Bounty Hunter

“Anything new?” I asked for the umpteenth time, striding back and forth as Hermine typed away on the keyboard, her facial expression nothing short of concentration.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

“Not yet. I am currently going through footage of every street around hoping to find anything that tells us who took her,” Hermine uttered, never peeling her eyes off the screen.

“We already know it’s Roman through the help of Alex and her father,” I murmured in response to Hermine’s statement. She ignored my remarks, her fingers speeding effortlessly over the keyboard.

Two days. Two whole days and I was nowhere close to finding Zinnia. Every second that ticked by without me finding out a clue to her location was enough to drive me to hell. Imagining what Roman, or whoever it was that took her, might be doing to her made it impossible for me to sleep.

I stood by the large floor-to-ceiling and end-to-end window in my study, both hands pleated in my pocket as I let my mind race, figuring out any clue that might lead us to find out where Zinnia was.

“I found something. It’s not much, but I was able to hack into the security camera of the street at the end of the woods,” Hermine spoke as she leaned back on her seat, turning her laptop in my direction.

On the screen, was a black van parked. A man had a woman lowered over his shoulders. She booted against him, but it left him unfazed as he matched towards the van.

Then, he shoved the woman into the van and at once, Hermine paused the video.

“That’s Alex. She was being tossed into a van too. This proves she was forcefully taken as well,” Hermine murmured.

I sighed. “This doesn’t prove anything. She’s still widely cognitive from what I can see. And Where’s Zinnia? There’s no sign that she was taken by them,”

“I think they took another route. You know how vast the woods is and the fact that it leads to several roads doesn’t help our case. Still, Alex doesn’t have anything to do with whoever Kidnapped Zinnia. If anything, I think she was abducted as well and probably needs our help too,”

Now, Hermine was just blabbing nonsense and I rolled my eyes hard, almost making it stick to the back of my eyes.

“Look, I know you have feelings for her, Hermine, but you need to wake up. I mean, you brought the evidence to me yourself. We already know she spoke with her father about Zinnia. And who is her father? Fucking Lucas Greystoke is known as Viper in the underworld. It is too much of a coincidence. Maybe, just maybe, if Alex had been hurled into the same van as Zinnia, I might consider her innocent to all this,”

“… But..”

“No buts, Hermine. The woman you are in love with helped kidnap my woman. Now, unless you’re going to actually do anything to help me find her, I suggest you leave before I rain my wrath on you,” I spat.

I care for Hermine. Before Zinnia, she was the only one who made me feel an ounce of emotion. While I always didn’t tolerate her then, I also didn’t want to kill her. For her skills, and well because, I also saw her as a little sister. And as her big brother, it was my duty to make her see reason.

Hermine stared at me intensely before slamming her laptop shut and storming out of my study.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. I guess finding Zinnia was all up to me. My men were as useless as they came. And the only person I could rely on just bailed on me.

I moved to my desk and opened my laptop. I hit the folder of stored footage from every corner of the estate and carefully reviewed it.

I heaved out a heavy breath, disappointed over the fact that nothing new had come up. Not wanting to relent in my efforts, I dived into the footage Hermine was able to come up with.

I studied the images intensely. My attention wasn’t focused on Alex but on the masked men. And when there still wasn’t anything giving out their identity, I focused on picking up the number plate of the van. The video came to an end with nothing of importance.

I logged into network mapper and hacked into the cameras along the same route the van had taken. If I couldn’t get a number plate or a face, I might have well traced the van till where it stopped.

The next hours I spent looking at my screen caused a cramp in my neck. I leaned back in my chair and stretched out my arms to relieve the cramp, still never taking my eyes off the screen.

And at last, it was all worth it. The van stopped at a station for refill. Immediately, I copied down the gas station for future reference.

In no time, the van was on the highway again. For the next hours, I followed up through every footage. The last video of the van was at the entrance of an abandoned neighbourhood. That neighbourhood was known for its numerous crimes, drugs and gang fights until its ruler got killed during a fight and a war unleashed. By the time the cops made it, the entire neighbourhood had been set ablaze, some inhabitants dead and others had fled. And now, it was a dead neighbourhood. A perfect place for those men to hide.

As I rode to my feet and stormed out of my study, a surge of hope spiralled through my body. It only lasted an ephemeral, but it was enough to keep me going and getting back my little flower.

As I reached the last of the steps, Hermine followed behind me.

“I found something else,” her voice was hasty due to taking long strides in an attempt to meet up with me as I headed for the garage. I stopped briefly and looked at her, the little furrow between her brows made me sigh.

“I found something too and I am about to check it out. Why don’t you fill me in on our way there?” I asked, stretching out my hand to Hermine.

She stared at my hand longer than I’d expected. Then she sighed and stormed past me, walking ahead of me. I retreated my hand and shook my head in amusement.

‘Such a fun little girl,’ I murmured to myself.

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