Chapter 338: Melanie’s Enemy
"We still couldn’t lay a finger on Melanie. Another dead end," one man muttered, rubbing the dark bruise along his jaw. "The lady’s not going to spare us."
They sat shoulder to shoulder on the basement’s cold stone floor, backs propped against the door that doubled as their prison.
Both men kept their eyes fixed on the stairs leading up to the single exit. Every creak overhead made them flinch. They had planned the crash down to the minute when they had braked in front of Melanie’s car. It should’ve ended with Melanie in a hospital from where they would have taken her. Instead, two strangers in black masks had torn onto the scene and seized both Melanie and Melody. And like the other onlookers, they too had thought that these people were going to take them to the hospital so they had been totally shocked when they heard what had gone wrong..
"Wrong" hardly covered it. Those other kidnappers vanished with Melody while Melanie returned unahrmed, and the lady had taken her anger out on them. Or rather, imprisoned them to take her anger out later on them.
The hatch at the top of the stairs opened and the two men looked up to see one of their own comrades, call out to them, "Up. Both of you. The lady has asked you to come out"
The pair exchanged a wary glance. They were being released? Maybe. Or coudl it be they were being moved to another torture room with sharper tools. Still, hope pulled them upright. They limped up the steps, squinting as daylight shone into their eyes.
Outside, with the harsh light behind her stood the woman they answered to flanked by her subordinates, her hands clasped behind their backs. The two men dropped to their knees at once, foreheads nearly brushing the dirt.
"Lady," they echoed, voices cracking. "Thank you for your grace. We’ll fulfill whatever task you give. Please spare us."
The ’lady’ said nothing at first, letting the silence feel heavier with each passing minute until she finally spoke in a cold voice. "This is your last chance. You know, Melody has been taken."
They nodded in unison their hearts drumming hard. "Yes."