ENDS

Hunter’s p. o. v.

“Go check, it might be your reservation customer.” Mrs. Hao said as she looked to Hunter with and eye signal that read, I got this.

They were currently trying to discover if they could fish out Claudette’s relatives with her pictures, details or anything else.

They just wanted to discover if she could be tracked by any means.

“The weirdo?” Tai asked, sipping a bottle of water to refresh herself as she had also had a long day in the café.

“Yeah.” He replied her with a disturbed look on his face.

This was far more important to him than serving a customer coffee for a date but he had to obey instructions.

He picked up his apron from the side stool where he had abandoned it some minutes ago and went back into the restaurant.

The fact the entire room looked slightly empty brought a relief to his mind.

‘we’ll be closing soon’ he thought to himself.

Remembering the table of reservation was number fourteen and quickly looked there to see if it was truly the man, he was expecting

But who he saw wasn’t whom he was expecting?

He didn’t realize when he jumped over the counter, surprising the two other men who were in the restaurant and ran to where she was.

Louisa’s face lit up with so much glee in her eyes that it made him shed a few tears when he grabbed her in a hug.

She was feeble, so feeble

But she was alive, that was all that mattered.

He pulled back just to look at her face once more to be sure he wasn’t hallucinating, but she wasn’t ready for that break yet

She jumped back into his arms and that little action brought more tears to his eyes as he squeezed her a little tighter but not too tight.

“Daddy missed you.” He whispered into her ear as his tears stained her blue dress.

Now she was ready to pull back, and when she did a little expression of confusion etched itself across her face.

She didn’t understand why he was crying, or maybe he wasn’t happy to see her.

So slowly she used her tiny hands and wiped underneath his eyes as she muttered to him “don’t cry.”

And it made him laugh… the entire scenario, made him chuckle a bit.

He leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead to which she smiled so widely to.

They were still having their moment when Tai came out to call him to the back room once again.

“Hunter?” she said, obviously wondering what was going on until she saw the face of the baby he was embracing and realized it was his daughter.

Her eyes opened so widely that she had almost forgotten what she had come outside to say to him.

He picked Louisa up and carried her on his chest to meet Tai and hear what she wanted to tell him.

Louisa wasn’t leaving his side and sight ever again.

“He brought Louisa” he said to the girl, hoping that maybe they could link the story someway or somehow.

“I think you need to see something” she said and the three of them went to the back.

They met Mrs. Hao at the door and she pulled them in “Mr. Reid just called, they’re on their way here”

The statement shocked both Hunter and her daughter and possibly it may have shocked Louisa if she understood what was going on.

“Why?” Hunter asked

But it was only in this moment Mrs. Hao noticed he had someone in his arms.

“Hunter where did she come from!?” she yelled and caused even the little girl to get frightened.

“That customer, she was on his reserved table”

“Did you see him?” she asked again

Before he could answer one of the men came out of the room with a paper in his hand and he caught all their attention.

“We found someone, her brother.” He said and hands the paper to Mrs. Hao.

“Why does he look familiar?” she asked and gives the paper over to the other two.

“Isn’t this your girlfriends’ new friend?” Tai almost shouted and she could clearly see on his face that he knew who she was talking about.

“I need to find Iris”

“Let me hold her for you” Tai suggested and stretched out her hands to get Louisa from him.

He had second thoughts about letting his daughter out of his sight again, he just got her back.

What if she got missing again?

“Hunter, we need you to check in on Iris, she’s safe with us just go” Mrs. Hao encouraged and that seemed like the boost he needed.

He handed over his daughter to Tai and immediately bolted out of the café and raced towards their house, the first thing that caught his attention from afar was how wide the door was left open.

He didn’t want to assume the worst had already taken place so he waited till he got in.

“Iris!?” he yelled and got not reply.

The house was trashed and in disarray like a tremendous struggle had taken place in the living room.

“Iris!?” he called out again as he ransacked the entire cottage trying to find any traces of her.

After five minutes of futile search, he ran back to the café with tears in his eyes once again and this time out of fear.

He pushed in the doors so hastily that the bells chimed louder than they ever had before.

The restaurant was void of customers, Mrs. Hao and the other crew were all gathered in the room when Hunter ran in.

The moment they noticed he was alone they realized Iris wasn’t home.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Your phone… I need to call my dad.” He blurted out with tears running down his face and frantic efforts in trying to wipe them away with the back of his palm.

One of the men handed over a cellphone to him and he quickly dialed his father’s number.

Before the ring his dad had answered.

“Hello?”

“Dad, they’ve got…”

“Iris, we know. Reid’s intel gave us the information a bit late.” His father interrupted him “We’re already on our way, twenty minutes tops. Pedro gave an instruction to Soldo that Iris be slaughtered in their popular location.” The moment these words left his lips Hunters heart fell into his stomach and a cold shiver came over him along with a million goosebumps.

“What we need you to do is, get Meredith an…” his father continued but Hunter cut in

“How?? I don’t even have the slightest idea where…”

“I am not finished Hunter, calm down and listen to me. Meredith is in Da Lat, she is currently at a shopping store with a guy named Othniel, that’s Reid’s intel. She’s there because he doesn’t want her seeing or hearing of what he’s about to do. We need you to get her, Othniel would signal Pedro that she’s missing. It might not evade their plans but it’ll definitely delay it. There’s a route from the clothing store to an abandoned park called Hiu, that’s where they are taking her to be killed. An address would be sent to you immediately, we’re on our way with the police. Go with the men present and go quickly.”