Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
When I was kidnapped, Adrian Bennett was out watching the sunrise with his new girlfriend.
Over the warehouse speaker, with the crash of the ocean in the background, his voice came through lazy and careless, softened by alcohol.
“Keep her tied up. No rush.”
“Maybe this will teach her to behave and stop bothering me. Honestly, it works out.”
To stay alive, I had no choice but to press myself against the kidnapper holding me and cling to him, my whole body shaking as I begged, “I’ll do whatever you say. Please don’t kill me.”
Later, Adrian finally decided he wanted to come save me.
Even the kidnapper laughed, glancing down at me asleep in his arms.
“She’s worn out. Doubt she’ll have the strength to leave with you.”
The roar of the waves echoed through the ruined warehouse, amplified until it filled every corner.
Then Adrian’s voice came again, casual and bored, carrying that faint, drowsy looseness of someone pleasantly drunk.
“Sophie, your stunts to get my attention are getting more ridiculous by the day.”
“Yesterday you got my mother to pressure me into marriage.”
“And today you’re pulling a kidnapping?”
“If you want to die, go ahead. Just don’t ruin my morning. I’m busy watching the sunrise with my girl.”
“Adrian!”
Tears of fear streamed down my face, dripping onto the ropes binding my wrists and ankles.
I shook my head frantically, trying to explain.
“I’m not pretending. I didn’t set this up.”
“I don’t know why Mrs. Bennett suddenly went to the media and announced our engagement.”
“Please. Just believe me this once. Come save me, okay?”
He gave a low, mocking laugh. “Save you? Sure. Fifty million, right? I’ll pay.”
One of the kidnappers immediately cut in.
“Five hours from now. West River Bay. Cash for—”
“No need for the girl.”
“You can keep her tied up. No rush.”
The contempt in Adrian’s voice was so clear it barely sounded human.
“Teach her a lesson so she stops pestering me. That would be great.”
“Think of the money as payment for your trouble.”
“You serious?” The three kidnappers exchanged looks, disbelief written all over their faces.
Adrian laughed again, cold this time, vicious underneath it.
“As long as you’ve got the guts to touch her, I’ve got the money to pay.”
Something inside me broke.
I closed my eyes as the tears spilled harder, grief so heavy it hollowed me out from the inside.
Adrian Bennett.
So this was how much you hated me.
“Adrian…” I was still crying, still stupid enough to beg. “I really was kidnapped.”
“I don’t need to be taught a lesson. If you just come save me, I swear I’ll never bother you again, I’ll never cling to—”
“Adrian, the sun’s coming up!”
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
A bright, flirtatious laugh rang through the phone.
On the other end, the girl sounded delighted.
“It’s so beautiful—mmph…”
The sound of kissing came through clearly after that—lips brushing, breath tangling, wet and intimate.
It wasn’t hard to imagine how passionate that kiss was.
Despair closed over me.
My heart went cold, and at last I stopped struggling.
Sitting there on the dirty concrete floor, I stared blankly at the ring on my index finger—the only ring Adrian had ever given me—and started to laugh.
So the promises we make when we’re young really don’t mean anything.
At sixteen, Adrian had sworn he would marry me. Protect me for the rest of my life.
When had that boy disappeared?
When had he turned into this man?
“I’m sorry, Adrian. I was wrong.”
“I’m sorry I spent all these years loving you on my own and making your life miserable.”
“I won’t do it anymore.”
Never again.
There was a beat of silence on the other end of the call.
Then the line went dead.
The harsh busy tone echoed through the warehouse.
The three kidnappers looked at each other. The youngest one scratched his head, completely lost.
“Boss… does Adrian Bennett want to save her or not?”
“The way he said, ‘If you dare touch her’… sounded more like he was threatening us.”
Troy ground his teeth hard enough to show.
“Who cares what he meant?”
“We want money. That’s all.”
“She’s the woman the Bennett family admitted was Adrian’s fiancée in the news yesterday.”
“As long as we get a video of her—”
“He won’t have a choice. He’ll pay.”
As he spoke, Troy pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket.
Before I could react, he grabbed the back of my head and pressed it over my nose.
A strange scent flooded my lungs.
My head spun instantly.
My shirt ripped with a sharp tear, and above me I heard Troy’s voice, clenched tight with impatience.
“Enough talking. Do it.”
“But, Boss…” the youngest one said hesitantly. “We were only supposed to hold her for two days.”
“And now Adrian Bennett doesn’t seem in any hurry to get her back.”
“If this drags on too long, what if the young heir finds out…”
Troy spat out the cigarette in his mouth and cursed.
“So what if he finds out?”
“You actually believe he’s going to go legitimate? Leave all this behind and turn into some clean businessman?”
“He’s just the new boss making changes. Putting on a show, that’s all.”
“The Sterling family’s been in this business for years. If they went clean, what do you think he’d live on? Use your brain.”
“And if he really does find out, we’ll just hand her over to him.”
“The way he breaks people in is a lot worse than anything we’d do.”
“Oh?”
The warehouse door swung open without warning.
A tall man in a black overcoat walked in slowly, several broad-shouldered bodyguards behind him.
His pale eyes swept across the room, and he gave a soft, mocking laugh.
“Then why don’t I give you a chance to see exactly how I break people in?”
All three kidnappers shuddered.
Then they dropped to their knees in unison.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
“Y-young heir…”
Troy’s face went white. He hurriedly pointed at me.
“We found this one for you. She’s top quality. Just look—”
“We already dosed her. She’s ready to use.”
The man’s brow tightened at once.
His gaze shifted to me, and something dark flashed in his eyes.
He had the kind of face that was almost unfairly handsome.
And yet one look at him made every hair on my body stand on end.
Even with the drug beginning to heat my blood, I still shivered and curled back instinctively.
One of his brows lifted.
Then he walked over and crouched in front of me.
From his pocket, he pulled out a folding knife.
His voice was colder than the blade.
“This might hurt.”
“Bear with it.”
“I’ll send you on your way.”
Send me on my way?
“No—please, don’t kill me!”
Something inside my head snapped, and raw survival instinct gave me the courage to move.
My wrists were still bound, but I grabbed hold of him anyway, clutching at him as hard as I could. Through blurred, tear-filled eyes, I looked up at him and pleaded, “Please. Don’t kill me.”
“I’ll find a way to get you the money.”
“I really don’t want to die this young… please…”
He lowered his gaze to my hands gripping him. Then he paused, one brow lifting with clear amusement, his voice low and rough.
“What’s wrong with dying this young?”
I choked on the question.
Was that seriously what he got from all that?
But I didn’t dare not answer.
“B-because…” I lowered my head and mumbled, “people keep making jokes now about everyone needing to have more kids.”
“But younger people already don’t want children.”
“So if I die now, there’s a very good chance I’ll get reborn into one of those families obsessing over having a third kid.”
“I died young in this life and barely got to enjoy anything. Dying now really doesn’t feel worth it…”
For the first time, he actually looked stunned.
His thin lips pressed together, but I still caught the ghost of a smile near his mouth.
I had no attention to spare for that.
The heat inside me was already surging harder, wave after wave, like it was about to swallow me whole.
Caught between the terror of death and the terror of being ruined, I frantically calculated what I had left to bargain with.
Then, gathering every shred of nerve I had, I leaned in and pressed a light kiss to his lips.
“I’ll behave,” I whispered. “I won’t fight you.”
“You can do whatever you want to me…”
The entire warehouse fell into dead silence.
His eyes darkened instantly. His throat bobbed once, but he didn’t speak.
I bit my lip.
Hope flickered.
My bound arms lifted awkwardly and then slipped around his neck. I kissed him again.
This time, he cupped the back of my neck and pushed me away, putting a small distance between us. He stared into my eyes, his own unreadable and shadowed.