Chapter 233: Attacked unexpectedly

Twenty minutes later, as Mia sat in the backseat of the sleek Aston Martin, she gazed out at the night view of the city as the car moved through the streets of Mirage Mesa. Her window was down, and the cool breeze and the beautiful shimmering nightlife of the city made her feel like sleeping. The lights of the city shimmered like a thousand stars, and as she watched, she subconsciously stroke her large belly with a smile on her face. She knew Neil would be mad that she had gone against his words and come to meet him, but she needed this night drive to clear her mind of many thoughts that had been bothering her.

Besides, whenever he said he’d be back late, he always ended up returning at dawn when she would be fast asleep. If she were certain that he’d eat something while working, she wouldn’t have insisted on bringing him his dinner. However, her husband had a habit of neglecting his mealtimes for work or anything else. She ought to negotiate with him that if he wanted her to stop worrying and going against his words, he should start paying more attention to his eating habits. Sometimes she wondered how he could still have such a fit body when he didn’t eat properly.

Turning back to the windshield, Mia caught sight of Zephyr’s cold hazel eyes in the rearview mirror. She’d seen how loyal the man was to her husband, and out of curiosity, she called his name.

"Zephyr."

He hummed in response, his eyes never leaving the road.

"How did you come to know Neil?" Mia asked.

Zephyr fell silent, his eyes slightly softening in the mirror. Just when Mia thought he wouldn’t reply, he spoke curtly, "In the military."

He focused back on his driving, clearly unwilling to elaborate. Although Mia wasn’t satisfied with his brief answer, she pursed her lips and decided not to ask him any more questions, recognizing that he was the kind to avoid conversations. She couldn’t help but think that a man with his face and aura should be swarmed by women, but any woman who valued her life would know to stay away from him. He was—

Mia’s thoughts were abruptly cut short when the car screeched to a stop, the tires making a loud, ear-piercing sound. She heard Zephyr curse under his breath as he reached for something in the front compartment. Just as she was about to ask him what was happening, she noticed him pull out a gun. Her breath caught in her lungs as she saw through the window that they were surrounded by four black cars with bulky men exiting, all armed.

"Stay in the car and do not come out, no matter what, ma’am." Zephyr instructed, his tone colder than usual.

Before Mia could question him, he stepped out of the car and locked her inside. She watched in horror as a fight and shooting broke out. Slamming her palm over her mouth, she was forced to watch Zephyr fight with the strange men who seemed to want to reach her car. When they began to gang up on him and hit him from every angle, Mia tried to open the door but it had been locked. With shaky fingers, she reached into her purse for her phone, intending to call Neil, but she heard a loud bang and saw Zephyr fall to his knees.

He was shot!!

Mia felt her heart drop to her stomach. Despite being shot, Zephyr continued fighting to keep the men away from the car until someone whacked him on the head with a gun, then began to drag his unconscious body into one of their cars.

Oh no, Zephyr...!

Mia quickly retrieved her phone to call Neil, but the phone slipped out of her grip because of her shaky fingers. She cried out in frustration as bending in her condition was a challenge, but she willed herself to stop shaking and do something as she knew the men would be coming for her next. Her body was trembling to the extent that a panicked scream escaped her lips when she saw one of the men reached out to open the car door.

When he flung the door opened and reached out to pull her out, she used her purse to hit his hands, "Let go off me!" And then tried to run out through the other door, but another man had already opened the door before her, and before she knew it, something was pressed against her nose. Her limbs weakened instantly. Before she slipped into unconsciousness, she heard one of the men say, "Tell boss we’ve got her."

The darkness closed in around her, leaving only fear and uncertainty in its wake.

****

Neil knew how much effort Mia had put into cooking for him and how much he loved her cooking. Determined to show his appreciation, he made sure to leave his office by 11 PM instead of staying until dawn as he usually did. On his way home, he stopped at a chocolate and cookies shop, just like he had promised Mia, and bought several dozens of her favorite chocolates.

As he was placing the chocolate packages inside his car, a sudden surge of unease knotted his heart and twisted his stomach. He paused, pressing his hand to his chest, feeling his heartbeat accelerate. The uneasiness was so intense it scared him. Scared for what? He didn’t know. Slowly closing the car’s back door, he sat in the driver’s seat and decided to call Mia. When her number was unreachable, the uneasiness increased to the point where he could barely breathe properly.

He’d never felt this way before for no reason...

Without wasting time, Neil stepped on the gas and drove home straight to see if everything was alright. When he got home, he didn’t even wait to bring out the chocolate packages. He ran straight into the house, desperate to see his wife first and make sure she was all right.

The moment he entered the house and was about to walk up the stairs, the housekeeper craned her neck, her eyes widening when she saw he came in alone. "What about Miss Mia? Didn’t you come back with her?"

Neil stopped in his tracks, his heart making a sickening throb. "Where is my wife?" he demanded, his voice tight with panic.

The housekeeper looked confused and concerned. "Miss Mia went out three hours ago to take dinner to your office along with Zephyr. Didn’t she come to you?"

Neil’s world seemed to crumble around him. His stomach clenched, and his heart felt like it might stop. "She didn’t come to me," he said, his voice a whisper filled with dread. She’d been gone for three hours when the drive to his company was just forty minutes from home. Something wasn’t right...!

The housekeeper gasped, her worry mirrored in her eyes. "Oh no, what could have happened?"

Neil’s mind raced, thoughts of Mia’s safety overwhelming him. "Something must have happened," he said, urgency propelling him forward.

He ran back out, his heart pounding, and grabbed his phone. Calling Zephyr’s number repeatedly yielded no results, which only heightened his fear. Neil felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead as he couldn’t reach the bodyguard. He’d warned him not to let Mia out of the house, he’d told her to stay at home. Something bad must not happen to his wife, nothing must happen to his love or else...

The housekeeper watched him from the entrance, her hands clasped together in distress. She had never seen Neil so frantic, so vulnerable as he paced around making calls and yelling on the phone to whoever he was talking to. "I need you to track Zephyr’s car immediately. My wife is with him, and they’re not responding. Hurry up, damnit! She’s pregnant and in no condition to go through any stress, I need them tracked in five minutes!"

When he ended the call and was about to get into his car, the housekeeper approached him quickly, "Should I call the police?" she asked hesitantly.

Neil stopped for only a minute to say, "Not yet. I need to understand what’s happening. Zephyr is trained to handle situations like this. If he’s not answering, it means something serious has happened."

His mind flashed through possible scenarios, each one more terrifying than the last. He’d feared a situation like this for months now after that box was delivered to them, he’d known their enemies would attack, and once they did, it wouldn’t be him they’d get to but someone more important to him than anything in this world. He’d tried to avoid such thing and he hoped as hell nothing like any of the things he was thinking had happened to her, and he hoped that their car had just run out of gas or had run down somewhere and not that something bad had happened.

But he knew deep down that that couldn’t be the case, he could feel it in his heart that something had happened to his Mia, the uneasiness he’d felt earlier must have something to do with her. She was in trouble and he couldn’t reach to her.

With those thoughts, Neil felt a fear like never before, a fear that twisted his stomach and made him sick and shaky, he felt a tight knot in his heart that left him gripping the door of his car to steady himself and stop the throbbing in his head and heart. He needed to find her now or he’d go insane. His wife ought be safe. She had to be, please. Don’t let anything happen to her, not Mia. He chanted silently.

Without another word to the housekeeper, he got into his car and left the house in a flashing speed. On his way, he got a message that the car Zephyr had drove had been tracked, with a sicking fear, he drove straight to the location.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read