My Second Marriage with the Mafia Kingpin novel Chapter 197

Chapter 197: Just Not Like This

"Make sure you lock her up," a man said, tossing Ashley into one of the containers and watching another man fasten handcuffs and chains around her. "She’ll be a headache if she gets loose. You saw what this nutcase did earlier."

With that, he glanced down at the unconscious Ashley, scoffed, and walked off, leaving the other man to finish securing her. The man checked every chain and cuff carefully, making sure that even if she woke up, there would be no way out.

The chains clanged as he gave them a few testing yanks before stepping out.

"She locked up tight?" came a question from another man the moment he emerged from the container.

"Hey, newbie, I told you to stop talking to me with that arrogant tone." He hissed. "Unless she amputates herself, she’s not going anywhere."

"Haha. You lot scared of her or something?"

"Don’t talk if you weren’t there," the man who had done the securing clicked his tongue. "Guard this and don’t let anyone near it. Until we reach our destination, don’t drop your guard for a second."

With that, he tossed the key to the man posted outside.

"Lock that container."

"What about the other keys?" the guard asked, then clarified, "The ones for her chains."

"Why would you need those?"

The man scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe she’ll need to use the bathroom or something."

"Do you think she’s a guest?" the other man snorted. "If she needs to go, she can go on herself. We’re told to bring her in alive, not clean. If she causes trouble, shut her up — just don’t touch her face."

With that, he turned and walked off, waving without looking back.

The man left behind snorted, shook his head, and dragged himself over to lock the container before settling in to wait.

What neither of them knew was that their conversation had been heard — not by one person, but two.

One of them was crouched behind a nearby container like a mouse, peering out just long enough to clock the guard slipping on a pair of earbuds and flipping his phone to landscape. Then he pulled back.

Rus.

Rus pressed his back against the container stack closest to where they had stowed Ashley. When he had seen the three men execute the Knights Gang members, he had quietly followed them onto this ship. Years of infiltration experience made getting aboard the easy part.

The real problem was how to get Ashley out.

"Just what the hell happened in those few minutes?" he muttered under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "And this place is crawling with men like those three."

He opened his eyes and glanced sideways, catching a sliver of open ocean through the narrow gaps between the stacked containers. The cargo ship was moving faster than he would have guessed. Only minutes had passed, yet the port was already a distant smear of light behind them.

"I hope those three are alright," he breathed, his worry for his colleagues quietly growing.

None of this was what it was supposed to be. The plan had been simple: take Ashley, hand her over at the port. Nowhere in that plan were goons from the Knights Gang — and certainly not a second, unknown force that had boarded the same ship with entirely different orders.

[What about those four?]

One line from an overheard conversation surfaced in his memory. He understood well enough who the four referred to: him, Khan, Warriyo, and Nelek.

"They really planned to kill us after the handoff," he murmured, his expression darkening.

A flood of questions pressed in on him. He shook them off.

"Nelek and Warriyo are capable," he told himself. "They’ll find a way. Right now, I need to focus on myself... and on getting that woman out of that box."

Meanwhile, inside the container, Ashley let out a faint grunt. Her head throbbed as her eyes opened to nothing but solid darkness.

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