Captive To The Underworld King

Chapter 13: Patterns

—KADE'S MANSION, 3:40 AM—

By the time they pulled over at the garage, the senior editor was already unconscious, so Kade's men just dragged him out of the car and straight to the torture room while Kade and Dahlia followed behind.

Dahlia clutched the laptop tightly to her chest, pressing her lips together.

She and Kade hadn't exchanged a word since they left the motel, and now she didn't know how to say what she was about to say, but she'd say it anyway.

"Do you have to torture him?"

Kade stared down at her without slowing in his tracks. "What? You expect me to pat his head while questioning him?"

*Of course he'd say something stupid.*

Dahlia didn't say a word after that, not like she expected him to change his mind just because she said so.

—TORTURE ROOM—

Instead of entering the main building to go to the torture room, they followed the road that led to the torture room right from outside. Kade's men tossed the senior editor to the floor like a sack of chips, and Dahlia feared he might break a bone.

As if planned, two chairs were in the torture room; Kade sat down on one, crossing his left leg over his right one as he leaned back into the chair completely.

"Sit." He ordered without looking at anyone, but Dahlia knew he was referring to her.

She looked down at the chair before sitting down calmly, the laptop placed on her lap as she stared back at the unconscious senior editor.

"Wake him up," Kade said. One of his men walked over to a bucket sitting on the floor a few steps away; he carried it and returned to where the senior editor was lying. Without hesitation, he dumped its contents over the senior editor's head.

Cold water with visible ice inside.

The senior editor jolted awake due to the sudden coldness against his skin. He looked around, and his eyes landed on Kade, his fear returning as he seemed to recollect everything that had happened before he went unconscious.

His eyes shifted to Dahlia, and he frowned. He tried raising his finger to point at her, and that seemed to remind him that his hand was shot because he immediately yelled and collapsed on the floor.

"Sit him down," Kade said calmly. His men dragged the senior editor up, one of them deliberately pressing his fingers over the shot wound, earning a shrieking scream from the editor as he tried to throw his legs, but the shot leg felt like it was about to fall off with how painful it was.

They sat him on the torture chair, got a rope and tied it around him, keeping him in place even if that was useless, as the shot arm and leg had already done that.

"We were supposed to continue a conversation." Kade tapped his fingers on his armrest, eyes locked on the senior editor who was still in pain.

"What's the laptop password?" Dahlia asked, her brows knotted as she opened the laptop on her lap.

The senior editor stayed quiet, staring back at both of them; though shaken, he was determined to keep his mouth shut.

Kade didn't ask him again; he only waved his fingers lazily, and his men understood immediately as they both picked up electrocutes, placing them on both sides of his lower tummy, sending waves of current through his body, making him jolt violently.

They didn't pull away; they continued electrocuting him till Kade waved his fingers again.

"What is the f*****g password?" Dahlia repeated.

"Titans404." The senior editor breathed out. Dahlia quickly inputted it, and it unlocked immediately.

She began going through the laptop, entering every file and folder she could find. At first, it looked like a normal work laptop, until she stumbled upon a folder named "X."

Dahlia stared at it for a beat, her heart racing so fast it felt like it would burst out any moment. She dragged in a long breath before clicking it open, but froze the moment she saw what was inside the folder.

Her pictures, a lot of them, and all were taken in different parts of her house, with her face away from the camera.

Her room, her kitchen, her living room- they all had more than one copy.

"What the f**k?" Dahlia gasped as her palm flew over her mouth before she looked up at Kade, who was already looking into the laptop.

"These...these..." She gulped fearfully before trying to speak again. "Some of these were taken a month before the attempted murder on me."

She shot up from her chair, rushing over to her senior editor; she grabbed the collar of his shirt, shaking him violently as she yelled. "How long have you been watching me? How did you get into my house? What else have you taken from me?!!" Her hands shook around his collar, both from rage and terror of the wound on him.

"More than you can imagine." That was all her editor said before bursting into loud laughter.

Dahlia staggered a few steps back before turning completely, returning to her seat. She pulled out her phone and began snapping pictures of the laptop, making sure the timestamp showed before setting down her phone.

"What are you doing?" Kade asked.

"Collecting evidence," Dahlia replied sharply; one could feel the anger in her shaky voice.

After snapping everything to her phone, she began deleting them on the laptop; she couldn't risk leaving them on the laptop.

"Answer my damn question: how did you get these pictures?" She yelled at the senior editor, who only laughed before speaking.

"You are a journalist; you'll figure it out."

Dahlia stared at him, then back at the laptop. She tried thinking of ways he could have gotten the pictures, but none made sense, because she had never invited him to her house before, and he didn't even know where she lived, so how?

She kept searching, but couldn't find anything else, which frustrated her even more; her emotions began mixing up, making her face turn red.

She was scared, horrified and furious all at once, but she never stopped searching.

Kade stood up and walked over to the senior editor, grabbed his left arm without a word and broke his finger, the crack echoing in the room; even Dahlia froze before continuing her search, trying not to look up at the damage.

"Argghhhhhhhh." The senior editor screamed, trying to yank his hand away from Kade's, but the ropes around him were not in his favour.

"Damn!!!!" He yelled again when Kade broke the second finger.

"Still not gonna talk?" Kade tilted his head to one side, staring blankly at the senior editor as he twisted the third finger, about to break it.

"I...I've already talked; you'll figure it out." The senior editor replied through gritted teeth.

Despite the pain he was going through, he still wasn't going to speak.

*What kind of loyalty makes a man endure this for someone?*

Kade twisted the third finger even further; he was about to break it, but Dahlia's voice stopped him.

"I think I found something."

The senior editor, despite his pain, looked shocked at her words; he definitely wasn't expecting her to find a thing.

Kade paused for exactly a second, then proceeded to break the third finger before walking back to Dahlia, after giving his men a look that said: "Play with him." They understood, as they began electrocuting him, smirking at his yells.

Kade stood behind Dahlia, who was now standing with the laptop in her hand, while he glanced over her shoulder at the laptop screen.

"What's that?"

"Someone sent him the pictures. He never took them himself; he received them from an unknown number." Dahlia spoke while pointing at the screen.

"An unknown number?"

Dahlia tried looking around for her phone but couldn't find it, probably because of how frustrated she was. She turned to look at Kade, pressed her lips into a thin line before speaking. "C-Can I borrow your phone?"

Kade stared at her without a word or movement.

"I can't find mine." She added, but he still didn't react.

Dahlia's face twisted in anger. *Why the f**k is he staring at me that way? Just give me the damn phone.*

Kade reached for the chair, picked up her phone and handed it over to her. "I don't share what's mine."

Dahlia rolled her eyes secretly before snatching her phone from him. She copied the number and tried to call it, but it wouldn't go through. She tried again and again, but still nothing. Then she switched to texting. She tried texting the number, but her texts wouldn't go through either, and that was when it dawned on her.

The number had been blocked intentionally so they wouldn't be able to reach it.

Dahlia sighed in frustration but kept looking at the messages for anything unusual, same as Kade, but still nothing.

She was about to close the laptop in frustration but froze mid-action, her eyes locked on one part of the messages, her lips curved into a wide smirk as she scrolled back up, then down, before speaking.

"There's a pattern in the text." She said.

"Are you talking about the upside-down question marks under every picture?" Kade asked.

"Yes." Dahlia nodded.

"It's a pattern, but it doesn't point at anything," Kade said.

"True." Dahlia's gaze dropped exhaustedly; she looked down at her phone. It was already 5:00 a.m., and they were still here with no answers.

Something in her told her to look up at the senior editor, who now looked half unconscious as the guys had stopped electrocuting him. He looked weak, terrified and in pain, but amidst that, Dahlia noticed the way his eyes were moving around, as if she was so close to uncovering something and he was trying to mislead her.

She looked back at the messages, focusing on the upside-down question marks alone for a long time before her face went pale and Kade noticed immediately.

"What?"

"I know someone who texts in this style... every one of her texts ends with these..." Dahlia said, her gaze moving over to the senior editor who looked completely shocked, and if at all, he looked caught.

Dahlia's stomach churned as she looked up at Kade, who had also seen the senior editor's reaction.

She was right.