Hearing that, Ashton immediately sobered up, and his expression turned serious. “Check next door and see if Briar is home,” he said. His instincts told him this matter definitely had something to do with Briar.
Brandon was stunned for a moment before he asked, “Mr. Wade, do you think Miss Jennings is involved?”
‘No way, right? Miss Jennings had come over tonight to put Mr. Wade to sleep. It would take at least an hour to drive from Moonspring Estate to where the incident happened.
‘But wait a minute–if she was riding a motorcycle, and it was 3:30 a.m. with barely any traffic, it would be possible if she was skilled enough. And Miss Jennings… is Speed Queen Breel‘ he thought.
now,” he said.
Brandon turned around and dashed out. “Mr. Wade, I’ll check righ
Ashton was already heading to the closet to get dressed. Actually, whether Brandon checked or not, he already knew the answer.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, Brandon returned with his face pale with shock. “Mr. Wade, you’re right. Miss Jennings isn’t home. I checked her basement lab, and the motorcycle that was parked in the garage was gone too,” he said.
Ashton said while heading out, “Let’s go. We’ll deal with it when we find the person.”
‘As for who to look for? It’s of course Briar, who snuck out in the middle of the night! Brandon thought to himself.
Brandon couldn’t tell if Ashton was angry or amused at this point. Not many people could pull one over on Ashton like this. He didn’t even dare imagine what Ashton would do to Briar when they found her.
‘He can’t possibly resort to domestic violence, can he?‘ Brandon thought.
After starting the engine, Brandon kept sneaking glances at Ashton’s expression while driving. After a long silence, he finally spoke up, choosing his words carefully. “Uh, Mr. Wade, domestic violence… is shameful.”
“Do I seem like the type who’d lay a hand on my wife?” Ashton asked, and Brandon didn’t say anything, but his silence said it all.
Ashton let out a laugh of exasperation and said, “Relax, I don’t lay a hand on my wife.”
‘With how delicate Briar is, no matter how angry I get, no way I’d ever lay a hand on her,‘ Ashton thought to himself.
Brandon finally cracked a smile and said, “Yeah, yeah, hitting your wife is definitely wrong. By the way, Mr. Wade, where should we start looking for her?”
Three cars tailed them closely, each packed with people Brandon had mobilized at the last minute, even though he had already told Xavion to retrieve all the traffic camera footage.
However, Shoneport was so huge, and tracking someone down here was no easy feat. ‘Furthermore, if Miss Jennings dared to sneak out behind Ashton, she definitely had a backup plan,‘ Brandon thought.
Sure enough, just as Brandon and the others expected, Xavion couldn’t spot Briar anywhere on the camera. The only footage was of her leaving Moonspring Estate. After that, it was like she had vanished into thin air.
After hearing Xavion’s update, Ashton’s frown furrowed further. He was silent for a moment, then finally instructed Brandon, “Head to West Street Dock.”
Brandon’s hands trembled on the steering wheel. “West Street Dock? Mr. Wade, seriously? If Miss Jennings dragged someone there, wouldn’t the people at the base pin her down?”
West Street Dock was a trading port established after Ashton took over the Wade family’s business empire. It was also the base of a stationed military unit in Shoneport. Therefore, for any ordinary person, getting through that place was mission impossible.
“Reece hasn’t called me yet. If Briar really brought someone there, it means she hasn’t been discovered yet.” Ashton was already dialing Reece’s number
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as he said this.
Reece picked up very quickly at the other end. His slightly hoarse voice laced with the sound of heavy breathing as he asked, “Ashton, what’s up?”
The moment Ashton heard him, he knew what Reece was doing on the other end. He paused before asking, “Reece… did anyone from the base look for you?”
Picking up on the seriousness in Ashton’s tone, Reece muttered under his breath, “Babe, can you go downstairs and grab my cigarettes?” Then he spoke on the phone, “Ashton, did something happen at the base?”
Reece knew how tight security was at the base. He couldn’t imagine anyone slipping past the defenses, but the fact that Ashton was asking made his expression turn cold.
Ashton sighed and said, “Briar’s taken Emily and Sawyer away. I suspect she made it through the base, and I’m heading there now. Reese, let the guys at the base know–if they spot anyone nearby, tell them not to act rashly.”
“Holy shit!” Reece blurted out, totally stunned by Ashton’s words. “Are you serious? Is Briar that tough?”
Ashton smiled bitterly and said, “I let my guard down. She’d been so well–behaved lately that I stopped keeping an eye on her. And now, to make things worse, her friend, lan, is missing too.”
That was what Ashton worried the most. No matter how capable Briar was, she was still just a girl who hadn’t seen real danger.
But lan was different. This guy didn’t care about his own life back on the border. Now that the two had disappeared together, Ashton was seriously worried lan might drag Briar into some real trouble.
Just Briar sneaking out in the middle of the night was enough to give him a headache. But if lan, who used to be a mercenary, was on it too, then even slipping past the military base wouldn’t be out of the question.
“Alright, I’ll give the guys at the base a heads–up right now,” Reece replied, fully aware of the seriousness of the matter. He hung up, started putting on his clothes, and began calling his buddies at the base.
“Briar, this is thrilling! Fucking thrilling!” lan, eyes blazing with excitement, had just successfully made it through the base, followed closely behind Briar, who was also carrying someone on her back without the slightest drop in speed.
Briar said helplessly, “Quick, we only have five seconds to escape from the surveillance here!”
Time was tight. She had only managed to delay the base’s surveillance for five seconds. If they didn’t make it through the defenses within that window, their bodies would likely be riddled with bullets from machine guns.
lan snickered. “Five seconds? That’s more than enough. Instructor, how about a race to see who hits the dock first?”
Briar tightened her grip on Emily, who hung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and said, “Alright. Let’s race. Five, four, three, two, one–go!”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the outer perimeter surveillance of the base silently froze. Then, two figures shot out like afterimages, dashing forward at lightning speed.
In just four and a half seconds, they both safely reached the blind spot at the opposite dock, right under the nose of the security system.
Dropping the unconscious Sawyer onto the ground, lan asked, “Briar, what do you think Ashton’s people will do when they discover we’ve kidnapped both Emily and Sawyer? Will Ashton get mad?”
Briar rolled her eyes at him and said, “What do you think?”
She had only planned to kidnap Sawyer, but lan had been too fast and knocked Emily out as well. Briar had no choice but to take her along.
Ashton probably wouldn’t notice Sawyer was missing right away, but Emily was the Wade family member. Even if Ashton didn’t pay much attention to
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her, Emily had a few loyal bodyguards. The moment they realized she was missing, they would definitely report it to Ashton
lan put on an innocent look and said, “Hey, I just couldn’t stand seeing that woman scheming against you behind your back.”
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It was just a coincidence. When lan found Sawyer, he happened to catch Emily sneaking over in the middle of the night to meet up with him. lan even overheard the two whispering about how to mess with Briar.
‘How do I put up with this?‘ lan thought. So he just knocked Emily out, too.
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