Chapter 713
Standing Before Love
The sky gradually darkened. Heather and Leon walked together, but they still couldnât see any sign of the car. A rather worried Leon then asked, âAre you sure the car is really parked at a conspicuous spot, Heather?â He even suspected that the car might have been stolen.
âIâm sure of that.â Heather felt they would probably see the car if they walked a little further.
âIt canât possibly have been stolen, can it?â asked Leon, discouraged. As such, he couldnât stop himself from voicing his doubts.
âThatâs not possible,â Heather replied categorically. The car had a superb anti-theft function, so how could it be stolen that easily?
Leon continued to follow Heather. Itâs so normal for a luxury car parked in desolate countryside to be made off with, he thought to himself. Instantly, he lost all his vigor like a deflated balloon, and they walked around while looking fruitlessly for a long time.
Eventually, Heather took her cell phone out of her pocket. At this moment, it seemed that they could only rely on the positioning system to find the car. Leon didnât realize what Heather was trying to do until he saw what she was doing, and he realized that they had totally forgotten about this earlier.
âHave you detected the carâs location, Heather?â He leaned closer to her as he was in desperate need of a car right now. After all, they were on a barren and desolate mountain where the vehicles passing by were mostly trucks. If they wanted to leave here sooner, they could only find their car. In an instant, he was well motivated again, dying to see the car at once.
Heather looked at the location displayed on her cell phone. The car was nearby, but why couldnât they find it no matter how hard they searched? She was somewhat perplexed, and Leon also found this rather strange. Hence, they looked at each other in puzzlement. âWhat should we do now, Heather?â
Leon became even more convinced that the car must have been stolen, and it seemed that thievesâ
skills nowadays had become better and better.
âI think they probably camouflaged the car a bit.â Heather looked at one particular spot with a false smile. Earlier on, I told them to park the car at a conspicuous place. Why canât they understand human language? she thought to herself.
Leon followed Heatherâs gaze and saw the car as expected. He then said to Heather with a sullen expression, âThis place does seem conspicuous, huh.â
As soon as he finished his sentence, he walked forward directly. Had Heather not checked the carâs location, they probably wouldâve searched for the car until the second half of the night without any success. Leon walked toward the vehicle with an unhappy expression, whereas Heather followed leisurely behind him. However, just as he was about to approach the car, she suddenly felt a sense of danger. In fact, Leon was ready to remove the branches from the car himself when she suddenly shouted, âStop, Leon! Somethingâs wrong.â
Leonâs outstretched hand paused in midair as he turned around and looked at Heather with a puzzled look. âWhatâs wrong, Heather?â
She quickly stepped toward Leon and dragged him behind her directly. Then, she picked up a stone from the ground and threw it right at the car.
Just like that, the stone produced a sound as it hit the vehicle. Heatherâs hunch told her that this car had been tampered with, but nothing happened at all. Hence, Leon looked at her in confusion. âDonât prank me at a time like this, Heather.â Thinking that the woman was merely teasing him, he shook her hand off directly and walked straight over to the car.
As a loud boom ensued just then, Leon was knocked over directly as a result of the heatwave produced by an explosion. He was fortunate to be strong and vigorous, or else he wouldâve died here today. As the raging flames burned, he got up from the ground and looked at Heather with a trace of panic and confusion. He looked very ghastly, for another explosion had happened. He was f*cking out of luck this year.
âThe car has been tampered with.â Heatherâs features were almost contorted. For the time being, she didnât know who was the culprit behind this.
âWhatâs wrong with this, Heather?â Leon wondered in his mind whether this was the work of the bunch of perverse guys. There had been an endless stream of assassination attempts on his family since the Middle Ages, so it had to be said that he was lucky to be safe and alive until now. At the thought of this, he wished he could return to his family and come to a standoff with those who had the face of a human but the heart of a beast.
âWeâre being stalked.â Heather believed that someone must be peeping at them in secret.
âWhat should we do now, Heather?â Leon knew nothing about Solariaâs rules, and this place wasnât his turf.
âCall the police. This is the crime scene, so we should try our best not to disturb anything here,â
Heather replied as she took out her cell phone and began calling the police. After making the phone call, she stayed where she was and silently watched as the fire grew in intensity across from her. It probably wouldnât take long before the forest would be burned down as well. At the same time, she also called the fire brigade. Since this incident was too abominable in nature, she had to calm down and sort out the whole matter.
âIâm sorry, Heather. Iâm probably the one whoâs caused this trouble.â Leon looked at the woman apologetically. He surmised it was probably that bunch of people who did thisâthey loved creating explosions the most because evidence of the crime would rarely be left behind by doing so. Then, he looked bitterly at the growing fire in front of him.
âNo head or tail can be made of this incident yet, so donât blame yourself for this. Iâm the one who probably brought you into trouble.â Heather didnât know what on earth was going on, but she suspected that she was the cause of this trouble.
âAre we going to wait here, Heather?â Leon watched how the fire grew in intensity and was worried that their safety might be endangered.
However, Heather refused to leave this place as she wanted to wait until the police arrived. âYeah.
Weâre on a clearing, so the fire wonât reach us.â
Seeing how stubborn she was, Leon felt that he couldnât chicken out either. After all, there was some distance between them and the fire anyway. On the other hand, Heather suddenly felt a bit tired, and she crouched down on her own. Leon crouched down as well and looked at her with his eyes full of care and sympathy.
Shortly after that, she received a phone call from Zayne. âWhere are you right now, Heather? Hurry back to Bradfort City. Youâre in grave danger right now, and I heard that someone wants to have you assassinated.â He learned of this rumor somewhere.
Heather didnât expect Zayne to learn the news so quickly. Her eyes flickered, and one couldnât fathom her innermost thoughts. âI canât go back right now. I have something important to finish.â She couldnât go back since she wasnât someone who cravenly clung to life instead of braving death.
âStop fooling around. What else is more important than your life?â Zayne was almost pissed off by Heather as he knew how stubborn the latter was.
âGrandpa is going to die at any time, so I must find a renowned doctor to cure him.â Heather had wanted to hide this from Zayne earlier, but what kind of a person was he? He would uncover this sooner or later, so she decided to confess to him instead.
âYou really donât care about your life. All right then, donât do anything rash and send me your location.
Iâll go to you right away.â Zayne couldnât leave someone in the lurch, especially when the person was Heather as she tugged at his heartstrings.
âDonât come over here. I can hardly protect myself right now, and Iâm afraid of dragging you into trouble if you come over right now.â Heather had already brought Leon into this mess, so she didnât want to do the same to Zayne.
âThose who want to kill me are more than I can count on my fingers. Iâm the dangerous person here,â
Zayne replied in a bantering tone. At any rate, he needed to rush to Heatherâs side immediately since he couldnât allow anything wrong to happen to her. âI can find out where you are even if you donât send me your location,â he added specifically, not wanting to waste time because of her soft-heartedness.
Upon hearing Zayneâs words, Heather could only tell him her location. Either way, he wouldnât be able to come to her in such a short period of time unless he came by private jet. âKeep in constant touch with me, and donât trust anyone else,â he said before hanging up the phone.
When the call ended, Heather looked at Leon with an apologetic expression. âIâm sorry, but Iâm the target of this explosion.â
Leon had heard most of Heatherâs conversation with Zayne while she was talking over the phone. He looked at her with heartache, unable to imagine who on earth would plot a murderous scene against her. âIn that case, are we going to wait for Zayne here?â he asked in a tender voice. He wished he could take Heather into his arms right now, but he suppressed this urge instead.
âI donât know that. Letâs wait for the police to arrive first.â Heather shook her head. Zayne wasnât superman, so the police would probably turn up before him.
âDidnât Zayne tell us not to trust anyone easily? Can we trust the police later?â Leon asked worriedly.
Would it be a mistake if we wait for the cops? he thought to himself.
âI trust the police,â Heather replied assertively out of a sense of justice. âEven if the person whoâs trying to have me assassinated bribes the police, I donât believe that he can bribe the entire police department. Weâll definitely go to the police station later, and I believe that place will be very safe.â
When he saw the look on Heatherâs face, Leon decided to believe her judgment, so he gave her a heavy nod. âWe must be together all the time later, Heather. If anything happens, we can look after each other.â He demonstrated unusual courage in the face of such a thing. Since he had experienced this before, he could think calmly and comfort her at the same time.
âOkay.â They still had a long night ahead of them, and no one knew what else would happen later.
Perhaps because she had experienced an explosion before, Heather seemed quite indifferent this time.
Still, the previous explosion happened a distance away from her, whereas this timeâs explosion almost killed her. As she narrowly escaped the jaws of death, she suddenly felt lucky to be still alive. How wonderful this feeling was! Suddenly, she came around to some ideas that she had been unable to come around to. For instance, Matthias popped up in her mind right at that moment. She still couldnât get over him, and she wanted to share her thoughts with someone at this moment. âAre you willing to help me, Leon?â she asked quietly like a ghost.
âYes, I am,â Leon replied without hesitation. He would try his best to satisfy or help Heather as long as he was needed. Sometimes, she was like a member of his family. Apart from love, they had established a kind of familial affection between them that went beyond blood relationships.
âI want to have the aid of your familyâs influence, so we must get engaged.â Heather had to take advantage of Leonâs family this time since she knew that his family had extraordinary international influence.
âYou have my word,â he responded without the slightest hesitation.
âBut the one I love is Matthias, so we will break off our engagement when the crisis is over.â Heather was particularly frank this time, but she knew that Leon would definitely agree to her request as long as she made one. Even though doing so would be unfair to him, she really couldnât make do with the situation. Now that the one she loved had shown up, she couldnât marry someone she didnât love.
Leonâs face turned very ghastly. He couldnât stop himself from feeling desolate as Heatherâs words could be interpreted to mean that she wanted to exploit him. He looked at her as she looked at him, and they glanced straight into each otherâs eyes.