"How can you not know where she is?" I ask the principal angrily.
"Mind your tone young man. I told you, she didn't come to the university today at all."
Jase grabs me and forces me out of the door before I can say anything else. "Thank you sir," he mutters to the old douchebag sitting behind the desk.
Lizzy tries to calm me down. "Maybe she went to the hospital to help Lily. Remember, she's close to giving birth."
I merely nod and we get going. Nathan is the first familiar face I see after I enter the hospital. I grab his shoulders with my hands. "Did Juliet come here today?"
"No, she didn't." Confusion clouds his eyes. "Why? Is she lost?"
"No one has seen her since she left the house this morning. And we have no idea where she could be."
"Do you think Mezdurs took her? As payback?"
"At this point, I'm just too afraid to think."
Shame fills his eyes. "I wish I could help you right now Ash. I know you would've helped me. But I can't leave Lily. Not when she's like this."
I smile at his act of kindness. "I don't expect you to, Nathan. And don't worry. I'm not giving up."
We head back to base and I ask Elias to pull every string he's got to find us a lead. As for me, I call Blake. He is one of the few who would do anything to save her.
"Hello Blake. It's Ash. Juliet's been kidnapped and we don't know how to find her-" I fill him in instantly, and he starts his own search (after telling us that maybe she just went to buy some clothes and that we were total freaks and how we needed to get a life).
After half an hour, though it felt like days, Blake sent me a link.
'You were right. Mezdurs kidnapped her, and they also made it public to make an example out of her. Click the link below."
My blood starts boiling when I see what the link is. It's a picture of Juliet, her face red with blood. The blood couldn't hide the bruises covering her face, though. Under it, a sentence was written: We promised revenge and we always keep our promises.
I was staring at those words for minutes, clutching my phone so tightly my knuckles turned white. I almost didn't notice the message Blake sent me.
I traced the person who sent this. Sending the ID and his address now. Keep me posted.
I glance at the ID. Jeremy Stevens.
You will pay for this.
Lizzy is the one who catches him and sends him to one of our questioning rooms. They don't allow me to question him; they think I'll be too violent with him.
I start pacing in the monitor room, listening to their desperate attempts to make him talk. I also send Blake a message to let him know how close we've come to finding Juliet.
It takes about five minutes for him to text me back, and when he does, I've managed to get inside the questioning room. I looked into the disgusting eyes of the man before me and cracked a smile. "Jeremy Stevens. You have someone I care about greatly. And now, so do I."
He scoffs. "I don't know what you're talking about."
My smile gets meaner and my eyes turn colder by the second. "Oh, you don't know about your own daughter? Charlotte, right?" He turns as pale as a sheet of paper. "She is on her way here now, coming to buy some flowers with her daddy to surprise her beautiful mother. At least, that's what the text I sent to her said."
I lean down so I'm staring at him directly in the eye. "If you don't want me to chop your daughter into pieces and sell her organs to pay for your funeral, I suggest you tell me everything you know. I became an FBI agent to protect the people like your daughter from people like you. However, for Juliet, I will make an exception. Tell me where they are keeping her, or your daughter will pay the price."
No one in this world but Juliet would have known that I was bluffing. She was the only one who learned my tells - the sweat running down my neck, and the way my eyes darted around when I lied.
But since he wasn't her, the only thing he could see as he stared into my eyes was the willingness to murder his daughter in cold blood to keep Juliet safe.
So, he talked. "They said they will kill her tomorrow. She will be executed so Mezdurs around the world and everyone else on black market can watch. So everyone would know they shouldn't mess with Mezdurs."
"Where are they keeping her now?" Elias's firm voice betrays no concern, and no worry.
"In a garage they bought to do their dirty work. I can tell you where it is, but it's heavily guarded. I can also show you where you can enter without attracting attention... just don't hurt my daughter."
"Fair enough." Jase answers from behind me but I don't break eye contact. Not yet. "If I find out that you are wasting my time by giving me false information-"
"You won't. I would never do that to my daughter." The look in his eyes tells me that he is speaking the truth. So, I take the address and walk away without speaking another word.
We send Lizzy in to see if they are in there. After a minute, Jase joins her to get more Intel about Mezdurs, and I go after Rose with some of her devices.
I search about two floors of prison cells before I find her. The only thing I could see was her heavily bruised back, splashed with ugly shades of yellow and purple. I'd know her anywhere, even in this condition.
I hold one of her devices to door's lock, and it instantly opens. I go to her and hold her in my arms. She takes ragged breaths and shakes in her sleep. Her eyes are closed tight like she is afraid to open them. It breaks me to see her like this, hurt and scared. I'm afraid that I won't see the familiar fire in her eyes when she opens them.
"All clear," Lizzy says from behind me with a shaky voice, her eyes fixed on Juliet. I nod and lift her, and start walking to the car through the secret path. In the middle of the way, she opens her eyes and looks up at me.
"Ash?" Hope flickers in her eyes.
"Yeah?" I respond quietly.
She hits my shoulder weakly. "Took your damn time. I wanted you to save me for a change." She closes her eyes and rests her head on my shoulder. "But I'm glad you came anyways."
*******
ten thousand skies, and a million worlds and it still wouldn't be enough for me to share it with you. nothing less than forever will do.
- from the book ten thousand skies above you by Claudia Grey
********
I need an Ash. really, I do! how can someone be so perfect and not perfect at all
???? and missed you guys!!! still two half of chapters for you to know who the traitor is and after that, a letter!dont forget to vote, comment and share because i have been such a good girl and always updated in time!!!!
read the book above it's really good. the firebird series. and i just finished if we were villains that was so good too! and the song of the chapter : Radioactive by imagine dragons
love, always
~Ani
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Not Romeo and Juliet
Teen Fictionthe person you think of when you stand in front of the ocean. that's the person you are in love with. ************** Crystal nights. Crystal tears and a Crystal life, too easy to break. ************** #885 in romance at July 11th #323 in...