My Billionaire Husband

Another short story between two different persons struggling to fight for survival. 

New Volume Title: When GANG Leader Fall In Love

Synopsis:

He was looking for someone who stole his disc and took someone who's just an ordinary supermarket staff. 

Her life totally changed since she met him. He forces everything, including a three-year contract, to be his woman. Her enchanting beauty captured him, and the love-hate journey started. 

She challenged his patience and his arrogant retort, "As you make your bed so you must lie in it. Pretty noble to sell your body for your brother. And you nearly lost your life for your cheap friend? A sacrifice must be your life motto. Who do you think you are? A saint?"

He captured her, and no way to escape this devil. In his peculiar way, both tough and gentle, she can only accept it and lower her guard down. 

December 2nd

That morning, it was said on TV that it was the coldest day in ten years. This was indeed so. It had snowed since morning, and by noon the snow turned thicker.. The wind, not to be outdone, whistled constantly. People at the bus stop outside the supermarket couldn't help running inside to get some warmth for a couple of minutes if they reckoned the bus was not coming immediately.

Thanks to the bad weather, there were few serious customers in the supermarket, and the two cashiers were playing games on their phones to kill time. Adele, who was both cashier and staff supervisor, caught sight of the snow at the entrance tracked in by people from the bus stop.

Adele called Kate to disassemble a couple of used cartons and put them on the floor of the entrance to avoid melted snow, causing a slippery and stained floor. But she shouted a few times to the back from her cashier stand without receiving a response from Kate.

Adele had to ask another coworker to cover for her as she walked back inside to the shelves. Kate was standing between two rows of shelves, meditating. She heard footsteps and turned to Adele:

"Adele, my eyelid keeps twitching all the time."

"Left or right?"

Kate, clearly distressed, took a second to figure out left from right and pointed: "Right one."

Adele was speechless at her state and replied carelessly, "Bad luck. My grandma said it left for fortune and right for misery."

"Seriously?" Kate opened her eyes wide.

Adele laughed at her, being so easily shocked. "Don't take it seriously. My uncle said it left for career and right for romance. Don't be superstitious. It will probably go away soon." And then Adele instructed Kate to put the flattened cartons on the floor with adhesive tapes. "Make sure the floor is dry. Otherwise, if some elderly person slips and breaks his bones, he will sue us."

Kate nodded and ran to carry out Adele's instructions.

After she finished, Kate came back to continue arranging items on the shelves and checking stock, a tedious job. They used to have three employees. One of the other two was the boss's niece, and the other one was the nephew of the boss's wife. To make things worse, these two fell in love and spent most of their time whispering and giggling together, leaving Kate to work alone.

She didn't want to complain because it was not easy to keep a stable job. She got paid on time every month in this stagnant economic situation. Besides, she preferred to deal with merchandise rather than people. Whenever customers asked her where a certain product was, she could always give the precise location. This made her feel good. So even though Kate was busy as a bee every day, she enjoyed the job.

But today, she was a little absent-minded.

Kate took her cell phone out of her pocket from time to time. She was expecting a call, a very important one. The way her eyelid had been twitching since this morning gave her a bad feeling.

Kate hadn't felt like herself for the whole day. She didn't even notice when someone was walking too close to her. The person patted her on the shoulder, but she was too scared to scream out. When she turned back, that person screamed out too. It was a hoarse, male voice, and she saw a tall, skinny boy with thick eyebrows, sticking his tongue out at her.

The big boy remonstrated her for scaring him by pointing at one of her eyes, "What the hell is going on with you? That is spooky."

Kate raised her hand to touch her eye and found a small piece of paper. She thought of her practice this morning when she had torn a small piece of tissue paper to cover her flickering eyelid. She thought there were not many customers today and that nobody would see it.

The boy with the thick eyebrows leaned on the shelf with folded arms and smiling, said, "You must be exhausted without us."

"It will be Sarah's birthday in two days. You should come to the party." Sarah was the boss's niece. The boy with the thick eyebrows is John, nephew of the boss's wife.

Kate said OK and started stocking the shelves with milk.

John took the milk from her hands and said, "You leave early today. I will do it."

"OK." Kate wiped her hand on her apron and left.

"Hey! Leaving now? Not even a thank you?" John shouted at her back.

Kate replied without turning back, "Isn't that your job?"

"OK, OK. Get out of here!" John waved his hand as if swatting away a fly. The other girls at the cashier counter laughed.

Kate was anxious to get back. Her cell phone was going to die because she didn't have the charger with her.

The snow had almost stopped, but the wind from the coast did not subside one bit and drilled through her coat like needles.

When Kate got down to the bus, it was pitch black. She had to walk through a long alley from the bus stop to the house she shared with her roommate. There was a hotdog stand at the entrance of the alley, and Kate realized her stomach was protesting when she smelled the yummy food. She bought one and took it in her hand. The warmth of the hotdog transmitted to her palm through the paper bag, and she had a feeling of satisfaction.

The streetlights inside the alley were broken, and it was completely dark. Kate was anxious to get home and did not notice a car following her at a distance.

The car was a dark color, and its headlights were not on. It hid in the dark night like an animal lurking. When Kate got to the middle of the alley, the car sped up suddenly, and she heard the sound of the engine.

She moved aside to avoid it. But the car passed her, turned 180 degrees, and blocked the road. The headlights were suddenly on, and she had to raise her hand to cover her eyes.

Kate frowned and opened her eyes a little. A dazzling white light came to her eyes. She took a few seconds to adapt to it and found it was a huge crystal chandelier hanging from a very high ceiling. The shining crystal beads of the chandelier reflected light to the walls of an extremely big room. Everything looked surreal.

And the next second, Kate realized that she was curled up and lying on her side on the floor. Her hands were tied behind her back, and her ankles were also bound with rope. She recalled the last scene she could remember and saw the light… She was taken aback. She had been…kidnapped!

"Awake?" A male voice asked from behind her.

She felt her body was still feeble, and it seemed that some smell was still lingering in her nose. She turned back labouredly and saw a couch with two young men sitting on it.

These men stood up simultaneously and walked towards her. She could see the outline of their muscles under their clothes. They reminded her of dangerous animals. She was scared and struggled to sit up.

The man with pale skin and curly hair bent down and lifted her chin with two of his fingers, spoke with a flighty tone, "Tell us. Where is it?"

Kate's heart skipped a beat, but she showed nothing on her face and asked, "What is it?"

The man gave a snort of contempt. "Stop playing dumb with me. You know what it is." And then he bit his lips and squeezed out the word "the disc."

It felt awful being stared at so intently, and Kate shifted her eyes away. "I don't have any disc."

The man gave her an angry glare and said, "Ha. Keeping your mouth shut? You will not say it?" Before he finished his sentence, a white light flashed over Kate's face, and magically, he had a dagger in his hand. The thin blade gave out an icy air under the light. And in the next second, the dagger point reached Kate's cheek.

The man laughed insidiously. "You got a pretty face, chick, but it is a little dull. You want me to add some scars here to make it more interesting? Here? Or here?"

The dagger moved across the surface of her face, and if he wasn't careful or experienced enough, her face would be ruined. Kate's mind wasn't focused on the dagger. She recalled a scene five days ago.

Caroline, Kate's friend from home, whom she had not seen for a long time, came to see her and dragged her to a place out of the way and slipped her an envelope. Caroline instructed Kate with a mysterious expression that if she did not receive her call in a week, to mail the envelope. Whatever was inside the envelope felt hard and round.

Seeing this made no difference, the man with darker skin and a buzz cut frowned and yelled, "Stop wasting time." And he roared to Kate in the suppressed voice, "You will end up like your friend if you don't say it."

At these words, Kate blurted out, "What happened to her?"

The man was going to open his mouth but instead coughed and put away his dagger. His voice changed into a gentle and coaxing tone: "Little sister, don't be silly. You give me the disc, and I will let you go immediately, plus you'll make a fortune."

Magically, his hand, which had held a dagger just a few seconds ago, was now waving a big stack of money in her face. "See. This is all yours if you give us the disc." And then he added, "My pal won't be as nice. He might strip you."

Seeing the fright in her eyes, this man with the curly hair was satisfied with the effect of his words and continued. "He hasn't touched a woman for months. He has severe chemical imbalances and is as hungry as a bear."

He was still smiling when he spoke, but his eyes suddenly turned ruthless as he saw no further reaction from Kate. He grabbed her sweater collar and pulled her towards him. Kate's neck and collarbones were exposed, and he couldn't help giving them a stroke. "Wow, nice skin. You feel good."

Kate shivered and struggled violently and screamed, "Let me go! You bastards! I know nothing!"

Her fighting irritated him, and Curly-hair pressed her down against the floor, but she hit him in the ribs with her knee. Skinny as she was, she did some damage. Curly-hair called his pal for help without turning back, "Come to help me hold her down."

The man with a buzz cut hesitated a little, then squatted and used one of his knees to press her tied legs against the floor.

Kate's coat was unzipped, and her sweater was lifted up. Her pink-laced bra was exposed. The two masculine young men were surprised to find the skinny and malnourished girl had an hourglass figure under her clothes. Curly-hair made gestures to unbutton her pants as he gave the ultimatum: "If you don't say it, don't blame us for taking no mercy on you."

"Help! Let me go!" Her face was like a fish on the cutting board. She was doomed and had nowhere to escape, but she still cried for help grievously and didn't give in.

"What the hell is this?" Another deep male voice said suddenly.