Love Began with the First Meeting
Chapter 246 Anything For You (Part One)

"Mr. Long, there are ten soldiers, all handpicked, from A City, awaiting the command.

But there's a possibility that... They're here to assassinate you." Vincent warned him on the phone, his fingers twirling about the cord.

"Okay," allowing no emotion to come out. He kneeled down and changed Molly's ice bag for her, "Is there any progress?" he continued. His face was that of a stone - cold and pale.

"You were right, sir. Justin Yan was in Dragon Island during his vacation," Vincent answered, "but not everyone knows that due to politics."

Brian pursed his lips, "But you know," he said, sarcastic, "Richie is just not so good at keeping information. Huh?"

Vincent didn't know what to say - everyone at the XK Intelligence Agency knew what Brian's family was capable of. For Vincent, it was extra complicated because he worked for both. Often, he didn't know to whom he was supposed to be most loyal. "Mr. Long, we just found out by accident and even then, none of this is confirmed information," Vincent explained.

Brian didn't know what to think of this. He did believe Vincent, though. He understood how difficult it was to try to get something out of Richie - Vincent must have paid a pretty penny to get it out of him. "What has he been doing? Richie, I mean," Brian asked. "Mr. Long brought Mrs. Long to the Matterhorn Glacier yesterday." Vincent answered, his voice at a neutral tone, the way he always kept it.

Brian smiled at the thought of Richie taking Shirley out. He admired that of them.

"All right. Your job here is done. Whatever happens next doesn't concern you anymore," Brian said with a tone of finality. As he said these words, he was staring into Molly's eyes.

"These hand-picked soldiers..."

"They mean nothing to me." Brian said, rather harshly before hanging up the phone. He put a palm on Molly's forehead - 'She's getting better now, ' Brian thought to himself.

Brian could breathe better now that Molly was starting to recover from her fever. He waved a hand to signal Lisa - she needed to start preparing food. Before Brian left the room, he turned once more to have a good look at Molly, to check if she was really recovering - it seemed like she was. Brian headed to the study room to wait for Harrow to arrive.

When Harrow arrived, Tony escorted him to the study room. Brian was inside typing furiously on his keyboard. Harrow had heard Brian's name at the Agency countless times but this was the first time he would be seeing him. Tony had known Brian for quite a while now but seeing Brian work on his computer still took him aback sometimes.

Harrow saw the look on Tony's face - he wondered what that was for. He looked at Brian who was still busy typing and gestured towards Tony as if to ask what Brian was doing.

Tony switched his glances between Harrow and Brian. He knew, after all, what Brian was doing: he was hacking into Richie's database. He knew the wiser decision was to leave Brian alone but alas, he wasn't able to restrain his mouth, "Mr. Long, if your father found out what you did... I'm afraid it's not going to be a very pretty picture."

"I can deal with it." Brian raised his voice, a little defensive. He was still hard at work on his computer. After a while, there was a beeping sound - according to Brian's expression, it seemed that he wasn't able to hack into the database. "Richie knew. He set me up," Brian murmured.

Tony didn't know anything about hacking but he knew Richie and he wasn't surprised that he set Brian up. Richie must have foreseen this - he must have been waiting for this for a while now. He knew that Brian was going to try to hack into his database. He knew all along. He had been preparing for this for a while. It was obvious.

It took a while to snap Brian out of it - for a good few seconds, he just sat there staring at his monitor. When he did snap out of it, he was quick. He shut down the monitor and swiveled his chair so that he was facing Harrow, "So, Harrow, how's the work going?" "Rory Yan has had his eyes set on MT for a while. He plans to become a shareholder soon. Soon as in three days," Harrow added, "When he becomes a shareholder, stocks will drop to 20%, then another 10% the next day."

"Can it be liquidated?" Brian asked, his voice small.

Harrow knew Brian didn't ask for his opinion but he offered it anyway, "That's quite a long process, sir. Not to mention extreme. Won't this affect Ms. Yan?"

Brian leaned back, "Just do what I say. I'll deal with the rest. You don't have to worry about it. That's none of your business." While it was true that Brian loved Becky, her family was a different story. He had to learn to separate the two things: love and business. And this was business.

Harrow shrugged his shoulders - what could he do? It was his job after all to do what Brian told him. But manipulating the stocks to a 30% decrease? That's definitely something making your adrenaline soar just to think about it.

*

QY Island

Eric strolled along the beach in his sun glasses, beach shorts, flip flops, and soda in one hand. He was the image of vacation. Eric relished the grains of sand that he felt on his foot and the sparkle of the sun as it hit the clear, blue water. Lenny lay on her beach chair, face up, sun glasses on - basking in the sun light. She had been doing this for days and her skin had a fair and pale veil no more but had been replaced by a golden tan.

Lenny was watching Eric - it was her job after all as Eric's body guard. She had to have a sense of responsibility and protection towards him - if it came down to it, a sacrifice could be asked of her. Yet no matter how hard she tried, she was still drawn to Eric - something she could never explain, even if she tried, even if she knew how arrogant Eric was.

She pursed her lips, disappointed with herself at how she wasn't able to control her thoughts. 'You're Eric's body guard,' she reminded herself. 'And only Eric's body guard, nothing more,' she added.

She resumed back to watching Eric - he was on his phone now.

"Becky's coming back?" Eric asked. He sounded worried, not happy. That was automatic for him. He didn't even realize in himself how worried he was. 00☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐