The Arrest
"Hello Julia," James said.
James closed the door behind him and watched as Julia turned pale. She tried to remain positive even though deep down she felt James had come in with no good intentions.
"Hi, what can I do for you?" Julia managed to ask, her voice trembling.
James smiled, reading all the signs of fear around her. He strode into the living room and Julia went to the door to open it and realized he had locked the front door. Her heart started racing. James turned around and showed her the keys when he heard her opening the door.
"I knew you would do that and make me look bad in the eyes of everyone. That is why I locked the door," James said, and looked around the apartment, leaning against the sofa with his arms folded across his chest.
"You know, I like my brother very much for one thing, he loves a serene environment so much that he creates one when the environment naturally doesn't provide him with one," James said with a smirk. "And do you know how he does that?" he asked, moving away from the sofa and running his hands over the back of the sofa he was leaning against.
Julia was standing close to the front door, wondering what he wanted with her. Recalling the incident at the office, she knew James was there to punish her for reporting him to Jason. James stopped at the end of the sofa and turned to look at Julia standing there in silence and answered his question.
"He makes the rooms soundproof," James said. "This place is soundproof," he added, scanning the entire environment with his eyes and stopping at Julia. "So you can scream all you want," he said with a smile.
"Good thing I locked the door right," James added, still smiling.
Julia was leaning against the door trembling with fear. This very statement was made to her by Jason when she woke up in his bed 'Scream all you want'. She felt the ground beneath her was slipping away as she worked her mind on what to do.
"Please, what do you want?" Julia finally managed to ask, her voice trembling.
"Nothing, just to talk," James said, took two steps towards her and stopped.
"So why don't you sit and have a conversation with me like a mature adult? You don't have to be afraid of me," James added with a smile.
Julia remained where she was and remembered she had left the phone Jason gave her in the room after talking to him. Jason had called to check on her and also to inform her he had safely arrived in Washington. Julia's breathing became uneven as her mind wondered about what to do. Finally, she thought of finding a way to get to her phone. She could message the guard Jason assigned to her.
"Okay, just let me change into something appropriate," Julia said.
James looked at what she was wearing and moved his gaze back to her face. It was a pyjama. He shook his head, smiling.
"Let me guess, Jason gave you a panic button to press anytime you feel threatened and that is what you want to get to, right?" James said. "So what is the panic button, a phone, an electronic device?" he inquired and frowned when he realized she was taking slow steps away from the door.
James quickly advanced towards Julia, and she decided it was time to run. He followed her and caught her on the stairs. Naturally, she started screaming for help and crying. The whole floor was soundproof, so her screams went nowhere.
James held Julia by her hair and descended the stairs with her back to the living room. He threw her onto the sofa and pulled the centre table closer and sat on it right in front of her.
Julia moved her leg intending to kick him in his groin, but he caught her leg. Annoyed by her attempt, he moved her to the floor, trapped her legs under himself and pinned her hands together above her head on the floor.
"Please, let me go," Julia cried. "I promise I will not say anything to Jason," she pleaded.
"I just came to talk, but you messed things up with your attitude," James said through gritted teeth.
"Please, I beg you, let me go. I promise I am not going to say anything to anyone," Julia repeated in tears.
James wanted her, and he felt he could find a way to win her over, but she was making things difficult. Knowing his brother and his situation, he was sure they were just married and nothing happened between them. There is nothing wrong with becoming her lover.
It had been difficult to get Julia out of his mind and now that he was holding her this close to himself, his desire to have her was going out of control. James's eyes shifted to Julia's lips. They were naturally pink and plump. Very inviting. His eyes turned lusty and without a second thought, he kissed her lips. Julia began to struggle, but with her hands and legs trapped, she could only move her body, which yielded no results but rather got James excited.
His free hand explored the upper part of Julia's body while he moved his kisses down her neck. He moved his leg which he had trapped her with, to allow him to explore the lower part of her body and that gave Julia the chance to kick James so hard with her knees in his groin.
The pain caused James to let go of Julia, and she took the chance to run towards the bedroom. James saw her running, and he got up despite his pain, to catch her, but Julia managed to enter the bedroom and locked the door as James was very slow due to the pain he was going through resulting from her kick. Julia quickly searches for the phone, scattering everything in the room.
"Shit!" James said when he got to the door and realized it was locked.
He went down to the kitchen and searched through the cabinet drawers. He picked up a knife intending to remove the doorknob. Julia, on the other hand, found her phone and called the first number on the screen without checking whose it was.
"Help, please help me," Julia cried as soon as the call connected.
Jason had just returned to his hotel room when his phone rang. It was from Julia. He answered the call immediately and all he heard was a continuous scream for help.
Without ending the call, he used his other phone to call one of the guards to go up to the 7th floor. Julia moved into the bathroom and locked the door. She pressed her back against the wall and could not stop crying. Her skin was already bruised from James's rough handling earlier.
The guard got to the 7th floor and realized the front door was locked. Meanwhile, Jason, after calling his guards, alerts the police because of the previous attack on Julia.
The guard kept hitting the door until it broke down from the hinges and entered the living room. Even though he could not hear the screams of Julia, he could hear the noise of someone trying to break something while standing in the living room. The guard quickly moved towards the stairs as that was where the sound was coming from. The police also arrived and entered the room right after the guard went up the stairs. The guard froze, seeing that it was James.
"Sir?" the guard said.
"Get out of here," James said angrily, but the guard just stood unsure of what to do.
Three officers, two in uniform and one not wearing a uniform, appeared behind the guard. Seeing James holding the knife, they didn't think twice about pointing a gun at him.
"Sir, drop that weapon now," shouted one officer, and James frowned.
"Drop it, or I will shoot," threatened the officer.
James dropped the knife and raised his hands in surrender. One of the officers quickly moved in to handcuff him.
On the 6th floor, Mirenda was first to wake up from the noise made by the breaking of the 7th-floor front door by the guard in the quietness of the night. She wondered what was happening, so she stepped out of her room and opened the front door to check and that was when she saw James in handcuffs descending the stairs from the upper floor. She quickly went back inside to call her mother, Mrs Haward, who had ear plugs inside her ears and hence heard nothing.
"Mum, wake up. They are taking James away," Mirenda announced.
"What, what, who is taking James away?" Mrs Haward inquired, sitting up on the bed and yawning.
"I just saw my brother in handcuffs," Mirenda said, and the sleep vanished immediately from Mrs Haward's eyes.
Mrs Haward quickly got out of bed to check things for herself. Seeing the elevator had been shut down, she used the stairs and went down to the ground floor, forgetting she was in a nightgown. When she got to the ground floor, she saw the police car exiting the compound. She frowned and turned to Mirenda who had just arrived at the ground floor.
"What happened?" Mrs Haward inquired.
"I don't know, I saw them coming from the upper floor," Mirenda said, panting for breath after running down the stairs.
Meanwhile, news had already reached Jason, informing him that the person who was attacking Julia was his brother James. Jason frowned deeply at the news, but knowing James, he was not at all surprised. He knew James was taking advantage of his absence to have his way with Julia. He had moved Julia to the 7th floor to prevent this from happening.
"How did James get to know she was on the 7th floor? Does it mean he was following her?" Jason thought.
Not wanting the family name to go out with such a scandal, Jason immediately called and asked the officers to remain discreet. He didn't stop them from taking James to the cell, but he instructed James to be kept at a place where he would draw minimal to no attention at all until he returned to Florida from Washington.
Julia, on the other hand, had remained locked up in the bathroom, clutching the phone in her hand, soaked in sweat and tears. She had still not recovered from what just happened.