8. Left Behind

Meanwhile, in the empty building where Mark and Aileen had been held, Mark was left behind, trying his best to knock down one thug after another who had ganged up on him. It was hard; he was knocked down several times while trying to attack one, but he was caught from behind by the other. Damn it!

"Aaarrggh!"

He groaned in pain several times, though he tried to hold it in, not wanting to be humiliated.

The situation was made worse by the presence of William, who immediately pulled his gun from his pocket. The saboteur was not fooling around. He had a gun, but he was probably still reluctant to use it on Aileen.

"Two principled people!" William shouted angrily. His voice was that of a wounded lion. He must have been afraid that Aileen, who managed to escape, would expose everything.

Ah, at least Aileen is safe, Mark thought as he didn't see any of the thugs who had chased Aileen earlier return with the girl. He had to put his hands up because he didn't want to be shot by William, who was overwhelmed by this skill.

"Feel this!"

Several punches and kicks were thrown by the two thugs, with another one grabbing Mark's arms from behind. It was a fight that was not worth fighting, especially with the muzzle of William's gun pointed at his head.

After inflicting many bruises on Mark's body, they decided to tie the man up again. This time, it was on a chair, so Mark could not move freely or do any tricks to undo the rope.

Meanwhile, William was seen calling someone to talk about Aileen, who had run away.

"The woman who ran away finds her rented apartment quickly. Ask Laura for the address. And remember, catch her quietly!"

Mark heard it with his breath still racing. In his heart, he hoped that Aileen would not be stupid enough to return to her apartment. Hopefully, she was smart enough to go to the police station.

The three thugs kicked him one last time, cursing him, and then closed the door, not forgetting to lock it from the outside.

The pain and crushing of his body was felt by Mark only now. He whimpered softly, unheard.

It was already dark. There were no lights in the room. It was getting late. He don't know how late, but that means the police station must be closed.

He wondered if Aileen had arrived and gotten help.

"Is my cell phone not being tracked at all? Why hasn't help arrived yet?" he muttered between groans.

And not long after that, he seemed to hear the sound of approaching vehicles. Not one, but two. Then, there was a cacophony outside, the sound of shouting, banging, and even gunfire.

Immediately, Mark felt saved. It seemed to be help from his side.

And sure enough, at the exact same second, the door was forced open by several men in black and black uniforms with a large H logo surrounded by smaller Corp lettering. It was the logo of Howard Textile.

"Good, you've finally come," he said as the bodyguards untied him and led him to the car.

"Can you walk, Sir?" someone asked, to which Mark replied with a wave of his hand, indicating that he didn't need to be carried.

His legs were limping a bit from being attacked so hard earlier. And he also had to clutch his chest because it was a bit painful to walk. Truly, he will clearly remember the faces of the thugs who did this so that he can give a proper answer later. Later, after he had found Aileen and made sure she was okay.

"It seems that the three big thugs were easily taken down by the H Corp bodyguards. But there's no William! Shit!

"Where's the other one?" asked Mark in a slightly panicked tone.

"Which one, sir? We only found these three," replied one of the people he knew quite well, Mr. Tom, something like the head of the H Corp bodyguard team.

"Ah, shit! Do a sweep. The other one must have gotten away. I didn't hear a car leave before your car came," Mark ordered loudly to the squad of no less than eight men.

"A gentleman in a suit and shiny shoes," Mark said, refraining from calling him a careless idiot.

Immediately, the eight people spread out in all directions after retrieving their flashlights from the car. All of them hunted for William, armed with enough clues to find a man in the darkness of the deserted forest night.

"Are you all right, Sir?" Mr. Tom approached Mark, who looked very pitiful.

But Mark ignored him. He approached.

"Where did William go, huh?" asked Mark as his foot kicked one of the bound thugs who could no longer move.

There was no answer other than not knowing that they were echoing. This annoyed him, and he kicked again to avenge his earlier pain.

"The saboteur is running away! Damn it! What took you so long, huh?" Mark cursed Mr. Tom, who was still trying to understand the situation.

"Uh, I'm sorry, sir. I just found the last location of Mr. Mark's cell phone, which is far away from here. We searched there for almost a day and didn't find any clues. Then Mr. Lucas told me to check his cell phone number, and we finally came here. Mr. Tom explained the conditions they had experienced since they had last lost contact with Mark.

They had been on guard for a long time when Mark was in charge of investigating the scandal at the Manhattan branch. When access to Mark's cell phone was lost, it was a sign that Mark needed help, and they would come by to track the phone's last location.

"Well, now track down where William's cell phone is. Find the damn bandit and hand him over to Lucas!" Mark ordered.

"Done!" Mr. Tom replied as he hurried back to the car.

Mark followed close behind, then quickly remembered to borrow the other car.

"Take care of this one, Sir. I need to catch up with my partner, who left first," Mark said to Mr. Tom, who agreed in a respectful tone.

Mark was highly respected by the bodyguards. Even though their boss was Lucas, Mr. Lucas himself had given them a mandate to obey all orders from Mark.

Mark drove his SUV as fast as he could in the middle of the road full of black bushes. He wanted to find out Aileen's whereabouts quickly because there was no one else he could contact. Both of their cell phones had been confiscated and thrown away somewhere.

But his feeling was that she had survived and was nowhere to be found. He didn't know where to look. At least she was moving because if she just stayed still and waited for news, she obviously wouldn't be able to bear the fear.

"Poor Aileen. The