Chapter 5

“It’s you,” I murmured. “Thanks.”

He was pretty attractive, although he wasn’t exactly who I was lusting after. After meeting a handsome man like Tyler, somehow, the other men didn’t seem equally as fascinating as Tyler.

I knew that I had needs, being eighteen. Yet, this nineteen-year-old boy had a dubious origin. He had kicked down tables at the food court and made life arduous for the hawkers. But to say I wasn’t curious about the purpose he was here was a lie.

Also, he had sounded less coarse and more well-mannered in the club. Perhaps it was one of the regulations of the club, I told myself. He was now dressed in a black tie and white shirt with black trousers as if he was working in an office.

“What are you doing here?” I heard myself ask.

“Work,” he answered. “The same reason why I was there in the afternoon.”

I nodded. It wasn’t surprising he was seeking his debtors at the club. Wealthy people didn’t mean they didn’t owe hefty debts to loan sharks. My parents had been billionaires before falling for Zuese Banks’ ploy and their failure in the investment. I did not understand the relationship between Zuese Banks and my father, yet I understood from his letter to us that he had once believed Zuese was the answer to his financial problems.

It just took one wrong steps to pull down your children and family, I thought. 

“Hey, what about you? What are you doing with this...object? Are you a photographer?”

He had to be rather foolish or outdated to be asking such a question. It was a spy camera that reporters on a low budget used. But knowing he was working for some shady employers, I just nodded.

“Yes, it’s my hobby. By the way, have you seen Tyler Banks? It’s my dream to meet up with him. He’s my idol.”

The boy smiled sheepishly, believing my words easily. “Saw him head to the back of the building while I was on my way into the club. You better go now because Mr Banks walks fast.”

“Uhuh.” I took my property from his hand and gathered my dress. 

“Um, miss?” he called after me. I turned to acknowledge what he was about to say.

“I would like to warn you that Mr Banks is not one to mess with. Once you sleep with him, you’ll naturally become his possession. If you still want your freedom, stay far from him.”

He had sounded genuine, yet I still had to take the risk. I thanked him and left.

His sad eyes as I passed him made me feel there was something he wanted to tell me, but couldn’t.

……………………………………………………………………

The night was cold. I avoided the luxurious vehicles parked outside the club, making my way to the dark spot located behind the club. Some drunken couples with their clothes in a disarray passed me.

“Want to drink more, dear.”

They shot dirty glares at me as if I was interrupting their lovemaking session. I looked away immediately, not wanting to get involved. After all, I came here for a task, and I would not leave without achieving my goal.

Before I reached the spot where the boy had seen Tyler, I paused to adjust the camera. To my dismay, anything that I recorded came out fuzzy. It was the effect of having fallen hard on the floor of the club. I gave up and pushed the object into my clutch. Now, my clutch wouldn’t close completely, but there was nothing that I could do now. I might as well throw it away since it wouldn’t take even pictures well.

“Sir Kevin, here’s the cigarettes that you asked me to buy.”

I stopped dead in my tracks as I realised that Tyler and the man he was meeting were not alone. There were at least two other men at the scene. The man called Kevin flared up at the sight of the pack of cigarettes in the hands of the man attending to him. Seizing the cigarettes, he stomped on them.

“Get lost! I don’t want to see you ever again in A City!”

The man hastily fled the scene. Kevin then turned to the other man.

“You, get the cigarettes!”

The man also disappeared with a faint “yes sir”. Now that the men were alone, I inched closer to observe Tyler. He was standing with his hands on his hips, indulging in a relaxed conversation with Kevin.

“So, you brought the stuff?” Kevin said, placing an arm on Tyler’s shoulder.

Did Tyler like men? I contemplated, considering the short distance between the man. Kevin seemed to be particularly intrigued by the charming Tyler. Tyler chuckled, pulling open his backpack.

He had filled his backpack with bags of whitish powder!

My eyes almost fell out of my sockets. Was the powder what I thought it to be? But Tyler was the CEO of Zeusolutions. He couldn’t stoop that low!

Kevin clapped his hands, then leant closer to Tyler to take the backpack from him.

“In just a short time, you managed to get so much,” he said aloud. 

Not believing what I had just seen, I inched forward to get a closer look. No, my Tyler may be a horny and desperate womaniser, but in no way was he a drug dealer! The fact just burned my ‘perfect’ image of Tyler to ash. 

Kevin winked and waved to Tyler. “It’s getting late. I should see you soon.”

I fell back on the pavement, stunned. I had to be dreaming. I refused to believe Tyler was that kind of person, although I had seen the truth displayed before me.

But before I knew it, two hands were pulling me to my feet. 

“Sir Tyler, we found a thief spying on your conversation,” a man with a foul breath uttered. I struggled to pull free from the man, but his bodyguard seemed to have hands built from steel.

“Hand her to me,” Tyler ordered. His raging eyes were fixated on me intensely. Kevin snatched the clutch from my perpetrator and searched it for its contents before tossing it towards Tyler.

Immediately Tyler dragged me roughly into a nearby sports car, as dark as night and a make I could barely recognise. Kevin wasted no time in advising him.

“You can’t keep her alive, bro! She’ll be the end of you, Tyler! We don’t know who sent her. She even has a camera and recorder with her. Probably she has already captured evidence of our deal!”

I was too exhausted to say any words in my defence. Tyler was powerful, and so would be Kevin and his bodyguard. But, as fast as I could run, I could not be able to escape three men. So, finally, I admitted my defeat, crying silent tears of my impending disaster.

But soon, only Tyler and I remained. He strapped me in the front passenger seat beside him, locked with a passcode. Tyler drove the vehicle far from Kevin and his man. Now they appeared to be a blur in the distance. 

“Tell me, Ally Shale, who sent you?” he asked, his eyes piercing through mine. I remembered his taste on my lips, telling myself that maybe they would be my last memory before I died from extreme torture. I didn’t want to know how little knives cutting through my skin would feel. I recalled those harrowing scenes in the novels I had read as a child.

He seized my chin and coerced me to look into his eyes.

“Nobody sent me,” I lied as hard as I could. I had signed an NDA that disallowed me from revealing any information about my employers, and either way, I would meet with a fate worse than death. But, on the other hand, if I told the truth about Tank Publishing Company, I would live my life in fear of being threatened by Adrian Tank or suffer an unknown fate at his bosses’ hands. 

Who knows, they could be even worse than Tyler Banks. Otherwise, Shirley, and probably the others, wouldn’t have volunteered to become sex slaves to an ugly abomination like Adrian. 

“I told you earlier, I wasn’t done with you,” he rasped against my chest as he stopped the vehicle by the road. “Even if I had to kill you now, I won’t without allowing you to have the time of your life. I mean every word I say, Ally Shale.”

I shuddered, feeling myself damp again with our intimacy. It was true that I wanted to know the feeling of him inside me, to at least surrender myself to him before I met with my untimely fate. But if I had to do what I could to survive, I would. Survival meant another chance to see my loved ones again. And if that meant enduring torture at the hands of Tyler Banks and his men, I would. I would do what it took just to survive.

I closed my eyes and took in the extremity of his cologne. His hand pinched my cheek sorely. 

"I can’t wait to have you naked under me, begging for me to take you as hard as I can," his words drifted deep into my soul, drugging me with desire. I sincerely hoped his words were true and he would give me a chance to live.

After all, if you said those words to a person, would you be willing to kill her?

Then he was speeding right through the roads, ignorant of any red lights present. When the vehicle came to a stop later on, I was bewildered by the sight of the house we were just outside.

"Welcome to my world, my little captive," he whispered as two men bundled me out of the car and dragged me forcefully to an unknown destination where I faced an unknown fate.

I imagined a room with spikes on a bed with rollers where spirits of tortured souls lingered to haunt those who entered the room. Just like in the games.

Everything became pitch black. I knew the men had pulled a cloth wrap over my head to mask the surroundings. My heart was pounding in my chest.

I screamed as the sharp end of a syringe was jabbed through my back. Then, the pain stopped, but all my thoughts were whirling through me. I focused on one thought at a time.

My desire to stay alive. In an instant, the cloth was pulled away from me and lights illuminated the room.

"You can go now," Tyler's authoritative voice ordered. The men disappeared with his instructions. 

"With my prisoners, I would normally use a whip, but with you, I don't bear to," he whispered savagely in my ear. I gritted my teeth in anticipation of the interrogation method he was about to use on me. His hand snaked dangerously around my waist.

"Ally Shale, I'm giving you one more chance to live."