Chapter 192 Daphne, You're Something Else
Daphne resolved the imminent threat as she propped Charles up and laid him on the bed. Until the moment he lost consciousness, Charles had no inkling that Daphne had called him out just to knock him out and eliminate him as a "dangerous" threat.
To Daphne, finding the source of the scent in the room and the signal jammers was critical; otherwise, a few more hours in there, and she too might have lost her composure.
If Charles had been left in the bathroom to take cold showers, and even if he could keep his urges under control then it would be fine, but if he lost control midway and rushed out, it would have taken a lot of effort to subdue him.
Rather than face that scenario, it was better to deal with the problem beforehand. Taking safety into her own hands was a more reliable approach.
The following hour, Daphne searched meticulously, scouring every inch of the room.
Fortunately, her diligence was rewarded. Eventually, she found the source of the scents hidden in electric devices like the television and speakers, which had been opened and tampered with to insert something inside.
As for the signal jammers, there were three in total. She had to admit that whoever had installed these devices was incredibly skilled at concealing them. If it hadn’t been for a feeling that the figurine decorations were out of place in the room, she never would have guessed they were jammers.
Thankfully, after a thorough search, she found no cameras or monitoring devices.
She took care of those issues by isolating the sources of the scent with wet towels and turning off the signal jammers. And then double-checking all the devices in the room to see if they were normal and not remotely controlled. Only after all that did Daphne finally settle down on the couch to rest and think things through.
Now she had time to piece everything together. The person who had paused Kayla's actions upon hearing that Charles was pursuing her had a grudge against Charles. Given his modus operandi, he relished tormenting people's minds.
Linking all the facts together, ‘he’ might have schemed to have Charles fall for Daphne or pursue her, then kidnap her to force Charles to hand over company secrets, or... make Charles trade his life for hers.
If that was the case, at least there was a clear way to handle it. By pretending to fall in love with Charles and then faking a kidnapping to coordinate with Lucia and the team to catch the perpetrator didn't seem like a hard task.
However, the real issue was... what if she was wrong in her assumptions?
As the thoughts swirled through Daphne's head, she felt her mind becoming chaotic, and a strange sensation began to spread through her body.
She had not left the room immediately as she intended to create an illusion for the adversary, letting him believe that his plot had succeeded thus far, which would prompt him to move on to the next phase.
If she left the room now, the situation would just get even more complicated. She glanced at the time.
Considering Charles's reaction earlier, the scent's effect must be quite potent.
She figured she had to stay in the room for at least another half-hour. As time passed, the peculiar feeling in Daphne's body intensified. She realized that she had been affected too.
Even with the moist mask filtering some of it, the time she spent in the room was too long, and the substance had affected her, albeit not as severely as it had Charles.
Pressing her fingers to her temples, she cursed inwardly about the annoyance. Without a doubt, making a phone call for help was not an option; doing so would risk exposure if someone was watching the room.
Suddenly, a thought struck her. She had already turned off the signal jammer, which meant she could make a call.
Although she couldn't ask anyone to unlock the door or reveal what was happening inside, she could place a call to divert attention and suppress the reactions coursing through her body.
With this plan in mind, she made the call.
If anyone in the world could utter a word that would instantly sober her up like a bucket of cold water to the face, it was her captain.
The only question was whether the captain was on a mission or resting at this hour.
Amid a welter of complex and anxious emotions, Daphne dialed his number.
She used his private number, meaning if he wasn't at the base, he could answer; if he was at the base, it wouldn't be proper for her to call.
The ringing tone echoed, and Daphne's heart rate increased.
This was the captain. Their devilishly strict drill instructor. The times they had trained under him had been brutally tough.
Even now, remembering the way he called out their names made them instinctively tense up, their senses sharpening.
But that was the effect she was counting on.
If the captain spoke to her, she could focus all her attention on the phone call. Even if she was as affected as Charles had been, she would behave obediently.
Taking a deep breath, Daphne's heart drummed in her chest. Although the sensation in her body persisted, she couldn't be bothered with it now.
The call was answered on the fourth ring, and a voice of refined depth came through, "Daphne?"
"It's me, Captain," Daphne replied, feigning calm.
"What's the matter?" The man's voice was very pleasant, even surpassing Charles's.
Unfortunately, Daphne only remembered the stern commands he'd give during training; she'd never been bothered to think if they sounded good or bad. She carefully chose her words, speaking with feigned seriousness, "It's nothing. Just suddenly thought about the times you trained us, and realized we haven't stayed in touch for the last couple of years, so I thought I'd give you a call to say hi."
"What did you do this time?" The captain mercilessly saw through her lie.
Daphne was silent. Was she someone who loved to stir up trouble?
Meanwhile, the captain was at his house, lounging in casual house clothes. His sharp features were extremely handsome, and he carried himself with an air of nobility, "Did you lose a game of Truth or Dare with Evan Winston and the others?"
"How could that possibly be..." Daphne felt a bit guilty.
Using the captain as a means to calm her nerves was risky, and if he found out, there was no telling how she'd have to clean up the mess afterward.
Hearing her response, the man on the other end of the phone, with his narrow eyes that seemed to see through everything, said, "Will you come clean, or should I ask you in person?"
Suddenly, Daphne didn't want to continue the call. Though she had managed to suppress that feeling in her body, the captain was truly not someone easy to fool.
Coincidentally, Charles murmured something at that moment, calling out her name, "Daphne..."
Daphne was shocked! She was usually someone who kept her cool, but right then, she really couldn't.
‘The captain didn't hear that, did he? Maybe... he didn't...’ she prayed and hoped that her dilemma wasn’t discovered, yet.
"Daphne..." Charles continued to murmur her name intermittently, his voice laced with a seductive and beguiling tone.
"I've got a bit of an emergency here," Daphne decided she had calmed down enough and didn't need to stay on the line any longer, "I need to hang up now."
"Daphne, you're indeed something," the man on the other end simply stated.
Daphne was silent. She felt she needed to explain. Her name, spoken like that... it meant the captain was angry... and his anger meant he had heard it before.
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