by Anna Collins
"Seriously Freya, I am saying this because I care for you, babe you need to go for a therapy session or two. This whole scene with Robert Hudson is affecting your sanity" this time her voice was calm.
I sighed and laid back my head at the headrest "I don't know, Kate. I just don't want to be mad" I murmured and was on the verge of crying.
"Calm down, we will handle" she patted my hand.
"Stop the car, stop the car" I yelled in panic.
"Okay, okay I'm stopping" Kate held the brakes.
"We are here, it's the same place where I had come the other day" I informed.
"You mean this is the place which 'the magic ring' had shown you" she mocked.
I crooked my eyes "very funny".
I looked from the windshield and unlike the other day, I could not see anyone "we should go inside" I suggested.
"We? Take a halt girl, this is the only amount of madness I can handle. I'm not going anywhere, you can go and check if you wish. I'm not moving" she said reaching for her headphones.
"Fine! I will go by myself" I announced and she showed me a thumbs up sign. "Mean" I murmured.
My heart was beating so fast that I could actually hear my own beats, as I passed through the path of wet grasses, the only source of light were the flashes of light coming out from my phone. Finally, I was standing outside the building. It looked lonesome and abandoned, just some pieces of old bricks that were standing together, under the veil of the green leaves.
I heard some footsteps and became alarmed, then quickly hid under the bushes.
I saw a tall, fat man leading a group of other men. This time, there were no cloaks, they were wearing normal clothes. Somehow I got the feeling that these people were goons and their presence was giving me negative vibes. Thanks to the darkness, I could not see their faces and the good thing was they were not able to spot me either. I shivered, thinking about the consequences if one of these men would find me.
"No!" the word escaped from my mouth without taking consent from my brain.
"Did you hear something? I thought I heard a girls voice" the men kept talking amongst themselves and kept looking here and there, maybe to find me.
My hands were shaking with fear, my body was perspiring giving me the feels like someone was spraying hot steams over my body. "Relax Freya, they can't spot you in this darkness" I whispered to myself.
"Stop wasting time, there is no one here. Let's go upstairs, boss will not keep us alive if he found out that we have left him all alone and are going out for drinks" said the big guy.
"Chill nigga, don't be a chicken. Boss said he is not coming here until morning and that old hag is so weak that he won't be able to stand up" said a guy from the group.
"Yes, Arnold, Mike is right. We have tied him securely, and we will not be long" said another guy. Then they discussed something else which I could not hear and after that they all went out from the small gate.
I sighed in relief for the moment. Wait...what were they talking about? Have they tied up some old man upstairs? Could it be Ben Wyatt? Was my vision correct? Goosebumps started to appear all over my body.
I held my heaving chest and went upstairs, I needed to see it for myself before reaching any conclusions.
I went upstairs, following the same route of collapse-able gates and broken tiles which lead me to a big store room filled with countless wooden boxes.
I looked around in the almost dark room, that was only lighted by few old fluorescent bulbs. The place had a disgusting rotten smell and I had to constantly stop my breath to stop myself from puking. The other smell that I inhaled were of cigarette smoke and cheap wine.
The place was so damn messy. Paints were falling off from the walls, the floor was creaked and the tin shaded roof was covered in rust.
Good job Freya Lawrence, because of your over curious nature you have already ruined your shiny black boots by walking in the wet, muddy lane; now it's the turn of this beautiful jacket, way to go! My inner voices were taunting me. I was such an idiot! Being irritated with my own self I kicked in the air and my leg hit with something.
"Ouch," I almost screamed in pain but then held back my voice by pressing my hand over my mouth. What if anyone was still there? I could die if they heard me screaming. Due to my kick, one of the boxes fell down on the ground and once my eye fell on the 'H' label printed on them I felt that I had seen this label somewhere else, it looked very familiar. But where had I seen it?
"Is anyone there? Please get me a glass of water for God's sake" a very weak, stammering male voice startled me.
I realized the voice was coming from the far end of the spacious godown. Someone was in pain,how could I forget about the person who they had locked in here? I hit on my wondering head and rushed to find the man.
I kept walking around in the endless tunnel of boxes until I found a helpless old man tied to a chair. I felt pity for him, poor guy, God knew how many days those goons had kept him locked like that.
"Water, Wa..." he uttered in a weak voice.
I looked around and thankfully found some sealed bottles of mineral water. I quickly unsealed it and brought it to him.
Holy cow! The man was none other than Ben Wyatt. He was tied in the same way as I had seen in that ring. It felt so weird when my mind pronounced the words but it was for real. I swallowed hard and clutched on the water bottle to keep myself from losing balance and hitting the floor.
I held the bottle near his mouth and he drank it like it was the tastiest thing in the world. Poor guy! After he drank it, I knelt down in front of him and sprinkled some water on his reddened face. It occurred to me that the goons had tortured him a lot.
As I began to unbind him, he slowly opened his eyes "Freya, my child is it you?" he asked in a weak voice which was now pouring with relief.
"Yes, it's me. Don't worry I will get you out of here" I said.
"It's done, now get up slowly. We must get out of here before those goons arrive" I said while supporting him with my hands.
Slowly he got on his feet, he was still holding my hand as I tried to lead him towards the exit door.
"Freya, I don't have the words to thank you" Mr. Wyatt uttered, his voice sounded like he was about to cry.
"You can always thank me later, before that we need to get out of this death end" I rebuked.
"Not so fast chica, where do you think you are going?" said a man as he appeared from behind the mountain of boxes. He was dressed in black Tee and pants and had a scary face, following him another man appeared in the same way. They were black and very muscular.
As they were inching close to me, my heart sank. There was no way I could fight these muscular giants I looked like a minion in front of them. They laughed like the villains of a dramatic movie and kept marching towards us.
Freya Lawrence, get ready to say goodbye to your life, said my inner voices as I panted and shook with fear.
The first guy, who was taller and more muscular got hold of my hand and twisted it "Ahhh" I screamed in pain, throwing my other arm aimlessly as a failed attempt to break free. Tears were about to pour down from my eyes. "You weak bitch! you think you have it in you to take our captive away from us?" said the skinny guy, his broken English told me that he was not a native.
"Hey, leave her alone" Shouted Mr. Wyatt.
The scary looking men laughed and again spoke something in another language. Then the first one pushed me away, causing me to fall over the mountain of boxes and scattering them all over the place. My head hit with one of the boxes as I fell down on the dirty floor and when I touched the painful corner of my forehead I could see blood.
They made me bleed? now I will not spare them, I promised to myself. One of them was laughing and coming towards me, his eyes were full of lust as he roamed his eyes over my body.
God! was he thinking about raping me?
Act fast Freya, you can't let this happen, you have to protect yourself; I kept saying these words in my head like a mantra. And w
hen he was about to reach me, I brought my foot ahead. As the guy was too busy in staring at my face he didn’t notice my foot and fell flat on his face. I was quick enough to get up on my feet. The giant growled with pain, it should take him two long minutes to lift up that heavy body. The other guy looked at me, his eyes bleeding with anger but before he could do anything I took out the pepper spray from my waist bag that I always used to carry around with me for safety and sprayed a generous amount of it on their dirty faces.
Mr. Wyatt was looking at me like he was possessed "quick" I yelled, gesturing him to hold my hand. He obeyed quickly and without even daring to look back I flew away from there with Mr. Wyatt.
"Move your lazy ass and start the car" I ordered tapping on Kate's window.
She woke up from her half sleep state "Frey! Fucking Hell, is that Ben Wyatt?" her jaw fell open.
"Shut up, Mr. Wyatt are you comfortable?" I asked while securing my seatbelt.
"I am good Freya, but they should be here anytime, the pepper spray can't keep them up for long" he warned.
"But...you guys, I mean" Kate was stammering.
"Start the car Goddamnit!" I shouted.
"Okay, Okay" she uttered and pressed on the accelerator.
After getting away from the dangerous area, when we were almost near Mr.Wyatt's house, "Freya, thank you so much for saving my life. If you had not arrived at the right time then they would have killed me" Mr.Wyatt panted.
"Sir, it's fine. I am just glad we came out safe" I said in a comforting tone.
"I still can't believe it. Freya, how did you manage to tackle those goons all by yourself?" Kate asked in awe.
“Must have been the result of those action movies that I keep watching all day” I winked.
Mr. Wyatt smiled "she is a smart kid and not to mention very brave. I am proud of you, my child" he blessed me generously.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Freya
The car took a halt at Wyatt's farmhouse and we exchanged our goodbyes with Mr.Wyatt who seemed very impressed with me and promised to be there for me anytime I needed him, "I must say Robert Hudson is lucky to have you in his life. Thanks, Again Mrs. Hudson" he kissed on my forehead and was requesting us to stay the night at his farmhouse. But I and Kate were not ready, we had a lot to discuss so we turned down his offer and headed towards home.
"Kate! Is that you?" a handsome voice caused us to turn back.
"Brad, what are you doing here?" Kate had that tone of surprise in her voice. She smiled cheekily and ran to hug the guy, who was already approaching towards us.
Oh! Now I remembered, he was Kate's boyfriend. He was a decent looking guy and had a British accent. With his brown skin color, he was only slightly taller than Kate, which made his height to be 5'6. Eeh he was short.
Bad memory Freya, you just met him the other day at dinner. I hit my already injured part of the head "ouuu."
"Freya, you all right?" his voice was dipped in concern as he looked at me. I forced a smile "hey Brad, I'm fine".
He gave his hand to me, and for some strange reasons, I felt like he was squeezing my hand really hard. And why was he throwing me those looks of despair? I barely knew the guy and he was acting as if I had done something bad to him. Then he smiled warmly; weird!
"I live nearby, Mr. Wyatt is my neighbor. I was just taking a walk when I saw you guys. And let me tell you, I am not letting you guys leave. You have to stay the night. Poor Freya, she looks so tired" he said warmly.
Kate had not left his arm "okay baby, I will stay, but Freya has to go. She has some unfinished work that she needs to submit by tomorrow" Kate said.
Lines appeared on my forehead "What we.." before I could say the rest, Kate pinched me hard, gesturing me to leave them alone.
"Ouuu, yes I mean I have a lot of work" I blabbered.
"What a shame, I was really looking forward to spending time with you...umm...I mean you are Kate's best friend after all" He chuckled.
"Maybe some other time, we can have a get together next Sunday" Kate suggested, tucking the car keys in my hand.
Okay, Okay, I'm going, you desperate bimbo! I shook my head and got inside the car. Waving goodbye to the happy couple.
Robert
"Yes, is there anything else you might want to add?" I asked in my usual serious tone. The literal meaning of these words were, get the hell out of here.
Her constant teeth baring smile and hair flipping was almost annoying. But I was kind of used to it, Riley has been my personal secretary for more than three years and though I don't say it often, but she was good at her job. I just wished she lost her perkiness.
She moved close to my office table, while I was busy in checking some information on my laptop "Mr. Hudson, I can't stop myself from saying this, but you are looking like Tom Cruise in these cool jacket and nerdy glasses. Casual look really suits you sir" She complimented in a childish way while her cheeks were turning red.
I couldn't help but smirk a bit "well thank you. I'm really not a big fan of Tom Cruise; so if you are trying to butter me up for a raise, it's not working"
She got in a defensive attitude "No sir! God forbid, I'm not trying to butter you up it's just that I have never seen you in anything else rather than business suits but today you are wearing a black leather jacket" she spoke.
"It's because I'm going undercover to follow the trucks. And did Tom Cruise wear a business suit to any of his missions in the MI series?" I joked, crooking my eyes a bit.
"Wow, sir. It sounds like fun" she smiled.
I shook my head, "jokes apart have you placed the tracking devices in the trucks?" I asked in a serious tone.
"Yes" her reply was almost instant.
"Did anyone see you while doing it?" I inquired.
"No, I did my work when the workers were on their breaks. No one was present there at that time, not even the manager" she informed.
"Good. Then it should not be a problem. Thanks for staying late and doing this for me. You can go now" I said, trying to sound pleasant.
"It's my job sir, and all the best" she smiled and then went away.
I looked at my reflection on the laptop screen “Tom Cruise?” I laughed.
"The number you are trying to call is not reachable" the recorded message from the mobile company almost made me want to throw away my phone. Like her number, Freya Lawrence was also unreachable for me. Where was she? I got her recorded message in which she seemed like she was mad at me because I had done something wrong. And all this while I kept thinking what I might have done to make her feel that way. Unable to reach any conclusions I tried to call her but she being herself was unreachable. I smiled, imagining her cute angry face, her red nose, and those swollen pink lips. I licked my lips, while my heart was longing to hug and kiss her.
My eyes shifted to the dot on the screen of the GPS monitor. The red dot was moving, which meant that the trucks had taken off and all of them were moving in the same direction.
For about one hour, all the trucks were moving together, then four of them shifted positions and took another way. I knew the way, it was near a gas station. I quickly ignited my car engine to follow those trucks.
Until now the GPS navigator was giving me the accurate directions for those four trucks but when I passed the gas station the dots just froze, which should mean that there were no further movements, which was not true because there were no trucks at the gas station. I had underestimated them, they were clever enough to detect the tracking device and maybe they destroyed it.
All my efforts and plan went down the water. The results were zero. Which proved that I was nothing but a hopeless person.
I got out of my car and thought of asking the passerby if they had seen anything. But again there was nothing else rather than disappointment. The gas station was almost empty at that time and the little guy who was in charge of the store supplies said that he was too busy in watching the football match.
In short, everything was against me. I
stomped my foot on the ground and the little guy was throwing me weird looks. When I threw him an angry glare he stepped back to watch the game.
Just when I lost all hopes and was about to head back to my car, my phone rang. ‘Freya’ flashed on the screen and just the glimpse of her name brought an immediate relief to my senses.
"Hey, precious" I smiled.
"Robert, I just texted you an address. Leave everything and rush there" she panted.
"Freya, are you alright?" I asked because she was not sounding good.
"On the second floor of that building, there is a big storeroom, where I saw many boxes bearing the logo of your company. I am not sure, but maybe some people are stealing those boxes from you" she said without a breath.
Was she a mind reader or what? And how did she find out all these by herself?
"But Freya, why are you sounding so tensed?" I asked.
"And don't forget to get the help of police. That place might be dangerous" with this she cut the call.
"This girl can do any freaking thing " I sighed, feeling alarmed by her information.
Freya
I hoped it was not too late. What if the goons had escaped by now? I had such a numb brain, why could I not make it out earlier that the 'H' sign was meant for Hudson & Co?
No Freya, why would they run away? It was their den after all and if for thoughts sake, even if they ran away they would not be able to take the boxes away with them and that would cause them a lot of loss. Because there were thousands of boxes sitting in there.
The boxes surely contained some valuable merchandises. So did it mean that Joe Hudson was stealing valuables from his own company?
Correction, it was not his company, it was his nephew's. That should explain it a lot.
I could not hide that proud smile from my lips. Yes, my hands were tied, I could not do anything to Joe Hudson directly for sending me that threat note. Though I had no proof that he was the one but I was certain that he was the one to send me that.
