Husband With Benefits
Chapter 773: Kidnapped

Chapter 773: Kidnapped

"What do you mean she never came down?" Kael growled into the phone as he tried to make sense of what was happening. Just an hour ago, Dora had left the penthouse room to leave for a meeting with Rafe and the other investors in the hospital. However, according to her security, she’d never even arrived after the first reminder. And they had not thought to look for her becasue they didn’t want to disturb her. They hadn’t thought to search for her because they didn’t want to disturb her. How could they be so negligent? If she never arrived at the meeting or even to the zero floor, then where the hell had Dora disappeared to?

"Pull out the surveillance tapes from an hour ago. I’m coming down there." As he disconnected the call, he was met with the questioning gazes of all the women and he frowned wondering what to tell them. But he didn;t have to. They’d already stood up as Nora said," Dora is missing? Let’s go check on her whereabouts."

Together, they walked towards the security room and Kael felt his heart tremble. How could she have gone missing under the noses of the security personnel?

As they entered the security room, the guard had already prepared the tapes from the past hour and within minutes, they were able to pull up the footage of Dora leaving the room and entering the elevator.

"Switch the cameras. Move to the elevator ones."

There are no cameras in the elevator, Sir. These are the old style elevators, which lose signal when doors are closed and...

"Then switch cameras and show me the elevator going down. The security immediately pulled up all the floors from that time on different scenes and Kael watched. The elevator stopped at two floors below the penthouse level and a couple walked in.

They moved to the next screen then. The elevator’s next stop was on the third floor where the kitchens were located and they watched as a waiter stepped inside and then the doors closed.

Finally, the elevator reached the lobby.

The doors slid open, revealing the hotel lobby, and Dora’s security team could be seen waiting near the elevator’s entrance, clearly expecting her to walk out. But no one did. The elevator doors closed once more and the security guards that had turned to greet her, simply stood back in their positions waiting for Dora.

"Rewind," Kael barked,"Go back and check every second—she has to be in there somewhere!" The feed was rewound, the team painstakingly reviewing each frame, each floor, but the result was the same. The footage clearly showed Dora entering the elevator, but she never walked out. The number of people who walked in and walked out were also the same other than Dora...

"Where is she?" Kael hissed through gritted teeth, his mind racing. How could she have simply vanished into thin air? As they stopped the feed again with the elevator doors closing and the guards returnignt to their positions, Nora spoke up," Let this feed continue."

Kael looked at her then while the security guard gave a puzzled look. What was the point of watching the elevator go up again when the princess had already disappeared? However, not about to argue with the lady, he simply played it over again and then almost fell off the chair when the doors of the elevator opened again on the third floor and a waiter stepped out, pushing a cart with a cloche on top.

Soon, the waitress- who was finding it difficult to push the cart, was helped by the waiter who had earlier got on the elevator and they pushed the trolley towards the kitchen.

Nora sighed and pointed at the trolley," Dora is there. Follow this cart on the surveillance footage. No cloche or cart is so hevay that two people have to carry it. Dora has to be under that cloth then, inside the cart."

Silently, the guard changed the camera angles to bring up the entire flow and that is when Kael’s phone buzzed with a caller id showing ’Unknown."

He answered immediately, already guessing that it had to be a kidnapping, "Who is this?"

A cold, mechanical voice came through the speaker, sending a chill down his spine as he couldn’t make out if the person was a male or a female.. "If you want to see the princess alive, bring a hundred million dollars to the old warehouse at the docks. You have two hours."

Kael’s grip on the phone tightened, his knuckles turning white. "If you harm her—"

The voice cut him off. "Do not try to threaten me. I have nothing to lose. And you have someone very special to lose. So. Prince Kael. No threats. No police. Not even your own or the princess’ security team. You will not have anyone look for me or she will end up as fish food. You bring the money, and you get her back. Try anything else, and you’ll be picking up pieces of what’s left. Remember, two hours." The line went dead.

"How much do they want?" Nora asked quietly.

Kael sighed and shook his head," A hundred million. I’ll arrange it immediately."

"You are not going to investigate the person behind this and try looking for her?" Ava asked carefully, this position not sitting well with her. After all, if he gave the money once, who was to stop anyone from trying to pull such a stunt in the future again?

Kael shook his head slowly and walked away after sending a glance at the security personnel of the hotel. Instead, he said," I am going to go arrange the money. But I doubt I can have that much in such a short while. Can you make up for the rest?"

Nora met his eyes and nodded, understanding the meaning. Since the hotel staff was involved, who was to say the hotel security was not? So, Kael would start arranging the money while he’d left the investigation to Nora.

As everyone filed out of the security room, Nora was already making a call...

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