Chapter 154 I Will Be Your Hostage
The fat man replied, "Don't worry! We'll return her in a couple of days! Now let go..."
Alexander suddenly interrupted, "Does it have to be her?"
The tighter he gripped Grace's arm, the more desperate his voice became, as if releasing her for even a second would mean losing her forever.
An invisible fear consumed him, making it impossible for him to let go.
"What...?"
Alexander continued, "What about me instead? I'll be your hostage. Take me and let her go."
He was essentially proposing a final negotiation—a hostage exchange.
The man only let out a cold laugh. Out of caution, he didn't even dare reach out to touch Alexander, immediately recognizing him as a professionally trained soldier.
After years in this business, he knew perfectly well the difference between kidnapping a woman versus a man with exceptional combat skills.
"Let go! If you don't let go now, I'll shoot!" His finger tightened further on the trigger. Alexander could even hear the internal spring mechanism straining under pressure.
He abruptly released his grip, warning with deliberate precision, "You can't escape from me, so don't you dare harm a single hair on her head! Otherwise, I mean every word I say!"
The man was genuinely intimidated by Alexander's gaze, so much so that he completely failed to notice Alexander's subtle movement.
He had secretly attached a tracking device to Grace's dress hem.
"Fine! I agree!" the man said. "I'll contact you with specific terms. Rest assured, as long as you cooperate, we won't harm a hair on her head. Remember—no police!"
With that, he used the gun to force Alexander back from the vehicle, then slammed the door shut and locked it from inside.
The next second, he started the engine, ramming through the Mercedes G-Wagon that Alexander had positioned to block their path, and sped away.
Within minutes, police cars arrived on scene.
Alexander remained standing exactly where he'd been left.
An officer stepped out and approached him. They'd received reports of gunfire in the area and had rushed over immediately.
"Sir, did you call this in?" the officer asked, positioning himself in front of Alexander.
"No, I didn't call the police," Alexander replied.
The officer was about to activate his bodycam when he suddenly noticed the badly damaged Mercedes G-Wagon nearby and looked alarmed. "What happened here?"
"My wife was kidnapped," Alexander stated.
...
Half an hour later.
A police escort accompanied Alexander back to the Hayes estate.
As the car stopped and Alexander got out, the officer followed, approaching him once more. "Mr. Hayes, are you certain you won't cooperate with our investigation? We have extensive experience with kidnapping cases..."
"I don't want to take any risks," Alexander replied.
In business, he was willing to gamble, but not with this—not with her life.
"These criminals are of unknown background, but judging by their methods and the fact they're armed, they're extremely dangerous..." the officer pressed.
"Even the most dangerous criminals understand the value of keeping their hostages alive. Give me seventy-two hours. If I make no progress, I'll fully cooperate with law enforcement."
With that, he walked directly toward his front door.
The officers stood behind him, exchanging uncertain glances.
Seventy-two hours.
Three days.
Alexander knew all too well that if he didn't see Grace alive within three days, the odds would turn grim.
It wasn't that he didn't trust law enforcement—he simply trusted himself more.
The Hayes family had dealt with similar situations before.
Alexander's father had once been kidnapped, with the criminals demanding five hundred million in ransom. At that time, the Hayes family chose to cooperate fully with the criminals without involving police, paid the ransom, and got the hostage back safely.
During that same period, another wealthy family's young heir was kidnapped by the same criminal organization. When faced with the choice between paying ransom or calling police, they chose to involve law enforcement. The moment the criminals learned of police involvement, they killed their hostage.
The incident had caused a massive scandal at the time.
Everyone blamed the media for lacking professional ethics, claiming they'd leaked news of police involvement online, which had enraged the criminals.
Because of this precedent, Alexander chose to handle the situation with extreme caution.
Back at the Hayes estate.
Max and Liam had been brought home by Jeremy half an hour earlier. He'd received Alexander's call to increase security and protect the two children.
Though Jeremy had been tight-lipped about details, Max still sensed that something had happened to his mother.
The moment Alexander walked through the door, Max immediately stood up in the living room, rushed over to him, and demanded, "Where's Mommy? Did something happen to her?"
Liam also ran toward Alexander, looking up at him with worried eyes, his small hands clenched against his chest, his expression filled with concern.
Alexander nodded.
Max's face darkened slightly, but he didn't react emotionally. Instead, he suddenly ran upstairs.
"Max..." Alexander called after him.
Picking up Liam, he followed Max upstairs. Max dove straight into the study. When Alexander entered, he saw Max pulling a small, foldable laptop from his backpack. He opened it, booted up the system, and expertly typed a series of commands to access the real-time location tracking for Grace's phone number.
Alexander approached and glanced at Max.
The little boy appeared completely calm and composed, showing no signs of panic, but his slightly trembling fingertips revealed just how nervous he truly was.
Yet he kept telling himself that panic would accomplish nothing.
He had to stay calm and find every possible way to locate his mother as quickly as possible.
Alexander set Liam down beside them and ruffled his hair, then moved to stand behind Max.
Without looking up from his work, Max asked, "Did you call the police?"
"No," Alexander replied.
"Good. Don't call them yet. They won't be able to leave Novaria tonight," Max said.
Soon, he'd pinpointed Grace's phone location. The signal source showed it was in the middle of a lake.
Max's heart sank slightly.
Clearly, their opponents were highly alert and knew that phone signals could be traced, so they'd immediately thrown the phone into the lake.
Looking at the satellite map on screen, Alexander saw the signal source in the lake and realized their opponents possessed significant counter-surveillance awareness.
"The phone's been thrown in the lake," Max said. "They're very cautious."
He then pulled up the route the signal had taken through various cell towers, using the city's tower distribution map to trace the signal's path through different base stations, creating a rough outline of their route. "They're still in Novaria."
"Those people are definitely organized—they operate professionally. They're not ordinary kidnappers," Alexander observed.
Max asked, "Who took Mommy? Do you remember the license plate number?"
"The plates were probably fake," Alexander replied.
"Even fake plates are useful," Max said.
Even if it was a stolen plate that wouldn't show up in police databases, he could hack directly into the city's surveillance network and track the vehicle through traffic cameras and roadside monitoring systems.