After watching the scar-faced man leave with his subordinate, Selena focused on untying the rope that that bound her hands to the back with a hundred and twenty percent concentration.
She hadn't been able to find any sharp object around her to cut the rope and could only try the method she had once seen in a short video while hoping that luck will be on her side.
Selena blindly touched around around the knot before she began the untying. It was very difficult trying to do so while being unable to see what she was doing but she was also fortunate that, for probably the same reason why the scar-faced was being respectful and accommodating towards her, he had tied the rope quite loosely.
This made things a lot more easier for her but even with that, Selena still had a hard time freeing herself. After all, ex-mercenaries had tied the knot so it definitely wouldn't be that easy to loosen it but she, who had no idea of this fact continued working diligently on the knot.
Soon after, sweat began to appear on her forehead and dripped down on the floor not long after and her clothes also showed signs of being wet. Also, the rope kept scraping the skin on which it was tied until it bled but Selena gritted her teeth and endured the pain. This was because more than this temporary pain, she feared her unknown fate more.
Therefore, she was not willing to be a sitting duck and wait for imaginary rescue which was definitely not coming anytime soon!
Drip! Drip! Drip!
Blood and sweat mixed together dripped down to the floor but the persistent woman seemed not to have heard and was lost in her own world. In that world, she only knew to follow the voice in her ears that drove her to continue working on the knot.
A long time seemed to have passed but in fact it was just some minutes and the dazed woman snapped back to reality on hearing some faint sound. Selena looked up with unclear eyes and stared forward blankly. It wasn't until some seconds later that after she blinking her eyes, they regained their clarity.
After regaining her senses and remembering the faint sound she had heard, the first thing Selena did was to sit down properly and hide all traces of what she had been doing earlier. She then waited anxiously for the door to open while thinking about why the people who went out had come back this fast.
'Seems like I wouldn't be able to carry out this plan any longer….', She thought despondently to herself especially when the sharp pain that came every now and then from her hands reminded her that she hadn't even succeeded in the first step of her plan. In the end, only an unrestricted person would be able to try escaping, right?
The more Selena panicked, the calmer she gradually became and moments later, the faint sound that she had heard came again and her body involuntarily tightened. She stared hard as the door opened slowly until it gradually opened wide with sunlight spilling in.
Selena squinted her eyes when the glare of the sun shone into her eyes that had gradually gotten used to the slightly dark warehouse. She only opened them completely after her eyes got used to the light.
Only then did she see the people who had come in. They were a group of five men and each of them had a bloodthirsty aura around them and not even the only one that looked a bit gentle or rather bookish was an exception. Their appearance no doubt made Selena's heart sink heavily to the bottom.
However, just when Selena was despairing with the thought that her worst nightmare had come true, she saw one of the men who seemed like their leader, stepping towards her while she watched helplessly until he appered before her. Yet, contrary to her thoughts, the man stopped in front of her and bowed slightly before calling out in a respectful tone, "Ma'am."
'What was that?', She thought dazedly to herself. 'Could it be a new trick or what?'
"You.. are talking to me?", She asked after coming back to her senses.
"Yes, ma'am. Boss sent us to rescue you."
Rescue?
These men... were here to save her?
Why did she find it so unbelievable?
'Could it be that the person who had ordered her kidnapping was deliberately testing her?'
But even if that was the case, a sprout of hope had already took root in her heart and this same sprout of hope made her ask the next question while her heart trembled in excitement which she tried to hide by asking the question as calmly as possible.
"Who.. is your boss?"
One, the leader of Nighthawk team glanced up in surprise after hearing her question. But he soon understood that although this woman before him had an idea of the industry his boss was in, the boss had never truly let her come into contact with anything related to it for fear that it would put her in danger. Therefore, it wasn't surprise that she didn't know them considering that they had never met or crossed path.
"Boss is... Ryan... Ryan Anderson", One felt slightly awkward saying the boss name out as ever since he could remember he had always called boss... boss.
He got pulled out of his awkwardness when he heard an abrupt cry which although was somewhat faint, managed to sound heartbreaking to his ears. One was stunned to see that it was his boss' woman crying her heart out and almost instantly, One felt his head grow bigger and bigger with her cries.
He, One as the leader of the elite team of Blood Gang, Nighthawk wasn't afraid of anything but a woman's cries and tried to avoid anything related to woman for that same reason!
But.. this just wasn't any random woman but his boss' woman! He couldn't use the attitude he used to deal with those women with her!
But he really wasn't good at comforting people, neither were his other teammates...
What he didn't know was that Selena didn't need his comforting at all. She was only venting out the frustration, fear and grievances in her heart after hearing that Ryan had sent them. Moments later, Selena stopped crying amidst a slightly awkward atmosphere.
She wiped her tears silently and by the time she looked up at One, her eyes had regained their calm. It wasn't a false calm but rather a really calm gaze. One, who was the recipient of her gaze was slightly taken aback at the look in her eyes but he soon stopped feeling surprised. He should have never doubted his boss's taste in women just because he saw her cry.
'After all, it was quite normal for her to cry considering what she had been through, right?', He told himself.
"What can you use to prove that it was really Ryan who had sent you and that this is not a trap?", She asked while looking directly into his eyes.
"If you can't show me a prove, then I can only turn down your good intentions, after all, Ryan wasn't supposed to know that I am back in the country."
"Or.. has he always been monitoring me?", Selena suddenly asked sharply.
One pretended not to hear her last questi. on since he considered it a landmine. Boss' woman had of course always been under surveillaonce but did he dare say that to her?
He he.
Nope, he still wasn't ready to die yet.
"We were really sent bïy boss and as for proof... V, do you have anything that can serve as that?", He turned to ask the bookish looking man.
O
Kyle, code-named V shook his head in reply to One's question.
"Nah, I don't. If only I had brought my laptop with me...", he finished dreamily making it that one could not help but wonder if he was talking about his sweetheart.
The other three members of the team which consisted of a strategist, a sharpshooter and an assasin rolled their simultaneously at Kyle's words. One of them even picked his ears indifferently. They had heard this same complaint from Kyle a hundred if not a thousand times and he was always that way when they were all needed to go on field and for a guy who loved and adored his laptop and computer like a beloved, it was akin to torture since he wasn't allowed to bring it.
Selena had no idea of the thoughts of the men in front of her, neither did she care. Her face scanned every single one of those five men before she finally made a decision in her heart.
"Untie me", She said with firmness to One.
She had decided to take gamble and it wasn't a rash decision but rather one she made after testing these men.
Yes. She had been testing One and the others by asking them to show her proof that Ryan had indeed sent them. Selena thought to herself that if it was really a trap, they would have either not have cared about her opinion and take her against her will or conjure up a believable 'proof'.
These men had done nothing of that sort and had instead admitted outrightly that they had no proof and had instead reiterated that Ryan had truly sent them.
And she was more inclined to believe that they were telling the truth for one reason or the other and even if it turned out to be a trap in the end, if she was freed now, she might still be able to make an escape in the middle of everything, right?
So, by telling them to untie her now, it meant she agreed to them taking her away.
One also read this from her eyes and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
'It was great that we didn't have to use force...'
He and the others quickly got to work but when they saw the state of her hands and the solidified blood on the ground on arriving behind her, the five of them froze and they mechanically turned to stare at each other in the eyes and communicated.
'Seems like trouble is upon us?'
'Not just trouble...'
'Boss will skin us alive...'
'It shouldn't be that bad... right? We weren't the ones who did this to her..'
'But we were the ones who arrived late!'
The moment they saw Selena's wound, they immediately knew that it was self-inflicted. Most likely resulting from her trying to unravel the knot.
They didn't even know whether to call her foolish or stupidly brave.
If the knot was that easy to unravel, it wouldn't be called a mercenary's gordian knot!
"Is something wrong?", Selena asked with a hint of wariness when she noticed that the men had gone silent.
"Nothing, ma'am.... Just that... your hands... was it because you were trying to untie it and maybe escape?", Kyle asked cautiously even though he and the others already knew the answer. Yet, they still hoped to hear the answer from Selena because maybe... just maybe, they might just have made a mistake?
Kyle's words were like a reminder to her as after his words, she instantly felt a burning pain coming from her hands. It made her want to cry out but Selena stubbornly stopped the tears in her eyes from falling and bit her lips before managing to answer Kyle's question as calmly as possible.
"Yes. I was trying to untie the rope and that.. was the result."
The five men looked at each other again and saw the same admiration for Selena in each other's eyes. They admired her not because she was better than them but rather because, she was a woman a lot more weaker than them and who hadn't been through the hellish training they had been through to be who they were today, yet, even though her hands were already badly mangled to this point, she had still been able to talk to them without any showing signs of pain throughout!
If they hadn't personally seen her mangled hands, they would have probably never noticed anything off about her, right?
'She was really the boss's woman', they all thought to themselves. 'Very admirable!'
While the thoughts ran around in their respective heads, they tried to cut the rope that bound her legs and hands as gently as possible, not wanting this admirable woman to feel further pain.
Soon, they got rid of the rope and helped Selena stand up. After standing up, for some reason, she felt that it has been a long time since she had stood on her two feet.
This was probably the feeling of bondage?
But now, she was free and no matter what she encountered outside this door after stepping out, at least, she would be able to say confidently that it was her choice!