Mistakenly Forgotten

11. Stay and Stick

There was a sense of confidence in the entire crowd that stood inside the small white walled, small squared office, that had an entire row filled with medals of valor and honor, over a brown office mantle shelf, while blinders subsided down on the north end of the large wall window, only the fluorescent light illuminating the insides of the office, where five men were present.

David sat amongst those men, checking his phone, to see if he received any further message, than the previous threat he had. But nothing popped in that chat window. He tried calling and texting back on the same number but there was no reply. He even asked his men to trace the number, but being an extension number, it was untraceable.

One thing was sure to him that Arya was abducted and whoever it was had pre-planned it well, well enough to keep an eye on David’s movements and the kidnaping was a moto against him in particular.

He sat in front of a brown desk with Gordon, while their security guards stood by the office door. Across the table, sat a young man, with his gelled blond hair, resting over his squared forehead, crystal blue eyes shining as he looked at them. His tall height could be told well, even with him sitting, while his white captain uniform bulked tightly against his bulging muscles.

He was Adam Benson, New York’s youngest captain of the FBI and Jack’s best friend’s son. He was close to the Gordon family, with a particularly liking towards Arya.

“Don’t worry uncle, if anything, I am more than concerned about Arya.” Adam assured through his deep coarse voice. “One thing is for sure, this is a kidnapping.” He announced.

“How can you be so sure?” David felt alarmed, as the words slipped right out of his anxious mind. “… I mean…” he cleared his throat, trying to fix his composure, “Why k********g and even if she is kidnapped, we didn’t receive any ransom call.”

“Because, her phone is missing and the last location was your home.” Adam told Gordon, who seemed gloomed with his niece’s disappearance but maintained a stealth to get through this tough time.

“She doesn’t go anywhere without her phone.” Adam further unveiled his investigation, “And the surveillance footage is definitely out of the place, it has an entire chunk of fifteen minutes missing, if we find that out, we would know…”

Adam’s word faded behind David, as he focused on his phone, a twenty second chunk of the fifteen minutes missing footage was right in his hands. David could had revealed that he had already found Arya unconscious and left her in her room and forgot to inform them but he was not risking anything given to someone holding the evidence against him might know everything that had happened that day.

A new message blinked into the chat window and David’s entire mind squinted to focus. It was a picture that was blurred and required to be tapped on to be downloaded.

David’s brain was too pre-occupied to makeup anything off the blurred image so he immediately hit the download button and within second the picture became clear and so did David’s mind as right in front of him was a picture of an unconscious Arya, still in that bridal dress but now her condition more distorted than ever, her eyes closed yet swollen, her hair messed and dress all smudged and creased. Her arms went up her head but the picture majorly focused on her face, so it wasn’t evident whether her hands were tied up or not.

But one thing was pretty clear, Arya was surely abducted.

David looked ahead of him at Adam and then at Jack, they both were engrossed discussing details of investigation, while David was assured that whoever abducted Arya, was after him for bad blood.

Before he could bring his mind to a decision, his phone started ringing. Another international exchange number flashed over his screen.

“Excuse me, I have to take this call.” With that he immediately excused himself out of the office and immediately took a left, stepping right into the balcony of the building. He secured the place around him, making sure no one is watching and answered the call.

“Who is this?” He asked in a stern tone.

A thick male voice, altered using techno tones spoke on the other side, “You don’t want to know. But what you should know, is we have Gordon’s precious little treasure with us.”

“What do you want?” David asked in a masked tone, making sure even if someone listens to him, they don’t get suspicious of his calm tone.

“Now, we’re talking business.” Even though the voice was altered by many folds, the mockery could still be noticed, which shattered David’s ego.

“Cancel the Mexican shipment.” The tone was threatening, which only left David in a more confused state.

“I can’t!” David tried to hold back his stance.

“Gordon wouldn’t be much happy to know what you had been doing with his daughter behind his back!” The voice was quick retort, not giving David any opportunity to defend himself. “So now, cancel the shipment by tonight or Gordon will have more than that twenty seconds footage. Good luck explaining that!”

The call cut off before David could’ve said another word in his defense. David cursed under his breath, left stranded between his choice of letting the Mexican shipment get delivered or letting Gordon handle him.

He turned around and much to his surprise Gordon stood right behind him, with a stern expression plastered all over his face. Gordon walked past him, and stood at the corner of the terrace, which was a signal for David to follow his gestures.

Even though David was a powerful and rich man with a strong family name but Gordon had a power of his, he was man with a legal power but illegal mindset.

“Adam has begun the investigation.” Gordon informed, looking right in front of him, ahead of the small cornered areas of New York city.

“This is a grieve time for me David.” He stated almost as cold as the weather that seemed to burn through their white skins and tint their cheeks and noses red, “Family needs to stick together.”

He then turned to leave but stopped, keeping a firm hand on David’s shoulder, “So next time, stay inside and try to stick.”

With that Gordon left inside. David knew that it was a threat for him, to stay loyal like a dog to Gordon, which was what Gordon wanted. Just as soon as Gordon left, David cursed under his breath, knowing there was no way he could afford Gordon’s anger, which would make him face prison, while he could somehow deal with the Mexicans.

David left the station, making calls and arranging for canceling the Mexican shipments, while the news that the Mexican cartel that was taking over the New York networks, with their drugs and weaponry had now started to break due to David’s pull back; had now reached all over the globe.

Particularly to a special Island, situated in the Mediterranean ocean, east to the coast of the Island of Ibiza, surrounded by water, shaded by tall trees, covering the vast land, with a fifty yacht yard, placed at the south corner of the island, protected by a line of hundred of guards, missionaries, roaming and guiding around the place, security stations lined around the place, jamming any signal coming out from the island. From the yard, paved cleared carpeted roads, shining all the way towards a large palace, placed in the middle of the island. Streams and falls hid behind the tall trees, while the palace, stood in an ancient British style, with towers lined on both corners, grey cemented brick structures, shining in all its glory.

Neatly cut and mannered grass in the lawn, divided into two, clearing a way for the cars to drove down, passing the iron gates and reaching the front mahogany wooden doors. Two guards opened up the door for a few workers passing by and carrying hands filled with luggage, rest of the workers sped their way around the lawns, while some around the kitchen, preparation of a meal, as ordered by Vincent, after all their master was back home.

The main foyer shined with cream walls and shiny tiles, the marble reflecting images of people passing by, while the wide spiral staircase stood underneath the tilted round modern black and white chandelier, the east wing, led down to many study and living rooms, each with custom designed furniture from different parts of the world. Leading down the corridor to its end was a wide room filled with shelves of many books. Just another of the many libraries and galleries in the entire palace.

The three walls covered with shelves of antiques and books, while the wall adjacent to entrance had a white framed, wide glass door that lead outside to the concrete patio, which was directly facing the sea or just another corner of the island.

Right before the white window was a brown wide door, made out of the rarest California wood. Entering inside the library, Vincent opened up the wooden brown door and entered inside the wide luxurious, wooden floored office, that had its walls covered with shelves and rows of antiques, pictures plastered all over the corners of the wall. A wide red framed window rested on the wall adjacent to the door, through which Vincent entered, the red curtains drawn off the window, while cool breeze flew right into the office from the ocean, passing through the wide wooden desk that had a picture frame placed right next to an open laptop, while a cluster of people gathered around the red framed, highly pressurized glass coffee table.

Red set of sofa chairs rested around three corners of the table, on which Ariana and Eve sat on one side, while Brian sat working on his laptop, opposite to them, while Lucas sat surfing on his phone, in between the two.

“You were right!” Vincent announced, grabbing everyone’s attention and sitting right next to Brian. “That motherfucker is scared of Gordon and canceled the Mexican shipment.”

Lucas smirked, keeping his phone aside and sat straight up, “I knew that asshole is scared as s**t of Gordon. Anyone would be. He is a man in power.”

“This still doesn’t clear up the mess about what we are going to do with the girl, how long are we going to keep her, David has his man investigating as well as the FBI is also on the case.” Ariana pointed out.

“And Xavier just called, informing he is bringing her back from his institute and I don’t want to be anywhere near that Cyborg when she wakes up.” Eve concluded.

“Yeah well, seriously neither do I.” Brian added, with scrutinized expressions.

“I still don’t get it, why send her to Xavier’s neurology clinic?” Vincent inquired.

“The girl’s got a case of amnesia, I just wanted to know her history.” Lucas shrugged.

Everyone else shared a glance, knowing exactly that Lucas never did anything with an appropriate purpose or reason.

Ariana rolled her eyes, “Seriously what are you up to?”

“It depends on when she wakes up.” He shrugged back.

Before anyone could’ve said anything, the back door to the office opened up and Xavier walked in, holding a briefcase in his hands. He was wearing a set of scrubs which signified that he came right out of his hospital.

“Sorry, didn’t had the time to change and have to go back. Thought I might give you some information on your patient’s case.” He seemed to be in a rush as he slipped right next to Lucas, who seemed unhazy and calm on the other hand.

“What’s the rush?” Lucas’s usual stern tone with Xavier was now gone, which made him relax back a little.

“Just relax a little, Vincent tell the kitchen staff to set table for lunch.” He gestured at Vincent who understood that it was Lucas’s way of prolonging Xavier’s stay because he needed details on Arya’s case.

Lucas patted Xavier’s back, “Just tell me everything. In detail.” He emphasized.

For Xavier, it was a huge deal that for the first time, his brother-in-law considered him capable of letting him into a task.

“Well… for one, we talked to her.” Xavier began, which made everyone look at each other with shock.

“You’re telling, she didn’t jump at you with rods?” Vincent inquired.

“No!” Xavier shook his head, “In fact, if anything she was very calm and coordinating.”

“And how did that happen?” Ariana asked.

“Well, she had no memory about her whereabouts, she barely remembered her name and that was also after I had asked her if her name was Arya, I got the information form the file you gave me.”

Xavier reminded Lucas of the itinerary that he provided with, for a complete diagnosis of Arya’s condition.

“Wait! How did she remain calm?” Eve asked.

“Oh! That, was just a natural instinct. It seemed her like her body works more on instincts given to her brain’s condition. It’s an external stimulus reaction that your spinal cord develops, basically your peripheral nervous system taking control, after any damage in central nervous system.” Xavier explained. “This way the body reacts to dangers or calms of external environment. Her body seemed used to of a hospital’s environment, a person in doctor’s uniform.” He pointed at himself, “… and surprisingly also… security persons. At the institute, she became really good friends with one of the security people.”

“Men in guard’s uniform…” Brian connected the dots, “Her uncle’s a police officer.”

“That is also one thing, she doesn’t remember anything about her family. I tried asking her about them but couldn’t show her any pictures that you gave me, because she started having a migraine. Her brain cells in the hippocampus have been damaged, leading to cause…” Xavier began explaining but paused looking at everyone’s confused and lost expressions.

“Dude if we had studied such s**t in high school, we wouldn’t be goons.” Ariana reminded him.

Xavier heaved a breath and placed his briefcase on the coffee table, opening it he pulled out certain files and reports, displaying out some X-rays and CT-scans.

“Here!” he pointed at one of the head scan of a what seemed to be the top of the brain, “This part…” he circled along his finger as he explained, “… She got hit here when she was young. The injury must be at least five to six years old, and she damaged an important memory part of her brain, which caused nerve damage, resulting in complete memory loss. But what I have been able to diagnose so far, she remembered everything ever since yesterday, so her memory loss is basically triggered.”

“Triggered by what?” Lucas asked, completely focused, for everyone, sitting in the room trying to simply understand the process of Arya’s injuries, Lucas was already way ahead of everyone already having a plan cooked up inside his brain.

“Well… such cases are very sensitive to diagnose. It can either be trauma, medicines or continuous head injuries. And I am guessing her recent episode of amnesia was because of a head injury.”

Lucas nodded his head, having a small picture of his mission already structures inside his brain. “How much did you say, she remembered about her family?”

“Nothing at all!” Xavier sighed, “… Except for someone named Val! She was trying to remember something over and over again with that name.”

“Valerie!” Lucas concluded, remembering the real target’s name, who was also Arya’s oldest cousin.

“Where is she now?” Lucas demanded.

“I told one of your house maintenances to show her to the guest room.” Xavier informed.

“And what did you say, bringing her here?”

“That you are her friends.”

Lucas nodded his head slightly and got up from his seat, “Thank you Xavier, you have been of great help.” He smiled slightly and walked out of the study, walking down the corridors, he stopped one of the housekeeping staff that was climbing down the staircase.

“Where is the lady that Xavier brought?” he inquired in a mild tone, too cautious and afraid that Arya might be somewhere around.

The housekeeper was just as stunned, seeing Lucas in such a calm manner. Usually he wouldn’t even bother asking around anyone for anything and have Ariana and Vincent arrange it for him but today seemed an exceptional day.

She gulped, keeping her head down and pointed upstairs, “She is the third guestroom of the west wing. Do you want me to guide you, Master?”

Lucas stood composing the information in his mind, while having a plan of his own, he shook his head and made his way upstairs.

Navigating his way towards the acquired room, he saw a female housekeeper walking out of the room, with a smile over her face.

Lucas called her out, “Is she up?”

She halted in her steps and stood shocked to see Lucas anywhere in the west wing, while his master bedroom was in the east wing and he liked to stay there.

She gulped, while shaking in visible fear. Lucas had that impact on everyone around the place.

“Is she awake?” he asked again, kind of irritated by the housekeeper’s wimpy behavior.

She simple nodded her head, trying to clean the visible beads of sweat off her forehead.

He shook his head and entered right into the room, without any knock which only earned him a gasp in return.

Inside the room, over the one sided arm rest grey couch, sat a beautiful girl, with her brunette hair straightened over her shoulders and back, flicked to the side, stuck behind her ear, her big green eyes stuck with shook at Lucas’s entire existence, who stood with confidence right in front of her.

She stood up from the couch, pulling the sundress she wore over her slender thighs, which Lucas seemed to study so well. She looked around the place, seemingly lost, softly hugging her body in defiance.

Lucas’s face always had a stern and viable expression but seeing Arya’s soft features and expressions, his face covered with a warmth, a seemingly safer face that somehow guaranteed Arya a sense of security.

He slightly, ever so carefully took a step ahead which made her take a step back.

Lucas halted his step and finally let his eyes roam and study Arya’s entire stature. She had a medium height, which wouldn’t be too short or too tall, around five feet and six inches; her legs and arms were slender, yet seemingly muscular, as they seemed toned. Her body curved perfectly along the linings of the dress. Lucas was always the one to have a keen eye over a woman’s figure and this one seemed to have according to him a perfect hour glass figure.

Noticing his roaming gaze over her body, Arya felt uncomfortable and cleared her throat, making his eyes go straight to her face, where he noticed her round button nose, cheeky bones and adorable expressions. This just made him doubt the stories of her vicious fighting that the rest of the gang had reported him.

Getting irritated by his lingering gaze, Arya decided to break the ice.

“Who are you?” she questioned in a timid tone, trying to figure a way to stay composed and calm, while being interrogative.

Lucas heaved a sigh and a small smile rested over his lips as he announced, “Your partner.”

“My what?” She almost shrieked, not believing his words.

“I am your agent partner… or more like your boss.” He shrugged taking a small step, composing his body language to be calm and casual, which only left Arya more confused.

“How… what?” she fumbled trying to get a grasp of the whole situation.

Seeing to her restless situation, Lucas simple shook and his head and finally spoke up.

“Miss Arya Scott, you are my spy and you work for me!”

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