However, Dan had to admit that Luke was really vicious and inhumane.

After knowing Selena's background, he knew that that was probably going to be the end for him but still, he planned not to make Ryan feel better. This was because the message he had typed out was to instruct his men whom he had ordered to kidnap Selena to take turns r*ping her!

It was obvious he wanted to take revenge on Ryan by doing that and make him feel everlasting pain and regret.

At the same time, Dan also felt that Luke was really stupid considering that he still did that after knowing that Selena's family was the F Nation's Preston family who even the president of this country had to give some considerable respect to. And also, didn't it occur to him how miserable his life would be after sending that message because excluding what Ryan was going to do him, would the Preston family allow someone who had humiliated and hurt their newly found princess to run around unharmed?

But maybe he did know all this, Dan mused to himself but it could just be that the thought of getting revenge on Ryan overwhelmed everything...

His thoughts got cut short when he heard someone call his name. He looked up and met Justin's gaze.

"What the hell are you daydreaming about?", Then he gestured for him to look a distance of just few metres away and Dan was surprised to see Ryan and their men, excluding the Nighthtawk team who had dissappeared after Ryan's orders already walking hurriedly, almost breaking into a run in the direction of the abandoned refinery.

He also looked around where he currently stood and found that except for the empty cars parked around them, he and Justin were the only ones left in the vicinity.

Dan exclaimed and hurriedly followed after Ryan's group and at the same time, complained softly to Justin who was also following right next to him.

"Really. He couldn't even wait for me.."

Justin sneered at his complaint and said with slight mocking in his tone, "Wait until you are in his shoes to say that."

Dan almost braked into a stop at Justin's words as he felt that he was cursing him.

That feeling intensified as the thought of how Nina and now, Selena who were his best friend's women had encountered kidnapping.

Thinking of Ariana getting kidnapped, Dan felt his hairs raise in alarm but he still remembered the situation they were currently in and had no plans to argue with Justin at this moment. 

But after Selena has been rescued, I have to tell him to take those inauspicious words back.., He thought to himself.

The two of them soon caught up with Ryan's group and they all marched up the slight slope that led to the abandoned refinery in silence.

Suddenly, Justin remembered the call from Nina a while ago and what she had told him by the end of the call. 

That now that the Preston's know that Selena had been kidnapped, it was highly possible that they would be coming down to Nova soon. Of course, this was what she had gleaned from their reactions and words before they ended the call.

"Ryan...", He called out, planning to tell Ryan about it.

"Uhm?", Ryan turned to look in him with questions in his eyes and for some reason, after seeing that, Justin suddenly decided not to say anything to him.

Forget it! I guess I will have to postpone it to after Selena is safe.

"Nothing", Justin smiled at him before patting his shoulder and said, "Just want to tell not to think too much. She will be fine, bro."

Ryan's face softened at Justin's words and he muttered under his breath as his eyes gazed in the abandoned refinery's direction, "I also hope so.."

Copying what Justin had done, Dan also patted Ryan's shoulders, "I also believe that she is going to be fine!"

Ryan's smiled shallowly at his best friends and brothers and said nothing, instead his pace grew faster and there was soon tendency to overtake the others.

On seeing that, the others also sped up and soon their figures soon disappeared into the distance...

...

At the same time, in the Walters' residence, Nina paced back and forth anxiously in the master bedroom as fear and worry pervaded her thoughts when the thought of Selena currently being held captive somewhere.

She had been through the same experience and had an idea of just how helpless and scared her best friend and sister would be at the moment.

Yet, she knew that she wasn't able to do anything to help her and if she should rashly attempt anything, it might end up backfiring and make her situation even more worse.

And that was not to mention the fact that she no idea whatsoever of where she had been kidnapped to, neither does she know the reason why she was kidnapped, though she could vaguely guess that it was related to her man, Ryan.

Not wanting to let herself think this any longer for fear that she would go crazy and be impulsive, Nina forced her thoughts back to the call that had woken her up moments ago.

At first, after knowing that Selena had been kidnapped, she had subconciously blurted it out in shock, forgetting that her other phone was still on call with their side. Therefore, after hearing that their daughter had been kidnapped, their reactions could be well imagined. Selena's mother in particular had reacted the most intensely as she screamed from the phone, making Nina doubt if she had actually put the call on speaker even though truthfully, she hadn't.

Selena's dad had taken it quite well, ignoring the tense tone with which he later asked her about what she knew about Selena's kidnapping, after comforting his sobbing wife. 

She hadn't dared to hide anything from him as she knew just how worried sick they would be after knowing that their daughter had been kidnapped and had told him everything she knew, though that barely amounted to anything since she was just as clueless as them.

Mr. Preston seemed to know that as well and didn't embarrass her and soon hung up after knowing she knew nothing else. However, right before he hung up, she had heard him comfort Selena's mom again before telling her softly that everything would be fine and they would  be coming down to Nova right away.

She had immediately called Justin back, having hung up on him after telling him it was too late to hide Selena's kidanpping from her parents previously and told him what she had heard. Even without Justin telling her, Nina knew that the reason why he wanted to hide it from the Preston's before she had let the cat out of the bag mistakenly was because he was afraid that they would find out that their daughter's kidnapping was inextricably linked to Ryan.

Nina also doubted that after they knew that, they would have a good impression of Ryan. She felt guilty for being the cause of that but she also knew that now was not the time to think about this problem.

Everything had to wait until Selena was safe and sound...

With that, Nina snapped out of her thoughts and stopped pacing around. Then, she sighed heavily before staring into the distance as she prayed for Selena's safety.

'Selena, please be okay...'

.....

Meanwhile, in the Houston's company, Ariana sat in her office while typing absent-mindedly on the laptop.

Minutes later, she sighed and pushed the laptop aside to lean back on the chair. A bitter smile appeared on her face as she covered her face slightly.

"I really..."

She shook her head before standing up and walking up to the floor-to-ceiling window and gazed down.

This was what 'he' had given her. She had no idea how he did it, but since the day she promised to become his woman, he had made sure to give her all the things she would have had to fight for desperately before getting them.

This was evidenced by the fact that in the short time they had been together, she was already the general manager of the company. He had once said that if it wasn't because he was worried that those group of old-fashioned men in the board of dircetors would cause her problem behind his back, he would have directly made her the president. And she...

Never doubted that he couldn't do that. If any other man has said that to her, she might have called him boastful but not him..

He always had a way of making the things that looked insurmountable in her eyes seem so... trivial.

And so, before she knew it, she seemed to have become dependent on him...

That wasn't really the problem, you see. The real problem was that even if they were people who sleep together on the same bed almost everyday and do the most intimate things in the world, she still knew nothing about him.

Nothing except the fact he was one of Justin Walters' friend and that he was very rich and powerful. Excluding that...

Nothing.

That was all she knew about him and it put her in a passive position. 

He could get up and decide to disappear from her life one day and she wouldn't even know where to find or look for him. 

And besides...

Ariana thought back to this morning when the both of them had still been sleeping in bed.  A call had disrupted their sleep and woken them up. 

It had been his phone ringing and the moment he had picked up, she had seen his face change greatly and had caught the words 'her', 'she' before he hung up and grabbed his clothes speedily before disappearing at the door. She hadn't even be able to get a word in and ask him what happened.

She might gradually be becoming too suspicious and paranoid, but Ariana couldn't help but wonder who the 'her' referred to in his call was. 

'Was i another woman he was 'supporting'?

'A fiancee?'

'Mother?'

'Sister?'

These thoughts keep lingering in her mind and she hadn't been able to concentrate on her work because of it.

A mocking smile appeared on Ariana's face as she said to herself, "I really am becoming too needy... began caring about gains and losses..."

It was a transaction between them. It had always been and she understood well that it was taboo for her to be moved because of what he had done for her. Yet, she seemed unable to stop it and keep in heart in place...

After all, she was only human.

Ariana was lost in her thoughts and didn't hear the sound of her office's door opening and closing. She only reacted and turned to look at the person who entered after hearing him can her name.

Seeing that it was her father, her face quickly became indifferent as she called out.

"Sir."

Mr. Houston's frowned slightly at her words but soon his face regained his calm and he looked at her for two seconds before looking away.

"About what I told you..", He began.

Ariana froze in hearing his words and then a sarcastic look appeared on her face. This father of hers..

She really wants to pretend that she knew him not.

What he was talking about was still related to Dan. He had taken a fancy to Dan's power after seeing how easily he was able to put her in the general manager's position despite his and her stepmother's opposition. 

Since then, he regularly came to make his presence known in front of her and asked to meet Dan. 

A normal father would have been worried about his daughter on knowing she knew such a powerful person for fear that she had been deceived but not 'this' father of hers. He only cares about meeting Dan and probably was thinking of making him switch sides and make her powerless again, on her stepmother's suggestion she believed.

She really found it laughable and at the same time, felt sad in her heart that compared to her stepmother, she couldn't even be considered half as important to him.

'He would really do anything to make that woman happy...', Ariana thought to herself.

She took a deep breath and tried to stop thinking about those thoughts before facing her father again.

"I am sorry, sir but that person hates meeting irrelevant people", She said respectfully though the words she uttered were nothing like.

Sure enough, she saw deep anger flash in her father's eyes though it quickly disappeared. Then, Ariana heard him speak in an even voice.

"Fine. But the next time you meet, remember to tell him that it is your father that wants to meet him and that I have something important to discuss with him."

With that, he didn't wait for Ariana to say anything more and turned to go out.

Watching his back disappear at the door, Ariana's face had a sneer while deep inside, she couldn't help but wonder what 'important' thing he had to discuss with Dan.

Anyways, it had nothing to do with her either way since she had no intention whatsoever to bring up this matter to Dan.

However, Ariana had no idea that the moment Mr. Houston returned to his office, he has swept everything on the table to the ground in anger.

"That b*stard!"

He breathed heavily until he slowly calmed down and sat back on his chair and fell into deep thought.

To be honest, he really hated that daughter of his and if it wasn't because he didn't have a choice, he would definitely not have let her return to the country.

Likewise, he also hated her mother who didn't forget to ruin his reputation before dying of depression. In fact, this was the reason why he disliked the sight of Ariana.

It was because her mother had ruined his stellar reputation after knowing he had cheated, he had only shifted that hatred onto Ariana. Mr. Houston has never felt he did anything wrong by cheating on his wife since he considered it a very normal thing to do, like many men around the world.

And as a noble man's wife, he expected that even if his wife later knows of it, she should feign ignorance but no, that woman just had to overreact and act like it was the end of the world!

The worst part was that she soon fell sick because of it and her family made an issue out of it and let everyone know it was because he cheated.

Unbelievable! 

Because of this, he had watched heartlessly on the side as his current wife with whom he has cheated with then went to provoke that woman over and over again and persuade her give up her position to her. His current wife thought it was because he loved her deeply that he allowed it but she never knew it was because he hoped that the woman would die faster.

And he did get his wish as one day, probably unable to take it any longer, she had taken sleeping pills in depression and took her own life.

To disgust that woman's family further and avenge himself, a month after her death, he had married his current wife and further cemented the fact that he had drove his ex-wife to death because he loved the mistress too deeply. His mistress and now, wife also believed it up till date.

But little did she know that she was only being used as a gun to deal with people he hated and didn't want to see. For example, his daughter.

It was a cruel truth but Mr. Houston still managed to do all this without an iota of guilt, instead he felt it was all well-deserved.

The only reason why he was now paying attention to Ariana was because of the man behind her. The presence of that man made him feel uneasy and fear that things would soon veer out of his control.

He had called Ariana back for a reason and that was to act as his puppet heir until he was able to give birth to a son.

Oh, and that was not with his current wife since he had already poisoned her as he felt she was unworthy of giving birth to his heir. Rather he had women(yes, multiple women) outside who he had been urgently trying to impregnate but unfortunately, his efforts has been futile so far.

Therefore, he wanted to meet with Ariana's man and offer him some benefits to persuade him not to help her and only then can he be able to sleep peacefully at night without fear that his temporary puppet heir would slip out of his control!