The Ex and Her Riches novel (Gwendolyn and Maverick)

As the rain continued to pour, the small fleet of technicals sped down the highway.

Cedrick gripped his phone nervously, still trying to get through to Gwendolyn’s phone.

Out of service… Argh! Why is the phone still out of service?

Swain showed Cedrick a screenshot of the GPS location, and the latter couldn’t stop staring at the red dot on the

map, wishing he could see his wife soon.

“Boss…” Swain uttered while driving, only to stop when he caught of glimpse of Cedrick through the rearview

mirror.

“Speak.”

“Throughout the first half of the night, Mrs. Jenson’s phone only went online in that one instance. Don’t you think

that’s pretty fishy? I doubt we can find any clues when we reach Xanthon Highway…”

Cedrick pursed his lips in thought, and it wasn’t difficult to tell from his clenched jaw that he was suppressing his

anxiety.

“Stop spouting nonsense. Contact Xanthon’s border patrol immediately. They can reach Xanthon Highway in a little

over ten minutes, so have them seal off the entire road. No one, not even a bird, can leave the area.”

“Understood.”

Swain kept a hand on the steering wheel while skillfully tapping his Bluetooth headset with the other to contact the

border patrol and relay Cedrick’s orders.

Frustratingly enough, the heavy rain showed no signs of stopping.

As the fleet of vehicles neared Xanthon Highway, Cedrick glanced at the darkness outside the window and

discreetly smelled himself.

“Swain, is the cigarette smell on me obvious?”

Swain shook his head. “You’ve stumped me, Boss. I’m used to it since I’m also a smoker. But… I suppose there isn’t

much difference from how you smelled in the day.”

Cedrick rolled his eyes. Ugh. Why did I even bother asking him?

The technical was large, and apart from the cache of weapons, there was also a stash of emergency supplies.

Without further ado, Cedrick opened a box and dug out a set of military fatigues. After turning off the light in the

car, he quickly changed into the new set of clothes.

Swain stole glances at his boss in the rearview mirror from time to time, and despite the dim lighting, he could still

catch glimpses of the latter’s chiseled pecs and abs.

Wow… Boss has such fair skin. No wonder his wife loves him so much.

All of a sudden, Cedrick’s deep, husky voice rang out. “Have you seen enough? Do you want me to blindfold you

and use you as target training tomorrow?”

This time, he wasn’t joking. All he could think of was to look for his wife, so why would he be in the mood for snappy

wisecracks?

Scared out of his wits, Swain quickly sat upright, retracted his gaze, and concentrated on driving.

Less than five minutes later, Cedrick had changed his outfit and began buttoning his shirt.

Even in the car’s dim interior, one could tell his eyes were bloodshot.

Gwenny hates it when I smoke and likes to see me all clean and tidy. No matter how slim the chance is of finding

her tonight, I must still look my best for her. Gosh. I’ve only lost contact with her for a few hours, yet it feels like

we’ve been apart for centuries… The kids are already five, but in all these years, I don’t think I’ve ever felt as

scared as I am tonight.

Cedrick tried to suppress his fear and trepidation for the rest of the journey, and after an hour, the five technicals

finally stopped in front of the roadblock sealing off Xanthon Highway.

In addition, a team of police officers had also stationed themselves at the intersection.

Swain hurriedly got out of the car with a black umbrella and opened the door for Cedrick, taking extra care to keep

the latter out of the rain.

Cedrick exited the vehicle and made a beeline for the police.

“Hello, Mr. Jenson. I’m Kyro Jaeger, the police chief of this area. It must be hard for you to work this late into the

night,” Kyro greeted politely.

Cedrick gave a quick nod. “It’s been hard on you guys, too. How’s the roadblock coming along? How many vehicles

have you had to stop?”

“This area in Xanthon is usually pretty quiet, so we don’t get many cars on the highway. In the past hour, only two

cars have shown up. We’re currently verifying the drivers’ particulars.”

“All right,” Cedrick replied before another thought popped up. “Is the traffic surveillance footage in this area

complete?”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Jenson. The footage is complete. No one has tampered with that or the cameras.”

“Pull up the traffic footage from a few hours back and check for suspicious vehicles.”

“Understood.”

With that, the officer behind Kyro pushed the roadblock away to let Cedrick’s technicals through.

The latter turned around to get into his car, but before closing the door, he stared at the police chief standing

attentively outside.

“Get in.”

“Me?” Kyro exclaimed, flattered beyond words as he kept his umbrella and shook off the excess water. Then, he

hopped into the technical and sat opposite Cedrick.

Before long, the technical cruised down the road and headed toward the standalone surveillance room in the

middle of the highway.

Less than two minutes later, Kyro received the verified information of the drivers and immediately handed the

tablet to Cedrick. “Please take a look, Mr. Jenson. This is the information on the two cars pulled over earlier. I don’t

think there’s any problem with the drivers’ particulars.”

Cedrick sullenly accepted the tablet and skimmed through the details. Hmm… Kyro’s right. There doesn’t seem to

be anything fishy with these drivers. Their identities have been verified too.

As the atmosphere in the car got increasingly tense, Kyro, who was staring blankly at Cedrick and sweating bullets,

leaned in closer to Swain. “What on earth happened, Chief Swain? Mr. Jenson looks terrifying… I feel like he might

shoot me if he had a gun.”

For a moment, Swain was rendered speechless. Oh, gosh. Who knew holding in my laughter could be this tiring?

Before the man could reply, Cedrick’s voice broke the silence. “There’s only so many of us in the car, and I’m also

not deaf. It’s useless to whisper.”

Kyro curled his toes in embarrassment and let out a sheepish chuckle. “I know you’re meticulous and stern when

working, Mr. Jenson. It’s my first meeting someone as revered as you, so I can’t help but feel a little nervous…”

Cedrick, however, remained devoid of expression as he handed the tablet back to Kyro. He was in no mood for the

police chief’s bootlicking, especially when he was overcome with sadness.

Both drivers of the cars had their information checked and verified, yet there’s still no sign of my wife. I already

knew the chances were slim, but I refused to lose hope. I have to check the scene out myself!

“Take me to the surveillance room. I want to check tonight’s traffic footage.”

“Sure, Mr. Jenson.”

Thankfully, Kyro had already ordered his subordinates beforehand, so when they arrived at the surveillance room,

one of the officers pulled up the saved video footage from a few hours ago for Cedrick to watch.

Since the highway had a traffic camera monitoring in real-time every two or three kilometers, eight surveillance

videos were projected onto the screen and fast-forwarded at twenty times the speed.

For a long while, no one dared say a word to break Cedrick’s concentration as they stared silently at the

surveillance.

Although Kyro didn’t know what was happening, he, too, knew better than to question the man’s actions. After all,

who was he to disobey the boss of the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

Cedrick powered through the video and watched hours of traffic footage in less than ten minutes.

All of a sudden, a glint flashed across his eye. “Wait. Rewind it.”

The subordinate promptly hit the rewind button.

“Rewind it till ten forty-six.”

Again, the subordinate did as he was told.

“Enlarge the screens of numbers six and eight.”

Observant as always, Cedrick compared both footage side-by-side and quickly noticed something was amiss.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Swain to catch on to it. “Wait a minute… There’s something wrong with this black

sedan. The highway’s almost empty at night, and the car’s driving at eighty kilometers per hour. Cameras six and

eight are two kilometers apart, and there’s a blind spot in the middle. If the black sedan had maintained its speed, it

should have only taken less than two minutes from one camera to the other. However, it stopped in the blind spot

for ten whole minutes!”

This is all very suspicious, indeed! Besides, the person seems pretty familiar with the blind spots in the area. We

might not have noticed the ten-minute difference if it weren’t for Mr. Jenson’s sharp eyes.

“Check the license plate information of this black sedan!” Cedrick said somberly. “I want a detailed report tonight!”