Billionaire Blood

chapter 29 - the search

DANTE MORALES

5 days. Katerina had been missing for 5 days. The first night was hell. I couldn't sleep or eat. My thoughts were racing 100 miles per hour. Every single thought was about Katerina. I kept thinking about what I didn't do. What if I never left her alone? What if I had come with her? I stayed in my room for hours on end, praying that she was safe. I was close to knocking on the American's door myself and killing them. It was now 1 am as the family gathered around coming up with solutions to find her.

"I don't know, I don't know!"

"You have to try. Surely there was someone who saw something."

"I already fucking checked, Alexia. The American's knew what they were doing."

The look on Romeo and Colette's face was heart breaking. I knew they blamed me for what happened. Celeste was sobbing quietly in the corner while Aria tried to comfort her. Stefan was pure fury. He was about to go to the American's house and shoot them all. I had 3 computers on tracking her phone location, any recent flight plans from New York and an open connection in Bora Bora. Radio silence for the past 72 hours. That was until my phone beeped.

A message from an unknown number. They had sent a link to a livestream. Everyone gathered around as I opened it. Gasps were let out as soon as the video loaded. It was a darkly lit room. A single flickering lamp hung from above while Katerina sat on a rickety chair. Her arms and legs were tied to the chair while her mouth was taped shut. She had blood and bruises all over her and tears in her eyes. She was wearing a bra and the same dress from the party had fallen only covering her waist. A figure came onto the screen and adjusted the camera before walking towards Katerina.

"Will you start answering our questions?"

She shook her head.

"Wrong answer," he said while slapping her face hard. She let out a soul crushing scream. He started punching her stomach while Katerina screamed louder. He slowly ripped away the tape.

"Shut the fuck up whore!" he yelled continuing the punches.

"Kill me..." Katerina sobbed, "Just kill me."

No... Please, anything but that.

"Not yet but don't worry, it won't be long now until your request is granted."

The hidden figure turned to the camera and said, "3 days. $50 million needs to be given to us in 3 days or your precious Katerina is dead. Details will be sent soon. In the mean time, I'll leave you with a present... a livestream of your precious wife being tortured until we receive the money."

With that the figure left the screen and 10 guards marched into the room. I couldn't bear to watch the rest.

"Well, we have to send the money," Aria said getting up, "If we send the money, they'll give her back... right?"

"Aria, they won't. They're going to kill her whether they receive the money or not," Leon explained.

"What the fuck do we do? We have no idea where she is, how they're treating her... We know nothing," Celeste remarked with tears in her eyes, "We have to at least try and give the money."

I was zoning out because something about the video was bothering me. I quickly grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen and sat back down at the desk.

God, I fucking love her.

There she was after being tortured, beat up, starved and in pain, blinking morse code.

I quickly scribbled the letters down to reveal the word B-O-R-A.