Chapter 103
Before she could finish, the man’s icy voice rang out, raspy from just waking up. “Who were the people cornering you last night? How did you end up crossing a gang of ruthless criminals p>
Relief washed over Sienna, thinking he had regained his strength.
But looking closer, she noticed the feverish haze clouding his eyes. The muscles in his arm were trembling violently.
His grip was nothing more than sheer willpower; he didn’t have the leverage to pull her back up over the ledge.
She glanced back in terror, staring down into the bottomless, shadowy ravine where the wind whipped up with a biting chill.
She shut her eyes tight, her eyelashes fluttering in panic.
“I don’t know them,” Sienna explained frantically. “But their leader told me someone put out a fifty-thousand-dollar bounty on my head. They’re seasoned criminals, about seven or eight of them p>
Jarred furrowed his brow, his eyes swirling with incredulous fury.
Sienna was here on a disaster relief mission. It was her first time in these remote mountains. How could she possibly have attracted a hit squad?
Watching his tense expression, Sienna finally voiced her suspicion. I think Celeste hired them p>
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jarred’s voice darkened with obvious irritation. “Celeste is pure-hearted. How could she possibly know people like that p>
He recalled fighting the men last night. Their attacks were unrefined but lethal—absolute cutthroats.
One of them had even been armed with a gun.
Such a vicious, underworld element was entirely removed from the innocent, untainted image he held of Celeste.
Sienna opened her mouth, but swallowed the words she wanted to say.
She had known he would react exactly like this.
What was Celeste in his eyes?
A woman purer than the driven snow, a sweet girl who wouldn’t hurt a fly, the absolute last person on earth capable of harming anyone.
There was no point in arguing.
He would never believe her anyway.
The dirt at the edge of the cliff crumbled further.
Just as Sienna began to slip, Jarred yanked her back up with brute force.
Sienna stared at the veins bulging on his forehead, pushing down the suffocating ache in her chest as she asked the question that had plagued her all night. “Last night, did you come looking for me specifically p>
Jarred scoffed.
The sound was sharp and contemptuous, mocking her for being so delusional.
“Just a coincidence,” he said, his eyes narrowing slightly as his breathing grew ragged. “I was rescuing stranded villagers nearby and went to check out the noise. I didn’t expect it to be you p>
Sienna lowered her gaze.
She had expected that answer, yet a bitter pang still twisted in her chest.
Of course.
Why would he come searching for her? He had his mission, his rescue targets, and his precious Celeste waiting for him.
What was she to him? Just a colleague temporarily assigned to the same team.
Whatever his intentions had been, it didn’t matter.
If he hadn’t stepped in last night, she would have fallen into the hands of those killers.
She would remember this debt.
While she was lost in thought, the soil beneath her shifted again.
This time, it gave way even more violently.
Sienna plummeted into free fall, her weight dragging Jarred half an inch closer to the edge.
In a split-second reaction, Jarred braced his leg against a massive tree trunk, barely stabilizing them both.
Sienna’s heart hammered in terror. Only one thought screamed in her mind—she couldn’t die.
Owen’s surgery had just been a success. He still needed to recover, go to school, and grow up into a man.
And the people who had wronged her—why should she die such a miserable death while they got to live completely consequence-free?
She refused to accept it. She absolutely could not die.
Always proud and fiercely independent, for the first time she abandoned her tough exterior and clung desperately to Jarred’s arm.
“Jarred, save me,” she begged, her voice carrying a pathetic desperation she had never heard from herself before. “I don’t want to die. Please… you have to take me back p>