After hearing Alex’s response, Isla felt better in her heart. She took out her phone and dialed her father’s phone number, but there was no response. Thinking that her father was still arguing with her mother, she stopped calling and sent a message via WhatsApp, briefly explaining her thoughts.
Big Ken kept a high level of vigilance and carefully observed the whole way, but still could not find any abnormalities.
However, just to be safe, Big Ken deliberately took a long detour on the way, thinking that it would get rid of the possible stalkers before returning to the villa area. After seeing Alex and Isla enter through the door, he immediately called the head of the security team of the South City Villas and asked the security team to be on the alert.
Isla went straight up to the second floor into her room to put down her phone and bag, and took a shower.
Before she finished showering, she heard the beep of a video call.
When she hurriedly finished showering and came out, the other party had already hung up. She picked up her phone to take a look and saw that it was from her father, and dialed back. After about twenty seconds, the video call was finally answered. She was wiping her hair with a towel when she glanced at the phone and instantly got scared stiff.
What was being displayed in the video screen was indeed her father, Victor Sullivan.
However, Victor was kneeling on the ground with both hands tied to his back and a rag stuffed in his mouth. As the camera at that end shifted a little, she could clearly see that Xena and the housekeeper were also kneeling on the ground. Their hands were also tied behind their backs and their mouths were stuffed with rags too.
All three looked wretched. Their faces showed signs of redness and swelling, seemingly having just been beaten up.
As Isla saw this, her inner moodiness and anger were swept away, but her brain was still a little short-circuited. The towel in her hand fell to the ground and she almost dropped her phone. She hurriedly held the phone steady and asked anxiously, “Dad, mom, what happened?”
All three of them also saw Isla through the phone and started to struggle desperately. However, all their mouths were gagged and they were unable to utter a single word. They were only able to make muffled noises. Nevertheless, she could tell from their panicked expressions that the situation was extremely dangerous.
Suddenly, Victor and the others went silent and no longer dared to struggle.
Isla could clearly see a man wearing a black mask. His hand wielded a silenced pistol as he appeared on the screen.
This person was indeed the tattooed man who forcefully brought Victor into the house earlier.
The current person holding the phone was his accomplice.
The tattooed man raised his pistol and pointed it towards the heads of Victor and the others, scaring them so much that they did not dare to say anything. He then turned his head and stared at Isla through the phone screen, saying in a hoarse voice, “If you don’t want to see the three of them die one by one, don’t call the police.”
“Okay, okay, I won’t call the police!”
Isla had never faced such a predicament and was scared out of her wits. It was clear that the tattooed man was a robber and held the three people in the house as hostages. She did not hesitate at all and agreed directly, saying eagerly, “You want money, right? How much do you want? Give me a number and I will immediately give the money to you! But you have to promise not to hurt them!”
“Money? Money is just printed paper. We can talk about that later. What I want now is a person!”
“A… a person?”
“I don’t need you, I’m looking for Alex Cohen!”
“Huh?”
After hearing this, Isla could guess the identity of the tattooed man. He should be one of Keon Wells’s henchmen, as mentioned by Big Ken and Alex on the way back just now.
Naturally, she also knew the tattooed man’s purpose of looking for Alex, which was to take revenge.
Initially, Isla was considering how to let Alex know what happened at home, but suddenly changed her mind. If she told Alex to come over, the tattooed man would order him to go there. With his nature, in order to save the hostages, he would certainly not hesitate to agree to all of the person’s demands.
In that case, the odds would be against Alex, and they might also not be able to get the hostages back either.
After her analysis, Isla looked at the phone and said, “Alex Cohen is not at home, he… he went out to drink, I’ll hang up first to give him a call. You can rest assured that I will not call the police and will bring Alex back as soon as possible. Please don’t rush, don’t hurt the hostages!”
“Wait!”
The tattooed man stopped Isla and said in a deep voice: “Isla Sullivan, are you treating me like a three-year-old child? I’ll add a few more requests. First, you can’t hang up the video call unless you have my permission. Secondly, don’t try to be perfunctory, just do as I say. If you violate any of these conditions, someone here will die!”
“No! I’m not messing with you, Alex really hasn’t come back yet…”
“I guess you’re the kind who won’t learn until reality slaps you in the face! Then see for yourself. This person will die because of you!”
After he spoke, the tattooed man pointed the pistol barrel at the housekeeper’s head, causing her to shiver in fear.
When Isla realized that the tattooed man was not joking around, her face turned pale from shock and quickly corrected herself. “Don’t do anything crazy, I’ll listen to your orders! Please wait, I’ll immediately bring Alex over here…”
Bang!
Unfortunately, the tattooed man was not swayed. Following his own ideas, he decisively fired the gun.
With a muffled sound, a bullet buried deep into the housekeeper’s head.
The housekeeper fell onto a puddle of blood and died on the spot.
Both Victor and Xena went pale with fright upon witnessing this scene, and almost wet their pants. They knew that the situation was dire, but they never expected that the tattooed man would actually shoot and kill someone. Even in movie screenings, in cases like these, the kidnappers generally did not dare to kill easily, right?
However, now they knew that the robber they met today was much more ruthless than they had imagined.
Xena overheard the conversation between Isla and the tattooed man. The tattooed man kidnapped them to deal with Alex. In other words, they were dragged into this mess by Alex. She was unable to speak, but if she could, in addition to begging for forgiveness from the tattooed man, she would definitely pour out a torrent of abuse towards Alex.
Victor could guess that the tattooed man was Alex’s enemy. Although he felt a little wronged and hoped to be saved, his fears for Alex and Isla far exceeded his own. If he had a chance to speak, he would not beg Alex and Isla to save him, but instead warn them not to come over.
As for Isla, her thoughts were the complete opposite of Victor.
Seeing that the tattooed man had killed the innocent housekeeper, Isla could tell that the tattooed man was a murderous and ruthless character. If she did not do what the tattooed man wanted, the next to be killed would be one of her parents.
Even though she was utterly disappointed in Xena and even cut off ties with her, she still did not want anything to happen to her.
And as for Victor, saving him was a given!
This was the first time in Isla’s life that she encountered such a crisis. She finally understood Alex’s willingness to sacrifice his life to save others. Originally, she did not understand Alex’s behavior, but now she acted the same as he did, not hesitating to rush out and find Alex as fast as possible.
For one thing, she did not dare to challenge the patience of the tattooed man again. She could only let Alex show himself.
Secondly, she was scared out of her wits and urgently needed Alex to manage the situation.
Alex listened to Isla’s cries as she explained the situation and sneakily took out his cell phone to dial Big Ken’s phone number. He did not dare to talk to Big Ken and instead placed the phone on the coffee table. Then, he took Isla’s phone and asked the tattooed man on the other end, “Who are you anyway? Why did you kidnap Isla’s parents? Why did you kill her family’s housekeeper? Aren’t they all innocent?”
With these few questions, Alex had pretty much relayed the sudden situation to Big Ken.
The tattooed man stared closely at the screen. After confirming Alex’s identity, he slowly spoke, “They were indeed innocent, but they got dragged into this because of you. If you want to save them, the only way is for you to hurry over and replace them. Remember, do not call the police. You only have forty minutes. If you exceed the time limit, for every five minutes that pass, I will kill a person. You could have replaced all three hostages, but because Isla Sullivan dawdled too much, I’ve already killed one, leaving only two left. Okay, the clock starts now…”
As he finished, the tattooed man cleanly hung up the video call.
Alex also had no time to waste and grabbed his phone, preparing to leave.
At this moment, Hunter Yates rushed into the house and stopped Alex, saying, “Young Master, I’m sorry, but I cannot allow you to take the risk…”
