Chapter 3: Kidnapped, Just Like in Action Movies
Leona thought that this only happened in movies, but before she could scream for help, someone covered her nose and mouth roughly with a foul-smelling handkerchief!
Unable to resist the effect of chloroform, Leona went slack. Before everything turned to darkness, her last thought lingered on trying to remember if she made a backup for her latest written chapters on the cloud drive.
The apartment’s security was so shabby that Leona’s neighbours did not question the strange noises coming from the usually silent apartment. All they knew about the tenants living in that unit was the constant bickering between the siblings. While the sister was a quiet and somewhat gloomy person, the brother was a rowdier and less intelligent member of society.
In such a poor part of Norwich City, everyone minded their own business. There was no time to spare any kindness when everyone was busy watching their backs and chasing the paycheque to afford the crappiest of rooms to live in. The landlord didn’t even want to check on them, only sending messengers to collect rentals monthly. As long as the landlord’s pockets were lined and the tenants did not bring him any trouble with the law, he closed his eyes to everything that happened under his nose.
The men in Leona’s apartment worked quickly. It was almost three in the morning, and no sane human was awake to see a gloomy author blindfolded and dragged out of her crappy apartment by two men dressed suspiciously while three other men turned her apartment inside out.
Apart from the laptop and phone, there wasn’t anything else of value to take. The package that her brother took was an expensive one and nothing else in this shithole was worth looking at. The boss only told them to secure the hostage with as little damage as possible. Everything potentially related to Leonard’s backer must be confiscated before the police took action, and the goons made sure to make it look as if there had only been a break-in but not a kidnapping.
“All clear, boss. We have the target, her laptop and her phone. There was nothing else of value. The mole worked cleanly. What’s your next order?”
Listening to the report, Ignatius looked at his latest business report. There was another case at a nightclub, and he could feel a headache throbbing at the back of his skull. Those bastards were really persistent. First, they hired rats to steal information. Now, they hire runners to create trouble in his territory. Did they really think he wouldn’t sniff them out?
The Polerths might have balls of steel, but according to his knowledge, they weren’t this powerful half a year ago. There must be someone else backing them to provoke such audacity. Everyone in Norwich City knew not to mess with the Teivels unless they could afford to go to war. Ignatius Teivel did not make his name an unerasable stain in the underworld by talking things over tea. He snatched that indisputable title by force with guns blazing and climbing on stairs built using the corpses of his enemies.
Leona Sandersmith was a civilian with no links to the underworld despite her brother’s deep involvement. Leonard might be a fool, but he genuinely cared for his sister. The private investigator he hired to dig into the siblings’ private life already sent him a first report on readily available general information.
Due to the debts left behind by their late mother, both siblings suffered a typical hard life. Loan after loan sank them deeper into the abyss, and Leonard started to mix in bad company for fast money while his sister struggled to earn what little she could by doing online jobs. Neither siblings completed their education, and they lived in the same apartment.
“Treat her well. Bring her to the safe house in the port and remember to handcuff her to the bed. No funny business, she’s to be treated with enough respect but not spoiled with luxuries.”
The goon over the phone swallowed thickly at the new orders. Although the words sounded polite, everyone got the underlying message to behave well. This hostage was a VVIP. Even the slightest of scratches on her would earn them a bullet between their eyes. Ignatius wasn’t fooling around this time, and whatever package the rat was holding onto must be very important for their boss to personally monitor a hostage.
The chloroform worked well as the black car sped through the sleeping city, ignoring all lights and speed limit warnings. The journey to Ignatius’ safe house near Port Charleston took half the normal time, and Leona showed no signs of stirring from her drugged sleep. The combination of exhaustion and chloroform kept her dead to the world even as her captors carried her into the modified warehouse.
The black car stopped outside the plain warehouse as the goons entered a code to the electronic side door, checking the area around them before entering with their boss’ newest hostage.
The interior of the safe house was a huge contrast to the nondescript exterior. Trucks and vans drove past the warehouse daily, with hundreds of labourers passing by. Yet, nobody would expect to see something out from a home decor magazine to be inside this rugged warehouse. There were no chunky carton boxes or splintered wooden pallets stacked in neat rows like the other warehouses in the area. Instead, a different world of luxury lay beyond the second security door.
Removing their shoes at the entrance while carrying Leona up the half flight of stairs, the goons called their boss once more to inform him that the hostage was safely transferred.
Smirking as he turned to watch the spy cams, Ignatius had to admit that while the hostage was a little on the thin side and clearly unhealthy, she was still a beauty. If Leonard failed to do what he had to, they could always use her to recoup losses.
Giving verbal orders over the phone and monitoring his men from the cameras, Ignatius wondered how this little ginger head would react when she realised her situation.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone