SEDUCING MY STEPBROTHER

Aziz checked his watch for the umpteenth time. He was going crazy with no news of her.

“Any news?” he stared at his chief guard, Derrick, as he walked in with his head bowed.

“We still have gotten nothing. I have the boys check every CCTV camera, and we were able to trail her movement from the company, but then her trail disappeared a few blocks away from Delitaste,” Derrick explained. “I already told the boys to keep searching around. They might find her in the area.”

Aziz nod his head but his mind was still a mess. He missed her insanely, so much that he felt suffocated. The sound of his phone stopped him from pacing around and he hastily pull it out, his heart hammering against his ribcage as he looked at the name on the screen.

“Hello dad,” he tried to clear his voice so he wouldn’t give out the fact that something was wrong.

“Our plane just landed, and we expected to find you and your sister here, so where the hell are you two?” He could hear Daphne laughing at his father’s attempt to be strict.

“I am so sorry dad, I was so busy when you called to let me know you would come back today, so I didn’t get the chance to tell you we aren’t home,” he waved his hand dismissively and Derrick walked out of the room.

“Is everything alright?” His father’s concerned voice made his heartache.

How would he tell his father and Daphne that he slept with his stepsister and broke her heart? How would he explain the situation he found himself in at the moment?

“Everything is fine,” he muttered. “Lexi is out of town for a wedding plan, and I have a business meeting out of town as well. It is impossible for us to be there right now.”

“Oh!” Balthas sighed in relief. “For a moment there, I thought something bad happened… since you are both out of town, your stepmom and I will lodge in a hotel until you are back then, we don’t want to ruin the surprise we already prepared for the two of you.”

“I will let Lexi know then, I’m sure she would be so pleased that she would hurry up and get back as soon as possible,” he hung up after assuring his father that everything would be alright, before stepping out of the house.

Derrick met him outside, opened the door of his car for him and he stepped in, the driver moving out of the mansion at once. Aziz leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. This wasn’t what he bargained for. He hadn’t foreseen this kind of situation when he planned to take her out and date her properly.

This is what he was afraid of. If he didn’t control himself around her, she would end up thinking the only reason he was with her was that she was good in bed. He was sure that was what she would be thinking right now.

“Where are you, baby?” He muttered so low that he could hardly hear his own voice. “Come back to me, please.”

“We are here, boss,” Derrick called in front of his door. He looked confused for a second until he realized they had arrived at where the boys were checking all CCTV cameras for any sign of Lexi.

The door of his car flung open, and he stepped out. He took a leisure stride to the room, and the boys bowed their heads in greeting as he walked in.

“What have you got?” He looked at their face and they shook their head.

“We are still checking the footage, but we have found no slight details that could tell us where she is at the time she walked into Delitaste and came out of it,” the man in charge of the footage explained.

“What do you mean you can find the footage of when she came out? She can’t just disappear from the restaurant without a trace,” Aziz snapped at them.

One of his boys stepped forward and bow his head, before turning the laptop to him.

“Here is the footage of Ms Lexi walking into the restaurant at 2:05 pm. Her car was parked right here and judging by the owner’s report,” he paused, looking at Aziz, who was focused on the video before him.

“Mrs Brown assured us she attended to Ms Lexi herself. She ordered lobster Mac and cheese and sat at a secluded corner after asking her to let people stay away from her table. Mrs Brown told me she tried to engage her in a conversation and even asked about their deal, but she sounded off, so she left her alone until she left after one and a half hours of being here.”

“Did brown tell you where Lexi went?” Aziz folded his arm across his chest.

“She wasn’t able to give us much information since Ms Lexi didn’t say much, and also, she mentioned that she hardly touch the food have ordered.”

“Here,” one man said behind him, handing over another laptop to Aziz. “By my calculations, she left around 3:40 pm, but look…” He pointed to a particular video clip on the screen.

“This video is around 3:30-3:40, the man in this video was making a call, and at exactly 3:40, he left the phone booth and walked towards the restaurant, which I assume was the same time Ms Lexi was preparing to come out of the restaurant.

“Here,” he pointed to the second clip. “He walked past Ms Lexi’s car and stopped here, a few feet away from her car. There was no one there at that time. He was the only one waiting.”

Derrick moved forward and bend toward the laptop. “I don’t see any sign that says the spot is a bus stop, so what’s he waiting for?” He frowned.

“I thought as much, but look… He left that spot after 2 minutes and went back to the road everyone was passing. Everything about him disappeared after that and so is everything about Ms Lexi.”This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

“What are you saying?” Aziz frowned.

“We never saw Ms Lexi come out of the restaurant because someone must have deleted the footage… Of all the footage here, he was the only one whose footage was missing as well,” the first guard announced.

“So is everyone that walked down that road with him. We can’t just assume he has a hand in her disappearance,” Derrick corrected.

“Oh! That isn’t what I was trying to say,” he defended. “I am trying to let you realize that the footage has been deleted, and his actions seem suspicious. He could be the one who deleted the footage, or he did something else, but we can’t know where Ms Lexi is until we find this guy.”

Aziz turned to the man in charge of the cameras. “Did you leave your post at any time?”

“I left to get lunch and put my colleague in charge,” he answered, his voice shaking.

“And where is that colleague of yours?” Aziz’s face dropped to a scowl, a dangerous look finding its way to his face.

“His shift ended, so he left already,” the man whispered.

Aziz was about to say something when his phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket. His heart leapt for joy when he saw Lexi’s name flash on the screen.

“Lexi, where the fuck are you?” he screamed into the phone the moment he picked up the call.

“Help me, Aziz, I am in trouble, please save me before he kills me,” he could hear the way her voice shook like she was scared and on the run. The sound of what must be a doorknob jiggling in the background made him panic.

“What do you mean, you are in trouble? Where are you?” A door slammed in the distance and she went silent immediately. “Where are you, baby?”

“Give that damn phone to me you bitch,” a man yelled. He sounded angry and the wheels in Aziz’s head turn.

“AZIZ!! Help me!” Lexi screamed and then everything went silent, but Aziz could hear the distinct voice of someone crying and pleading in the background.

“Damnit!!” He yelled, before turning to his men. “James, take two men with you and find his colleague for me… The rest of you should follow Derrick and me in the distance. If we need backup, I’ll let you know.”

The first guard (James) nods his head and moved out of the room with two other men behind him. Aziz turns to a young guy and hands over his phone to him.

“Track where that call came from in the next two minutes,” the guy nod his head and they moved out of the room, jumping into the car as if chased as they all filed out of the storage house.

Aziz bud buzzed and he turned to his driver. “To X-club,” he ordered, the man nodded and sped all the way there.