“You don’t need to blame yourself. I don’t appreciate it either.”
Theresa still looked quite cold. She didn’t give Armand a friendly look since they met in the cave.
Pressing his lips, Armand stared at her for a long time. Then he said, “I don’t need you to appreciate
me. I just want to do things I want to do.”
Theresa looked away and quieted down.
Armand also fell into the silence.
There was no light in the cave, but outside the cave, it wasn’t completely dark. When it was dust, the
sun was going down.
Boyce and Matthew couldn’t find them.
“We are in a high mountain and dense forest now. I don’t think we could find them all by ourselves. I
wonder if they have encountered any dangers. There was no response at all after I’ve called for a long
time,” said Boyce worriedly.
It was a high mountain, and he wondered if there were any wild beasts in the forest. If Armand hadn’t
run away too far, he should have heard it when Boyce called him.
However, they completely lost his trace, so they were worried.
Matthew seemed to read Boyce’s mind. He said, “I’ve never heard that there were any wild beasts
here. Call someone over.”
If it went dark, it would be more difficult for them to search.
Boyce and Matthew went out of the forest. When they were in the forest, his cell phone had no signal at
all. He tried to call Armand but couldn’t reach him.
He tried to call Armand twice again after leaving the forest but still failed to connect. Hence, he had to
call someone over the search with them, and hopefully, they could find Armand and Theresa before the
sun completely went down.
Looking at Matthew, he suggested, “Why don’t you go home first? I’ll keep an eye here.”
Matthew checked the time and said, “I’ll wait longer.”
They failed to find Theresa, and now Armand was missing. He wondered what he should tell Dolores
after going home.
Boyce didn’t insist. They found a place to sit, waiting for others to come over.
Since the road up to the mountain was way too tortuous, they arrived a bit later than expected. It took
them an hour to arrive. There were over a dozen, and all of them were tall and strong, wearing
camouflage uniforms. They looked heroic and valiant with all kinds of equipment. Boyce said they
would search people in the forest, so they also prepared headlamps.
Boyce followed them up to the mountain. Right then, it was completely dark. After they went into the
forest, birds, and animals that were perched in the forest at night were disturbed, and there was a
commotion.
The searchers in the camouflage uniforms were divided into six groups, two for each group. The leader
walked with Boyce. While searching, the leader said, “It’s better not to look for people in the evening,
as the vision is way too poor. There should be traps as well. When you mentioned that they were
missing, I guess they might have fallen into traps.”
Boyce brushed the branches in the way, turned back, and looked at the leader. “Are there any traps in
the forest?”
The leader said yes. “People would set up traps in the forest to get some wild animals.”
Boyce frowned and looked down at his feet, afraid that he would step on a steel trap.
The leader said jokingly, “Mr. Shawn, I didn’t expect that you would fear something as well. You’ve
promoted higher and higher, but you’ve become more and more timid.”
Boyce said with a smile, “Only by being careful can I live long. I dare not relax for a moment. The
higher I’ve been promoted to, the greater the responsibility I’ll have.”
“Officer Miller likes you so much. I guess after he’s retired, he would recommend you to his current
position. I heard that he wants you to marry his daughter, right?” the leader asked with a smile.
Boyce’s face turned cold. “Stop the nonsense!”
He truly respected Officer Miller, but he never thought about anything else. He also didn’t want others
to spread such rumors.
He was a man, so he didn’t care much about it, but he couldn’t let the rumors impact Officer Miller’s
daughter.
“Don’t talk such nonsense in the future,” Boyce said solemnly.
The leader noticed his expression. Hurriedly, he said, “I was just bullshitting just now. How could I
repeat it?”
Boyce didn’t respond to him. He looked around and started feeling worried. They had no clue at all until
now, and he wondered if they could find them today.
After another three-hour search, they failed to find anyone. Boyce left the forest first and came to
Matthew, telling him what had happened in the forest.
“It’s quite difficult to search at night. Limited areas could be lit up. Also, we need to be careful to avoid
sliding down the steep slopes. You’d better go home first. I’ll call you if there’s any clue. John has been
taken away. I guess he would be on news tomorrow. Declan Bailey would surely go to you tomorrow.
You’ll need to deal with him. Please leave everything here to me. We can’t stay here together.”
When they called the police, they also informed some media reporters. Their purpose was to make a
fuss about this event. Since such a matter happened in a temple, there must be a big uproar in the
public tomorrow.
If the news attracted a lot of attention, the police must do an investigation and announce the result to
the public. Now Boyce had the right, so he could look into Declan’s information aboveboard.
After finding everything about him, Boyce wanted to see if Declan would still be so arrogant.
Matthew thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. “Be careful.”
Boyce nodded.
Matthew drove back home.
When he arrived at the villa, it was already half-past ten in the evening. Pushing the door open, he saw
Dolores waiting for him at the entrance.
Dolores kept awake, waiting for him. When she saw the flashlight of the car, she walked out. Looking
behind his back, she asked, “Are you alone?”
Matthew walked in and wanted to reach out to hug her. However, thinking that he had been into the
forest earlier and got dirty, so he withdrew his arms. “Let’s go in and talk.”
Dolores looked down in disappointment. She was certain that they failed to save Theresa. Otherwise,
Theresa would be taken here because she didn’t have any place to stay in this city. Now, Matthew
returned home alone without Theresa.
“She managed to escape from Declan Bailey. We’re looking for her now. So far, we haven’t found her
yet. I guess she must be hiding somewhere. As long as she’s not locked up by Declan Bailey, she
wouldn’t be in danger. Don’t worry.” He didn’t tell Dolores the details, afraid that she might be worried.
“For real?”
She turned around and looked at him with an inquiry as if she was trying to confirm if he was lying.
Matthew looked into Dolores’s eyes calmly. He could keep calm in face of such a matter. “Of course.
How can I lie to you o this matter? I came back so late because I was looking for her earlier. Probably
she’s afraid of Declan’s men, she dared not to show up. This means she’s pretty safe now.”
Dolores nodded. However, without seeing Theresa, she still couldn’t feel relaxed.
Grabbing Matthew’s hand, she said, “Theresa was kidnapped by Declan Bailey mostly because of me.
He aimed at me in the very beginning. Probably it was because I had gone to White City, they took
Theresa away.”
She had been thinking about this incident at home all the time. Shortly after those photos were shown
to her, Theresa was kidnapped. Obviously, it was done by the same person.
The person’s target was Dolores at the beginning.
She had dragged Theresa into the mere. If something had happened to her, Dolores would blame
herself and feel quite upset.
Matthew could understand how she was feeling. He couldn’t guarantee anything with her right now. If
he comforted her and gave her some fake promises, and something went wrong, Dolores would feel
difficult to accept it. Hence, he changed the subject. “I haven’t had dinner yet.”
Dolores looked at him. “You haven’t eaten a meal today, have you?”
He hummed.
“I’ll cook something for you then. What do you want to eat?” asked Dolores.
“Noodle soup.” He added, “Noodle soup with stir-fried tomatoes and eggs.”
That was the very first dish that Dolores made for him.
Suddenly, he missed that taste so much.
Dolores cast him a glance and said, “I’ll go cook it for you now.”
He hummed gently.
“Well...”
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