Beach

Chapter 42 - Beach

Claire held out a plain brown envelope.

Danny reached for it, but Claire didn't let go immediately. Her fingers remained on the edge of the envelope as she looked straight into his eyes.

“Whatever it takes,” she said. “Break this girl.”

Only then did she release it.

Danny frowned as he turned the envelope over in his hands. There was no name, no address, nothing that hinted at what was inside. He opened it and pulled out a single photograph.

His expression changed.

For a moment, he simply stared at the picture.

Then his lips parted.

“Mia.”

Claire noticed the reaction immediately. Her eyebrows lifted, and the cold look on her face gave way to sudden curiosity.

“You know her?”

Danny slowly lowered the photograph, and a strange smile spread across his face.

“Know her?” He gave a quiet laugh. “She's the one person I've never managed to get my hands on.”

He looked at the photograph again, his smile growing darker.

“She slipped away from me once. I didn't forget that.”

Claire watched him carefully. She hadn't expected recognition, let alone that kind of reaction.

Danny tucked the photograph between his fingers and leaned back into the sofa.

“But this time will be different,” he said. “Now that you've handed her to me, I'll make sure she doesn't slip away again.”

He let out a low chuckle, already looking far too pleased with himself.

“She's an old friend from my boxing days. I know exactly where to start.”

Claire's eyes narrowed slightly.

For the first time since giving him the envelope, she wondered if she'd just handed the job to the right man—or to someone far more dangerous than she realized.

Claire watched him and finally understood why the system had told her to bring Danny in. A question rose in her mind: how do you even know she will fall in love with Mike?

A black system window appeared in front of her eyes.

[I did not know that. I only know that the interest level of her in Mike is high through hijacking Mike’s system information.]

Claire’s lips curled into a small smile. This was getting interesting.

Meanwhile, across the city, Mike and Mia had decided to make the most of their last free day together.

Starting tomorrow, Mia would be buried in preparations for her upcoming match, while Mike would return to his own training. Their schedules would leave little room for anything else, so they had agreed to forget about training, work, and everything waiting for them for one day.

Mike rented a car early that morning. They packed a small cooler with drinks and snacks, tossed a few towels into the trunk, and headed out of the city toward a quieter stretch of beach.

The farther they drove, the more the city disappeared behind them. Traffic thinned, buildings gave way to open fields, and eventually the road stretched ahead with almost nothing but blue sky and distant greenery around them.

Mia sat comfortably in the passenger seat, one hand resting against the open window as the wind played with her hair.

Mike glanced at her, then quickly returned his eyes to the road.

A few seconds later, he glanced again.

Mia caught him the third time.

“What?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Nothing.”

“You've looked at me six times.”

“Have not.”

She gave him a suspicious look before turning back toward the window.

Mike smiled to himself.

He was looking forward to the beach, but there was another reason he was having trouble keeping his attention on the road. He'd seen Mia in plenty of situations before, but seeing her in a proper bikini for the first time felt strangely different.

He wondered what she had chosen to wear and immediately caught himself smiling.

Mia noticed.

“What are you smiling about?”

“Nothing,” Mike said again.

She shook her head, clearly unconvinced.

“You're terrible at lying.”

Mike laughed and kept his eyes on the road as the beach drew closer.

They reached the beach by mid-morning. The sand was warm and the water looked calm. Mia changed into a simple two-piece bikini and stepped out.

Mike’s eyes stayed on her for a long moment before he forced himself to look away and set up their towels.

They spent the next hours together without any rush. Mia lay on her stomach on the towel while Mike squeezed sun cream into his hands and rubbed it slowly over her back and the backs of her legs. She turned over so he could do the front as well.

After that they walked into the water and played in the small waves, splashing each other and laughing when the water hit them higher than expected. They sat on the towels again and ate the food they had brought.

A faint clicking sound carried across the beach, almost lost beneath the crash of the waves.

Behind a low dune, a man crouched with a camera pressed to his eye. He kept the lens trained on Mia, quietly taking picture after picture while a faint smile played across his lips.

Danny lowered the camera for a moment and watched her over the top of the dune.

He wasn't in a hurry. He had already waited this long.

Mike was always beside her, laughing with her, talking to her, watching her. As long as the two stayed together, Danny had no reason to make a move.

So he waited.

Sooner or later, Mia would step away on her own.

And when she did, Danny would be ready.

Mia stretched her arms and looked at Mike. “Do you want ice cream before we go back?”

“Vanilla for me, please,” Mike answered.

Mia smiled, got to her feet, and headed toward the small ice-cream parlour near the edge of the beach.

She had barely taken a few steps past the entrance when a hand suddenly shot out from the side.

Fingers clamped around her wrist.

Before Mia could react, she was yanked sharply sideways through an open doorway.

Her breath caught as she stumbled into an empty changing room. She tried to pull free, but the door swung shut behind her with a hard click, cutting off the bright beach outside.

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