The next morning, Jack Cross and Mia were taking Sophia and Emma to their school before going to Mia’s father’s building.

As they were travelling, the driver looked back from the side-view mirror a couple of times and then warned his passengers, “Everyone, hang on; I am going to make a hard turn.”

Suddenly, the limousine turned left, and Mia wondered why the sudden change, making her driver explain, “I think we are being followed, Miss Mia.”

While Mia was nervously looking through the back window, Jack asked, “Do you recognize the car, Mia?”

“No, I can’t say I do. Is this another kidnapping attempt?”

Jack frowned while looking at the side mirror and said, “As soon as you can, stop the car the moment you make another turn. We need to find a place to hide instead of going around and trying to lose our pursuers.”

With a slight grin, Sophia asked, “What about if instead of hiding we went for a hunt?”

“What are you thinking?” asked Jack with a smile.

“You and I hide in the corner when the limousine stops. Whoever is in that car will also stop, and then we can take care of them. Last time, you were all alone with only this spoiled brat as backup. Now I am here.”

While Emma was looking astonished at her friend, Jack said to the driver, “You heard her. Find a place to drop us off, and immediately stop this car.”

“You are going to jump out with the car moving? Are you nuts?” asked the driver, not knowing if he was hearing right.

“You just need to slow down on the next curve, then stop right after. Preferably, in a street with not many people. We will take it from there. Sophia, get ready.”

With their eyes wide open, Emma and Mia shouted almost at the same time, “What the heck?”

Sophia and Jack grabbed the door handle and waited. The driver made a hard turn, slowed the limousine, and entered a deserted alley.

Taking that chance, Sophia and her father got out and crouched right next to the right wall of the alley, behind a bunch of rubbish cans.

The driver stopped the limousine, and the car, which was following them the moment it made the curve, almost crashed into it.

The driver and another man came out, both armed, pointing at the limousine. Jack signalled for Sophia to wait, and then another man came from the back seat, a very familiar one.

Inside the limousine, Mia shouted, “Douglas! What do you think you are doing?”

“What am I doing? What do you think I am doing? Your boyfriend! Where is he? I am going to skin him alive and make you watch! Then I am going to have you every way I want! I am going to make you scream so much that, in the end, you will beg me to kill you! And I will use and abuse you even more!”

Before Douglas Clark could take another step towards the limousine, Jack and Mia jumped from their hiding place with a bang. Or, better yet, two bangs. Jack threw two rubbish cans at the armed men and jumped to them, while Sophia ran straight to Douglas.

The rubbish cans hit both armed men on their heads, messing with their aim and balance, giving enough time for Jack Cross to reach them. Two punches on one man, one kick on the left knee and an uppercut on the other, and both fell to the ground.

As for Douglas Clark, he looked at his two men the moment he heard the noise of the rubbish cans and didn’t see that Sophia was closing on him fast.

As soon as she was near, Sophia kicked Douglas’ groins, making him bend forward, only to get a knee on his face, which broke his nose and sent him backwards.

Sophia jumped and landed with both feet on Douglas’ stomach, making him curl in pain. A barrage of punches mixed with elbow hits turned his already bloodied face into a complete mess. With one last kick to his groins at full force, Sophia walked backwards, glancing at her father to be sure he was safe and that he had taken care of the other two men.

When she saw him approaching the messed-up body that she left at her feet, Sophia leisurely walked to the other men and picked up one of the rubbish cans.

While her father was crouching near Douglas Clark and seating him up by his hair, Sophia hit the two knocked-out men with the rubbish cans all over their faces and heads.

When her father looked back at her, she said, while raising the rubbish can again, “What? I don’t want one of them to wake up and surprise us from behind! They are not going to die because of this, but they will have one massive headache tomorrow!”

Jack Cross faced the mess of blood and lost teeth and said in a harsh voice, “You didn’t learn, and this time, you tried to go after Mia. My daughter was too nice to you, but I don’t share her kindness. I am going to make sure you understand it is not good for your health to mess with me or Mia. You said you were going to skin me alive, so now I am going to show you what happens to anyone who threatens me.”

With a hard push, Jack threw the dizzy-and-crying-in-pain Douglas against the nearest wall, making him mark the wall with his bloodied face as if it were strange graffiti.

When Douglas fell to the ground, Jack raised him and used his face to draw a couple of lines on the wall to complete the graffiti tag. When Jack saw that Sophia was holding the metal lid of a rubbish can after hitting the two knocked men on their heads, he asked her to lend it to him and used it to break Douglas both hands, then his knees and feet.

He continued to the elbows, and finally, two powerful hits to Douglas’ groins were the last drop. Jack heard a low ‘poof’ sound as if something had exploded, and he then dropped the lid the moment he saw Douglas’ trousers filled with blood.

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While Sophia was using a handkerchief to clean hers and her father’s fingerprints from everything they used or touched, like she had seen on television in a crime series, Jack checked Douglas’ pockets and the pockets of the two men, relieving them of any weapons, watches, and wallets. Then he went to the car they used and checked for valuables.

When he went to the limousine to drop everything he had gathered, Sophia cleaned the car, including the door handle that her father had touched. She then rushed to the limousine and sat on the back seat while cleaning her hands and elbows from Douglas’ blood.

The driver drove the limousine straight ahead, leaving the alley and using a couple of side streets to make sure no one was following them again.

Mia and Emma were completely pale, unable to mutter a single word after such a display of cruelty. Some minutes later, Mia stuttered, “P-Perhaps I should c-call for an ambulance… anonymously, of course…”

While massaging his knuckles, Jack said, “Perhaps it would be better. Or you stay put and let that bastard die from blood loss. I couldn’t care less.”

Sophia opened the window on her side and threw away the handkerchief full of blood and after taking a deep breath, she said with a grin, “It has been a while since the last time I went all out. It was kind of refreshing. I think that guy won’t ever approach you, dad. Or any of us, for that matter.”

Mia asked everyone to be silent while she pressed a sequence of buttons on her mobile phone before calling the emergency number.

The operator answered. Mia spoke in a high-pitched voice, saying that she saw someone being robbed in an alley and gave a general description of the location, hanging up right after.

She sighed while looking at the screen and said, “At least I learned how to make anonymous phone calls before all this… Jack… do you think Douglas will die because of that?”

“You are worried about him? Really? After what he said he was going to do to me and you?”

“No, of course not! It’s just… I wasn’t expecting you to do all that…” She then faced Sophia and almost shouted, “And you, dumbass, what the heck was that? Do you have a loose screw on your head? You can’t do that to people! For whatever the reason!”

With a serious look on her face, Sophia answered, “Last thing I heard, you caused all this. If you had put that guy in a hospital because of his weird advances, this wouldn’t have happened. I would be ashamed if I ever let a guy go after me to force me to do anything because I didn’t beat him up for being too frisky with me! We are going to have a serious talk, lady, about your spoiled upbringing! A woman shouldn’t ever let a guy stalk her to the point where he thought he had any right to force her to do anything!”

“Who are you to scold me, little girl? Your head is broken if you think you can beat a guy like that! And you could have died because of that stunt! What if Douglas had a gun, and he had shot you when you jumped on him?”

Noticing that Mia had tears running down her face, Sophia blinked and asked, “Wait a minute… Were you really that worried about me?”

Without answering, Mia hugged Sophia tight and said in a low voice while squeezing her tight, “Don’t you ever scare me like that! Ever! I don’t know what I would do if you got hurt because of me! Or because of that sick bastard!”

Sophia looked at her father, who was making a slight smile, and he said, “It seems she likes you way more than she would like to admit. We better return home for a while to change clothes. We have blood all over.”

Mia let Sophia go, stared at her school’s uniform, and said with a frown, “There are blood drops all over you.” She then looked at her dress and complained, “And now my dress is all dirty! That’s it! No school for you, little girl! And no work for me and your father! We are going to a clothes shop to buy new clothes, and we are taking the day off!”

With a big smile, Emma Pearson asked, “That includes me? Because I wouldn’t say no to a day off or new clothes!”

“Of course, you are included! Besides, we need to have a strong alibi for today, so what better could we ask if we got some nice security camera shots in a shopping mall, buying everything we would fancy? My treat!”

Emma spoke with a frown. “A shopping mall? That is so lame, Miss Mia! I thought you were filthy rich! Why can’t we go to an expensive shop? I can go to a shopping mall with my parents and buy clothes, but today I want brand names, famous stylist designs, and to be pampered by the sales ladies! I deserve it after all this stress!”

“You are absolutely right! Let’s go to a few shops I know and have lunch in a very high-end restaurant! I don’t care if tomorrow I will be in a few social magazines because I was seen walking around and shopping with people that my usual social circuit doesn’t know! Let’s have fun the entire day to forget all the nonsense in that alley!”

“Nonsense? It wasn’t nonsense! I had fun beating up those guys!” Sophia said with a grin, earning a slap on her forehead from a very annoyed Mia Mills, who warned her, “Shut up! That back there never happened! You hear? Never happened!”

Jack looked in the rearview mirror and cleaned his face while saying, “We should stop at my house first to clean the blood. We can’t go anywhere like this.”

“Okay, one quick stop to clean up, then have fun!” Mia said while poking Sophia’s forehead, and she continued, “And you need to learn how to control that violent side of yours! Little girls aren’t supposed to be that violent!”

Sophia poked Mia’s forehead and said, “And big women shouldn’t be so helpless, and here you are! Shut your trap, you spoiled rich brat!”

While squeezing Sophia’s ear, Mia asked with a smile, “Who are you calling helpless, kid? Last time we fought, I knocked you out a couple of times, remember?”

“I don’t remember any of that; you dreamed! There is no way a spoiled chick like you could ever knock me out!”

“Perhaps we should go to the gym instead of going shopping to make you remember!”

“Perhaps we should!”

Emma shouted, and everyone looked at her. “Shut up! Annoying brats! Crazy bastards! I got enough of your bickering! You are going to behave complain., and you won’t annoy me today! This is my day off, and I am going to have fun, so I don’t need dumb women near me! You hear?”

Sophia and Mia went silent and immediately nodded, making Jack sigh and complain, “I thought they were better, but I guess I was wrong.”

The driver spoke while disguising a smile. “But you have to agree they are funny.”

“Funny, my butt! You say that because you are not near them every day!”

“You know, they kind of act like mother and daughter sometimes. Other times, they are like mortal enemies. Like I said, funny indeed.”

Mia and Sophia looked at each other with their mouths wide open, and Sophia said, “I am not going to call you mommy anytime soon!”

“As if I would want that! I would have to call you, daughter! There is no way I will ever do that! I don’t want a crazy brat like you for a daughter!”

Emma pulled Mia’s and Sophia’s ears and asked with a wicked grin, “What did I say? What did I say? Go on, continue, and give me a reason to take off your ears!”

“Hey! We are joking, alright? Geez, Emma, let go!” Sophia complained, with Mia confirming, “Yes, we are just joking! I would love to have Sophia as a daughter!”

“What? What did you say?” asked Sophia, completely blown away.

“I… I didn’t say a thing! You dreamed!”