Chapter 196 What Are You Doing Here?
Under a bright, moonlit sky scattered with stars, a white Range Rover zipped across the coastal path of a remote fishing village in Lisboa City; its movements were wilder than the sea breeze.
According to the position Gale gave him, she was somewhere nearby.
The headlights shone on a car parked at the far corner, and the silver Audi logo with its four circles on the rear caught his eye.
Alexander’s heart tightened and he immediately stepped on the brakes.
With hurried steps, he walked to the front of the car to check, but it was empty. The hood was open and the bumper was smashed to pieces. Alexander looked around and caught a sudden glimpse of a pool of blood on the ground.
In that instant, he felt his heart plunge into an abyss. He could barely stand.
“Courtney!” He yelled at his surroundings but received no response other than the howling of the chilly mountain breeze.
The blood on the ground made him frightful, and Alexander’s legs weakened. Holding onto the hood beside him, he crouched down slowly, knees hitting the cement pavement. His expensive custom-made pants were stained with mottled blood and dust from the ground.
Moonlight shone on the pool of blood, reflecting the ashen look on his face.
Despite trying to control himself, he couldn’t help but think of all the worst possible outcomes.
Regret washed over him and he clenched his fists, wanting to give himself a couple of punches.
If he hadn’t gotten angry with her or hurt her the way he did, she wouldn’t have quit her job in a huff to start her own business. If she hadn’t left Sunhill Hotel, none of this would’ve happened.
“What are you doing here?” Like a ghostly echo, a cold voice sounded overhead, startling Alexander. When he looked up, he saw Courtney standing in front of him completely unharmed with a look of astonishment on her face.
Courtney had walked away to get reception but failed to find any after walking around for half an hour. Her phone was almost out of battery, so she hurried back, as she was afraid that something bad would happen to her. When she returned, she didn’t expect to see Alexander kneeling on the ground looking miserable.
What’s going on?
She was still in a daze when a cold mountain breeze filled with the smell of a man’s hormones engulfed her. She struggled on instinct, but it was like fighting a hopeless battle. Alexander simply disregarded her squirms and held her tightly as if wishing to meld her body with his own—as if she was a lost treasure that had just been found.
“You’re okay.”
Courtney was puzzled, unsure of whether it was a statement or a question. For a moment, she helplessly went along with him.
Waves lapped against the rocks as the evening breeze blew on.
After a long while, Alexander finally released his grip. Then, he snapped, “Courtney, don’t you know that you could die driving alone at night?”
He had taken advantage of her for so long, yet this was his only explanation. Disgruntled, Courtney pushed him away. “Alexander, are you out of your mind?”
A few hours ago, several goats strutted out just as she was making a turn. At that moment, Courtney was on the phone with Cameron, so she wasn’t fully concentrating on the road. Once she saw the goats, she quickly turned the wheel to avoid them but ended up rear-ending a station wagon instead.
The accident wasn’t a big deal to her as the most she would have to do was pay for the repairs. The car was insured anyway, so all she had to do was follow the relevant procedures to handle the matter. The owner of the station wagon, on the other hand, was scared out of his wits and afraid that she would extort money from him.
With a bitter face, the owner came down to inspect the damages. “Your car’s expensive, and it’s vintage too. I won’t be able to afford the repairs even if I sell my car.”
“Sir, I was the one who knocked into you. You’re not the one in the wrong, so why should you pay me?”
Courtney was confused when the man repeatedly apologized to her, only to realize that he didn’t know anything about traffic laws. After explaining it to him for a while, the man finally understood that Courtney wasn’t holding him accountable for the accident, and neither did she want him to pay for the damages.
“What happened in the end?”
Alexander’s voice pulled Courtney back to reality. She was holding a steaming cup of tea that Alexander had poured from a flask in his car, and there was a newly opened packet of biscuits next to her. It made her wonder when his car became so well stocked.
“Alas, I told him that I would get the insurance company to compensate him, but he refused. After talking things over, I gave him five hundred. Turns out there was not a scratch on his car, so he just left after that. My car, however, was left stranded on the road.”
Thinking of this made Courtney a little indignant.
That man’s car was worth barely a fraction of hers, but it was so well built.
“What car was he driving?” Alexander asked.
“A Chevrolet Enjoy.”
After finishing the tea, Courtney felt considerably warmer. Lisboa was scorching hot during the day but freezing at night. If it wasn’t for Alexander, Courtney reckoned she would probably end up dead on that road.
“You haven’t told me why you’re here yet.” Courtney looked at Alexander suspiciously.
Alexander didn’t say much. In just a few words, he explained that Cameron had asked him to come find her. Since he was nearby handling some matters, he arrived fairly quickly.
“It’s that coincidental?” Courtney sniffled.
When she was out looking for reception just now, she must have caught a cold. She even felt slightly breathless now.
“Why else do you think I’m here?” Alexander glanced at her. “You can’t possibly think that I’m following you?”
Courtney raised her eyebrows, her face clearly expressing what she thought.
Do you really think that I have nothing better to do than to follow you to this d*mn place?” Feeling annoyed, he continued, “Forget it. Do you think I followed you just to watch you get into an accident, struggle to look for reception, and freeze for two hours before I decided to appear? That would make me truly crazy.”
Looking at Alexander’s irritated expression, Courtney suddenly realized that he wasn’t that obnoxious when he lost his temper, as it all came down to what he was being mad about.
“It’s not like I knocked into him on purpose,” Courtney muttered, then silently drank her tea.
Alexander felt as if he had just punched cotton; his anger lightly bounced off of it and landed on his heart, making him feel like he had just gone through an arduous but fruitless task. At this moment, he felt as if a huge rock was weighing down on his chest.
When he found out that she might’ve been involved in an accident, he sped all the way here. His navigation system kept on warning him that he was going over the speed limit, but he didn’t care. All he wanted to do was find her as soon as possible.
When he found her car and saw the pool of blood on the ground, his world nearly fell apart.
Yet, this woman was now thoughtlessly sitting beside him drinking tea and munching on biscuits as if nothing had happened, leaving him alone to fume and feel righteously indignant.
“Alexander.” Courtney’s voice rang out uneasily in the silent car
Pretending to be cold, Alexander responded, “What?”
“Can you please lend me your phone? I want to call Cameron.”
Alexander handed over his phone without saying a word.
Courtney took the phone, then promptly grabbed his index finger.
Her warm palm left a mark on the back of his hand, leaving Alexander in a trance. He looked down at Courtney’s side profile and saw that she was solemnly studying his finger.
A second later, she pressed his finger to the fingerprint scanner and the phone unlocked with a ‘ding’.
