"Giovanni Romano." I could not stop uttering his name. What else could I do? The fact that I was kidnapped and held captive was enough to push me into a shock.

But knowing it was the man who I just met once, and he already created such an impression where there's nothing left for me to judge anymore was actually unforeseeable.

He was a lunatic; I had that doubt from the very beginning, but that lunatic was a psychopath; it was something new in the town and beyond my understanding.

Some people are like open books, you can read them without even flipping a page. Giovanni was never easy to read or to understand, but my experience with laconic people has trained me enough to know that they're not what they seem like.

He looked the same. Eyes resembling mine, hair the same old fashioned gelled back with clothes simple and ironed. He had that undeniable powerful perspective on things around him and his clear opinion on the world that many people cease to achieve all their life.

With the same blank expressions, he stood in front of me. His wrinkled face mocking me. My agony, which he never once considered fully on display.

The same wooden chair as mine, screeched against the floor when he decided to take a seat and talk with me like an adult.

"Hello, Cedric." His traditional way of greeting me did not receive a response from me. "How are you doing?"

His inveterate behavior, of prevaricating was enough to boil my blood. We were just a few inches apart and the spit in my mouth was ready to come out. Asking a person how they are doing after you ruined their life and made them suffer was surely psychotic.

I retreat to my chair out of disgust and close my eyes to collect myself before I lash out unjustly.

"Thank you for your concern. But as you can see I am not doing good." I quietly responded and shook my head vigorously while displaying him my most wrathful look.

Unexpectedly, I witnessed a smile emerging on the corner of his creased lips. I panted at his reaction as the fury again built within me. The blinding lights from above were no longer painful but exhausting.

"I knew you were unstable." I insulted him. "Just didn't expect you to be a traitor too." Knowing he was our business partner and thinking he betrayed not just my father but the company too, I commented that.

I would have slapped Zak if he was here for my accurate presumption about Giovanni the other night which he decided to ignore and accused me of ruining the deal with him.

"I am being loyal, Cedric. It's your father who betrayed me and now you are here." He protested.

Now, he presented me with a new theory, pressuring me to ponder over it. I have seen my father working and his honesty towards it, the mere reason why I respect him so much. The thought of him betraying someone meaning betraying our own home business seems hard to register.

Even if he has betrayed someone, it gives no right to Giovanni to hurt my family or treat them inhumanly. Well, I still do not know if my father and brother are alright under this vulture's surveillance.

"Where is he?" I have been worried and restless about my father and brother's whereabouts since the day I came here but no one seems to know about it as they never once answered me. The mere thought of something happening to them shook me to the core.

Naturally, a few seconds of a slideshow of the memories I created and lived with them resurfaced and I controlled my tears as they threatened to fall but they blurred my vision.

He seemed to completely ignore my question. "Worry about yourself." He advised.

Asshole!!

I assumed my knuckles must have turned white by now by the amount of rage I was feeling burning inside me as I tried to control it behind my back. My teeth automatically gritted just by looking at him.

"Olivia said she had something against my father. I suppose it was a lie." I informed him.

"I hired her." He nodded.

"Why?" He was no longer ready to meet my eyes. The greasy floor interested him and it irritated me.

"To bring you here and keep you safe." I was just glad that he was answering me. Though not glad about the situation because in the end he was my kidnapper and all the decisions were taken by him.

"Safe? My biggest thread is you. What are you trying to keep me safe from?" I asked as much as I could before he decided not to answer me anymore. I would like to collect all the little information I could make him spill.

Though that does not mean that I would believe everything he says to me he is talking and it fills me with the hope that maybe I could convince him against his decision to harm me and my family.

I could never predict his next move.

He was a tough man both emotionally and physically, I predicted that much from his way of behaving and appearance. It was hard to crack him.

When he again met my eyes, a different wave of emotion hit me and I forgot that people could see their leader so vulnerable in front of me and neither did I care about his vulnerability, I was startled to just see him like that.

"Your father." He whispers. "He ruined you so much."

"What?"

"He spoiled you." I noticed his teary eyes and I was confused by his sudden change of emotion.

He really is unstable.

"Just look at you." He eyed me from top to bottom and I sigh at his drama. I was beyond tired by this procedure of him playing around with me and not concluding his act with his demands.

I wanted to pat myself for enduring all the lies Giovanni threw at me and at the same time wanting to hit my head till I do not have to torture myself with his bullshit. I fell into his trap for a minute.

"Just tell me what you want and why are you doing this?" I cut the chase.

The lunatic he is started laughing along with his men again giving me the feeling of the victim from some action movie after realizing that I did not fall into his trap.

I have dealt with women crying all my life, I know real tears when I see one. So jokes on him.

"That easy?" He asked once he regained his composure. I knew he enjoyed seeing me suffer and no matter how hard I try to think of a reason for what he did to me, nothing seems to convey my mind. No apparent reason could actually define his treatment towards us.

I do not know him, never have seen him before and I have never offended him. Was he really just a sociopath or is he really an enemy of my father? But my father is a smart man, if he knows he can not compete with a man like Giovanni then he would never touch him let alone betray him.

But why would Giovanni lie?

What did you do Dad? What did you really do? 

"What does that mean?" He just smirked.

I reluctantly flinch at the loud thud sound that echoed through the whole warehouse. I quickly look around in hopes of detecting the source of the sound.

No one was as bothered as me and silently stood in their allocated places. Giovanni stayed unbothered in his place too and I figured it was coming from the outside of the room.

They knew what was happening.

I shifted in my chair as I looked at Brown moving away from the door, the door slamming ceremony occurred again. I was unprepared for it as I violently flinched back by it.

Just like Olivia and Giovanni who surprised me with their sudden appearance earlier, this time it was two males who side by side walked inside with what I saw was another man being dragged by them.

My eyes widen at the scene as they struggle to keep the man in their hold stable as his face is covered by a black ski mask. The hard panting could be heard by all of us.

The guy who was struggling to get out of the hold was seemingly more delicate than the two giants who almost crushed him to keep him straight.

Giovanni stood up and slowly went nearer to the man in the hold, producing the gun and pointing at the guy before removing the suffocating mask and revealing his next prey.

I held my breath the whole time. Never in my whole life have I ever seen a gun let alone life on the edge.

With wide eyes and open mouth, I gawk at the newcomer in the room who would soon beg for his life too.

We both looked at each other in disbelief before I spoke up. "Dad."

Before I could speak any further, Giovanni dragged my father by his collar and literally threw him on the chair he was sitting a while ago, in front of me. "Hey!"

My father did not protest against the ill-treatment he was receiving but I could not stay quiet. I warned Giovanni but he did not seem to mind my warning look or maybe he did not take me seriously.

My father's worried eyes wandered on my body and he gasped at my face and began to caress my wounds. "Cedric." He painfully rolled out my name.

I knew it was painful for him to watch me like this, so pathetic. All he cared about was me at the moment. "I was worried, my child."

"Dad." I pathetically struggled against the bound just so I could hug him. His fingers lingered longer on my face, examining the wounds I received from this place and people, and floated down to my abdominal where a purple bruise was imprinted.

The people around me vanished and the feeling of euphoria engulfed me as I looked at the familiar face again after weeks but at the same time a warning alarm went off in my head about the risk of our lives.

No matter how close we were sitting, we were still under Giovanni's mercy. Yes, I was filled with new energy and hope to fight but I did not ignore the consequences of my newfound enthusiasm.

"What about Zak?"

"He's okay." I released the air I was holding for too long.

"Enough with the chit-chat." Giovanni interrupted and held my father in place roughly for his man to handcuffed my father and again I struggled against my restraint. He covered his mouth with duct tape to restrict his speech.

_________________

Finally, Eros Hart is here. 

Who will save Cedric now? And how will Cedric save his father?