The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

140 Kidnapping Attempt

Lilian held her chest in great pain. Tears flowed down her cheeks. It was the first time in her life that she had felt such severe heartache. It was breaking to see her grandson consciously said something so mean to her. Marcel Douglas, a good boy who always loved her, could say such an evil statement. It was the first time in her life that Marcel could stare at her so contemptuously.

Unable to bear her own weight, Lilian shuffled over to the nearest chair to sit down before her old body fell onto the wooden floor. She could only cry, didn’t recognize her own grandson. Seeing Marcel had changed made Lilian feel like she had lost her two grandchildren now. The feeling of loneliness was getting bigger, now mixed with heartache.

“Something must be wrong.. There must be a problem. There’s no way Marcel be this way. I know him very well,” Lilian muttered as she took out her cell phone from her sleeping pants pocket.

After calling a taxi, the old woman immediately took her coat and winter hat and put them on. As soon as she finished preparing, she got out of her house and locked the door. Not long after, a yellow car with a taxi logo arrived in front of her house.

“Good evening. Where do you want to go, Ma’am?” The driver asked.

“Could you just drive me circling this street area and out a little? I’m actually looking for an address.” Lillian answered.

“Sure, Ma’am.” The man with the moustache replied before driving his yellow car.

Along the way, Lilian kept staring out the car window. She intended to find out for herself where Marcel had lived all this time exactly. If Marcel didn’t actually live in a rented flat, at least, he lived in the office he’d always mentioned. It was the office where he ran his business. The location he had never shown Lilian to with a thousand reasons of refusal.

“Do you know what the building looks like or at least the name of the street, Ma’am?” The driver man asked.

.....

Lilian shook her head, “I don’t know. But, maybe that place is frequented by several black cars.” she explained by remembering that all of Marcel’s men always drove black cars.

The taxi driver just nodded nonchalantly. He didn’t care if the old woman asked him to drive around for hours looking for things he wasn’t sure about. Instead, he would feel happy because the taxi meter would get bigger.

Lilian kept her eyes on the car window desperately. She knew that doing this was like looking for a needle in a haystack. There was only one thing that made Lilian think that the location where Marcel lived was not far from the Redvalley area. That was because every time Lilian called Marcel and asked him to come, it only took him about ten minutes to arrive at their house.

“Geez! W.. what is this?” The taxi driver’s exclamation took Lilian by surprise.

“What is it?” The old woman leaned into the driver’s seat. Then, she felt the taxi car suddenly braked.

Lilian’s eyes glanced at the windshield and she was shocked to find seven motorbikes blocking their way. That was the cause why the taxi driver stopped the car so suddenly.

“Bastard! W-why did they intercept us?” The driver stammered. The group of men in black leather jackets and faces covered in buffs made his heart flutter in fear. He really was in trouble.

One of the thugs got off his motorbike, while three more motorbikes came and stopped behind the taxi. The large man who had gotten off the motorbike walked over to the taxi and knocked casually on the driver’s door window.

“Don’t open it! What do they want?” Lilian exclaimed to the driver. They were both scared to death.

“I do not know either!” The driver replied, keeping his eyes on the man outside the window.

The man knocked again on the window pane. However, the driver still refused to open the window. Instead, he honked his car horn while pulling out his cell phone to call the police. But suddenly..

CRASH!!!

“WHY DON’T YOU OPEN IT, MOTHERFUCKER!!” Exclaimed the man who had just smashed the car window with his iron rod.

The shards of broken glass hurt the driver’s face. He instinctively lowered his head while protecting his head with both hands as the thug put his hand into the window. However, he didn’t hurt him anymore.

Clack! There was the sound of a car door opening. It turned out that just now, the thug reached his hand into the window to unlock the car doors.

“NO!! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!!” Lilian screamed as the door beside her opened and two other thugs pulled her out violently.

“SHUT UP OLD GRAND!” One of them snapped as he dragged the poor woman away from the taxi.

“If you call the police or anyone else, we’ll find your car and kill you. I’ve memorized your license plate. Leave now!” The big man who had broken the window warned.

The taxi driver nodded quickly, “I.. I understand! I swear not to tell anyone,” he answered, ignoring the condition of his face which had many bloody scratches from the glass shards. At that instant, he immediately stepped on the gas to escape from that location.

As soon as he finished kicking off the taxi driver, the man who seemed to be the leader of the small group turned to the old woman who was constantly screaming for help. Even though her mouth had been covered with a cloth by the two men who were holding her arms, her screams could still be heard. Indeed, old women were troublesome creatures. They should just die quickly.

“Can you shut up? Want me to cut your vocal cords so you can calm down a bit?” The man asked as he approached the old woman who was crying profusely. “I’ve been waiting for a long time to catch you because you’re like a pet locked up in a cage. Marcel Douglas’ weakness is his grandmother. Is that right?” he removed his buff and showed a devilish smile etched on his face.

***

A black motorbike drove on a very quiet street. Emma was used to the Handway City streets which were completely deserted at night. Only at a few points were seen still quite a lot of activity at night. However, in outlying areas, the roads were usually empty when it was past nine at night.

Emma had circled the area around Redvalley several times. The street looked had rarely nice settlements. Actually, Emma wanted to ride around Redvalley and Bluevalley streets to see for herself what kind of thugs were threatening the peace of society. But she was discouraged when she saw with her own eyes, how strict RJC’s guards were for those two streets.

To ordinary people, they would not be able to see that the streets were actually under guard. RJC was excellent at camouflaging while on duty. No one would ever realize that some men who looked like ordinary citizens on the move were actually gangster group members.

With the appearance of Emma or Black being very suspicious like this, of course, the RJC members on duty would immediately chase after her form thinking that she was an enemy who wanted to make trouble. Because of that, Emma decided to just wander around outside of RJC’s territory. She was sure that even if she did that, she would still be able to help RJC fight groups that were trying to cause trouble in their area.

“Ugh.. It’s so cold today,” Emma mumbled with a shivering body for the umpteenth time. That day, she did not get a single prey. Just wandering around until she almost caught a cold.

Emma pulled her motorbike aside for a moment to check the time on her watch which turned out to be 11 pm. Because it was too late and there was no sign of crime, Emma decided to go home. What’s more, her house was quite far from her current location.

With a relaxed movement, Emma put her foot on the pedal again and pulled the gas on the iron horse. Even though it was late, she wasn’t in a hurry. Emma rode her motorbike along the empty, dimly lit road before a taxi passed her from the opposite direction at full speed. Emma was surprised because the taxi looked a bit reckless as if the driver was drunk. But at first glance, Emma could see that the car’s driver’s door glass was broken.

Emma’s instincts instantly worked. She immediately felt something was wrong. Then, by increasing the speed of her motorbike, Emma rode down the big road. Finally, she saw a mob of motorcycles was quite far ahead. There was no need to think any further to find out that the bikers that blocking the road as if it belonged to them were a bunch of thugs. Emma immediately turned off her motorcycle headlights so the thugs wouldn’t notice her coming.

Getting closer, Emma could see that the thugs’ group was holding a woman captive. Until she realized that the woman being held captive by two men on her right and left was an old woman whose face Emma knew very well. It was Lilian Douglas.

Seeing that, Emma’s growled in anger. Fuck! They really would have died at her hands for hurting that woman.

Furious, Emma pressed the horn hard as her motorbike approached.

SQUEAK!!

A deafening sound came from the screeching of the braked tires. Emma immediately took on the motorbike stander and jumped down. Simultaneously, several men approached her by swinging the iron rods which were their weapons.

The thugs didn’t even need to ask who the black helmet was and what he wanted. The figure of the black helmet was already well known and the demeanour he showed had also shown that he wanted a fight.