“You can’t expect me to sit here and do nothing, I’m going out there to find her.”

“You won’t last 5 minutes on the streets of Venezuela with that Rolex on your wrist and Armani suit. Athena is my main priority now, I don’t want to have to babysit her boyfriend.”

“Fine, just put me to use. I have money and resources, let me get in touch with some of my contacts and see what they know.”

“Alright, go see what you can find out and take Allesandro with you.”

Dante nods at Matias’s command and jerks Allesandro along, who hadn’t spoken a word since finding out Athena was missing.

Undisclosed location

“The prisoner is losing a lot of blood boss man, she’s going in and out of consciousness.”

“Bring her some fluids and find a way to make the bleeding stop. I want her to be awake and screaming in pain when I give Dante a call.”

Pedro walked over to an unconscious Athena and ran his index finger along her face before being interrupted by his son, Fernando.

“So what did she do to deserve this?” Fernando questions his father’s motives.

“She got involved with the wrong man and he needs to learn a lesson.”

“She looks awfully familiar.”

“You’re probably thinking of her mother, she was one of my women.”

Athena incoherently wakes up with blur vision and barely recognises the people in front of her. After a few minutes, her mind and vision begins to clear up.

“I’m going to see what’s taking those goons so long, our prisoner can keep you company.” Pedro walks out of the room and locks the door behind him, leaving Fernando and Athena alone.

“Who are you?” Athena asks.

“Sssshsh, you need to save your strength.” Fernando walks towards Athena and lifts her shirt up.

Fearing for what would happen next, Athena pleaded with the stranger and tried to break free from her constraints with the little energy that she had.

Fernando began to reach into his pocket and take out a handkerchief and proceed to press it against Athena’s wound causing her to momentarily cry out in pain.

“I’m sorry but I have to apply pressure to stop the bleeding.” Fernando apologizes.

“You’re the cartels on call doctor or what?” Athena sass’s him.

“Try the cartels next leader.”

Athena winces, not because of the pain but out of shock. She could be staring at her estranged brother and he was none the wiser of that. Fernando then brought a bottle of water to Athena’s lips, allowing her to replenish.

“Why are you taking care of me then? My death surely would stick it to Dante.”

“Because this situation can he handled without someone innocent dying.”

“How do you know if I’m innocent or not?”

“I can see it in your eyes. There’s a familiar look in them that screams ‘I didn’t want any of this’. I’m Fernando by the way.”

“Fernando, I have to tell you something…”

Before Athena could finish her sentence, two of Pedro’s goons came in.

“What are you two doing here?”

“Boss man changed his ming and had some other business to attend to. He wanted a video of us roughing up the prisoner to send to Dante.”

“Fernando, please don’t let them.”

“Shut up bitch.” One of the goons slapped Athena which maddened Fernando.

“Hey.” He grabbed his father’s goon by the collar and said, “How would you like if I slapped you?”

“Sorry boss, I’m just doing my job.”

Fernando knew the man was right after all he was letting his emotions control his actions.

“Just get it over and done with.” Fernando looked over at Athena with sorrow in his eyes, while she had vulnerability written all over her face.

One of the goons began recording while the other threw punch after punch at Athena’s face. Fernando tried to get as far away as possible from her cries but couldn’t, he ran back to the room in hopes of saving her somehow.

“Enough, go and send the footage to Dante. I want to have some alone time with the prisoner. Do not disturb us.”

The men listened to their bosses orders and left the room. Fernando ran over to Athena and began untying the ropes around her hands and ankles.

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have let any of that happen.”

Athena’s eye was swollen shut and her bottom lip bruised, she could barely stand up at this point.

“I have to get you out of here before my father comes back.” Fernando states as he tries to get Athena to stand and balance against him.

“Wait.” She silently utters.

“There’s no time. Whatever it is, you can tell me once I get you to safety. Come on.”

 Ruiz Manor

“The blood at the scene is Athena’s, I had the lab run a DNA test on it. As the other leads, they all lead to dead ends.” Romulus disappointedly speaks out.

“Father maybe it is time to involve the police.” Remus suggested.

“If her kidnappers don’t reach out within the next 8 hours we will. For now I want men on the ground searching this city for her, call in all our favours I want my daughter back home before morning.”

Romulus pulls Allesandro aside and whispers something in his ear, before getting a chance to respond, the men were interrupted by the sound of a women’s cries. Everyone turns around and looks at Dante who looked as if he was about to throw up, the sound had been coming from his phone.

“Is that Athena?” Matias asked before striding towards Dante and grabbing the phone out of his hand.

Tears streamed down Allesandro’s face while everyone gathered and watched the video of Athena in horror.

“You were right Sandro, this is all my fault. I shouldn’t have let her go off alone.” Matias apologized.

“The only person’s fault this is, is Pedro Manuel’s. I just know he is behind this.”

“Rom, I want a bounty out on Pedro’s head and those two imbeciles that laid their hands on my daughter. Luckily for us they were stupid enough not to wear any masks.”

“I can try and trace where the video came from and run a facial recognition scanning system across town to pick up any of their movements.” Allesandro stated.

“Do it.”

“Antonio, I want you to fly back to LA and ensure we double up on security. This is an attack on me and I don’t trust Pedro to just stop with Athena.”

“On it boss.”

Back at the undisclosed location 

“I distracted the guards, we need to leave now.”

“What about your father? He will know you helped me escape.”

“I can handle my father.”

Athena and Fernando’s conversation was abruptly ended by the sound of Pedro’s voice screaming at his guards who weren’t at their duty points.

“Quick take off your pants.” Fernando orders as he removes his shirt, revealing a canvas full of tattoo’s and muscle.

“Eh, what are you doing?” Athena confusingly asks.

“Well my father needs to think I just forced you to have sex with me, that way he won’t be suspicious and think I’m helping you in any way. So if you can fake a fear tears now would be the perfect time.” 

Athena did what she was told and just in time too as Pedro flung open the door and strode in.

“Well, well, well. Like father, like son. You couldn’t resist the charm of a Ruiz woman either.”