Chapter 449
Chapter 449:
The moment the car doors closed, the crowd hit them from every side at once — hundreds of people swarming the vehicle, pressing against the glass, cutting off every exit.
Davin and Vinson took in the wall of angry faces and their expressions hardened.
“Ms. Green, seatbelt — now. We’re going through,” Vinson said.
Kristine looked at the crowd and felt a complicated weight settle in her chest. These people didn’t know the truth. They had been manipulated, used as instruments by whoever was pulling the strings. They were also adults who had chosen to be here.
She closed her eyes. “I’m ready p>
The car lurched forward. The sound that followed — voices, bodies, the sickening give of the crowd — made her press her eyes shut tighter. She kept them closed until she felt daylight and the noise receded.
𝗧𝘩𝗼𝘂ѕ𝘢𝗻𝗱𝗌 of 𝗿𝖾𝖺𝘥еr𝘀 𝗼ո
When she finally looked back through the rear window, the parking lot was scattered with people on the pavement, clutching injuries, some still trying to run after the car and falling behind fast.
“How did they know exactly where our vehicle was?” Vinson said aloud, more to himself than anyone.
The question hung in the air for exactly one second before a sharp metallic impact struck the front of the car.
Everyone went rigid.
Another impact. Then another, in rapid, relentless succession.
It took only a moment to understand: someone was shooting at them.
Vinson pulled a pistol from the center console, rolled his window down, and returned fire at the source. There was no trace left of his usual gentleness — his face was cold and absolutely focused. The incoming fire stopped briefly.
Then dozens of shots came in at once, hammering the car like heavy rain on sheet metal.
The vehicle had been built to handle exactly this. The reinforced panels held — the bullets left marks on the exterior but penetrated nothing. No one inside was in danger of being hit. That did nothing, however, to reduce the relentless, percussive assault on everyone’s nerves.
“Twelve vehicles behind us,” Vinson said, reloading without looking down. “We need to break free p>
“Working on it,” Davin said from the driver’s seat, his voice completely even, his eyes on the road ahead.
Vinson glanced back at Kristine.
She was quiet. Pale, but controlled — not panicking, not demanding explanations. Just present, steady, holding herself together in the middle of something that would have broken many people entirely.
He exhaled slowly. He was glad.
“Ms. Green,” he said, “I need you to keep trying Mr. Edwards p>
“I’m on it,” she said.
She pulled out her phone and dialed.
The line rang. And rang.
She waited, and felt something cold and shapeless beginning to build in her chest.
The day had accumulated too many suspicious coincidences for any of them to be accidental.
First, the security footage from the cultural exchange event had been leaked to the public. Then someone had leaked her hotel address. And now Asher had gone completely silent — unreachable, as though he had simply vanished.
Kristine was too frightened to follow that thought to its logical end.
She gripped her phone until her knuckles went pale.