Chapter 3.

“Wait! You can’t kill him!”

“Oh? Sorry, I have no interest in letting a filthy cheater live.”

“He’s not cheating on you! He was actually just asking to let you live at the cost of his own life!”

“Oh? For some reason, I can’t believe that. I wonder why that is.”

The knife in her hand dug deeper into my throat. Sweat accumulated on my back. It didn’t look like it was an act at all. I honestly felt the killing intent weighing down on my shoulders. It might have just been the weight of her body, but it was enough that I felt I’d collapse.

Fear slowly creeped into my eyes. A fear that even Maria could easily see.

“If you do anything to him, I’ll make sure you’ll never be able to die. Only I can kill him.”

“Oh? You think you have the right to kill my Darling?”

“He’s not your Darling. He’s my precious Dio.”

“Well I’m not very interested in dying just yet. As such, I’ll need to make full use of MY precious Darling. Darling, stand up and carry me on your back. If you do that, I won’t kill you just yet.”

I did as she instructed, I stood back up while she kept her arms wrapped around my neck and kept the knife at a forty five degree angle directly below my chin against the side of my throat.

“I’d suggest not to fire if you want your so-called ‘precious Dio’ back alive. If you shoot me with a sniper like that, the bullet will go clean through me and penetrate his body as well. If you shoot a non lethal location, then I’ll immediately slit his throat. If you send anyone to follow us, I’ll make sure he’s dead before they even have a chance to act. Don’t underestimate my instincts. I know very well when someone is following me. I’m also very experienced with killing, I don’t mess up. You’re extremely lucky that I didn’t get a clean slice on your neck just now and it was so shallow that you can still be saved. Next time, I’ll make sure your life is over.”

“Hahaha. Are you crazy? You really think you’ll have a second chance like this to kill me? Kill me now, and die yourself, or scram off and die later without having another chance to kill me. I dare you.”

“Oh. Then I should just kill you now after all.”

I moved away before Adele had the chance to make good on her words.

Maria immediately spoke out through gritted teeth, “Do not shoot. If you accidentally kill the man, your life is forfeit. Do not pursue either, the woman has taken the man as a hostage. She will kill him the moment she detects anything off. Once she has left the area, immediately pick me up and we’ll retreat for the time being.”

As I left, I noticed Maria had taken out another syringe. She calmly injected it into her neck. It was likely to stop the bleeding. Deep down, I breathed out a sigh of relief in my head when I understood she wouldn’t really die from the shallow knife wound on her neck.

I rounded the corner and headed for the exit. When I opened the door, I peeked outside to make sure the coast was really clear and I confirmed it wasn’t a trap. When I was certain nobody was secretly lying in wait, I darted out the door with Adele on my back.

“Adele, are you unable to move your legs?”

“Tch. Yeah, whatever that bitch put in that syringe has left them paralyzed. It shouldn’t take too long before I recover, but for the time being, Darling will have to put up with me being a bit of a nuisance on his back. Hehehe. Not that I really mind.” She let out a slightly girlish giggle at the end.

“It’s kind of like in the forest, but much more exciting with the threat of death looming more heavily overhead. Don’t you think it’s more romantic this time, Darling?”

I’d certainly never understand her concept of romanticism.

“Your concept of romantic is foreign to me.”

“Darling, this is why you’ll never understand a woman’s heart. It’s these sorts of things that make a girl’s heart flutter.”

The you after the events in the forest, a girl? Sure. But you right now? Aren’t you closer to a monster than any sort of girl? 

Now’s not the time for that though. Fleeing was my number one priority. I rushed down the stairs, completely bypassing and  ignoring the elevator. I was too antsy to wait for it to show up. Instead, I desperately ran down the stairs with Adele on my back. It definitely wasn’t a pretty sight. I was left panting and raving, completely out of breath by the time I reached ground level.

I didn’t stop though. I stormed out of the building and headed to my car. Before I arrived at my car, Adele calmly said, “We can’t use yours. Yours could have long been bugged or marked. Here are the keys to mine. It’s over there.”

I headed to the one she pointed out and let her down into the passenger seat. Her lower body was still in a paralyzed state, so she was presently unable to drive.

It was a very common car, one that blended in well with the crowd. Instead of something flashy and easy to track, her vehicle of choice was one intended for making an escape. She definitely wasn’t an idiot when it came to this sort of thing after all.

I got in and we immediately set off. She gave directions and we drove all over the city. When we arrived at a certain building, she had me drive into an underground parking lot. There, we got out and transferred into another car. I was honestly surprised from the bottom of my heart that she’d prepared a second escape vehicle.

Of course, that was only the beginning. We repeated this same process several more times. I was left flabbergasted by it all. I mean, I knew her family was wealthy and all, but they were already dead and it had been years. How had she not burned through all their money if she was spending money like it grew on trees? Did she really have an unlimited supply of money to waste on an escape route that she may or may not ever need?

“Hey Adele, I know you’re rich and all, but how did you afford all these cars?”

“I didn’t spend a cent on them. Before we got together, there were many foolish old men who gifted me cars thinking that was what I wanted from them the most. All I really wanted was someone who truly loved me though. When I revealed everything to them and they failed my little test, I got rid of them. Aside from the gifted cars, their own cars were also left behind outside the forest near my family’s mansion. Oh, but don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I couldn’t afford all these cars if I wanted to. It’s just that it was a waste to buy more when I already had so many lying around collecting dust.”

“Then all these cars that we’ve been fleeing in belong to dead men?”

“Yes. As such, they are the perfect escape vehicles. There is no longer any way to trace where they came from even if they are later discovered. All evidence that could be used to figure out the original owner of the vehicle has long been eliminated.”

“I see.”

I was perturbed when I realized the vehicles I’d driven belonged to dead men. I mean, what if dead old men started to plague my nightmares?

I had enough problems with nightmares than I could count on one hand. I didn’t need to add anymore to that overly inflated figure.

If my nightmares were stocks, then they’d be through the roof already.

“Hey Adele, do you believe in ghosts?”

“What’s with this question out of nowhere?”

“If I said your deceased sister was haunting me would you believe me?”