Paid To Love

Episode 31

Paid To Love Episode 31

Victoria's POV

I stepped in the coffee place and I still had that smile on my face, the place was deserted as usual and I could hear Zoey watching a movie from behind the counter, she noticed the sound of the bell and finally looked up to notice me. Zoey was already giving me that suspicious look and I knew she was about to start teasing me again.

“Hmmmm... “

“Zoey, please don’t start”

“So something did happen? Wow did you guys kiss yet?”

“What!, of course not, how would you think that” she starts giggling.

“But you did come from a romantic date with him, so what did you two do all alone on this date.” She asked almost insinuating.

“It wasn’t romantic Zoey and we weren’t alone. We invited some photographers from a magazine to film us. It was all pretend and we didn’t do anything.” I replied trying to kill the tease.

“Don’t be such a spoil sport Vicky, did you guys pretend kiss too”

I actually start laughing and a bit of a blush made my cheeks really hot. Zoey was a relentless person when it comes to teasing me. She knew how to get me talking.

“NO, Zoey stop it.“ I said still laughing.

“Ok, fine. You can play pretend and not give me the juicy details about your romantic date.” She smiled.

We had a nice chat and went home to Zoey's where I was supposed to spend the night.

“Zoey can I tell you something?”

“Is that even a question? You know you can tell me anything.”

“Well at the mall, ugh mm.. I heard Henry talking to his Dad and I overheard him shouting at someone called Gerard so I was wondering...”

“If that’s your brother Gerard? Woah”

“Exactly what I was thinking but that’s not possible is it?”

“Well, I’m not sure... You did see his body right?”

“Yes but... Not exactly”

“What do you mean by not exactly?”

“Well Zoey the police said his car exploded after it crashed so there was burn marks all over what remained of him and I could barely recognise him. All I saw on him was his clothes and his I.D so it must have been him.”

“But Vicky you said it yourself, the police might be covering something up so what if they covered this up too. What if he was kidnapped or something.”

“Wow, I will have to call Detective Sidwell, he needs to know if there’s more to this than we think.. What could have happened to him? Is that even him?” I start panicking before I feel Zoey's hand on my back comforting me. She was always there for me when I needed her the most.

“We should call it a night, just relax.”

“You’re right I'll call him tomorrow.”

It was a long night, I could barely sleep. I was awake thinking about all the possible things that could have happened to Gerard. In one hand he could be alive and that would be great but it then brings up another question and that’s who took him? Or was he hiding from someone? But then on the other hand he could just be dead and I still have to ask myself who did this to him? And what really happened? But one thing I'm certain about is that there’s a cover up happening here and I need to find out what’s happening here.

The next morning I woke up and Zoey was already gone. She made toast and dropped it on the table for me. I got up and took a shower then got dressed up. I had breakfast and checked my phone, Henry texted me, he wanted to see me later. I grabbed my things to head out and was on my way when I heard my phone ring on the kitchen table.

I looked down at my phone and saw a message from an unknown number, It said meet me at the Old Tansville ranch outside the city by one p.m today, trust no one.

“It must be Mr. Nobody, I have to call Detective Sidwell “

I pick up my phone and dialled his number.

“Hello detective Sidwell”

“Yes, miss Clarke?, how are you doing”

“I’m fine but I’ve got news”

“Do you mean. Mr. Nobody?”

“Yes, he wants to meet outside town at an old ranch in Tansville today. He sounded like he was hiding, he might be in danger and we have to meet him so Impromptu ”

“Yes that is very strange, someone might be after him. Look Victoria this might be dangerous, I’m not sure if you should be coming with me. “

“No, Detective Sidwell i have to go with you otherwise he won’t give you any of the evidence, besides he said that i should trust no one, which sounded very suspicious.”

“Ok, but you have to stay in the car and we have to get there quickly. Meet me at my office in twenty minutes” he said hanging up.

I hurried out of the house and got a taxi going back into town. I got to Detective Sidwell's office. He already seemed ready and he was preparing some files and his camera, he brought a recorder and handed it to me with a body camera and a mic to put on.

“We need to get as much evidence as we can. Its Vital that we record everything we see and here from him.”

“Ok can we start leaving?”

“Yes, but just grab this.” He hands a gun to me.

“Wait....a gun? What? Why?” My hands tremble with the weapon in my hand.

“You said it yourself he might be in danger and you don’t know who might be after him so we have to be prepared.”

“Oh ok but I will just put this away in my bag first.” I finally dropped it.

We got moving, the thought of someone being after Mr. Nobody brought a sudden realisation. What was I doing following Detective Sidwell, I don’t think I would be able to handle this and the gun? Would it come to that? I hoped not.

“Detective Sidwell?, umm I discovered something.”

“What is it?”

I realised I hadn’t mentioned working for Henry to him and I wanted to keep that a secret.

“Well I was doing some Investigations of my own and I found out that there’s a Gerard working for Davies Industries right now.”

“Hmm really? How did you find out?”

“Ughh.. I found out through a friend working there.” I realised how bad I was at lying.

“Hmm well I will look into it but please leave the investigating to me.”

We got to the ranch. It was already mid day and we were a couple minutes early. We checked around but couldn’t find anyone there, it seemed abandoned.

“Are you sure It’s this ranch?”

“Yes he specified in the text.”

“Then where must he be?”

I hear a ring on my phone, It’s an unknown number, I pick it up and put it on speaker.

“Hello, Mr. Nobody ?” I asked.

“Look we have no time, I need your help, they’re after me and they chased me down towards a highway leading back to the city. I'm hiding in a barn close to the Dinkly river. Come get me now, your brother...” We hear a gunshot from the line and the call hung up.

“We need to get there Immediately.” The detective said.

We start driving, I’m scared to death, I could hear my heart pounding and my hands shaking, I was in the car seated but my legs were trembling.

“Victoria you have to relax. If you want I can drop you off right here and go in alone.”

“No, I can do this just keep driving. I've still got the gun so I'll be fine.“ I tried to reassure myself but I knew I was scared to death yet I didn’t want the detective to go in alone, I wanted to hear what Mr. Nobody had to say personally.

We approach the barn and we see a man dressed in all black with a hoodie run into a car while shooting back at some people. The gun shots makes Detective Sidwell stop the car suddenly and grab his gun. The man in black starts driving away and then we see the other men coming out running toward some black SUVs parked at the side. Two SUVs go in pursuit of Mr. Nobody while the other ones were still getting ready to go.

“They must be after him which means the man in the hood must be Mr. Nobody, lets move.” He starts driving and he speeds past the other SUVs who shot at us as we drove past.

“What was that? why are they shooting at us?” I asked.

“Hang on..” He turns up the speed.

They kept shooting at us, chasing us at high speeds. We drove faster till we could see the other SUV and Mr. Nobody’s car in front of us. They kept shooting at him till they got a bit of his back tyre and his car started moving a bit out of control bit it kept going. I turned around and the SUVs behind us hit the side mirror next to me with a bullet and I screamed.

“Grab the gun and shoot back Victoria.”

“What? I’m not sure I can do that, I mean I’ve never even held a gun till today.”

“It’s not that hard just point it at them and pull the trigger.”

I couldn’t do it but I had to, so i grabbed it and held it up, my hands were still trembling, I turned back and they started firing again so I ducked for a moment and I felt they were getting closer to us so I turned around and shoved my hand outside the window, closed my eyes and pulled the trigger, shooting in the most random way possible till i exhausted all rounds. I opened my eyes to find that i hit one of their tires and the car started spiralling out of control.

“Good job Victoria.”

The other one was still shooting at us and the one in front noticed and they were also shooting at us. The SUV behind us drove up almost behind us and tried to shoot at us again before we sped up again, the SUVs were faster and they had more bullets than us. Our best bet was to try to ram them but even that was too risky. The SUV came up beside us and they were about to shoot when the Detective pulled us to a halt and the SUV drove past without stopping.

“Huh? Why did they stop shooting at us?” I asked just catching my breath.

“That’s because they weren’t after us. We need to keep moving, let's follow them slowly.”

We keep going, Mr. Nobody was still shooting back at them so it seemed like he came prepared to defend himself. The SUVs seemed reluctant to get side to side with him and that seemed suspicious after all they had more weapons and a greater number.

The road started getting wider and we were approaching a highway.

“They’re up to something.” The detective let out.

“Yes something’s up, they aren’t even shooting to kill anymore.”

We got to the T-junction to the highway and we see a truck pull out from nowhere and hit Mr. Nobody’s car. The truck drives straight through his car and just keeps driving straight on. The SUVs came to a halt.

What had I just witnessed? Who were these people? Would they come after me too? Did they see my face?

“Victoria, are you ok?” I could barely hear him.

“Victoria?”

“I’m Fine”

“Why are you still driving, shouldn’t we go get him and take him to the hospital or at least call an ambulance please” Tears rolling down my eyes.

“We can’t stop moving Victoria, they hadn’t spot our faces and we need to keep it that way. If we stop they will see us and that would put us in massive danger. Besides there’s no way he would have survived that.

“But shouldn’t we at least call the police?”

“Remember, whoever these guys are they’ve got someone really influential at the top of this and they’ve got the entire police department in their pocket.

“Why, why did they have to go to that extent”

“They are monsters, rich ones that only care about power and looking good whilst in power. “

“Those murderers!, what if they did the same thing to Gerard. “ I said sobbing.

“Relax, we will get to the bottom of things, lets just make it home first.”

We had driven back into the city, we lost the SUV’s in the traffic and I told Detective Sidwell to drop me at Zoey’s. We got there and it looked like Zoey wasn’t home yet but I knew where the key was.

“Mr. Sidwell, thanks a lot for your help”

“Like I said, I’m just doing my job”

“So what are we going to do now”

“I think I will have to find out who owns those SUVs, I was driving so I barely caught a plate number but did you get anything we could use? “

“Um... No, Wait...Actually I think I got something, It was the truck. It was a construction company’s truck and I noticed that the SUVs weren’t trying to kill him, rather..”

“They were leading him towards the truck.”

It was all planned, who ever these guys were. They knew what they were doing and they knew the police would never be a problem to them. There’s really something happening here and i have a feeling my brother was involved somehow.