Arlo and Amelia were shoved into a cold dark room with Salina being shoved in behind them. "Why are you doing this Topher?" Salina cried out.

"I told you already, you're all going to pay for what he had done to me, he cost me millions of dollars."

"I'm sure we can work something out... please let us go." Arlo insisted. "At least let the woman go. They have nothing to do with this." Arlo pleaded and begged. He knew this wasn't good, and feared for his wife and daughter's safety. He was willing to try and say anything to save them.

Topher leaned into Arlo's ear while holding a grip onto his neck "Unless you can get me five hundred million American dollars by the end of the day tomorrow, you're all good as dead." He shoved him to the ground, storming out of the room and locking them all in.

"Arlo.." Amelia cried out scared "How are you going to come up with that kind of money?"

"I don't know Amelia, I don't know." He says feeling defeated for something that he had no control over, all he knew was that he was doing his job.

Topher came back into the room, untying Arlo's wrists and handcuffing his one wrist to a pole leaving his other hand free. "Here's a phone, if you want to live you'll make some phone calls. I'll give you until the end of the day tomorrow to get me that money."

Arlo grabbed the phone trying to think of who to call, Topher gave him instructions and to not be calling anyone else. His job was to find the money and get it to him, fast...

******

A couple days had gone by, Talia got to work and was acting distant from Andrea, she wouldn't talk to her, acknowledge her or even smile. Andrea tried cracking jokes with her doing whatever she could to get her to smile and laugh, nothing seemed to be working.

"Talia.. you can talk to me. It's not good bottling all of this in." Andrea finally says to her when it was slow.

Talia broke down and cried "My worst fear came to be true last night." She said grabbing Andrea holding her tight as she sobbed on her shoulder.

"What are you talking about?"

"They're gone, Andrea... they're gone... I knew this was going to happen."

Andrea's heart stopped, her stomach dropped, she then felt like breaking down with her. She felt bad for her, and felt bad that she insisted to her that everything would be OK. Andrea caught Talia just as she slipped through her arms when she had fainted. She then helped her to the back room telling her to stay there that she was going to call a couple other employees to come in and take over for them.

When the other employees had shown up to take over for them, Andrea called their boss and explained to her what was going on and that Talia would need some time off to heal.

Andrea got Talia out of the coffee shop and brought her home, she figured that she would help get her car later, as of right now she needed to just get her home and comfort her. It was a long ride over to Talia's place, she didn't know what to say to her yet and let her just be for the moment.

Talia's phone rang while they were walking into her apartment, she looked at her phone and set it down on the table letting it ring. "Aren't you going to answer it? I see that it's Ryker."

Talia shook her head "No.. I don't want to talk to anyone right now." She lowered her head, she couldn't believe that they were gone, she felt sad, angry, scared and now alone.

Andrea made her some hot tea "Here.. drink some of this, it will help with your nerves and anxiety." She says setting it down in front of her. "Did you want to tell me what happened, or how you even found out?"

"My sister called me...." She said quietly.

"So she's alive."

"I don't even know anymore." She says shrugging her shoulders. Taking a deep breath she explained further "She told me that Topher was the one who murdered them because of something that my dad had done while he was in the navy. He was suppose to come up with five hundred million dollars to repay him, he was only able to come up with one hundred million. When he wasn't able to come up with the rest he took my parents and shot them execution style right in front of her. She also told me that she wasn't sure if she was coming back home that he threatened to kill her and warned me that I was next."

"Oh my god!" Andrea's stomach dropped and started to fear for her. "What did your dad even do?"

"Apparently it had to do with drugs, my dad was in charge of seizing the shipments that were coming in. It was the biggest job that he had before he retired." She says crying harder, she then slammed her fist down on the table "I knew there was something off with that guy, I just knew it! I sensed it, how could she not see it or feel it? Now my parents are gone and possibly my sister!"

Talia continued to break down, thinking about what her parents went through, wondering if her sister was gone as well. It took Andrea hours but she was finally able to calm Talia down and got her to get some rest. She wished Ryker was around so that he could keep an eye on her, she grabbed Talia's phone and tried calling him. Please call Talia when you get a chance, it's an emergency. Andrea says as she left a message on Ryker's voicemail. She didn't think it was up to her to explain what happened, she just wanted him to call her and hoping that Talia would fill him in.

****

Ryker started to get really concerned after he had been trying to call Talia for days, he was even more concerned after Andrea left him a message from Talia's phone. He was tired, worn out and ready to go home. He did everything that he could in San Diego, even taking a trip to Tijuana after getting a tip that he might be living there or near there. He made a phone call and was able to get booked onto the next flight back to San Antonio.

Once he got back into town, he went straight over to Talia's apartment. He was really worried when she quit responding to his texts and phone calls. It had been more than a week, nearly two weeks since he last heard from her, she never answered the door so he went back outside to see if her car was there.

He wasn't sure how to get a hold of Andrea so he went home knowing that they both wouldn't be working at this time of day. He tried calling her again later that night, which went to voicemail. He called hospitals in the area thinking maybe she was there after he thought about the message that Andrea had left him, coming up with nothing. What the fuck is going on around here? He yells as he threw his phone on the couch.

He had a hard time sleeping that night and made sure that he was up and standing outside the coffee shop the next morning. He got there early and stood outside waiting for the doors to open, he looked around and didn't even see her car but went in anyways when the doors opened.

He didn't see Talia or Andrea, there was a different girl behind the counter "Where's Talia?" He asked as he approached the young girl.

"I'm not sure, she hasn't been around for a few days."

"What do you mean she hasn't been around?" He looked around, looking for Andrea to talk to but didn't see her.

"All I know is that I overheard my boss talking to an employee on the phone, telling them that Talia's parents were murdered."

"What? Where's Andrea?"

"Actually it's her day off today."

"Jesus.." He says sweating running his hands through his hair, at this point he didn't even want a coffee "Thanks" He says quickly leaving, running to his car. He got in and sped off heading for the office.

He rushed into the office, not saying a word to anyone, not even Marcus when he had said hi to him. He logged into the computer and looked up Talia's parents to see what happened and when. He grabbed his phone and re-listened to the message that Andrea left him trying to get the date when it was left since he couldn't find anything on her parents being murdered. He leaned back into his chair thinking as he swayed the chair from side to side until Marcus walked in.

"What's going on Ryker? You come in like a madman not saying a word to anyone, and now you look like you've seen a ghost." Marcus asked concerned as he sat down in the chair in front of Ryker's desk.

"For weeks I have been trying to reach Talia, I cannot get a hold of her for the life of me, cannot find her and she hasn't even been to work. I went in there this morning thinking that I would run into her there and she hasn't been to work in days, the worker behind the counter claimed that her parents had been murdered."

"Oh wow.. are they from around here?"

"Just outside of San Antonio, right on the border. But when I search their names nothing comes up."

"There hasn't been any murders around here that I have heard of." The room became quiet, Ryker didn't know what to do at this point. Everything that has been going on lately has all been strange. "What are you thinking right now? I can see the wheels turning.."

"Something just seems strange, that's all. Everything that has been going on, for some reason it all seems connected, I don't really know for sure, but what I do know is that something isn't right. Talia had me over at her parents the night before I left for San Diego, her sister had brought over a guy that was acting odd, and quite rude. Talia didn't even care for him, says that she was getting bad vibes from him."

Ryker stood up "All I know is I need to go find Talia and find out what is going on."

"Call me if you need some help man..." Marcus says to Ryker as he quickly brushed past him.

Ryker went out looking for Talia, he looked everywhere that he could think of, even finding out where Andrea lived and checked to see if her car was there. He then decided to go to her parents house to see if maybe she was there. As he pulled up to her parents house, he noticed Talia's car parked in the driveway, he let out a sigh of relief as he pulled up behind her.

He walked up to the door knocking fast, then rang the doorbell when she didn't answer. He started calling out her name as he continued to ring the doorbell. He then noticed a curtain moving in the front window from the corner of his eye. "Talia, it's me open up." He called out.

"Ryker?" She cried as she opened the door, running into his arms. He held her tight, resting his chin on the top of her head. It broke his heart seeing her like this and just wanted to comfort her "I'm here now." He said quietly as he rubbed her back. "Why don't we go inside."

They sat down on the couch "They're gone." She sobbed as she laid in his arms.

"What happened?"

She filled him on Salina running off to Mexico marrying Topher and how her parents went out there looking for her, how they were murdered by Topher and why. "I'm so sorry Talia." He says comforting her as he listened to her.

"I was also told that I was next. I don't know what to do."

Ryker instantly froze hearing that come out of her mouth, he pushed himself to the side to get a look at her "What was that?"

"I was told that I would be the next victim."

"If that's the case, we need to get out of here. They will come here looking for you, in the meantime I think that you should move in with me."

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, Ryker found Talia! Hopefully he can figure everything out and keep her safe❤❤

Please comment and vote if you could❤❤❤