UNTAMED DESIRE (A sequel to DESIRE IN DENIAL) – Ima Udott
Episode 16
He quickly dialled her number, only to realize that her phone was ringing right inside the house. He traced it and found it on the dining table. A sudden fear gripped him as his heart started to beat very fast.
Frustrated, he sank on the couch and began to think of what to do. He thought of dialling the police, but remembered he’d be told to wait for 24 hours before any investigation commenced.
He was an FBI agent, he was very capable of doing this, so on a second thought, he decided he was going to exclude the police in this particular case. He was going to take it upon himself and he prayed he succeeded.
“Or maybe she has decided to go to her house to get the stuff… maybe what she needed from the house was so important that she couldn’t wait for me to return… how could I not think of that,” he said, trying to convince himself.
He picked his car key and rushed to his car. He drove as fast as he could to Hannah’s house. Before he got down, he said a quick prayer and then got to the door, only to realize that it was locked.
He screamed out Hannah’s name, when he got no response, he walked to the backyard and did same, but also got no reply. When he rushed back to the frontage and once again screamed Hannah’s name, he finally got a response, although it came from her crazy neighbor.
“Who the hell are you and why are you disturbing my peace?” the angry woman asked, exhaling the smoke from the cigarette that was stuck in her mouth. She was looking at him through her window.
“Good day, Ma’am. Please I’m looking for, a young, beautiful lady…”
“Hannah” the woman completed.
“Yes! Yes! Have you seen her around, today?”
“I have seen her,” she paused and laughed when she saw the happiness on Jared’s face, then she continued, “but certainly not today. The last time I saw her was two or three days ago,” she concluded, still smoking.
“Oh… okay, thanks,” the disappointment on Jared’s face and voice forced the woman to ask him if everything was alright.
“Sure… just that I expected her to be here. I’ve got to go, thanks ma’am,”
“Call me lady Isabella,” the lady shouted back.
“Okay, lady Isabella,” Jared said, shook his head before he walked to his car, jumped in and was about to speed off when his phone rang.
Absentmindedly, he picked the call without looking at the caller, it was when a lady’s voice which sounded very familiar came through that he looked at his phone and realized it was an unknown number.
“Hey Jared, I trust you must be all sweaty, looking for your beautiful, sweet Hannah and her baby…”
“Who is this?” Jared interrupted.
“Shhh, you don’t interrupt me when I’m talking, that’s rule number one and you just broke it. But, I will pardon you because you did not know.
As I was saying, you must be very worried about your hunny bunny and her cute little thing, but you don’t have to search anymore because, I’ve got them,” She said and started to laugh.
Another peculiar thing that Jared had learnt in the course of being an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was the ability to quickly dictate a culprit from their voice.
He knew immediately that he was speaking with Cecilia. He could swear to himself that she was the one, because he had a flash back of when he had visited her in her house.
He remembered how she spoke to him, the way she cried and even remembered all the times he got to speak with her while her father was detained.
He wasn’t going to let her know that he knew she was the one, he was ready for this. All he wanted at the moment was to be sure that Hannah and her baby were alright.
“How sure am I that you are telling me the truth? I wanna hear their voices if truly they’re under your custody,”
“I love your guts. You seem not to be afraid. Anyway, I will make you hear their voices,” Cecilia said.
“Jared, you need to help me and my baby…I don’t wanna die, please…” Hannah’s voice made Jared almost go crazy.
From the way she sounded, it was obvious she was in pains. He needed to help them. He needed to get them out of wherever they were, alive.
“What do you want?” Jared asked, running his hand through his hair.
Cecilia smiled, “Good question. I want you, that’s all. If you involve the police, then you’re making things messier for you.
I know where you are right now, so all you have to do is drive straight down to the location I’m going to text you.
As soon as I see you, I will release Hannah and her baby and you will follow me. Your time starts now.
If it exceeds today and you don’t show up, then don’t expect them alive by tomorrow. That’s how impatient I am,” she ended the call and immediately, he saw a message, directing him on how to get to Hannah.
He had tried to trace her location with his phone, but it seemed she had turned off everything that could make him track her.
So, he turned off the location on his phone and was about to drive off when Melissa’s call came in. That was when he remembered that she and Melvin were supposed to visit him that day.
“Hey Jared, we’d be heading to your place, say ten minutes from now, hope to see you soon…”
“No, Melissa, Hannah and I stepped out. As soon as we return, I will invite you over, okay?” Melissa was able to tell from his voice that something was wrong.
“Okay… Jared, you aren’t sounding happy, is everything alright?” Melissa asked.
Jared thought of keeping it away from her, but then decided to tell her. She was his sister, and his only family, so he felt she deserved to know.
He opened up to her, told her the address he was asked to go and begged her not to involve the police or disclose it to anyone, assuring her that he was going to be fine. Though he didn’t tell her he knew the culprit.
He didn’t wait for her to dissuade him, all he needed right now was a positive vibe, so he ended the call and started to drive slowly, thinking deeply.
Melissa became very scared and worried. She concluded that her dreams were playing out in reality, though in a different way.
She was in the house, waiting for Melvin to return from work so that they’d go together to visit Jared as planned, but Jared’s news had destabilized her so much that she couldn’t help but recollect her nightmare.
As soon as Melvin returned, he didn’t need to be told that Melissa wasn’t happy. In fact, she was crying and he was so worried that he didn’t bother taking off his clothes before he rushed to her to ask what was wrong.
“Jared…Hannah…her baby…” she managed to say.
“Mel, please calm down and talk to me,” Melvin said. He squatted in front of her while she sat on the couch.
Melissa told him everything and he became speechless and confused on what to do.
“We should call the police,” Melvin said.
“Jared said we shouldn’t involve the police…”
“No Melissa, people’s lives are in danger, we have the address of where they are, which is easier for us, so I think the best we can do at the moment is to go to the cops, right away…”
“I don’t wanna lose Jared. I don’t wanna lose Hannah and her baby too. God please, bring them safely back home, I beg of you,” Melissa prayed.
“Melissa, you will stay here while I go to the cops, I don’t want you to stress yourself,” he said looking at her protruding stomach.
“No, Melvin, I will come with you, I promise I will be fine…”
“Melissa it isn’t safe for you, please try and understand that there might be an exchange of gunshots and it’s going to be really risky. Just stay here, I promise to keep you updated,” Melvin said and stood up to leave.
He kissed his wife deeply before he left. Melissa couldn’t control the tears from rolling out of her eyes. She wished none of these happened.
She wondered who could be so wicked to stage Hannah’s kidnap and why she wanted Jared in exchange for Hannah and her baby.
She had lost appetite for food, so she didn’t bother going to the kitchen. Rather, she stood up and paced the house, looking at her phone every now and then.
****
Cecilia had never been this happy before. She was finally able to execute her long strategized plan. If Jared believed that she actually gave him the real address of where Hannah and her baby were, then he wasn’t as smart as she thought he would be.
She had locked up Hannah and her baby in an isolated building in a basement, far away from where she was, just as her father did to Jared’s and Melissa’s mom before he killed her.
She was actually in the location she sent to Jared with hefty looking bodyguards, patrolling all over the place. Her plan was to lure Jared to where she was, drive him to the basement where Hannah was and lock him up with her.
After which she’d set the basement on fire and forget that Jared and Hannah ever existed. All she ever wanted was a revenge and she was happy she was gradually getting it, all of it.
The building where she was, had Closed-Circuit Television cameras, so she was sure nobody could outsmart or double-cross her.
She sat in her office in the building, monitoring every movement in the building. She didn’t want anyone else to do the monitoring so that she wouldn’t get disappointed like Brenda did to her.
As she waited patiently for Jared to arrive, she remembered how Brenda betrayed her and ran away after the plans they had agreed to execute together.
She thought of letting go of her, but then, she feared Brenda might go about and expose her to others, so she decided she was going to trace her and kill her as soon as she was done with this.
She quickly sat up when she saw on the CCTV camera, a man walking in through the gate, followed by three of her men who were pointing their guns at him. Then she smiled triumphantly before she stepped out of her office.
