Chapter 21

Sia woke with a start and, after much difficulty, opened her heavy-lidded eyes.
Everything was black at first, and her mind was completely unfocused, throbbing from a terrible headache. Where was she? And why did she feel so groggy? The last thing she remembered was getting out of the auditorium after the press conference and seeing her makeup van. And then . . .
She brought her hand up to her head and staggered as the events finally came back in a rush.
She had been kidnapped.
Sitting up so fast that it gave her almost a whiplash, she looked around as her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness.
Cardboard boxes filled her vision. They were piled up, one on top of another, forming neat piles all around the small room. The only source of illumination in the room came from a tiny light bulb hanging from the ceiling. She lay on the cold hard floor which was covered with dust and dirt and the torn remains of boxes. She recognized some of the labels because some of them belonged to her own company, Magenta Fashion. She couldn’t spot an exit door right away, but she could see one small window on the other side of the room, but it was too high to reach. One thing Sia knew for sure was that she was still inside the auditorium. Other than her boxes, she spotted several other boxes that belonged to other fashion houses that had participated tonight. Unfortunately, she didn’t know which part of the auditorium she was in.
“Well, well. Look who’s awake,” a voice spoke and everything inside Sia went very, very still.
It wasn’t the chill of the unknown that made her whimper in agony and back away from the source of the voice. No, it was the haunting familiarity of that raspy, hard voice that made her beg the gods above for mercy.
“A-A-Ar-Arthu-r?” she asked, her voice so shaky that she could hardly say his name without stuttering.
And suddenly, as if she just spoke the magic word, the whole place flooded with light.
Sia tried to adjust as quickly as she could to the sudden brightness. She knew that time was against her; if she didn’t get out of this place soon enough, rape would only be the least of her problems. At least dead people didn’t have problems, but she couldn’t abandon her son.
But she’d taken longer than she realized to adjust to the light and the next thing she knew, the source of danger was right in front of her. A hand fisted her hair and jerked her head forward roughly. Her brown waves spilled over her back as Arthur tugged it roughly butby the time she yelled in pain and reached for her head with her hands, he had already let go of her and started walking around her. He circled her like a predator stalks its prey. He already had her right where he wanted her; he was now going to play with her any way he pleased, before the real hunt began.

* * *

“She’s awfully late, don’t you think?” Julian asked Abhay as they stood outside Sia’s makeup van, still waiting for her to show up. Julian still had his eyes on the exit door, but why Sia hadn’t shown up yet, he didn’t know. He was starting to get worried.
“I would say that you’re being paranoid . . . but you’re right. Papz may take forever to ask questions, but they had been given half an hour and that should have ended a while ago.” Abhay looked at the building skeptically. “And it’s not like it’s the Miss Universe pageant going on in there.”
“Papz? Seriously?” Julian raised an eyebrow at his friend, trying to keep his worry at bay by focusing on less serious things. “But you’re right. It was a small show. It shouldn’t take this long. It’s already been over forty minutes.”
Julian had a bad feeling about this. He couldn’t explain it, but he somehow felt that something wasn’t right.
“You go wait inside the car with Leo. I’ll go check inside,” he told Abhay.
“Okay.” In any normal circumstance, Abhay would have gone along with Julian, but tonight he decided to stay behind with the kid. Some things a man had to do on his own. Abhay was sure Julian wanted that time alone with his employer. No. Not his employer . . . his woman.
Julian took out his radio from his back pocket. “Have you got eyes on Ms. Milton?”
“Sir, she left for her van ten minutes ago,” Xi Chang, the man he had left in charge of the guards inside the auditorium, reported back to him. “Misha, one of the men guarding the door, have reported her safe passage toward her van.”
“Copy,” Julian said then cut the connection, but his mind was in turmoil. Why hadn’t he seen or heard Sia come towards the van? He couldn’t have been that distracted by Abhay, could he? He immediately shook his head no. He then checked Sia’s van but found it empty.
Julian decided to walk around the parking at first. An after-party had been planned at the end of the events and that was being held at the other end of the parking lot, in an outhouse a couple of minutes away. Sia could have decided to go in for a bit then decided to stay on for a while, although if that had been the case, Sia would definitely have sent word via one of the guards so he’d be informed. Maybe she’d gone to the after-party and lost track of time? It seemed like the most probable explanation he could come up with. And he didn’t want to think about other, darker alternatives.
The night had gotten colder and the chill only added to the dreadful feeling he was starting to feel about the whole situation.
He was walking around the building when a muffled noise caught his attention. Backing a few steps, he looked around to search for the place where the sound was loudest and saw a dumpster a few meters away.
Running over, he quickly took his gun out of its hiding place at his back and came to a stand in front of the dumpster, gun pointing towards the noise. The sound was like a whimper from wounded animal of some kind, but he had to make sure.
But what he saw around the corner wasn’t an injured animal, but a half-naked man tied up and gagged. Another man was on the ground next to him in a similar state, but unconscious. Julian knew both men very well. Although they were now covered in cuts and bruises, he knew they were the men guarding the back door to the auditorium, the one that opened directly to the parking area. Julian hid his gun back in its place and got on his knees to free the conscious man, who was struggling to get free from his bonds.
“Who did this to you?” he asked Misha urgently, not liking this scenario at all.
“A-a m-an! H-he came from behind and a-attacked me!” Misha said, pointing at the bruises on his face. “I’m so sorry, sir. I should’ve been mor—”
“Did you see him? What did he look like?” Julian cut him off. His voice was stone cold. It was causing the other man to cower away from him, but right now, Julian didn’t care. He’d failed in his duty and if anything happened to Sia, he’ll be punished accordingly. But right then, Julian’s focus was on getting to Sia as quick as he could.
“Wh-white h-hair . . . a-and purple e-eyes . . .” the man stuttered out, about to lose consciousness again.
“Shit!” Julian stood up sharply and spoke into his radio to one of his backup guards. “Misha and his partner are tied behind a dumpster near the east exit to the auditorium. He’s injured badly so bring first aid and call an ambulance.”
He ended the call and asked Misha where he last saw Arthur Stone went. He pointed toward the storage units a few minutes away. Julian thanked the man and told him to stay put until help arrived.
And then Julian ran.