Shadows Between Us (Stella and Sebastian) novel Chapter 105

Chapter 105

Stella caught sight of Sebastian’s face on the list with zero effort.

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She looked over the photo, then at Sebastian stretched out next to Lucas. Sitting in the armchair by the bed, she arched an eyebrow, her face radiating lazy elegance.

Seriously, this shot was next level. In the whole list, there wasn’t another face that could serve up this kind of eye candy.

Stella lazily glanced back at her phone screen.

Her finger froze.

‘Wait, Sebastian is Red Rank One?’ Stella thought, her eyes going wide in shock.

The assassin syndicate’s internal leaderboard uses the rainbow colors to rank how dangerous and expensive a hit is.

‘Red Rank One? So killing Sebastian is basically hell mode?’ Stella thought, a chill running down her spine.

Stella turned to look at Sebastian again. Asleep, his face was pale, giving him that fragile, almost ethereal beauty.

His lashes were so long they could put any girl’s to shame, hiding his eyes. He was frowning hard, caught up in some restless dream.

Even in sleep, he looked uneasy.

Stella didn’t even think about it; she just reached out and started soothing his furrowed brow, slow and gentle, until the tension melted away.

She had no idea how much time had passed.

Lucas

stirred.

Stella glanced down at her phone again.

Over the years, Sebastian had dodged 257 assassination attempts of all shapes and sizes. The price on his head had ballooned to a jaw-dropping 709 million.

Stella couldn’t help but marvel, ‘Wow, he is worth a fortune!’

Just as that thought crossed her mind, Sebastian’s strong arm reached over Lucas, drawn by her subtle scent, and grabbed the edge of her shirt.

Stella smiled helplessly.

The two on the bed, uncle and nephew, no wonder they were related, even their movements matched perfectly.

Her slender, pale fingers slid across the screen.

The bounty for second place was just 5 million dollars.

With a swipe, Stella pulled up the assassin syndicate’s loss list and couldn’t help but arch an eyebrow.

Every assassination method one could think of had been tried on Sebastian over the years, but without exception, he dodged them all. The assassins sent after him, no matter how legendary, none ever returned.

They just vanished.

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Chapter 105

No wonder his bounty kept skyrocketing, reaching this astronomical figure.

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But what really had Stella scratching her head was what Sebastian did to make these people risk it all, time after time, just to hunt him down in Clusia.

Just for being the CEO of Gray Group? Is that really worth 709 million bucks?’ Stella wondered.

Stella stayed silent.

Her eyes, clouded with doubt, glimmered under the wall lamp as she fell into silent thought. Her gaze drifted to Sebastian’s wrist, sticking out from his black pajamas, way too pale to be normal.

Stella sat in silence for a while, lost in thought.

‘If I remember right, I used to be a fixture on this list, too,’ she mused. ‘Back before I “died,” anyway.

It didn’t take her long to find herself in the completed missions tab, her photo all grayed out, a big, bold red “Kill” splashed across it. And the bounty amount that followed.

Stella curled her lips in a lazy smirk.

Her bounty was also 709 million dollars, the same as Sebastian’s!

As Shark, she’d never shown her face. The only photo on her hit list was a random shot of her back from years ago in Clusia. ‘Guess they really worked hard hunting me all these years,’ Stella mused.

O

Her slender fingers tapped the screen, then she wiped all the data and lazily logged out of the assassin syndicate’s internal

system.

‘Boring,’ Stella thought.

After a good meal, Snowball crawled over with Eggie perched on its head. It was over the moon, nuzzling Stella’s palm with its big head and wagging its tail fast on the carpet.

Stella reached out and scratched its chin for a bit. Snowball immediately rolled over, just like the pets in those idol dramas it’d watched with Jake, showing off its big white belly and begging for more belly rubs.

‘Seriously, you don’t have to go that far,’ Stella thought.

On her phone, a little red Scorpio icon lit up.

Blade: [You made quite a scene just now, huh?]

Stella, expressionless, played with Snowball with one hand while typing quickly on her phone with the other.

Shark: [No big deal.]

Nimbus: [Shark, I need to talk to you about something.]

Shark: [Go ahead.]

Nimbus: [Kinetic University Tech Research Institute in Jaffina has been reaching out to us nonstop for the past couple of weeks. They want exclusive rights to some research data.]

Stella’s hand paused.

‘Wait, the Kinetic University Tech Research Institute?’ Stella thought.

Shark: [Give them my number. Have the person in charge call me directly.]

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Chapter 105

Since it was a virtual number, she didn’t have to worry about anyone tracing it back to her.

Nimbus: [Got it.]

With that, Nimbus went offline.

Because of the time zones, not all Scorpio Syndicate members could be online together.

Shark: [Blade?]

Blade: [Just say the word, boss.]

Blade’s reply came with a playful wink, clearly not taking things too seriously.

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Shark: [Get everyone on standby. For quite some time, I have wanted every single person in Lab 709 to be kept safe! And I mean every last one!]

Stella slumped back against the leather sofa, her eyes cold, the chill in them only deepening, her face showing not a trace of

warmth.

**

The next morning, in the dining room, “Sebastian,” Allan called out as he wandered in, looking absurdly handsome in his comfy loungewear, gold-rimmed glasses in place.

He dropped himself right next to Sebastian, who was sitting there with a stone-cold expression.

Allan said, “Something huge went down last night!”

Sebastian just kept eating his breakfast, not even sparing him a glance.

“I’m not kidding!” Allan whipped out his phone, jumped onto the dark web, and shoved it right in Sebastian’s face. “Check it out! Shark isn’t dead at all. She just hacked the assassin syndicate’s official site and totally showed off about it!”

Sebastian froze for a second, his icy eyes sweeping over.

On the site, Shark’s grayed-out “dead” profile was suddenly lit up again, now side by side with Sebastian at the very top, both rocking that insane 709 million dollar bounty.

And on the assassin syndicate’s homepage, the whole thing had been ripped in two in the most savage way, with “I’m back” splashed across the middle in dripping blood-red letters, and a big fat middle finger right next to it.

Allan smiled, “Isn’t that interesting?”

Still, the way they flipped the bird felt kind of familiar.

Sebastian’s eyes locked onto the screen. “Shark is in Clusia.”

“Yeah, ever since last time, Shark’s IP address has been showing up in Clusia. But you know, IPs can change in a snap; for people like them, it’s as easy as breathing.” Allan shrugged it off.

“Morning,” Stella drawled as she strolled into the dining room, rocking a simple white shirt and jeans. Right beside her was Lucas, looking all fluffy and bright-eyed, practically bouncing with energy.

“Lucas, you’re basically Stella’s little shadow now!” Allan teased, draping his arm over the back of the chair.

Lucas just gave a little huff, not even bothering to respond.

He just busied himself setting out the dishes for Stella with his tiny hands.

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Chapter 105

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“What are you guys looking at?” Stella asked, catching a glimpse of Allan’s phone screen out of the corner of her eye. Her

hand stilled for a beat.

“Ever heard of Shark, Stella?” Allan asked.

Stella said, “Not a clue. Never heard the name.” She kept her tone casual.

She didn’t bat an eye, just kept doing her thing like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Allan was just about to say something when a booming voice rang out from outside the villa. “Dr. Miracle.”

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