"I know," Foreman interrupted impatiently. "Have you warned the men? If anyone betrays me, their families will pay the price."


    "They''ve been warned, sir," his assistant whispered. "There won''t be any


    problems on that end... but Master Keen is in real danger. I''m worried something might happen..."


    Foreman''s brow furrowed. "What danger? Haynes has already rescued him."


    There was a pause on the other end. "Rescued by Mr. O''Brien? Sir, the people who took Master Keen weren''t Mr. O''Brien''s men."


    "If it wasn''t Haynes, then who was it?"


    "It was the Gibson family!" his assistant cried. "Mr. Richards, why would you think it was Mr. O''Brien?"


    Foreman''s face drained of color. "The Gibsons? Are you sure it was really them?"


    "Yes, sir," his assistant said, his voice choked with tears. "We saw Stuart''s father during the firefight... Now that Master Keen is in his hands, I fear the worst!"


    Foreman''s heart sank. His reflection in the rearview mirror was a pale, ghostly mask. He had nned a fake kidnapping, but he had never intended any real harm toe t Keen. The boy was Ste<fnbd14> This update is avable on fι?dnοvel</fnbd14>


    Haynes''s son, and he had known him for years. He was genuinely fond of him. This was all supposed to be a ploy to get rid of Joshua, not to hurt Keen. If anything happened to him, Ste would hate him


    forever.


    A wave of pure panic washed over him.


    "Stuart''s father saw us and dropped all pretense, his assistant continued, his voice trembling. "He said we forced his hand. He had fost his son and was ready to ept his fate, but then we pushed him to the brink, ruined himpletely. He said he has nothing left to lose and wants to drag a few people down with him before he dies."


    vel


    The assistant paused, then sighed. "Mr. Richards, I told you not to push the Gibson family into a corner, avoid them doing something desperate. Stuart got what he deserved. Was it really necessary to set up those business traps and drive his family into ruin NOW Gibson mes Ms. Cameron for everything. He might retaliate by killing Master Keen!"


    To this day, Gibson still believed that Foreman''s men were sent by Ste to "protect" Keen. The Gibson family had suffered heavy casualties trying to abduct the boy, and now that debt would be added to Ste''s ount, putting Keen in even more danger.


    Foreman mmed his fist on the steering wheel in a fit of rage. "I was just trying to get revenge for Ste!" he snarled. "What did I do wrong? This is all Joshua''s fault! If he hadn''t killed Stuart, none of this would have happened! He''s the one to me!"


    His assistant fell silent. He remembered a time when Foreman, too, believed Stuart deserved to die. He would have done the same thing, just not so publicly.


    "Mr. Richards," the assistant asked, breaking the silence, "what do we do now?"


    Foreman was at a loss. He had never imagined that by a cruel twist of fate, Gibson would actually kidnap Keen.