Chapter 134

***Levi.***

The clipped call ended abruptly. Nothing more.

I froze.

"What happened" Albert asked, concerned.

I turned to him. I didn't even know how to take it in. I didn't know what to say. I stared, horror struck.

The otherworldly voice on the call, hadn't sounded human. I thought about Kenya. My baby.

Raking a shaky hand through my hair, I said. "Someone just called, informing me that he has my wife." I watched Albert's face turn to steel.

"If I don't break the news of my withdrawal from the elections, before 12am on Seven Forty-five news, they'll kill her." I was frantic.

My nerves twisted.

*How did they get her? Oh God!*

My knees buckled, I sank to the concrete. I couldn't think. It was like my mind suddenly went blank.

I didn't even think twice about her sister's confession. Kenya was in trouble.

For seconds, I was disoriented.

Growling, pounding my fists into my thighs. I wanted the ground to swallow me whole, because I deserved it. I had taken the threat of this BB guy lightly. Now he had my life.

*My entire life; Kenya, our baby.*

"Put yourself together man." Albert managed. "Is there anyone you suspect?"

I groaned. "There's someone. But my team hasn't been able to decipher his codes, to crack his identity. It's likeIt's like a stone wall." My sins were haunting me.

The elections didn't matter at the moment. What mattered was my wife and my unborn child. They were the only fragments of hope that still connected me to humanity. The only treasure I sought.

Kenya was that ray of sunshine in my life. And our unborn child, was only an added bonus. Our completion. A little bit of us in one bundle of joy. A perfect gift package. Just like the one I had sent her in Baltimore, to congratulate her on the successful completion of her first movie role.

I had known all about her movements in Baltimore, because I had been there.

You see, I owned the hotel she had put up in for those days. And had asked she be given an executive room.

I had been in the room next to hers; watching her, seeing her sleep from the cctv footage. Just contented having her near me, despite the distance.

When she had phone sexed someone else, even though I had been the person, I had been hurt. Felt betrayed. I had followed Kenya all through, like a besotted fool, as she paraded herself with that Alec guy.

When I had seen the footages of her with him; the peaceful expression she had in his presence, I had envied him. And had been relieved, when they stopped seeing each other.

I had known she had fallen for him, even though she claimed otherwise. I had seen her adoration for him. Perhaps seeing him as a better version of me.

I hadn't minded been seen as a sick stalker, I had followed Kenya. Hopeful that she didn't break me like Belle had. Praying that somehow, her declaration of love for me was true.

And then word reached me that Alec was seen heading to her room and all hell broke lose.

The old pain, the betrayal I suffered from Belle. A demon I had tucked away, got unleashed.

I had been in the room next door, agonizingly watching my wife kissed by another man on the footage. Utterly ravished that I had turned to ice.

I watched it all, pain searing me into pieces.

I had sent them a complimentary drink, courtesy the hotel. Their wine glasses laced with heavy doses of sleeping pills.

And by the time they had fallen asleep, I had asked my men to slip in and take them below.

Blinded by my rage, I hadn't seen anything past her betrayal. A reminder of my reasons for never falling in love again.

My entire fondness for her, my adulation, had been replaced by nothing but sheer hate. Anger scorching all I felt for her within me to crisp.

In that moment her tears had meant nothing. Her fears, her whimpers. All I had seen had been the exact pain Belle had caused me.

My heart shredded, because I had already begun to realize that I felt a far stronger bond for Kenya, than I had for Belle.

She had become my every breath. My complete existence. And when the time came for me to hurt her, I had been reluctant. Feared to lose Kenya.

I had hesitated to take my pound of flesh from her.  And when she had announced our baby, I had taken the opportunity to save us. To give us one more chance. To give me one more chance to have her.

And now it hit me. I wasn't ready to let her go. I'd never let her go. She was my light house in the middle of my dark storm. She was the one breath I always wanted to take. My world, wrapped in a sweet essence of joy and pure love.

She was home.

I sank into the warmth that those words evoked.

"I can't lose herI can't lose her." I repeated continuously to myself.

My voice low.

Gone was the fear. Gone was my anger. This was me. Levi Ruthford, Kenya's husband, Father to our unborn child.

Her protector.

Inhaling a shaky breath, I got up, letting my hard gaze fall on Albert.

My initial panic replaced by something sinister. Taking root inside me.

"I'm going to get my wife back. But I need your help. Would you do this, for a brother?" I sternly asked, ferociously.

My heart thudded loudly.

"Sure. Anything for you, brother." Albert nodded.

I pushed back my pain.

*I'm not losing Kenya. Not now, not ever.*

Taking out my phone, I called Blake. "Blake, something's come up. He has my wife." My tone was dark. But my heart was darker.

My insides succumbing to the monsters that had once consumed me.