by Anna Kendra
***
Leo slowly made his way towards the back of the auditorium where he had spotted his mother’s bodyguard in a heated conversation with another man who almost had the same features as Julian. The only difference between the two was their height. Julian towered over the other guy for about a good foot or so.
Leo quickened his steps, but he could only hear the last bit of their conversation, as he neared the duo. He decided to wait and listen, blending into the crowd easily as he stood with his back facing the two men. Julian was obviously onto something which he thought Leo was too young to know. But this was his mother they were talking about! He would do anything for the woman who had singlehandedly raised him, who never left any room for complaints for him. She could have deserted him just like his father or set him up for adoption since he looked just like him.
“. . . security clearance?”
“. . . break into his house!”
“. . . crazy! Boss will kill us!”
“. . . have to know!”
“What are you guys planning?”
Finally, not entirely sure where this conversation was headed, he announced his presence. Not that he was hiding anyway. He was just being exceptionally discreet. He was sure that Julian and the other guy had already figured out they were being overheard, which was why their conversation had suddenly become hushed to a few decibels; they were whispering in each other’s ears now.
When they were done discussing whatever they didn’t want Leo to hear, Julian turned to him and answered, “About some things we need to get done.” He then made room for Leo while he turned to check where Sia had gone. “What are you doing here?”
“I was looking for you. I thought you would be backstage, but you weren’t and the guard said you came this way,” Leo answered truthfully.
“You Milton’s son?” Julian’s partner asked Leo.
“Yeah. And you are?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Who? Me?” The man asked in mock surprise. “Why, I’m Julian’s best bud, of course! I’m hurt he never mentioned me. Maybe it’s time for those cool matching friendship bracelets!”
“Go burn in hell!” Julian’s horrified shudder made both Leo and Abhay laugh out loud.
“But he said I was his best bud! Go get another!” Leo said in a whiny voice which made both Julian and Abhay grin.
“I like you, kid,” the stranger answered, laughing. “Name’s Abhay Campbell, the master hacker!”
“Riiiight. . . . just ignore him Leo. He has a habit of exaggeration. Is your mom done? How long will the press conference last?” Julian asked.
“No. The conference should be about half an hour and then she’ll be back at the van to change so we can all go home,” Leo said.
“Okay then. Let’s go outside and wait beside the van,” Julian suggested. “Twenty minutes are up and she should be out in ten.”
With Abhay and Leo’s agreement, they all headed outside to wait for Sianot knowing what was about to happen.
Chapter 20
Sia breathed a sigh of relief as the last of the reporters left her in peace.
She knew that she desperately needed their help in portraying her in a good light, for the publicity of Magenta Fashion, but she couldn’t help but be on edge.Reporters had a way of adding hidden meanings to questions that appear innocent on the surface, eliciting answers from people and twisting them so they’ll mean something else. To the careless, answering any or all of their questions could mean the demise of their careers.
After the interview had been over, she grudgingly asked around for Julian once again and her excited secretary, Millan, had informed her that he, along with Leo and a “hot” friend of Julian’s were waiting for her near her makeup van.
So, she didn’t wait for the after-party and instead started for her van after talking to the security detail who was working under Julian.
“I’ll escort you,” was the man’s immediate reply.
“It’s all right, I’ll go alone,” Sia said instantly, tired of having people breathing down her shoulder the entire day. “Besides, there are guards at the door, and Julian is in the parking lot near my van.”
The man, who she was yet to know the name but who seemed to belong to a Chinese ancestry, nodded his head and informed the door guards via his radio transmitter and waited for a while before he declared, “All clear, ma’am.”
Sighing in relief, she continued on her way toward the van.
Since the models had already changed and gotten ready for the after-party, their vans had already left, leaving the once lit parking lot looking deserted.
Sia hurried down the stairs that led to the parking lot and hurried her steps. The night wasn’t that cold but it still made the hair at her nape stand at attention and a shiver to run down her spine. And it wasn’t one of pleasure.
She picked up her pace, almost stumbling down the last few steps, and ran to the exit. Once she was out the door, she could see her van and the three figures behind it. The parking was almost deserted by now except for a few vehicles at the farthest end of the lot. It had the feel of a scene out of a horror movie.
Sighing in relief, she slowed her steps. Big mistake.
In her haste to get to her van, she hadn’t noticed that the guards at the door were missing, or that the entire staircase had been devoid of people. But before her brain could process all the details, it was already too late.
A gloved hand covered her nose and mouth from behind. She recognized the faint stench of chloroform as her heart leapt into her throat. First came her weak struggle.
And then darkness.
***
“You two seem close,” Abhay stated, looking from Leonard to Julian.
“Yup! And since Julian likes Mom, I’ve decided to help him out,” Leo answered with a grin.
“Gee, thanks, buddy! I’m honored to be your charity case,” Julian answered with sorrow in his face. He even went as far as to wipe invisible tears from his cheeks and sniff twice to illustrate his point.
“Overdramatic much?” Leo deadpanned. Then he was running away from a furious-looking Julian who couldn’t keep up the pretense for even a minute before they both burst out laughing.
Abhay was about to stop them as his best friend tackled down Leo to the ground when Julian suddenly turned them over at the last minute so that he was the one who took the impact of the fall, their laughter filling the air.
Playing. Julian was playing with the kid. Something he rarely did outside the bedroom with his women. Julian seemed very different from the last time Abhay had seen him. And Abhay had known Julian for a very long time—ever since they’d joined Turner Security together.And if there was anything he was certain about Julian, it was he wasn’t like this—spending time with another person other than women.
Abhay felt ridiculous at being jealous of the two, but still, as he watched Julian help a laughing Leo get his ass off the ground, he couldn’t help the slight breathlessness he felt and the tightening around his heart. He had been the one who had taught the delinquent, angry teen to play, to vent his anger and let go of the past.And now . . . Julian was doing the same thing to another kid but without him. He was finally moving forward. And Abhay was worried as to what the future will hold for him.
When the duo came back to stand next to him again, smiling and fake punching each other, he tapped Julian’s shoulder lightly. “A word with you.”
Julian motioned for Leo to go inside the van and wait for his mother, since it was getting cold outside. Abhay’s tone also worried him. It was time for some serious confessions.
“What’s going on Julian?” Abhay hissed once Leo was inside. “Did I hear him wrong or did he just say that you ‘like’ his mother?”
“You didn’t hear wrong Abhay, I like Sia,” Julian admitted.
“You mean you lust after her and she ain’t giving you any? You’re confusing lust for like man!” Abhay argued back angrily.
“I know how I feel for Sia, Abha
y. I know it!” Julian hissed back.
“After everything that’s happened to you, Julian, you still want to get involved with a woman? Romantically?” Abhay yelled back but not loud enough for their voices to reach Leo.
“Sia is not my mother, Abhay! I’ve seen Leo and the way she treats him. And I know that she can never be my mother. You might think that she’s playing hard to get but everything she has done ‘till now was because of her son. She would never hurt her own child the way my mother did!” Julian yelled back, his fists clenched, his jaw tight.
It was at that moment that both Julian and Abhay became aware of just how deep the former’s feelings for Sia went. He wasn’t just infatuated with her, and he wasn’t lusting after her, either. Julian had fallen in love with her. Whatever happens now, Sia was for Julian.
Chapter 21
Sia woke with a start and, after much difficulty, opened her heavy-lidded eyes.
Everything was black at first, and her mind was completely unfocused, throbbing from a terrible headache. Where was she? And why did she feel so groggy? The last thing she remembered was getting out of the auditorium after the press conference and seeing her makeup van. And then . . .
She brought her hand up to her head and staggered as the events finally came back in a rush.
She had been kidnapped.
Sitting up so fast that it gave her almost a whiplash, she looked around as her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness.
Cardboard boxes filled her vision. They were piled up, one on top of another, forming neat piles all around the small room. The only source of illumination in the room came from a tiny light bulb hanging from the ceiling. She lay on the cold hard floor which was covered with dust and dirt and the torn remains of boxes. She recognized some of the labels because some of them belonged to her own company, Magenta Fashion. She couldn’t spot an exit door right away, but she could see one small window on the other side of the room, but it was too high to reach. One thing Sia knew for sure was that she was still inside the auditorium. Other than her boxes, she spotted several other boxes that belonged to other fashion houses that had participated tonight. Unfortunately, she didn’t know which part of the auditorium she was in.
“Well, well. Look who’s awake,” a voice spoke and everything inside Sia went very, very still.
It wasn’t the chill of the unknown that made her whimper in agony and back away from the source of the voice. No, it was the haunting familiarity of that raspy, hard voice that made her beg the gods above for mercy.
“A-A-Ar-Arthu-r?” she asked, her voice so shaky that she could hardly say his name without stuttering.
And suddenly, as if she just spoke the magic word, the whole place flooded with light.
Sia tried to adjust as quickly as she could to the sudden brightness. She knew that time was against her; if she didn’t get out of this place soon enough, rape would only be the least of her problems. At least dead people didn’t have problems, but she couldn’t abandon her son.
But she’d taken longer than she realized to adjust to the light and the next thing she knew, the source of danger was right in front of her. A hand fisted her hair and jerked her head forward roughly. Her brown waves spilled over her back as Arthur tugged it roughly butby the time she yelled in pain and reached for her head with her hands, he had already let go of her and started walking around her. He circled her like a predator stalks its prey. He already had her right where he wanted her; he was now going to play with her any way he pleased, before the real hunt began.
***
“She’s awfully late, don’t you think?” Julian asked Abhay as they stood outside Sia’s makeup van, still waiting for her to show up. Julian still had his eyes on the exit door, but why Sia hadn’t shown up yet, he didn’t know. He was starting to get worried.
“I would say that you’re being paranoid . . . but you’re right. Papz may take forever to ask questions, but they had been given half an hour and that should have ended a while ago.” Abhay looked at the building skeptically. “And it’s not like it’s the Miss Universe pageant going on in there.”
“Papz? Seriously?” Julian raised an eyebrow at his friend, trying to keep his worry at bay by focusing on less serious things. “But you’re right. It was a small show. It shouldn’t take this long. It’s already been over forty minutes.”
Julian had a bad feeling about this. He couldn’t explain it, but he somehow felt that something wasn’t right.
“You go wait inside the car with Leo. I’ll go check inside,” he told Abhay.
“Okay.” In any normal circumstance, Abhay would have gone along with Julian, but tonight he decided to stay behind with the kid. Some things a man had to do on his own. Abhay was sure Julian wanted that time alone with his employer. No. Not his employer . . . his woman.
Julian took out his radio from his back pocket. “Have you got eyes on Ms. Milton?”
“Sir, she left for her van ten minutes ago,” Xi Chang, the man he had left in charge of the guards inside the auditorium, reported back to him. “Misha, one of the men guarding the door, have reported her safe passage toward her van.”
“Copy,” Julian said then cut the connection, but his mind was in turmoil. Why hadn’t he seen or heard Sia come towards the van? He couldn’t have been that distracted by Abhay, could he? He immediately shook his head no. He then checked Sia’s van but found it empty.
Julian decided to walk around the parking at first. An after-party had been planned at the end of the events and that was being held at the other end of the parking lot, in an outhouse a couple of minutes away. Sia could have decided to go in for a bit then decided to stay on for a while, although if that had been the case, Sia would definitely have sent word via one of the guards so he’d be informed. Maybe she’d gone to the after-party and lost track of time? It seemed like the most probable explanation he could come up with. And he didn’t want to think about other, darker alternatives.
The night had gotten colder and the chill only added to the dreadful feeling he was starting to feel about the whole situation.
He was walking around the building when a muffled noise caught his attention. Backing a few steps, he looked around to search for the place where the sound was loudest and saw a dumpster a few meters away.
Running over, he quickly took his gun out of its hiding place at his back and came to a stand in front of the dumpster, gun pointing towards the noise. The sound was like a whimper from wounded animal of some kind, but he had to make sure.
But what he saw around the corner wasn’t an injured animal, but a half-naked man tied up and gagged. Another man was on the ground next to him in a similar state, but unconscious. Julian knew both men very well. Although they were now covered in cuts and bruises, he knew they were the men guarding the back door to the auditorium, the one that opened directly to the parking area. Julian hid his gun back in its place and got on his knees to free the conscious man, who was struggling to get free from his bonds.
“Who did this to you?” he asked Misha urgently, not liking this scenario at all.
“A-a m-an! H-he came from behind and a-attacked me!” Misha said, pointing at the bruises on his face. “I’m so sorry, sir. I should’ve been mor—”
“Did you see him? What did he look like?” Julian cut him off. His voice was stone cold. It was causing the other man to cower away from him, but right now, Julian didn’t care. He’d failed in his duty and if anything happened to Sia, he’ll be punished accordingly. But right then, Julian’s focus was on getting to Sia as quick as he could.
“Wh-white h-hair . . . a-and purple e-eyes . . .” the man stuttered out, about to lose consciousness again.
“Shit!” Julian stood up sharply and spoke into his radio to one of his backup guards. “Misha and his partner are tied behind a dumpster near the east exit to the auditorium. He’s injured badly so bring first aid and call an ambulance.”
He ended the call and asked Misha where he last saw Arthur Stone went.
He pointed toward the storage units a few minutes away. Julian thanked the man and told him to stay put until help arrived.
And then Julian ran.
Chapter 22
His white blond hair could very well be all grey by now, it was impossible to tell. But Sia could read his eyes, and they were now grey with rage and lust. He was wearing a dark blue uniform that she’d seen on one of the cleaners, and it hung loose around his shoulders. He had lost weight (a lot of it) but he also seemed to have gained a few muscles. There were dark circles around his eyes, and his skin was so pale from the lack of exposure to sunlight.
Sia had now her back up against the wall with nowhere else to run. Her clothes and hair were covered in dust and straw. She had tried to escape twice. She slapped him once and tried throwing the heavy supply boxes at him, but it only added to the mess in the room which only blocked her exit and a purple bruise on her cheek. She had made the mistake of underestimating his strength just because he had shrunk in bulk.
“You were such a good girl before, Sia . . .” Arthur Stone clicked his tongue in disapproval. “Looks like I’ll have to punish you for your behavior.”
His sick smile made bile rise to her throat, but she held on to hope. She will keep fighting ‘till the very end. Gone was that sixteen-year-old naive girl who had thought obeying this man’s command for the rest of her life was the only way to survive. Gone was the girl who had hoped night after night that this man can change, be gentle, be someone she could grow to tolerate. But Sia was a woman now. He had killed that little naive girl in her a long time ago. She was now a mother who would do anything to protect her son, and a woman, although she had only began to learn what it felt like to be one.