At the underground base.
Dillon looked down at his watch and sighed.
"Boss, maybe they ran into trouble?" said Cal. They had been waiting for Ace to show up for the previously scheduled eting for a while now.
Dillon tapped his fingers on the wooden table, thinking for a mont. "No, he should be fine. The more likely reason is that there was nothing to report. I'll let him off this ti."
Cal was surprised to see Dillon in such a forgiving mood. He had half-expected Dillon to order an execution mission, calling Ace a deserter.
What Cal didn't know was that earlier that day, Dillon had received word that a mission to find the woman he requested had finally been approved by the higher-ups.
For Dillon, this ant that Rayne was one step closer to being his.
"You'll be heading to the governnt base in a few days anyway. Just see what Ace has been up to while you're there," said Dillon before getting up to leave.
From Cal's update, the plan with the Barclays seed to be going very well, and hopefully, word of Julian's whereabouts would soon co to light.
----
At the governnt base
Julian arrived at the apartnt where his family was temporarily staying and walked inside. As soon as he stepped in, Samantha ran up to his side.
"Julian! You're here!" she said, reaching out to grab his arm.
Julian frowned and tried shaking her off, but she clung to him like a leech.
"Get off ," he said coldly after she refused to let go. He pushed her away, causing her to stumble back and hit the back of the wall.
"Julian!! What's wrong with her touching you? She's your wife, after all," Mrs. Barclay said from the table. She stood up, outraged at his forceful actions.
The servants were buzzing around, doing their best to fulfill their master's wishes.
"She's not my wife," Julian said, looking his mother directly in the eyes. "And next ti you even say a word to Rayne I won't let you off. I've given all of you too many chances, and consider this my last warning. If you so much as lay a finger on her, I swear I'll kill you all myself!".
Mrs. Barclay saw the sharp look in his eyes and felt a chill run down her spine. She wanted to continue to argue with him, demanding he take Samantha as his wife, but after hearing his warning she held back her words.
"Tell honestly, why are you here? I'm sure the safehouse I prepared for you is much more comfortable to live in than it is here.", he asked after a while.
He really wanted to know what it was that made them co looking for him. It was really out of character for them to leave the comfort of their safehouse to simply look for him.
Layla snorted. "That's for sure. This place reeks."
Mrs. Barclay looked at him with an evil glare. "Like I said earlier, we're here for our things. Don't think of scamming us either."
"What kind of things? I truly don't know what you're talking about," Julian said, feeling exasperated. He didn't know where they heard that he was giving away things left and right.
If anything, he was taking things from Rayne! Even if he was still living in his bunker, there wouldn't be many things for him to give them.
"Clothes, bags, shoes, makeup... Oh! Don't forget my car!" Layla called out, listing the things she wanted.
She was still thinking of more things to add when Julian erupted into laughter.
"This has got to be so kind of joke, right? Where am I supposed to find these things for you? Have you not looked outside? The world has been flipped upside down!"
Layla snapped, "But Katrina told us herself! She said that many people were saying you've been giving out luxury vehicles and priceless items!"
Julian turned to Layla. "Who's Katrina?" Why would soone purposely spread nonsense to his family? He felt like sothing was off.
"Katrina is a girl who attended the sa school as your sister. She ca looking for her family recently and inford us about you! She wouldn't lie about this," Mrs. Barclay said quickly.
Samantha lowered her voice and looked away. "Well, at least she claid she was. Neither I nor Layla rember her from school."
Julian looked down at her, hearing her mumble. "Wait, you don't even know if this person was telling the truth, and you believed them? Where is this Katrina now?"
Layla frowned. "She said she was looking for her family with her cousin. They will et up with us here soon." She also wanted Katrina to et up sooner so that she could back up their claims about the luxury items.
Julian's stomach turned. The more he listened, the more he felt like sothing was off, and he always trusted his gut feeling.
"I need to head back," he suddenly announced, running toward the door.
Mrs. Barclay tried calling out to stop him, but it was too late. Everyone stared at the shut door, bewildered.
"What happened? Why did he run away like that?" asked Layla. Everyone just stared blankly, unsure how to answer.
Julian ran back to his apartnt to find Rayne. He needed to discuss the potential threat with her before going to discuss it with Noah and Ian.
Rayne was startled when the door suddenly flung open. She noticed Julian's panicked expression and quickly stood up from the couch.
"What happened? Are you okay?" she asked. Her first thought was that his family had hurt him again.
Julian walked over and placed his hands on hers. "While I don't have concrete evidence, I have suspicions that Damien sohow sent my family out to locate !"
Rayne's eyes widened. "What! That ans Damien's n could show up any day!"
Julian nodded. "We need to leave. Right now, we can't afford to face him head-on. We don't know how many n he has, but I know we'd be greatly outnumbered. And with the addition of the 'super' drug, it would only be more difficult to get through them all."
Rayne looked down, thinking about where they could go. The new base wasn't ready, and she didn't want to bring potential danger to Fred's settlent.
"What if I leave right now and try to clear an area in the new base to place enough RVs down for everyone to stay there temporarily?" she suggested.
Julian thought for a mont. "That may be a good idea. However, let's find a different spot for now. If we go to the forest clearing now, it would be much more difficult for you to use your system to set things up later."
Rayne nodded, agreeing with his point. "How about the small village north of the mountain where the new base will be? I know we haven't scouted that area yet, but from my maps and research, it should be a fairly small village. I can park a few RVs over there for us to use temporarily."
Julian nodded. Unfortunately, it was a race against ti, and they didn't have the luxury of scouting a new area.
"Okay, take my satellite phone. The passcode is 09-34-55. I'll send you a ssage on Noah's phone later. Be careful," he said, leaning in and hugging her.
He still couldn't swallow his anger from how his family treated Rayne earlier, but he couldn't ignore the looming threat of Damien's forces potentially coming to find him.
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