Return to the King

Chapter 11

Antonio’s POV

I had just left the office of "Helping Hands" and was in the car heading to the apartment of Tracey and Amelia. My leg was shaking for a mile of a minute and I couldn’t stop this feeling of being one step behind all of this. I promised to keep her safe. I told her she had nothing to worry about and look at what happened. The only thing that kept playing in my head was the last time I saw her. Telling her I would see her soon after our heartfelt kiss. I just wanted answers and answers I would soon be able to get.

The car pulled up to an apartment complex where I saw Maurice and Alex standing outside. Alex was on the phone pacing back and forth and Maurice was standing there with his hands in his pockets.

I climbed out of the car and Alex approached us.

“This is where they stayed?” I asked while fixing my jacket.

“Pretty low profile if you were to ask me," Alex said while looking at the building.

"That’s exactly how Amelia wanted it though,” Maurice responded.

“Daughter upstairs?”

“Yeah, along with officers and detectives. I guess the king put this as a case with some attention needed to put on it.”

“What do you mean, Alex?”

“According to Fred, this is not the first. The authorities knew about this little habit of women and young women being taken from their homes and they get these cases and then Fred claims that they investigate for a month and then the case is never solved and put away.”

“Who authorized this though? Missing women just go missing and no one says anything?” Maurice questioned and Alex nodded his head.

“Especially women who are out of town. They are the main target according to the data Fred is collecting from the authorities.”

“Ask him who is in charge and then get back to me. Might wanna go look into them as well.”

“Will do.”

We headed upstairs and came up to the apartment where cops were standing outside. One of them reached to put his hand on my chest and Maurice quickly grabbed his hand and started to break it. I watched as the male began to squat and hold the injured hand. The other cop pulled out his weapon and Alex pulled out his and had it facing the cops head. One trigger and everything goes down in the hall.

“Yes, you made your first mistake.” Alex stated while walking around in front of the cop whose weapon was pulled out.

“I see having kids didn’t slow down you guys.”

“Have some of your own and see how fast your reflexes get when they get into things they are not supposed to.”

I chuckled at Maurice and looked at the two gentlemen.

“We are the three kings granted permission to be here. We need to investigate ourselves for specific reasons.”

The man with the weapon lowered his and Maurice released the other one. The man whose hand turned a different color stood up and held onto his hand for dear life.

“Excuse and my apologies to my partner. We had no clue you were the three kings we were waiting for. The daughter is inside along with-“

“We are aware. We shall enter and not waste any more time. Also, you might want to put your hand in some cold water and wrap it for a couple of days. No pressure either. Oh and see a doctor to be on the safe side.” Maurice said as he looked at the damage he, caused.

The men moved to the side and opened the door for us. As expected, people were in there taking pictures, dusting, gathering the evidence they needed to grasp the situation. I walked to the ones in suits. You can tell they were detectives due to business causal attire.

“Woah woah, who the hell are these men? Why are extra people in here, George and Greg?”

I watched as a lady, all blue suit with black sneakers on, walked over to us with a hand on her hip.

“Lori, these are the kings we were expecting. Please be mindful of what you say.”

“Yeah, they are stronger than expected.”

“Greg, what happened to your hand?” Greg didn’t say anything but looked over to Maurice who was already walking towards one of the rooms while Alex headed to another.

“You hurt one of the police in charge of looking at the room?”

“I did no such thing.”

“Then what’s wrong with his hand?”

“Didn’t you just ask him and his response was silence?”

“His response was a glance at someone else, that is- Where did the other two go?”

“For a detective... you sure don’t pay attention to things that you should be.”

“Excuse me?”

“Two men walked past you in the middle of our conversation and you don’t know where they went even though everyone might have a clue as to where they were.”

“Of course you would know where they went but I was paying attention-“

“Shouldn’t be an excuse. Seriously, who's in charge? Because if they put you in charge, then we are in serious trouble.”

“Look, got dammit. I don’t give a rat ass who you are. Don’t walk in here disrespecting me and you don’t even know me. You are just an annoying human who probably is used to getting things that he wants because of his status. Unlike you, most of us had to work to get where we are today and you shouldn’t belittle no one.”

I looked at her and chuckled. Maurice came over and gave me a head nod and pointed to the room Alex was currently in. I walked over and watched as Maurice spoke a few words to the detective. Her face became puzzled as she watched Maurice leave her and followed him. I entered the room and it looked as if someone were in there, tearing everything up as they were searching for something they couldn’t find. I looked over to Alex who was squatting before the girl we came to find.

“Hey, these are the friends I was telling you about.” She looked up and her face was read like a book. She was in shambles. Spirit was crushed and no hope was left to build until she got back her mother.

“We would like to give our sincere condolences for what happened and we will try to bring back your mother as soon as we find her.” I stated as I looked down at her with a comforting smile.

The girl nodded her head and looked at all three of us.

“Is it true? The girl, mom's roommate, was a queen in disguise?”

Even though I tried to hide my emotions the best way possible, it was still shown. Sadness. I nodded my head as a response and she sighed heavily.

“Do you remember anything that the ladies were wearing before they left?”

“No, I wasn’t here when they left. I know mom took her phone because we share locations on it, so I knew she went to the club but something felt off.”

“Share locations?” Maurice questioned while tilting his head slightly to the left.

“Yeah, it’s like a tracker in a way. The phone gives off your location when you have it on and it tells certain people who you share it with your location. See.”

She pulled out her phone and showed us the app. You can see streets and addresses to specific places around us. Her mother's name was on the phone but you couldn’t see anything regarding her location.

Then it clicked in my eyes and I snapped my fingers.

“Amelia’s room, Maurice. You checked it?”

“Yeah why?”

“Did you find a bracelet in it, of any kind?”

“No I didn’t.”

I ran out of the room and ran to the detective who was on the phone. I snatched it out of her hand and raised my hand to her face before she could start yelling at me again.

“With any type of evidence, did you find a bracelet of any kind in the roommates' room?”

“I can’t give you that information-“

“ I have authority to take and control this investigation if I want to. You want to help or not? Because I swear to life, if you hold anything back from me and my wife dies I will hang you personally on a f*****g wall, now answer the question!”

She blinked and looked at me and looked at the floor while releasing a sigh.

“We didn’t find any bracelet that would belong to the roommate. Jewels from the mom that the daughter identified but nothing from her roommate.”

I gave her back her phone and pulled out mine while dialing Fred’s number. I searched into my phone and went to the notes app while I listened to the ringing.

“Yellow! What have you got for me?”

“Fred, I am going to give you some numbers and I need you to see if you can track it.”

“Read em.”

“7583751799”

“What does this record to actually?”

“If I know Amelia, she is wearing a birthday gift I sent to her. It has a tracker on it with those numbers. See if you can find her location and call me back.”

“I’m on it.”

I hung up the phone and headed back to the guys.

They looked at me and I waved my hand and shook my head. They blinked and turned their attention back to the girl to continue the conversation.

It was long before we were leaving the apartment and I pulled the guys aside to show them my phone.

“I have a confession.”

“Got a tracker on Amelia, don’t you?”

I looked up at Alex and he chuckled. He pulled out his phone and began scrolling until he reached a certain point of messages.

I read through the messages and a smile came to mind.

“You know this troll, Nio, put a tracker in my bracelet?! Are you in on this?! NO! I didn’t know, but maybe he was worried about you so he did it for your safety. Want Fred to turn it off because you know he knows how. No I don’t want Fred to turn it off, cause if Nio ever gets the idea to surprise me, then he would know how and where I am. I think it is kinda sweet for Nio to do that.” As I continued to read the messages out loud, a tear came to my eye and the guys gave me a pat on the back.

“We know you miss her,” Maurice stated, and Alex nodded his head.

“We are gonna get her back. Promise you.”