Hostages (Book 2)

Chapter 43

*slightly more mature*

My eyes swept over the sentence-- over the command, over and over and over again. It didn't make sense. Why was such a command in Theo's office when he doesn't do business such as being a hitman and he already sent Zachary off to his lethal fate. And who's the ' 3 of them '?

"Why didn't you decipher the ' 3 '?" I asked looking up at Tyler briefly.

"That's what it was. I could of turned the 3 into the word ' three '," he shrugged "but the three is part of the message."

All the questions and irrational answers filled my head when two main emotions started to seem fit for this situation, I shot up from my chair to motion for them to come inside the café and you could guess who was the first person. Niall stood right beside me when I handed him the napkin.

We have to think, from what we know is that Naomi was supposed to die that night. Along with Theodore whereas me and Tim wasn't to be harmed, that paper has to be linked to that ambush. Or else why would they still have it and why does it feel like their connected? Always follow your instincts in scenarios like these, remember that. So. . . Theodore is 1 and Naomi is 2. Who's the third?

"This makes no freaking sense!" Naomi yelled and threw her hand in the air.

Everyone read it by now.

"Did you decode it right?" Niall smartly asked Tyler who still seemed chilled.

"Yes. It was sloppy penmanship which tells you someone wrote it down quickly but I'm positive that I worded everything as it says in those numbers." He answered and sat his cup far away from him, probably finishing its contents.

"Well no one knows what this means! We drove here just for a riddle to decode into another riddle!" Naomi went on with her rant making me roll my eyes.

"No. Theodore was supposed to die right?" Harry rhetorically asked.

"Which he did." Tyler answered for everyone.

"But Tim wasn't." Louis and Liam stated in unintentional unison.

"So that's one." Zayn said.

It went silent for a few seconds. My mind was moving close to 100 miles a minute, if that's even a thing but I was making progress.

"And Koby said that Nia was supposed to die that night too, for that drug she took." Harry remembered, having Tyler shoot up a brow.

"Koby? Koby Donoghue?"

"Yeah, you more than likely know him." Zachary spoke for the first time since we've been here as he raked a hand through his mildly long hair.

"So that's two. Maybe? We could be going at this all wrong!" Niall wasn't as yelling as Naomi but he showed his frustration.

Tyler leaned his elbows on the table. "Actually I think you can be on to something. Theodre was 1 and Naomi was 2. Now who's the third?"

"Zachary. It mentions him being alive, they could have planned to kill him that night as well." Louis said as he turned to Zach who shook his head.

"It couldn't have. Donoghue said that there was already a plan made for me."

"To kidnap Aria." Niall mumbled with his lip between his teeth.

"Why take her just to kill me in the end? That first bit of the message was clearly for something else."

How did they even know he was alive? My head started to pound and beep with all the thinking going on so I leaned on the back of my chair as I pulled at the roots of my hair, piecing the puzzle together. There wasn't any one else aside from the two T's, me and Naomi that everyone finds so intriguing to put a bullet in. I then started to pull that encounter with Bradley into the mental mix, the one who confessed to having part in that mini war.