Temporary Alliance

Chapter 23 : Offer

An update in less than a week (pats myself on the back haha). Well, enjoy!

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"Is the job done, Jacob?" To me, his voice sounded akin to nails scraping against a chalkboard or the sound of metal scratching against metal. It sent a shiver down my spine but I didn't dare show how much his voice was affecting me. I kept my appearance calm and collected while I started typing away at my computer, trying to get a location on our enemy from this phone call.

Alexander didn't answer and the rest of us held our breath.

"Who am I speaking to?" The man asked, coming to a conclusion from the silence that he wasn't speaking to 'Jacob'.

Alexander opened his mouth to respond when he was rudely interrupted.

"Wait, let me guess." The other side of the phone was silent for a moment. "Am I speaking to Alexander Blades?"

"Yes. Who am I speaking to?"

The man from the other side let out a loud laugh. "It seems that I underestimated you. I probably should have sent a group of my men to exterminate you, not just one." The humor in his voice disappeared. "As for my identity, you figure it out. Until you do, I would like remain mysterious."

I glanced over at Alexander and saw that his fists were clenched tightly.

"Actually, if you ask Vita, I'm sure she could tell you who I am. If she forgot me, I would be very disappointed."

I didn't tear my eyes away from my laptop, but I could feel the eyes of everyone on me.

"Is this all about you two?"

The man laughed once more obnoxiously loudly. "Just all a wonderful coincidence that her father was the one that knew the location of the USB when I was searching for it. Luke Simmons seems to be very smart and I almost missed the fact that he escaped to send a message. When I found out, I made sure that he was never going to be able to escape me again."

His voice was smug and sinister. I could almost see the sadistic smile forming on his face from the pleasure of inflicting pain.

"What do you want?" Alexander let out through gritted teeth as it physically seemed to pain him to ask this question.

"The USB." The man answered back with no hesitation.

"I don't know where it is," Alexander lied back icily.

"Well, I know Mr. Simmons here sent out some kind of message. It must have been a clue to where he put the USB, so solve the code and find the USB. After that, a deal can be put on the table, don't you agree? Because at this point, you have nothing that I want."

"If you want a deal, I need to know that they're alive."

"They're alive. I didn't hurt them... too much," he snickered.

My brain started pounding as my body froze over, scenarios of what might have happened to them running in my head, horrific images flashing behind my eyes.

There was a shuffling in the background and his voice was muffled as if he was standing away from the phone. "Alexander's on the phone." A groan filled with pain filtered through. "Heard that, Alexander? That was Luke and he says hello."

It felt as if someone ripped my heart out of my chest and I quickly bit my bottom lip hard to stop it from quivering.

"Well, I have business to attend to. It was wonderful to hear your voice." He let out another bone-chilling laugh. "Call this number when you find the USB and we can talk about an exchange. Anything other than that, I will change my number and you will never reach me ever again. Goodbye, Alexander Blades and if you see Vita, tell her I said hello."