Chapter 97
I woke up the following morning to the warehouse empty, with only me and Harry around. After I talked, more like cried, to Max I felt like a little one on one with Harry was something that was much needed. We sat, and drank, as I poured my tears in the coffee cup that I was holding. Harry knew, as the rest of them did, that I was taking this the hardest because deep down, I knew that this was really my fault. Niall would have never had to go to any meets if I wasn’t in the picture.
There were times, like always, that I wished that our paths never crossed, times where I wished that I had just stayed in L.A and went to school instead of moving out of the states to attend school, but like Harry said, even though I might wish it, I don’t really mean it. One way or another, our paths would have crossed because of my father and my connection to this chip. Meeting Niall was never by mistake, he told me that numerous of times into which I replied that he was off his rockers, but as the time passed I knew that he was right. Niall getting recruited and being assigned to my case wasn’t by accident of dumb luck, it was meant to happen. Niall was meant to save me, and I’m meant to give him hope. Hope for a brighter future. Niall has already saved me more than necessary and it’s my turn to save him.
As the weeks passed and there was no signs of Josh and Matthew anywhere in the U.K I started to lose hope. Max had Perrie and Jesy flown in because we figured that with Jesy acting as a caregiver to me for my brief stay there, that she would know something, but all she knew was all that we already had on file. The boys came to the conclusion that Niall was no longer in the UK but that he was now in the US, the only thing that we didn’t know was where. Flying from the UK back to Pennsylvania I kept to myself. The guys never had this much trouble trying to find people before, and that made me only believe that after I left, Josh went and made a few calls to his connections, way above our heads and I hated that.
Once our flight landed Harry made plans that I would go with him, since his place was the only place that was off the radar from everyone. Simon, Josh, the government. There were no legal documents saying that Harry’s place was in anyway shape or form connected to him or the group, so with us still being on look out from Simon it was consider the best place for me to hold up at.
The house was a one bedroom condo. It was far from town and far from the UNI so nobody knew anything of it. Jesy decided that she would stay with me while the boys went back to their places to grab more things to move to Louis place that was not too far from me. With it only being me and Jesy, Perrie went to stay with Zayn to ‘Catch Up’, we decided that we were long overdue for a heart to heart conversation.
We sat up for hours talking until Jesy passed out and I went reading in the files I had again. Somewhere between 5am and 7am, I drove Harry’s Audi to the warehouse and began research again. By around 8 I headed back to Harry’s place and ended up falling to sleep, waking up at 12pm to the smell of bacon. Walking out the back room I stopped at the bathroom and brushed my teeth and washed my face as I walked to the kitchen, and to my surprise I saw Harry standing at the stove sporting a shirt that he had ripped the arms out of, a headband, and jeans.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as I stumbled to the counter.
“Uh I live here?” he says as he takes a sip from his tea cup. Handing it to me I take a sip as I took in the strong scent.
“God I love the way you make tea.” I smiled.
He winks, “I know.”
Rolling my eyes he says, “How did you sleep?”
“Ugh, what is this thing called sleep?”
“Late night?”
I nodded.
“Hangover?”
I shook my head, “I think I read too much.”
“You read too much?” picking up his cup that sat in front of me he ask, “You went through the files again?”
I nodded.
“Find anything?”
I shook my head, “No, I have my suspicions, but then again I was half out of it.”
Placing some eggs and bacon on a plate he slides it in front of me as I pick up my fork and start to eat.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am to see you actually eating.”
“Shut up Harry.”
“No seriously,” he laughs, “I thought we were going to have to hook you up to a feeding tube.”
“Hush.” I laugh.
“Fine.” he says as he takes a seat next to me.
Trailing from the backroom Jesy walked in, hair messy, as she says,
“Afternoon.”
“Afternoon.” We say.
“I made breakfast.” Says Harry.
Walking to the counter she picks up a fork and says, “Why thank you.”
Harry winked and looked at back at me.
“Plans for today?” I asked in-between bites.
“Going over to the warehouse, follow potential leads. You coming?”
“Yeah of course.”
“Okay. Shower, get dress, and I’ll meet you there.” he says as he stands.
“Meet you there? In what a taxi?” ask Jesy.
“Um, Max brought Casper a little while ago.”
“He did?” I asked my heart jumping a bit.
“Yeah,” holding my keys to me he says, “I figured you would want to be behind your baby for the few days that we are here.”
“Well I figured right.”
Smiling Harry leaned down and planted a soft kiss on my forehead as he says, “I won’t be far, call me if you need anything.”
I nod, “I will.”
Nodding he walked over and out the door.
“I swear he is perfect.” Says Jesy taking a seat next to me.
“Yeah he is an awesome guy. Whoever he dates will be lucky to have him.”
Jesy nodded in agreement, “So how was your research last night?”
I looked at her.
“Yeah I know you didn’t sleep till early this morning. I heard the papers being messed with last night.”
Running my hand through my hair I say, “Honestly I think it’s just a whole bunch of nonsense that Niall ‘assumed’ was important.”
“You know for a fact that he wouldn’t have kept all of that stuff if it was worthless. You just need to relax and come it at another angle. Step into Niall’s shoes for a moment think like he thinks.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I say, “I miss him.”
“I know.” She says as she places a hand on my shoulder.
Pushing my plate from in front of me I stand from the counter as I say, “I’m going to go get dress.”
Jesy nodded as she walked over to where her duffle bag sat and she begins digging out clothes.
An hour passed and me and Jesy were finally in the car driving to the warehouse. My baby Casper looked amazing as always, but stepping in the car it smelt like Niall cologne and I smiled. He was still around me even when he wasn’t physically. We approached the warehouse about 20 minutes after grabbing drinks and once there I retreated to the back room and went on lockdown in my studies. Max stopped by after a few hours and dragged me out the room to go over the things that they found.
“So we’ve checked with contacts all around the U.K, Josh and this Matthew guy is nowhere in the U.K.” states Liam.
“Have you found out who ‘Matthew’ really is?” I asked.
“No, we don’t have an exact picture so it’s not like we can scan the database.” Says Zayn.
“You search the name?” ask Jesy.
Harry nods, “Yeah nothing is popping up. Me and Lou spent hours looking through all the Matthews in the U.K. No matches.”
“Which means he’s practically a John Doe.” I state.
“Matthew doe, since he does have a name we just don’t have valuable identification, but he is in existence.” Says Max.
Folding my arms I lean against the table as I say, “So we still basically have shit right?”
The boys exchanged looks.
“Great.” I say.
“Mel it’s not like we’re not trying.” Starts Zayn.
I shook my head, “I know, it’s just frustrating that we can’t find him.”
Draping an arm across my shoulder Liam smiles and says, “We got this. Till then,” pulling me closer to him, “We can have cuddle time. I’ll fill in for Nialler.”
“Cuddling time? Liam you are so damn corny.” Playfully pushing him away as I laughed.
“Hey at least you smiled right?” he smiles.
“Sure, right.” I smiled.
“Alright, well so far this is what we have.” Says Louis as we all turn towards the big screen.
I sat listening to all the notes and facts and dead ends when Louis passes a name ‘Kristina Stevens.’
“Wait stop!” I say.
“What?” asked Max.
“Go back to where it says Kristina Stevens.” I say walking closer to the screen.
Louis scrolls back up the list as he ask, “What is it?”
Taking the mouse I clicked on the name as I said, “Are you serious?”
“Is who serious?” asked Harry.
“So it was planned.” I say softly to myself.
“What was planned?” ask Perrie.
Turning around I walked to the side room I was doing my research, as the guys followed.
“Mel what is it?” Max asked again.
“How could I’ve been so damn stupid.”
“Melly what’s going…?” Harry stopped as he walked in the room.
Walking in after me the guys, Jesy and Perrie all stopped at the door and looked around at the small room.
“Mel what the hell?” said Louis.
In the small room, papers covered every inch of the room. A map covered a wall that consisted of multiple red X’s marks stating where Niall wasn’t.
“When did you do this?” asked Jesy.
“Yesterday.” I say.
“When did you have time to do this?” asked Perrie.
“I came in the middle of the night, but that’s beside the point.” searching through a pile of paper, I grab a piece as I hand it to Harry and I say, Read the yellow highlighted name.”
Harry took the paper and read, “Krista Stuart.”
Searching through a file I pull out another as I say, “Now read what’s in Pink.”
“What does this have to do with anything?” asked Louis.
“Harry just read it, please.” I say.
Sighing Harry looks at the paper, his eyes widen as he ask, “Where did you get this?”
“What does it say?” ask Perrie.
“Kristina Steven.” He says.
I began filling in the group about how I found the name, and after grabbing my computer Louis pulled up the name and sure enough it was Krista.
“So Krista, the one who Max and you went to school with, and also who Niall messed around with, is this person named ‘Kristina’?” asked Zayn.
“Seems like it, but what I want to know is why?” says Liam as he takes the paper form Harry.
“You guys remember when me and Niall broke up before the CPW weekend?” I ask.
“Yeah.” The boys said.
“Okay Niall use to tell me that Krista was just his case, but he wouldn’t tell me what exactly he was working on.” I say.
“I remember that, Niall said the night of the second party that he called off the case.” Says Harry.
“Yeah and you remember how he was saying that he was worried someone was going to come after me and him?” I ask.
Harry nods.
“Wait so are you telling us that Kristina,” Louis corrects himself, “Krista, might know where Niall is?”
“I’m saying that it had to be somebody that she knows.” I say.
“The hit-man.” Max whispers.
“What?” asked Perrie.
“When Melon was taken by Josh, word was that some guy sent out an email offering a cash prize for the capture of Mel.” Says Max.
“I remember that, they were going to transport her to him.” says Jesy.
“But we got to her in time. I remember, but what does that have to do with anything?” asked Zayn.
“Wait!” yells Liam, “You don’t think that this hit-man is connected to the same guy who wanted you capture, do you?”
“It makes sense. If it’s not him, personally, then it has to someone he hired.” I say.
“How?” ask Harry.
“Okay,” going to my board I grab a marker and walked to the white board. I wrote Niall’s name in the middle of the board. “So this guy, Niall was working a case for, wanted him to get close to Krista, right?”
“Yeah, but when Niall knew that it was hurting you to see him with Krista, romantically, he ended it called off the job.” says Harry.
“Which lead to this unknown person threatening Niall the only way he knew would get under Niall’s skin more.” Says Max.
“By threatening to go after Mel.” Says Zayn.
“Right.” I say as I write HM, for Hit-Man, and Krista on the board. “Now look, the guy never said when he was coming, but that he was. But what if, just if, he knew that Josh and me had connection and that why he specifically emailed Josh.”
“Okay, but why would he bring in the other two.” Ask Louis.
“What other two?” ask Jesy.
“The two that took Mel, Tyler and Rex.” Says Liam.
“Maybe because he knows that you did a job with them and also he probably knew that me and Tyler had bad blood with each other.” I say.
“Maybe he caught wind of that pick up that happened back at The Din.” Says Max.
“So,” grabbing my marker Harry says, “This is what we know so far, Niall worked for an unknown guy who wanted Niall to tail Krista for reasons we don’t know. And there might be a possibility that this same guy might be the same one who set up your bounty and also might be the one who handpicked Josh and his two flunkies?”
I nodded as I say, “Pretty much, but you forgot one small thing.”
“And what is that?” ask Louis.
“That the hit-man might be the one who set it up for the meet to go haywire, to take Niall and weaken Melly’s protection by wiping Max and me out the picture.” Says Harry.
“So Niall might not be with just Josh,” starts Jesy.
“But he might be with the guy who set up your bounty in the first place.”
I nod as Max says, “I guess we need to do more digging in the database.”
“I guess so.” I say.
“Well you go through your stuff, phone records and stuff and me and the boys will go see what we can dig up.” says Max.
I nodded as I looked down digging my foot into the ground.
"What is it?" ask Perrie.
I shook my head,"Nothing."
"Tell us." says Louis.
Sighing I took a breath and said, “What if everything that happened in the past year, didn’t just happened it was planned.” as I looked at Harry.
“Planned? What in the hell are you talking about Mel?” asked Louis.
"Planned. Like you guys didn't just coming willingly into my life. Just what if this was all planned. zfrom me enrolling here, to the people I met, down everything that has happened to me." I say.
"Mel you can't think like that." say Jesy.
"It's hard not to when I know that practically everything up to this point has been a lie." I say.
Pulling me into a hug Harry says, "Let's not worry about it now. Let's leave that for another day. Till then just know that you are stuck with us, wrrther ypu were meant to be or not. Got it?"
I smiled and nodded.
"Great now you girls do your search and we'll do ours." says Liam.
Nodding the boys walk out as Jesy and Perrie step up.
“Where do we start?” smiles Perrie as we sit and begin going through paperwork.
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Niall’s POV
“Aghhhhh” I groan, biting my lip together as another fist smashed into my abdomen.
“Pick him up!” yells Josh from the side.
Grabbing me by my arms, I’m yanked up to my knees. Spitting blood out of my mouth Josh steps up in front of me.
“Have you had enough or are you going to follow directions?” he asked.
I smiled as I coughed, “You know, I find it funny that you had to tie me up in order to kick my ass.”
“Well aren’t we cocky.” he says, “I find it more amusing to see my guys beat the shit out of you one by one.”
“What? You don’t believe that they can take me one on one in the ring?”
“I thought I’d do you a favor.”
“You thought is nonexistent.” Clearing my throat I say, “I mean, if I was you I would throw my prisoner into a ring with about 3-4 dudes and watch him gets his ass beat until he tells me what I needed to know.”
Josh looks at me for a second. Josh never seemed like the smart type, so talking into a scam of mine only seemed like the best way to go.
“Tomorrow, maybe, but until then,” Josh snaps his fingers as two cracked out steroid using want to be thugs walked in.
“Well isn’t it dumbass and his sidekick.” I smirk.
One of the guys growled at me and I smirked, “Calm down Cujo, you might strain something.”
“Take him to his cell.” Says Josh.
Pulling me to my feet in a tight grip I walked with both guys at my side.
“Rest up Prince charming. Things are going to be very interesting tomorrow.” Says Josh.
Cujo and his sidekick yanked me forward with unnecessary force; they untied my wrist, and pushed me into the cell. There was a bed, bathroom, and a small table. It kind of reminded me out the room Mel stayed in, but the difference was I knew I wasn’t in the U.K anymore. Rubbing my wrist together I walked to the bathroom and wiped the blood from my face and rinsed my mouth. It had been about almost 2 weeks that I’d been taken and my mind continued to race.
Did Max and Harry make it out?
Where the guys looking for me?
Did Max survive?
How in the hell was I going to get out of this place?
But the main thing I worried about was Mel.
How was she holding up?
Was she scared?
What was going through her mind?
I didn’t want her to be upset, I knew she began to freak when I didn’t come back. Every part of me screamed to be with her, to hold her, that she needed me, but I couldn’t and that just fuel more anger into my already pint up rage I have been piling up. I could easily take out all these guys within minutes and be back with her, but I didn’t know where I was nor did I know what kind of security this place had. I rather I’d be brought back to Mel alive, then in some body bag.
Everything about this place irked me. I wanted out, I needed to be with my girl, but there was no way possible right now. So I have to sit and hope that my boys would put the piece together and find me soon, but another hit gets put on Mel and I’m not there to help. Stripping out my shirt I stood at the bathroom mirror and ran my wet hands over my chest where deep red marks covered. I could endure pain, pain wasn’t a big thing, what pissed me of was that Josh was being a bitch about the whole thing.
If you want someone to suffer you let them have a fair fight with other guys. You don’t bound and gage them, this isn’t a porno I don’t like that shit. Turning the water on in the shower I let the room feel with steam as I took once last look at my chest where the spirals came to a stop. There laid my small crown I had tattooed for Mel when I first got to L.A. My Princess was always with me and I know without a shadow of a doubt that we will be together. But until then we had work to do, on my side and theirs. Things are far from over.
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