Chapter Ten:

February 14th

Percy excitedly paced the floor of the bakery, stopping only to peek out of the closed blinds to watch for his girlfriend.

When he told Annabeth this morning that he couldn't get Gabe out of his apartment, it might have been a tiny white lie. He really had been planning this since last week, and he had worked his hardest to keep his very smart and suspicious girlfriend from finding out.

He paused his pacing to take another look around the shop. Seeing the many lamps and candles lit around the space with a table set in the center. He had the table set up with place settings and another bouquet of flowers, this time blue roses, in the center. The room smelled of chocolate chip cookies, which were sitting in the kitchen, compliments of his mom before she had closed up for the night.

With that reminder, he headed into the kitchen to check on the cooling pasta dish he had spent a lot of time making… Okay, his mom spent a lot of time making, but he helped, at least he bought the ingredients.

As he stopped stirring the pasta, he grabbed his phone to glance at the time and saw that he had lost track of it during all his pacing and it was nearing 6:30. Confused, he sent Annabeth a text making sure she got the time right.

After a few minutes without a response, he called her and the ringing just led to her voicemail. Percy felt his worry start to peak through, he knew she was always punctual and when she was running behind, she made sure he knew.

Percy sat and waited for another 30 minutes, when the clock showed 7:00, Percy started panicking. He called his mom to make sure Annabeth hadn't gone to their apartment. After confirming that she hadn't, he texted Thalia and Piper and they hadn't heard from her either.

He locked up the bakery quickly and rushed home, where he met his equally worried mom and they began calling and texting whoever they could think of. He exhausted all his options before dialing Annabeth's mom. When she picked up, he quickly explained what was going on and asked if she knew where his girlfriend was.

"No, I haven't seen her today. I've been in meetings all day. She was supposed to be with you." Mrs. Chase said with accusation.

He let her tone roll off his back and responded before hanging up, "Okay, thank you. I'll let you know what I find out."

Percy's anxiety was at an all-time high and it was heightened when Gabe stumbled into the apartment and saw him sitting at the kitchen table. His mom had already headed to bed after a long, tiring day.

"What's got you looking worse than usual?" The man sneered.

Percy didn't even have the energy to send a nasty comment back, "I was supposed to meet Annabeth at the bakery and she didn't show, and no one's heard from her."

He looked up at his stepfather and saw a small smirk cross his face, "Oh? Well, maybe that pretty girl finally came to her senses and left your dumbass for something better."

Percy didn't know what it was about that sentence that gave him pause, but something about it made his stomach clench and the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Before he could begin to question it, Gabe stumbled out of the room and Percy heard him slam the door to his room.

Choosing to listen to his gut, Percy went to the "office" and sat down at the computer, and pulled up Gabe's email. His hands started shaking when he saw another email from the same email address as last time, with the subject line: The Package.

Percy clicked on the most recent response, time-stamped at 6:08 p.m. tonight, and saw the only line on the page:

The package has been secured. Thank you for your business. You now have access to the premium options for tomorrow's bid.

He scrolled up to read the full conversation between his stepfather and this organization, when he got the beginning of the emails and read one from Gabe, the pit in his stomach grew deeper and darker.

I have found the perfect form for my next payment. She's young, blonde, gray eyes, and has the perfect body for all the creative things your clients could want… She will definitely cover the rest of my payment and then some. I will send all of her information through the encrypted links used for bidding.

Percy stopped reading, feeling sick to his stomach. He didn't know what to do. He knew this was all his fault, he should've told someone when he found the first email, but he didn't and now Annabeth was… what? Kidnapped?

Oh, god, Annabeth was kidnapped. And it was his fault.

After spending a second to process all this information, Percy stood to go find his phone to call 911, and then he was gonna get his mom out of this apartment as quickly as possible. He stilled as he turned to the doorway and saw his stepfather's figure.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Gabe spoke.

Percy tried to calm his nerves, and his anger, and responded, "Nothing, just checking to make sure I submitted an assignment, it's due tonight, so I just checked that. And now I'll be going to bed."

He took a step to exit the room, but Gabe didn't budge, and suddenly, Percy understood why Annabeth was so freaked out after her encounter with him because Percy felt that fear now as he looked up at the man.

"Excuse me," Percy said weakly.

He watched as Gabe's eyes drifted to the computer behind him, still casting a soft glow through the room, and Percy knew he had left the email up.

"You little bitch, you've been looking at my fucking emails!" Gabe exclaimed and he grabbed Percy by his hair, pulled his head roughly, and punched him across the face.

Pain bloomed through Percy's left side and then Gabe said, "Well I guess by now, you've figured out what happened to that precious girlfriend of yours. Huh?" He paused as if waiting for Percy's response. "Yeah, I bet by now, she's being thoroughly … enjoyed by as many guys as she can handle."

His anger swelled at that comment and Percy sent a punch up into Gabe's jaw. The man growled and then unleashed all his anger on his stepson.

Percy fell to the ground as the older man continued to land blow after blow.

Just as he heard his mother's voice, screaming, everything went black.

A/N: Hahaha, I am so sorry to end another one on a cliffhanger, but I have to. I tried to get this one up as fast as possible and I'll try to do it with the next one too, but no promises ;) Anyway, let me know what you guys think. See you soon! xoxo, stay safe!