A Soul's Journey

Chapter Twenty Seven

Michelle stepped closer and embraced Kim.

Kim responded. She embraced Michelle tight, so tight that Michelle could hardly breathe.

Michelle peeled away from her embrace, "Kim, we shouldn't lose precious time. Come and follow me."

Kim's shaky legs followed Michelle to a restaurant bustling with different faces. They waded through a sea of customers. Finally, Michelle spotted a table for two in a far corner. A couple had just left it with their spoils still on it.

"Here, you may seat and wait for me. I'll call a taxi and we will talk in a place where no one could interfere. Keep an eye on the entrance of the mall. As soon as you see me arrive in a taxi, come out immediately." Michelle didn't wait for an answer as she spun away for the door.

Like a little child to a mother, Kim did as what she said.

Michelle joined a line waiting for their turns for a taxi. Her heart beating fast as she counted the minutes passing by. And after a while she got her turn and they headed to the door of the restaurant where she left Kim. She stood a while outside of the taxi and waited for Kim to come out. But still there was no Kim. Something must be wrong. Her heart beat faster.

She went inside and saw the table occupied by another. She went to the powder room and still she didn't see Kim. Have she changed her mind? The way she was acting, she would never be.

She went back to the taxi. Jim must have outwitted me again.

Michelle headed for home to get her car, and then proceeded to the cemetery. As she was about to take a turn by the entrance, Mang Teban blocked her way. He quickly jumped inside and sat beside Kim.

"Let's go to the downtown hotel my lady; Von is beside me issuing instructions. It would be a bloody battle ahead so ask for help. We couldn't do it alone."

"Oh my!" she closed her eyes firmly and slackened her shoulders. She knew that the hotel was owned by Jim's family.

Kim was lying down unconscious on a bed in the 24th floor of the hotel. Jim had injected a drug in her system while still travelling in the van. This is your hell and my heaven. None of the girls I brought here had seen the daylight again. And you will be the latest, Kim.

His fingers ran over Kim's face and down to her neck. He stooped down and kissed her lips gently at first. As the boar in him roared, he went on top of Kim and his lips went all over her face.

Michelle parked her car at the basement, followed by an SUV loaded with 5 NBI agents with the agency marking printed at the back of their jackets.

The security personnel spotted them and immediately notified Jim of their presence. The call irritated him but he must make a move.

"Pick her up; we have to change location. NBI agents were in the elevator coming into our direction. Somebody might have tipped them of our location. We proceed to the ground floor." His bodyguard did what Jim said. One of them followed with a concealed UZI firearm under his jacket.

Von informed Mang Teban the movements of Jim's group and in turn relayed to Michelle.

"This way sir," Michelle called the agents who had gone ahead of her.

"Why a change of direction?"

"Sir, someone phoned me that the group headed for the exit. His group will use the stairs several floors down to avoid meeting us by the elevator.

Her group exited the elevator on the 20th floor to counter Jim's move. "Get ready sir, a confrontation is imminent and bloody. One of them carried an automatic gun. But please be careful. They have the unconscious Kim. She might be caught in the cross-fire."

Michelle trembled in fear not for her life but for Kim's.