Love’n’Lust

“Hey man, come take a look.” Belle watched as one of the men assigned to be with her called to the other after collecting her ring from her ring finger.

“Is it original diamond?” The man who was called asked.

“What do you think? Of course, it is, can’t you see?” The first man held it up to the light.”She’s wearing a ring that’s probably worth an amount I’ve never touched in my entire life.”

“Are we going to sell it?” The second man asked.

“We? Did you just say we? I’m the one who noticed it on her finger first…”

“Guys,” someone came in while panting loudly.

“Yeah?”

“I was upstairs…” The man stopped to pant for some seconds.”I was upstairs, and I saw these vehicles…”

“Is the boss back?” The first man asked, putting the ring in his jacket pocket.

“I don’t think so, he usually comes alone. When I said that I saw cars, I meant that there were at least seven of them.”

“Seven?” The second man asked.

“Yeah,” the informant nodded.”I would be far off if I had started to run when I saw them but I decided to come tell you two.”

“How many cars did you say you saw?” The first man asked.

“I think seven of them… and then there’s three of us, I’m out of here guys. See you later, that’s if you survive whoever’s coming for her.” The informant said and started to leave.

“What do you mean? We’re coming with you.” The second man said then turned to the first.”We are leaving with him right?”

“Yeah, yeah. We should leave, come on.”

After they left, Belle moved with the chair she was tied to. She was trying to get to Cjay who had been knocked out by the men earlier because they thought he was talking too much.

“Hey…” She called to him but got no response. His eyes were still closed but he was breathing, she noticed.

“Come on, wake up… they’re gone now, I think. Someone’s coming to help us, probably the police, probably your boss.” She talked to him still even if he was unconscious.

Sighing after talking to the passed-out Cjay and not getting any responses, she wished she could reach out to him and just tap him but both her hands were tied up behind the chair she sat on.

“Belle?” She heard Ben.

“O my goodness, he’s here, it is him. I told you, didn’t I?” She rejoiced with the still-unconscious Cjay.

“Belle?!” She heard Ben call out louder and heard footsteps too.

“I’m here!” She yelled and the door to the room she was in opened in a few minutes.

“Belle…” Ben rushed to where she was and knelt in front of her, untying the ropes used on her hand.

The moment her hands were freed, she hugged him tight and heard him grunt so she stopped.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

“Yes,” he lied and put his arms around her to hug her again, glad that she was alive.

Randy sighed because he knew he just lied; he knew his boss left his medication to come find her and might provoke his health. He had just partially recovered from the Internal head injury he had.

“Cjay…” She stopped the hug again and pointed to the corner. Randy immediately went to him.

“Hey Cjay, wake up,” he slapped his face. Cjay blinked to stabilize his sight when he opened his eyes and saw Randy.

“Randy, is it really you?” He asked just to be sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him.

“Yeah.”

“Took you guys forever,” Cjay said again as Randy helped him get up. He winced his eyes in pain because his head still hurt a little.

****

“Hell no, who did this to you?” Jenna dropped her purse when she made it to the hospital and saw a bandage around Alex’s neck.

“Again…” She started to sob.”Again, Jenna, I’m going to have to cancel the shoot I canceled back then because I was in the hospital.”

“But who did this!” Jenna was angry. She looked at Alex, expecting her to say something but she just stared back at her with no words.

Alex couldn’t tell her. She knew she couldn’t. It was all complicated. If she told her that it was Ben, she knew Jenna well enough to know that she would approach him about it, and in doing that, she might as well find out that she was the one who orchestrated Belle’s kidnapped back then.

She knew she wasn’t ready for Jenna to know about that. Jenna’s was the only one she could run to when things went shitty.

****

“Where did you leave your phone these past two weeks, Belle?” Brie asked after picking up her phone while in the kitchen.”And where on earth have you been? You didn’t even see the need to call back? All my missed calls, didn’t they send a clue about how worried I was?”

“Are you talking to Belle over the phone right now?” Cherry ran to the kitchen from the living room.”I think I heard you say her name. If I’m right, give me a nod?”

Brie nodded before continuing to speak to her sister.

“I would return your call if I wasn’t tied up at some remote place for the past two weeks.”

“Tied up? What do you…”

“It’s actually a long story, you see, but I’ll tell you all about it when I come to see you later.”

“When is that? When will that be?”

“I don’t know yet,” Belle looked over her shoulder at Ben sleeping.” but it will be this week, I guess.”

She ended the call and went to join Ben on the bed. He had been tired since they returned and she knew why. Randy later told her how Ben had left medication to come for her even after asking him (Randy) to take care of things.

She caressed his face while he slept. She was going to ask him to return to his medication after he woke up.

Ben felt her palm on his face and placed his right hand over hers. He turned to her with a faint smile.

“Someone’s thinking about me,” he teased and saw her smile.

“I thought you were asleep.”

“No. I’m just tired, I feel weak.”

“Does your head hurt too?” She asked him and gave him a look that gave the fact that she knew about his internal injury away.

“Fuck. Randy told you, didn’t he.” He sighed guiltily.

“Why did you lie about it?”

“I didn’t want you to worry, it’s bad enough that you’ve had to be kidnapped twice now because of me.”

“So, you’re now sister, Brie, who thinks it’s your fault.”

“She is not wrong, it is my fault. I’m sorry I lied, I really didn’t want you to think about anything when we got here, I wanted you to just have a good sleep, you know.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“And you’re the one tired and sleepy,” Belle frowned at him.”What is wrong with you? Randy said he could have come for me yet you got off medication. He told me that he could have handled things but apparently, you don’t trust him.”

“I trust him…”

“Enough to leave things to him?”

“He called me after not being able to do what he told me he could. I had to do what I had to; I had to take care of things myself.”

“…” She raised her brows as she watched him talk.

“Shit. My mum, she must be angry as hell that I left while still on drip. She had no idea I left when I did. Where’s my phone,” he sat up and checked around him before seeing it sitting on the bedside table. He took it and sighed after merely unlocking it.

“What?”

“Five missed calls, they’re from her.”

“You should have just let Randy handle things. I understand her, she’s scared to lose you.”

“Good. It should be easier for her to understand that I’m also scared to lose you. Randy’s arm was still weak from being shot besides, I knew resting back would be hard because I’ll spend all the seconds I don’t get an update from him on worrying.”

“That’s the thing. I think you worry too much. You’re just like Brie.” Belle chuckled at the afterthought of what she just said.

“Why shouldn’t I worry,” he kept his phone and lay back down on the bed, coming closer to her than he was.”You might not know but I’ve forgotten what my day used to be without thinking about you.” He put his arms around her and closed his eyes weakly.

“Justified reason to worry,” Belle smiled and massaged his head with just one hand.

“Richard almost had me there, you know. His aim was to traumatize me mentally and emotionally and it almost worked. I thought I had lost you back then. I don’t want to imagine it.”

“Is that his name? Is Richard the name of the man that did all of that?”