Chapter 45: Chapter 45

After Aiden told me where to take Alice and Jake. Andrew set up two tracking chips on each one of them. One of the chip is attached under Jake’s shoe and the other is inside Alice’s hair band. I deliberately put a tracking device on my watch so Aiden’s men can find it. I know that if I go there looking vulnerable, Aiden will get suspicious because he knows I will never come to him armless but if I put a tracking device and he finds it, he will be less suspicious.

Andrew and his trusted team are in my house working on the plan, hopefully, everything will go as planned. He’s gonna track us down and send a bunch of officers there, though he wouldn’t do that immediately. Every action needs a perfect time.

Aiden says he’s gonna send one of his men to take us to him so here we are standing near an uncompleted building. I’m not sure in what particular part of New York I am because I don’t recognize this place. It’s isolated and far away from town. My phone starts to ring and I just know it’s him, I slip my hand into my pocket and grab the phone, looking at the number calling, I was a bit surprised. This is the third time Emily’s calling me today, she never calls me more than twice. I didn’t answer any of her calls earlier nor will I answer now. I presume she’s calling to ask if the preparation for Emma’s graduation party is done.

My family is in the farmhouse, preparing for Emma’s school graduation ceremony; It’s a big deal for her, though she had no idea we are throwing her a surprise graduation party afterward. Alice, Rachel, and I are in charge of the whole surprise party plan that’s why we were are the only ones at home but I don’t even think the party will happen. With everything going on right now, her party is the least of my concerns.

I have so many things going on in my head currently, the only good thing about this is that my family isn’t here because if they were, they will be worried sick and I can’t handle that. It’s bad enough I can’t control my emotions, I don’t know how I would have managed to make this decision when everyone is around. For starters, John would have never agreed to this, and Mom, she’s just gonna come up with millions of assumptions that will get me more worried.

I don’t answer Emily’s call and slip the phone back into my pocket. In less than a minute, she calls again, with a groan I answer the call.

"Emily I can’t talk right now," I say immediately as I answered the call

"Richie, I’ve been trying to reach you. John-"

"What?" I inquire, I didn’t hear a single word after she said my name. "Hello, Emily. I can’t hear you, hello."

"John, he is-" Before I could hear the whole sentence, the call ended. I guess the network is bad here.

"Is everything okay?" Alice asks, concerned

"Yes, everything is fine. It’s just Emily." As I am about to call her again, a van pulls over next to me. A man and a woman come out of the car, I recognize the man, he is Jacob, one of Aiden’s bodyguards. Whenever Aiden and I have a face-to-face meeting, he’s always by his side, and Brad; he was always by mine.

"We meet again Richie Maranzano." He says approaching me. I don’t respond to him and he turns his gaze to Alice, with a smile he says "First lady, you have no idea how much boss misses you."

Alice rolls her eyes and doesn’t respond to him. Jacob then bends over to Jake's level of height. "Hey, little boy." He says stretching out his hand for a handshake. I presume Jake got scared because he turned away and looked at Alice. Alice held him tightly to her body.

"What? You don’t shake hands, I was just trying to be nice but it’s okay, I will do my job then. You know what, why don’t I start with you." He grabs Jake's hands pulling him closer to him.

"Hey, be careful," I grunt

"Don’t tell me what to do." Jacob responds in the same tone as me. He begins to search for Jake and I pray silently not wanting him to find anything. Finally done with Jake, he begins to search me while the lady next to him searches Alice. Of course, they found nothing on Alice but he found the tracking chip I put on my watch.

He looks between me and the chip "You think you are smart?"

"I don’t think, I know," I say

He doesn’t say anything and he steps on the chip, crashing it with his feet. He shoots a glare at me before pulling his phone out of his pocket to make a call.

"Boss, they are all clean, though I found a tracking chip on Richie Maranzano but you don’t have to worry about it. I destroyed it." I hear him say.

I think Aiden is telling him something about Alice because Jacob’s eyes are on her. As he ends the call, he brings out blindfolds from the van and put them on us. We entered the van and they start driving. While we are in the van, I try to calm Alice down because she was freaking out. I understand her fear; the heart aches a lot when it knows it’s going to meet the monster that once broke it.

In a few minutes, the van comes to a halt. Jacob and the lady come over to the back, opens the door, and take off our blindfolds. "Let’s go." He says

I climb out of the van and I help Alice and Jake out. When I entered the building, I came across any bodyguards. The security here is tight and it makes me feel like I won’t be able to get away with my plan.

"Wait here," Jacob says before he walks away. I put a hand around Alice’s shaking shoulder as she holds Jake tightly. "It’s gonna be fine." I whisper to her, and she answers with a small smile.

"Mommy, why are we here?" Jake asks, innocently.

Alice looks at me and with a sigh, she says "It’s for a reason, I can’t explain it to you."

"Okay, but when are we leaving, it’s dark here and I’m scared of the dark."

Jake is right, the room is dark. The only source of brightness is the one light bulb hanging above the ceiling.

"It’s okay, you don’t have to be scared. Mommy is with you. We are gonna leave here soon, I promise." Alice assures

"Do not promise him something you won’t do." I hear Aiden’s voice. A single light bulb from across the room turns on and sitting under its shade is Aiden. He’s inside a window wall room; he seems very relaxed, his hands are resting behind his head and his legs are on a mini stool that is covered with a black sheet.

"Mommy is not going anywhere, you and her will stay here with me. Forever." Aiden says

"Where is Rachel?" I ask the question that has been wandering in my mind.

"Relax Richie, you seem very impatient. You just came here so relax."

"Just tell me where she is," I demand

"I say you should relax."

"I didn’t come all the way here just so I can relax so fucking tell me where she is!" I snap at him

"No, no, no. Do not talk to me in that tone. Wait a minute, what am I saying, you can talk to me anyhow you want, I have your woman. You shout I shout at her, you insult, I do my best to keep her warm." An evil glint appears on his face as he begins to laugh

"Shut up! Just shut up!" I yelled. I need to calm down, he has Rachel with him. "We made a deal, I bring Alice and Jake to you and you bring back Rachel to me; safe and sound."

"About that, I changed my mind."

"What do you mean you change your mind?" I question

"I mean this." Abruptly all the lights went on and Aiden takes his legs off the stool. He pulled the black sheet off the stool to reveal Rachel. The stool wasn’t a stool, it was Rachel. That bastard put his legs on her.

"Surprise." Aiden announces as he starts laughing.

My heart stopped beating as my eyes met her swollen eyes. I have never seen her like this before, she looks even more traumatized than she did when I saw her on the video call. "Rach." I sigh as a drop of tears escapes my eyes. This is all my fault, she won’t have been in this situation if it wasn’t for me.

Her mouth is covered with a duct tape yet I notice how swollen they are. He tortured her way too much that she doesn’t even look like herself. My legs follow my heart as I walk toward the window wall. I knelt down and place my hand on the exact opposite spot Rachel place hers. I have gone through so many painful times in my life but I think nothing is comparable to the pain I feel right now.

"Rach," I say quietly as I squeeze my eyes shut, letting my warm tears fall onto my cheeks. My eye contact with her split apart when Aiden suddenly yanks her hair pulling her up. Rachel screams but doesn’t get loud because of the duct tape.

I am about to remark on his actions when I hear Alice and Jake shouting from behind me. I turn and see Jacob and another muscular man taking them away. Immediately I stand up to help them but before I could, Jacob pushes Alice and Jake to a room.

Walking towards the door, I push the muscular man out of the way. I am about to open the door when Jacob blocks my way. "Get out of the way," I shout

"No."

"I said get out of my way." My patience is slowly thinning as Jacob refuses to step aside. I want to smash his head against the wall, but I'm trying to keep it together, I don’t want Aiden hurting Rachel because of my behavior. I glare at Jacob, but he doesn't get the memo that I'm warning him to back off and gets in my face instead.

"Why the fuck are you looking at me like that?" Jacob says, so close to me that his forehead is almost touching mine. Just because he is Aiden’s bodyguard doesn’t mean I won’t hurt him.

"Get away from the door." I give him my last warning.

"Why are you so angry? Is it because of the bitch!" He points in the direction of Rachel.

All my self-control evaporates and I punch, giving him a black eye. The next punch to his face cracks his jaw in two, and he spits out a few teeth. I vent all the anger that has been boiling my blood. I couldn’t hold it back anymore so I throw punch after punch. My knuckles ache, but I don't care. The rage and pain in my heart are greater than any physical pain I could feel right now.

Jacob falls on the ground and the man comes to punch me but his actions halt when Aiden speaks "Do not hit him, let him be."

I turn my gaze to Aiden and with my blood boiling, I say "I don’t have time for your fucking games. We made a deal so let Rachel go."

"I already told you, I changed the plan and now, I don’t give you Rachel and I take Alice and Jake with me." He says as he begins to laugh

My hands ball into fists as the emotions brewing in my heart cause me to fall apart. "What do you want?" I ask feeling vulnerable. He’s got three of my family members, I can’t let them suffer because of me.

"Do you want me to give up all my money? All my power? Do you want me to give up everything? Is that what you want?" I inquire. I am ready to do all that just so he can let go of them.

He takes a moment before he speaks "Yes, I want that."

"Then take me and let them go."

He lightly laughs "You know I can not do that. It’s no fun at all if I don’t get my way around her." He says gripping Rachel's hair tightly, making her look at him. I wince as Rachel wince in pain. Aiden harshly let go of her hair and she falls to the ground. Her throat rips the scream out, and as she cries, my heart tears apart with every drop of her tears. Aiden leans and buries his nose on her neck, he sniffs her intensely before he uses his tongue to lick her neck.

"Rachel is so tasty." He says with a horrendous grin

My blood boils as her name leaves his lips. "Fucking let her go!" I growl

"You see Richie, the one mistake you’ve made is that you have so many people to protect. If I let her go, who will save your brother?"

I open my mouth to speak but instead, a gasp escapes it when Aiden points behind me and I turn to see another window wall room. The lights goes on and Inside of it is John hanging by the ceiling and under him is a giant glass container, containing something liquid.

"If you want me to let Rachel go, I'll have to push the lever, and when I do, John will fall into the acid tube. You will watch your brother burn." Aiden says as he begins to laugh. "I’m sure you don’t want that."

My heart starts to hammer in my chest, every pump accentuated and sped up. Oh my God! This might be the reason why Emily called me. John went missing and she wanted to inform me but I didn’t listen.

Rachel’s attempt to scream makes me turn around to look at her. I watch Aiden lick Rachel’s tears away as she cringes in disgust. I am too grieve to yell at him to stop. My body, my mind, my heart, every part of me has stopped momentarily.

"Now tell me Richie, who do you want to save, your brother or your fiancé?" Aiden asks.