AVERY WAS WALKING BACK TO GAVIN’s in anger.
Her plan had failed because of that incompetent man her father had hired to kidnap Sydney. She had paid him half a million to capture Sydney and bring Sydney to her so she could mess her up and blackmail Gavin into paying 600 million dollars for her release.
No, it wasn’t the man’s fault, it was Gavin’s. He had lied to her that he was going to work when instead he went for Emily’s contest.
She wanted to rip off Gavin’s face. Why does he enjoy ruining her plan?!
It wasn’t over, he’d regret every dime he made her waste.
Her phone buzzed and she quickly answered it knowing who it was.
” You are so daft!” She barked at the capturer. ” I told you not to shoot her, now look at the mess you’ve put us in. You claim to be a skilled kidnapper yet you couldn’t accomplish one simple mission-”
” Hey! Shut the f**k up. If you open your damn mouth and insult me again, I’ll find you and disembowel you.”
He was not one to be trifled with. He had anger issues worse than that of a hungry bull.
Avery made an eye roll. ” Do you think I’m scared of you? Oh, I’m shaking. Don’t flatter yourself. Remember you are behind bars.”
” I’ve been in many prison cells before and still managed to kill hundreds of people. In case you’ve forgotten, I know your secrets and if you don’t fulfill the other half of the deal, I’ll come clean to the police.”
” You won’t dare! You didn’t do your job right so I won’t do it.”
He was in jail, and there was no way to sleep with him, so what was he talking about?
” See you tomorrow then. ”
” What- Hell-” She saw he’d ended the call.
She groaned loudly in anger and frustration.
How could she have even accepted to sleep with a man whose body looked like it had been through a fire before? If he’d want s! x, she’d give it to him. At least he’d have a share of her virus.
Son of a whore!
Too busy fuming, Avery hadn’t noticed the van that had been following her since she exited her father’s apartment.
The van suddenly stopped next to her. Avery paused and looked at it in confusion. When she saw the taxi man she had noticed had been monitoring her for some months, her eyes widened and she began to increase her pace.
Jacob Martin jumped out of the van and walked after her, holding a white handkerchief. He’d followed her to a lonely area like his Boss instructed.
Avery looked at him from the corner of her eyes. Who was he and why was he following her? Did the capturer hire him?
She gasped at the thought and codedly took off her stiletto and threw it on Jacob’s face, hitting him right in the nose.
” Bloody B**tch.” He barked holding his aching nose.
Avery took to her heels, running for her life.
The pain Jacob was feeling now wouldn’t be compared to what Gabriel would do to him if he didn’t capture her. Hearing Gabriel over the phone and his loud breathing, Jacob knew his boss was having a trigger again. He wasn’t much less of a devil when his insanity took over him. Jacob hoped Alfred wouldn’t hear of this.
Fearing for his life, Jacob ran after Avery. He’d run marathons in high school, yet he found it difficult to catch up to her, and she’s pregnant?!
Avery’s knee felt sore from running, she’d begun to lose her speed. Her heart was beating so quickly, she knew she needed to do something quickly to save herself but before she could think of anything, Jacob wrapped an arm around her neck and covered her nose with the handkerchief.
” You’d pay for f**king up my face I promise you,” Jacob growled and pushed her to the ground as she faded into unconsciousness.
He went back to the van, drove it to where Avery’s body lay, and hurled her in.
He got into the driver’s seat and looked at her reflection in the front mirror.
With a wicked grin, he said, ” You’d go insane by the time the boss is done with you.”
_________________
” He’s here, wake her up quickly.”
It has been approximately an hour since Avery was knocked out and brought to Gabriel’s penthouse. To everyone who saw the penthouse, it was just an ordinary storage place for logs and tools with a small bedroom but underneath, there was a dark metal-walled torture house.
The place reeked of metal and sulfur. It was lit by torches, the walls were made of black steel. No one got out or in without Gabriel’s permission.
The place used to belong to Luis Fernandez, a Mafia man Gabriel did business with some years back. Antonio had been indebted to the Mafia King, who had threatened to kill his family if the debt wasn’t paid at the allotted. Luis offered Gabriel his torture house for 300 million dollars and Gabriel couldn’t turn down the offer.
Avery shot out of her unconsciousness immediately she felt the cold rush of icy water on her body.
She gasped as tried to move but was pulled back by the chains holding her to a large pillar in the middle of the barely lit room.
She slumped forward, dizzy.
She heard a loud crack of a metal gate and raised her head to see the double image of a man who looked like Gabriel walking towards her.
Wait, it is Gabriel! She couldn’t recognize him; his eyes were fully dark, his demeanor hard as steel. He looked like someone who’d escaped from an asylum.
Gabriel’s footsteps echoed around the room; each step he took made noises that were like thorns in Avery’s ear.
” Stop it!” She yelled, trying to hold her ears but the chains pulled her hand back.
Gabriel stopped in front of her. He stretched out his hand and a whip appeared on his hand.
Avery thought she was seeing wrong. This wasn’t a movie or storybook; real humans don’t have powers. How did he do that?
Gabriel’s dark eyes pierced into hers as he said, ” Welcome. I knew I had to bring you here sooner than later.”
Despite Gabriel’s dark presence, Avery still thought he was a no-good loser.
She couldn’t stop her mouth from running. ” I’ll make sure you regret this when I get out of this place. You’ll hate me by the time I’m done with you.”
Gabriel stifled a chuckle. And another before breaking into a cynical laughter.
He took a step back and said, ” But I already hate you.”
He raised the whip to her and sent it across her face.
Avery’s face turned to the side from the impact. She gritted her teeth at his audacity and shot him a vicious look.
” You are shameless! How dare you hit a woman?” Avery barked.
Gabriel rolled his eyes and backed out then sat on the large couch back couch some foot away from her.
With his hand spread around the couch, he answered, ” I don’t hit women, Avery, and I never have. Don’t tell me you consider yourself as one?”
She didn’t have the conscience of a woman. Gabriel saw her as a demon let loose from hell. He’d have the pleasure of taking her back to hell.
The chains shook as Avery snarled. ” Let me out of these chains, and I’ll show you if I’m a woman or not.”
” Tempting but I’m not prone to seduction. But, I’d like to hear you scream, how about that?”
Without letting her speak, Gabriel snapped his fingers. ” Lights off. Make her scream loud enough to make me deaf.”
Avery didn’t know who Gabriel was talking to. No one was in the room with them. She thought he had lost his mind till the torches began to go off one after the order.
Avery gasped and stared around the darkness, her heart lurching. ” Gabriel what have you done to the- Ah!”
Smack! Smack! Again and Again.
Avery’s body melted with pain from the beatings. The chains kept shaking as she tried to free herself from the torture. She shouted for Gabriel to stop but the pain kept on coming.
Eventually, Gabriel grew tired of hearing her scream and barked, ” That’s enough. Turn on the lights.”
She heard footsteps retreating.
To Avery’s mortification, Gabriel was still sitting on the couch and no one was in the room. Her hair was disheveled and she looked like a lunatic from the beatings.
She looked at Gabriel, her eyes glacial and daring.
” Who are you and what the hell did you do to me?!” She barked.
” Just a little drug, that’s all. ” He stared at her with a hard scowl.
The marks on her body didn’t make him satisfied. He wanted her bleeding, he wanted her begging at his feet. He wanted to see those tears again. Her only saving grace is the baby she’s carrying.
Gabriel stood and gestured to the door, ” All of you, leave us.”
Avery groaned in immense pain as the echo of footsteps tormented her mind. She heard footsteps retreating but saw no one. What kind of drug did he give to her?!
Gabriel walked to her and grabbed her chin fiercely.
He ground his teeth seeing the hardness in her eyes.
” Thank your stars I didn’t make you see things that aren’t there, then you wouldn’t be able look at me like this.”
” I’m not scared of you.” Avery shot back.
And Gabriel thought Sydney was the most stubborn woman he’d met.
Gabriel smirked, ” Don’t worry, after a night here, you will be. If you don’t believe me, ask him.”
Gabriel pressed a button on the pillar, and the walls began to open, revealing a transparent wall. Inside the wall, there was a man dressed in torn clothes stained with blood. His wrists and ankles were chained to another wall.
Avery’s lips tightened in shock and fear, seeing the stranger.
Knowing she’d be confused, Gabriel explained, ” The first night he spent here, in a room full of mirrors, he lost his mind. He said sorry. Sorry. Sorry! I didn’t mean to make your mother kill herself. I didn’t mean any of it.”
Gabriel laughed bitterly and stared squarely into her eyes, ” He’s been here for five years and he seems to be lonely. I wouldn’t mind letting you join him.”
Avery couldn’t help but shaking in fear. She moved back, hoping the pillar would swallow her.
She needed to get out of here from this madman before her.
” I told you not to harm her. Not once. Twice. Yet, you disobeyed me. Again. I know you sent that man to murder her, didn’t you?”
Avery couldn’t speak. Her lips were sealed from fear.
Gabriel’s eyes went even darker at her silence and he sent a fist to the pillar.
” F**king answer me when I’m talking to you!” Gabriel snapped.
Avery shuddered in fear but still maintained a hard look. ” I… I didn’t tell him to murder her. He was meant to kidnap her. You said I should get her to sign the divorce papers, I did, so why the hell are you doing this to me!”
” Because you harmed her. Did you freaking see the injuries on her body?! Then, you made that her b**tard of an ex-husband come to her rescue. Prince Charming, he was in her eyes. She was just starting to forget him, and you had the f**king nerves to make her feelings for him resurface!”
Avery stared at Gabriel. She took in everything he had just said, the look in his eyes.
This man wasn’t in love with Sydney, he was obsessed with her. Avery knew damn well what obsession could do to a person.
She would use it to her benefit and kill three birds with one stone.
Avery’s lips curved into a smirk. ” You are such a foolish lover boy. Go down on your knees and worship me for doing you a favor.”
” A favor? I should have sent you the mirror room earlier. Jaco-”
Avery cut in sharply. ” Calm the shit down and listen to me. You saw it for yourself, didn’t you? Sydney can’t stop loving Gavin even if he pointed a gun at her, she’d still be head over heels in love with him.”
Gabriel seethed. He couldn’t deny it, Avery was right.
Avery noticed her words were cutting through Gabriel, so she continued.
” I’m not the problem here, Gavin is. What’s stopping you from murdering him?”
Gabriel knew what Gavin’s death would cause Sydney. He hated it when she cried or looked broken. She would lose her mind if Gavin died; he couldn’t possibly do that to her.
Avery continued, ” Kidnap Gavin and use it to bring Sydney to you. Threaten her that if she doesn’t wed you, you’ll kill him. When you both get wedded, kill him and take her far away from here and start a new life with her. As time goes by, she’d forget about him and love you.”
Avery had other plans but she needed Gabriel on her side.
Gabriel said nothing but stare into her soul, his jaw shaking.
” Work with me, and you’ll get what you desire before it’s too late.” Avery wheedled.
Gabriel finally spoke, his tone rough, ” I made a mistake giving you a chance to speak.” He took a few steps back.
” Take her out.”