Filed to story: The Regretful Billionaire: An Unpredicted Reunion
As if sensing it, Danika asked. “They didn’t hire you just to kill me, did they?”
The Glasses hated her to the bone, but she wouldn’t be worth that much to them. Nor would they have gone to such lengths for their meres.
“You’re really sharp,” the blonde mere nodded.
Danika’s heart sank. The Glasses must’ve planned something big if they even smuggled such powerful men into the country. Were they going after the other Elites? Did this plot include her father too?
Danika gave it some thought. If all the other Elites sunk into chaos right now, the Glasses would have a tremendous chance of getting up to no good. How ambitious.
“I can pay you double,” Danika offered.
Unfortunately, the mere shook his head. “Apologies, but as much as that’d benefit us monetarily, it wouldn’t do well for our future employment.”
He had done his research on Danika as well and knew just how well off her family was. It wouldn’t be strange for Graham Zellweger to pay them six hundred million to save his daughter’s neck.
“Is this really it?” Danika asked, trying to think of a way to turn the tides in her favor.
The mere nodded and pulled out a gun, directing it between Danika’s eyes.” Game over, pretty woman. Goodbye.”
He then pulled the trigger.
If Something Happens to Her
The bullet flew past Danika as she dodged the shot, leaping off the cliff behind her.
There was a river she would land into if she fell; she had noticed it before she was caught.
Still, it was her last resort. That’s why she’d tried to negotiate with the mercenaries.
The blonde mere went to the edge of the cliff, unable to spot Danika anywhere from this height. One of his men went up to him and asked in a foreign language, “What now, boss?’
“Find her, dead or alive!” the man barked out an order.
He had not once failed a single mission undertaken since he started working as a mercenary. He couldn’t fail now. He’d find this woman whether she was dead or still breathing.
The men swiftly separated into groups, all in search of Danika.
Meanwhile, Graham was on his way with his men after getting Gilbert’s call. Being unable to locate Danika anywhere in the city led him to conclude that she was in danger. Luckily he had a vast network of eyes and ears in the city, which quickly reported that Danika had been abducted into the woods nearby.
Of course, the gunshot wound in Danika’s arm was increasingly concerning.
Everyone soon gathered where Danika had been taken away; even Gilbert and his friend were there. Graham didn’t bother asking who they were; he just ordered his men to search for his daughter in the mountains.
Meanwhile, Gilbert was looking for clues from Danika’s overturned car.
“Aren’t you joining the search party?” his friend asked, to which Gilbert nodded.
“Course I am.”
He turned to head into the forest, but was distracted by a loud ringtone from behind him. Turning around to look led him to find it was coming from Danika’s car. It was most likely Danika’s phone.
No wonder she hadn’t picked up the call.
Gilbert swiftly went to retrieve it. His eyes darkened the instant he saw the CallerID.
“What took you so long?” Eustace shot out the moment the call was answered. He had started to panic after his call had gone unanswered for so long.
Before Gilbert could answer, Eustace spoke up again, this time calmer. ‘What did you call me for?”
“Danika called you? When?” Gilbert asked, frowning.
“Who are you?” Eustace asked. It was a stranger’s voice he heard, yet familiar.
“What did she say to you in the call?’ Gilbert continued asking.
As if only realizing that Danika’s phone was now in someone else’s hands, he said, ‘I didn’t pick up. I’ve been busy.’
“Damn you, Eustace Quincey!” Gilbert roared into the phone. Danika must’ve called Eustace’s number to ask for his help. If the man had picked up, she might not have been abducted.
“What happened to her?” Eustace asked sternly.
Unfortunately for him, Gilbert wasn’t in the mood to entertain him. “If something happens to Danika, I’m coming for your fucking neck, you piece of shit!” He then hung up the call and blocked Eustace’s number.
I Promise You’re Not Hallucinating
Eustace instantly tried to dial Danika’s phone number again, but his attempts were all left unanswered no matter how many times he called.
He could only send his men out to locate Danika as well as try to figure out what had happened.
In the Bardoff countryside, Danika was awoken by the chills racking her body. She was half-submerged in a bubbling river in the middle of the forest.
How lucky she must’ve been to not crack her skull open falling down, but also to have been swept to shore by the river’s current and not drown to death.
She climbed up the river bank to pull herself out of the water. The gunshot wound on her thigh was still bleeding. If this went on without something to stop it, she’d probably die of shock before those meres found her.
Nearby was a large boulder that she climbed up onto. Danika then tore her clothes into strips and tied an emergency tourniquet around her thigh to slow the bleeding.
Now that she’d resolved this temporary issue, time to turn to the serious one: how the hell was she going to get out of these woods?
If those mercenaries were still on her tail, she wouldn’t technically be ‘out of the woods’ yet.
Ugh. When was the last time she’d been this disheveled?
Ah, right, when she was also hunted down by mercenaries overseas because she helped her mentor with a difficult chemical weapon that ended up being targeted by international warmongers.
But this time, the meres were coming for her neck, and her neck only.
The rustling of leaves and bush interrupted her train of thought. Not far away, Danika spotted what looked like flashlights swinging around.
Fuck, had they caught up so quickly?
Danika immediately slid off the boulder and ducked down into the nearby bush.
A man came up to the boulder, asking curiously, “Did I hallucinate? I’m sure I saw someone here.”
He had clearly seen someone lying on the boulder earlier up on the hill. Yet no one was to be found now.
Just as he was about to leave, something peculiar caught his attention.
There were drops of bright, red blood on the boulder’s surface, clearly visible even if it was pitch black in the woods right now.
Danika noticed the man peering at the blood and immediately felt weak in her knees. There was no way she could hide from them now.
She quickly scanned her surroundings and reached for a heavy-looking rock, ready to smash it into the man’s skull. She crept behind him, raising the rock above the man’s head…
Before she could attack him, the man said, “So this is how you intend to welcome me, Danika?”
The man turned around with a smile, and only then did Danika realize who it was she was looking at. Her expression immediately turned into one of disbelief.
Heck, she even pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.
The man laughed. “What? I promise you, you’re not hallucinating.”
Danika slowly lowered the rock in her hand and called out, “…Evan Clarke?”
“Oh? C’mon, we’re not strangers.” Evan beamed, then lifted her into a princess hug. “You’re in bad shape, Danika. Are you feeling okay? In pain still?”
Guard!
Danika wanted to answer in the affirmative, but she really wasn’t in the mood to embrace her pain right now. “Wh-what are you doing here?”
She’d imagine seeing Gilbert or even Eustace on the search for her, not Evan, who she’d not seen in ages.
Evan gently set her down, then crouched again. “We’ll get to that later. Cmon, hop on.”
Piggybacking her out would be easier than a princess carry.
“It’s.It’s fine. You just need to help me walk.’ Though they’d grown up together, she still maintained some distance considering the actual distance between them over the years.
“Just climb on up, Danika. We can’t linger here a minute longer. You don’t want to die out here, do you?”
He was right. The mercenaries were most likely still looking for her, so sticking around was a death sentence to both of them. Ultimately, she climbed onto his back so he could carry her out of the woods.
Danika could smell a faint pine scent on the man’s clothes, something she’d familiarized with him since long ago. It instantly made her feel safe and calm.
She fell asleep just like that as Evan quietly carried her to safety. She would’ve fallen off long ago if it weren’t for her tense muscles from being injured. Gilbert and his men soon met Evan.
“I’ll carry her.” he offered, but Evan didn’t let him.
“We need to get her to the hospital ASAP. Hurry.”
Gilbert gave him a pointed look but didn’t say anything else. He’d brought Evan back to the country for one reason, and one reason only —to have him hopefully date Danika, and she’d finally have a reliable partner. That meant creating opportunities for the two of them to get close, and yet…
The thought of Eustace immediately affirmed Gilbert’s decision. Evan was a hundred times the better choice than Eustace Quincey.
The group of men soon exited the forest, not having once met the band of mercenaries. They must’ve scattered upon seeing how large a group of opponents they’d be up against.
They barely made it onto the freeway and were about to help Danika into the car when several cars stopped around them.
