Kiss the Girl

Chapter 32 "Be Brave"

(AJ's POV)

That night, I took Kristina to my apartment and I made sure that no one had seen her with me. She looks uneasy. Joaquin kept on calling her phone but she refused to answer it so I approached her and snatched it away from her.

"Don't look at this phone again. I will give it to you later." I said as I put her phone inside my pocket.

"What are you planning to do?" she asked nervously.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. Kristina's eyes widen as she rose up from her seat making the chair fall. She placed her hands on her chest as if she was having a heart attack. Her eyes are bolted on the door.

"Relax..." I said while raising my hand to assure she's not in danger, "Its Miller. He's a friend of mine and he will help us with capturing that psychotic freak."

I opened the door as Miller came in.

I glared at Kristina and saw her released a sigh of relief. "Kristina, this is Miller. He's a detective."

Miller approached Kristina for a hand shake.

"Don't worry, ma'am. I always get the job done. I won't rest until we catch this man." Said Miller taking off his coat and handing it to me. "Actually, we've been tracking Joaquin dela Vega for quite some time now. He has a warrant of arrest for human trafficking and drug smuggling. Good thing, AJ here called and we finally got a lead."

"He's doing it again?" asked Kristina in disbelief. "B-but how are we gonna catch him?"

Miller looked at me giving me the signal to tell Kristina the plan.

I came closer to her and placed my hands on her shoulders. I looked at her eye to eye, "Kristina, you need to meet up with him."

"What?" she gasped and took a step back. "No, I can't..."

I released a deep sigh and took a step forward but Kristina took another step backwards. "Listen to me... This waking nightmare will never end if we don't catch this man. You can't run away forever. He will always find you. Can't you see what damaged he has done? Not just to you but with someone else. Another girl out there is being abused and molested because of him! We need to prevent that from happening again or at least stop it..."

"Ma'am, I promise you no harm will come to you. We need you as bait to lure him out from hiding." Said Miller making a stand point.

Kristina looked down and was shaking from the proposal we made. She brushed her hair using her hands while she started to walk back and forth to think.

"You need to decide as soon as possible." I said as my eyes followed her.

She stopped and turned her back against us. She looks up as she took deep breaths.

"What's the plan?" she suddenly asked.

I looked at Miller giving him a smirk of approval. He nodded and placed an envelope on my dining table. I called out Kristina so we could all sit down as Miller tells us the plan. He took out surveillance pictures of Joaquin out of the envelope together with other people he's been with. Indeed he is in New York. There's no doubt that he spotted Kristina somewhere. I glanced over at Kristina and I can't guess what she was thinking, her face was staring blankly on one of Joaquin's pictures. It must be horrifying to see the face of a man who destroyed your life. I shook my head and listened again to Miller's plan.

Later on, our meeting adjourned and everyone was on board.

"Young lady, I need you to go home and get some rest. Don't worry, I will send someone to follow and guard you. If anything happens, we'll be there." Said Miller putting on his coat as he closes the door leaving me and Kristina.