?Chapter 480:


    Freya knocked on the door when he didn’t reply.


    She knocked again. And again. For two whole minutes. Inside, Kristian battled with himself.


    Finally, when he could barely hold on, he ground out, “Are you ready to deal with the consequences if I open this door?” If she was going to insist, then he wouldn’t stop.


    “Just open the door. Stop wasting time,” Freya said, her brows knitting together.


    At that, the bathroom door flung open. Kristian stood there in a loose bathrobe, breath ragged, eyes zing with heat.


    The second he saw Freya’s delicate, flushed face, something inside him snapped.


    He took a step forward, mind nk except for one raging impulse.


    But before he could act, Freya struck hard at the back of his head. There was a dull thud, and Kristian crumpled to the floor—unconscious.


    After dealing with the immediate danger, Freya hoisted Kristian onto the bed with a firm but careful touch.


    Right up until the moment he lost consciousness, he never once suspected that she’d lured him in just to knock him out cold and quietly eliminate him as a potential threat.


    For Freya, the top priority now was to hunt down the source of that intoxicating scent and the signal jammers nted around the room. If she stayed here too long without doing so, she knew full well that she’d eventually fall under the same influence.


    Letting Kristian continue his cold shower might’ve worked—assuming he kept hisposure. But if he snapped and came out mid-meltdown, she’d have to waste more energy just to knock him out again. It was far wiser to handle the situation early and keep herself safe. Over the next hour, Freyabed through the room with painstaking care.


    g?lnσν????s is your escape to fiction


    Her diligence paid off. She discovered four separate sources of the strange scent—hidden inside the TV, the speaker system, and other gadgets with vents or heat outlets. Once she cracked them open, it was obvious they’d been tampered with.


    As for the signal jammers, there were three in total.


    Whoever had set them up had done an impressive job hiding them. If Freya hadn’t found the cement of a few decorations suspicious, she never would’ve guessed their true nature.


    Thankfully, she found no hidden surveince devices.


    Once those concerns were handled, she used a damp towel and tissues to seal off the scent and shut down the jammers.


    She then double-checked every piece of equipment to confirm nothing was being remotely essed. Atst, she sank into the sofa for a brief moment of rest. With a few quiet moments to herself, she began putting the puzzle pieces together.


    The mastermind behind all this had suddenly ordered Ashley to stand down when Kristian began pursuing her. Ashley had mentioned that this person bore a personal grudge against him.


    Judging from the tactics used, the mastermind clearly got a kick out of psychological torment.


    It was entirely possible the n was to have Kristian fall for her—build a romance—only for her to be abducted and used as leverage to force Kristian to hand overpany secrets or sacrifice himself to save her. If that was the endgame, it wouldn’t be too hard to counter.


    Kristian could fake falling in love, and she could y the role of the damsel in distress. With coordination from her friends, they could reel the bastard in.


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