KIX:
“Are you well enough for a talk, alpha?”
Beta Nathan – my father’s assistant and his right hand man for the many dirty works my family had been up to in the past… I never liked him, save for that one incident when he and his wife pleaded for me to find Misha’s killer.
Now, he was looking down on me like I was a bug despite my title. What in the world happened when I was asleep?
“What is this about,” I asked coldly.
I know I was an inexperienced pup in his eyes, but I am the alpha now, and he is just a beta. I could never let him intimidate me.
His face softened up a bit after he sent Neil outside.
“How are you, really?”
“I’m fine,” I groaned. He knew me since I was a kid. He was a hard man, and just like my father, he had very dark ambitions for the pack. He had never failed to tell me on so many occasions in the past how I was an incompetent fool who was a disgrace to my parents for trying to make a clean business for the Luna Albas.
I can only imagine his rage when I was supported as alpha by the majority of the pack after my parents met their accident. Thus, I couldn’t act intimidated by him at the very least...
Before this accident with Jade happened, Beta Nathan was in charge of one of our major businesses – Neroi, our healthy restaurant line. He was thinking of signing with a bunch of other investors, so he was busy enough as it was. Naturally, he may have become the acting alpha in my absence as he was after all the most experienced in the company.
As expected from someone who had been a ruthless businessman for some time now, he never beat around the bush.
“Alright then, I may not have time, so I’ll get straight to the point. Why did you threaten the Rubrum Amaryllis?”
My eyes must have popped out from my socket just now. “What are you talking about, beta?”
“We have been setting up talks with our allied pack after the ambush. It turns out that you sent them a very inappropriate letter that made them strike us first.”
“Whatever letter,” I asked again, this time with more anger.
“Alpha Kix, you’re still quite young and quite new in your leadership, so why are you causing us trouble? Based on what I heard, you cannot even perform your day duties properly. In fact, it seemed you just went around spending more time with some filthy human girl’s home than at work. Clearly, you’ve been at fault here.”
I can’t believe what I was hearing! This old man had been monitoring me.
“Beta Nathan, do you even know what you’re accusing me of? Do you want me to remind you that if it wasn’t for your begging, I wouldn’t be there in the university to find out about Misha’s killer in the first place?”
The old prune was silent for a while. “That may well be true. We did ask you to help us find Misha’s killer, but we never said you must personally go and see it. Tell me, was it because of that girl – the one the former alpha and luna forbade you to see?”
“Nathan Reyes, that girl has a name! Call her Jade for she will most likely be your future luna!”
“Before she becomes the luna, she has yet to show herself first,” the old man said, his face never presenting even a morsel of emotion.
She has to show herself? What the hell did he mean by that?
Just then, the door of my hospital room opened, and several men went inside.
“Mr. Francisco Sarmiento,” the one seeming to be in charged said, “My name is Captain Martin Rigdon. We are placing you under surveillance for the disappearance of Miss Jade Sy.”
My eyes widened, and my pulse began to beat rapidly. “Wait, what do you mean? What happened to Jade?”
“Miss Sy had disappeared.”
I was a fool! All along, I had forgotten to ask about the most important person in this entire mayhem – Jade.
“Since when did she disappear?”
“It has been three months already.”
Bloody Goddess! Three months? She had started to disappear three months ago, and the best that these police men craps could do was to put me under arrest today?
“Three months? I have just woken up today! Why am I being questioned for her disappearance?”
I was not so much angry about the fact that I was the subject of an investigation. I was more furious about the fact that they couldn’t find my Jade for three months already!
I thought that the worse was over when I helped her with those monsters, but then this happened…
“Mr. Sarmiento, Miss Sy’s whereabouts is still the subject of our current investigation. You were the last person she was with, so please cooperate with us.”
The term that went out of the police inspector’s mouth was ‘cooperate,’ but by the looks of things, it doesn’t seem like that’s not what they wanted to do...
“Alright, if that’s what you want, I’ll cooperate… But first of all, let me ask you some questions.”
“Go ahead.”
“Where exactly did Ms. Sy disappear?”
“She disappeared in this hospital too. She has just been moved to the regular ward by then.”
Regular ward… That means Jade had recuperated by then, right? She didn’t suffer any lasting damages on her body, thank the heavens!
“Was she alright by then? Did she break any bones,” I inquired.
“As far as we know, Miss Sy was swiftly recovering from her injuries. She had just started to wake up, when her disappearance took place. Also, there was a lead…”
“A lead,” my heart was beating fast, feeding on hope. “What did you find?”
“It seems there was a call made by Miss Sy using Mr. Liam Cruz’s phone. The phone was for the 119 emergency number.”
An emergency call using that rat’s phone? Could it be?...
“Officer, I think we’re done here. I need some rest. You can come back again tomorrow.”
I need to fend these craps off. I need to find my Jade!
She wouldn’t have been able to use Liam’s phone if he was not with her. That means that he might know where Jade is, right?
“Look, Mr. Sarmiento, sending us off isn’t your call.”
“And whose call is it? Are you saying that I had just become your main suspect now?”
I had meant that as a joke, but the look on the police officer’s face said that it was exactly what they were thinking of me.
Before I could say anything else, the police officer produced a handcuff from his inner pocket.
“Mr. Francisco Sarmiento, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of Miss Jade Sy. You have the right to remain silent and the right for an attorney.”
I can’t believe this! This isn’t possible…
Beta Neil was still standing at one corner of my room. Surprisingly, he didn’t say anything from start to finish. He was just busy burying his head on a newspaper article.
Due to the bold, glaring letters, I got a glimpse of the business headlines of the page he was looking at. The front page spread was about Neroi and its merger with another company.
Guess who was the company they just had a merger with? It was none other than Brooklyn and Burke.
The inner clocks in my mind started to turn. Just then, my eyes brushed towards Beta Nathan as he lowered the newspaper from his face just in time as the police officer closed over those handcuffs on my wrists.
For a second, I thought I saw his lower lips curve into a sinister-looking smile.