Tempted Trapped and Too Late to Run novel Chapter 868

Jules pushed himself up from the ground, every breath scraping raw against his injured throat. “You…”

Their rescue hadn’t come from some heroic squad—it was just one guy, maybe seventeen or eighteen, dragging Jules in one hand and Meryl in the other. Somehow, in the storm of gunfire, he’d taken on both Clara and Charles by himself and pushed them back.

The scarred man finally broke the silence. “So, Jules, what do you think? Satisfied with my new prototype?”

Jules clutched his chest, spat out blood, and shot him a glare. “If I die, you can forget about seeing a single cent.”

“Oh, come on now. You’re putting up ten billion. Least I can do is make sure you get your money’s worth. This one—he’s my masterpiece.”

Clara couldn’t help staring at the so-called prototype. Was it just her imagination, or did he look a lot like Charles?

Charles hadn’t moved at all, like he was frozen in place. He’d noticed it too—their faces were almost identical.

“Hey, you okay?” Clara whispered.

Charles lowered his head, voice quiet. “Yeah. It’s just… he looks a lot like me.”

Seven or eight tenths the same, except for one thing: the prototype’s eyes were empty, flat, like he didn’t feel anything at all. The perfect experiment, just like the scarred man claimed.

A cold chill tightened in Clara’s chest. She couldn’t shake the feeling they’d stumbled onto something huge—something nobody was supposed to find out.

The prototype looked up, meeting both their eyes.

The scarred man gave a lazy wave. “Take them. Jules is your master now.”

The scarred man waved his hand, signaling the prototype to finish Clara.

The prototype grabbed a knife, poised to drive it straight into Clara’s heart, but the scarred man stopped him. “Take her to the cliff. No blood in here.”

The prototype grabbed Clara and started dragging her outside.

Clara didn’t fight. She just turned, searching for Charles’s face.

He was pale, and for the first time, she saw something she’d never seen before—real fear in his eyes.