NURA

Chapter 31

Nate

Nov. 2014, Nate's House

"A cemetery?" Nate asked, his mind going over Ben's words repeatedly, trying to understand.

The man simply nodded with his eyes still fixed on that damned pendant as if the answers to the entire universe were hidden in its small confines. Then he suddenly stuck his hand into a pocket of his jacket before pulling out his keys of all things and depositing them on the kitchen table.

Nate frowned at the action and considered that the older man must have finally flown off his hinges when a small glimmer caught his attention.

He stepped closer and took a better look, his eyes widening once he realized what Ben was trying to tell him.

"They are the same! The pendants; they are the same!" he exclaimed as Ben nodded sadly again.

"When I was a little boy, maybe seven or eight years old, a new family moved into the house next to mine. They had a boy my age, and we quickly became best friends. He was brave and outspoken, everything I wished to be. Until I met him, I used to get bullied every day because of how shy I was, but everything changed from the moment he befriended me. He would beat up anyone who even thought about hurting me, and after a while, they stopped trying.

On my eighteenth birthday, he bought us those pendants, one for me and one for him, to let me know that he will always be my friend no matter what. And he was; he was always there, as my friend, my Best Man, my fucking partner, up until a few months ago when he was killed, or so I thought."

The realization hit Nate like a pile of bricks as all the puzzle pieces slid together.

"He faked his own death. Is that even possible?" Nate asked quietly, and at the glare that Ben threw his way, he figured that it was. After all, if anyone was capable of faking their own demise, it would be a CIA agent.

"Well, if John is really behind all of this, then you are the best person to figure out where he would be, right? I mean, you said it yourself, the two of you have been inseparable since childhood, so if anyone knows him, it's you."

~

"I don't get it! I thought you knew this fucker!" Nate growled at the older man as anger rolled off of him in waves. It had been almost twenty-four hours since Nura was taken, and every lead Ben thought he had come out empty.

They had checked every possible property John owned, every safe house, and every place he liked or frequented, and there was still no sign of him.

The clock was ticking, and with each passing second, Nate was slowly losing hope of ever finding Nura. As far as they knew, John and whoever he was working with could have already left the country, taking Nura, Zaria, and Nik with them.

"Fuck!" Nate yelled out, as the thought of losing the person he loved, yet again, made him hit the wall with his fists again and again until he had to be forcefully pulled back by two sets of arms that belonged to Ben's agents.

"Let me go!" Nate growled and shook them off, his breathing labored as if he had been running a marathon. He looked down to see his hands covered in cuts that were bleeding profusely, the skin of his knuckles torn off, and the surrounding area already turning various shades of blue.

"Someone needs to check your hands," Ben said while putting his hand on Nate's shoulder, but the man instantly shook it off and exited the kitchen.

He started going up to his room to get his medical bag but then remembered that in his haste to get back home, he had left it in his office back at the clinic.