Chapter 19 Tricked
After hesitating for a moment, Henry stopped knocking on the door. He said to Vania, “Boss, it seems like there’s nobody in the house. The village’s terrain is too complex, and we’re short of manpower. It’s getting late now, so how about we spend the night in the car and make plans tomorrow morning?”
Leo had a bad feeling as well. He chimed in, “Henry is right. If anything wrong happens, things might get pretty tricky. It’s important to save Little Master, but if we’re all ambushed and trapped here, we’ll lose more than we gain. And besides, I don’t think anything will happen to Little Master tonight.”
Vania furrowed her brow. How could she not understand what Henry and Leo meant? She had been waiting for such a long time; why would she mind waiting a night longer? At this very moment, however, she had a sense that her child was no longer here. This wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened, so she was already able to accept it with equanimity. Still, unwilling to resign herself to the outcome, she said, “Let’s open the door and take a look. Don’t go in, though. Be careful.”
Henry nodded. “Got it,” he said while placing his hand on his waist and curling his fingers around the weapon he had brought with him. Then, he kicked the door open effortlessly with a thud. The door wasn’t locked.
The house was so small that one could see the inside of it at a glance. It was dilapidated and empty, with no sign of a human.
This is bad, thought Henry to himself. He immediately stepped back, saying, “Boss, we gotta get out of here.” There was nobody in the house, but the candle was lit. Obviously, someone had purposely set them up. If their purpose was only to prevent them from finding Vania’s son, they wouldn’t have needed to go to so much trouble. Obviously, this was a trap designed for them.
Upon hearing Henry’s words, Vania immediately realized what was going on. She and her men had found out the address on their own, but Melanie knew the address too. If it weren’t for Melanie’s instigation, how could the bunch of human traffickers possibly have moved her son away overnight from the small and poorly connected mountain village?
I wondered why Melanie would give me the real address so easily. Turns out she’s waiting to spring a trap on me here, huh? Ha! She’s really gone out of her way to deal with me, hasn’t she? She had imagined so many scenes of her reuniting with her son, but now, all her hopes and efforts had gone up in smoke. At this moment, she was disappointed as well as resentful.
However, just as the three of them were about to leave, six burly men suddenly popped up from nowhere and blocked their path.
By the dim candlelight in the house, Vania, Henry, and Leo could vaguely make out the six men’s burly figures and the ferocious looks on their faces. Obviously, they were here to find trouble with them. In an instant, the three of them placed their hands on their waists and held onto their weapons, having readied themselves for battle.
Just then, one of the six men stepped forward and guffawed loudly in front of Vania, saying vulgarly, “Wow, what a hottie indeed! Seems like we didn’t come here for nothing today.” Then, he stopped laughing and said to Vania with a ferocious expression, “Just save us the trouble and don’t resist so that you’ll suffer less. The three of you are no match for us, anyway.”
Vania was now certain that these people were after her life. If the three of them were to die in this remote mountainous area, no one would probably be able to trace it down to Melanie. At such a time and place, she and her men could only depend on themselves. Trying to buy time for an opportunity to escape, she said, “Who are you? And what do you want, money? As long as you let us off, the five million in cash in our hands will be yours.”
