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(edited)

"How do you plan on finding her with a—what even is that thing?" Silvio asks me after staring at the object in my lap for a few seconds, his left eyebrows knitted in confusion.

I pause slightly to give him a disbelieving look. "It's a baby phone. Haven't you seen one?" I ask and resume taking off the plastic. When I succeed, a light blue baby phone with yellow twinkly stars stared back at both of us.

"How will you find her with that?" Ignoring my question, he proceeds to ask, a strong uncertain tone holding his voice.

"I'll connect into my brother's old baby phone to see if she's home. It's still in his room somewhere. The frequencies tend to interfere sometimes if you do it right. It's a long shot but we don't have anything to los--"

"Lose?" Silvio cuts me off and moves closer to me, a threatening finger shoved in front of my face. "Yes, we have. Time is something I don't have and something I don't intend to waste. Now, get to work and find your damn sister."

I take a deep breath and focus on not showing any reaction that his outburst affected me in any way. I take out the cap, put the batteries in the baby phone and turn it on. As I slowly start changing the frequency, I can only hear static at first but as I continue to up the frequency, the stations begin to clear up.

"You bastard! How could you sleep with her!? I thought you loved me? And of all the girls, you chose Susan? That tramp--"

Susan? Mum's best friend Susan? I thought she was happily married to my high school history teacher. Well, I guess people aren't what they portray themselves as.

Feeling like I'm intruding on a private moment, I immediately change that station. Moving on, the next one is of a baby aggressively crying. I change that, too, in hope he's parents will hear his cries soon.

"Brrrrm, here comes the plane-"

Not this one either. The next one, though, caught me off guard. The sound is low, but if I focus on their words, I can hear them clearly.

"–on't know, Sarah. I've searched everywhere for them. It's like the earth has swallowed them both. I don't know what to do anymore."

It's dad's voice.

"And what does George say? Do they have any news?" Now it's mom. They both sound so tired and beaten up that it makes my eyes swell up with tears. I desperately want to tell them I'm okay and I'm in fact outside the house in a suspicious black Mercedes but Silvio is sitting next to me, listening intently and keeping his posture on edge.

I quickly wipe a tear that has found tits way on my cheek and continue listening.

"--have found few leads on Jade but everything ends in a warehouse down by the docks. The boys found her cellphone along with her clothes and that's all. The phone is heavily encrypted to a level even the forensics back at the bureau can't crack it."

"What about Willa? Anything on her? Oh, Andrew, tell me at least you found her. I can't lose my girls."

I hear dad sigh. I really want to know what he has on me. Maybe they're even close on finding me? Just maybe?

"That's the thing. There's nothing on Willa, too. The camera outside the store has been wiped clean. There are no witnesses. Nothing. Only her cellphone and the bag of groceries on the ground near the store."

After what dad just said, mom only sobs harder. I can't take it. I can't listen to mom's cracky voice and sobs. I turn the baby phone off and inhale slowly.

"Why did you turn it off?" Silvio asks me after I take the batteries out.

"I know where to go." I mumble as I wipe another runaway tear. Silvio only stares at me. I don't know if it's because he doesn't know how to handle this situation or because he's a cold bastard. He orders the driver to turn the car on anyway.

"Okay, tell us the address then," his  eyes are looking away from me now and I can't help but notice the sudden tension in the air in this car.

"Just get to the docks. I can find the warehouse from there." I say to him as a memory flashed in my mind from when Jade and I were teenagers. She always made me go with her to some creepy, old and abandoned places where she thought there were ghosts or things like that. I was always reluctant but accompanied her anyway. Of course, there wasn't even a fly in those abandoned places let alone a damn ghost.

However, this memory made me connect a few dots. Once, I went with Jade to a warehouse that was exactly by the docks. It was at the far end, near the canal, and it smelt like shit. She said then that it was the perfect place to make a person or something disappear. I'm sure she said it to spook me, but it may very well be a clue. Now, that she's nowhere to be found it's my only clue.

***

"This is it. Damn, it's smells even worse than I remember, " I scrunch my nose in disgust as I walk inside the dark warehouse with Silvio, the driver and three other goons following behind us.

It is just like I remember it: dusty, smelly and empty. It seems like no one has ever stepped a foot inside.

"Scatter around. See what you can find." Silvio orders the others and they all do as they are told. Every and each one of us has flashlights to help us see because it's dark in here. The cardboards duct taped to the windows don't help at all, too.

The warehouse is just four but very high walls, many pillars and a roof. There are also a few empty barrels, boxes but the rest is junk. I walk around carefully and slowly, trying to spot anything that catches my eye. Silvio also follows me behind.

"There's nothing here." I sigh after nearly fifteen minutes of searching.

Dad said the FBI had found some clothes and her phone, but there must be something the forensics missed. Jade must've fled from home the moment she found out I was kidnapped. She must've known she was supposed to be the one taken instead of me and, with that, planned all this, her disappearance.

"You aren't looking hard enough then." he replies a second later with a chilling glare but mt frustration gives me enough confidence to mimic the coldness in his eyes.

Continuing to walk aimlessly around, I accidentally step on a spot on the concrete floor that is a little shaky beneath my foot. I retreat and step on it harder but this time managing to crack under my weight. Another stronger step and it crashes down, the debris falling inside the little hole.

Silvio appears immediately next to me and stares at the hole with furrowed eyebrows. Then we both lean forward and look what the hole has been hiding. "There's something inside," he muses after crouching down and flashing the light to see better.

It's a small silver box.

While hw holds the flashlight, I crouch down, too, and take the box in my hands. It's covered in dust and small remnants of the concrete so I swipe once over it and as soon as my hand touches the surface and clears some of the dust, a small part of it lights up green. The little square has digits from zero to nine and a small rectangular screen.

"It's a locked safe," Silvio sounds a little annoyed after he concludes the same as I. "Try and open it," I inspect the box carefully while my mind thinks of hundreds of different pin combinations. First I try opening it without a pin, hoping it may not need it because it's broke, but the metal opening won't even budge so I quickly think of the first combinations to try.

I ignore the obvious ones such as 1234, 1111 and 0000 because I know Jade isn't that stupid to chose them so I move to some more meaningful ones. Our birthday would be a good start. I type 1808, but the safe doesn't even beep for wrong or right so I conclude it's more than four digits. Typing 180898, this time at least it beeped red for wrong, showing me the pin is six digits instead.

As I think of other combinations that are meaningful to Jade, one of the men jogs to us, flashlight in one hand, but now a gun in the other. My heart momentarily skips a beat at the thought of possible danger.

"Boss, there are three black SUVs approaching." the driver says and the three other men are right behind him with their guns out in sight, too.

"What!?" Silvio lets out a threatening low growl before his hand reaches for something behind his back, something beneath his black leather belt, and takes out his damn gun as well. No second thoughts.

In that moment I can think of only one scenario, the police has found me.

My heart starts beating faster with every passed second and I can't believe this will all be over. I'll be home safe and sound again.

"Stay behind me." Silvio shoves me behind his back, the box shaking uncontrollably in my hands, as his gun aims to the big metal door, prepared to shoot if needed.

There are a few seconds of pure and terrifying silence before the big door is burst open and about half a dozen men in black suits with rifles barge inside.

"Drop your guns! Drop them!" They start yelling in a rush, their rifles pointing at Silvio and his goons.

"Giovanni! What a pleasent surprise." instead of obeying and getting rid of his gun, Silvio retorts back to the voice as if he'd known him for a very long time. I take a daring step to the left because my curiosity got the best of me, and my heart sinks in my chest at the sight. The man Giovanni is not a cop and nor are his men. If nothing else, they're just like my kidnapper, they're just some lowlife, immoral mafia members.

"Cut the crap, Moretti. Give me the girl and no one gets hurt." Giovanni says to Silvio and takes a step toward us. Silvio's goons feel threatened by this because as that step is taken, they raise their guns as a warning.

"And why should I do that now?" Sulvio's voice holds mocking tone. "Why do you want her anyway?"

Absent-mindedly, I take another step to the left to get a better look at them, but Silvio only shoves me back to my former place.

"I told you to stay back," he hisses at me lowly without getting his eyes off of Giovanni.

"You can either give us the girl or you and your men die in this shit hole. It's your choice." Giovanni repeats himself and stands his ground.

"But where's the fun in that, hmm?" Silvio mocks him once more as he raises his gun, cocks itnand aims it at Giovanni's head. He moves the gun in the last moment, though, and shoots the guy behind Giovanni right between his eyes.

A certain scream bubbles in me at the gruesome sight and the void of guilt in Silvio's eyes, but nothing leaves my lips. I'm paralyzed with fear.

All I remember after the first shot is that I have been shoved behind one of the barrels and then the ricochet of the bullets. Sulvio's men take cover behind the big pillars while Silvio himself jumps and hides next to me. All I can think of is my funeral. I'm gonna die in this place without my family knowing where I am.

The shooting doesn't stop for minutes. Giovanni and his men manage to wound two of Silvio's goons and kill the driver.

Silvio also manages to shoot three more men, two of the laying lifelessly on the dirty ground. His gun clicks empty soon after shooting the last one, though.

"Fuck! Idiots! Where are they?!" A curse leaves Silvio's lips as he quickly looks at his watch. He then fishes out three more bullets from his pocket and puts them in the gun.

Maybe couple more minutes pass and the opposition stops firing.

How much do funerals cost?

"The girl, Silvio. I only want the girl. Give her to me and maybe I'll let you walk away alive." I hear Giovanni's deep voice echo through the empty warehouse. On this, Silvio doesn't have anything to say. He in fact stares at his hand watch intently.

"Down!" All of a sudden he yells at his men while his body crushes mine on the floor and he lies on top of me as a cover. I thought he has gone crazy, but that is until I hear a loud explosion near the metal door accompanied with screams. Then there's another explosion and some shouting.

My ears are ringing so bad and my mouth is filled with filthy dust while Silvio still lays on top of me. But then it gets quite.

"Boss?" A familiar male shouts after Silvio before he gets off me and stands up.

"Where the hell were you, huh?" He yells after Lorenzo who just now appeared.

"Sorry, Boss. I had to gather the boys. I apologize." Lorenzo quickly tells him, his head turned downward. In the meantime I manage to get up and cough because of the dust in my mouth.

"Where's Giovanni?"

"He's right there. The boys have him tied up but his men are all dead. Some from previously and some from the bomb." Silvio looks at Giovanni who's indeed tied up, with bloody face and is put on his knees.

"That's more like it. Now, get him and let's go. I believe Willa has a safe to open." He continues and throws me a look to follow him.

Minutes later, some of his men are piled up into several cars with Giovanni in one of them while the others stay behind to clean the mess with Lorenzo.  After telling them what to do and giving them clear instructions, Silvio drags me back into the van and we're off to the mansion.