POV: Miguel
No, I’m not being paranoid, I’m just being careful. The explosion at the airport was unexpected, nobody saw it coming. Besides, if I were a criminal mastermind trying to get away from the cops and everyone else, would I use the same bombs that would be traced back to me?
No, I won’t!
So it’s either those bombs were used on purpose to distract us and get us driving around the city to look for Allen. They could be doing this to buy more time and get away, or this could be a trap to get us out of the way for good. I’m sure those guys are not plain stupid. There is a plan behind every action they take, so I need to be very careful if I want to make it back home to my mother alive.
“Something is wrong!
Do you not hear that beeping sound coming from the walls, what could that be?” I asked Raphael, screaming so loud so he wouldn’t ignore me. I succeeded in getting his attention and the attention of the guys in the room. They all paused and paid more attention to details, trying to hear the sound I was talking about.
The silence made the sound more louder, I saw as Raphael’s face turn from curiosity to urgency within seconds, I didn’t need to be told what it meant,
“It’s a bomb!
Everybody get out!” we both yelled at the same time as we all fled to the nearest exit, running as fast as we could. It wasn’t up to three minutes before we left that building, and it exploded without a trigger. One more minute in that house and we would be dead by now.
I knew this was too easy, these guys cannot be that sloppy, not after many years of planning. I need to use every resource I have to teach them a lesson; we need to find out how the timer was triggered, did they left someone behind to keep watch and wait for our arrival, and whether they triggered the bomb or it set with motion sensors.
“Holy fuck!
What just happened?
How did you fail to see that this is a trap? How could you lead us to this hellhole? What the hell is wrong with you?” Raphael yelled at his assistant, his eyes glaring at him. I watched as the guy walked away in anger and shame while the rest of the guys stared at him in disbelief.
“Come on, man, don’t put the blame on him; it’s not his fault. We just have to be more careful next time. This is no joke, they set us up, they did this on purpose!” I told him sternly as I looked around to see if there was anyone on the lookout waiting for us. I couldn’t find anyone. I saw Raphael’s assistant speaking with the boys, giving orders to them, and ignoring his boss.
It’s easy to tell that he has a good relationship with his boss because he is still doing his job effectively despite being scolded by Raphael. He ordered the boys to dig into the trash and find anything that could be useful to us. And as he did this, he spotted someone that he thought looked suspicious, and he chased after him, signaling for some boys to join him in chasing him down.
I thought he had found the guy left behind by Eloise and her thugs, I even wanted to run along and join in the chase as well, but I spotted another guy standing across the street with his hand tucked in his pocket. He was staring at me as if he was trying to get my attention. I gestured to Raphael, and he also saw the guy staring at us, daring us to come over. Before I could say Jack, Raphael faced his direction and ran after him daring him to stand still.
“I’ll kill you, I’ll fucking kill you!” he screamed at him, running after him while I followed behind him, chasing after the intruder. I think the other guy Carl had spotted was planted there as a distraction. Or maybe they left two guys to keep watch and not just one. We were losing the guy because he was faster than Raphael and I put together. Each time we stopped to catch our breath, he would also stop running and tease us about our speed, calling us lazy rich dudes.
“Let him go, man, let’s get back to the car and leave here!” Raphael told me after a few minutes of fruitless chase. We stopped to catch our breath as we watched him. This time, he didn’t tease us, he just glared at us and laughed, enjoying our misery.
“You should never have come here.” He let out sternly, his eyes filled with anger as he glared at us. He is so close to us this time, we could see his face clearly and it felt like I could just reach out and grab him. But that was out of the equation, he seems to have other plans,
“The boss said you would not be able to resist the urge to chase me, and she was absolutely right. Tell me, how does it feel to be so predictable and stupid?” he asked us, laughing excitedly as some more guys joined him from the shadows with deadly weapons in their hands.
“You lured us here on purpose?” I asked him angrily, moving toward him to punch his fucking face. I did not even notice my surroundings and the guys joining him until Raphael pulled me back and pointed it out to me, warning me to stay calm so I don’t get hurt. We had allowed our emotions to control our actions, and now we have been ambushed by some thugs, and we are all alone because all the boys had gone the other way with Carl.
“Where are Eloise and my fiancee? What is the meaning of these games you are playing? What do you stand to gain from all this?” Raphael asked him, his stern gaze fixed on him. He scoffed at his questions, acting as if we were not worthy to speak before him.
“Where is my sister, where is she taking them?” I asked him furiously, glaring at him. If eyes could kill, our fierce gazes would have eliminated him in seconds. He was smirking at us, enjoying our pain.
“Why don’t you ask her yourselves?” he told us with a smirk on his face. We looked at each other and then back at him, wondering what he was talking about. I looked around, searching for her, maybe she suddenly had a change of heart and decided to do the right thing. Raphael did not share the same hope with me; he looked around just once, and when he couldn’t see her, he concluded that she wasn’t there, and he faced the guys in anger, demanding their location.
But I couldn’t give up so easily, I kept looking around, ignoring every other thing they were doing. When I turned back to the guy standing in front of us, I saw him holding a laptop and he signaled one of the other guys to come over and set it up for us,
“Keep an eye on them; if they make any wrong moves, you take them out immediately!” he ordered the guys holding guns. As he spoke to them, he kept his eyes on us, smiling evilly. After going up and down for a few minutes, the laptop was put on and we found out it was a video call from Eloise Kendall.
“You went through all this just for a video call?
If you are so eager to see our faces, Eloise, why don’t you tell us where you are and we’ll come over,” Raphael asked her, his mild tone taking the edge off his voice. I turned to him in shock, wondering why he was being so polite when all I wanted to do was reach into the laptop and yank her out if it were possible.
I wanted to scream at him and ask him why he was so scared of her, but I saw the fury in his eyes, and his hands were folded tightly, with his veins showing on his wrist. He is just trying so hard to be polite, I guess he doesn’t want to piss her off and get her to end the call so soon before he has the opportunity to tell her his mind.
“Shut the fuck up and listen to me!
This is my operations; I do the talking, and you listen to me!” she scolded him furiously. He wanted to say something, but he stopped immediately when she turned the camera to the corner and we saw the girls lying on the bed, dressed in nothing but their undies.
“Ralph, help me, I can’t move my body, she sighed us and made us…” a guard walked over and hit her her across the face, hurting her lips. I screamed on her behalf, and so did Raphael, but we couldn’t save her; we couldn’t do anything.
“Raphael, please save me!” she called out again, asking him for help and not me. I felt hurt by the word, but I had to put my feelings away and listen to what Eloise had to say this time.
“Interrupt me one more time, and I’ll hurt them!” she let out curtly, stopping Victoria from speaking and turning the camera back to her face.
“I thought you claimed to love them, I thought you said they were your daughters?” Raphael yelled angrily, the pain evident in his voice.
“Go back home and move on with your life as if you never met my daughters, and that includes you, Myers!” she instructed us sternly.
“What are you on, are you mad?” I asked her, earning some angry comments from the guys standing around at strategic places. I ignored them and focused on her, glaring at her angrily. To think that she had the guts to speak with us and threatened us to stop searching for the girls. Who does that?