"Bingo!" He replied, chuckling as he did. "Stuart Reeds is just a made up name. It's the identity I've taken to Infiltrate your company and take the revenge I've planned. Ah, I'm sure you must be wondering about the picture, you did a background check on the name, am 1 right?" When Leonica didn't answer, giving him the satisfaction he wanted, he continued on. "That dude's just my gardener." "Just a fall guy." "Correct." He said, clapping his hand. "You truly are smart, but not smart to see the obvious threat in front of you. Your assistant on the other hand..." He trailed off, tutting his tongue and wagging his finger.
Leonica gritted her teeth, glaring daggers at him in a bid to hide the worry she was feeling for Kennedy. "What did you do to him?!" "Well, nothing much. He's fine. But, is now really a tto worry about others?" He said and walked around her. "Shouldn't you worry about your own life instead?" "I can handle myself." She responded.
The One Png The Strings "I'm sure you can. But the question is, will you?" "What is that supposed to mean?" "Ah, Ms. Romero, don't tellyou haven't figured it out yet. If I'm the one behind this, who's the one helping me?" Leonica's heart nearly stopped at his question. She turned her head slowly to catch the look on his face. Only after seeing the huge grin that spilt his face did she realize he wasn't joking. There was someone helping him?! "Ah, don't tellyou haven't figured it out just yet?" He mocked, his hand moving and brushing against the hair on her shoulder.
She jerked away from his touch, her eyes narrowing and the fire in her gut burning "Ah, you don't have to worry. Sadly she's not here, I can assure you that." "She?" Leonica questioned.
Was it Angelina? But how? She was behind bars, wasn't she? "Ah, I've already told you too much." As if realizing he had said too much, he walked away. "Don't worry, I better keep my mouth shut before I spoil the fun." "You're sick" Leonica spat, tugging on the rope around her wrist and trying to break free.
He chuckled at her words as he walked over to the door, holding it open and looking over his shoulder. "Yeah? Well too bad, I didn't think that when I ran over that stupid kid of your " The anger and rage she was feeling, instantly simmered down, and the color on her face drained.
Her expression gave him the satisfaction he craved for. "Don't look too surprised Princess, or else the events to cwon't be fun." And with that, he shut the door and the lock clicked. She Was Taken.
Resting against his car, outside of Romero Empire, Owen patiently tapped his feet while pressing his phone close to his ear.
"The caller you're trying to reach is currently out of service. Please try again another time." The robotic voice rang into his ear for the umpteenth time.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHe pulled the phone away and ended the call, glancing up at the company empire in front of him with squinted eyes.
It wasn't like Leonica to be late to an appointment, talk less of having her phone switched off for ten minutes straight.
Perhaps her battery ran flat and she'd running late in a meeting. He tried to assure himself.
But no matter how much he tried to assure himself, he couldn't ignore the feeling of worry bubbling in his chest.
"This is odd." He muttered and tried her number one last time. When it didn't go through, he pocket the phone and matched into the building of Romero Empire.
His eyes spotted the receptionist almost immediately and he walked up to her, tapping the pad of his index finger on the marble counter top to gain her attention from the computer.
"Oh... Oh!" The receptionist exclaimed, a blush quickly rising to her cheeks as she recognized Owen. "Mr. Lee, hello. How may I help you?" Owen forced a smile on his lips. He could see the way she was staring at him and the smile was all an act to not scare the girl." Morning. I was here to meet Leonica, is she in? The receptionist's eyes widened, her fingers immediately flying over the keyboard and her brows furrowing "Huh? That's weird. I'm sorry, sir. I don't seem to find any records of an appointment for you." "No, uh, it personal" He corrected.
"Personal?" The girl asked and he nodded. "Then, please wait a minute. I'll get the boss' assistant to cand take you to Ms. Romero's office." She said and went for the landline, while Owen hung around at the counter top. Watching her click away at a few numbers on the landline before pressing it to her car, Owen heaved a sigh as he realized he was worrying over nothing.
Leonica probably had a meeting and had her phone off Not more than a few seconds had passed when the receptionist returned, having a worried look on her face. "I apologize, but Kennedy seems to be busy at the moment, he can't take the phone." "And Leonica? Is she in a meeting?" Owen questioned, watching at the receptionist shook her head. "Not any that I know of." She responded.
Owen sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Could you just letin? I'll just check her office myself." "Umm, are you sure that's okay? The receptionist questioned, but the look on Owen's face seemed to have assured her as she waved him forward.
"Alright, follow me. We'll take the elevator." She instructed and he followed.
As they made their way to the office, Owen felt a little relieved knowing Leonica was in the building.
But that still didn't explain the nagging feeling.
By the tthey reached the office, Owen wasted no tknocking.
"Leonica?" He called out after several of his knocks had gone unanswered "Leo, It's Owen" When she didn't respond, the knot in his chest tightened. He tried the doorknob, twisting it and finding it unlocked.
"I'm sorry, but the boss has strict rules against entering without her permission=" "I'd be quick." Owen interrupted as he stepped inside and surveyed the office.
It was clean and well kept. Too clean and well kept for someone like Leonica. She was always messy when she worked, because of that papers were always around the place and coffee cups on either side of her table. But none of that was present. Instead the room looked like it had barely been entered.
The receptionist seemed to notice this and pointed out. "Oh? It looks like Ms. Romero hasn't even been here." "No, no she hasn't." Owen muttered to himself. "Where's her assistant? Perhaps he knows where she is." "Mr. Kennedy? Now that I think of it, Ms. Homero had also been looking for him." "And?" That was the last tI saw her." "And when was that?" Owen asked.
The receptionist thought for a few seconds before responding "Ah, about an hour ago." "An hour ago?!" He muttered, pulling his phone out and dialing her number.
"The caller you're trying to reach is currently out of service-" "This isn't right." He muttered, no longer denying the feeling in his gut. "Where's the security room?" "What? Why?" Something isn't right, can't you tell? We need to check where she is." He said and without waiting for a response, headed out of the office.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Oh, uh, alright. I'll show you the way." She responded and rushed after him, leading him to the security room.
When th they arrived, Owen was immediately welcomed by the guard and a screen with a few CCTV's showing the ins and outs of the entire company. "Good morning." "Is Ms. Romero in the building?" He asked, leaning on the chair near the guard.
"Uh," There was a pause as the guard scanned through the CCTV current feeds and shook his head. "Nope, at least not where I can "Not where you can see?" Owen repeated, narrowing his eyes at the fat, donut eating guard.
The guy hesitated, glancing at the receptionist before giving a sheepish chuckle. "Uh, yeah." "So you have blind spots? "Just one." He replied.
"Show me." "I, I'm not sure if I should." He replied, his words slurred due to the donut stuffed into his mouth Owen was growing annoyed with this guy.
"Show. Me." "Hey, I can't, Mr. Lee. If you wanna see the feed,!
1, you'd have to talk to Ms. Romero Ve about it first." He defended stuffing his mouth again with the pastry. Owen was seconds away from smashing the guy's head against the control board.
"I can't show you but I can tell you." He quickly added.
"And?"
"It's the storage room. We haven't gotten around to fixing the cameras that had developed a fault there." He informed. "The storage room," m."Owen muttered. "Do you have any other camera around there?" "Yeah. The Hall pass." H "show it to me." ""But I can't
"For fucks sake, show it toor I'll make sure you lose your damn job and every other job you're going to get in the entire of Norway." Owen threatened, finally losing his cool, The guard's eyes widened, and his hand immediately moved, clicking away and bringing up the requested feed. The Hall pass was empty, no sign of anyone.
"When was the last tthis hall had someone on it?" Owen asked.
"About two hours ago." "Pull up the feeds then." "He "Alright, alright." He muttered and the feed switched.
When he saw a figure walk into the Hall, Owen's breath hitched. "Pause." The feed paused and Owen was able to confirm the identity of the person.