Chapter 4 FOUR. WHERE AM I

Hunter walked into his house with big, hasty steps. His jaw tightened at the mess Liam had left behind. Blood was splattered everywhere, among the corpses strewn across the floor. Dozens of bullet casings were scattered on the floor. Liam had invaded his house when none of his family was home to protect Bella. Hunter clenched his fists tightly behind his jacket pockets. He wanted to channel his anger by beating up his men who survived Liam's attack.

As he walked further into his house, he found his men tied to chairs and their mouths taped. Liam left several of his men to witness his cruelty last night.

"You are all idiots and useless! What have you been doing all this time? Why did you let Liam Carlos come to my house and take Bella away!" Hunter shouted angrily at all his men.

Hunter grabbed the collar of one of his men and almost strangled him. He beat the poor man with anger boiling in his blood. The crunching sound of broken bones echoed throughout the room. Hunter didn't care and kept beating the poor guy like he was a punching bag.

"I regret hiring you guys."

One blow landed on his swollen left eye. The man staggered back, then Hunter punched him hard in the chin.

"There's no point in giving you food, shelter, and even a lot of money. You're not good at your job."

Hunter didn't stop at all until the seconds had passed into minutes. No one dared to stop Hunter from beating Turner, the poor guy. If he was lucky, Turner might still be able to see the sunrise tomorrow morning. If not, he wouldn't be there tomorrow.

All the men just stood there without daring to look at Hunter. One of the men who was the leader of the bodyguards came forward to explain all the chronology.

"I'm sorry sir, they drugged us all with sleeping gas so we were unconscious for a few hours, and when we opened our eyes we were tied up like this. But some of us who were guarding the outpost were shot dead."

Hunter punched the poor man in the jaw, and his head jerked back. The man fell to his knees on the cold floor and groaned in pain.

"Stand up, damn it! You must take your punishment."

"Forgive us, sir."

Hunter grabbed the man's collar roughly, hitting the man's face once more blindly. Fresh blood flowed from his nose, lips and mouth. The blood stained the marble floor beneath him, creating a pool of blood with a very striking red color. The man looked like he was going to die, but Hunter didn't care. Hunter wasn't happy at all after beating the man. No matter how much strength he used to beat the man, Bella wouldn't come back. She had been kidnapped and even raped by that bastard.

"You think your sorry can bring Bella back, huh? I paid you dearly to keep Bella in this house. Now, you have to find Bella and bring her back to me. Kill that damn Liam Carlos. I want to see him die and rot in hell!" Hunter shouted loudly in front of his men's battered faces.

Everyone shuddered at Hunter's anger. Some of them started to pray that they wouldn't get punched hard by Hunter. Smith, their leader, had just been thrown to the floor in a battered state. Their faces tensed up, waiting for what Hunter would do next.

"Quickly go find Bella! What are you waiting for here, dammit!"

They rushed out of the living room to hunt down Liam Carlos. Some of them were seriously injured and were stumbling, but they ran as fast as they could out of the mansion before Hunter took their lives.

"Would Liam Carlos kill Ms. Bella?" asked Nick suddenly.

"I don't know, but chances are Liam won't kill Bella because Bella is the key to Kohen James's wealth. The attorney in charge of all of Kohen's wealth would not give it to Liam if Bella died. And Bella's kidnapping this time will definitely have a bad impact on my father and mother, because they are very ambitious to control the property of Kohen James. I'm actually not interested in Kohen's wealth. I'm more attracted to Bella because I love her. She was the first woman who managed to make me look like a stupid man who didn't dare come home because I was afraid I would hurt her."

Being the sole heir of the Louise family was truly difficult. Since childhood, Hunter was educated to fulfill every ambition his parents wanted. He never had the opportunity to choose his own path in life. He was like a pet who had to follow his master's every wish.

There was only one order that made Hunter truly happy, marrying Bella. They had planned his wedding to Bella next year, so that Kohen James' property would easily fall into his hands because he would be Bella's husband.

"Damn you Liam Carlos, you will definitely die by my hands," Hunter muttered determinedly.

-00-

Her curled eyelashes moved slowly as her consciousness slowly began to come back to control her. A very dense foreign atmosphere greeted Bella when she opened her eyes. His forehead furrowed deeply. She didn't know where she was. She was unfamiliar with the room, and she was lying alone on the bed.

"Shit! What has that man done to me?"

Bella tried to exhale slowly from her mouth with great effort to control the panic that swept over her. Her eyeballs darted right and left, seeing that the room had a few objects, but no humans besides her. There was a wardrobe in the right corner near the bathroom door. Thick carpet under the bed. And a window with light gray curtains that moved slowly in the wind. The room was quite normal and comfortable. But, she couldn't feel that comfort. Bella still felt under pressure. The image of Liam raping her never left her head and kept sending her warning signals. Whatever she thought was wrong or strange, she would panic and break out in cold sweat.

For five minutes, Bella finally managed to control her body and also her mind. She managed to breathe slowly, then got up to sit and began to examine her body. She saw no signs of damage to her body or signs of abuse that might have happened to her while she was under the influence of drugs.

Bella scanned the surrounding room. She was placed in a large room with gray walls. It was like a man's room. Liam's, Bella thought bitterly. She didn't know what his plan was by bringing her to that place, but not tying her to the bed like yesterday.

"Miss?"

A male servant bowed respectfully to her as she opened the door. Bella was a bit surprised. She took a few steps back, then looked at the male servant haughtily.

"Where is Liam Carlos? I want to talk to him."

"Mr. Liam is in his study."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Felix, a servant who takes care of this house and all of Mr. Liam's needs."

Bella looked at Felix with a cold gaze. She couldn't just trust Felix because he was one of Liam's men. Felix was young enough to be a servant. He was probably around his early thirties with a fairly stocky build. Bella could see the bulge of the biceps beneath his long-sleeved suit. So maybe he wasn't just a servant there.

"Is there something wrong on my face, Miss?" Felix rubbed the back of his neck shyly.

"Nope. Just take me to Liam's room. Now," Bella said firmly.

Felix nodded slowly and made a gesture with his eyes for Bella to follow him.

They walked in silence along the very quiet brown carpeted hallway. The surrounding walls were light gray with dim yellow lights illuminating the entire passageway. Bella tried to figure out where she was, but couldn't find an answer in her head. She guessed that the house belonged to Liam. His private house. There were several paintings of men she didn't recognize hanging on the walls. They could have been Liam's father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather. They all looked at her with a dim look of horror. Bella unconsciously rubbed the nape of her neck, which just shuddered.

"What's wrong, Miss?"

Felix just looked back and saw her rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Nothing. Mind your own business," said Bella curtly.

Felix shrugged his shoulders indifferently and went down the stairs one by one. He looked back again to tell Bella to be careful because the marble floor tended to be slippery. And Bella didn't need to be reminded to be careful because she was already very alert and tense. She gripped the railing like she was walking on a thin, fragile rope. Very tense.

"Where am I now?"

"In Mr. Liam's house, of course," Felix said irritably, without looking back.

Bella frowned in annoyance. They still had about five steps left before the two of them arrived at the bottom of the stairs.

"I know that, dammit. Give me details. Where exactly am I at right now? In which city?"

"Can't say." Felix glanced briefly over his shoulder. "Mr. Liam will tell you."