Ch 728 - The Sniper

Alf tried to reason with Riley.

"Riley, calm down," he said. "Don't do anything rash unless you can guarantee its success. You'll regret it. Don't try anything with Alex at this critical time. The current situation of the Naysmith Group isn't good, and you should deal with that first.

"If you don't sort things out now, it's going to get more complicated. Deal with things in the right order."

"Don't worry, Uncle Alf," Riley said. "I'll deal with it the right way. The situation will have calmed down in a few days, and then things will be under control."

When Alf heard him sounding so confident, he felt reassured, and he bade him farewell.

As soon as Alf left, Riley took out his phone and made a call.

"Hello, Riley," came a woman's voice from the other end of the line. "How are you?"

"Yvonne, you recognized my voice straight away," replied Riley playfully. "With such insight, you really are the best choice to be the head of the Wheeler family instead of Jack."

"What can I do for you, Riley?" Yvonne asked casually.

Riley got straight to the point. "You know better than anyone about my family's situation."

"I've heard a little about what's going on," Yvonne said carefully. "Of course, to you, it's only a trivial matter. The Naysmiths are a very powerful family, so I'm sure you're not going to let something like this affect you too much."

"No, it's quite the opposite," said Riley. "I want to deal with these trivial matters as quickly as possible. But in order to do that, I need you to find out who the mastermind behind all this trouble is, and then lure them into my hands so I can get rid of them once and for all. Of course, you won't be doing it for nothing. I promise to help you take over Jack's position and support you in becoming the head of the Wheeler family. So, what do you say?"

Yvonne remained silent and considered the situation. When Riley started to become impatient, she suddenly said in a faint voice, "Sorry, I can't agree to this."

Before Riley could respond, she hung up the phone.

***

"Yvonne, was that Riley again?" Rae asked as she joined Yvonne.

Rae had been hurt when Alex had attacked their people, and her eyesight had been greatly affected. Despite that, Yvonne still considered her to be one of her most trusted confidants.

"Yes, it was Riley," Yvonne said, frowning as she passed the phone to Rae. "The Naysmiths are nothing now, and yet he still wants me to help him. Does he think I'm stupid?"

Yvonne was aware of Riley's impulsiveness, but she knew he wouldn't dare make any enemies now.

"I know he's under a lot of pressure," she said. "He wants to get me involved in his mess, but I refused. The Naysmiths have too many enemies, and there must be a reason for that. I'm sure they're in a lot of trouble, and we can't let them drag us down with them."

Rae nodded in agreement. "Even if you use the Wheeler family's strength to effectively deter their opponents, the Naysmiths still won't be able to solve their problems."

"If he can't win us over, then he won't hesitate to count us as another enemy," said Yvonne. "To him, one more enemy is nothing. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm more than a match for him."

Just then, a bullet hit the window in Yvonne's office, alerting the bodyguards.

Yvonne immediately guessed that Riley must have sent someone to do it.

"What will we do now?" Rae asked.

"Riley can be vicious," said Yvonne. "Outwardly, he looks elegant and composes himself well, but those who know him know how impulsive he is. When he gets angry, he's capable of doing anything."

Rae looked worried. "Since you've refused to help him twice, do you think he's going to try to kill you?"

"Yes, definitely," said Yvonne. "I've angered him, so he'll try to kill me now. Killing me will benefit him in two ways. First, he can take the opportunity to make an example of me to warn his enemies. And second, he can allow Jack to take control of the Wheeler's inside information and use it to get rid of the Naysmith family's opponents."

Currently, Yvonne controlled all the information about hundreds of powerful families in Baltimore, and she had known Riley for a long time, so she knew how he thought.

"I see," said Rae, looking concerned. "I'm going to check the surveillance cameras, and I'll call some more bodyguards for your protection." She immediately became more vigilant, ready to fight at any moment.

"Yvonne, you'd better not go out this week," she said. "I'll let your grandfather know. But if Riley really promises to support you in becoming the head of the family, why don't you consider it?"

She hesitated for a moment and then continued, "Rather than living in fear and always looking over your shoulder, wouldn't it be better to make sure you have no enemies?"

She thought that the Wheeler family had grown tired over the last few decades. She didn't dare to let down her guard, and she was always vigilant. It wasn't always easy not to offend someone in the family, but she just followed orders, afraid of being reprimanded.

"No, I can't cooperate with him," Yvonne said as they entered the parlor. She sat down and took a sip of tea. "Martin and Cam have a very good relationship now, and Cam is not on Riley's side. So how can I disrespect Martin and work with Riley? I'd be putting myself at risk.

"And now that Jack and Riley are so close, Martin doesn't seem very pleased. One by one, he had started to become suspicious of his family members, and now he has turned to me. How can I let him down? Don't you understand, Rae? If I cooperate with Riley, then I will only suffer in the end. It won't benefit the family or me.

"Our default position has always been to remain neutral. Don't you think the previous generations weighed up advantages and disadvantages? If we lose our neutrality, then other families will be afraid of us, and they will unite against us.

"In the past, we answered to no one, and as a result, we were respected. Everybody knew that we wouldn't avoid letting the Naysmiths know if they were doing something wrong.

"If we remain neutral now, then we'll be okay. But if we start taking sides, then we'll be making enemies, and no one will support us."

Putting down her teacup, she slowly walked to the door to watch the rainfall. "This is the only way for us."

Rae tried to comfort her. "Yvonne, you can rest assured that Martin and his men will be able to secure strong support. Other families won't be able to harm us, and they won't dare to attack us anymore."

"I don't think it will be that simple," replied Yvonne. "We're in a transition period, and we can't expect to be protected for free."

She sighed. "We're in a difficult situation. If we want help and support from others, then we have to agree to let them control us, but we can't allow that. And to avoid being controlled by others, we must remain neutral and not side with anybody."

Rae nodded. "Yes, Yvonne," she said with a wry smile.

"I know that we have a huge network, but it's not as powerful as Alex," she continued. "Think of it. He didn't do anything. He just quietly made medicine, and others pursued him. The Naysmiths caught up with him and started to make trouble for him. As a result, he lost millions of dollars, but now Riley is the one who's in a state of agitation."

She admired Alex, but she also feared him. "It would be good if we could ask Alex to support us. That way, we'd have no problem in dealing with Riley."

"Really?" asked Yvonne in surprise. "Alex is a man of medicine and martial arts. What makes you think he'll join us?" She thought for a moment, and then she said, "We can ask him, I guess."

Her face brightened, and it was as if Rae had said exactly what she had wanted to hear.

Just at that moment, Lucius approached them. "Yvonne," he said. "We discovered the assassin's identity. They're an exceptionally good sniper who was once active in Oklahoma."

"I see," said Yvonne. She thought for a moment and then said, "It's the Invisible Sniper, isn't it? How did they come to be in Baltimore?"

She had heard about the Invisible Sniper and their success.

But nobody knew whether the Invisible Sniper was a lone assassin or if they worked in a group because they had never been captured. Even though the police had almost caught them several times, they had always managed to escape. Now Yvonne was interested in finally finding out for herself.