Ian Sinclair watched TV in the living room as Raina Reddington and Miles Hawthorne bustled about in the kitchen. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all wrong. He stood up a few tis and walked to the doorway. "Do you need to help?"
"We don’t."
Ian Sinclair started to step inside. "How about I do the cooking?"
Miles Hawthorne shot him a look. "I said we don’t."
He obediently retracted his leg and went back to his movie.
"Be careful when you leave later. There might still be people watching downstairs."
"Yeah," Miles Hawthorne replied quietly. "That Gwen Sharp has her teeth in you. We need to find a way to get rid of her for good."
Raina Reddington’s chopping paused. "She can’t accomplish much on her own. There must be soone behind her."
"Caron Fairchild."
"Mm-hm." Raina had no desire to speak his na. She glanced discreetly at Miles, who happened to look up at her at that exact mont. Their eyes t, and Miles just managed to look away.
Raina felt a pang in her heart. She knew Miles was still haunted by the ti he’d been held captive.
She chopped the vegetables absentmindedly. "Caron Fairchild and Ethan Lancaster are too tight. The only way is to make them turn on each other."
"Okay, leave it to ."
Raina wasn’t so optimistic. Those two had been thick as thieves since they were kids, helping each other commit every bad deed imaginable. Look at what happened with Minnie Hale—didn’t Ethan Lancaster step in without a second thought? Now that Miles wanted to settle the score with Caron, he had to tear the two of them apart first.
Miles’s knife skills were impeccable, of course. In just a mont, he’d finished chopping all the vegetables.
He glanced at Raina and saw her still clumsily aiming her knife at the cucumber on the cutting board. He walked up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and gently took hold of her hand.
"You have to hold the knife like this."
"I know how..."
Miles held her hand, demonstrating in slow motion. Raina’s mind was elsewhere. "The people in Ethan Lancaster’s circle are all vicious and cruel. My biggest fear is that they’ll find you."
Miles took the knife from her hand and set it aside. He gripped Raina’s shoulders and turned her to face him. "As long as you’re safe, it doesn’t matter where I am."
"Will you only be able to be truly free after Ethan Lancaster falls?"
Miles didn’t want Raina involved in these matters. He pulled her into his arms, gently rubbing the back of her head. "You just focus on being Annabelle Ainsworth. You don’t need to worry about anything else."
Raina tilted her head up to look at his chin. Miles lowered his head, his gaze gently brushing across her face. This was the exact sa face as the girl from the depths of his mory. He had loved her for so many years, and now, at long last, she was his again.
But Miles couldn’t shake the fear of losing her. His fingers caressed her cheek, his gaze softening as he lowered his head to kiss her.
Raina hadn’t expected this and froze. Miles’s lips nearly touched hers, but he stopped, leaving just a breath of space between them.
His lips pulled into a stiff smile. He gently patted behind her ear twice. "Let’s cook. I’m starving."
"Oh, okay." Raina quickly turned around.
Miles stared at her back, the corners of his mouth falling. ’So many years have passed, yet it seems I still can’t get past my own issues.’
’I’m covered in filth. Even if I scrub myself clean, I can still rember the sll of that place as clear as day.’
’Fortunately, this wasn’t the ti for romance. There were too many obstacles in the way that I need to eliminate, one by one.’
「The next day.」
It was late when Raina left the hospital. The underground garage was silent, save for the occasional sound of a car engine starting.
She listened to the sound of her own footsteps. Raina reached her car, opened the door, and got in.
As the car drove out of the hospital, she glanced at her rearview mirror and saw an electric scooter following her. This was a lane for motor vehicles. Raina intentionally tried to let it pass, but even when she slowed down, the rider didn’t seem to have any intention of overtaking her.
Raina grew wary. On closer inspection, a black car nearby seed to have been following her this whole ti as well.
As her car passed through an intersection, the electric scooter suddenly sped up and crashed into her vehicle. As it happened, there was very little traffic on this stretch of road. Raina slamd on the brakes and quickly pulled out her phone to make a call.
The call connected, and Raina imdiately spoke in a hushed tone, "Miles, I think I’m in trouble."
"What’s wrong?" Miles’s voice was laced with panic.
"Don’t panic. I don’t know many people in Stoneworth. If they’re really after , it’s most likely Ethan Lancaster or soone close to him. But Ethan wouldn’t need to go to all this trouble to set up a trap. You have my location. Find a way to let Ethan know where I am..."
The scooter rider was wailing on the ground, unable to get up. Raina glanced out the window, but Miles refused to let her take the risk.
"Just drive away now!"
"No, I have to try."
’Or rather, take a gamble. What if I win?’
"Raina—"
Raina hung up, deleted the call history, and got out of the car without hesitation. The scooter rider was clutching his leg, writhing in pain.
"Are you all right?"
Raina moved forward, intending to check his injuries. The man placed one hand on her shoulder, but with the other, he pulled out a sharp dagger and pressed it against her waist.
He pushed Raina to her feet. She didn’t dare move. "Do you want money? I can give you money."
"Cut the crap and get in the car!"
The black car that had been following Raina pulled up and stopped beside them. Soone inside yanked the door open. The man pressed the tip of the dagger a little harder, forcing Raina into the car.
Miles suddenly lost contact with Raina. He was frantic, but he could still see where she was headed via her location tracking.
Seth Sinclair couldn’t sit still and had checked himself out of the hospital just a few days after his surgery.
Ethan Lancaster had told him to rest at ho, but he felt he was fine. The only issue was that moving his arm would inevitably pull at his wound, so he had the doctor put his left arm in a sling.
The two n walked out of the office. Just as Ethan was about to tell Seth to go straight ho and rest, his phone rang.
The caller ID showed a contact na, but Ethan didn’t have a strong mory of the person.
He casually answered the call. "Hello?"
"Fourth Master, hello. I just saw soone who looks exactly like Mrs. Lancaster, really..."
Ethan walked toward the elevators. "Is there anything else?"
"She was kidnapped."
"What?" Ethan spun around to look at Seth, his voice laced with urgency and panic. "Where?"
"On Fenris Road. An electric scooter crashed into her car. I... I was just passing by and saw the rider force Mrs. Lancaster into a car at knifepoint."
Ethan couldn’t detect anything amiss in the caller’s tone. "Where is she now? Are you following her?"
"Yes, I don’t dare follow too closely, but... Fourth Master... isn’t Mrs. Lancaster dead?"
"Don’t you dare lose them!" This was no ti for explanations. Ethan frantically jabbed the elevator button. "Tell where you are now!"
’She had only just co back. There was no way I would let anything happen to her again.’
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