Chapter 20

"Now I got her wrapped around my little finger"

As I read the note, my body couldn't help but tremble with agony and anger. I crumple the paper and asked Noah to check if there's any other clues in the place. As we roam around looking for some things to claim as evidences, I take out my cellphone and immediately dialed the emergency number of the back up team of the company which includes Vilea and Mr. Bryche.

"EMERGENCY ALERT!!! I need investigators here NOW!! I'll send my location. Agent Ruby is missing! Probably kidnapped! NOW GET YOUR ASSES MOVING!! NO TIME TO WASTE!!" I explain over the phone, practically holding back the tears falling on my cheeks.

"What?! No" "What happened?!" "Right away, Chief!" I hear voices talking on the phone which makes me even more worried what her state is right now.

"What?! Cherry's missing?!" I hear Vilea scream in shock.

"No! I'll be there!" I also hear Mr. Bryche panicking over the phone and eventually hung up.

"I'm almost there!! I'm running now!" Vilea exclaimed and hung up the call also. As I close my phone, I continue searching. As we finish, we met in the living room, us sweating from nervousness and worry.

"I didn't find anything in the other rooms. I think the only places that were damaged was the living room, bedroom, and kitchen, at the very least." He said. It's too bad we didn't find a single trail of evidence left, except..

"The blood" I said to him wide eyed and I rushed to the bedroom. I kneeled, avoiding the shards of glass and took a drop of blood on my finger.

I have to know how long has it been since this happened. I felt the mix of cold and warm blood on my finger, figuring it's probably been hours or a day since this happened. I felt someone behind me, touch my shoulder and I knew it was Noah. I turned to look at him and he gave me a small smile. "We'll be able to find her. I promise."

As my mind wandered into deep thoughts of Cherry. I did feel an uneasy feeling the past days because Cherry is barely talking to me. With me staying at Noah's.. I wasn't able to ensure Cherry's safety.. Everything that happened feels like my fault. Her sudden disappearance left a big empty hole in my heart that could not be satisfied. As I stand and face Noah, I look into his eyes and tears starting to fall again but I refrain from being overly dramatic. "Noah.."

He raises he brows as a reply for my call. "I shouldn't have.. stayed with you.." By the time I said it, I completely gave in. I roll my hands into fists and avoid his look.

"What..?" He asked, as if he is out of words. He slowly reach out for my hands but I also avoided his touch. I slapped his hand away from mine. "Anette..."

"Because I stayed with you..! I couldn't protect her! You don't know how much she means to me!" I shout full of rage and agony. My cracking voice full of unspoken words. I walked pass him and headed for the living room.

I won't rest until I find her. I'll find her. I'll save her.

Even if it costs me my life.

Several knocks are heard from the door and familiar voices from the agency. As I open the door, the investigators started the investigating the place. I mentioned about the blood on the bedroom and I show them the way. On the corner of my eye, I see Noah talking to Vilea and Mr. Bryche, both their faces full of worry and fear, probably explaining what we found and about everything else.

I'm sorry Noah... I didn't want to do that to you... I'm sure I need to do this mission alone... With Cherry involved, I'm not taking any chances of you going with me... I'll apologize to you tonight and make up for how I acted today... It'll be dangerous for both of us to go...

So let me save her..

and save you...

As the investigation goes through, I secretly meet up with Mr. Bryche. In his car, we talk about how the rescue will be. I seat in the passenger seat with my arms and legs crossed, my face expressionless.

"This incident must be highly related to Dave. Having her involved in the incident, it's dangerous for two agents to sneak over there. So I highly suggest I'll be the one to go. I'm going tonight. Midnight." I was about to get out of the car but Mr. Bryche took my wrist.

"You can't go alone. Even if it's for his sake, what about yourself? Have you thought of what might happen if you barge in there without back up? If you don't want to listen to me as your boss, at least listen to me as your friend." He asked as his eyes are are filled with mixed emotions, both anger and worry. I immediately pull from the grip, and glared at him.

"I'm doing what I can to protect those I love, Christopher. And that's not going to change." My voice filled with irritation, I take out my anger and ball my hands into fists. "If you're not going to help me then I'll be on my way. Don't you dare mention one bit about our conversation to anyone, or else I'll quit being your Chief Lieutenant."

Right after our conversation, I got out of the car and left. I went back inside our house and found the investigators are still there. Noah and Vilea still in the middle of a talk, they notice me and walked up to me. I turn back into my usual face and faced them.

"I heard what happened... I'm sorry..." Vilea apologized as she looked down.

"Hey. It's alright. None of it is your fault." I say as I pat her back. She cries silent tears and she was shaking as she gripped my shirt. She looks back at me, her eyes begging for her to be safe and I could feel the pain she's going through. She almost never shows her emotions to other people, but since this incident has truly shocked her, she couldn't resist the urge to calm herself. I hold her hands and smiled a little to reassure her that everything will be fine. She hugs me as she cry her heart out. "We'll get her back. I promise you that."

I turn to look at Noah and catch him already looking at me. I guess I'll tell him we'll go tomorrow instead. Though I plan to go tonight, I should be careful so he won't find out.

"We should go tomorrow" I tell him, calmly. "Is it alright to cut the week short? Since my assumption that Dave being the one behind all this is exceeding my suspicions, we need to move quickly. So on the crack of dawn, tomorrow morning... Is that alright?" I still remember how I acted in front of him before. He gave me a small smile.

"Of course." He say as he holds my hand. "At your service princess"

As I see how sweet he still is, even after what I did, I can't help but have second thoughts. What if... what I'm gonna do isn't the best choice for both of us? Would the result be different then? Am I protecting him... or just sacrificing myself?

I snap myself back to reality and told myself that I'm not going to change my decision. "I'm coming with you..." Vilea suddenly muttered.

"What?" My eyes widened as I heard her say those words. I asked confused. She pulled away and wiped her tears. She turned her face into a fierce gaze.

"I have to show Dave that nobody messes with my family. He doesn't know when to stop huh? By now we'll take him down once and for all!" She rolled her hands into fists, practically putting every drop of anger she's feeling into her shaking fists. "Tomorrow morning, let's meet at the place you're staying at"

This is definitely not on my plan. I'm supposed to be thinking of how to hide it from Noah, now Vilea added up. Great. But since I'm going alone tonight, I wouldn't need to worry about her. "Sure" I gave her an answer right away. So she wouldn't suspect a thing.

As things got a little lighter, the people on the site told us to take it easy and the rest will be theirs to handle. We ate outside even though there's an awkward atmosphere between us. As we got back, it was already dark out. An awkward tension kept us from speaking to each other as we both headed straight to our rooms. I threw myself on the bed and buried my face on the pillow.

Since the information about the assumed hideout of Dave is already given to me, I don't need anything else. The place is a bar and it's said that in one of the rooms there's a secret elevator. The info just stopped until the elevator because someone might become suspicious of our informant.

I was thinking of what I'm going to do but someone knocked on my door. I know it's Noah, so I told him to come in. I eventually felt him sit on the bed and me put his hand on my back. He must think I'm still in shock of what happened. He rubs my back gently.

"You must've been hurt so bad. I didn't realize how much you care about them. And I'm sorry if I couldn't let you protect her. I guess I became a little selfish and tried to keep you for myself. But I'll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise. We'll save her." He said with his voice soft as a bird singing. My heart aches as I hear every word he says. I shouldn't feel guilty enough to change my decision. As I restrain myself from his words, I sit up beside him and looked at him.

"Tomorrow" I say as I smile at him. I'm sorry, Noah. Don't be mad. I'm just doing what I can to protect you.

"We'll definitely be a great team tomorrow. I bet you on that." He says as he holds both my hands, squeezing them both. "Wanna sleep together?" He asks.

He knows I wasn't the type to refuse in these types of things but it'll probably wake him if I end up cuddling him tonight. I might regret it. I might create an even bigger conflict. I was going to refuse but when I looked into his eyes, I see his care for me is overflowing. He knows I wont' be able to sleep tonight because of what happened and so I unconsciously nodded to his request.

We were gonna stay in his room. Since we already slept together yesterday, I'm not uncomfortable sleeping with him anymore. Since I'm not really going to sleep, I'm just going to close my eyes and wait for him to sleep. We scoot on the bed and we suddenly looked at each other's eyes.

As our eyes meet, he has an awfully irresistible gaze at me. One that I haven't seen before. As if it's a mix of love, care, passion, and...

Trust..

He slowly leans closer and he hand softly carasses my cheeks. I could feel myself burning up from his touch. I want to avoid this but I can't seem to move my body. Every inch of my body is taking command from my heart instead of my mind. As our lips brush against each other, I only feel passion in his kiss, no lust nor possessiveness. As our lips pull away, I can feel my lips burning with its desire to crave more of his kisses. I touch my lips and I just brush my thoughts off since I'm going to let him sleep.

As I ready myself under the blanket, I feel Noah's arms suddenly around my body pulling me closer to him. I couldn't think of what to do next because of his sudden gesture. I just felt the heat of his body from my back.

Noah, if you keep on doing this I might not succeed on my mission...

"Noah..." I gently try to loosen his arms but his grip just gets a little tighter.

"Just this until morning... Please..." He pleaded. I couldn't say no so I just eventually gave in. As I feel his love around his warm embrace, I couldn't help but think how lucky I am to have him as my boyfriend and how sorry I am for decieving him.

Noah, I know this will possibly be a change of your perspective of me.. but... Just know I did this to protect you... One incident is enough for me to carry... I don't want anything else to happen... If you find this note in the morning, please know that I'll be back. I promise. I love you. And I'm sorry.

It's almost time for me to go. I did everything I could to not wake Noah. But being in his arms made me feel safe even if it's just for a moment. I wrote him a note and I put it on the kitchen table downstairs. I dress up as a typical club girl, short skirt, crop top, high heels. I made sure that I won't be making any noise. As I'm going to reach the front door, I take a last look at his place. I'll be missing him and everything we did. I smile and brace myself from what's going to happen in the next few hours. I reach for the knob and open the door to find Noah standing at the other side of the door.

Bewildered, I took a step back. "Noah" still keeping my expression cool, he crosses his arms and takes a step forward.

"Where are you going?" He asked with a very suspicious voice. A very fierce look is shown on his face. I continue stepping backward but then I felt the bar of the stairs making me stop.

"I'm going clubbing" I say, as I avoid being cornered by him.

"Clubbing in this situation?" He asked furiously. "You would never go to a club knowing your friend is in complete danger!!" I remained silent but I'm not backing down. Not till I get her back.

"That's right... I won't..." I say. Changing my expression in just a split second. "That's why..."

"Not even you will get in my way"