Just as he was about to carry her up to the hotel room, a loud crash echoed from the sandalwood door as it was kicked wide open.
Callum’s face went dark as he saw Elspeth lying motionless in Arthur’s arms. Although he looked sickly, he still managed to exude a threatening aura. “Put Elspeth down, Arthur!”
When he was unconscious, he overheard Elspeth say that she would meet Arthur at the hotel. He tried his hardest to pry his eyes open when he felt the emptiness beside him to look for her. Just as expected, he found her there.
“That was quick of you, Callum,” Arthur sneered. It was frankly not within his calculations that Callum would still have the strength to come over when he was poisoned. Nevertheless, Arthur had to give him credit for his tenacity.
“Well, I wouldn’t have known you were such a b*stard if I didn’t.”
Callum coughed softly with a hand over his mouth and tried to suppress the ill effects of the poison on his person. His gaze landed on Elspeth in Arthur’s arms as fury lit up in his eyes. “Aren’t you releasing her?”
“Let her go?”
Arthur jeered, “Have you forgotten that you’re poisoned, Callum? You won’t be able to beat me no matter how proficient you are at fighting.”
“Who told you that I came alone?”
Suddenly, a group of burly men showed up from behind Callum. They were all packed with muscles, making it an intimidating scene.
That made Arthur’s smile disappear in an instant. “You’re pretty clever.”
“You only have one minute, Arthur. Put Elspeth down and hand over the ginkgo.”
Callum’s words felt like a joke to Arthur as he sharply rebuffed, “Elspeth is in my hands now. Shouldn’t you be the one listening to my demands?” How dare Calum threaten me? I guess he doesn’t care about Elspeth’s life!
“You’re only one man here, Arthur. You don’t even have a single chip to barter against me.”
“Is that so?”
Arthur had no regard for Callum’s taunt as he smashed the glass onto the floor and picked up a shard, threateningly holding it against Elspeth’s neck with a manic smile. “Elspeth’s life for my freedom. That should be enough, Callum.”
Callum hesitated for a moment before calmly answering, “Okay. Release her, and I’ll let you go.”
“Aww. You wanna play the hero and save the damsel in distress. I’ll return her to you once I get out.”
Then, Arthur held onto Elspeth’s waist as he slowly made his way out.
Callum didn’t stop him as he followed quietly behind. Then, he even caught Elspeth, who was thrown to the ground as Arthur got into the cab.
After the car drove off, Callum once again looked down at Elspeth, who was in his arms, only to see that she had opened her eyes, and they contained a hint of gleeful triumph. “You’re alright?”
It was good news to him that Elspeth wasn’t unconscious, but she tricked him too!
“Yea. It was an act. He said that the ginkgo was in the room, but it didn’t feel right for someone as sneaky as him to reveal his ace up his sleeves to me so easily. So, I pretended to faint under his drug and frisked him.”
Elspeth raised her dainty hand and playfully shook a small glass bottle that displayed the ginkgo for all to see.
Callum shook his head in resignation as an amused smile crept onto his face. “Arthur will be furious.”
“Who cares? He was the one who started it!”
He looked over her from top to bottom. Once he was confident that she was alright, he finally relaxed a tad before asking, “How did you discover the drug?”
She felt that Arthur’s drug was like child’s play and scorned, “I noticed it with just one whiff. That’s such a simple drug that I didn’t even want to waste my time making it when I started learning medicine.”
Callum almost forgot that the person he was worried about was Elspeth, the medical genius. He was purely overthinking it.
“Wait. Why are you here? Didn’t you pass out?”
His eyes darkened as he quietly replied, “I realized you were missing when I woke up and recalled what you said when I was unconscious. So, I came here and found you.”
Fortunately, he arrived in time. If Arthur had been more ruthless… He didn’t dare think of the consequences.
“Let’s go. You and Frank will recover just fine once I’m done whipping up the antidote.”
Callum nodded in agreement, and their entire procession returned to the Joneson Residence.
The process of making the medicine was brief. Elspeth soon came over with a bottle filled with light yellow powder after tinkering for a while.
“I can’t do anything advanced with the lack of equipment here. So, I can’t turn them into pills, but the effect is the same. Here you go.”
Callum picked up the medicine bottle and watched the liquid swirl around as he raised an eyebrow. “What happens if you poison me to death?”
Elspeth, on the other hand, was amused by him. “If I wanted you dead, I would have transferred all your assets under your name to mine. Besides, who would use such an expensive herb as a poison? That’s a huge capital. It’s easier to slit your throat in your sleep.”
She was right. The market price for this ginkgo was sky-high. People fought for it as it was extremely scarce. It was indeed overkill to use it as poison.
However, he still found what she said funny and couldn’t help but chuckle at the imagery.
“What are you laughing at?”
“You’re cute.”
He was only stating the facts.
Elspeth shot daggers at him with her hands on her hips like a petulant child. “What’s cute?’
Callum glanced at her from the corner of his eyes before commenting, “Small things… are cute.”
She couldn’t fault him for saying that. Elspeth was tall and fair with long slender legs. It was just that she wasn’t really curvy.
She immediately understood what he was hinting at and covered her chest. She returned the favor by scanning him up and down before teasing, “Hm, you too. Small and cute.”
Her insinuation immediately triggered his dissatisfaction as his eyes darkened. His tone was dangerously low when he drawled, “Small?”
Elspeth hadn’t realized the severity of the situation as she thought her retort was successful at his disappearing smile and nodded her head proudly. “What? You’re annoyed by what I said? Don’t worry, Callum. Even if you really… I wouldn’t leave you.”
Callum restrained his temper, and his tone was even as he tossed her a question, “Why don’t you give it a try?”
“Try what?”
“If it’s small or not.”
Elspeth’s face instantly became beet red. She couldn’t continue the dirty conversation and sat on the edge of the bed, looking a little lost.
Callum lifted his hand and curled his finger as he gave her a knock on the head. “Remember to stop saying nonsense next time. Else, don’t blame me for bullying you.”
Elspeth understood what he meant by the word bully despite being inexperienced in terms of intimacy. So, she scrambled to back away. “Fine, you win. Have a good rest. I’ve got to go to the hospital to treat Frank.”
With that, she ran out of the room as though a pack of hellhounds was on her tail.
The doors were slammed shut before Callum could even say goodbye. Then, he slowly curled his lips into a small smile as he recalled her panicked reaction.
After all, it was only a matter of time before…
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