Chapter20 Punish Her
"...Linnea, you're a monster! Ugh... help me..."
The damp, thick scent of the seawater, mixed with Amy's increasingly faint moans, invaded Linnea's mind.
It wasn't until Amy's voice vanished into the night that a terrifying thought emerged in Linnea's heart:
She had just committed a crime.
If her generous, warm-hearted, kind philanthropist mother knew, her mother would be so disappointed in her.
But facing the bottomless black sea, Linnea pulled at her lips, revealing a miserable, cruel smile.
She hadn't chosen to do evil.
Linnea had no choice.
If she didn't fight back, these slimy, disgusting vermin would crawl all over her, scratch her, suck her dry, until they turned her into a zombie!
For her mother and her injustice, and for the five years of revenge she was dedicated to, she had to become an executioner with blood on her hands!
---
Having resolved that episode, Linnea forced herself to temporarily forget about it.
She hurried back into the yacht's corridor. The hole in her dress was getting bigger.
She wanted to quickly get back to the dressing room to change out of this cumbersome dress or at least pin the hole with a safety pin. Afraid of running into someone, she walked very fast, eventually breaking into a run—
But she ran straight into an unexpected guest.
"—Stop right there!"
Linnea could smell the distinctive stench of corruption belonging to the Knight family even if they were reduced to ashes.
She immediately recognized the voice as Jax's.
Why was he here? What did he want to do to her?
"You bitch!" Jax slurred with the smell of alcohol on his breath. "I said, get over here!"
Bitch?
A flash of confusion crossed Linnea's mind.
She turned around, meeting Jax's drunken, contemptuous eyes.
Jax only had a photo of the 'Lina' wearing the server mask. He hadn't recognized the Linnea behind the mask. "Are you Lina? Where did you throw Amy?"
Jax hadn't recognized her, after all.
Wait... Amy was Jax's subordinate?!
Linnea forcefully suppressed the shock, putting on a perfectly panicked expression. "Sir, I don't know any Amy, and I don't know you..."
She made her voice overly hoarse, but Jax still didn't see through her disguise.
"Don't lie!" Jax spat. "It's written all over your face! Do you already know Amy has your flirtatious photos?"
Linnea stammered, "Are... are you Amy's boss?"
"Of course!" Jax lifted his chin. "Those photos are in the hands of my subordinate right now. If you don't want us to tell Caius about your dirty business, you'll do exactly what I say!"
It seemed Jax still didn't know that the photos were never successfully transmitted.
Linnea planned to shake him off. Jax couldn't do anything to her anyway.
"I'm sorry, I don't know where Amy went... I was afraid she'd spread my photos to Caius, so... so I didn't stop her from getting off the ship..."
"Amy already got off?"
"Yes..."
"Huh, I'll believe you for now." Jax nodded, seemingly satisfied, but he didn't let her leave.
He stared at 'Lina's' shapely, curvy figure. This woman deserved to have hooked up with Caius. Even without seeing her face clearly, he could feel her unique feminine charm...
"Hey, come closer."
Linnea clenched her fists, but she kept her composure and obeyed.
Jax's breath was getting closer and closer, his thick, foul breath practically sticking to her neck. "Lina, right? Why don't you stop following Caius? You help me get Amy back to the Thorne Group, and you can come to me..."
"A charming woman like you, I'll treat you a million times better than I ever treated Amy..."
Disgusting toad!
Linnea fumed inwardly while plotting her escape—
"Bang!"
The sound of a bullet piercing flesh.
Linnea froze instantly. She only relaxed slightly when she realized the bullet hadn't hit her.
A dull thud sounded beside her. Jax fell to the floor, howling in pain.
A grim-faced subordinate walked up to Jax and said:
"Our Boss said if you dare to flirt with this young lady one more time, next time, this bullet will go straight into your stupid brain!"
Jax clutched his leg, screaming in agony, but shouted defiantly:
"Who are you? How dare you shoot me! My family will make you pay with your life—"
"I am Mr. Caius's subordinate."
Jax instantly choked on his words.
"Mr. Caius instructs that if you don't want to be paralyzed for life, have your subordinate take you away."
Jax dared not say another word.
He was only left with relief—thank goodness he hadn't revealed that he belonged to the Knight family!
Linnea watched him leave.
The subordinate also quietly disappeared.
She was left alone in the corridor. Linnea instantly felt the urge to flee. She took off running, praying that no terrible person would run into her—
"Thud—"
"Hiss..."
When she collided with the person who seemed to appear out of nowhere, Linnea's hands were up to shield her chest. That excessively hard and taut body caused her hand to sink deep into her flesh, even hitting her ribs—it hurt badly!
Wait.
Ah, it was that familiar men's cologne. Crisp, mysterious, mixed with a unique hormonal scent...
Linnea finally realized the danger she was in.
Her eyes slowly went rigid. The back of her neck felt like it had been hammered with an iron mallet, forcing her to stay in a strange, head-down posture.
"Excuse me, sir, I have an urgent matter..."
She spoke in the weakest voice of her life and tried to run past him while keeping her head down.
But just as she was about to slip past the man, he suddenly raised his arm, completely blocking her escape route.
"My apologies, I also have an urgent matter and require the assistance of your staff."
That scorching-hot hand pressed onto her shoulder.
Slowly, inch by inch, he turned her around, with her back facing him.
Once she was fully facing away, the man locked her in his embrace, picking up the nametag hanging on her chest and scanning it disdainfully. "Oh... Ms. Lina. I'm having a bit of trouble."
"...Please tell me," Linnea gave up struggling, closing her eyes tightly.
Caius, using his height advantage, rested his chin on the top of her head. He spoke lazily, his jaw resting against her scalp, making her whole brain dizzy.
"Ms. Linnea. I'm quite troubled."
"My naughty, death-seeking cat ran away and seems to be hiding on this yacht."
"And, she was just now entangled with some wild man who appeared out of nowhere."
With every sentence, his voice grew lower.
"Tell me, can you help me find her?"
Linnea genuinely wished she could sprout cat fur so she could puff up her body while defending herself against the man's assault, for some psychological comfort.
Driven by the instinct to survive, she tried to pry his arm away while stammering, "N-No, please calm down, let me explain, it's all a misunderstanding. The man just now and I..."
"Misunderstanding?"
Caius was practically laughing himself hoarse.
He wished it were a misunderstanding.
But the moment he stepped onto the yacht, he saw this death-seeking little cat tangled up with another man.
Her clothes were disheveled, her eyes were wet, and her entire body looked flushed with a seductive pink. And other people had seen her like this—damn it!
"Shut up. I don't want to hear your noisy excuses right now. But, little cat, why don't you ask what my guest came aboard for?"
"What... what did he come for..."
The man's breath fanned her neck: "To see how my slutty little cat was cheating on me behind my back, of course!"
"No, Caius, please calm down... Ah!"
Her plea was suddenly cut short.
Replaced by a sharp, burning sting on the back of her neck.
It was Caius.
He had viciously bitten down on the back of her neck with his teeth!