THE following day, Blaze complained in silence when the head engineer suddenly called a meeting late in the afternoon and scolded everyone for a missing design on an ongoing project.“Oh, God! Help me. I don’t understand a thing,” Blaze murmured to Max, who was sitting beside him, just chilling with his arms crossed.“As long as you had nothing to do with the missing files, there will be no trouble,” Max whispered back, enjoying the view of the fuming old man.“Find that bastard! I know he’s a spy. He wiped out every important file!” The head engineer, Travis, was an old man nearing his retirement.No one uttered a word; all the staff members gazed downward, aware that Travis would unflinchingly react to any disruption in work.“We’re losing billions if we can't retrieve it in time!” Travis walked back and forth with his clenched fist. “Damn. Even the IT department said it would take time.”Meanwhile, Max had nothing to do but watch the chandelier on the conference room’s ceiling unti

“HOLY shit! I thought we’d ride a bike!” Blaze was dumbfounded to witness a helicopter inside the hangar. It was around noontime when Max decided to go.“We’ll ride this beast to Turner’s Estate. Come on!” Max threw a headset, which Blaze quickly caught.“We can request our private pilot to fly us there, Boss. It’s cloudy; I can even see a bolt of lightning.”Max clicked his tongue. “I miss piloting this baby. I’ll go alone if you don't hop in. I can’t believe you’d chicken out of mere turbulence, Blaze.”“Of course not. I’m ready to go!”When they were in the air, Max maneuvered the chopper with ease. Blaze kept his surprised expression as he witnessed his boss expertly flying the helicopter.In just an hour, they landed at the helipad of Turner’s mansion. Scott was there, smiling from ear to ear beside Isla.“Welcome back, Max!” Scott greeted him with a warm hug.“It’s a pleasure to join in this family hunt.” Max smiled back. And to acknowledge Isla's presence, he nodded at her. “He

AFTER cleaning himself at the hidden waterfall they discovered along the trail, Max broke his silence.“Can you please explain why such an animal that had been long extinct existed here?”“I don’t know,” Isla said, looking down. She kept averting her gaze because Max was half-naked, revealing his perfectly chiseled body with a few notable scars.To remove the bloodstain from the tiger, Max squeezed his upper tactical suit. “Then why did you keep following me?”Isla couldn’t conceal her astonishment. “Y-You knew?”Max heaved a sigh and shook his head to dry his hair. Then he fixed it with his usual man bun.“You could have been dead if I weren’t nearby.”Isla swallowed hard. How could she stay arrogant towards the person who saved her life? She was on the verge of breaking down.“I have never been here. My father had set a rule that we shouldn’t enter this forbidden forest since there were some unexplained deaths here.”“Then why did your father not brief us about the dangers of this a

THEY ran out of the dilapidated building as soon as they heard a familiar growl.“Your family is something else. But I hope you won’t mention this to outsiders,” Max said after sprinting away from the domed structure.“You are an outsider and not supposed to know about this family secret,” Isla said while trying to catch her breath.“Let’s continue. We could catch some sunlight soon if we reach the thinner part of the forest. The trees here look alive, as if they were here a million years ago.”Isla remained quiet even though she agreed with Max’s words. She stumbled with Max when he suddenly stopped running and gestured with his hand to make her stop.“Something is not right. Did you hear that?” Max looked around. It was still pitch dark, despite his wristwatch showing it was around noon.“I can’t hear anything suspicious.” Isla leaned in closer because her body was too exhausted to fight if another wild animal launched an attack.When Max looked up, he cursed hard. “Son of a bitch,