Chapter 136: Land ho-
Third person’s POV
A heavy thud jolted Ethan awake.
For several seconds he remained still, trying to understand what had disturbed him. Then the floor shifted beneath him, followed by another deep vibration that travelled through the steel walls.
He pushed himself upright.
The container was moving.
Voices drifted through the metal, muffled beneath the warning beeps of heavy machinery. Ethan turned toward the cargo doors, his pulse quickening as the realization settled in.
They had reached land.
Hope came so suddenly it almost hurt.
For days he had imagined this moment. The doors opening. Someone finding him. A chance to tell them what had happened before whoever had taken him could move him again.
He stumbled toward the doors and began pounding on the steel.
"Hey! Someone is in here!"
The machinery continued.
"Can anybody hear me?"
He struck the doors again.
"Help!"
The warning alarm grew louder. Ethan dropped to his knees and pressed his eye against the narrow gap beneath the doors.
The ground was several feet below him. Through the opening, he caught glimpses of concrete, machinery and the legs of workers moving between the stacks.
"Please!"
The container travelled several more metres before dropping onto the ground with a violent impact.
Ethan staggered and caught himself against the wall.
The machinery moved away.
Its engine faded.
He waited for footsteps.
Nothing.
He returned to the doors and looked through the gap again. The workers were already gone.
His brief hope disappeared.
They had reached land.
He was still trapped.
Hours passed before anything disturbed the silence.
Ethan had fallen into another shallow sleep when footsteps approached. He opened his eyes and listened.
Several people.
He forced himself upright and moved toward the doors.
"Hello?"
The footsteps stopped.
"Please. I’m in here."
Metal scraped against metal.
The locking bars shifted.
Ethan’s breath caught.
The doors swung open, and daylight flooded the container. He raised an arm against the glare, blinking until the figures outside came into focus.
Two men stood at the entrance.
Then Anna stepped between them.
Ethan stared.
For a moment, exhaustion made the sight seem impossible. Then recognition settled in, followed by a cold drop in his stomach.
Anna smiled.
"Did you have a good trip?"
Ethan gripped the side of the container.
"You did this."
"Of course."
No hesitation. No excuse.
Just that smile.
His gaze moved to the two men behind her before returning to Anna.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to."
She stepped closer, studying him with open amusement. Ethan must have looked nothing like the man she remembered. His clothes were filthy, his face unshaven, and exhaustion had hollowed his features.
Yet he was still standing.
That seemed to please her.
Ethan straightened.
"I’m gonna get out of here ."
Anna’s smile widened.
"I was hoping you’d say that."
She moved aside slightly, giving him a clear view of the terminal beyond her.
It was deliberate.
An invitation.
Ethan understood immediately.
She wanted him to try.
His eyes moved across the open ground, measuring the distance to the nearest workers, the machinery farther down the dock and the two men standing between him and freedom.
Anna watched him calculate.
"You haven’t changed," she said quietly.
Ethan ignored her.
He moved.
His shoulder slammed into the first man before the man could react. The impact sent him stumbling backward, and Ethan broke toward the opening.
The second man caught him before he made it three steps.
Ethan twisted hard, driving an elbow into his ribs. The man’s grip loosened. Ethan tore himself free and turned toward the open terminal.
A hand seized the back of his shirt.
He fought, kicked and drove his elbow backward, but three days of hunger and confinement had taken their toll. The man dragged him back while the other recovered and joined him.
Ethan struggled until they forced his arms behind him.
"Let me go!"
Anna had not moved.
She stood beside the container, watching with an expression that was almost delighted.
Ethan caught her eye.
"You really think this is funny?"
"A little."
She approached as the men held him.
Ethan’s breathing was hard, but his gaze remained steady.
"Whatever this is leave me out of it ."
That changed something in Anna’s expression.
Not anger.
Interest.
She looked at him for a moment, then smiled.
"That’s exactly what I want."
Ethan frowned.
Anna turned toward the men.
"Take him."
They dragged Ethan away.
He fought them all the way, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing him surrender. One of the man knocked him out to keep him calm .
Anna followed at an unhurried pace.
When Ethan regained consciousness, the first thing he felt was the ache in his wrists.
He tried to move and the restraints tightened behind his back. His ankles were bound as well, leaving him sprawled awkwardly across a narrow bed beneath a harsh white light.
For a few seconds, he lay still.
The room slowly came into focus.
A table.
A closed door.
Bare walls.
Cameras fixed high in the corners.
His stomach tightened.
He pulled against the restraints again, harder this time, and pain shot through his wrists.
"Help!"
His voice came back to him from the walls.
Nothing answered.
He tried again, but the effort left him dizzy. He swallowed against the dryness in his throat and let his head fall back against the mattress.
Then a faint crackle came from the ceiling.
"You’re wasting your strength."
Ethan’s eyes opened.
Anna.
He stared at the nearest camera.
"You kidnapped me."
"Yes."
There was no hesitation, no attempt to disguise it.
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
"Why?"
For a moment, there was only silence.
Then Anna said, "Because you became important to her."
Raina.
He knew immediately.
The realization did little to ease his confusion.
"What does Raina have to do with this?"
A quiet breath came through the speaker.
"Everything."
Ethan frowned.
Anna had always been protective of Raina. He had noticed it from the beginning, the way she watched her, the way she seemed to know when something was wrong before Raina said a word. He had dismissed it as friendship.
Looking back now, there had always been something excessive about it.
Something he had never bothered to question.
"You could have left me alone," he said.
"I could have."
Her voice was strangely calm.
"But then I would never know what she would do."
Ethan stared at the ceiling.
"What are you talking about?"
"I want to see her."
A pause.
"Not like this. Not the woman everyone sees."
Something shifted in Anna’s voice. The amusement was still there, but beneath it was something deeper, something Ethan couldn’t quite place.
"I want to see what happens when she has something she can’t simply fix."
Ethan’s expression hardened.
"So this is about making her suffer?"
"No."
The answer came almost immediately.
"I want to know how much you mean to her."
Ethan said nothing.
Anna continued, almost thoughtfully.
"Raina is very good at hiding herself. She always has been. She can smile when she’s angry, laugh when she’s frightened and walk away from something that is tearing her apart."
There was affection in the words.
Too much affection.
"But desperation is different."
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
Anna gave a quiet laugh.
"She looks beautiful when she’s desperate."
The words stayed with him.
There was something wrong with the way she said them.
Not cruelty.
Not hatred.
Admiration.
Ethan slowly turned his head toward the camera.
He remembered every time Anna had hovered around Raina, the time she called him and warned him not to break her heart , every time she’d spoken about her as though she understood parts of her nobody else could reach.
He had thought it was loyalty, I mean he haven’t met Anna for long so it was easy to misunderstood.
Now he wasn’t so sure.
"You’re in love with her."
Silence.
Ethan waited.
When Anna finally answered, her voice was softer.
"I’ve loved her for a very long time."
He stared at the ceiling.
The pieces fell into place with an unpleasant clarity.
This wasn’t a friend trying to protect Raina.
Anna didn’t want to stand beside her.
She wanted a place in her life that belonged to no one else.
And Ethan had somehow become an obstacle between them.
"You think taking me will make her choose you?"
"No."
Anna’s amusement returned.
"I don’t need to make her do anything."
Ethan frowned.
"Then what do you want?"
"I want to see what she chooses when it hurts."
The line went quiet.
Ethan closed his eyes for a moment.
There was no anger in Anna’s voice now. That was what disturbed him most. She sounded almost excited, as though she had arranged some private experiment and was waiting to see how it turned out.
He opened his eyes again.
"You’re sick."
A soft laugh answered him.
"Perhaps."
The speaker clicked.
The connection went dead.
Ethan remained still for several seconds.
The room was quiet again, but his thoughts were not.
He had spent months believing Anna was simply an overprotective friend who loved Raina more than most people did.
He finally understood the truth.
Anna didn’t think she was protecting Raina from the world.
She believed she was the only person who truly understood her.
And now Ethan was going to find out just how far that belief could take her.
He tested the restraints again.
Still secure.
Ethan looked toward the nearest camera.
Whatever Anna expected him to do, he wasn’t going to make it easy for her.
He settled back against the mattress and began studying the room.
Atlantic County National Airport
The aircraft touched down beneath a darkening sky.
Raina remained in her seat until the other passengers had begun filing into the aisle. Her phone rested in her hand, Ethan’s photograph still displayed on the screen.
She looked at it once more before locking the phone and standing.
Outside the terminal, a black vehicle waited near the security barrier.
A man stepped out when he saw her and opened the rear door.
"Ms. Takahashi."
"How long to the seaport?"
"About forty minutes."
"Take me there."
He hesitated.
"Shouldn’t we wait for the others?"
"No."
Raina climbed into the back seat.
As the vehicle pulled away from the airport, she looked through the window at the lights disappearing behind them.
Ethan was somewhere in Atlantic County.
Anna had taken him.
And Raina was going to bring him home.
She lowered her eyes to her phone again, her thumb resting against Ethan’s photograph.
Then she put it away.
"Drive."
The car accelerated into the night.