The Real Heiress Is Coming Back (Hannah Carter) novel Chapter 160

Chapter 160

Hannah rushed to the door, wanting to follow them to the hospital, but Barnaby suddenly yanked her back.

A bullet whizzed from the rooftop opposite, striking Gemma square in the forehead.

Her head exploded, brain matter spraying everywhere.

Everyone in the lobby freaked out, screaming and scrambling for cover. Total chaos.

Barnaby raised his hand to shield Hannah’s eyes, not wanting her to witness the bloody mess. He scanned the direction the bullet had come from.

Hannah pushed his hand away and looked up at where the shot came from.

A shadow darted across the rooftop of the building opposite, vanishing in a flash.

/

Police quickly arrived, locked down the building across the street, and began searching for the shooter room by room.

In Cynthoria, guns are strictly forbidden, but the killer didn’t just use one, he did it right outside the police station. That was a brazen slap in the face to the authorities.

Gemma was laid out on the lobby floor, motionless. Her eyes were wide open, pupils shrunk to pinpricks, like she’d died refusing to close her eyes.

Hannah stepped up and pressed her fingers to Gemma’s neck, searching for a pulse. There was nothing, she was already gone.

If Barnaby hadn’t yanked her back just now, that bullet would’ve hit her instead.

Was someone trying to kill her? Or was Gemma the real target all along?

Right when she was about to find out who the killer was, Gemma got killed. It felt even more like someone behind the scenes was trying to shut her down before she could dig any deeper.

Hannah clenched her fists, her gaze icy and determined.

A flash of cold fury flickered in Barnaby’s eyes. He shot Ronin a look, and Ronin immediately understood, turning to step outside to make a call.

“Let’s head back and wait for the police to update us,” Barnaby said, taking Hannah’s hand and carefully wiping it clean with a wet wipe, he didn’t want her to carry even a trace of what had just happened to Gemma.

The police station was in total chaos. Feeling overwhelmed, Hannah simply nodded and followed Barnaby out, not wanting to linger a second longer.

As soon as they stepped out of the police station, reporters immediately pointed their cameras at them, snapping away. Hannah’s brows knitted in irritation.

“Ronin,” Barnaby called. Ronin, fresh off his phone call, stepped up and made the reporters delete the photos on the spot, warning them not to mention Barnaby or Hannah in any of their coverage.

That’s why the Scott family’s annual party and the Baker family’s incident made headlines, but no media ever revealed that Barnaby and Hannah were actually there. Most netizens just figured it was the Scotts getting back at the Bakers.

****

Hannah hadn’t been back to Skycrest House in a while. As soon as she walked in, Hedy came over, snuffling and nudging her feet.

Hannah sank onto the couch, scooped Hedy up onto her lap, and absentmindedly stroked her with one hand while scrolling through her phone with the other.

Piggy: [Is this hype enough for you?]

Van sent her a picture of the top ten trending topics, eight of which were all about the Baker family. The credit for this went to Van.

He had gotten Oliver to use several entertainment media accounts to drive the narrative, blasting the news of the Baker family’s collapse in Brynlock across the country.

Raven: [Nice. Appreciate it.]

Piggy: [No worries. I’ll just take it out of the mission fee. ]

Raven: [……]

Raven: [Any luck with the Twin Towers’ security footage?]

The Twin Towers were right across from the police station. On the way back, with Barnaby nearby, Hannah couldn’t check the cameras herself, so she had Van do it for her.

Piggy: [Looked into it. But the Twin Towers’ security system was shut down starting at noon, claimed it was for maintenance. It didn’t come back online until four, and there was nothing out of the ordinary.]

Hannah’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘Seriously? What are the odds?’ she thought.

Piggy: [But when I was hacking their security system, I bumped into one of the Scepter House crew, Aries.]

Aries was ranked in the top 20 on the national hacker forum and worked for the Scepter House. Word was, they had a whole crew named after the zodiac signs, each with their own specialty, and all of them did jobs for the Scepter House.

Hannah fixed her gaze on the words “Scepter House.” ‘So the Scepter House is mixed up in this too?’ she thought.

She remembered last time she tried hacking a site, it was for Ascent Ventures, a small subsidiary of the Thole Group. ‘I really need to figure out who the Scepter House’s Master is,’ she thought.

Piggy: [He was hacking into the Twin Towers’ security system too, but before I could even get a trace, he vanished.]

Raven: [Don’t tell me you just got outclassed and couldn’t keep up?]

Piggy: [Damn, you really went for the jugular!]

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Barnaby was just about to start cooking steaks when his phone rang. It was Axel.

He picked up, his voice low and commanding. “Speak.”

“Barnaby, the Twin Towers’ security system was down for maintenance starting at noon. Nothing suspicious turned up,” Axel reported.

“But when Aries was hacking into the Twin Towers’ system, he ran into Piggy. Looked like Piggy was checking out the security footage,” Axel added.

Piggy was basically Raven’s right-hand in the hacker scene; every gig Raven picked up, Piggy handled the details.

Raven kept his real identity so secret that even when Barnaby tried to dig up dirt, he got nothing.

“Got it. Keep tracking Raven’s location,” Barnaby ordered.

The last time Hannah had gotten into trouble, Raven had shown up. Now his assistant was involved as well. There was no way that was just a coincidence.

“Yes, sir.” Axel replied.

Barnaby hung up and went back to cooking the steaks.

Five minutes later, Barnaby stepped into the living room and spotted Hannah on the couch, distractedly messing around with Hedy.

“Baby, got some steaks ready for you. Come eat,” he called out.

Hannah got up, washed her hands in the kitchen, and came back out. But with the whole mess at the police station still gnawing at her, she just stared at the perfectly cooked steaks, not feeling hungry at all.

Noticing she still hadn’t touched her food, Barnaby asked, “Still thinking about what happened at the police station?”

“Mm,” Hannah murmured.

“Don’t stress about it. If anything comes up, we’ll hear about it right away,” Barnaby reassured her.

“Mm,” Hannah replied softly.

Seeing how out of it she was, Barnaby asked softly, “Want me to feed you?”

“Yeah,” she mumbled without thinking.

But then Hannah snapped back to reality, a little flustered. ‘Hold up, did he just say…?’

Barnaby gave her an amused, helpless smile, cut off a piece of steak, and held it up to her lips. “Open up.”

Hannah just stared, totally speechless.

Early the next morning, Hannah got the latest update from the police.

All they found up on the rooftop were some scuff marks from a sniper rifle resting against the wall, and scattered cigarette ash.

Someone had already cleaned up the bullet casings and cigarette butts. The cops went through the whole building, but came up empty, no sign of the shooter anywhere.

The timing of that sniper was just too perfect, no way it was random. Whoever did it came locked and loaded.

Their goal was obvious: wipe Gemma out, no loose ends.

Hannah was out in the open, while the enemy hid in the shadows. Every time she got close to the truth, the trail vanished. The frustration was eating her alive.

But if she thought about it, the fact that the mastermind had to send a killer after Gemma meant she was really pushing them to the edge.

Moments like this, she had to keep her cool, no matter what.

As for Winston, when the police grilled him about Gemma and the whole Yvette family, he flatly denied knowing anything about it.

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