Chapter 115: Do We Look Like We're Having an Affair?
The car was filled with the intimate sounds of kissing.
Lucas's hand slipped under my clothes, caressing my waist and back, trailing down along my hip, his grip getting stronger and stronger.
It had been a month since we last had sex. We were both getting into it, the flames of desire burning hotter than I'd expected.
Until my phone rang.
I pushed at Lucas. His warm lips pressed against my earlobe. "Ignore it."
"No!" I hadn't completely lost my mind yet. I firmly pushed him away a bit and pulled out my phone.
It was Brian calling.
I tried hard to steady my breathing, then answered after two seconds. "Brian?"
"What are you doing? Why did it take so long to answer?" Brian asked.
I panicked for a moment, thinking Brian had figured it out, but quickly calmed down. "I didn't hear it ring."
Fortunately, Brian was just asking casually. He yawned. "I can head home now. Where are you?"
"I'm still at The Saunders Manor," I lied.
Lucas laughed. Brian asked alertly, "Who's that?"
I glared at Lucas, covering his mouth with my other hand to keep him quiet, while asking Brian very naturally, "What?"
Brian thought for a moment. "Nothing, I must have heard wrong." Then he said "I'll come find you" and hung up.
I mentally calculated how long it would take him to get from the Golden Lions Crew's base to The Saunders Manor, and immediately prepared to get out of the car.
Lucas pressed down on the back of my hand, making my palm press against his lips. He kissed my palm, his eyes staring straight at me.
"I have to go," I said expressionlessly. "You and your people can leave too."
"Don't need me anymore, so you're just dismissing me?" Lucas raised an eyebrow.
His tone didn't sound angry, at least not like the past few days when I felt he could "explode" at any moment.
Just one kiss could calm him down?
I touched the corner of my lips. The slight sting reminded me it wasn't a simple kiss.
I snorted softly. "The deal's over."
He leaned close to me, like a promise or some kind of hint. "Next time I'll help you again."
"We'll see about next time." I answered vaguely, pushing the car door open to get out, but Lucas followed me out.
"What are you doing?" I asked warily.
"I want to check out the Saunders family's territory too," Lucas said.
"No!" I refused without thinking. "Or you can go after Brian and I leave."
"Why?"
"Brian can't see us together." I'd thought it through - if my brothers knew I'd traded my body for Lucas's help, they'd definitely be angry, so I had to hide it from them.
Afraid Lucas would ask "why" again, I showed an impatient expression. "If you don't agree, we can't have another 'deal.'"
Lucas thought for a moment and nodded. Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he suddenly leaned close to my ear and said flippantly, "Doesn't this feel like we're having an affair?"
"Nonsense," I replied irritably.
After meeting up with Brian, he indeed didn't notice anything unusual, and we went home together. Of the seven major forces in the Chaotic Zone, three more were gone, leaving four. I wasn't in a rush to deal with them, planning to see how they'd react first.
A day passed, and these four gangs did nothing. They wanted to run, but were all stopped, then they seemed scared out of their wits, burying their heads in the sand like ostriches.
Their reaction really disappointed me.
That night, I woke up groggily from sleep, feeling a bit thirsty, planning to get some water.
My slippers scraped across the floor, the footsteps echoing in the quiet house. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the curtains by the window swaying slightly. My instinct told me something was wrong.
The drowsiness faded. I calmly continued drinking water, discreetly moving my eyes to observe my surroundings.
A pair of hands came at me from behind, trying to cover my mouth and nose. I ducked my head to avoid them and struck back hard with my right elbow.
The attack missed. I didn't stick around to fight, quickly running to the other side of the bed to put distance between me and my attacker.
Motion sensor lights were installed at both the bedroom door and bathroom door. They lit up now, and I got a clear look at the intruder.
It was a man, probably between twenty-five and thirty-five years old, wearing a black athletic suit - the nylon kind, windproof, waterproof, and blood-splatter proof too.
He wore a face mask and baseball cap pulled down very low. I couldn't see his face clearly, only the skin exposed outside his clothes - unusually white, with many pigment spots and scars, like he had albinism.
"Who are you?" I glanced toward the bathroom. The door was half-open. I wasn't sure if anyone else was hiding inside, so I backed up to the nightstand and took out a gun from the drawer.
The other person didn't answer, but asked me instead, "How did you discover me?"
"The smell," I said. "You have the scent of medical disinfectant alcohol on your hands."
Probably because I smelled it often, I was very sensitive to this odor.
"I'm a germaphobe. I must wash my hands thoroughly before and after killing," the other person explained, his tone carrying a strange excitement.
He pulled out a scalpel from his pocket and played with it. I watched the blade spinning between his fingers, reflecting cold light, and asked calmly, "You're that psycho killer? You killed Santos?"
After Edgar reminded me about the unusual state of Santos's body, I asked him for the crime scene photos and autopsy report. The edges where several pieces of skin were missing from Santos's body were neat and clean - not the kind of clean from chopping with a machete in one go, but the kind of clean from dissecting along muscle tissue.
The man had to think for a moment before remembering who Santos was, then nodded. "Someone asked me to kill him."
"Who?" I pressed.
"You don't need to know." The man let out a sinister laugh and moved closer to me.
"Then can I know - if you want to kill me, is it also because someone hired you?" I continued asking calmly.
"No, you killed someone I wanted to kill. I'm not happy!" the man answered, then suddenly lunged at me.
I quickly grabbed the lamp on the nightstand and twisted it hard to the right. A white mist sprayed out from the lamp. I held my breath, took out a gas mask from the drawer and put it on, the gun in my hand never lowering.
However, the man had probably already decided to retreat. After the white mist sprayed out, he nimbly turned and ran toward the window, climbing out.
I pressed the button by the bed. The alarm blared throughout the villa. Cole and Adrian rushed into the room, nervously protecting me as we went out to the hallway.
When I left the room, I'd also grabbed my phone. The screen showed "call in progress," but the person on the line wasn't Brian as I'd thought - it was Lucas!
"Bella." Lucas's cold voice came from the phone. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine," I answered, somewhat annoyed.
I'd meant to call Brian and had even set up speed dial, but afraid of being discovered by the intruder, I'd quickly pressed twice after unlocking my phone and probably accidentally hit Lucas's number - he'd called me before I went to sleep.
"I'm coming over right now," Lucas said.
"No need." I refused him, but Lucas had already made up his mind. He arrived very quickly, getting there in just ten minutes.