Kidnapped By Mistake ✔️

📌15

(edited)

The sky is getting lighter by the minute and we're still on the road. The Jeep we're in holds a continuous but fast speed and I use everything in me to stay awake. Vince is the same. We haven't had not even an hour of sleep in total in the last two days and it is affecting us.

"We're almost there." Giovanni informs us from the passenger seat without bothering to turn around.

I still don't know why I agreed to go with Giovanni and drag Vince with me in another mess. Maybe I felt nearly desperate to find Jade. Maybe. But what about Christopher? Wil I have my little brother's life in my hands because of this?

***

"I don't like this. Not even a bit." Vince mutters lowly in my ear just as we exit the Jeep, a couple of hours later after Giovanni told us that we were "almost there". Liar.

"I know, I know." I heave a sigh and turn to look at him. Vince's eyes are filled with uncertainty and a speck of fear as he stares at me.

"So what now?" He asks while our legs follow Giovanni into the grand white villa in front of us.

I study the environment around me. We aren't in Washington DC anymore, that I'm sure of. Instead of the busy and crowded streets of the city I live in, there's just one road and the rest is trees, grass and more trees and bushes. Giovanni must be really careful not to be caught by Silvio-or anyone else for that matter-since he hides us in a beautiful villa outside the city, deep among the trees.

"I will talk to Giovanni and see what he really plans to do about Jade." I tell Vince in a low voice just before we step inside the villa where Giovanni talks with one of his men in the lobby. He then turns around and looks at us,

"I know you're tired so I told the staff to clean two rooms. I'll give you a few hours to rest and eat before we start looking for Jade. The sooner we start the better." Giovanni says to us, "Willa, can I talk to you before you go?"

"Uh, sure."

Giovanni then leads the way to the living room, I suppose, and Vince is taken to his room by some dude. After we take a seat on the black armchairs, Giovanni takes a few moments before speaking,

"I love Jade." He blurts out directly with seriousness, his face stone cold, but his eyes give away how nervous he is. I don't know what to think. Is he joking? Is he playing some twisted game with me?

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I love her, Willa, ever since she almost robbed me." He goes further into explaining, but I'm further into the land of confusion.

"You're joking, right? When did you two have the time to do that? " I fail to stifle my laugh. Giovanni only stares at me like I'm crazy. How can he love her after she almost robbed him? Besides, even if he does, Jade for sure doesn't. She has always been the emotionless one. She broke up with her last boyfriend because he was too clingy for calling her three times a week. She simply cannot love someone. Sometimes I even question if she loves me.

"I am not joking. Why would I be joking about such thing? I love her, Willa, and I need to find her before Silvio does because if he does, he'll kill her with his own hands without the blink of an eye, believe me. I can't stand to loose her. Hell, I can't stand being away from her for so long and especially not knowing where she is." The way he says it makes me feel the love he has for her through his words. Does he really love her?

He stands up from the armchair and begins pacing around the room while I sit there wordless, silent for seconds, earning Giovanni's urging look to say something.

"I want to find her too, Giovanni. She is my sister." I speak up at last. I don't want her dead either. Remembering how we used to throw ridiculous insults at each other and how our comebacks always sucked brings me, believe it or not, happy memories now. And if she dies... God, I don't wanna think about it.

"Then let's find her. Why is it so fucking hard to do that?" He shows anger and frustration through his gritted words as his hands rake through his brown hair.

"I don't know. When was the last time you saw her?" I question and he takes a second to think.

"The day before you were kidnapped. She told me to meet her up in secret because she knew Silvio was close to finding her. I offered to help her, but she said she was better alone. She also said she was close to uncovering some illegal stuff. That's when she told me about the foreign sentence and that I should tell it to you. But then Silvio found you and you know the rest. "

A sigh escapes my lips again."We've been searching for hours, Giovanni, and we haven't come up with a single lead. If only we had her phone..."

My sentence trails off in hopelessness but just then Giovanni has a revelation, his eyes widen a slight as he strides to the drawers and takes out a black smartphone.

My eyes widen. "How did you...?" I breath out when he gives me the phone. Without doubt that it's Jade's encrypted phone FBI confiscated.

"Many, many friends and an influencing father. Anyway, none of the techs I trust could decrypt it. I was losing hope but maybe you and Vincent can succeed. That's actually why I wanted to find you two." He sighs, putting his hands in his pockets.

After Giovanni gave me the phone, I had it griped in my hand all the way to the rooms because I feared I'd lose it and we couldn't find Jade. When I gave the phone to Vince, he looked beyond hopeful and got to work with it almost immediately.

I, on the other hand, felt helpless. I didn't know what to do. Vince only taught me how to work with the traffic surveillance cameras and the face recognition software so I decided to stay out of his way. If he needed help, he had to only ask.

Hours pass and Vince is concentrated on unlocking the phone. He has it connected to his laptop and runs different algorithms and programs. Or at least that's what it looks to me.

"Willa, can you come here for a second?" I hear Vince's frantic and stammery voice from the other side of the room after a while. I stand up from the bed, and my own laptop, and walk to him. He has brought up various documents and files on the screen.

"What's up? What's all this?"

"I think I know why she's hiding." he says then clicks on a certain document. "See this? It's a document signed by the director of the CIA that shows he's been dealing government firearms to Iran illegally. And this. There's half a dozen of missions all around the east that he's allowed secretly and none of the agents have returned. In another document it says they were presumably ambushed and any reinforcements they had asked for weren't sent on purpose. He's been sending agents to die for years, Willa, just because he wanted to free some spots and put his corrupted men instead. "

"Oh, my God," I look at Vince in disbelief and back at the screen. Vince continues.

"He's corrupted, Willa. Has been for years and I think Jade found out, gathered all this and went into hiding. She's waiting for the right time to uncover it."

I stay silent. My thoughts are running at high speed, imagining all the different scenarios that had probably already happened or can happen. Jsde did all this and I only thought she was hiding because of Silvio. Silvio was never the main reason. He was merely a small puppet in all this.

This is what she had told Giovanni, too. The illegal stuff she had to uncover, this was what she had meant.

Just as I'm about to tell Vince to make a copy of all the files, my laptop on the other side of the room pings, announcing a match. Our eyes dart to it and I hurry to it to see if it's her this time. The location says Fajardo, Puerto Rico, and the picture is of a blonde girl, but it's definitely her.

"It's Jade, Vince," still in shock, I turn to him and utter out.