Return to the King

Chapter 5

Maurice's POV

It was Friday night and, as always, there was nothing to do at that point. Friday was always a rest day for the guys because we got done with work by Thursday. I was just hanging out in the kingdom with Antonio, gaming. We were playing some racing game. As always, I was kicking his ass in the game, and he was trying his hardest to beat me. Everything was running smoothly. I checked my phone to see Amelia had texted me. It was unreadable.

"Tonio, pause the game for me?"

Antonio paused the game and tilted his head with a confused expression.

"What's going on?"

"Uh, Amelia texted, but... I can't read this. Should we take it to Fred and see if he can figure it out?"

"Uh, is Fred even up right now? Shouldn't he be out with his lady friend or something?"

"Well.. Fred is a programming genius with his own software, so I think he would be trying to make it better or come up with something new. It shouldn't hurt to call and ask."

"Eh... you are right."

I dialed up Fred and, to my surprise, he answered on the second ring. I put him on speaker and headed over to my computer. I put the phone on speaker and placed the phone on the table.

"Hey Fred, what are you up to?"

"Hey guys! Uh, who's in the room, so I know that before I answer?"

"Just me and Antonio."

"Oh, well hey guys! What's up? I am working on new software for the city currently. So I am pulling an all-nighter. What's up with you guys?"

"Well, Maurice got a text from Amelia but he and I don't understand it. We thought maybe you could help us with that."

"Oh sure! I got software that could help with that. Just send me the text message that she sent."

"Hey, nice to see you guys again."

"Are you still sitting in your lair? I hope you are getting some type of sunlight during the day dude." Antonio said while shaking his head.

"Of course, of course. My new lady friend is helping out with that one."

"Great! Alright, can you tell us what this message says so I can make sure she is good at least." I said while clapping my hands together.

"Oh, right, right. So, on your screen can you see what I am seeing?"

"Yeah, we see Amelia's confused and twisted message," Antonio said as he pointed to the screen.

"Great! So, yeah, I am not sure what she was doing but with this software and a bit of scrambling. It is going to give you three of the best possibilities of what she meant to text. Because you know, in some cases the computer will come up with possibilities of letters that were meant to be typed but were skipped in some sort of way."

As Fred explained his software, the computer started to piece out some letters and created three new sentences. Two of them were weird looking but the last one seemed to make sense out of all the messages we saw.

"And there you have it. Amelia should have sent this message but I can understand how it got confused the way it did."

The message states, "At... a strange club. A club called Club Get Away. Had multiple things called Shots. Brain fuzzy. Text in the morning or when I can get a clear head."

"Amelia is out at a club? With who?!" Antonio said with his pouting face. He always gets so jealous when it comes to that girl.

"Well guys, I am guessing from the drinks in her system she is wasted in a way. I think someone should go to her and get her before a scandal approaches." Fred said while chewing on a beef jerky.

"I am. Fred, see if you can find this club and see if we can get some camera footage of it. We don't need anything happening."

"Okay Antonio. I am on it. Just give me a few to hack and and actually find this place. I'll report back in the morning." Fred's chat went off and I closed the laptop. I watched Antonio pace back and forth while nervously biting on his fingernails.

"Dude, she is fine and no she is not doing anything she shouldn't be doing. Remember, Amelia is technically still pure. I highly doubt a woman like that would give it to anyone, even with some drinks in her system."

"I... I was not thinking any of that. I trust Amelia... even though technically we are only married on paper."

"Yeah, but you guys have been communicating in ways that would say you are patching up your relationship, right?"

"Yeah, but she texted you! No offense, why didn't she text me that she was out at a club?"

"I answer my phone faster than you do honestly. And I don't think she would want to bother you, especially when you have a kingdom and a city to run about now."

"You as well, mister. So that is no...."

"I don't run a city though. I got you on that one."

Antonio bent up his lips and I checked the time with a slight chuckle.

"Look, she will text you in the morning and trust and believe you can laugh at her for getting drunk the way she did. I didn't even know she drank."

"Neither did I. Maybe she thought it was something else."

Antonio and I shrugged our shoulders and looked around.

"I am going to crash here, just to make sure that you don't do anything nuts."

"Well, not since telling you no because you are stubborn-"

"Watch your mouth sir." I said, throwing a pillow at him and heading off to my room to crash.

I was asleep in my bed until I heard the sound of my phone ringing in my sleep. I groaned and rolled over, tapping the night stand repeatedly until I felt my phone. I picked it up and shielded my eyes from the bright light. I looked at the caller ID to see it was Amelia calling. Why would she be calling at this time of time? I answered the phone and slightly sat up in the bed while putting her on speaker.

"H-Hello...."

"Maurice! Maurice! We have a problem. Wake up right now and get Antonio!" I could hear the panic and frantic worry in her voice.

"Wait... wait... wait. Calm down. What's-"

"No, calm down! I got kidn*pped! I got kidn*pped and I am on a road! I don't where I am. Track me through this phone!"

I took the bed sheet off my body and ran to the door. I swung it open and took off running towards Antonio's bedroom. I knocked over a maid in the process and didn't even bother to apologize.

"Amelia! I am running to him now! Do you see anything that can tell me where you are?"

"No! Nooooo! I just see a bunch of stupid trees and this stupid road I am on!"

I burst through the door and instantly woke Antonio up out of his sleep. He will thank me later for breaking down his door, but that is not the issue at the moment.

"We got your phone. Amelia, I got Antonio!"

"Amelia, are you okay?! What the hell is going-" Antonio said as he jumped up out of bed and took the phone from me.

"No time for questions! Track me and help me!"

"Okay, okay! I can do that. I have your phone." Antonio looked up at me and I waved him off to focus on the matter at hand. We ran towards the laptops in the room and I got to working on getting Fred on the line while Antonio got to work on tracking down Amelia.

"Good! I'll stay on this road and ooof-"

"Amelia!" Antonio screamed into the phone, but we didn't hear anything.

"Amelia come back to us!" Antonio started typing on the computer quickly and whacked it when it wasn't moving fast enough for him.

"Come on! Come on stupid thing!" Antonio screamed while continuing to hit the computer.

I got on the line with a sleepy Fred and he rubbed his eyes.

"Guys are you-"

"No time for questions! We need to track Amelia right now. Emergency and get Alex on the line now!" Fred got to moving as quickly as possible.

"Maurice! There's a van! There's a van! This dude won't let me go! Brown hair, buff, can't see his eyes! They are too dark for me to see! Brown eyes then! Black leather gloves! Tank top and black pants! Help me!"

"Amelia! Hang in there! Fight back! Fight back as much as possible and get away from there!" I screamed into the phone, not realizing a sleepy Alex was now on the laptop screen confused as to what was happening and why he got woken up out of his sleep.

"Another dude!" Amelia screamed.

"Amelia!" Anotnio screamed and grabbed the phone from off the table.

"Amelia! Amelia!" There was nothing. Just silence at the moment. The next thing we heard was the sound of tires screeching on the ground. It was faint but it could still be heard.

"What the f**k?!" Antonio screamed as he flipped over the table. All the laptops were thrown into the air and fell onto the floor. I grabbed the laptop with the guys on it and checked to see if they were still there.

"How the hell did this happen?! You said nothing would happen dude!" Antonio said as he ran to me. I placed my hand on his chest and felt the rapid beat of his heart.

"I cannot say calm down because this is a horrible situation but start thinking! She is on a time limit now! We need all hands on deck and nothing more and nothing less." I pushed him back and I knew he wanted to lose his cool again, but he took several deep breaths. He grabbed his hair out of frustration and looked up to the ceiling.

"Guys! Guys! Hello!" I listened as Fred was calling and I picked up the table and placed it back on the floor and put the laptop on the table.

"What's going on?" Alex asked while putting on a tank top.

"Amelia has been kidn*pped. Fred, I hope you can tape that conversation because we are going to need everything off of it. Noises, nature, something! Alex, we need you here to help with this. Fred, we need you to find some videos and get Amelia's phone tracked ASAP."

"I am on it. Please just give me a few and I will get her location."

"I am on my way to the house now." Alex said as he got up and his camera pointed to the ceiling.

"Keep this in house as well. We don't need no one freaking out or messages getting leaked as well."

"Roger that." Everyone got to work on tracking Amelia and finding out some type of information. I hope Antonio could stay a bit of calm while we wait for some type of results.

Amelia's POV

It was too freaking cold, the wind was blowing as if winter done decided to show its face for one night. I was curled up, body tightening to the point that body heat would have been beautiful in this point of time. I was alone, in the dark. There were whispers of other females along with their crying, their moaning of fear. I reached my hand out and felt the metallic bars around me. I was in a cage. A small cage with no blankets, no warmth, just the clothes on my back. Which, as you know, was not doing anything to help me. I kept rubbing my legs and arms to keep some heat in my body. Blew on my hands but nothing was working. Where the hell was I? Echoes were bouncing off walls.

Finally, a door opened, revealing bright lights that shined into the room. Men holding bags started to walk around, throwing some type of clothing into the other cages that my eyes so happened to lay upon. One dude stood front and center with his hands on his hips.

"Well, good morning ladies! Time to wakey, wakey! We have some clothes for you to put on. You have five minutes to get ready for your presentations that are happening. Some of you may not know the drill so let me explain." He began to pace around the room, looking into the cages with the other girls, watching them get dressed with this monstrous stare in his eyes. He was enjoying their fear.

"You must look our very best for the masters to come and claim their prizes. Anyone who messes up or does anything in the act of heroic will be killed and tossed aside like garbage because you can easily be replaced. Think of it like a job. You are just not benefitting off of it and we are getting money from you. Isn't that right... sweetheart?"

He was now standing by my cage. I was holding the clothes that were thrown at me. I glared at him with a devilish glare and he just smirked at me. He reached his hand inside and I bit it as hard as possible. He screamed and tried to pull away from me. As he kept pulling away, my head kept hitting the metal bars of the cage, but the way I was feeling, I didn't even care that I was getting hurt.

"Let go of me you crazy b***h!" His friends came to help and finally they snatched his hand out of my mouth and I spat his blood on the floor and got a little bit onto the black dress.

They wrapped his hand with some bandages as it was bleeding uncontrollably and he just kept staring at me in disbelief. He rushed towards my cage and hit it with his good hand and I just sat there with a smirk on my face.

"Looks like you might need to go get looked at for the presentations. You wanna look your best so you can get your benefits, don't you?" I asked as I tilted my head with a giant smirk on my face.

"I am going to kill you... I am seriously going to rip those pretty lips right off your face and put them on my ass so you can kiss it to the fullest! I am going to rip you apart and make you beg for me to kill you! You hear me!" His friends tried to pull him away from me while he kept charging. I crawled over to the cage and puckered my lips.

"You wouldn't touch these lips if I paid you to do so.... Besides, you can't touch the merchandise.... you'll lose money, now wouldn't you? Get on with yourself you f*****g pig."

They finally pulled him away and I sat down in the cage. Next thing I knew, someone with a black suit came approaching my cage. He knelt down to me and held out a napkin. I angrily looked at him but didn't sense any danger. Then again, you can't trust no one in this group now, can you? I kept my eye on him as he kept flapping the napkin for me to take it. I sighed and took the napkin and wiped my lips from the blood that was still on it.

"You are.... a fiesty one, aren't you? I hear you have already attacked one of my men so far." His voice was deep, husky even. I couldn't see his face yet but you could tell his temper was sitting in his voice even though he tried to mask it with sweetness.

"Your pig... deserved it."

"Pig... huh? And what does that make you? Wasn't you ever taught to never bite the hand that feeds you?"

"I was taught pretty much anything I needed to know. However, what you are doing is wrong and I hope each and everyone of you goes on the bus to hell and your souls burn in the flames of it."

"Such a mouth you have."

"You haven't heard anything yet..."

"I can tell.... Venom sits on that tongue of yours."

I turned from him and felt my body being yanked back from the back of my dress. How the hell did he reach me from where he was? I didn't show fear. I wasn't going to give him satisfaction. He slowly wrapped his arm around me, tightening it as he spoke.

"Now... you tell me... missy.... How long can you keep this spirit of yours before you're broken to the core? How long can you keep up this pretty girl, tough move you are doing because here... it doesn't mean s**t. Look around you.... you are nothing special down here. You are just another girl we have picked up. And will be sold to the highest bidder. So get it together now... or I will make your life... a living hell."

He threw me back and I turned to look at him as he walked away from me. I took in several deep breaths and rubbed my neck a little bit.

"Leah?" I turned, knowing that voice.

"Leah? Over here." I followed the voice and turned to see her. A tear escaped my eye as we both tried to reach each other but failed to do so.

"Trace... they got you too?"

"They got me when they gave out the drinks. I didn't know what happened until we were in the van and they had me with other women in it."

"They had me alone... I was looking for you so we could head home... but they found me in the bathroom. I tried to fight back but... it was not working. They put me in a van. I nearly escaped but... another van came and snatched me up. I woke up here."

"What is this place? What do they want with us?"

"Must be a slave trade or something. I heard about these... they kidnap anyone at this point and just sell them to the highest bidder and don't care what happens next. I wasn't warned fully about them but I did learn."

"Is there any way we could get help?"

"Honestly... I don't know. Maybe we could, but it is by a long shot."

"So we just wait and just get sold?"

"At this point... yes... It's the only way to stay alive. Hopefully, nothing bad happens in the time frame that we are here."

"LADIES! I hope you are dressed and ready to go! This is the most important moment.... of your lives." We all turned to the guy who hand I just bit the hell out of. He had that stupid smirk back on his face. I glared at him again. I wanted to take his life first if I had to.

A bunch of guys with rolling carts came and picked up several of the girls who were ready and dressed. As for the ones who weren't, we were left behind a bit longer. Trace and I decided to get into clothes and try to come up with a game plan in order for us to get out of here.

The outfit I was wearing was a white, silver rhinestone, Egyptian outfit. It showed off my curves, my stomach. It was a pushed up bra with a slit outside, a sheer sleeves top and a sheer skirt with a slit to the point it started right below my waist line. They must really want to show... everything. This is highly... uncomfortable to wear for some stranger. Trace was lucky. She had a long white dress that flowed at the bottom. No offense, I would trade with her in a heartbeat. I want some damn clothes on. I left on my black shoes and picked up the napkin with that man's blood on it. I folded it up to the point I couldn't fold it any more and placed it under my foot. There was a bit of discomfort, but if I were going to get any leads to Anotnio and the guys, then this is something I needed to start with. I highly doubt they will get this far to me but if I could get somewhere else with this evidence, somewhere with cameras, I know Fred, the mastermind of hacking, could find me somewhere.

I looked down, feeling a bit terrified. I didn't want to show it, but the more I kept thinking about the guys, Fred, Nia... Antonio... and not being able to see them again really was hurting my heart. I felt a sense of someone trying to reach me and I snapped out of my thoughts. I saw Trace's saddened face as she tried to reach for me. I tried to touch her and only our fingers touched.

"Leah... It's going to be okay. You are going to get back to your family..."

"Trace..."

"Listen... I need you to do me a favor... okay?"

"Anything. Just let me know."

"If... I can't make it out of here.... If I don't get back-"

"Trace don't-"

"No... let me finish. If... I don't make it back... no matter where you are on your travels... please... just keep in touch with my little girl. She's going through too much already but.... still-"

"You don't even have to ask. I will protect her. I will get to her, okay? I will make sure she comes up in this world with her head held high. I promise you that."

Trace smiled and her cage was picked up by one of the guys and rolled out.

"Trace! Trace! Don't you dare touch her! Trace hang in there! I will find you!"

She stared at me with a soft smile and waved towards me. I banged on the cage out of frustration and took a deep breath when I noticed nothing was going to change.

"Antonio... Maurice... Alex... Fred...Please find me..."