Steamy Beanery was a coffee shop that had obviously seen better days, with oil smudges on their glass windows and the wallpaper slightly peeling at the edges. But there was a heady scent of caffeine in the air, along with the faint sll of fresh bread that put Alia’s mind at ease.
Her eyes roved around the coffee shop, looking for a shock of red hair. However, as it was nearing dinner ti, the coffee shop was quite deserted, and there was no one matching that description. She sighed and went to the counter to ask if there was soone called Leo who was waiting there.
The barista nodded and pointed to the booth at the corner. "He’s over there!"
Alia looked over. From her point of view, she could only see the blond head of an adult man. Maybe he shared the sa na as Leo?
"The person I’m looking for is a teenage boy," Alia said to the barista. "Did he co with the blond man?"
"No, I only saw him enter," the barista said. "But if you’re Alia, he’s expecting you. That man told I should tell you to et him there. He said he had sothing you would not want to miss. He also ordered drinks for you!"
Alia frowned. That sounded awfully cryptic. She looked back at her phone; Leo still had not responded to her ssage― which struck her as strange, since teenagers tended to be glued to their phones.
Since she had ti to spare, she might as well go and see what this mysterious man wanted from her.
Alia walked to the booth, only to scowl when she caught sight of the man’s face.
It was Caleb. Disgusting. This whole thing was a set-up!
She turned on her heels to leave, but Caleb had spotted her and he reached out an arm to grab her before she could make her escape.
"Alia, do you have so ti for coffee? I already ordered for the both of us," Caleb said politely as if they were only acquaintances and not exes. However, the painful grip on her wrist was sothing no well-aning stranger would inflict on another.
The two cups of hot coffee on the table seed to mock his sincerity.
"I have sothing I believe will interest you."
"Let go of or I’ll start screaming," Alia said threateningly. But before she could open her mouth, Caleb played a video on his phone.
The boy in the photo had a shock of red hair. But the most galling thing was how he was tied up and blindfolded on a chair, with his mouth gagged.
"What on earth?" Alia gasped, grabbing at his phone to take a closer look. Caleb took advantage of her distraction to tug her into the seat next to him, his hand an iron grip around her waist.
Alia flinched and tried to get away, but Caleb didn’t budge. His other hand grabbed Alia’s own phone and kept it out of her reach.
"You were here to et Leo, yes? So here he is," Caleb said nonchalantly as he twirled the phone in his hands. "Not in the flesh, but I must say he looks pretty videogenic tied up like this. I’m sure there are so perverts online who would pay good money for this live footage."
"What did you do to him?! I’m going to call the cops! You won’t get away with this!" Alia seethed, goosebumps erupting in her arms at the darkness in Caleb’s eyes.
Caleb was a scumbag, that was true― but she had never thought he would sink so low as to hold a teenager hostage!
"Ah, ah, ah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you," Caleb said simply. "I have people stationed nearby. The mont you make the call, young Leo might find his life sadly cut short."
Alia froze. "You wouldn’t."
"And how would you know?" Caleb asked, his voice low with warning. "Are you willing to take the risk? He is very young; it would be terrible if his blood were to end up on your hands. Poor Carlo would be so sad to see soone he grew up with die so early."
Alia bit her lip, enraged. "If anything, you’ll be the one responsible for his death. I’m not the one who... who held him hostage!"
Her eyes darted back to Leo in the video, and her hands were nearly shaking with rage.
Now that she took a closer look, she could spot the bruising on his face, and his hands were tied behind his back. His legs were tied to the feet of the chairs. He was slumped against the back of the chair, as though he was exhausted from struggling.
"You’ll bla yourself anyway for not being able to save him," Caleb retorted swiftly. "I know you well enough to know that. Our three years of marriage wasn’t for nothing."
"What do you want then?" Alia growled out, her mind frantically searching for ways to resolve the situation. She needed to tell soone― but Caleb had his phone in her hands. What’s more, she couldn’t let Caleb find out.
As such, she could only stall.
"You," Caleb said cheerfully enough, but there was no denying the underlying wretched possessiveness in his voice.
Suddenly, Alia felt actual fear when facing Caleb. Her hands began to sweat, and her heart raced.
"You’ll get into my car, and we’ll take a nice drive to see Leo. If you try anything funny on the way... you’ll still get to see Leo, but he’ll never know," Caleb explained. "Do you understand ?"
"Bastard," Alia hissed out, but she could only nod in agreent. She might as well go along with Caleb’s plans for now. Hopefully, she would be able to find a way to let people know. "Fine, I’ll go with you, but you’ll have to let him go."
"I knew you’d see things my way," Caleb said smugly. He closed the stream and tucked both his own phone and Alia’s into his pocket. "Let’s go then before we hit peak hour traffic."
Alia wanted to scream. This man was out there kidnapping teens― who gave a shit about traffic?
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