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(PART FOUR)

"Mmmhpmm."

Kyle anxiously twisted around inside his softly-padded prison. He wasn't sure how long it had been since someone had knocked on the front door of the RV, and Roxanne and Pepper had shoved him in the closet to keep him out of sight. It felt like it had been hours, but he was sure that it was only his own racing heartbeat that made it feel like that long.

What if it was the police? An RV isn't exactly an inconspicuous vehicle, maybe they finally caught up to them? If that was the case, wouldn't that mean that he would be saved? He strained his ears to try and listen to whatever was going on outside, but was unable to hear anything other than silence.

Kyle whined softly into his gag. What if it wasn't the police? What if it was just some random good samaritan who stopped to ask why they had stopped on the side of the road? Would they be kidnapped too? Or even worse, what if it was one off those "buyers" Roxanne was talking about earlier, angry that the job hadn't gone according to plan? Kyle felt his blood run cold. Would those people even let him go? Would they kill him for all the trouble he caused for their little heist? He suddenly found himself grateful for the fact that he at least had a soft blanket to cuddle with.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, he felt the RV start to move again. After another minute, the top of the chest creaked shut, and Kyle was left squinting once again into Roxanne's dark eyes. The corners of her mouth were turned up in a bemused smile. "Hey sweetheart, you holding up okay?"

'No!' he wanted to shout, though from behind the wadded cloth still trapped in his mouth he was only able to get out a few soft mumbles. Roxanne chuckled quietly, reaching down to untie his gag. It could have just been Kyle's imagination but...she seemed to brush her fingers softly against his cheek a little more than was necessary.

When the soft bundle of cotton was finally pulled from his mouth, Kyle smacked his chapped lips and gave her an annoyed look. "This better not be a regular occurrence." he grumbled, awkwardly shifting to try to make it easier for Roxanne as she released him from his binds. "Gettin' real sick and tired of this." Now that she was letting him out of the box, it was easier for him to find his will to sass.

Roxanne sighed "I know, I'm sorry. We just couldn't take any chances. We actually got out of the museum with the art...and you," she paused, trying to rip the tape off his wrists but giving up and producing a pocket knife instead "It would have been pretty ironic if we made it this far just to get caught because we stopped on the side of the road and some guy knocked on the door asking if we needed gas."

Ah, so it hadn't been the police. Kyle felt his shoulders sag a little in disappointment. Surely they were looking for him, right?

When all the tape was cut off she helped Kyle out of the chest, which he looked back at curiously. "So...you just happened to have a wooden box to store your victims in?" he asked incredulously. Roxanne blushed "It was supposed to be used to carry the art in so it wouldn't get damaged. I just improvised." she admitted.

Well, they did say before that they were not professional kidnappers.

"Anyway, now that we're on the road again, I figured I'd let you know that we're almost at the safe house." Roxanne explained, casually plopping down onto the bed and resting her chin in one hand. "I'm going to give you the whole speal ahead of time, alright? We've both seen action movies, you know how it goes."

Kyle had seen a few action flicks in his lifetime. None of them really portrayed this sort of situation though.

"The house is secluded, and since you're going to see the outside anyway I can tell you that we are right smack dab in the middle of the woods. No one's around if you try to yell for help, no phone service, and running away would be pretty stupid because there's nothing for miles and the temperature drops to near freezing at night. Now..."

Though her pose was still casual, Roxanne made a point of looking at Kyle directly in the eye in an intense gaze "Are you going to make things easier for all of us? Or would you prefer to be the stereotypical kidnapping victim and kick up a fuss and then be tied up in the basement the entire time?"

Kyle shook his head so quickly he almost made himself dizzy. "Nope! No thanks! Been there done that, too many times actually!" he stammered. Roxanne flashed him a grin "Great! To be honest this house doesn't even have a basement so I don't know where we'd put you anyway." she laughed.

As the RV rolled to a stop, Roxanne let Kyle walk down the hallway and outside without blindfolding him. As soon as he got outside, his mouth fell open a little in shock. Roxanne hadn't been joking when she had said they were in the middle of nowhere. All Kyle could see were what seemed like miles of pine and oak trees on all sides, and a surprisingly large and modern-looking house. It looked like a millionaire's getaway home.

He was so engrossed in looking at his new surroundings and stretching his sore limbs that he didn't pay much attention to his kidnappers, who were busy unloading crates of stolen art and dragging them into the garage. It wasn't until he felt a hand drop on his shoulder that he jumped and became more aware of his surroundings.

Annie looked up at him. "Um...you can go inside if you want?" she said tentatively, adjusting the large, baby blue backpack that sat on her shoulder. "I'm pretty sure they're just about done getting the stuff inside."

Kyle nodded, and the two of them followed the others inside the massive white house. It looked like it had absolutely no business being in the middle of the woods. The interior was sleek and clean, filled with crisp lines, white furniture, and stainless steel doorknobs. The Thorny Roses seemed more like a ragtag group of girlfriends...how they managed to secure this place as their safe house was a mystery to Kyle.

Pepper and Roxanne were in the living room, still mulling over their things and pulling the zippers of their suitcases shut. Dani was nowhere to be seen, so Kyle figured she must have already escaped to one of the bedrooms. That was good enough for him. Her crazed demeanor and casual remarks about killing him weren't appreciated.

Roxanne lifted her head and smiled when she saw the two of them walk in. "Kyle! Glad you finally made it inside. For a second I thought I'd have to drag you in myself." she quipped, rummaging through what looked like a haphazardly packed bag of clothing. "Take a tour of the house if you want, but make sure to come with me at some point so you can see our room."

Kyle almost choked on air. "OUR room? Can't I just...sleep in another room? Do we really have to share?"

Roxanne rolled her eyes, and from behind her Pepper let out a snicker. "For crying out loud sweetheart, this isn't sleep away camp. We can sleep in the same room without problems." Kyle opened his mouth to protest once again, but Roxanne beat him to it "Sorry, but the easiest way to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't do anything stupid at night is to have you sleep with one of us. There's three bedrooms: Pepper and Annie are already sharing one and probably wouldn't have much room to squeeze you with them on the bed. And something tells me you wouldn't want to share a room with Dani."

Kyle felt all eyes in the room on him, and he shifted uncomfortably. As a last resort he tried giving Annie a pleading look, but she just shrugged. Looks like he would just have go give in. "Alright...I'll follow you," he muttered, not looking at Roxanne in the eye. "Sorry sweetheart, what was that?" she asked, throwing a hand behind her ear and leaning in dramatically. Kyle just glared at her, and she pouted. "Aw, you're no fun."

"Try being tied up for the better part of however many hours we were on that bus and tell me if you'd be peppy." Kyle snapped. Roxanne frowned, but remained silent. Wordlessly she closed her suitcase and started walking toward a large set of stairs, going up two at a time without bothering to look back and see if he was following her.

Kyle groaned, but ran to catch up with her. He figured this whole ordeal would go a lot better for him if he remained on her good side. If that meant being polite and sucking up to her whenever he accidentally said something to offend her, so be it. The last thing he wanted was for her to take out her frustrations on him through duct tape again.

When Kyle finally caught up to her, she was standing in front of the open balcony window of what looked like the master bedroom of the house. It looked just like the rest of the house, with a modern, black and white aesthetic that almost made Kyle afraid to touch anything. Roxanne's red hair was the brightest thing in the room.

Not really knowing what to say, Kyle awkwardly let himself in, cringing as the door squeaked loudly as he tried to close it. Still, she didn't move. "Uh....I'm sorry?" Kyle tried. Sorry usually worked. Sorry was a good thing to say when you think you've pissed someone off and you don't really know how to fix it.

Roxanne groaned, and turned to look at him with tiredly. Looking close, he could finally notice the dark bags that hung underneath her eyes. "Sweetheart, shut up," she gave him one last pleading look before turning her head again to look outside. Kyle followed her gaze. It was a beautiful scenery, what with the abundance of foliage and lack of artificial lights. He had been living in the city for so long that he couldn't remember the last time he was able to take a drive far enough out so that he could see the forest. Honestly, he had no idea where they were.

Not wanting to stand in front of the door forever, Kyle tentatively made his way over to the window and stood with his captor in silence. After a few minutes of peaceful calm, Roxanne finally spoke up.

"I really want to say this again," she started, still staring out the window "I'm sorry we took you. You've got your own life that we all just made extremely more complicated. You've probably got family and friends that are worried sick for you. And here you are stuck with a bunch of dumbasses who don't even know what they're doing." she growled, though the way she said the last part gave Kyle the feeling that it was directed more toward herself than him.

"Hey...it's, alright I guess?" he tried. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay, I mean yeah, it sucks. Sucked when you guys first drugged me and carried me off, which, I'm gonna say right now did not feel very good. At all. Seriously, what kind of double-oh-seven spy bullshit was that?!" Roxanne just laughed at him.

"Oh yeah, sure. YOU can laugh. You didn't get pricked with a needle. It also sucks being tied up and shoved in a box, and I am not looking forward to whatever liability paperwork the museum is gonna have me sign so that I can't sue them for...psychological damages or whatever," Kyle crossed his arms, his eyebrows furrowed in thought "And...my folks are probably worried sick. My friends too, I had told everyone how excited I was to take the museum job. That with the extra money I made that one night, we'd all be able to move in together someplace nice."

Roxanne cringed "Oh, I hear you on that. Can we wrap this up and get to the point where I'm supposed to feel better?"

Kyle rolled his eyes "I was getting there!" he cried, and he mustered up the confidence to give her a playful smile "For what it's worth, you guys are probably the best people I could have been kidnapped by. You obviously don't know what you're doing-"

"Hey!"

"You said it earlier, not me." Kyle laughed "You guys haven't hurt me, you never threatened to...I don't know, sell me to human traffickers or anything and even though it's kind of stupid I'm pretty inclined to believe that." he admitted "Basically, the whole 'kidnapping' thing sucks but I know it could be so much worse and I'm actually pretty confident that I'll be back home soon." he finished. Call him naive, but he really did believe that. Art thieves and spur-of the moment kidnappers or not, none of the Thorny Roses seemed like inherently bad people. Annie was awkward, Dani was explosive but pretty self-contained, Pepper was benevolently indifferent, and Roxanne was...

"Sweetheart."

Kyle jumped, and Roxanne laughed loudly "Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya. Just seemed like I was about to lose you for a sec," she said, giggling "Come on, I'm starving and the kitchen's fully stocked." She sauntered out of the room, bags still under her eyes but looking a little less down than before.

Kyle gave one last look outside the window before following her.

He wondered how long it would be until he was able to go home.

He wondered if, after this whole thing was over, he would ever see Roxanne and the others again.

Most importantly, he wondered why his chest gave a little flutter when Roxanne called him 'sweetheart once again.

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(PART FOUR)

"Mmmhpmm."

Kyle anxiously twisted around inside his softly-padded prison. He wasn't sure how long it had been since someone had knocked on the front door of the RV, and Roxanne and Pepper had shoved him in the closet to keep him out of sight. It felt like it had been hours, but he was sure that it was only his own racing heartbeat that made it feel like that long.

What if it was the police? An RV isn't exactly an inconspicuous vehicle, maybe they finally caught up to them? If that was the case, wouldn't that mean that he would be saved? He strained his ears to try and listen to whatever was going on outside, but was unable to hear anything other than silence.

Kyle whined softly into his gag. What if it wasn't the police? What if it was just some random good samaritan who stopped to ask why they had stopped on the side of the road? Would they be kidnapped too? Or even worse, what if it was one off those "buyers" Roxanne was talking about earlier, angry that the job hadn't gone according to plan? Kyle felt his blood run cold. Would those people even let him go? Would they kill him for all the trouble he caused for their little heist? He suddenly found himself grateful for the fact that he at least had a soft blanket to cuddle with.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, he felt the RV start to move again. After another minute, the top of the chest creaked shut, and Kyle was left squinting once again into Roxanne's dark eyes. The corners of her mouth were turned up in a bemused smile. "Hey sweetheart, you holding up okay?"

'No!' he wanted to shout, though from behind the wadded cloth still trapped in his mouth he was only able to get out a few soft mumbles. Roxanne chuckled quietly, reaching down to untie his gag. It could have just been Kyle's imagination but...she seemed to brush her fingers softly against his cheek a little more than was necessary.

When the soft bundle of cotton was finally pulled from his mouth, Kyle smacked his chapped lips and gave her an annoyed look. "This better not be a regular occurrence." he grumbled, awkwardly shifting to try to make it easier for Roxanne as she released him from his binds. "Gettin' real sick and tired of this." Now that she was letting him out of the box, it was easier for him to find his will to sass.

Roxanne sighed "I know, I'm sorry. We just couldn't take any chances. We actually got out of the museum with the art...and you," she paused, trying to rip the tape off his wrists but giving up and producing a pocket knife instead "It would have been pretty ironic if we made it this far just to get caught because we stopped on the side of the road and some guy knocked on the door asking if we needed gas."

Ah, so it hadn't been the police. Kyle felt his shoulders sag a little in disappointment. Surely they were looking for him, right?

When all the tape was cut off she helped Kyle out of the chest, which he looked back at curiously. "So...you just happened to have a wooden box to store your victims in?" he asked incredulously. Roxanne blushed "It was supposed to be used to carry the art in so it wouldn't get damaged. I just improvised." she admitted.

Well, they did say before that they were not professional kidnappers.

"Anyway, now that we're on the road again, I figured I'd let you know that we're almost at the safe house." Roxanne explained, casually plopping down onto the bed and resting her chin in one hand. "I'm going to give you the whole speal ahead of time, alright? We've both seen action movies, you know how it goes."

Kyle had seen a few action flicks in his lifetime. None of them really portrayed this sort of situation though.

"The house is secluded, and since you're going to see the outside anyway I can tell you that we are right smack dab in the middle of the woods. No one's around if you try to yell for help, no phone service, and running away would be pretty stupid because there's nothing for miles and the temperature drops to near freezing at night. Now..."

Though her pose was still casual, Roxanne made a point of looking at Kyle directly in the eye in an intense gaze "Are you going to make things easier for all of us? Or would you prefer to be the stereotypical kidnapping victim and kick up a fuss and then be tied up in the basement the entire time?"

Kyle shook his head so quickly he almost made himself dizzy. "Nope! No thanks! Been there done that, too many times actually!" he stammered. Roxanne flashed him a grin "Great! To be honest this house doesn't even have a basement so I don't know where we'd put you anyway." she laughed.

As the RV rolled to a stop, Roxanne let Kyle walk down the hallway and outside without blindfolding him. As soon as he got outside, his mouth fell open a little in shock. Roxanne hadn't been joking when she had said they were in the middle of nowhere. All Kyle could see were what seemed like miles of pine and oak trees on all sides, and a surprisingly large and modern-looking house. It looked like a millionaire's getaway home.

He was so engrossed in looking at his new surroundings and stretching his sore limbs that he didn't pay much attention to his kidnappers, who were busy unloading crates of stolen art and dragging them into the garage. It wasn't until he felt a hand drop on his shoulder that he jumped and became more aware of his surroundings.

Annie looked up at him. "Um...you can go inside if you want?" she said tentatively, adjusting the large, baby blue backpack that sat on her shoulder. "I'm pretty sure they're just about done getting the stuff inside."

Kyle nodded, and the two of them followed the others inside the massive white house. It looked like it had absolutely no business being in the middle of the woods. The interior was sleek and clean, filled with crisp lines, white furniture, and stainless steel doorknobs. The Thorny Roses seemed more like a ragtag group of girlfriends...how they managed to secure this place as their safe house was a mystery to Kyle.

Pepper and Roxanne were in the living room, still mulling over their things and pulling the zippers of their suitcases shut. Dani was nowhere to be seen, so Kyle figured she must have already escaped to one of the bedrooms. That was good enough for him. Her crazed demeanor and casual remarks about killing him weren't appreciated.

Roxanne lifted her head and smiled when she saw the two of them walk in. "Kyle! Glad you finally made it inside. For a second I thought I'd have to drag you in myself." she quipped, rummaging through what looked like a haphazardly packed bag of clothing. "Take a tour of the house if you want, but make sure to come with me at some point so you can see our room."

Kyle almost choked on air. "OUR room? Can't I just...sleep in another room? Do we really have to share?"

Roxanne rolled her eyes, and from behind her Pepper let out a snicker. "For crying out loud sweetheart, this isn't sleep away camp. We can sleep in the same room without problems." Kyle opened his mouth to protest once again, but Roxanne beat him to it "Sorry, but the easiest way to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't do anything stupid at night is to have you sleep with one of us. There's three bedrooms: Pepper and Annie are already sharing one and probably wouldn't have much room to squeeze you with them on the bed. And something tells me you wouldn't want to share a room with Dani."

Kyle felt all eyes in the room on him, and he shifted uncomfortably. As a last resort he tried giving Annie a pleading look, but she just shrugged. Looks like he would just have go give in. "Alright...I'll follow you," he muttered, not looking at Roxanne in the eye. "Sorry sweetheart, what was that?" she asked, throwing a hand behind her ear and leaning in dramatically. Kyle just glared at her, and she pouted. "Aw, you're no fun."

"Try being tied up for the better part of however many hours we were on that bus and tell me if you'd be peppy." Kyle snapped. Roxanne frowned, but remained silent. Wordlessly she closed her suitcase and started walking toward a large set of stairs, going up two at a time without bothering to look back and see if he was following her.

Kyle groaned, but ran to catch up with her. He figured this whole ordeal would go a lot better for him if he remained on her good side. If that meant being polite and sucking up to her whenever he accidentally said something to offend her, so be it. The last thing he wanted was for her to take out her frustrations on him through duct tape again.

When Kyle finally caught up to her, she was standing in front of the open balcony window of what looked like the master bedroom of the house. It looked just like the rest of the house, with a modern, black and white aesthetic that almost made Kyle afraid to touch anything. Roxanne's red hair was the brightest thing in the room.

Not really knowing what to say, Kyle awkwardly let himself in, cringing as the door squeaked loudly as he tried to close it. Still, she didn't move. "Uh....I'm sorry?" Kyle tried. Sorry usually worked. Sorry was a good thing to say when you think you've pissed someone off and you don't really know how to fix it.

Roxanne groaned, and turned to look at him with tiredly. Looking close, he could finally notice the dark bags that hung underneath her eyes. "Sweetheart, shut up," she gave him one last pleading look before turning her head again to look outside. Kyle followed her gaze. It was a beautiful scenery, what with the abundance of foliage and lack of artificial lights. He had been living in the city for so long that he couldn't remember the last time he was able to take a drive far enough out so that he could see the forest. Honestly, he had no idea where they were.

Not wanting to stand in front of the door forever, Kyle tentatively made his way over to the window and stood with his captor in silence. After a few minutes of peaceful calm, Roxanne finally spoke up.

"I really want to say this again," she started, still staring out the window "I'm sorry we took you. You've got your own life that we all just made extremely more complicated. You've probably got family and friends that are worried sick for you. And here you are stuck with a bunch of dumbasses who don't even know what they're doing." she growled, though the way she said the last part gave Kyle the feeling that it was directed more toward herself than him.

"Hey...it's, alright I guess?" he tried. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay, I mean yeah, it sucks. Sucked when you guys first drugged me and carried me off, which, I'm gonna say right now did not feel very good. At all. Seriously, what kind of double-oh-seven spy bullshit was that?!" Roxanne just laughed at him.

"Oh yeah, sure. YOU can laugh. You didn't get pricked with a needle. It also sucks being tied up and shoved in a box, and I am not looking forward to whatever liability paperwork the museum is gonna have me sign so that I can't sue them for...psychological damages or whatever," Kyle crossed his arms, his eyebrows furrowed in thought "And...my folks are probably worried sick. My friends too, I had told everyone how excited I was to take the museum job. That with the extra money I made that one night, we'd all be able to move in together someplace nice."

Roxanne cringed "Oh, I hear you on that. Can we wrap this up and get to the point where I'm supposed to feel better?"

Kyle rolled his eyes "I was getting there!" he cried, and he mustered up the confidence to give her a playful smile "For what it's worth, you guys are probably the best people I could have been kidnapped by. You obviously don't know what you're doing-"

"Hey!"

"You said it earlier, not me." Kyle laughed "You guys haven't hurt me, you never threatened to...I don't know, sell me to human traffickers or anything and even though it's kind of stupid I'm pretty inclined to believe that." he admitted "Basically, the whole 'kidnapping' thing sucks but I know it could be so much worse and I'm actually pretty confident that I'll be back home soon." he finished. Call him naive, but he really did believe that. Art thieves and spur-of the moment kidnappers or not, none of the Thorny Roses seemed like inherently bad people. Annie was awkward, Dani was explosive but pretty self-contained, Pepper was benevolently indifferent, and Roxanne was...

"Sweetheart."

Kyle jumped, and Roxanne laughed loudly "Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya. Just seemed like I was about to lose you for a sec," she said, giggling "Come on, I'm starving and the kitchen's fully stocked." She sauntered out of the room, bags still under her eyes but looking a little less down than before.

Kyle gave one last look outside the window before following her.

He wondered how long it would be until he was able to go home.

He wondered if, after this whole thing was over, he would ever see Roxanne and the others again.

Most importantly, he wondered why his chest gave a little flutter when Roxanne called him 'sweetheart once again.