novelraw Chapter 21: Trade
Chapter 21: Trade
Chapter 21: Trade
Kim:
“What?”
Kit had been kidnapped? Kim couldn’t believe his own ears. How could that be possible? Even after the way his men had been watching him?
“Does anyone else know?” He asked Aawut suddenly, fearing that Kaya might have heard or seen something suspicious while he was making his way up to Kim’s room.
“No, Sire.” Aawut bowed his head slightly, much to Kim’s relief. “I made sure not to let anyone find out as I was coming up here.”
“How did this happen, Aawut?” Sudden anger made Kim lose his composure as he grabbed Aawut’s collar, speaking through gritted teeth as he held his temper under tight control. “How could you let this happen to him?”
“We couldn’t engage with them, Sire,” Aawut said hurriedly, taken aback by his boss’s sudden aggressive behavior. “There was the mark of the tiger on the car that stopped in front of the University. Stopping them at that point would have resulted in a shootout and it was in front of the University…our men didn’t want to cause any hard to the children.”
“So they sat back and watched Kit get taken away?” Kim roared; his temper on the verge of snapping. “I should shoot every single one of them for the incompetence!”
“Sire…please…you need to calm down.” Aawut told him, his voice pleading. “The car…it had the seal of the tiger…you know who it refers to…right?”
Suddenly, realization hit Kimhan like a cold, hard punch to the gut.
“Channarong.” He spoke through gritted teeth, knowing full well who the tiger seal belonged to.
The Channarong family had been their adversaries for generations. Even though the groups were enemies, they mostly tried to stay out of each other’s way. Their current leader was known to be a vicious man and cold blooded killer who didn’t care about the Chao Pho ethics or rules.
But Kim didn’t remember having any trouble with him recently…then why would he…?
Kim’s phone rang just at that instant and in his irritation, he let go of Aawut’s collar and took it out of his pocket, receiving the call without noticing the caller ID.
“Hello?” He asked in an irritated voice, but as soon as he heard the voice from the other end…his blood turned to ice.
“Kimhan. It’s nice to hear your voice after such a long time.”
“P’First.” Kim fisted his hand as he heard the other man’s laughter from the other end of the line. “What do you want?”
“Oh, nothing much, NongKim,” First spoke almost in a mocking manner. “By now, you should have already been informed that I have your boy.”
“You don’t seem like the person who has too much free time,” Kim tried to play with his ego, trying his best to get as much information out of him as he could. “Then pray tell; why are you going around kidnapping University students? I thought human trafficking was beneath you.”
“It still is,” there was now a hard edge to his voice that Kim somehow felt satisfied about, however, that satisfaction was short lived. “I don’t make it my business going around kidnapping people unless someone had dared stepped on my tail first. Those debt collectors you shot…they belonged to me.”
Sudden realization made Kim freeze on the spot.
The men that had been beating up Kit that night…they had been P’First’s men? No wonder he couldn’t find out anything about their association until now. Those that worked for the Channarong family were extremely secretive.
But now…he had bigger issues at hand.
“What do you want?” Kim asked finally; because unless there was something to settle between the two of them…P’First wouldn’t have gone to such great extents to kidnap Kit and hold him captive.
“Depends on how precious these boys are to you and what you’re willing to trade in return for their lives.” Kim could hear the smirk in his voice. “Let’s talk face to face, shall we? I prefer to look my target in the eyes while I make the trades.”
And then the line went dead, leaving Kim with this sinking feeling in his stomach that the worst was yet to come.
*
Kit:
Kit came back to consciousness when he felt ice-cold water being thrown at his face.
Gasping in deep breaths, he tried to bring his hands up to clean his eyes, but found out that he couldn’t move his hand at all. It was tied behind his back. In fact, he realized soon enough, even with his eyes closed shut to prevent the liquid from getting into his eyes, that he was sitting on a chair and his arms stretched behind the seat, ties together with something strong that he couldn’t wiggle out of; his legs too seemed to be tied to the foot of the chair.
Once he was sure that the liquid would no longer get into his eyes, he shook his head to get the water out of his hair and opened his eyes to a large enclosed space, with several people around him that he didn’t even recognize.
“Kit?” It was Ben’s voice that he heard whispering from right next to him. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Kit nodded, looking to his left, to find Earth strapped to another chain in the same position as he was. “Earth?”
“Yes.” He nodded, speaking just as silently as the others had, his expression strained.
“Well…now that you all are finally awake…let’s get the formalities out of the way, shall we?”
All three boys turned towards the front, where a man was sitting on a chair with a smirk on his face, looking directly at the three of them interacting.
The man seemed to be in his early to mid-thirties with long black hair that reached to his shoulders. He wore a black suit jacket with black pants and a white shirt underneath, and his black shoes were polished to perfection; however the most noticeable ornament on the man was the ring on his right index finger that had a large red ruby on it that shore even in the darkness.
His face was extremely handsome, with all sharp angles and porcelain white skin, however, there was no mistaking the dangerous aura surrounding this man that told others that he wasn’t someone they would want to mess with. Kit could see the head of a tiger on the back of his right hand before it disappeared underneath the sleeves of his shirt, and he wondered if this man too was a member of a Chao Pho organized crime syndicate that he didn’t know about. Nevertheless, this man seemed to be a lot more dangerous than P’Kim, and Kit didn’t want anything but to get the hell away from him as fast as he could.
“My name is Kanaphan Channarong, but you can call me P’First,” he gave the boys an almost menacing smile. “As for why you’ve been captured…simple. Kimhan had decided to mess with my men without coming to me first, so I want Kimhan to come and beg before me to let the three of you go…after all, I heard that he’s quite fond of one of you here…”
Kit could feel the gaze of his friends from the side, but he didn’t react to it. Rather than being scared for himself…he was now scared for P’Kim’s life.
He remembered that night vividly. The night that the debt collectors had started hitting him, kicking him while he was down and telling him what they would do to his sister if they didn’t get their money back. It was also the night that he had learnt that their treacherous father was still alive and well and that he had never left town. In fact, he was now living his life off of the debt money and adding more to it for him and his sister to pay.
It was also the night that P’Kim had come to his rescue, and in doing so, had killed several of the men that had been hurting Kit.
Now, Kit understood that those men belonged to this man and he now wanted revenge for his men that P’Kim had shot dead.
Suddenly, a loud noise sounded from the side of the warehouse, startling the inhabitants. The men who were dressed in black suits immediately rushed towards the source of the noise with their guns drawn, making Kit feel afraid like he had never felt before.
It felt like they were in the middle of the war zone and anything could happen at any time.
However, Kit’s face was suddenly snapped to the front by a hand that held his chin tightly in their grip, and he looked up into cold black eyes of the man who had been sitting in front of them only a few moments ago.
“Kim came faster than I had expected,” P’First told him with a cruel smile, his face so close to his that he could feel his hot breath on his cheeks. “Now…let’s see what he’s willing to trade in exchange for your life.”