Luke passed through various back alleys as he tracked the faint scent. Eventually, he found himself before a rundown building.
He observed the building for a while. It was an apartment building, but it was old and in a state of disrepair.
There were some residents in the building, who were mostly poor or problematic ones, such as illegal immigrants or certain criminals.
After a brief moment of observation, Luke simply picked up his bike and went upstairs.
He met a mother and a daughter on his way. They weren’t surprised to see the bike over Luke’s shoulder.
Whatever vehicle was parked downstairs, bike or car alike, would be gone in ten minutes.
Luke took another deep breath on the third floor to determine the situation inside one of the apartments. He finally put down his bike and said, “Hello, here’s the food you ordered.”
There was nothing but silence inside.
Luke chuckled. “Miss Vanessa, the food you ordered is here.”
A moment later, the door suddenly opened, and a gun was pointed out, but nobody could be seen.
Luke said, “This is hardly a friendly gesture, Miss Vanessa.”
Who else could it be, if not Vanessa?
Luke pointed his own gun at her. “Now, can we drop our guns and have a nice chat?”
Vanessa said coldly, “Do we need to? Aren’t you here to catch us?”
Luke smiled again. “If I wanted to catch you, you would be in jail by now.”
Gritting her teeth, Vanessa finally put her gun down. “Just talk. What do you want?”
Luke took a deep breath. “The other three ladies, no need to be so anxious. Isn’t it tiring holding the guns for so long?”
A moment later, Vanessa made a helpless gesture, and the other three women in the room put their guns down.
Luke finally broke in and subdued Vanessa.
It was naturally useless for Vanessa to resist in the face of Luke’s physical strength.
Luke easily restrained her hands and turned her around, keeping her in front of him. “Beautiful ladies, we meet again. Did you miss me?”
Vanessa gnashed her teeth. She didn’t expect Luke to be so fast and strong that she was no better than a doll in front of him. She was easily subdued and turned into his shield.
Luke’s head was right behind her own. He also had one hand pressed to her back as he restrained her own hands with the other, making it impossible for her to struggle.
Luke, on the other hand, was secretly grinning as he observed the women.
They clearly weren’t in the best shape.
The clothes they were wearing were ragged and not their own. Their lips were dry and cracked, and they looked exhausted. They had probably spent the whole afternoon running.
Luke clicked his tongue. “How can such gorgeous ladies live in such a poor environment? Allow this kindhearted man to give you a hand.”
As he talked, he slowly exited the room with Vanessa as his shield.
Luke relaxed after he was outside the range of the women’s guns.
He examined Vanessa’s gun with a smile, only to find that it didn’t have any bullets. He was immediately amused.
These robbers were truly desperate now. They could only threaten other people with empty guns, which was hilarious.
Luke took out a wad of cash and tossed it to Vanessa, who was glaring at him. He had stolen the money from Sergei after knocking him out, so he wasn’t reluctant to give it away.
He then gave Vanessa the two takeaways bags of restaurant food.
Vanessa was at a complete loss.
Luke explained, “Like I said, I’m here to deliver food. It’s my compensation, and so is the money. Alright, nice to meet you. I hope you won’t point your gun at me the next time we meet.”
He then put Vanessa’s gun back in her hand, before he picked up his bike and went downstairs.
Vanessa was confused. What was going on?
She didn’t come back to herself until the three women in the room came out and asked her where Luke was. She said, “Well… he’s
gone.”
They looked at each other in bewilderment.
When they noticed what was in Vanessa’s hand, they grew even more curious.
Cash was always good, especially given their current situation.
Sergei, their previous logistics support, had been caught. Their own car was lost, too.
Also, they had been planning to escape after this job, and hadn’t left any supplies in New York.
The cash was all one hundred-dollar bills. There were about twenty of them, enough for the women to weather through this crisis.
They couldn’t risk exposing themselves by trying to make their own money while NYPD was currently doing a frantic search for them.
Otherwise, they could’ve easily lured in certain “energetic” men by showing a little leg on the street.
Luke didn’t take the gun, and had even given them a lot of cash. But what was in the two bags?
The three women were puzzled, because they smelled food.
They weren’t familiar with this particular food smell, but they were certain that it was edible.
They were starving but didn’t dare go shopping – for them right now, food was even more important than money.
Vanessa shook her head. “Let’s move elsewhere and then see what’s in the bags.”
Half an hour later, the four women relocated to another building several hundred meters away. They sat down in an abandoned room, and pulled off the dust-covered cloth that covered the dining table.
After the dust settled, Vanessa opened the two bags and found more than ten takeaway boxes in them.
The women looked at each other in confusion after they opened the boxes.
The food was slightly different from what they usually ate, but it was clearly food, and there was meat.
One of the women swallowed. “Did we really order food?”
Vanessa frowned. “Is the food alright? Has it been poisoned?”
The first woman hesitated for a moment, but then said, “I’ll test it.” Then, she grabbed some food and gobbled it down like crazy.
SO
The other three women were lost for words.
Luke didn’t care about what happened to the food.
He returned to the restaurant and ordered another hundred dollars’ worth of food.
The boss was surprised to see him again. “Huh? You finished the food you just bought?”
Luke chuckled. “It wasn’t nearly enough, so I’m buying more.”
The boss smiled. “I bet. I make the best Cantonese food in town.”
Luke nodded and said, “I know. A Chinese specialty.” He spoke the latter half of the sentence in Mandarin.
The boss was amazed. “Wow, you’re quite good at Chinese.”
Luke smiled. “I love China, particularly the delicious food there.”