Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ It took Cade real effort to get Emma back into the car.
He bent down on the way and picked up her high heels.
She liked struggling.
When Cade used strength, Madam behaved a little better.
He covered her mouth and watched the cars approaching from not far away.
“Now clean yourself up.
You had better pray they do not notice anything.” “Otherwise, I cannot guarantee your safety.” Emma’s eyes shone with tears.
She nodded lightly.
Cade let her go and slid into the driver’s seat.
Several of Hands’s security men walked over, and Cade slowly lowered the rear window.
‘Hope Madam does not do anything stupid.’ “Madam.” The security man lowered his head in greeting, looking at Emma’s slightly disheveled hair.
“I’m dizzy.
I told the driver to take me to the ocean for air.
Is that something you need to report to Hands too?” The security man hurriedly waved his hands.
“Only worried about your safety, madam.” “Drive.” Emma’s performance was flawless, the lazy, irritated tone of a spoiled upper-class woman.
Cade started the car.
The planned route ran from Arasaka’s waterfront harbor through the Wellsprings area of Heywood, then finally toward Pacifica’s coastal view district.
“Madam, please speak the autopilot key.
I will change the destination to Dogtown.” Emma bit her lip.
“You want to make trouble for Hands?” “No.
I want to enter Dogtown and make trouble for Hands slowly.” Cade turned his head with a harmless smile.
“Le roi est mort.
Vive le roi.” Emma sighed faintly.
“Hands was right.
You really are a lion.” Cade shrugged.
“There is no king.
Just a Night City resident who is tired of being someone’s circus monkey.” Emma hesitated, then sent him the autopilot key.
After Cade set the route, he climbed into the back seat under Emma’s terrified gaze and sat beside her.
“What else are you going to do?” Cade’s gaze was calm.
It was not the look Emma had imagined, the look of a man about to do something to her.
He picked up the silver heels from the refined foot mat.
“Where I come from, there is a rule: you do not go after an enemy’s family.
Today was necessity.
I hope you will not take offense, madam.” Emma nodded and curled tightly into the corner.
Cade lowered his eyes, as if he had noticed something.
When Emma gasped, he lifted her feet and used the suit jacket he had taken off to carefully wipe the wet mud from her soles.
Only after the delicate feet were mostly clean did he seriously put her shoes back on.
Emma watched him in silence.
In Night City, when your husband angered an enemy, family was the easiest target.
Gangs, mercs, corporations – widows, children, parents, and lovers all made soft places to strike.
Yet this man bent his head and put her shoes back on, and the fear in her chest eased a little.
“Where you come from…
some old-country code?” Cade nodded once.
He seemed tired and did not want to say more.
“All right, madam.
I want to ask you a few things.
I hope you answer as best you can.” Emma agreed.
“What exactly is the relationship between Hands and Dogtown?” Emma hesitated, then slowly spoke.
“Hansen has many useful assistants.
Officers, criminals…
Dodger, the high-ranking soldier Ross Ulmer…” “But they are all la machine.
Machines.
Hansen lets my husband develop business in Dogtown because my husband’s methods are usually softer.
More hidden.” “You know I live in a luxury building in Pacifica, protected by Hands’s people.
I am his wife, not his business partner.
I do not know much more.” Cade nodded inwardly.
In Dogtown, Colonel Hansen was unavoidable.
If Cade wanted to take meat from Mr.
Hands on Hansen’s territory, he would have to build a relationship with the colonel.
“Are they close?” Emma shook her head.
“It is not a public relationship.
As far as I know, Hansen and Hands have financial dealings.
I am only a woman.
Hands does not let me know more.” Cade folded his arms and leaned back slowly.
“At the Dogtown gate, do you have the authority to make them let us through?” Emma nodded.
“My car is usually waved through.
Hands said so.
But I almost never go to Dogtown.” “I hate that filthy, broken place.” Perfect.
Cade’s original plan had been to punch through the checkpoint, then drive up Dogtown’s hill and run toward Longshore Stacks.
He would not trust Emma completely, of course.
He would adapt when the time came.
“Then I hope you will bring Mr.
Hands a message for me.” Cade wanted Hands to know he had reached his family.
He wanted the fixer constantly tense, but not pushed so far that he snapped.
An oral message through Emma was enough.
Emma was silent for a while.
“Do you have a knife?” Cade hesitated, then took Emma’s small knife from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Be smart.
I am-” Before he could finish, she drove the blade into her own palm.
Blood welled up at once.
Cade jumped.
Then Emma used the knife to cut one shoulder strap of her dress.
Fortunately, the dress held because her figure filled it well enough.
Cade immediately turned his gaze away.
Emma noticed his discomfort and gave a faint smile.
“My body is the best letter.
If I only speak, Hands will half believe me at best.
He never trusts anyone, including me.” “Now I return hurt, with signs that you put your hands on me.” Cold sweat crawled down Cade’s back.
If he were Hands, he would explode on the spot.
If the woman said nothing had happened, that would hardly prove nothing had happened.
“Go home, take a shower, and say you are tired.
Better.” Emma laughed.
She had not expected this apparently wooden “lion” to understand such things.
Cade felt a few scratches would have been enough.
With this move, Emma had made him and Mr.
Hands true enemies.
She did not care.
She threw the knife out the window.
Cade tore open the suit jacket and used a strip of cloth to bandage her hand.
The car went quiet.
The atmosphere was heavy, strange, and almost ambiguous.
Cade did not think about that.
He was thinking about how to keep pressure on Hands inside Dogtown.
He had to steal part of the business.
That was the most direct purpose of his return.
Emma brushed back her hair.
“The child Hands and I have was cultivated in a medical institution three years ago.
We paid heavily for the embryo.
Hands cares very much about his bloodline.
Take this warning: do not get ideas about his daughter.” “His daughter?” Emma understood his confusion.
“A mother is supposed to be sacred.
A body as a natural vessel creates blood and builds attachment.
But genes carefully modified by scientists – is that still a natural continuation?” “A mother is sensitive and intuitive.
You cannot fool her.
Not even me.” Cade had no desire to comment on that.
The car turned off Pacifica’s broken coastal road and headed toward the Dogtown gate.
Emma had also fixed her clothing and now sat quietly, waiting for the car to approach the checkpoint.
Beep.
Alarms sounded, and several soldiers moved in.
Emma’s eyes lit.
She was probably on a call with Hands.
Cade watched every movement she made.
If anything went wrong, the malware remained under his control.
The car would blast through the checkpoint and into Dogtown.
“Open the gate.
I am coming into Dogtown.” The window stayed up the entire time.
The soldiers seemed to receive an order from someone.
They did not even scan the car.
It rolled openly through the gate.
[Luxor High Wellness Spa] One of Dogtown’s landmarks.
The long corridor, almost bridge-like, crossed over the road, and the structure inside was complicated.
It had supposedly once been a Biotechnica asset.
Cade got out.
He had already reclaimed the malware.
Emma sat in the driver’s seat, staring straight at him.
“Next time we meet, my husband and I will push you and your partners into an abyss.” Cade paused.
Partners?
Emma was not as foolish as he had imagined.
She knew exposing her movements was not something Cade could have done alone.
Then he smiled in relief.
“Good.
I look forward to Mr.
Hands making me leave Dogtown.” “Confident.
Strong.” Emma smiled too.
Now she looked more like a corporate woman in a high seat.
“Goodbye, lion.
I will bring him your letter.” …
✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.