Chapter 84 Hang In There, Five Hundred Bucks Await
Encouraged, perhaps genuinely, the bumbling teammate tightened his grip on the baseball bat, resolute, "Mm!"
"So... what about me?" The bodyguard's face was a portrait of distress.
"Suck it up today, and you'll show great endurance."
"We'll give you an award for it when we get back."
"And throw in an extra five hundred bucks this month."
Hope flared in the bodyguard's eyes as he asked eagerly, "For real? Five hundred?!"
"Right here, right now." The team leader, worried he wouldn't last, decisively pulled out five crisp hundred-dollar bills and placed them in the bodyguard's other hand. "Hang in there."
"Yeah!" Clutching the cash, he was suddenly infused with newfound strength.
Endure a little longer for that five hundred bucks
Keep it together!
Daphne watched the scene, a flicker of interest crossing her otherwise cool gaze. After sizing up their fighting capabilities and concluding she could take them on alone, she nonchalantly stepped off the groaning man's hand and casually snatched a baseball bat from another's grip.
The whole thing took mere seconds.
"No more stepping?" The bodyguard still clutched the five hundred dollars in his right hand.
Daphne glanced at the now-closed door with indifference and tossed back, "You want more of that?"
"Well, you might as well keep on stepping, and maybe a bit harder, you know, make it hurt," the bodyguard settled back down on the ground, reaching out his hand. "Otherwise, I'll feel guilty keeping this cash."
Daphne was speechless.
What kind of people were these?
"Knowing it'd be over this quick, I shouldn't have given you the money," the team leader immediately felt the sting of regret.
The bodyguard clutched the cash even tighter, speaking hurriedly, "You promised me that money. I've already planned to buy my little girl new clothes and shoes with it, and she's been dreaming of candy too!"
There was no way he'd let the money get taken back from him.
"And you," the team leader glared at the second bodyguard, "I told you to hold on tight. What happened to your grip?"
The second bodyguard was at a loss. He gripped on tightly — but this girl Daphne's strength was overwhelming.
"Do you care a lot about your daughter?" Daphne suddenly inquired of the bodyguard still sitting on the ground.
"What do you want?" He became serious and wary. "If you dare have designs on my daughter, I'll fight you to the end."
"Since you care so much about your daughter, did you know that if I pursued the matter, you could be arrested for inciting trouble and intentional assault?" Daphne spoke calmly with an air of detachment.
The group were confounded.
What now?
"If you get caught for illegal activities, it'll affect your daughter's future," Daphne pinpointed his concern, "Like when she applies for government positions, military service, or confidential research. They won't pass her security clearance."
"You... you're not kidding?" the bodyguard panicked, his accent slipping through. "Will this really affect my kid?"
"If you don't believe me, look it up online," Daphne spoke patiently.
She believed a father who cherished his daughter couldn't be all bad; some might just be trying to make a living.
The bodyguard instantly felt a surge of worry, and the others quickly whipped out their phones, their fingers flying over the screens as they began their search online.
After scrolling through the results a somber silence hung in the air; their expressions a mixture of helplessness and confusion, clearly at a loss for what to do next.
"Tell me who hired you, what the purpose is, and where the owner of that phone is right now, and I might let you off the hook," Daphne suggested, glancing at Evan's phone on the table, her tone open to negotiation.
The team leader hesitated, his face etched with difficulty. "It's not that we don't want to say, but we just can't afford the penalty for breaching our contract."
Five million dollars.
Even if they sold themselves, they couldn't cover it.
Daphne pressed, "How much?"
"Fi... Five million," the team leader confessed, since this wasn't part of the confidentiality clause. "The guy said he'd give us half a million if we completed the job, but if we spilled the beans, we'd have to pay back ten times that amount."
"I'll give you six million," Daphne proposed bluntly. "One million for you to split, and the other five million to cover your breach of contract."
The group was stunned.
Their previous concerns vanished in a heartbeat.
Now, there was only one thought in their minds: 'Is this girl for real?'
She was their target, and yet she was offering to bail them out?
"Little Miss Daphne, you...," the team leader began, wanting to give her some advice. Someone so naive could easily be taken advantage of.
Daphne had no time for this; all she wanted was the name of the manipulator constantly targeting her. "Deal or no deal?"
"Deal!" came the unanimous and eager response.
Each of them could get over a hundred thousand dollars, a year's worth of salary.
The captain was about to elaborate, but the first bodyguard decided to speak up. "I think this girl is different from what that person told us. She seems like a good person."
Daphne was puzzled.
A good person?
"What do you mean?"
"We're just members of a small company. We go where we're needed, mostly moving stuff or acting as temporary bodyguards," number one explained. "Someone approached us out of the blue yesterday, asking us to handle a task."
"Right!"
"They wanted us to hide out in a hotel, knock someone out, and then wait for half an hour to complete the mission, promising us five hundred thousand dollars afterwards."
"We were going to refuse, but they told us you were bad news, always bullying kids at school and being a disrespectful daughter."
"Yeah, that's right! We couldn't stand for that, so we agreed."
"They even provided us suits so we could get into the hotel."
The group relayed their story thoroughly, each taking their turn with the truth.
The captain had intended to stop them, but since they weren't really from a security firm, they were quite sincere and forthright: "We owe you an apology for this incident. Sorry."
"Sorry," echoed the rest of the six as they followed suit.
"Just to knock me out and leave me there for half an hour?" Daphne had the sense that something was amiss.
They nodded in affirmation, "That's it!"
"Nothing else?"
"No," came the response.
Daphne felt a sudden sense of disorientation, unable to grasp the true intentions of the mysterious figure behind this.
With a notion of clarity, she decided to probe further. "Who is this guy? What does he look like? Do you have a picture of him?"
"No, it's always been phone calls. The contract just appeared out of thin air at our doorstep." The team leader confessed with a guileless frankness. "We thought it was a scam at first, but then he wired us two hundred grand upfront."
"I need that phone number," Daphne stated succinctly.
After some hesitation, the team leader handed it over. The thought of almost having committed a crime filled him with remorse.
Daphne made a note of the number, and feeling her day hadn't been totally derailed, she made an offer: "Who's going to cover the breach of contract fee? Give me a bank card, and I'll arrange for someone to transfer the money to you."
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