Their Mistake, Her Rise - Chapter 427: Chapter 427

She was thinking, 'What a bunch of useless idiots. Not only did they fail to get rid of Zoe, but they almost exposed me. Whatever. I'll just wait. Once I get cozy with the most powerful guy around here, Zoe's dead meat.'
By the time Zoe made it back to Universal Tower, it was already late at night. Shawn was discussing their plans to return home with Rick and the others.
Rick and the others had some urgent business to attend to and needed to return to Clusia ahead of schedule. Shawn, however, had figured out that Zoe still had things to take care of and had decided to stay behind with her.
When Rick and the others saw Zoe, they shot her a look of pure disgust and stormed off.
Shawn approached Zoe and asked, "Everything go okay?"
Zoe could see Shawn fishing for details, but she kept it simple. "Yeah, just catching up with some old acquaintances."
She changed the subject. "Are they giving you trouble again?"
Zoe shrugged and replied, "We just don't see eye to eye on a few things. Nothing serious."
Zoe realized Shawn didn't want to worry her, so she didn't press further. But staying quiet didn't mean staying out of it. She believed a legendary warrior like Shawn shouldn't have to waste his time on this kind of business bullshit.
The Ludwig and White family businesses were deeply entangled, and separating them would be a delicate process. But Zoe had made up her mind. Once in Clusia, she'd pay Joseph a visit and hash out a plan to dump the White family for good.
Shawn led Zoe into his room. Zoe plopped down on the sofa and asked, "So, are they pushing you to go back home?"
"Yeah, but I turned them down," he replied with a shrug.
The underground auction was three days out, and they had a mountain of prep work left.
"Bet they didn't take that well," Zoe said.
Shawn stayed quiet for a beat. "Nothing gets past you. Yeah, they tried to pull rank. It didn't work. I have this."
He handed her a sheet of paper. It was a wanted poster for a vicious international drug lord. Shawn was the agent assigned to the case.
'So that's it,' Zoe thought. 'Shawn had this assignment before he even came here. No wonder he wasn't sweating them.'
Zoe could already picture Rick and the others losing their minds. "If you're going after that wanted criminal, count me in. We can start by shaking down some leads."
'Besides,' she thought, 'sitting around here is a total drag. This sounds like way more fun.'
Rick and his inner circle were having their own little war council in the room. There was only one item on their agenda: Zoe.
One of them sneered, "She's nothing but trouble. We're not in Clusia anyway. Why don't we just hire some locals and put her in the ground?"
"Once Zoe is out of the picture, I'm sure Shawn will go back to being our good little soldier," another one added.
Their goal was as simple as it was disgusting: to keep a legendary warrior like Shawn as their own personal attack dog, a weapon to advance their careers.
Rick listened, frowning at the raw, stupid ambition on their faces. He thought, 'They see the asset, but they don't see the man. You can't keep a hawk in a small cage.
'Sooner or later, he'll be strong enough to break the bars, and then none of us will be able to hold him.
'These morons are thinking way too small. This isn't about Zoe. She's just the flashpoint.
'She's just the flashpoint. If we don't solve the core problem, there will always be another Zoe. The problem isn't the girl he's with. The problem is Shawn himself.'
Just then, there was a knock at the door. "Rick? It's Sophia. I need to talk to you."
Recognizing Sophia's voice, Rick waved everyone out. The Zoe problem could wait. He told his crew to go back and figure out a better plan.
Once they all cleared out, Sophia walked in. "Shawn and Zoe are practically glued together. You gonna do something about it or what?" she complained, her voice full of frustration.