A/N: Sorry for the long wait! Here you go! I love y'all so much, and I'm sad to see this story beginning to come to an end.
Chapter Twenty Four
I expected to wake up in a cellar, to be chained to a wall, with a dog bowl to use as a water and food dish. Instead, I was in a normal room. Normal, except the fact that it wasn't a room I recognized, it was still in a basement, and the door didn't have a knob, just a gaping hole with a padlocked latch.
I was fully clothed and felt in good condition, maybe a little groggy. It was probably due to the fact that I might have been knocked out for a long time. Or drugged. If any case of kidnapping could start out well, I would say mine was. The first "good" part being that I was actually alive.
I was lying on a bed, fully dressed in my own clothes. The bed had soft white bedding and some mismatching throw pillows. On the right of the bed was a small table, with a water bottle sitting on it.
Just seeing the bottle made me realize how thirsty I actually was, so I didn't think twice before opening it and drinking. It was room temperature, so it must have been sitting there for a while. How long had I been out?
As I continued gazing around, but I discovered another weird addition to the room: a camera hanging from the ceiling. Just as I gazed curiously at it, a red light came on and started blinking.
Then footsteps came down the stairs hurriedly, as if in a rush. I backed myself further up the bed, until my back was pressed into the wall.
Time seemed to slow down as my brain started to calculate the situation. Who had taken me? The last thing I remembered was Liam kissing me goodbye as he and Niall went to the store. Niall was with him the whole time, right? So it surely couldn't be Niall. I had no idea. I couldn't remember anything.
Harry said he was so close to finding the culprit, hot on the person's heels. It was supposed to be almost over, the fear, the anxiety. But we weren't fast enough, apparently. Unless I wasn't kidnapped at all, just suffering from amnesia and maybe Liam had to relocate us.
The door was thrown open so hard that when it ricocheted off the wall, the whole room trembled. "Hey, Arianne," Harry breathed out, as if in relief.
I jumped to my feet and ran, wrapping my arms around him. "Thank God. I was so scared," I gushed. "So worried."
Harry held me back, patting my back. "It's alright. There's nothing to be worried about. You aren't going to be hurt or harmed in anyway."
I could've died with relief. There were no words to describe the feeling that this was giving me-
"As long as you do just as I say," Harry finished.
I pulled away, staring up at him in confusion with wet eyes. "W-what?"
Harry ran his fingers through my hair, trying to calm me like Liam would. "No further pain or injury will be inflicted as long as you follow my orders."
My body tried to recoil from him, but he gripped my upper arms tightly and held me in front of him. Harry had never been scary to me. He was always quiet, more of a mystery. But I never thought of him doing anything like this. He was helping so much with the case, I thought. Or was he just covering everything up?
"Look at me," Harry snapped and I obeyed automatically, trying not to cry. "There will be no screaming or obsessive crying, got it? Even though no one will hear you, it's awfully annoying, innit?"
"B-but... You're Liam's-"
He snorted, rolling his eyes. "Don't try to guilt me, kid. I am doing this because Liam is my friend. Not to betray him or hurt him."
This almost made me want to laugh. Liam cared about me. We cared about each other, even as twisted as our relationship was. Of course this both betrayed him and hurt him. Liam would be hurt by this, right? He'd miss me. Try to come get me.
"Listen, brat." He shook me hard, making me whimper quietly. "Ever since you forced your little whore ways into his life, both times, he becomes distracted."
"Wh-whore ways? Liam and I have never even had-"
"I don't believe that. He'd never waste his time with a prude. Not that any of that really matters. What matters is that once I get rid of you, Liam will get back on track." He finally released me, shoving be back towards the bed.
I wiped at my face furiously, trying to dispel the tears. "Harry, Liam cares about me. Maybe he doesn't love me or anything, but he at least cares. What do you think he's going to do once he finds out it's you? That it has been you this whole time."
Harry shrugged carelessly, walking over to the camera and adjusting its angle. "He might be upset at first, but he will realize it is better for him. Just like with his past flings, Danielle and that other chick."
"You've done this before?" I squeaked. "What did you do to them?"
He rolled his eyes, as if I was the crazy one. "Yes, I have. Though they were much less hard-headed. I didn't kill them, if that's what you're so scared about. After getting their heads out of their asses, they agreed to go."
"Were they not serious about their relationship with Liam?" I asked. "How could they just leave?"
"Much like you, they didn't care about him at all. Just the sex, the money, and maybe the attention."
I gasped, appalled. "I don't care about any of that crap! Liam and I haven't had sex. If you care to remember, I tried to run away from Liam. He dragged me back. Against my better judgement, I do care and like him."
Harry just scoffed. "Yeah, yeah. I've heard it before. Stop trying to make a plea deal. It isn't as if you're trying to save your own life. I'm giving you a choice about where to go from here."
"W-what?"
"I'm a cop, Arianne, killing you would be careless and I'd be caught rather quickly. But if you agree to an option, no one can press charges against me," he explained. "Any other questions?"
I sat back on the bed, dumbfounded. I really had no idea. But it made sense. Harry had access to everything. My apartment, my location, Liam and Niall. He was on the inside the whole time and none of us had any idea. From the window incident to the spaghetti-
"Did you drug the spaghetti?!"
Harry laughed wickedly. "I did. Though it didn't go as planned. I didn't want to concuss your roommate, but like I told you then: you do what you have to do."
"And you broke in through the window to kidnap me?" I tested.
He tipped his head side to side noncommittally. "Yes and no. I orchestrated it, I broke the window, but that was an accomplice. Originally, it wasn't to kidnap you or hurt you. Just scare you into leaving."
He put a lot of thought and effort into this, didn't he? Enough to be able to be successful. Here I was, like the other girls. "Y-you said something about options?" I was numb now. Was I lucky that he wasn't going to kill me or hurt me? It could be worse, right? But either way, I knew these choices would both involve me never seeing Liam again.
"You've definitely taken the longest to get to this point. It is driving me mad. But yes. Two options. And if you don't choose, I will choose for you." He took a dramatic pause, sizing me up before grinning evilly. "Go home."
"W-what?" I said for what felt like the hundredth time. Go home? Like, home-home?
"I will personally fly you to the states, first class, as long as you promise not to come back here. That is option one."
That's what I had wanted for a while, isn't it? When I tried to leave Liam, I was just going home. But I left there for a reason. Going back permanently could be dangerous. "And option two?"
"I sell you to the local sex trafficking group, and let them ship you off wherever the hell they wish."
