Chapter 18

Yvonne turned her head, and Damon's jagged and conspicuous features—his tanned skin now suffused in a luster of bronze under the sunlight—looked so beautiful to her, like the Greek god, Apollo.

But what was more surprising was his willingness to rescue her after his suspicion of her. "Thank you, Mr. Brown, for saving me!" She cried sincerely.

Sitting beside her, he held the reins with one hand around her slim waist, holding her so close to him that his chin rested on her head. "And here I was thinking that you would have me wheeling back to check on that woman, Ms. York," he remarked dryly.

"Well I suppose I would have been the one being kicked by a horse if you had not saved me, Mr. Brown." Yvonne shrugged, feigning innocence. "Why should I take any interest in that woman's wellbeing?"

In fact, Yvonne would have hoped that Yvette to be killed above all else. Seeing her being viciously kicked and trampled by her own mount made Yvonne extremely happy!

In her heart, Yvonne felt more grateful towards Damon for what he did.

Damon himself was surprised too. He did not expect the woman in his arms to be so candidly frank, unlike most other women who would intentionally put up a weak and meek facade to garner sympathy and concern.

"So, you're rather enjoying this?" he asked, his voice laced with a tinge of curiosity.

"Of course!" Yvonne chirped mirthfully, "And I can see that you are not one to fall for the ruse of doe-eyed damsels in distress yourself."

"Hahaha!" Damon Brown's chest heaved as he bellowed in laughter, genuinely amused by Yvonne's remark.

Snuggling closely to each other, Yvonne could feel the contours of his rock hard chest and abdominal muscles, as well as the scent-filled air that mixed with their hormones.

That made her blood pulsed quicker and she shifted uneasily to keep herself upright.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"My superiors at MSRA instructed me to come here. I'm supposed to meet somebody to collect some data," she explained. "The specialist will arrive today, so we arranged to meet here."

"What's his name?" Damon Brown asked, his heading bobbing slightly to the gait of their mount.

"Luis," she replied.

"I know him, let me take you to him," Damon said.

He spurred his mount and it accelerated to a hard gallop, gliding across the grassy pastures.

As they rode, the vista before them opened into an endless expanse of green fields, with blades of grass gleaming with a sheen of gold in the sunlight.

Never once in the three years of her captivity Yvonne had felt such thrill and exhilaration. She felt so carefree and relaxed.

Mitchell Cook might still be far beyond her reach. But she knew. So long as she remained alive, so long as she still drew breathe, there would come the day where she could finally avenge herself and her family!

Damon brought Yvonne to the building of the riding club and let her down before he rode off.

By the time Yvonne retrieved her data and came out, he was already gone, his lean and handsome back disappearing into the distance.

Yvonne busied herself with work at MSRA Labs for the next few days.

Between her heavy workload that resulted in her leaving late and a night of insomnia that was not helped by Noelle York's weak and frail body, Yvonne felt her legs wobbling when she left MSRA.

For that reason, she failed to notice how she had been followed. She walked into an alley and a few men pounced at her from behind...

Inside a black luxury sedan.

"This is your checkup report, Mr. President," Damon's personal assistant, Kyle Pegg handed him an envelope when he got in.

Damon took it, flipped on the interior lights and began poring through his report.

Damon was one of six brothers and sisters—four males and two females. His two sisters grew up healthily and usually stayed in the older wings of the Brown family estate.

While Damon was the youngest and the last living one out of the four males.

Damon's older brothers all died at the age of 32 for unknown mysterious reasons. This raised suspicion and brewed rumors that Damon's generation was cursed not to live beyond the age of 32.

And because of the Brown brothers' early demise, Erick's father, the eldest of the Brown brothers, married early and had him. The second of the Brown brothers had a daughter while the third died before he could even walk down the aisle.

That left the Browns now in a pressing conundrum: Damon was the last living male of his generation and so was Erick.

But Damon Brown was never a man espoused to believing superstition. Even until now, he remained adamantly invested in the belief that his brothers' deaths were all part of somebody's evil plot. One that he had yet to uncover.

That drove him to conduct a full physical examination on himself every six months, in addition to the usual blood tests every month.