Chapter 51: Tied Up
Nick’s POV
They watched his car burn into ashes, they had a few scratches and a little burn on their back. They sat side by side by the road and from afar the old man watched them. He shook his head and got inside his house.
“Now we are going to walk, what a great adventure.” Ben weakly commented and stood up. “My favorite watch broke, I hate this.”
“Aren’t you going to be worried about your car?” He asked but Ben only cast a glance at his car.
“It’s old and you can replace that. This watch is my favorite and I only want this, not a new one or even another that is much like this.” He answered and he started walking like the just gone out of a party.
“Childish.”
“Oh! You are more childish, believe me.” His calm rebuts and unaffected tone was irritating him. “See? You can’t contain your emotion.”
“I can’t believe we are talking about this when we will be walking a three hours ride.” Ben only slid his hand into his pocket.
“I can’t believe you haven’t got the point.”
“Then what’s the point!”
“You complain too much, you rush things and you forgot to think properly because you overthinking, didn’t I tell you to calm down and breathe. Look at the situation twice, if you don’t know that to do it doesn’t mean you need to spit fire to everyone around you.” Ben said which shut him up.
He knew he was right, he was a bit caught up in the situation and he couldn’t think straight. The pressure he had put on himself was weighing too much lately. The frustration and pain of Fera hating him was too much to take. It felt like fighting for her but against her if that made sense.
“I’m sorry.”
“No need, at least your cool now, I hate it when I can feel your negative tensed aura.” There were no houses around and the road was in the middle of the woods.
“This would be a long walk.”
“Be positive, a vehicle will give us a ride.” Ben ease him but it was useless.
“Who do you think attempted to kill us? Was it the old man?” he asked.
“No, he’s innocent.”
“Then who?”
“They’ll be here in five seconds, they’ll come to get us.” They saw two black cars approaching that were surely getting them. Nick didn’t comment and trusted his cousin. Even if he thought it was stupid, he even raised his hand as if he was asking for a ride.
“Sir, would you mind if we-woahoww, okay-okay.” They pointed a gun at his forehead and Nick raised both hands as a sign of surrender.
“I am an orphan, sir. No one will pay for the ransom, anyways my kidneys are fine and I’m sure my organs are healthy.” Ben obediently got in and even talk about his organs, however, Nick was rolling his eyes and sat properly. ‘I can’t believe he passed the board exam and successfully got his license when he’s this crazy,’ he thought.
“Are you okay, Nick?” He glared at him but he only nodded. “Good,” and he turned to his other side where the man was holding a gun wearing all black and all masked. “This is so kind of you to give us a ride, after destroying mine you offered to drive for us, thank you very much. You can drop us at the nearest bus stop.” He casually talked like that but they weren’t answering him.
“Blindfold them,” the driver ordered.
“Wait, I don’t like black.” He protested but they still used the black cloth. “I hate your perfume, man. It smells too strong.”
“Shut him up.” They taped his mouth.
Nick didn’t know how to react to the behavior of his cousin, he was being too dumb to the point that it was irritating. Soon they felt the van stop. After a while, they were dragged down and someone kicked his leg from behind making him kneel on the floor. They pushed his shoulder down so he sat on the cold surface which he thought was the floor.
They heard them leave and followed by a slam of the door, he also heard some metal ticking which meant that it was locked.
“Ben,” he called out.
“Mhmm,”
“Stupid, what do we do now?”
“Mhm uhmm,”

He tried to reach his small pocket knife in his pants, he slowly sliced the tie. He easily untie himself and took his blindfold off.
“What the hell!” He saw Ben untied and crossing his arm but didn’t remove the tape on his mouth. “You didn’t help me?”
“Mhm?” His only response made him sigh and lean on the wall.
“Whatever.” He saw him take his tape so he raised his eyebrow.
“Blindfold yourself again, we’re not escaping yet. Put your hands behind your back.” He said and blindfolded himself again.
“For what?”
“We’ll meet their boss. I want to have a word with him.” Even if it seemed so absurd, he still followed him and cover his eyes again. He acted tied up still and lean on the wall.
“We better home, before Lola Clarita knows about this.”
“As long as you are with me, you have nothing to worry about,” Ben assured him.
After a long waiting, he finally heard footsteps approaching. He heard the door open and they turned on the light.
“Benjamin and Nick Kingston. Here they are, sir.”
“AW!” He heard Ben winced, they just took off the tape harshly.
“Who are you to Miss Fuentes?” He heard a man ask.
“Cousin-in-law,” Ben answered.
“Nick.”
“A good friend.” He answered and it was followed by a humorous laugh by Ben.
“Yeah, right.”
They removed Nick’s blindfold and let him see who he was talking to. It was a man with a full beard and mustache. “You betrayed her.”
“I didn’t,” he strongly denied it.
“Why is she in prison then?”
“It was stolen from me and someone surrender it to the police.”
“You think we’ll buy that?”
“It wasn’t for sale, and who are you?” Ben interfered.
He saw someone walk toward him and hand him a metal pipe with yard long.
“I’m not playing around boy, who reported her?”
“We don’t know.” And Ben was smashed by him.
“We are telling the truth, someone stole it from me and the next day Fera was arrested. I gathered those to help her but someone planted it so I could find it and made me look like a traitor.” Nick explained but they hit his leg too.
“Why do you think we can cross a Fuentes? We are victims here too. Someone was toying us behind the curtain. He or she might be watching us now.” Ben said which made him think.
A man walked toward him and whispered something.
“What are you doing in that house?”
“We were trying to gather more information to figure this out. Fera was sent to the hospital yesterday, she sliced her wrist but she’s safe now. The problem was, she kept claiming the crime.” They blindfold Nick again.
“Find out who’s behind this. I can’t imagine someone could do this under my watch.” He heard him whisper and it was followed by footsteps to the door.
After they left he took the blindfold again and looked at Ben who was thinking deeply. “They are protecting her.”
“She’s well guarded but her parents died in their house. Interesting.”
Nick fell into deep thoughts too, ‘well guarded but died in their territory.’
“All I could conclude was that her parents commit suicide. That’s the most possible reason here. If they were guarded that strong how could the culprit sneak in? Or else she killed them herself.” Ben said but he thought that it was impossible.
They both jumped in surprise when they heard gunshots.