He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 342

4

Chapter 342

call switched to video.

Her face filled the screen first the girl, vaguely familiar now that I could actually see her, and then the background behind her registered, and my stomach

dropped clean through the pavement.

Gunfire. Bodies. Something that looked, impossibly, like an active war zone, the camera shaking with every step she took.

CGI, I told myself. A prank. Some elaborate joke I hadn’t been let in on yet.

Except the details didn’t lie the way a joke would. Too much texture. Too much noise that didn’t loop or repeat cleanly.

What I’m asking you,” she yelled, ducking as something crashed somewhere behind her, “is crazy, I know! But what’s actually going on around Adrian’s arrival at Westbridge is bigger than you understand! This is mafia, Nathan! I can’t explain all of it right now, but you need to trust me if you don’t want miss the biggest opportunity of your life! The chance to keep your status and walk away rich!”

Her voice never once sounded calm through any of it. It cracked and strained under the weight of whatever was actually happening around her, which

somehow made it worse. More real.

“If you’re still doubting me,” she said, “I’ll send you proof. But I need your answer now.”

The call cut.

I stood there, phone still raised, completely dazed.

A text came through seconds later. A file, a name attached to it I didn’t fully register on the first read.

1 opened it.

It pulled up something that looked ripped straight out of a federal database – dense blocks of text, tagged sections, numbers I didn’t understand attached to names I didn’t recognize.

Except one face did register. Immediately.

Adrian. Same jaw, same insufferable calm expression. Full name printed beneath it.

Adrian Salvatore DeLuca.

Another text landed before I could finish absorbing it.

You can do your own digging later. I need my answer now. Are you in?

My heart had picked up a pace I didn’t love. This was more than I’d signed up for by simply answering an unknown number on a Tuesday.

I typed back. I’m confused. This is insane. is what you’re asking me to do insane?

A bil, came the reply Nothing you can’t handle.

Then, immediately aftes Are you in?

I dragged a hand through my hair, staring at the screen like it might soften if I looked at it long enough. This was mad. Sudden, de

trust in a stranger who’d just shown me a literal war zone through her phone camera.

Bd needed the money. Genuinely needed it, in ways I wasnt about to type out to a random number. And underneat ali of that, in the part đếng these

usually kept buried under enough confidence to bury a smaller man, I knew the truth shed already sand satt loud

If Adrian came back, I didn’t stand a chance holding onto anything I’d lost in all to his effortlessly once already. I wonfidia! sue as com

I typed one word.

Yes.

Good choice, came the reply, instantly

What am I even doing? What is this?

You’re going to learn. A lot, about everything. But for now, in short

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify