Chapter 1833 Trust Me
Freja wanted to shoot Nathaniel another time, but the bullets from the helicopter were already peppering their car. Having no other recourse, they could only scramble into the car and take off like a bat out of hell.
As soon as they had left, the helicopter stopped spraying bullets and slowly hovered over me.
Subsequently, the helicopter door opened, and a ladder was thrown out. Several men in military fatigues swiftly climbed down and surrounded me in a tight circle. One of the men with heavy camouflage face paint stepped forward and untied the ropes binding me.
The moment I glimpsed his eyes, I recognized him as Ashton.
Stark distress and anguish surged within me at once, and my nose stung. The dam broke, and tears streamed down my face. In a voice that was only audible to us both, I poured out my grief to him. “Rose is gone. Ashton, they mistook her for me and killed her. She died because of me. How am I going to face Nick?”
As Ashton calmly unknotted the rope on me, his massive and warm hands covered mine. His gaze was firm and resolute. “Stay strong, Letty. Hang in there for a while longer. We’ll avenge her. Trust me. Trust your man, okay? I beg you.”
I really wanted to hug him and cry my heart out, then be selfish for once and have him bring me to a place where there’s no pain or sorrow, hiding there cowardly.
Nonetheless, I knew that it wasn’t practical. The dead can no longer come back to life, so the living has to live vicariously for their sake. Only when we’ve personally put an end to the source of evil will they have peace in the afterlife.
Holding back my tears, I gritted out a single word from between clenched teeth—”Okay.”
Ashton cast me a forbearing look before he stepped back and slipped into the ranks of the military personnel, keeping his head lowered.
After the military personnel communicated among themselves and ascertained that it was safe, Benson, who had been taking the lead at the front, walked in and inquired after me. “Are you okay, Ms. Stovall?”
I lifted my hands and wiped my tears, forcing a smile onto my face. “I’m fine, thanks to all of you.”
“Well, it’s thanks to…” Benson trailed off mid-utterance and glanced in Ashton’s direction before he immediately changed his tune, declaring, “It’s thanks to Lady Luck smiling on you, Ms. Stovall. We didn’t do much. However, I hope you don’t mind playing along when I speak to Nathaniel later.”
I nodded without a single word of protest. They then helped me up and led me over to Nathaniel to check on him.
When we reached him, the soldier keeping guard over him was treating the gunshot wound on his leg.
Benson proceeded to explain in an exceedingly official tone, “Freja Schmidt heads the top drug trafficking ring in the country, and we have been keeping a close eye on her for a very long time, but we couldn’t arrest her due to lack of evidence. I’m sorry for dragging the two of you into this mess. Are you okay, sir?”
His tone was sincere, and it really seemed as though he had no idea about Nathaniel’s identity.
That wasn’t surprising since Nathaniel had been hiding his tracks very well. Almost no one knew that the man who was feared abroad was living freely within the country.
Gritting his teeth, Nathaniel shook his head slowly. “I’m fine.”
“I’m glad to hear that. We’ll arrange for two people to keep both of you safe, so you don’t have to worry that she’ll come back for revenge,” Benson added.
In response, Nathaniel rejected him outright. “No, that’s fine. I like having my freedom and loathe someone following me around. I’ll look for bodyguards myself.”
If someone like him were to get involved with the police, it would be no different from being monitored at all times. As such, he naturally didn’t want that.
Benson was merely offering out of courtesy in the first place, so he didn’t insist. “All right, then. I’ll send you both to the hospital.”
After that, no one said anything more.
As I sat in the helicopter, I didn’t dare look in Ashton’s direction at all, afraid that Nathaniel would suspect something.
Even so, I felt ever so secure, knowing that he was right there with me.
The shot to Nathaniel’s leg was just a flesh wound, but he still got treated in the hospital for half a month.
During that period, the man in the suit who had been following him around kept guard over me. Even when I went to bed, someone kept watch outside the bedroom.
Almost every night, I saw Rose and that little boy dying as soon as I closed my eyes. It pushed me to the brink of insanity.
