been hard enough, the last thing I needed was to be exposed to any more potential setbacks. It didn't seem like I would be able to relax until I reached my house, which was still far away.

Throughout the rest of my drive I stopped for gas twice and took advantage of the stop to use the bathroom and buy some coffee. My body was still in complete go mode, so my bathroom usage was reduced to almost nothing and my hunger was turned off momentarily to allow my complete focus to shine through. Nothing could deter me. At this point, my life really did depend on it.

It was very weird how I had grown up in an environment that conditioned me to think that attempts on my life were normal. In no way was it normal for me to be looking over my shoulder, but since running away from Marco's house a little over twenty-four hours ago, I had been chased by police twice, almost gotten into a sleep-deprived accident, been slammed into a swamp, hit my head so hard I was knocked out, and kidnapped. To top it all off, I took out all my kidnappers and left them in the middle of the wilderness by themselves with no means of transportation.

Leaving them alive was the biggest risk to me than anything that had happened since my arrive to Italy, if my father found them or vice versa, they would tell him that I was still alive, then I really wouldn't be able to escape my fate unless I faked my death again, but how could I do that if I was supposedly already dead?

If my dad realised the Italians had faked my death to throw him off, he wouldn't spare any fury, and then there would be no Europe for me to be queen of. I was too ambitious to allow that to happen. Come hell or high waters, Italy would be mine, and the Montenegro empire wouldn't only belong to Salvador. I was set to inherit my father's piece, but if I already had my own legacy before that, then I would be queen of everything when he retired.

My brain must have zoned out for hours because my eyes didn't register anything in that time. It was a miracle I even made it past Monaco in the first place. The drive to Saint-Étienne was more peaceful than anything, and after finally passing Lyons, my lungs felt like they were breathing in oxygen again. I was close now. I could practically smell the fresh linen and perpetual French scent of my chateau.

Now you might be thinking, Katarina, you're only twenty-one, you're too young to own a large country house in France! To that I say, f.u.c.k you. This chateau was bought to be a safe house for me, and right now I was in desperate need of safety. The fact that my family didn't even know about it should have been the biggest warning sign. It's not that they were a danger to me, but they could be. Right now, they were.