A woman was in his room.
Heart racing, Aiden dashed over to Hui Ye, who was washing his face in the in-suite bathroom, when the doorbell rang.
Aiden froze, and his brother’s hands dropped from his face. The two glanced at each other. He immediately moved inward into the bathroom, while Hui Ye moved outward to the intercom. The intercom beeped.
I don’t want to know what he deals with. I can’t know what he deals with.Aiden huddled alone.
Footsteps sounded from the front door. He peeked out into the entryway. Four individuals in expensive suits and shiny shoes stood before Hui Ye. His brother mumbled something and sat down on the edge of the sofa. His shoulders relaxed, but his eyes remained focused enough to aim to kill. They caught sight of Aiden and softened.
“Aiden, go down to the lobby. I’ll catch up with you there, and we can figure out what we want for dinner.” The stillness of Hui Ye’s voice scared Aiden more than pelting rain.
He snatched a jacket, slipped into his shoes, and escaped into the elevator. The opera music sang in a haunting rhythm in the closed space. He fiddled with his fingers.
He couldn’t read the strangers who entered his brother’s place uninvited. Their faces were set in stone.What does that mean again?He searched through his brothers’ lessons.
The elevator door dinged open. He stepped out, still picking at the quicks of his fingernails.How long should I wait for him?He sat down in a chair, foot immediately tapping away at the marble floor.What if something goes wrong?He looked around.Is there anyone I can call? Just in case?
“Here you go, sir.” One of the employees of the apartment handed him a glass of water with lime.
Aiden took it with a slight smile. He brought the glass to his lips. A sweet scent, unlike the lime that hung on the edge, curled up his nose.
He froze. Heart racing, he sniffed the lime, and its distinct sour slammed into him. Aiden threw the lime out and smelled the water again.
The scent of roses continued to rise like smoke.
His stomach jumped to his throat. He slammed the glass water onto the table.
Look at their faces.
He whipped around, inspecting the individuals roaming around him. Their casual clothes, business clothes, and fancy clothes befitting the super-rich living in this complex passed around him with little care.
Read their behavior.
His eyes searched every passing face, who squinted back at him in confusion or looked away with noses scrunched.
Look at their eyes.
“Sir, you dropped this.” The quiet employee who handed him the water said behind him.
Aiden pivoted on his feet with his arms raised, ready to throw a punch, but a sharp pain jabbed into his neck.
“Are you okay? Let me take you somewhere to sit down.”
His vision blurred. He stopped feeling his body.
Chapter Two
Incessant ringing pulsed in Aiden’s head. Wincing, he wrenched his eyes open to blinding light. The ringing turned into cow bells before finally settling down to an annoying hum. With the softening of the noise, so too did the glare of the light. Blinking his vision into place, Aiden shook his head to clear the underwater blurriness.
The fake apartment employee at the lobby paced in uneven circles in front of him with tense shoulders and clamped hands.
Aiden’s own fear crawled from the abyss into the open. Cold handcuffs dug into his wrists. Large coils of rope bound his entire body where he sat against a metal column of an undeveloped building. He looked around.
I know this place…
The paint-splotched floor of the concrete ground, dusty footprints, and bare metal columns told Aiden its story.His kidnapper brought him to a cheap piece of land that a rich person bought, developed halfway, then promptly abandoned.
His brother loved to take advantage of places like these—trapped in a time of grandeur vision but unfulfilled future.
