The only reason the glass of whiskey of Monroe, as the man has been called, survived, was because he had not yet taken it from the counter. And he didn't know if he should count himself unlucky that he didn't have the noise it would have made falling to ground and breaking into pieces alert of his situation and attract help, or if he was lucky that his daughter, Samantha, would stay away from the possible danger here.
He slowly turned around to look at the seat he usually occupied behind the desk in the study. The voice had come from there previously but unfortunately, its owner had been here for long enough to have rearranged things to let himself stay in the darkness even with the lights on.
He could only conclude from the silhouette that was not visible that the person, a man from the voice, was not buff or fat, given the fact that he didn't fill his seat. And from the height of his head while sitting, he was tall.
Despite being a merchant of death, he was not a warrior, but even the business world was a battlefield of its own so he had managed to cultivate some qualities for survival and to thrive. Portraying a calm front despite his heart playing the rumba, he asked:
"Who are you? Samantha is not here in Germany with me. What do you want from her?"
A low chuckle came from the darkness:
"Don't worry, if I wanted to kill your daughter, it would have been cleanly done with you being none the wiser. Or not, but you would have been powerless to stop me."
M. Monroe took a shuddering breath:
"What do you want?"
"I'm Ghost, you should know me."
The man's eyes widened:
"The one who saved Samantha in the desert."
Ghost seemed to smile:
"I'm happy that you remember me. I see that you are getting along nicely with your daughter."
Monroe calmed down a little.
'If he is Ghost, he is capable enough to kill everyone in the house with little to no effort.'
Now thinking better, he took a different approach:
"I didn't have the opportunity to thank you for saving her, so thank you. She is the only one I have left after I lost my wife."
Ghost's voice was calm:
"I see that she is recovering well?"
"Yes, it had not been easy, but with the people who held her captor dead, it had been less difficult. So what can I do for you? Am I the subject of a contract you took?"
At the last part, he had a smile full of helplessness and self-deprecation.
"You don't have to worry. I'm just looking for a common friend of ours…"
Monroe seemed to feel Ghost fix his gaze on him as he continued, lightly calling a name:
"Jack Schneider."
This surprised him so he took a moment to react:
"But I don't know where he is."
His heart started to pump faster as his trembling belly betrayed his state:
'Will he kill me because he didn't like my answer?'
Ghost brought his mind back:
"How did you contact him when you lost Samantha?"
********
A few minutes later, Lucas opened the door of a car parked a few hundred meters away from the mansion he just left and sat on the passenger seat.
He was wearing a dark jacket above his dark brown shirt and he had dark glasses put on beneath the cap hiding his hair.
On the driver seat sat Estrella who had her natural hair out, pushed to the back with some strands hiding her ears and framing her face, and was wearing neutral clothes that her curves brought out of their neutrality along with tinted glasses.
Once Lucas sat down and closed the door, she started the car and took the road to go back to the city. With this place a bit removed from higher density zones, there were not more than one or two cars passing from time to time.
"What do you say we enjoy ourselves here a little before leaving?"
Estrella ignored his question and asked:
"What is our next destination?"
"United States, Washington DC."
"This time it was a businessman. Who is it next?"
"A FBI agent."
After answering, he smiled:
"You didn't refuse my proposition, so where do you want to go?"
Estrella asked with a small smile:
"Aren't you the one who likes to spout road maps?"
Lucas gasped:
"I didn't take you for that kind of person, Estrella."
The person in question was confused as he continued seriously, but with a teasing smile :
"So that's how you want to play it, huh? Taking long, aimless romantic strolls and when tired, get a bit to eat and stop in a park to calmly watch the scenery while leaning against each other. I'm in, but I didn't take you for such a romantic."
Estrella rolled her eyes but didn't lose her smile. Rather, it widened a tiny bit, tacitly agreeing to the plan but not to the claim.
She changed the subject as they started seeing more vehicles on the road:
"So that girl was the one you saved?"
"Girl? She is 21. How old are you?"
Estrella uncharacteristically gritted her teeth as she looked at Lucas raised eyebrows. The worse thing was that she didn't know if he was being serious or if he was just trying to get under her skin but knowing him, it must have been the latter and he was just using that seriously confused face to up his game and get her better.
She could only bitingly spit out a correction:
"Woman, okay? Happy now?"
"Haha… You should have seen your face. Haha…"
"Alright, forget I ever asked."
Lucas looked at her focusing on the road and stopped:
"I won't laugh anymore, but still…"
A glare made him shut up.
"She is the one I saved and she is recovering well. But it isn't a surprise given that her mistreatment had not included some things."
"Like rape?"
He flinched a bit at Estrella calm voice and looked at her with some softness in the eyes:
'Really, how strong can you be?'
"Yes, like rape. I suppose that is what would have happened had they managed to leave that town and if she had not been executed before that. Humans can really be unattractive. That's why I used to have a certain dream: make money and isolate myself after getting a farm."
"It's not a bad dream. You are not considering that option anymore?"
"Maybe after we are done dancing to the tunes of the world. Why? Want to keep me company?"
"I wouldn't dislike it."
With the soft smiles and ambiguous atmosphere, the car went into the urban area of this historically charged city, embracing the scenery of metal and highrises that took the place of the sparse woods.