With guidance from Nigel via the phone, they avoided all of the guards and most of the surveillance cameras. Finally, they reached a resting room in the inner part of the underground car park. They also found Mr. Zink, who was locked up in the room.
Mr. Zink was not like his usual spirited self when they found him. In fact, he looked rather bloodied with bluish, bruised–up eyes. He was very weak, and the worst part was there were two muscular and strong guards looking after him in the room.
“We can’t take down those two people,” remarked Gwen as she furrowed her brow, looking at Mr. Zink and the two guards from far away. 1
“Maybe we can,”
Steven answered with his narrowed eyes while looking in the same direction. “Are…you sure?”
She furrowed her brows and looked at Steven warily.
Yes, Steven’s body was strong enough because Luke had been training and was often fighting other people. Nonetheless, even with Luke’s body, Steven was not Luke. Gwen did not believe he could carry such a weight.
“I’m not sure,” confessed Steven. “But, for some reason… I believe I can do it.”
It was not his confidence talking. Rather than that, it was a type of feeling. If it was the old him, he would have spoken so daringly. Currently, there was a voice in his heart that told him he was able to take down those two people.
With that thought in his mind, he looked at Gwen firmly. “If I’m not Steven but Luke, do you…
He paused. “Do you think he can take those two men down?”
“Yes,”
Gwen replied instantly without even giving it a thought. She had been with Luke long enough and had seen Luke fight before. Taking down these two guards was a piece of cake to him. Even if there were four guards in the room, Luke could handle it without a sweat.
Nevertheless…
“Then I can handle it too,” said Luke before Gwen said anything else. “If Luke can do it, so can I.”
He was Luke, and Luke was him. With this thought in his mind, he inhaled deeply. Then, he picked up a stone by the side and threw it to the far side.
The noise in the empty car park startled the two guards. For safety purposes, the two guards exchanged looks with each other, and the thinner guard decided to go take a look at where the sound came from. In the meantime, the bulkier guard remained in the same place to guard Mr. Zink
After the thinner guard left, Steven took a deep breath and stood up. He dashed toward the bulkier guard. Gwen held her breath as she watched nervously.
Steven and Luke were different. Luke had his own fighting style, but Steven did not.
After a round of aimless punching, Steven’s punches never actually hit the guard. On the contrary, it gave the bulkier guard time to react. The sound attracted the thinner guard’s attention and made him rush back to the room.
At the moment, Steven had threats coming at him from the front and back. Gwen bit her lip and closed her eyes helplessly. He was not Luke after all! What was he trying to prove?!
As Gwen and Steven were running out of choices, Gwen took a deep breath and dashed to where Steven was. Before she could reach him, he had thrown a few more punches.
This time, his punches hit home as they slammed into the bulkier guard’s face. As the thinner guard returned, Steven turned around and fought with the thinner guard.
The scene shook Gwen to the core. Her eyes widened as she stopped running, knowing not to intervene. At that moment, she felt like she was seeing Luke fighting the guards instead of Steven.
‘Yes, he is Luke!’ She strongly believed the man fighting in front of her was Luke. Only Luke was capable of fighting so fiercely, on point, and in a relaxed manner.
With the two guards taken down, Steven turned back and smiled at Gwen. “Done.”
Gwen stood still as she gripped her fists tightly. It felt as though something was lodged in her heart. She could only bite her lip and stare at the man in front of her silently.
While she tried to find words to say, no words came out of her mouth.
“What’s wrong?”
Steven furrowed his brow at how Gwen was rooted where she stood, staring at him so peculiarly. He walked over and extended his hand out to pinch her nose. “What are you daydreaming about? Shouldn’t we go into the room to save Mr. Zink?”
The familiar movement and gentle voice touched Gwen’s heart. In the next second, she opened her arms and wrapped them around Steven.
“I knew it was you! You came back, didn’t you?”
The sudden hug from Gwen caught Steven off guard. He paused and took a deep breath. He responded by hugging her back. “You can pretend that I’m him.” 1 At that moment, Gwen was taken aback, and her body turned stiff. “Sorry.”
After a while, she let him go and apologized. She turned around and walked toward where Mr. Zink was.
Looking at how disappointed she was, Steven’s happiness from taking down the guards vanished. He closed his eyes and sighed before following after Gwen.
No matter how hard he tried, he was not Luke. He could never make her happy, could he?
Both of them opened the door where Mr. Zink was. The man in question was squatting in the corner, shivering. “What…do you two want?”
He saw how Steven took down the two guards, and instead of being happy in knowing someone was there to rescue him, he was terrified. He did not know why Steven would come to his rescue or what he wanted to do with him. He was afraid to fall into a deeper trap like how he got captured by Tina and Dan, the demonic mother–and–son duo.
“Brettley Morrison asked us to come to save you.”
Steven seemed to expect such a reaction from Mr. Zink. He sighed and grabbed his hand lightly to give him some comfort. “Do you know Senior Howard is dead?”
Mr. Zink cocked up his head and looked at Steven in sheer shock. “He’s… really dead?”
When he last saw Senior Howard yesterday, he looked fine and healthy. Although he was injured by Thomas, it was not fatal and was in no immediate danger. “What do you mean, really dead?”
Gwen sensitively noticed the abnormality with Mr. Zink’s question. “Did you know he was going to die?”
Gwen’s question was too sharp that it startled Mr. Zink After a while, after much staring from Gwen and Steven, he sighed deeply and eventually fessed up. “I… Well, I didn’t really know he was going to die.”
He sighed again. “It’s a long story.” “Then you can tell us on the way.”
Steven looked around and thought it was not safe to stay for too long He only managed to knock out the two guards, and once they woke up, they would surely inform the other guards. By then, there would not be just two guards stopping them. It was hard enough for him to take down those two guards, and he did not know if he could deliver the same result if there were more of them.
“Yes. You can tell us on the road.”
Steven’s words prompted Gwen. She nodded vehemently and helped the weak Mr. Zink up to his feet with Steven’s help. They used the same route they took before and helped Mr. Zink to escape the underground car park The three of them entered the cars, and Steven was the driver. Gwen sat at the back and used the medical box in the car to sanitize Mr. Zink’s wounds. “What causes these?”
When she first saw how bloodied Mr. Zink was in the underground car park, she did not know all this blood came from all these wounds.
“It’s a long story…”
Mr. Zink sighed and said the same thing.
Gwen rolled her eyes. “Why do you keep saying that? Just answer the question. I hate it when people don’t answer the question directly.”
Steven, who was driving, was taken aback to hear Gwen’s comment. ‘She said she hates it when people don’t say what’s on their mind. Then…should I tell her my true feelings?’ “Dan Howard was the one who hurt me and inflicted these injuries on me.”
Since Gwen had expressed her frustration, Mr.Zink sighed and gradually told them what he went through, even answering the question Gwen asked in the underground car park.
“When Senior Howard looked for me yesterday, he was drafting his will, but when I saw his condition yesterday, he wasn’t severely injured to the point he needed to draft his will immediately. I told him the will can wait until he was discharged and felt better; there was no rush. After all…”
Mr. Zink sighed again, “After all, he was not even sixty years old yet. In addition, he didn’t have any terminal illness, and he’s in relatively good shape. Thus, there was no rush to have the will drafted. However, he told me he doesn’t have plenty of time left. He forced me to draft out his will yesterday…”
Gwen furrowed her brow. “So you’re saying…he knew he didn’t have much time left?”
If that was not the case, he should not be in a hurry to make arrangements for his death after suffering a minor injury.
“Yes, I believe so.”
Mr. Zink nodded. “After I finished talking with Senior Howard, Mrs. Howard and Dan stopped me before I could go back to my office to make an official will. They forced me to tell them what Senior Howard told me. In the beginning, I refused to tell them, but…”
He kept quiet for a moment.
“In the end, I told them. At that time, Dan said…he won’t let the old geezer’s dream come true. If the old geezer wanted to be on the way, he was more than happy to help him… After that, Dan even quarreled with Mrs. Howard…”
Steven, who was driving the car, said, “So Senior Howard’s death had nothing much to do with Brettley.”
“You said that, not me,” said Mr. Zink swiftly upon hearing what Steven said. “Mr. Hughes, I never said Senior Howard’s death is related to Mrs. Hughes and Dan!
After that, he looked at Gwen and begged her to agree with him. “Miss, I’m sure you heard what I said. I never said that, right?”
Gwen furrowed her brow and felt bad for how pitiful Mr. Zink looked. As a lawyer, it was his duty to fight for justice, but since he was badly injured , he did not even dare to tell the truth as he was afraid it would cause more trouble.
She sighed and said, “Mr. Zink, you don’t have to be so afraid. Steven… He’s not the same as the others. He won’t betray you, so you don’t have to be afraid that he’d ask you to testify.”
As she was talking, she looked at Steven who was driving. Gwen’s reply shocked Steven because he never thought Gwen would say that to Mr. Zink. For a moment there, he did not know if he was more surprised or thrilled to hear that.
Even though he knew there was a higher chance Gwen said that to give comfort to Mr. Zink, he was happy to personally hear that Gwen was complimenting him, even when it was not purely for him.
Gwen’s voice was gentle and brought comfort and assurance to people. After what she said, Mr. Zink finally let his guard down and started to cry, bringing his hands to cover his face. “T–They beat me for a long time…
“That was not all. Dan even used a dull knife and cut my body with every question he asked. The pain he felt was not the worst part; it was the stress!
“I broke down…so I told him everything Senior Howard told me.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.