CHAPTER 10: Meet-up

Warning: Some parts of this chapter contains violence.

— LIA —

FORTUNATELY, Althea was able to fetch me in the mall after some minutes of walking without thinking of where will I go. Waiting for her felt like eternity and it made my feet hurt because I didn’t stop walking, thinking that the person inside the fake police car will follow me.

Althea sent a message to me. She said that she will meet me at the entrance of the parking lot that connects to the second floor of the mall. I hurriedly, somehow acting cool, walk towards that destination.

When I can already see her wearing a nude tight shirt and jogging pants, I waved at her and shouted her name. She looked at my direction and ran towards me.

“Are there any suspicious person behind me?” I asked her while locking our arms.

She simply looked at my back. “No one on your 1 meter radius. Beyond that? Huh, I can’t see them clearly.”

I turned my head to her and realized something. “You’re not wearing your glasses?” I asked.

“You’re asking the obvious,” she responded while furrowing her eyes.

“How about contact lenses?” I asked again, moving my head near to her so I can see if there are changes on her eye color.

“None. I was in a hurry,” she answered as she opened her car door on the passenger seat.

I got in of the car immediately and fasten my seat belt while waiting for her to get in.

“Are you sure you can drive? You can’t see well without glasses or contact lenses,” I asked her nervously.

She just chuckled. Here I am, nervous that we might meet an accident. She has blurry eyesight! The road is somehow dark! I’m sure she can’t see well.

“I will drive,” I said while trying to touch the steering wheel. Instead of letting me drive, she slapped my hand!

“Nah, don’t touch my baby,” she said while wiping the part that I touched, as if I spread an infectious disease on it. “I’m the only one who can drive this beauty.”

I was dumbfounded. Wow. She will really prioritize the matter about who will drive her car over our safety.

“I’m not doubting your driving skills, but I’m doubting your eyesight. We’re gonna die if you’ll drive this car,” I said while widening my eyes because she already started driving away from the parking space.

She just swayed her head to the side and answered without looking at me. “I got here safe, so we can also get home safe. If we met a crash, then it’s your fault,” she replied and followed it with an ugly laugh.

“How it became my fault? I’m not the one driving?’ I exclaimed at her face.

“Maybe because you’re unlucky,” she answered and stuck tongue out at me.

I squinted my eyes at her. “Oh, really? How did I become unlucky, Ms. Althea? Mind explaining?”

She focused her eyes on the road. “First, you were kidnapped during your vacation,” she started explaining. Oh, I know where this is going.

“Second, someone is hunting you. Third, that person already knows where you lived. And another one, a fake police car followed you,” she stopped for a moment before continuing her speech. “Now, tell me if that’s not unlucky.”

I frowned at her. “Okay, fine. You won.”

- KELLEON –

My steps were calculated as I walk towards the basement of our vacation house. With me are my butler and my right-hand, which is also my best friend.

“Did she already tell you something?” I asked Clint, my butler.

I heard him sighed from my back. “Nothing, my lord.” he answered, making me massage my temple. “She keeps her mouth shut. It looks like Dennise trained her to be her dog.”

“Not even a single info?” I asked him again while turning my head to his direction.

He shook his head. “None. She’s silent even if I already threatened her,” he replied. “I was about to use my lovely knife on her if you didn’t call.”

I took a deep breath. It will be difficult to make that woman talk. If she won’t cooperate, then I need to have another plan.

Seeing one of our maids opening the entrance to the basement from afar, I slowed down and slightly looked to my right side where my right-hand, Cloud, was standing.

“How about the house that the intel told us? Did you check it?” I asked him, hoping to get a positive response, or a lead.

“Yes, my lord. I visited the house yesterday. However, a woman said that Dennise is not living there anymore,” he answered and handed me a paper. “I conducted an investigation about the woman whom I talked to. These are her information, including the address and contact number.”

“I also searched for the people she is close to. As of now, I haven’t seen a lead about Dennise,” he added.

I handed back the paper to him after I read the information. “I’m sure that Dennise is still in that house. They’re just hiding her,” I thought of a plan to find her if ever that this hostage will not speak. “Put some of our people to watch Dennise’s house and the house of this other woman. Find other people who are close to the woman and investigate them, too.”

“Yes, my lord,” Cloud replied.

Silence covered all of us when we finally entered the basement. Dirt covered the floor while the walls and the ceiling were full of piled dust. It’s been almost a decade since the last time I used this house, and it’s not surprising that the basement is this dirty.

In the middle of this room, a woman is tied up in a rusty chair. Both of her hands are tied behind her, while her mouth has a tape. Her head was bowed, and I can’t see her face. However, I know that she is conscious.

I grabbed her chin tightly and raised her head. Her eyes slowly opened, then it widened when she was able to see my full face.

“Chynna, right?” I asked her.

She made muffled noise, like she wants to scream but couldn’t because of the tape on her mouth. She also started to struggle in her seat, trying to remove the tie on her.

“Poor thing. I can see that you can’t speak,” I smirked afterwards. “Let me help you.”

I grabbed one of the ends of the tape and in one fast movement, I removed it.

Her screams of pain filled the whole basement. Tears started falling down on her cheeks and onto the reddish part of her face that was covered by tape earlier.

“That must’ve hurt,” I commented as I walk around her. She still doesn’t stop on screaming and crying. It’s getting annoying.

“What do you want from me?!” she shouted, as if she doesn’t know the reason. “Let me go!”

My feet stopped in front of her. Her eyes are full of fear when our eyes met. “Seriously? You’re asking me…the reason why you’re here?” I spat out an insulting laugh. “You must’ve hit your head somewhere like Dennise.”

She remained silent afterwards. She just stared at the floor while taking fast and deep breaths.

“Where is Dennise?” I asked while staring at her trembling body. “Don’t make me ask twice, Chynna.”

Cloud intervened. “You should tell us where she is to avoid more conflicts.”

After some moments of silence, she raised her head and spoke. “I will never tell you.”

As fast as a lightning, a small knife flew through the air. It grazed Chynna’s face, making her scream in pain that’s much louder than before.

“That’s the wrong answer,” I told her and walked towards the wall that the knife hit. I threw it back to Clint.

Clint walked towards Chynna and touch her grazed cheek. “Be thankful that I didn’t target your head. You should be dead by now.”

“Let me go. Please,” she said with a very low volume that it became a whisper.

“Nah, babe. If you want to have the freedom, then better answer my lord’s question truthfully,” Clint said as he spreads the grazed part of Chynna’s cheek. That made her scream louder. More blood fell from her cheeks because Clint made the wound open more.

“Stop that, Clint,” Cloud firmly said while looking away from the bloody scene.

Clint turned his head to his brother. “I only listen to my lord.” With that, he scratched Chynna’s grazed cheek. That gives more wound to her and destroyed her face more.

“That’s enough, Clint,” I ordered him. I walked towards the door of the basement.

“I’m sure that I can find another way to discover where Dennise is hiding,” I said. For the last time, before leaving, I took a glance to Chynna.

“You seem to be so protective of your friend. Too bad, she doesn’t consider you as one.”

- LIA –

I STRETCHED my back while yawning. I looked at my side and I saw that Althea is still asleep. I stood up to see where the alarm sound is coming from.

When I opened the cabinet, I saw that it was Althea’s phone that is making the sound. I turned it off and turned my head to sleeping Althea.

“You set the alarm, but you weren’t even awake by it,” I complained.

Instead of going back to sleep and take more rest because it’s weekend, I grabbed my phone and left the bedroom. I started doing my morning routine and cooked pancake as our breakfast. Because I was extra hungry, I air fried some chicken nuggets.

While waiting for it to cook, I opened my phone and a text message from Chynna was the first thing I saw.

Chynna: Hi, Denn! Can we meet? I just want the two of us to bond before I go back to Spain

She wants us to meet?

Well, I guess there’s no harm in that. I can extract more information from her.

I typed my reply to her.

Me: Good morning, Chynn! Sure, I would love to. Do you already have a meeting place in mind?

I though it will take a long time before she replies, but it has only been less than a minute when I received a reply from her.

Chynna: I am thinking of Brown’s Restaurant. Today at 7 PM.

Brown’s Restaurant? That has a lot of branches here in the Philippines. I can’t say if she’s talking about the branch here in Manila or in Cebu.

Me: Are you talking about the branch in Manila or Cebu?

Surprisingly, she replied fast. Again.

Chynna: Manila. I’m already here in the city.

My eyebrows rose up at her reply. She was just in Cebu yesterday. I guess she took a flight to here when she saw that Clint.

Me: Okay. Sure. I’ll come. Thanks!

After that, I didn’t receive any reply from her. It was weird, though. Chynna is also the one who sent the last chat whenever we are talking. But I guess, it’s not a big deal.