18 Neither Happy Nor Angry

Jacob stopped the car in front of the entrance gate and whispered to Anna, "Hey, sleepy head! Wake up! You know... You are so easy to be abducted, you will volunteer yourself."

Jacob was grinning from ear to ear.

Anna who was faking to be sleeping earlier, actually fell asleep on the way, "I slept?! Have we reached home already?"

"Not yet, we are in front of your security gate. I am not allowed to go through further." Jacob pointed his thumb outside.

"Ohh... wait, one second!" She signaled the security guard to open the gate.

After dropping Anna at the door step, Jacob exclaimed at her, "Hey! Don't you invite me for tea?"

"No, you will start irritating me once you get the chance. So off you go" Anna gestured him with her hands to go out.

"Too harsh! My heart is bleeding. So?! Officially our date has ended for the day! Hmm... Too bad. Let's meet again some time."

"What?! Jacob!" Anna screamed out loud.

He smiled mischievously in return, and he once again yelled as he drove off, "Don't forget to call me, you still need to repay me, Okay?!"

Anna was dumbstruck. She pulled out the five hundred dollars and his contact number from her pocket, she held it in her hand motionless. 'Impossible! This man is absolutely impossible!!'

----------------------------------

Back in time, 

Irik received a call from Shane asking for their whereabouts, and when Shane reached the place, his friends bombarded him with questions.

The concert was already over. There were people still crowded in different sets of food court looking for dishes to crave for their hunger. Shane's friends are all retired from the concert area to the exclusive wine tasting event.

"Shane! Where did you go?" Elanda who was worried when Shane and Anna were nowhere to be found, questioned immediately when Shane showed up. She was thinking earlier, 'Did they just left without informing. This man never bat an eye for any woman, is he now courting a girl in secret?'

"We thought that you both left without informing us!!" Elanda interrogated with an ache.

Shane responded while looking around for Anna, "I got an important call to attend. Where is Anna?"

Orlando disputed, "What? You are asking us? She was with you all the time. If you can't keep an eye on her, you should at least let others to take care of her."

"Orlando! This is not the time to banter. If she is not with you guys? Where would she go?"

Shane looked around in panic. He called Anna's bodyguard whom he ordered earlier to leave, and take Anna's car along.

Anna's personal bodyguard answered the phone immediately with just one ring, "Yes! Mr.Shane!"

"Number one, return to Highland Park at once and bring back up. Anna went missing."

"Roger that! On my way." Once Shane cut the call, everyone looked at him incredibly.

"Man! What is happening?" Orlando asked. All his playful tone was long gone, now it was filled with seriousness.

"We need to look for Anna first, let's talk about it later. Let us spread and start looking for her." Irik stepped in.

"Okay" Elanda and Kylie agreed.

"Will she be alright?" Kylie inquired Irik with concern.

"She will be fine. She is not a kid, right?" Irik soothed her.

It was already too late for them to look for her. When they were searching inside the park, Anna was ragged by the gangster outside. When Shane heard the police sirens, he rushed out.

While Shane made his way out, he saw Anna sticking to the window of a car and looking at the scene distractedly.

Shane drew out his phone to dial Orlando and he asked Orlando to inform others to retreat from searching. Shane then looked at the direction of the car that drove away; Anna was not struggling which means she is safe. With a little assurance, he walked to the parking lot.

The place was overcrowded for him to get out of the parking area promptly.

Shane dialed the home phone number and informed the maid to call him at once if Anna reaches home.

After 20 minutes, he received a call from home, A soft voice spoke, "Hello Shane!"

"Anna" Shane breathed out in relief. All the while, his muscles remained tensed up, he couldn't relax even a bit.

"I am at home, I got lost in the crowd and my mobile phone crashed. I tried to look...." before Anna could finish the sentence, a cold voice stopped her.

"Are you safe?" He was neither angry nor happy. His words are emotionless carrying no weight.

"I am fine." Anna replied with a trembling voice.

"Good! I am almost there, Wait for me."

When Shane reached home, Anna greeted him. His emotions are unreadable. He waved the butler to clear out and then he directed Anna to follow him to the study room.