Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

No sooner after Dayton left, someone sneakily went to check the container.

Zion did not expose his cover under Dexter’s reminder. The person had come alone knowing that was a huge amount of money. Surely, it wasn’t to take it away.

The person opened up the container and glanced in to verify its authenticity. He then closed the container and left.

As expected, Dexter was right. Those people only wanted to assess Dayton’s capabilities and were not after the 30 million dollars.

That amount of money was insignificant to Genome Society. They wouldn’t invite trouble for themselves by taking the money for good. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Everything went smoothly on Dayton’s side as well. He soon obtained the item required by the abductor from the bank vault. From matching fingerprints and irises, everything went on seamlessly.

He returned with some time to spare.

"I’ve already brought the item you wanted. Release her!" Dayton said in his call to the abductor.

"Place the item inside the tenth trash can and leave the place. We’ll send her back safe and sound at 10:00 pm tonight," the person spoke in a low tone. The police didn’t even have enough time to locate them as the call ended quickly.

Dayton turned and left after placing the item in the trash can. Dexter, Zion, and I were still observing from nearby.

As expected, someone walked over soon after. He did not take away the container full of money but only took the emerald vase away.

"That’s worth hundreds of millions" I muttered softly.

I suddenly turned into a money-grubber after knowing how much it was worth. It was a shame to even let them get away with it.

"There’s a chip installed in the emerald vase for tracking." Dexter squeezed my hand.

I let out a relieved sigh. "That’s great, then. I’ll feel heartbroken otherwise."

Dexter looked at me before softly whispering, "I’m rich, honey. I have lots of money."

I ignored him. He almost blurted out the fact that he was the president of Crowdstar Group now.

Dayton’s residence was brightly lit even at 10:00 pm. He could only pace around while he waited as he could no longer reach the abductor by phone.

As soon as it hit 10:0 pm, a car passed by and threw out a huge suitcase before speeding away.

Dayton and Joel ran out to open the suitcase, revealing Xandra within.

She was still unconscious with her hands tied. Her clothes remained the same as what she wore when she was abducted. It seemed like no one had touched her, after all.

"Don’t move." Joel raised a hand and signaled Dayton to stay still.

Both of them struggled to drag her into the room. They only let the police and doctor in to check on her

after making sure that no one was keeping an eye on them from the outside. "We’ll need to take her blood sample to check for any illegal substances she might have been injected with."

They found needle marks after checking Xandra’s arm. It was unclear whether she had been injected with a sedative or something else.

"Something was implanted in her head." The doctor discovered a wound on Xandra’s head. They saw a small incision after parting her hair.

"Let’s take an X-ray tomorrow." Zion’s face paled. Those people were ruthless.

"It’s a miniature chip bomb that can be controlled remotely. It’s embedded under the scalp. It might be risky to remove it. This thing... is normally used on spies or infiltrators in war zones," Dexter softly said. Dayton immediately turned as white as a sheet. His fingers trembled as he asked, "What do we do..." Xandra was innocent. She had been wrongly implicated. I grew anxious as I looked at Dexter.

"Let’s see what they’re up to." He signaled for Dayton to call the abductor. Yet, Dayton’s fingers kept trembling as he couldn’t calm himself down.

Dexter frowned before walking up to grab his wrists. "Calm down."

"Are the lives of those you don’t care about insignificant to you?" Dayton asked Dexter in a soft voice. Unfortunately, I overheard it.

Dexter was glum. He did not answer Dayton but cast a sideways glance over to Xandra, who was still unconscious. "She’s going to die."

Dayton’s eyes were rimmed red as he tightly clutched at Dexter’s wrists. He lowered his head once he calmed himself down and picked up his phone. "I’ll make the call."

I looked at Dexter. At that moment, I felt a terrifying sensation that was hard to put into words.

When Dayton was asking Dexter if he thought the lives of those he didn’t care about were insignificant, I could almost be certain of what Dexter’s thoughts were besides the ones he cared about, he really was indifferent to everything else.

"What’s that supposed to mean?" Dayton was almost gritting his teeth as he questioned the abductor with a deep voice.

"Didn’t you guys place a tracking chip in the emerald vase as well?" The abductor chuckled.

Dayton’s fists bunched up tight as he knocked himself on the head mutedly. "Turn off the chip bomb!"

Xandra was going to die.

The abductor replied, "That thing is only beneath her skin. It won’t take her life. She can live a normal life as long as we don’t activate it. But don’t try to take it out. As soon as the chip-"

"You guys are mad!" Dayton cursed angrily.

"We just want to cooperate with you, Mr. Sacco. We’ll contact you with the specifics later," the abductor sneered before ending the call.

The tracking stopped moving as soon as the call ended.

"We’ve lost them, Officer Landon. Both the emerald vase and the money were retrieved by us. They tossed the emerald vase into the trash heap, so we had to look around for quite some time-" Zion’s colleague had called to explain.

Clearly, while Dexter was toying with the abductors, they were also toying with us. However, it was hard to tell who was the winner between both sides at this point. They were rather evenly matched.

"We’re caught. Does this count as blowing our covers?" Zion asked. Would it be harder to investigate Genome Society in the future?

Dexter replied indifferently with a cold chuckle, "We’ve already won. The reason why they had to go to such lengths was because we’ve already won."

The people from Genome Society believed that Dayton was the president of Crowdstar Group. To Dexter, that itself was already considered a win.

Zion was stunned, seemingly confused upon hearing Dexter’s words. "So from now on..."

"From now on, the police should stay out of this. You have your way of investigating while we have our own ways of handling things." Dexter refused to disclose his next steps. His back seemed strangely determined yet melancholic.

I often felt afraid. I was afraid that the scene before me would turn into a mirage sometime in the future.

If Dexter was the president of Crowdstar Group, then using Dayton to infiltrate the enemy’s ranks was

akin to fighting a lone battle in close combat.

Zion did not comment further and nodded. He only left with the others after ensuring that Xandra was fine.

Dayton sat trembling on the ground as he watched Xandra, who was still getting examined by the doctor." But she’s innocent."

"I’ll head out for a bit. You guys can continue." I could tell that Dayton wanted to talk to Dexter in private. Dexter looked down and nodded. I then walked out of the living room and leaned against the door to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"You’re the one who got her involved in this!" Dexter glared angrily at Dayton. "I’ve told you more than once feelings would turn into one’s Achilles’ heel, and they would also become a weapon against others.

"You were the one who was constantly urging others to protect her on the cruise, making her a target. You were the one who turned her into your Achilles’ heel and someone else’s weapon against you!" Anger and indifference seeped through his voice.

"What should I have done, then? Tell me, what should I have done? You only care about those you care about!" Dayton’s emotions were getting out of control.

Dexter said, "Of course, I only care about what I care about! You were the one who chose this path. It’s inevitable that you would have to sacrifice something in order for you to escape your parents’ control, to achieve your goals, and to gain what you want.

"I made this clear to you before we started working together-you can’t have your cake and eat it too!" he rebuked Dayton in a deep voice.

Dayton looked at Dexter. "You said that I can’t have my cake and eat it too, but why have you always been trying to do so? We’re only your shield. That’s why you can continue to live peacefully with her, right?"

"Call me heartless if you like, but if your stupidity obstructs my path, I won’t hesitate to kill you and everything around you that might obstruct my plan. Do you understand?" Dexter grabbed Dayton’s collars, his tone tinged with displeasure.

The Dexter now was terrifying to no end. I rarely saw this side of him because he had never shown it in front of me.

How grand were his plans? What kind of an intricate ploy had he woven?

"No one can have their cake and eat them too-not even myself." I heard Dexter’s last words before I left. Not even himself, he said.