Chương 96: Money Problems

•••• As soon as Allison entered her home, she saw her mom and dad glaring at her.

"Where have you been?!" Victoria took a few steps toward her.

"At Lydia's…" She trailed off, speaking without any enthusiasm.

"That's a lie!" Victoria raised her voice as she approached her further.

"We called her mother, and you weren't there!" Allison couldn't think of any more excuses and remained silent. Victoria became even angrier after seeing this.

"You stayed at his place, am I right?!" She suddenly grabbed Allison's arm tightly.

"I told you to stay away from him!" Allison struggled, then swung her arm, breaking away from her grasp.

"I'm not a puppet, and I don't take orders!" She gazed firmly into her mom's eyes. Victoria's eyes widened at her defiance, this was the first time this had happened. But this made her even more certain that her daughter should stay away from that monster. Or else their family would break apart completely because of him.

"You will…!" Before she could continue, Chris grabbed her hand and shook his head. He then looked at Allison and spoke: "We will have this conversation later. Go to your room." Allison looked at him for a moment, then nodded and walked up to her room. After watching her leave, Chris turned toward Victoria.

"We have bigger problems! I can't reach Gerard or any of his men." Victoria frowned, then paced the hallway in deep thought.

"If we can't reach any of them, something definitely happened. They might even be…" This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. She didn't finish, but Chris could understand her meaning. This was what made him more uneasy. He could only hope that it was all just a bad feeling. ••••"Whroom!" The sudden sound of the engine startled all the birds resting on the building.

Then the car came to a stop right in front of what seemed to be an abandoned building. When the door opened, Lucas stepped out of the car and looked at the building.

"It could be worse…" He was somewhat speechless at the state of the building. He then went inside and looked around every corner. When he got to the basement, he smiled as he saw how spacious it was.

"This should be enough." The reason he was looking at this run-down building was not for sightseeing, but to buy it. He had this idea for quite some time; here he would build his personal base. He didn't want his house suddenly blown up if he had a conflict with someone. Here he could arm it to the teeth, and if he had any unwanted guests, he could keep them here. Lucas scanned the basement thoroughly and nodded as it was suitable for his training equipment. Well, he didn't buy it yet, but he would.

He wanted to buy customized weights so that he could accurately measure his own strength and train with them. The biggest problem he had now was money. He had around $400, 000 remaining. It might seem like a lot, but he needed a couple million dollars for his future plans. The building in front of him would eat up $150, 000 right from the start. It would take around $100, 000 for renovation, and that was only for the basement.

Plus the equipment he needed, just thinking of this made Lucas grab his head in frustration. Besides this, he really wanted to buy an armored SUV, a customized Conquest Knight XV. The problem was that even if he used all of his money, he still couldn't afford it. After walking outside, Lucas stared blankly at the building. Which man didn't dream of having his own secret base? It might seem childish, but that was his biggest reason behind this. Lucas then drove off. As he was driving, he passed by the school.

Suddenly he stopped the car and stared intensely at the school. Almost as if he had seen a peerless beauty standing there. But it was just the school sign. Lucas laughed out loud as he couldn't take his eyes off it.

"How could I forget about this? This would solve all my problems!"

"Beep!"

"Hey! Are you crazy?!" This sudden shout made Lucas involuntarily frown, but then he relaxed and looked over at the man honking at him.

"Sorry!" Lucas shouted happily and drove off. The man looked at the leaving car in astonishment.

"What a crazy bastard!" What he didn't know was how lucky he was to catch Lucas in a good mood. •••• After arriving home, Lucas paced around continuously. His face shifted between happiness and deep worry.

"How will I get inside?"