My Second Marriage w Chapter 198: This one has the keys

Chapter 198: This one has the keys

"Haha..." the guard laughed at the faint clunk he heard. "Huh?"

His brows drew together as he looked around, but saw no one. He shrugged and went back to his phone, but the noise ca again. This ti, he pulled out his earbuds, and without them, the sound was considerably louder.

His eyes drifted slowly to the locked container he was supposed to be watching.

"Huh? She’s up already?" he snorted, having expected Ashley to be out cold for the entire ride. "Well."

He shook his head and tried to ignore it, plugging his earbuds back in — then stopped when he heard it.

"I can’t breathe."

He stilled, staring at the container. The voice was faint enough that the surrounding noise of the cargo ship would have buried it entirely if he hadn’t been listening.

"Help..."

The man’s shoulders sagged as he weighed his options. After a few seconds, he sighed heavily and shoved his phone back into his pocket.

"We need her alive," he muttered.

He pulled out the key and unlocked the door. It creaked loudly as it swung open, spilling light into the darkness inside.

As the light stretched across the floor, his brows furrowed. Ashley was slumped against the wall, blood sared along the side of her face and head — as if she had struck it hard against sothing.

"The hell happened to your head?" he muttered. "Did they hit you?"

They said to avoid her face.

Ashley barely registered the question. She had already noted the blood on her hand from earlier and used it well enough. She let it go.

"You..." Her voice ca out exhausted, barely above a whisper. "I can’t breathe."

"Huh?" The man frowned, his eyes dropping to her wrists resting in her lap.

Both hands were bound in chains layered over handcuffs, the chains wound around her torso and locked at her ankles. He hadn’t seen them secure her, but seeing it now, it looked like overkill. Far more than necessary for soone her size.

"These chains..." she continued, her voice carrying the weight of soone gravely wronged. "How could you tie up a frail woman like

this way? They’re so heavy I can’t breathe properly. Isn’t one cuff enough?"

The man studied the chains again, frowning.

Ashley kept her expression pitiful, but behind it, a glint passed through her eyes. She had heard them talking earlier while she was coming to. And if she had read the situation correctly, this was the oblivious one.

Leaving him to guard this container had been a mistake on their part.

She shut her eyes and forced them to well up. She managed, but not quite a tear, but enough to make them glisten.

"Tsk," the man clicked his tongue. "Even if I wanted to take those off, I don’t have the keys. Just deal with it."

He turned to leave. The chains weren’t going to kill her.

But just as his back was to her, she spoke again.

"Could you at least shift so of them aside?" she asked, watching him glance back. She clutched at the chains pressing against her chest. "Just move them a little. Please."

"Roll onto your side — damn it, stop being so dramatic!" He didn’t want to linger and took a few steps away.

By his third step, a heavy thud rang out from inside the container.

He looked back. Ashley had collapsed onto her side, her complexion paler than before, the blood on her head stark against her skin.

"Shit — was she actually telling the truth?!" He scrambled back to her, dropping to his knees to check her pulse.

She looked genuinely close to passing out, and with that amount of chain on a fra her size, it wasn’t hard to believe.

The mont his fingers reached for her neck, Ashley’s eyes snapped open.

She flung both arms up and hooked the length of chain between her wrists around his throat in one fluid motion. Though the chains were tight at her wrists, there was just enough slack between her hands. She twisted the chain and pulled back hard.

"Ack —" He grabbed at her arms, trying to wrench them free. But the more he struggled, the tighter her hold beca.

He kicked wildly. His free hand swung at her arm. When that did nothing, he grabbed her hair and yanked it down, but still nothing. His air cut off completely, his face darkening by the second, the pressure closing around his throat until he felt it in the base of his skull.

"Stop —" He slapped at her arm.

Ashley leaned back and held firm, gaze turned away. She felt his thrashing grow weaker, then slower, then stop altogether. Even then, she held on for another full minute.

"Hah..." A long exhale left her as she finally looked down at the man slumped against her.

She unwound the chains from his neck and shoved him off. Still catching her breath, she reached for his pockets, only to sense a shadow falling across the entrance.

Her eyes sharpened imdiately. Even like this, she was ready.

When she turned to the door, her brows drew together.

"Huh?" she tilted her head. "What are you doing here?"

Rus stood in the doorway, chest heaving as though he’d sprinted across the ship. His eyes were wide, fixed on Ashley and the motionless man beside her.

Chained up from wrist to ankle, and she had still taken soone down.

"Hey."

Rus snapped back to the present at a voice drifting in from sowhere outside. He looked back sharply, catching a shadow moving at the far end of the corridor between containers.

"Shit," he breathed.

"Out," she said behind him, calm and unhurried. "Leave the door slightly open."

"Huh?"

"I’ll handle him too," she said, already reaching toward the man’s pockets. She paused when Rus said quickly,

"He doesn’t have the keys."

Ashley looked up at him. Rus was already scanning outside again.

"Stay here," he said. "Buy

a little ti."

"..."

He slipped out without another word, pulling the door to — just barely open — and leaving Ashley alone with her confusion.

Why on earth is he here?

The thought barely had ti to settle before the voice outside grew louder and closer.

The man who had originally secured Ashley was on his way back, irritation written all over his face. He’d spent the walk back fuming over the others giving him grief — telling him it was stupid to leave their hostage with a rookie.

"Those motherfuc —" He stopped short as he reached the container.

He looked around, but there was no one.

Then his eyes landed on the container door, his breathing hitching upon seeing it unlock and left ajar.

"Fuck." He broke into a run, closing the distance and yanking the door open wider to check if she’d gotten out.

The second he reached it, he stopped.

Ashley was right where she was supposed to be — seated against the wall, composed. Beside her, the guard lay completely still.

"What the —" He stepped toward her, then froze one pace away when he saw the guard’s tongue lolling from his mouth. "You — what the fuck are you smiling at?"

Ashley let out a short laugh. "Not a bad setup, right?"

"Bad what — ack!"

Before he could finish, sothing solid hit the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious. He dropped like dead weight, hitting the floor with a resounding thud.

Ashley looked up and gave Rus a asured nod of approval.

Rus pointed at the man on the floor. "This one has the keys."

"Impressive."