“A week though. Many things can happen during a week. Maybe I can put up with it. Nothing much can be done anyway,” I mumbled to myself, a sense of hopelessness enveloping me.

Luca pulled something small and black out of his pocket and put it near the door.

“After I go out, you take that and activate it. It is a Mini GPS Tracker. I’m not sure if it will work but we can try anyway. Hide it carefully though; if you get caught, I’ll get doomed along with you,” Luca explained.

“They can track you by your phone as well,” I suggested.

“Yes, but like I said, the connection is strange here. I think Violetta designed the place in such a way that we cannot connect to outside. Who knows, she may be keeping track of everyone’s phones.”

“Then, your phone is useless here. What you need is for your phone to be in the connection range,” I mused. “If you send your phone outside through other vehicles going in and out. Send a text to the IOF telling them to track your phone. When it’ll be in the connection range, they’ll get it and will be able to track our location even if it could be a bit far.”

“Yeah, that may work. Anyway, I don’t think they would be willing to wait for a week, especially your dad,” Luca winced, rubbing the nape of his neck, as if he was remembering an awful memory.

“My dad?” I perked up, both eyebrows raised.

“Castiel informed him and he took the earliest flight to Italy. He looked like a dragon breathing fire when he stormed into the office. We had quite some trouble trying to calm him down,” Luca chuckled.

I smiled at my dad’s typical behaviour. He came off as a bit scary to some people. Then, I felt myself tearing up. What would he say if he saw the state I was in? I always dreamed of becoming successful like him in the legal field but I was instead being dragged into stupid dangerous situations, needing a group of people to rescue me. I knew that he’ll do anything to save me but deep down, I hoped he wouldn’t be disappointed by me.

“I’ll be going now,” Luca announced. “Don’t let anyone doubt that you haven’t been affected by the drug. We cannot risk getting caught.”

I nodded at him and he went out, closing the door. I relaxed a bit, knowing that Luca was here and that me being drugged was avoided for today. I slid to the door and grabbed the small tracker. I activated it and put it in my pants’ pockets.

I lifted my arm up, looking at the pink spot where that oldie injected me, which slightly stung when I touched it. I leaned against the wall, sighed and hoped it would work.

☆☆☆

Some minutes or hours passed by. The always lit room made it difficult for me to calculate the time. To distract myself from being bored, I kept playing with the tracker.

The sound of the door unlocking made me drop it back into my pocket quickly. I eyed the man that entered. For a second, I thought Luca came back because of their uncanny resemblance. I already had a guess of who he might be.

His gaze fell on me with a smirk. He looked outside, gesturing for something. Very soon, a well-covered man dragged another man who looked unconscious and dropped him off at the other corner of the room.

“Sorry, we’ve run out of rooms. Learn to share,” he casually shrugged. My eyes widened at him.  I remembered his voice. He was the one who had called me ugly when I was feigning unconsciousness. That was him, Luca’s brother, Alessio.

Before I could retort anything back at him, he left. I eyed the unconscious man carefully. Should I see if he was okay?

I almost stood up when the door opened again. I fell back in my place, staring at the intruder who turned out to be Alessio again. “And be careful. Infections spread fast.”

He disappeared again as I stared at the closed door in confusion. Infections? What exactly did the man have? I looked over the unconscious man whose back was facing me. I stood up, maintaining my distance.

“Excuse me? Are you okay?” I whispered out a stupid question. He did not look okay. My guess was that he has been a frequent victim of Violetta’s fun hobbies. His hair looked unkempt and he had wrinkles around his eyes. He seemed malnourished by the old, loose clothes that hung on his body. Despite my curiosity, I did not dare approach him.

I felt him move from where I stood. I instantly stepped back. The man laid on his back and his blood red eyes stared at the walls. His eyes became fixed, his pupils widely dilated.  The man’s lips were slightly blue. Something was wrong with him.

The man started shaking. And before I could say anything, he was violently convulsing on the ground as he frothed at the mouth. I gasped, clamping my mouth as I scrambled to the door. The colour drained out of my face. I grabbed the handle by instinct, trying to open the door, despite knowing that it was locked.

I blinked furiously, not knowing what to do. I couldn’t even call the ambulance here. I felt claustrophobic all of a sudden, breaking into sweats. I hit the door and aggressively pulled onto the door handle. “Hey! Open the door! Anybody here?” I shouted, slamming on the door.

I looked back at him with glossy eyes. He remained still, showing no sign of movement. There was a small puddle of liquid that poured out of his mouth beside his face. I felt nauseous the longer I stared at him.

I leaned against the door, knocking on it every once in a while. Shouting served to no use as I remembered that the room was soundproof. And the man was not waking up again.

After a long time of staring at the door, I moved back when I heard the door unlocking. Before I could say anything, two men walked in. They were entirely covered and wore gloves. They ignored me and knelt down beside the man, blocking my view. They seemed to be assessing him as they whispered and nodded at each other.

They then enveloped the man into something and lifted him up. I didn't need to question them to know what happened. He was already dead. My heart slammed against my ribcage and my breath came out uneven as he was led out. Was this how I was going to end up as well?

I thought they would lock the door as they got out but someone else was flung inside. For a second, I thought that it would be another victim who was going to be left to die. I was even more surprised when I saw Violetta’s face. Then, I realised it was Angelia. It was quite difficult to tell them apart.

I cocked my head towards the door, noticing Alessio.

“You should have thought at least once before telling on her,” he clicked his tongue in fake disappointment though his tone was full of amusement.

“My decision to do so is way better compared to someone who follows her like a dog on a leash,” Angelia sneered back.

Alessio’s amused look faded instantly. His nostrils flared as his jaw tightened. He was fighting hard to keep his anger inside.

“Unlike you, I am calculating my moves. Once the right time comes, I will make that bitch regret taking my place,” he said through clenched teeth.

Angelia scoffed at him. “That’s not something we’ll ever witness,” she said, letting out a dry chuckle.

“You mean you won’t witness this. Wanna know why? Because you won’t be alive for long. You’ll die a pathetic death like our parents did.”

Before Angelia could retort back, Alessio shut the door with a bang in her face. She slammed her palms on the cold floor in irritation. As she lifted her eyes, she saw the silent audience she had, leaning against the wall.

“Oh God, Haelyn! Are you okay?” she asked, scrambling on her feet as she approached me with a worried look.

I nudged her hand off my knees. “You should worry about yourself,” I muttered, with a flash of irritation. It felt wrong to be angry with her but each time I looked at her face, it reminded me of her devil twin. And this made me more infuriated towards her.

She awkwardly cleared her throat and sat beside me in silence.

“Does Luca know you’re here?” I finally asked after a long pause.

“No, I didn’t get in contact with him since the last few days. He had told me to stay away so as no suspicions are thrown upon me…,” she trailed off, sighing.

“How did you get caught then?”

“Violetta has people who work for her posted everywhere around the city so we can never hide for long from her. Someone saw me taking your phone back from where it was dropped,” Angelia shrugged.

“Oh, I’m sorry for causing you to end up here. Luca is here as well by the way,” I chimed in.

She turned to me abruptly, with a surprised look. “What? He got kidnapped too?” she almost screeched.

“No, he was going from place to place trying to locate me and when he succeeded, he also got stuck for a few days here. I’m grateful for both of you helping though it is dangerous. You two seem to get along well, compared to the other toxic two,” I remarked.

“Hmm, yeah…,” she trailed off, probably walking down the memory lane. “We were both never that into the family business compared to Alessio and Violetta. Those two went a bit out of control when our mother ran away leaving us with that monster of a father.”

“I can relate to that,” I sighed. “My mother left me and my dad when I was twelve. But my dad was a much better parent than my mother could ever be.”

“You were lucky to have at least one caring parent then. I had to take care of myself as well as Luca who was only eight at that time. Violetta always held a grudge against our mother. Before killing our father, she located my mother who had escaped to Spain, where she remarried. Violetta killed her the instant she found her. And like Alessio said, I could really be her next kill.”

I couldn’t help but feel speechless at this revelation. I instinctively wrapped my arm around Angelia’s shoulders to comfort her and ease the tension. At this rate, I felt like Violetta was capable of doing anything for her interests and that increased my fear of her.

“It’s okay. I’m sure we’ll be rescued soon,” I whispered to her.

Right on time, the door opened abruptly. Our eyes shot up to our visitor.

Speaking of the devil…

☆☆☆

*Castiel’s perspective*

“Did you get through him?” Raphael asked.

“No,” I replied for the hundredth time as I slammed my phone on the table. “I can’t get through him.”

“Maybe he has turned off his phone,” Raphael mumbled as he walked by yet again.

A whole day has passed since Luca informed us about his whereabouts. He went to the other port city, Salerno, to inspect around but never called back again. The longer it took, the more my patience seemed to vanish. I had told Raphael to join Luca but Raphael was not able to get through certain places where there were too many restrictions on who can have access.

I pressed my face into my palms and released a deep breath. My thoughts wandered to what Haelyn may possibly be going through. Three days have passed. In many cases, this could mean that it was too late. Or it was my fears that were engulfing my brain and making me take this on a personal level rather than the professional level that was demanded of me.

“Hey! The GPS Tracker has been activated!” someone announced excitedly. I looked behind to see Damian on a laptop. I rushed over to take a peek, followed by the others who were around. My eyes darted across the screen.

“What is this?” I frowned.

“Someone is tampering with it,” Damian groaned as he slammed the table with frustration. I stared at the blinking dot that kept switching locations on the map every five seconds.

“What is going on?” two voices chorused when the door opened.

I moved aside to give place to Mr Ford and Haelyn’s father as Damian explained what was happening. I looked at Mr Carter’s exhausted face and how his hope slowly disintegrated. The wrinkles around his eyes seemed to have multiplied. Searching for his daughter, day and night, had taken a toll on him, yet he refused to show any feeling of despair.

“The good news is that Luca knows where Haelyn is since he managed to pass the GPS Tracker to her. But the bad news is that we cannot get in contact with both of them. Luca’s phone is unreachable,” Raphael explained to Mr Ford.

“Maybe it is because of the place where she’s being held. Wherever it is, Violetta would make sure we cannot trace the location. If the last time we heard of Luca was when he was in Salerno, he must not have gone far to find Haelyn. We should look around there,” Mr Ford suggested, looking at Mr Carter for confirmation.

“Lucio and some others are already at the port-”

A ting signaling a message cut through my sentence. I swiped across the screen and read the message.

Luca 7:17

No signal from where I am. Track my phone. I sent it out through a van that was going out. Also, advance with precaution.

Everyone eyed me questioningly as I stared at my phone.

“Let that be,” I said, gesturing to the laptop and slipped my phone on the table for everyone to see. “Tracking his phone would be easier. If I got his message now, that means his phone is already within the signal range. We should act fast.”

“On it,” Raphael said and proceeded to grab the laptop.

The tapping sound of his fingers on the keyboard resounded across the room as we waited. Hope started to bloom among us.

“The vehicle is already close to the harbour. How will we track where they started from?” Raphael inquired as he turned the laptop for all of us to see.

“Tell the team that is near the harbour to stopped the van from arriving at their destination. As soon as they are apprehended, make them to turn around and show the way. Those vans transporting products rarely have more than two men,” Mr Carter responded.

“And we’ll follow behind since we are further away,” Mr Ford nodded in agreement. “We cannot charge right in, after getting the location though. We’ll follow the plan placed by the hostage rescue team.”

“Let’s go then,” Mr Carter said as he seemed to have got his energy back.

This time, I was determined to get Haelyn out of those criminals’ grasp, no matter what.