Love’n’Lust

Richard was now being tied up in her living room while she watched alongside Ben. She was excited at first, that Ben came to her rescue then realized sooner that he came solely for Richard.

“What did he do?” She asked Ben but didn’t get a reply.

“Search for it,” she heard him order instead. The men started up her stairs.

“Search for what?” She asked again but got no reply. She saw Ben go over to one of the sofas opposite to where Richard was tied up to take a seat. She saw a look on Ben’s face that she saw the day he came by and injected her with an overdose of the drug that landed her at the hospital. It was a masked look because he seemed calm but she knew he was angry and unhappy at the same time.

When she got a chance, she moved to where Richard was and decided to ask him what she asked Ben earlier, hoping for a response.

“What did you do, Richie?” She asked and got a glare from him that made her move back.

“Where is she?” Richard’s eyes turned from Alex to Ben when he heard the question.

“Dead,” Richard smiled wholely to irritate Ben more than he knew he already was. Alex watched Ben close his eyes and inhale calmly then his eyes opened again when he exhaled.

“I’m not in the mood for jokes, Richard,” Ben told him again.

“She’s dead. I know I’m smiling but I’m not joking. Your Belle is dead. She died while you watched, can’t you remember? I made you watch the car she was in go up in flames.” Richard ended his words with broken laughter while Ben squinted his tired eyes at him.

“Belle is dead?” Alex asked no one in particular as she tried to hide her joy.

“Tie her up,” he ordered and Alex looked around to see who the ‘her’ was but then realized she was the only female around.

“What?” She whimpered when a man came to her.

“Get me a knife.” Ben got on his feet.

“Ben, what are you asking them to do?” Alex shook with fear when the man who came to her forced her to sit on a chair. She saw someone walk up to Ben with a knife from her kitchen.

“How is the CCTV?”

“He already disarmed it, sir.” One of the men present in the living room replied. Richard had disconnected the cameras around the house when he came to see

Alex earlier.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Good.”

A different chair was brought for Ben so he sat in front of Richard with a cold look on his face.

“I will ask you again,” Ben told him while checking how sharp the edge of the knife was with the tip of his finger.”If you give me a wrong answer like before, I’ll give stripes to a part of her body with this.” Ben held the knife to Richard’s eyes now.”And you’ll watch me do it. Let’s see how fun that can be.”

Richard turned his head to look at Alex tied up just like he was. He looked away after, trying not to care about whatever Ben planned to do with her. Ben started in her direction and she swallowed fearfully.

“Richard, what did you do?” She asked when she saw Ben spin the knife skillfully in front of her.”Ben?” She looked up at him pleadingly.

“Sir, we found this.” Randy came downstairs with a broken DVD disk in his hand.

“O my goodness, it’s broken, who broke it?” Alex made a sad face when she saw that the disk which she saved she and Ben’s sex tape was broken.

“We found it this way, sir,” Randy informed.

“So, it’s you who broke it!” She turned angrily at Richard who just hissed

“Where are the duplicates?” Ben asked her, not moved by her eyes which had begun to tear.

“There are no duplicates, why do you think I keep it in my safe,” she sniffed.

Ben took the DVD disk which was already broken in two and shattered it more. Alex frowned more when she watched his hand crush the disk.

“Have someone go through her laptop, and her phone too.” She heard Ben say to Randy who nodded.

“So you don’t believe me, you think I’m lying,” she couldn’t believe that he couldn’t see how much she didn’t want that one disk to be broken.

Ben returned to her with the knife.

“O my god,” she gasped when she saw that knife again. She had forgotten that he had a knife.”Ben…”

“Make him look at me,” Ben ordered and Richard was forced to face Ben as he held the knife in front of her.”Where is she?” He repeated his question from before.

“Ben, this is crazy. What makes you think he’ll say anything if you torture me, he hates me now… please, just put the knife away.” Alex started to shake when Ben tilted her head to get a view of her neck.

“No answer?” Ben looked at Richard.

“You wouldn’t hurt her,” Richard was so sure.

“You think?” Ben giggled lightly with an unusual smile and took the knife closer to her throat. It was so close that she could feel the coldness of the blade against her skin.

“Ben!” Her fear peaked at’s highest level.”For fuck’s sake Richard! Just tell him what he wants, please!”

Richard inhaled and exhaled loudly as he watched Alex scream with fear in her voice. He tried to look away but someone turned his face back to Ben holding the knife to her neck.

“Still no answer?” Ben smiled without doing anything yet but Alex knew how much closer the knife got to her skin the last time he told Richard the ‘no answer?’.

“Ben, please, he’s not going to say anything you want. I’m not the one for this, he hates me… I, I, I left him, he’s angry with me, and probably happy that a knife is at my neck. Please change your mind, please, please Ben.” She begged again and Ben felt a hot tear touch his hand on her face. She was crying now.

“You’re wrong in an aspect, Alex; saying he hates you because he doesn’t. He might be angry that you left him but he doesn’t hate you. You are the reason he did all he did.” He informed Alex because she seemed not to know that Richard was obsessed with her.

After he was done talking, he pressed the knife more against her skin and saw the lining of blood slide past the knife.

“O my god, o my god, o my god!” Alex was back to screaming.

“Stop!” Ben heard Richard but didn’t stop.”Stop, please!” Richard cried out, thinking Ben didn’t hear him.

“Where is she?” Ben was still calm with his question.

“At a village…” Richard started.”My village…” As he spoke, Ben dropped the knife. Randy brought a towel for him to wipe his hands.

“Where’s the doctor?”

“He’s almost here, sir… oh, here he is.” Randy looked at the door as it was held open for the doctor to come in.

“Look, you made me cut her, I had no plans for that,” Ben told Richard when he saw his eyes on Alex.

“The cut is not very deep,” Ben squatted in front of Alex.”You will be given medical attention right away, okay?”

“Okay,” she nodded shakily with a sniff after.

“Good.” He patted her cheek.

“Untie him, he’s going to take us to where she is.” He turned away from her with an instruction to his men.