The next step was a set order. The men who got out of the car and Ezra seemed to be talking about something, but soon a fistfight broke out. Dane frowned and {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} watched Ezra get beaten badly. Ezra pretended to fall down after being punched and approached their car. After a while, Joshua whispered.
“That’s it.”
A beeping sound was heard. Ezra had attached a tracking device to the car. Joshua nodded, confirming that the coordinates were displayed on his watch, and Dane nodded as well. The men kicked Ezra and spat on him before leaving. They confirmed that the coordinates on their watches were moving in the same direction as the car moving away.
“Cough, cough, cough.”
Dane and Joshua approached Ezra after the car had completely disappeared. Ezra, who had been sitting behind the trunk of the car and coughing repeatedly, looked up at the two men who had come near and asked.
“Okay, okay? Cool.”
Dane nodded without saying anything. Meanwhile, Ezra’s face was a mess, covered in bruises and cuts. Dane, who had been staring blankly at him, opened his mouth.
“You don’t know what those guys’ purpose is, do you?”
As expected, Ezra shook his head.
“I didn’t hear that, I just said to bring Miller.”
There was silence for a moment. Dane and Joshua stood silently in the cold night air.
“Now, go back.”
Dane said quietly. When he patted Joshua, he didn’t look too pleased and took out a few folded bills from his pocket.
“You have a cell phone? Call a cab, we have to track those guys down from now on.”
Ezra hesitated, lowered his head, and took the money.
“......Thank you.”
Leaving him behind as he mumbled, Dane headed to the driver’s seat. Almost at the same time, Joshua tried to open the passenger door.
“Hey......!”
Suddenly, Ezra shouted at them. When the two stopped moving and looked back, Ezra hesitated and opened his mouth.
“......I’m sorry, I think I was a little crazy.”
“You should apologize to Grayson.”
Joshua added a warning to Dane’s cold remark.
“Don’t run away just because you’re scared. If you do, the Millers won’t be able to protect your family.”
“I know.”
Ezra answered listlessly. In fact, he didn’t even seem to have the energy to call a taxi right now, let alone run away.
“If you rescue Grayson, I can apologize.......”
Dane nodded after a moment of silence as the voices faded away. They got into the car and soon set off. Ezra, who was watching the car quickly moving away, belatedly wiped away his tears with his arm. He was left alone in the cold night air and let out a long sigh.
The place the thugs were headed to was the middle of Dolsan, about an hour away by car. They followed the direction the tracking device indicated and intentionally took a long way around to park at the foot of the mountain where houses with their front lights on were crowded together.
“Are you ready?”
When Dane asked, Joshua started climbing first instead of answering. That bastard? Dane let out a short exclamation in shock before quickly following him.
For a while, the two rode up the mountain in silence. Except for Joshua occasionally giving directions, neither of them opened their mouths. Thanks to that, they quickly climbed to a fairly high place.
“Why are you doing this?”
Dane suddenly spoke. When Joshua, who was walking ahead to show the direction, glanced back, Dane continued.
“From your perspective, it doesn’t matter if you don’t rescue him? If you were planning to kidnap Grayson and punish him, why are you acting like this?”
“I’m still thinking about punishing him, but I’m not thinking about killing him.”
Joshua answered in a dry voice.
“Besides, if we go on like this, Chase’s wounds will never heal. That can’t be happening.”
He muttered through his somewhat rough breathing.
“Chase needs to get an apology from Grayson. He needs to be able to swear at him until he feels better. That’s why I have to save him now.”
Joshua stopped walking after saying that. He looked at one place and whispered to Dane, who followed him.
“Over there.”
Dane, who had stopped, stared in the same direction. A fairly large makeshift building and a few men who seemed to be guarding the place were seen loitering around.
The building, which seemed to be hidden in the flat, sunken ground, was not easily noticeable. Few people would climb a rocky mountain like this, and the building’s shabby exterior made it seem like someone had come into the mountains and lived there, making it seem like they were hiding somewhere. If it weren’t for the suspicious men loitering around, Dane and Joshua would have wondered if they had come to the right place.
However, when they saw that the car they had attached the tracker to was parked quietly next to the other cars, they were convinced. Ezra had done it right. Joshua immediately sent the coordinates to the ‘team’. Meanwhile, Dane checked the men guarding the building one by one.
“All right.”
Joshua whispered.
“It would be nice to have a blueprint, but that would be asking too much...... Should we just catch one person and beat them up? After I find out Grayson’s location, I’ll draw attention here, and in the meantime, you go over there......”
“Josh.”
“Huh?”
The moment he turned his head at the quiet voice calling him, Dane hit Joshua hard on the neck. Joshua, who had been off guard, opened his eyes wide in surprise, but soon collapsed helplessly. Dane snickered as he looked down at the unconscious Joshua.
“No way, you. Where are you going with me?”
Dane dragged Joshua and hid him behind a rock, and gave him a warning as he looked down at him.
“If you’ve come this far, you’ve done everything you had to do, so just stay here and don’t risk yourself.”
When he came to his senses, he would definitely be incredibly angry. He might beat Dane up. But that was before. Joshua had his beloved children and his partner. The men in front of him were all armed. What else could they have besides the visible gun? A grenade, or in the worst case, dynamite. Since we don’t know the identity of the authors, we must be extremely cautious. If it’s the religious group that terrorized the extreme alpha, there must be fanatics, and if so, they would be willing to die.
I can’t take you to such a dangerous situation.
Dane tapped Joshua on the shoulder and turned around. Okay, then. He narrowed his eyes as he watched the man who was leaving alone, as if he was going to do something.
Let’s go now.
Knock, knock, knock.
A regular sound of water could be heard from somewhere. There was nothing in the wide space where the smell of blood was vibrating. Except for a man sitting tied to a chair.
“Cough, cough.”
His whole body shook at the sudden cough. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes, only to see a gray wall in his blurry vision. The rough concrete walls were covered with various shabby tools. From shovels to baseball bats and other classic items, to metal pipes and golf clubs, everything was covered in blood. Hmm, Grayson tilted his head to one side, lost in thought.
Is the location tracker broken?
It might have been broken when he was first dragged in, or perhaps during the repeated beatings. Judging from how quiet he’s been, that’s probably the case.
It doesn’t matter... ... .
Grayson clenched and unclenched his fists with a serious expression. His hands were handcuffed and secured behind the chair, but it wasn’t hard to break them. The problem was that he couldn’t control his strength. It was probably the same cause as the machine malfunctioning. The constant, tingling pain in his arm was the same sensation he’d felt a long time ago. It was the feeling of his arm unexpectedly breaking when he’d gone to pick up Joshua because of Chase’s problem. It was probably broken again at that spot.
The requirements for self-defense are met. No, they are more than enough.
But killing people is not allowed.
In this state, it would also be a problem to escape. He probably wouldn’t be able to use ‘appropriate’ force.
‘Crazy... ... .’
He remembered the way Dane had looked at him one day. When Grayson had offered to kill the man who had abused and murdered a child and then set it on fire to hide the fact, Dane had looked at him with a mixture of contempt and disgust. If he were to kill someone while trying to escape from here... ... .
Just imagining it made his skin crawl. How disgusted Dane would be if he found out. He didn’t want to give him another reason to hate him.
