Chapter 7
Natalie felt a shadow descend upon her. Retracting her gaze from Myla, she looked up to find Jonas’s sharply defined face looming above her
This time, Natalie didn’t cower a
cower as she had earlier. Instead, the forced a stiff, polite s
polite smile, tugging the corners of her lips upward in a careful curve.
After all, she still needed him to take her somewhere safe. If playing nice could smooth things over, she was more than willing to try.
Jonas’s brow arched slightly, his expression unreadable. Tve got a splitting headache because of her damned eyes, and now she’s smiling?”
He had always been contrary to a fault. A moment ago, her shrinking away from him, mistaking him for some brute, had rubbed him the wrong way But now, her lack of fear was just as irksome..
at odds with the
Without warning, his calloused fingers gripped her soft cheek and gave it a playful tug, the roughness of his touch at grin spreading across his face.
tome dripping with sarcasm
unruly
His demeanor screamed reckless defiance. “Yeah, I really can’t stand the smell of blood” he said,
“Can’t stand it Really? Natalie thought uneasily, her nerves fraying as she caught a flicker of something unsettling–almost gleeful–in his gare. “L she stammered, her voice faltering.
“Shh” Jonas silenced her with a finger pressed gently against her lips, his touch firm yet oddly intimate. With his other hand, he pulled the car door open, unbuckling her seatbelt in one fluid motion.
Before she could fully process what was happening, his strong arm was around her waist, lifting her out of the car with unsettling ease. She barely had time to gasp before something rough snaked around her wrists–a rope, coarse and unyielding, binding her hands nightly together
The fear of the unknown had her trembling uncontrollably. It wasn’t until she noticed him lying the other end of the rope to the car’s handle that panic began to bloom in her chest
Natalie tilted her head upward, her wide eyes meeting his as she searched for some explanation, her confusion evident.
Jonus lowered his gaze to meet hers, his striking blue eyes catching the golden hues of the setting sun, giving them a fleeting warmth that was almost deceptive,
With an air of infuriating calm, he reached out and lightly patted her head, as though she were a child who’d just done something praiseworthy.
Bending slightly, he leaned in close, his deep voice dropping to a velvety murmur, every syllable laced with a lazy, disarming charm. “So, do me a favor, will you! Run a couple of laps. Air it out a bit?”
The scene was almost picturesque–the warm light of dusk softening the sharp lines of his face, his tone so absurdly tender that it momentarily dulled the horror of his words. For a heartbeat, Natalie was too stunned to react
It wasn’t until Jonas climbed into the back seat of the car, reached out to pull the door shut, that the weight of his command hit her like a freight train, making her realize he wasn’t joking.
Her body moved on instinct. She lunged forward, her stomach slamming painfully into the edge of the seat as she scrambled to stop him. She ignored the sharp sting in her ribs. focusing instead on grabbing hold of his arm with her bound hands,
Her slender fingers, soft and delicate, turned pale as she clung to him with every ounce of strength she could muster. The pressure made her fingertips flush a faint pink, leaving shallow indentations against the hard muscles of his arm.
Jonas held a cigarette between his teeth, exhaling lazily as if entirely unbothered by Natalie’s feeble grip
Truth be told, he could’ve shaken her off with just a flick of his arm, but instead, he chose to toy with her, using his free hand to pry her fingers off like someone indulging a curious kitten
Natalie’s wide eyes clung to him, her long, curled lashes trembling with unease. Her soft checks, still faintly marked from where his fingers had pressed earlier, flushed a delicate pink.
Every time he loosened her hold, she would lunge back, clutching his arm again with a pitiful determination, as though letting go would spell her demise. The desperation in her made her all the more tempting to forment.
Her fingers, already sore and reddened from exertion, began to lose their grip. Panicking. Natalie finally broke down, her voice trembling with a pleading note. “Sorry I was wrong?”
The wavering cry
her tone tugged at the air, fragile and full of regret. But not a single trace of pity flickered across Jonas’s face. If anything, his smule grew wider, more devilishly handsome.
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Chapter 7
He tilted his head slightly, mocking her with feigned curiosity, “Oh? And what exactly were you wrong about?”
Desperation clawed at her chest, Wrong About what? How am I supposed to know what I did wrong? I made sure to clean every trace of blood. stayed as silent as a ghost curled up in the back seat.
What on earth did I do to provoke him like this? Is it because I thought he might be a decent human being! Or because I smiled at him” If that’s the case… then he’s a complete psychopath
“Can’t figure it out? Maybe running a few laps will jog your memory” With that, he nudged the driver’s seat with the toe of his boot, signaling Myla
to start the car
He kept his instructions vague on purpose. Watching Natalie flounder in confusion and panic was part of his game–a calculated ploy to rattle her. to see if fear would loosen her tongue and reveal something useful
After all, this mission was critical. It involved delicate cooperation between two nations, leaving no room for error.
Myla, sitting in the driver’s seat, lifted a hand to brush her forehead, her thoughts betraying her calm exterior. wonder Jonas is single. No woman would want a husband who treats a delicate beauty like this so cruelly.
With tactics this brutal, it’s no
“If she actually ran two laps, she’d probably collapse into pieces. What’s the point of interrogation if she’s not even in one piece?
But she knew better than to undermine her boss in front of others. Instead, she glanced at Natalie and offered a small, measured consolation. “Don’t worry. We don’t kill civilians, nor do we torture spies to death. We are still in friendly cooperation with Mastrary”
In Nocriador, they had the authority to enforce the law, which was why they had executed the two criminals listed on the red notice without hesitation
But Myla thought there was no point in telling Natalie that. After all, they still didn’t know where Natale’s loyalties lay. If she’d been sent to sabotage their cover mission, revealing too much could backfire disastrously.
To diffuse the tension, Myla quickly tossed Jonas an out. “Boss, the rendezvous time is almost up”
Her message was clear. She wanted him to stop playing around before this got out of hand.
Ugh. It’s exhausting bring the emotionally competent one in this group, Myla thought with a sigh: “Without me, this team would fall apart faster than a cheap chair‘
Jonas’s eyes flicked toward Myla, his gaze sharp and cold, clearly displeased with her interference. “Feeling sorry for her, are you? Why don’t you run a few laps in her place!”
Myla froze, her lips pressing into a thin line. And this is why you’ve been single your entire life, Jonas. Completely deserved.
Satisfied with her silence, Jonas turned his attention back to Natalie, his expression hardening as he noted her bowed head and rigid posture. “Speak” be ordered curtly.
Natalie’s mind spun in circles, fixating on the earlier assurance that they wouldn’t kill civilians or torture spies to death.
The realization hit her like a tidal wave–she wasn’t going to die from torture here, at least not yet. The taut string of fear holding her together snapped all at once.
Still, she remained polite, her voice small and tentative. I’m sorry…”
The words were barely nut when she raised her head and her tears spilled over, glistening droplets cascading down her smooth cheeks. They shimmered like pearls, falling onto the dark leather seat beneath her and scattering into tiny, glistening splashes
Jonas rolled the cigarette between his teeth, shifting it to one corner of his mouth as he squinted at her. Crying? Seriously! I didn’t do anything to
her
What does she think running a couple of laps will kill her? Is this some kind of act Though, I admit, she looks pretty when she cries!
A low, mocking chuckle escaped him as he asked, “What’s there to cry about?”
Natalie hadn’t wanted to cry She’d fought against it with everything she had. But the sheer relief of surviving, the realization that her life wasn’t immediately at stake, was too mach for her frayed nerves. Her defenses crumbled completely, and no amount of willpower could stop the flood.
“Scared of me?” Jonas asked, his voice laced with dark amusement.
Though Natalie’s emotions were in shambles, a thin thread of reason still anchored her.
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Hearing Jonas’s neutral, almost unreadable voice, she forced herself to think. She knew one thing for sure–Jonas might not torture her or kill her outright, but his unpredictable moods could still spell trouble. Angering him might mean a slap or worse. And she hated pain
“No, it’s not that. I just… I remembered Yesterday, around this time…” Natalie began, her voice trembling her words barely coherent as fresh tears welled in her e eyes.
She sniffled and tried again, though her voice quivered like a leaf in the wind. “I was… I was at home with my dad. We’d just decided… we were going to Glacier Peak to watch the sunset.”
She’d intended to throw out some random excuse to appease him, but the words felt too real. As they escaped her lips, the weight of it all crashed down, shattering her fragile control.
Not even twenty–four hours had passed, yet her life had been upended so completely it felt like a cruel dream
ing had unraveled at
From the moment she’d been jolted awake by the news of her father’s car accident in the middle of the night, everything breakneck speed
She’d been whisked away by her grandfather’s men, shoved onto a private jet. Aside from the sight of that cold, black coffin, she hadn’t even seen her father’s body.
And because she hadn’t, a tiny sliver of hope clung stubbornly in her chest together with overwhelming sadness and fear, whispering bes she wanted desperately to believe. ‘It’s not real. Dad’s not gone. This is all fake news, some nightmare I’ll wake up from”
She’d told herself that as soon as she reached Nocriador, as soon as she stepped into her grandfather’s house, her father would appear. He’d laugh, shake his head, and call this all an elaborate prank.
But the kidnappers‘ words, that cruel confirmation that her father had been murdered, kept echoing in her mind. Over and over, their callousnes chipped away at her fragile denial until there was nothing left
She finally realized that her father was gone. Forever. He’d never he there in take her to Glacier Peak or anywhere else ever again.
And now, the only thread connecting her to safety was this unpredictable, cold–eyed man. She wasn’t even sure if he’d see her safely to her grandfather’s house, let alone in one piece.
- ng. Tears spille
The weight of it crushed her, and Natalie crumbled beneath it. A fresh wave of grief hit her, fierce and unrelenting. like an unbroken string of pearls, each drop carving a trail of heartbreak on her delicate face.
spilled down her cheeks
Her slim shoulders began to quake, her frailty laid bare as though she might collapse into herself at any moment. She looked like a brittle, dying flower battered by a storm.
Jonas had never seen a woman cry like this before. In fact, no woman had ever dared cry in from of him.
He figured he should feel annoyed. Yet, as Natalie’s tears spilled like tiny crystal beads, her quiet sniffles barely audible, there was something disarmingly delicate about the way she sobbed.
She cried so vulnerably, so unassumingly, that even Jonas, whose conscience had long since been scorched away, found himself wondering if he’d
gun to far.
He wondered, But.. I didn’t even torture her. What’s her deal?”
Her tear–streaked face didn’t match the fierce, defiant glare from his memory. Now, with her wide eyes reddened, she seemed like an abandoned puppy, looking both vulnerable and lost.
“Damn it, he thought. If I scare this liule spy half to death and she loses her mind, where am I supposed to dig for answers!
With a sigh, Jonas leaned back, summoning a patience he didn’t even know he had. “Listen,” he said, his tone softening ever so slightly, “Be a go
good girl. Tell me what you know, and in a few days, you’ll be climbing that mountain with your dad.”
The words had barely left his mouth when Natalie crumpled even further, like a wilting rose deprived of sunlight. Her soft sobs turned into heart- wrenching cries.
Jonas’s patience—what late of it existed–evaporated in an instant. ‘Is the seriously pushing her luck with me right now?
Then her voice came, trembling, weak, barely more than a whisper. “My dad… My dad passed away yesterday. I don’t have a dad anymore…..
Jonas blinked. Huh? If she’s lying she’s damn convincing. But if she isn’t. Well, poor girl.
Sull, in a war–torn country like this, death wasn’t exactly a novelty. Lives were cheap, fleeting
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Jonas didn’t even care much for his own, let alone anyone else’s. As for family, he’d long since given up on the concept. When all his relatives want him dead, it’d be natural for him to stop expecting tearful goodbyes.
Her grief was incomprehensible to him. He couldn’t wrap his head around how someone could cry over something like this.
With a shake of his head, Jonas decided this wasn’t worth overthinking. “That’s not a big deal,” he said flatly. “Dig up your father, carry him to that mountain, and you can watch as many damn sunrises as you want.”
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