Junaid's POV
Moments before
When we caught Mad Dog and settled the Nikah, I finally thought everything would go back to normal. Back to how it used to be twelve years ago. We would catch Mad Dog and go on with our lives just like any other normal citizen out there. It wasn't even for my own sake, but for the people that I love and call family. Especially now, for my wife-to-be. She gave me the strength and the will to want to end it once and for all. I knew I had to do this for her or else how would I be able to make her happy if she would constantly be living in fear? I gave up on joining the NCA a couple of years back and decided to make my own company because I knew the law would not always be enough to catch such bad people. Sometimes the law only makes things worse and increases our pain instead of relieving it. So I decided to do things my way. I would gain the power and be able to catch those people who killed my parents and tried to kill the one's who raised me as well. At some point, I had given up, but the day Afrah joined the company, I knew that was a sign to carry on and not waste all these years of trying to regain our peace of mind.
"Assad, Assad I found it." I hear Marcus call me, waking me up from my thoughts. "His father used to be in a well-known gang back in the nineties and he was his father's only son, which means his father probably passed the leadership onto him. His father's name also matches with the information we found on the pen drive." Marcus shows me the old newspapers from back in the nineties, "Congratulations, you and Thomas were right. Wesley is involved with these gangs."
"It's nothing to be happy about. If I'm right then that means Afrah could be in danger right now." I immediately grab my phone to call Afrah but as expected there's no response. I really hope it's because she's still in the meeting and not because she's in danger. "Call Samuel and find out where Afrah is. I'll call Ismail to see if he found out anything." I tell Marcus and he soon leaves my office as I call Ismail.
"I'm at work, call me later." Ismail says with the same tone he always uses to talk to me ever since we settled the Nikah with Afrah.
"Shut up and listen. Did you read the letter that Mad Dog left before the attempted suicide?" I ask and he sighs.
"I forgot, I had a lot to do. I'll read it now."
"I think Afrah is in danger."
"I know she is."
"Not that. If it's actually what I'm thinking then I'm sure all those agents and officers won't be able to protect her. Mr Wesley is smart, he will come up with a way_"
"Wait, wait, wait. Who?" He interrupts me and I hear paper noise.
"Mr Wesley. His father was the leader of a drug-dealing gang back in the 1940s to 2000s, and Mr Wesley was the only child which means the leadership was probably passed on to him."
"What was his father's surname?"
"Scott."
"She's in danger!" I hear Ismail's desperate tone, immediately transferring the same state to me.
"What did you find out?"
"It's him. Mr Wesley is the one behind all these gangs." He explains and hangs up. I knew he was going to call Afrah but I couldn't stop myself from calling her as well. I lost the count of how many times I had called her but I was now trying to locate her cell phone before Marcus decided to enter the room.
"Samuel is at the company waiting for her, but the cars that followed her to the meeting said that she just finished now and is on her way back with Mr Wesley. They are following them, so there's nothing to worry about." Marcus says, relieving a few of my nerves, however, something still feels wrong in my mind.
My office door soon opens revealing Ismail. His state immediately confirms my thoughts. Afrah is already in danger and we failed in protecting her.
"He took her." He states, "I tried to locate her phone but it's off. Wesley left no trace of it at all, it's as if she never had one. Not even the police's technology can trace it." He runs his hand through his hair, nervous and irritated at the same time.
"Maybe I can find out where she is," I say as I grab a piece of paper and write a code number.
"How?" Ismail asks and I notice a hint of hope in his tone.
"Here, connect it to your computer and stay alert. As soon as it turns on, Afrah's location will appear on the screen." I give the paper to Marcus.
"What is it? Did you give her a tracking device? Wesley will probably take it off her. He has all kinds of tracking devices." Marcus says.
"This one is hidden inside a necklace. I gave her a normal looking necklace and I told her it was just ordinary so she won't do anything which might seem suspicious." I explain and I notice Ismail exhale in relief, "But it won't be easy." I add, gaining Ismail's attention again. "The necklace has got a small gold button in the shape of a heart, which infiltrates with the colour of the necklace, and only when she presses that, we will be able to trace her location. At some point, she will involuntarily touch the necklace and activate the tracker but until then, we will remain to have no idea about where she may be."
Afrah's POV
"Where are you taking me?" I ask Carol as she still has her gun pointed at me. The driver is probably in with them on their evil plan, since he didn't say anything about the gun. But he seems frightened.
"To meet with the boss." She offers me a smile. That's the smile I fell for. The innocent-looking smile that she showed me on my first day while acting like such a good colleague and a normal citizen. But right now she looks crazy. If she were to threaten me with death, I have absolutely no doubt that she would do it. She's ready to pull the trigger anytime. She's cold-hearted just like all of them. "He must've dropped you off at the company and he's on his way back now." She smirks evilly. The woman that was dressed exactly like me, she was just a distraction for the police officers that were guarding me. Which means Mr Wesley knew about our plan and he pretended not to. He is the worst criminal I have ever known. I can't believe he was never hidden from the world. The whole world knew him yet the whole world kept searching for him. Is this where my life ends? I look down at my necklace and think to myself, is this going to be the first and the last present I'm going to receive from Junaid? Mr Wesley knows he's been caught. The police has his profile and knows well enough who he is now so why would he send me back? What good would that do to him? He can just kill me right now because either way, he'll be going to prison. There's no way back for him but also there's no way back for me.
"Mrs, we're here." The driver tells Carol once he had parked the car.
She opens the door and comes to my side, opening my door for me, "Get out." She demands and I do so before noticing two men in a suit, who appear to be bodyguards. "And you?" Carol looks at the driver who's about to turn the car on.
"I... I haven't... haven't seen anything." The driver stammers as he speaks.
"Of course you haven't," Carol smirks while activating the trigger.
"Please don't kill me." The driver begs in desperation.
"What? I'd never do that." She gasps as if he had said the craziest thing ever, before bursting into laughter and throwing her gun towards one of the guards. "Make it quick and in one go." She demands before grabbing my arm and pulling me with her.
"Where are we_" I start but stop when I hear a gunshot and a man shouting. I immediately turn back and what I saw in front of my eyes, shook me to the core. The car is covered in blood and inside of it, laid a lifeless man who was perfectly fine just a few seconds ago. I place my hands over my mouth as I breathe heavily, in shock, finding it impossible to shut my mouth.
Carol grabs my arm again forcing me to walk with her, "Why...? Just... why?" I look at Carol to find her with an amused expression. She is so cruel and heartless, It's obvious in her face that she feels no pity.
"We can't afford to be found. At least not now." She says making me step over a wood stick as we enter a forest.
"What do you guys want from me this time?" I ask, noticing there's nothing around us besides from trees. This is the middle of no-where, and the drive lasted for about two hours or even more.
"From you, nothing. In fact, you will be free to go soon. You just need to swap places with your mother." She smirks.
"Do you really expect me to believe that?"
"Less talking and more walking, shall we?" She says and I exhale in frustration. I can't believe I'm always falling in this kidnappers' tricks and ending up putting everybody around me in danger. Now Ms Aminah would be in danger because of me. "Here we are." She says as we reach a huge house at the end of the forest. It's impossible for anybody to find this place without getting lost.
The guards open the door for us and she takes me inside with her. She takes me to an elevator which is situated inside the house and she presses the floor number below the one we are in.
It is a dark and scary place. It is worse than the basement I was in when I was kidnapped last time. This floor is probably used to keep all the hostages that they kidnap.
"He's waiting for you." Carol tells me before doing a hand gesture for the guards to open a giant door for me.
"Who?" I ask but she only closes the door as soon as I'm in. The room is completely dark, I couldn't see a single thing. I extend my hands to look for a light switch but my hands land on somebody, instead. "Who is here?" I ask removing my hands from the person and I hear footsteps. "Could you please turn the lights on?"
"You will be given a phone in exactly one hour and you will call your mother, begging her to come here with the pen drive." He says and I suppose he found out that Mr Thomas converted the DVD's information to the pen drive.
"Keep dreaming." I tell the man, in a firm tone, "I'm not making her come here." I say and hear the man laugh. A very evil laugh.
"Mad Dog told me about the last time. Looks like he was right, you do have quite an attitude. But that braveness of yours will cause you problems, believe me." His voice sounds closer each time and I could hear footsteps.
"I'm not afraid of somebody who hides behind the darkness." I say as I take steps back.
"I won't touch you, but I've got people who will. So if I was you, I'd stop trying to protect others and think of myself first."
"Whether you get that pen drive or not, you're doomed. The police and the NCA are looking for you by now and it's only a matter of hours until they find you."
"Then pray that they don't find me or else you will pay for it." He raises his tone of voice causing my heart to jump for a moment. His voice is so near, but I have no idea where he's standing at this moment.
"How could you? You lied to everybody around you, pretending to be who you were not."
"Let's quit the drama. You will be taken to a room upstairs and you'll be called back down when your mother arrives." He says and I feel his voice away from me each time. He's leaving, but not towards the door which I entered.
The door soon opens revealing Carol. The outside light illuminates the room a little, allowing me to scan the room in search for Mr Wesley but he had already left.
"I can walk on my own." I pull my arm away from Carol's grip and make my way to the elevator.
"What a temper!" She states with a smirk before pressing the floor number, "I fancy that." She bites her lower lip while checking me out.
I shift my eyes away from her until we reached our floor. She leads me to one of the many rooms in that corridor and I enter to find everything that a room usually has and even more. There's a huge double-sized bed, a wardrobe, drawers, shelves, a couch and a door that probably leads to a bathroom.
"You have one hour." Carol tells me making her way back to the door.
"For?" I ask before she could leave.
"To get ready. The bathroom is right there and you have a change of clothes in the wardrobe. You'll have a special guest." She smirks.
"You must be kidding," I sneer and sit down on the bed when she left me alone in the room. I hear a key on the door and I suppose she locked me in here.