Chapter 148: Chapter 148: And you're still saying this isn't kidnapping?

Chapter 148: And you’re still saying this isn’t kidnapping?

“Ethan’s been out and about lately, leaving that VIP hospital room empty,” Scarlett said, leaning back on the sofa and putting down her phone. She turned to Blair beside her. “When I called him, I could hear a woman’s voice. Do you know what he’s up to?”

“Not really, he’s been all mysterious these days,” Blair replied, legs crossed, tapping on her phone.

Scarlett gave Blair a skeptical look.

Noticing her mother’s peculiar gaze, Blair set down her phone and frowned slightly. “Mom, is something wrong?”

Scarlett shifted closer on the sofa, her voice soft. “Is there something bothering you?”

“No.”

Scarlett smiled, reached out, and gently pulled Blair to lie down with her head on her lap.

After a brief struggle, Blair rested her face against her mother’s leg, clad in black stockings.

“You’ve always worn your heart on your sleeve,” Scarlett said, her hand resting on Blair’s shoulder as she looked down with a tender gaze.

Blair remained silent, her head cushioned on Scarlett’s soft thigh, gradually relaxing under her mother’s soothing touch.

Blair, nearly six feet tall with a tomboyish charm, lying on the lap of Scarlett, who was barely 5’4”, presented quite the contrast.

After a long silence, Blair finally spoke up. “I’m thinking about moving out.”

Scarlett looked startled. “What brought that on?”

Blair just lay there, silent.

…

Ethan had his hand on Milo’s shoulder, looking friendly as he slapped his back and said to Katherine, “Katherine, I’ve convinced him to help us! They might be a street gang, but they’re ready to fight for justice!”

Milo grimaced, his worldview in turmoil. Just moments ago, Ethan had demonstrated his ability to control blades in thin air, leaving a bloody mark on the neck of a delinquent.

Now, Milo despised whoever had roped his boss into this mess, sending mere mortals to face a superhuman.

Milo knew Ethan was not someone to mess with.

Now, with their gang leader incapacitated in the hospital, having taken a severe blow to the groin and a blunt force trauma to the head, just the thought of his boss’s lifeless eyes made Milo’s legs go cold.

Katherine stood aside, not partaking in the negotiation. As a prosecutor, working with a street gang required some mental adjustment.

She watched Ethan, curious about what he meant by doing things his own way.

Ethan pulled out his phone. “Milo, go kidnap this guy. You guys have experience with this, right?”

“Uh?” Milo looked at the middle-aged man on Ethan’s phone screen, breaking into a cold sweat. “Wait… wait, we’re just a street gang, we’ve never done kidnappings!”

Milo’s face turned pale, realizing Ethan’s talk of justice was definitely trouble.

But kidnapping was way beyond his comfort zone.

“Ethan!” Katherine exclaimed, recognizing the man on the screen as the secretary of a congressman she had prosecuted, Gabriel Dunn, involved in a case three years ago.

“Kidnapping is a serious crime!”

She looked distressed, not expecting Ethan’s approach to be so blunt.

“Yeah, we don’t do kidnappings! It’s bound to go wrong!” Milo quickly agreed, their gang usually just involved in street racing and brawling, not something as extreme as kidnapping.

“Oh, then what can you do?” Ethan asked.

“This.” Milo hesitated, then cautiously said, “Street racing? Fighting?”

“Alright, stick to what you’re good at then,” Ethan said, patting Milo on the shoulder. “Don’t disappoint me.”

Milo swallowed hard.

…

Gabriel Dunn, forty years old, steered with one hand while answering his phone with the other. “The subpoena came from an overseas IP? Can’t trace the sender? Okay, I get it, it’s probably not a diversion. Right, let’s silence those witnesses and destroy the evidence.”

Just then, a few motorcycles roared past Gabriel’s car, their engines thundering loudly.

The delinquent youths on the bikes were making a ruckus, and as they sped past, one of them even flipped him the bird.

Gabriel, irritated by the noise and the gesture, slowed down his car. As a congressman’s secretary, being cautious and prudent was his way of life. He certainly wasn’t about to start a fight with these troublemakers.

As he reduced his speed, suddenly a bright light flashed from the side, blinding him.

“Ah?!” Gabriel’s vision blurred, and he instinctively slammed on the brakes.

A second later, there was a soft “thump,” and he felt his car hit something. Thankfully, he wasn’t going fast, so the impact wasn’t severe.

His vision quickly returned, and he saw a motorcycle lying in front of his car, surrounded by the gang of delinquents.

A bad feeling crept up inside him.

Ethan and Katherine leisurely pulled up in front of an abandoned construction site and saw Gabriel, beaten up, his face bruised and swollen.

“Do you guys want money?” Gabriel asked, his hands tied behind his back, his face grim but composed.

Having weathered many storms as a secretary, he was no stranger to tough situations.

Seeing Ethan and a woman wrapped up tightly approaching, he realized he was in deep trouble.

He hadn’t expected anyone to actually dare to kidnap him.

“If it’s money you want, I can give it to you, and we can pretend this never happened. I don’t want any trouble. But let me remind you, if you continue, this becomes kidnapping, and that’s a whole different ball game.”

Katherine frowned, feeling like she had been bewitched into agreeing to this kid’s plan.

“Kidnapping?” Ethan squatted in front of him, pulling out his phone, which showed footage of Gabriel’s car hitting the motorcycle from behind.

“Get this straight, my friends just flipped you off, so you hit them with your car. Gabriel, I know you’re the secretary to a congressman. Guess what happens if this gets out? Think your boss will stand by you?”

Hearing Ethan bluntly use his name, Gabriel turned pale, realizing they were well-prepared. He kept his cool. “Do you even know what the penalty for kidnapping is?”

“What kidnapping? I don’t understand,” Ethan shrugged. “You need to realize, these are just high-spirited underage students. You hit one of their friends, and they tied you up to teach you a lesson. At most, it’s a matter for some stern talking-to.”

Hearing they were underage students made Gabriel even more uneasy.

Katherine stood behind, dumbfounded by the audacity of the plan.

Ethan nodded to Milo behind him. “This guy’s tough, looks like he won’t spill easily. Bring on the waterboarding.”

“What?” Gabriel exclaimed as he saw the delinquents dragging over a metal chair. “And you’re still saying this isn’t kidnapping?”