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Or perhaps the mastermind who sent them never intended for them to make it back alive.
After dealing with the two nuisances, Ashton drove on to meet up with Connor and the others.
After learning the news yesterday, Connor flew overnight to Qathana, along with Brandon and Jan.
As their car pulled up safely, several people gathered around.
“Mr. Wade,”
“Briar.”
lan asked with concern, “Did you run into any trouble on the way here?”
“We did,” Briar replied. “We gave them two small gourds.”
Furious, lan rolled up his sleeves. “The nerve of them! They actually dared to ambush us!”
“Calm down. We already blew them to pieces,” Briar said while patting Ian’s tense arm, but Ashton grabbed her hand.
Ashton said with a smile, “Babe, men and women shouldn’t be so familiar. Besides, you’re a married woman now.”
Briar was speechless.
Ashton was not concerned about the social norms between men and women; his real point was clearly in the
last sentence.
He said it deliberately to get Ian’s and the others‘ attention.
Sure enough, Ian heard him and asked curiously, “Ashton, what’s going on? You two…”
Ashton took Briar’s hand, their fingers intertwining tightly. Then, he held them up for everyone to see. “We got our marriage license. We are a legally married couple. From today on, Briar is officially my wife.”
The others were stunned.
After their shock, the three of them asked in unison, “When did you guys get your marriage license?”
Their exaggerated and shocked reactions greatly delighted Ashton. “Just an hour ago, on our way here, we passed by Nittel Cathedral and got our marriage license.”
Jan was so stunned by Ashton’s incredible move that he stammered, “Ashton… you… you guys can just get a marriage license on the way?”
He glanced at Briar and saw the same “Oh, this is perfectly normal” expression on her face. He was dumbfounded,
12:58 Sat, Sep 20
Chapter 254
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As expected, birds of a feather flock together. Ashton never played by the rules, and Briar, a master in her own right, was no different.
Brandon and Connor reacted quickly, bowing immediately. “Mrs. Wade!”
Briar waved a hand, telling them there was no need for such formalities.
Both parties had successfully rendezvoused. The next step was to catch their target.
According to intelligence gathered by Connor, Ben was hiding in a place called Miluoze, an area surrounded by mountains with treacherous terrain.
If they had not used a military–grade system, they might never have found a trace of him.
Brandon and Connor led their men in a frontal assault from the main entrance of the winding mountain road, while Ashton, Briar, and Ian flanked from the rear to prevent Ben from making a desperate escape.
Briar’s team was responsible for intercepting any private planes in the air.
Briar was itching for action, her excitement palpable. Now that her cover as a mercenary instructor was exposed, there was no need to hide her skills from Ashton. It was time to show him what she could do.
Ian sat in the back seat, listening to Briar reveal that Ashton and his men had leaked her instructor alias. He was speechless, both annoyed and amused.
“If I had known Ashton would be so accepting of Briar’s alias, I wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble coming back to Dasmieca,” Ian muttered.
God knew how much effort he had put into separating his identity from Briar’s just to return home and reunite with his sister.
Briar glanced at the frustrated Ian. “Did you really think your little tricks after coming back actually fooled Ashton?”
Ian asked blankly, “Huh? He knew? Isn’t Shoneport supposed to be off–limits to all underworld forces? If he knew, how could someone with my background get off the plane safely with Ashton’s people around?”
Briar just smiled and said nothing.
Ashton was still driving. He replied without looking up, “Your information was indeed well hidden, but not impossible to find.”
“Then… why didn’t your men ‘take me out?” lan asked curiously.
Ashton said simply, “Briar said you were friends.”
Initially, they noticed Briar and Ellen were close. They discovered lan’s existence while investigating Ellen.
However, seeing how well Briar took care of Ellen, and since Ashton was pursuing her at the time, he certainly couldn’t do anything to upset her at such a critical moment.
12:58 Sat, Sep 20
Chapter 254
Ian was mortified. “So, in your eyes, I’m just a harmless nobody?”
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“More or less.” Ashton finally glanced at the dejected lan in the rearview mirror. “Someone like you isn’t worth my effort to guard against.”
“That’s true. For a powerhouse like you to feel threatened, it would have to be someone like Kameron or Louie.”
Briar tossed a chocolate to Ian. “Come on, don’t be upset. Think about it, Ashton even hired you to be my bodyguard. Getting paid so much for doing nothing, aren’t you happy?”
“Happy? Of course, I’m happy!” Ian immediately cheered up. Fifteen million a year for such a cushy job- where else could he find such a sweet deal!
‘Only Ashton is rich and dumb… uh, I mean rich and generous, rich and generous!‘ he thought.
“If you take the money, you do the job right. Whether we can catch Ben later is up to you.” Ashton was amused. His affection for Briar extended to those around her, so he was especially lenient with them.
Even after learning that Ian was also from the DDC Vanguard Mercenary Special Operations Base, he never considered doing anything to him.
Otherwise, given the relationship between the 121 Overseas Mercenary Organization and DDC Vanguard, he would never have let him stay by Connor’s side.
Ian thumped his chest. “Ashton, just you watch. If Ben tries to escape down this back mountain road, I’ll capture him alive. There’s no way I’m letting him get away.”
Briar had been obsessively searching for Ben. Even without Ashton’s orders, Ian knew he could not let him
escape.
After all the trouble of finding Ben’s hiding spot today, with so many people here to catch him, letting him escape would be a disgrace not just to Ian, but to the entire DDC Vanguard Mercenary Special Operations
Base.
Ashton wouldn’t even need to get involved; Kameron would personally beat him to a pulp.
‘Huh?! Wait a minute. If Ben was hiding in the mountains of Miluoze, why didn’t Kameron and Louie come after him?’ Ian thought.
“Briar, Kameron and Louie didn’t come?” lan asked Briar.
Briar stared straight ahead, a flicker of guilt in her eyes. “Huh? Oh! They got the news, but they’re too far away to make it in time.”
Jan didn’t suspect a thing. “Oh, that makes sense. I knew they must have heard that Ben was hiding here.”
Briar shot a glare at Ashton, whose lips were twitching into a smirk, warning him not to expose her lie in front
of lan.
