The Princess and the Pauper (Arabella and Romeo) novel Chapter 1413

"Aunt Eunice."

Eunice turned at the sound of the voice, her face breaking into a warm smile. "Ah, you're here?"

Arabella walked in, her demeanor as nonchalant as if she were at a high society ball, not a dingy backroom where a man lay beaten within an inch of his life. Her expression remained unfazed.

Eunice admired her niece's bravery and composure all over again.

"You wanted to see me, Aunt Eunice?"

"Do you recognize this man?"

Arabella's gaze swept over the barely conscious figure. "Nope, never seen him before."

"Last night, I got a tip-off. Someone on the dark web put a pretty penny on your head." Eunice's eyes fell on the man before them. "I had some people trace his IP address, and we pulled him out of the shadows."

Only then did Arabella understand why her aunt had rushed off the phone last night, leaving her to entertain Romeo and Martin without a proper goodbye—it had been for this.

"Has he said anything?" Arabella asked, her voice as cool as a breeze.

"Not a word," Eunice replied, scrutinizing the man. She had been working him over for thirty minutes, yet not a peep. "Tough guy, it seems."

As Arabella's slender fingers brushed the man's wrist, he instinctively tried to pull away, but the ropes held him fast.

He didn't know what Arabella was up to, and his eyes were filled with wariness and suspicion.

"Deprived of food and water, you've got two days to live, tops." Arabella looked into the man's eyes. "I get it, you took someone's money to cause trouble, but what's the use of money if you're dead?"