Husband With Benefits-Chapter 781: A Shoe

"She was indeed here. We’ve found the camera, Sir," the guard reported, his voice low and cautious. "It’s a streaming camera, but it does have a recording feature. We should be able to piece together what happened." He hesitated, his eyes flickering nervously toward the Prince, whose attention seemed distant. "Though it might take us some time to trace who bought the camera."

Kael barely paid any attention to the man, his gaze fixed on the monitor as the footage began to play in a fast forward speed. He watched as a man directly brought a chair into the room, with Dora’s hand and legs tied to it and her mouth covered. After placing her right in the middle of the room, the man turned to look at the camers, and showed a thumbs up sign.

Even though his face was covered by a mask, Kael could not help but look at him carefully. The man then turned around and left the room. Dora came back to consciousness almost thirty minutes later and even though the camera did not record any audio, Kael could already guess that something was being said over the speaker that they’d found in the room.

Later, he saw the man return to the room and this time, he took off the gag from her face as he sent a picture of her.. Eventually, Kael had the team fast forward it to the time when he’d already made the payment to the kidnappers and he realized that they’d never returned to the place...

Eventually, he watched as Dora’s eyes started to close from exhaustion and how she continued to hodl on.. And then as she pushed and dragged her chair backwards, determined to reach the door. He sighed. If only she’d reached the door, she might have been able to break free.

By this time, the kidnappers had already escaped. Kael had already guessed that.. And so, as he watched Dora lose consciousness, he could not help but frown. Dora had not been able to escape then how did she... As if in answer to his unasked question, soon, the door to the building started to open.

He stopped abruptly, his body jerking in surprise when he saw Dora lying unconscious against the wall instead of in the centre of the room where she’d been left. After a moment of hesitation, he rushed toward her, kneeling beside her. His hands hovered over her still body as if confirming she was alive.

The man then worked quickly, untying her restraints with trembling hands. He glanced around, his actions hurried but careful, before lifting her gently and slipping through the door. As he disappeared, he pulled the door shut behind him and locked it.

A few minutes later, the Kael and his security team burst into the room on the footage, just moments too late.

"Dammit!" the head of security cursed under his breath, his fists clenching as he watched the footage play out. "We missed him by minutes. But I don’t understand. He never gave us a location and then later, he returned to take the princess away again. Why? Does he suddenly want more money and got greedy?"

Kael shook his head," It seems more likely that he had a disagreement with his partner and thus decided to return. I guess, we will be receiving a call from him soon."

As if on cue, the phone started to ring as soon as Kael finished his words. Spotting the unknown number, Kael answered it hurriedly," Yes?"

"Prince Kael. We talk again." The man on the other side of the phone spoke causally. "Naturally, you know by now that we have a few more demands before we can talk about handing over the princess."

TKael’s grip tightened on the phone, his voice steady but icy. "You’ve already received your payment. The deal was that you release her—unharmed."

A cold chuckle echoed through the line. "Ah, Prince Kael, you must understand that things have changed. Let’s call it... unforeseen complications. She is unharmed still so you can put away the angry expression and now, well, we’ll need to renegotiate the terms."

"And how do I know that this time, you will stick to your terms?"

"Because this time, I am willing to negotiate. I know you won’t stop looking for me if I escaped here. So, I decided I’ll make things easier for me. This time, other than a ten million, I am willing to surrended and give forward the name of the main mastermind of this game. In return, you will make sure that I am released as soon as possible and then allowed to leave the country without anyone chasing after me. So, what do you say?"

"And how do I know you are not the master mind?" Kael asked softly as he honed in on the noise outside. This man was still somewhere around the docks because he could hear the ship horns in the background. And he’d already guessed that this man was not the mastermind because he was not using any voice changers for now. This time, Kael’s only motto was to get the information about the so called master mind.

While on the phone, he wrote down a few words on a paper and passed it to the head of security who quickly nodded and walked out of the room.

"Because I have nothing against the princess. My only motive is money. However, the person behind the kidnapping, she wanted the lady here to die and you never to be able to find her. It is why I took the princess out of there. So that she wouldn’t die and I would not be implicated in someone’s wrong doing. Let me warn you, Prince Kael. That person who wants to harm your lover is closer to you than you think. It is better to be wary. I’ll disconnect for now and then we can continue our discussion."

With that, the man disconnected the call, leaving Kael in shock. Someone close to him? Why would someone close to him want to harm Dora?