hired by her chaser to hunt her down, but she couldn’t be sure. “I don’t know. I have never seen him before-”
Pearl was interrupted by a terrifying scream that seemed to be coming from Laura’s room. For a second both of them froze, looking at each other with horror-struck expressions, and then they both got up, running as fast as they could toward her room. Rio was much faster than her, and by the time she reached the room, he already had Laura in his arms.
“Shush,” he whispered, hugging her. “It will be alright.”
“Mommy,” Laura whispered, still asleep and clearly having a nightmare. “Mommy! Daddy! No, don’t do it! Fire! No!”
“Laura!” Rio shouted, shaking her awake. “Laura, wake up.”
The little girl woke up, her eyes filled with tears.
“Uncle Rio, Mommy,” Laura said, shivering. “I saw Mommy.”
“It’s alright,” Rio said, hugging her. “It was just a dream. How about you get some sleep like a good little girl?”
It took some time to finally calm down Laura and get her to sleep, but by now, Pearl’s mind was burning with questions.
“What happened to her mother?” Pearl whispered once the child was asleep. “How did she die?”
On receiving no reply, she looked up and saw Rio staring at her with a hard expression on his face. He stared at her intently, his eyes burning through her. She shivered under his gaze, a tingling sensation running throughout her body.
“She was killed,” Rio said, his voice deep and stern. He gave her one last look before walking away to his study and closing the door behind him.
Chapter 10
Rio stared at the man crouching in front of him, bleeding profusely from his nose.
“Who are you?” Rio asked, sitting back in his chair. “What clan are you a part of?”
“Me?” the man asked, smirking. “I am not of any clan. I am a rogue, who goes from one boss to another.”
“Why were you after the girl?” Rio asked, his voice calm and cool. “Who hired you and for what reason?”
“You think a man in my side of the business knows such information? All I can tell you that it was a man with a scar on his face who just paid me very good money to find the girl,” the man said.
“Did you tell him where the girl is?” Rio asked, already making a plan on how to handle the situation.
“No, I didn’t get a chance to. I saw her, and I decided to take her back to him and see if I could get a bonus,” the man said. “Now, that’s all I know. I think you should let me go; I am not the man you want.”
“Of course,” Rio said, getting up. “Set him free.”
His guards looked confused at his orders, but not a single one of them dared to question their boss. They released the man, who got up, looking just as surprised as the guards.
“You really are merciful,” the man said. “I had heard such horror stories about you, but you are kind and generous.”
Rio smiled and looked at the man, gesturing for him to leave. The man threw one last look at Rio before turning around and running away at full speed.
“Set the hounds on him,” Rio ordered. “When they finally hunt him down, throw him in the pit again. See if you can get the name of the man who hired him.”
“Yes, sir!” the guard said, saluting him.
Rio frowned as he thought things over and then said, “Run a detailed background check on Pearl James. I know we have information from the agency, but I want you to hire our best detective and put him on the job. I want to know everything about her. Especially, why she is the target of some man’s hunt.”
*
Rio sighed as he finished the work that had piled up on his desk before making his way towards his Lamborghini. He drove all the way back home, his mind turning over the information he had found today. The information he had found about Pearl had been heart-wrenching, but he still couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to possibly hunt her down. What had she done that was horrible enough to deserve being hunted by this man shrouded in mystery?
He reached the building and pressed the elevator button. It took him another minute to reach his Penthouse and he knocked on the door. Even though he had keys, he preferred having the door opened for him. He heard running inside and rolled his eyes as he