Love’n’Lust

“Sir,  I think this is where she is being kept.”Cjay stopped the car some walkable distance to a bungalow which was the only house around where they were.

“You think?” Ben’s reaction wasn’t a jovial one.

“I am certain, sir. This is the place,” Cjay rephrased his sentence.

Soon after Cjay corrected himself, Ben got a call. When he looked at his phone it was the same number that had called him earlier. It was Belle’s captor.

“I see you have found the place,” the unrecognizable voice came through. Ben inhaled deeply for some seconds before exhaling equally.

“I came alone like you wanted. I am also willing to do whatever else it is you want, as long as she’s not harmed.” Ben replied while Cjay tried to decipher the person behind the voice, once again.

“Ask him to stop, he can’t find out who I am, I’ve been building up unbreachable systems for years now, It’s impossible to hack into it.” The man spoke.

“I know about the tracker in her, I intentionally let you discover where she is; where I am. I want to meet you, in person. It’s why I asked you to come alone, but you brought him, you brought the computer boy.”

“He won’t be coming in with me.” Ben sighed to the delighted ears of the man over the phone.

“Good for you, and for her too. Any other person walks in through my door other than you, I’ll slit her throat.”

“If anything happens to her…”

“You want to know who had her kidnapped, don’t you? I am waiting for you.” The man cut the call.

“Sir, I couldn’t break through the…” Cjay was cut short because Ben knew what he wanted to say was about not being able to find out who the caller was.

“I know. Stay here and wait,” Ben told him before alighting from the back seat of the car.

****

Belle didn’t know where she was going but she just kept running through the hallway. Zina chased after her with limping strides.

Belle ran till she stopped at a wall with nowhere else to run, then she ran back in the direction she just came from and went into the dark corner she avoided running into initially.

Waiting there and breathing in scantily, she saw Zina pass by. After some time, Zina walked past the corner again without noticing her.

Hiding for some time more, she peeped into the hallway and saw that no one was there so she came out. Her eyes looked back to check for Zina while running forward, and she bumped into someone.

“Ben?” She hugged him tightly. Ben noticed how unsettled she was and separated the hug to take a good look at her.”Zina…” Belle sniffed.

“Zina? Did she do this to you?” He asked while taking off his suit jacket.

“Yes,” Belle nodded, “She’s angry with me, I hit her leg and made her mad, she was coming after me just now.”

“Where is she?” Ben asked calmly as he helped her put on his jacket.

“I don’t know, but I think she’s back in the room,” Belle pointed in the room’s direction.”That room. I couldn’t find anywhere else to go. How did you get in? When did you come?”

“Just now,” he had to bend a little to button up his suit on her.”I’m sorry, I thought I could make it here last night but I couldn’t.” He gave her a peck on her forehead, nose tip, and lips one after the other.

“Wait here,” he told her and she nodded.

Belle stood waiting as Ben told her, squeezing her fingers to keep calm till she heard something crash in the room.

“Ben…” She muttered worriedly before going to the room. When she got to the door of the room, she peeked inside and saw Zina’s feet above the ground.

She saw Ben strangling her with just his left hand while she tried to reach for her gun on the floor by stretching her right foot but she couldn’t because both her feet weren’t touching the floor anymore.

“O my god,” Ben heard Belle so he turned to her. Zina felt his grip on her neck become weak so she tried to pull his hand away but that only annoyed him. He made his thumb and middle finger block her windpipe then dropped her. Zina fell to the ground grasping for air with her hands on her neck.

“Is she going to be okay?” Belle asked him when he came to where she stood. Ben didn’t have a chance to answer her question because a man walked in on them, two other men behind him. They were all masked. Belle saw the man’s eyes fall on Zina as she still struggled on.

“Relieve her, she lacks breath,” he ordered and one of the men behind him went to her and shot her in the head. Blood splashed and Belle hid her face in Ben’s chest, bursting out in tears.

“Mr Larkson, I didn’t expect you would get in through a window. I mean, we were waiting with guns for you at the entrance but I wasn’t planning to kill you yet.” The man laughed after speaking.

“Get the girl away from him,” the man ordered again, making Belle look up to see the laughing man turn serious. She saw one of the men come to her and Ben but stepped back after some seconds of looking at Ben in the eye. She held on to Ben tighter till she looked back at where Zina was and saw the hole in her forehead, with blood all around her. The gory scene made her look away in disgust but the image was already in her head.

“Blarrrgh,” she bent over to throw up but vomited nothing. The retching didn’t stop soon; the men in the room watched her react to what she just looked at.

“Don’t look at it, okay?” Ben rubbed on her back after she retched. She nodded to what he said, still coughing.

“I explained this to you over the phone, Mr Larkson. The plan is for you to arrive here and she leaves safely.”

“She didn’t look very safe when I came in, you broke the agreement first.”

“I apologize for Zina’s misconduct. My men will lead the lady out, I have no business with her. You should know by now that it’s you I want in all of these I did. If you don’t want that, we can all die here. You, me, HER, and every other person here.” The men with guns looked at themselves confused when their boss said that.

“Belle,” Ben held her face in his palm to talk to her.

“What does he want from you?” She started to sob.

“Don’t cry, come on. That’s not what is important.” He told her, wiping her tears with his thumb.”Someone’s waiting outside in a car. You will go to him and he will take you back.”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“No,” she shook her head.

“Yes.” He didn’t leave her a place to argue his decision. Belle opened her mouth to say something else but was pulled away from Ben by one of the men.

“I want to be sure she’s left.” Ben looked at the man.

“Of course. You can watch her get into the car if you want.”

Ben was taken to a different room with the man following behind. When he was forced to sit on a chair having handcuffs on it, he looked around where he was. The room was empty. It was just the chair he sat in and a big screen hanging on the wall in front of him.

The screen turned on and he saw Cjay open the door for Belle to get into the car. It was from the body cam of one of the men in masks who had accompanied her outside.

The cuffs on the chair were clamped around his hands before the man took off his mask, and Ben saw that a smile was plastered on his face. Ben tried to remember where he knew that face from but was distracted by the remote in his hands.

“Are you comfortable yet? You should be comfortable enough to see this.” The man smiled more then let it turn into a wide grin.

Ben looked at the screen and saw that the car Cjay drove was being monitored from above. Fear caught him for the first time in years.

He knew not to trust the man when he demanded he come alone so he brought some backup. Cjay was to drive Belle to meet them on the road, and that wasn’t very far from where Cjay was. He hoped Cjay got to the backup before anything preplanned by the man could be carried out.