BAB 1 I Yellow Envelope

It’s eleven o’clock on Blueberry Hill. A small town not far from the state of Michigan now looks dead with no activity after ten. Street lights could be seen lighting up the city, and only the howling of stray dogs was heard in the small town of fewer than five thousand people.

Mia, who works at a restaurant in Blueberry Hill, looks busy cleaning kitchen utensils and floors. She wanted to hurry home, but doing it all herself made her discouraged. Usually, Matt, her boss, helps out, but today the man went out of town and gave Mia an assignment while Dorothy had already back home before closing.

Once her work is done, Mia turns off the lights and locks the restaurant door. She walked toward her apartment five blocks away.

The 22-year-old girl is accustomed to going home alone on foot because Blueberry Hill is a safe place with no criminal reports for more than six decades. All residents there are more accustomed to walking than contributing to air pollution by driving a car.

On the way home, Mia felt someone watching her. It was three times this week that she thought she was being followed, making her shudder with horror that she unconsciously moved fast with vast strides, almost running toward her apartment.

She had reported to the Sheriff at Blueberry about this. Still, the officer ignored her report and said to come back if Mia did have evidence if she was being followed. Hearing this made Mia angry and upset, so she did not want to go back to report to the police station.

Mia prayed to whoever followed her to leave her alone; if her stalker attacked, she would scream out loud.

“Please, go away,” Mia whispered as she took a quick stride.

The sound of footsteps that followed grew closer as if the man had deliberately announced his presence. Mia’s heart beat violently, and her hands broke in a cold sweat. It was as if she was racing with time. Mia finally ran when she saw that her apartment was in front of her eyes, but suddenly her stalker who followed called her.

“Mia! Wait a minute!” From his voice, he sounded like a middle-aged man.

Mia doesn’t know all people in Blueberry Hill. During her stay in this small town, she keeps to herself very private and communicates modestly with the customers at the Deli where she works. She ignored the man’s call and continued running without looking back. The man pulled her wrist when she was about to climb the stairs.

“Help ....” Her scream was caught by the man’s hand over her mouth.

“I’m sorry, but I need to talk to you. Calm down, just give me a moment to talk.” The man dragged Mia to avoid the street lights

Mia stopped her trashing and calmed her fast rhythmic heartbeat.

Panicking in a situation like this would only put her in danger.

“I won’t hurt you, but I have a few things to say. And promise me not to scream. I don’t want to attract attention. Do you understand?”

The man looked into Mia’s eyes with a stern expression. Slowly, the middle-aged man let go of her wrist, and with a watchful gaze, he watched Mia start to walk backward.

Mia watched the man in front of her closely. The man had white hair with a bald head, was tall and thin, and looked like he was neglected. A stern stature overshadowed his character when speaking, and his gestures showed the movements of a trained soldier.

Mia’s gaze fell on the man’s hands, standing about five meters away from her. At least the man was not holding something that could injure her.

The man looked around as if he was afraid of being caught talking to her under a street lamp.

“I don’t have much time,” said the man, taking out a yellow envelope under his shabby shirt. He seemed in a hurry.

“Take this and bring it to Denver; give it to a guy named Jaxon Bradwood. If you don’t know who he is, just ask the people there. They’ll know him because nobody doesn’t know Jaxon Bradwood.”

Mia looked at the man in front of her as if there were horns that had just grown on his head.

Is he crazy? Mia screams inside.

The man sighed as if a weight was pressing on his chest.

“I know this sounds absurd, and you will not possibly accept my invitation to meet somewhere. This is the only way I can get close to you. It’s been a week I’ve been following you, but you work from morning to evening, you are very busy and even not once I see you rest. You don’t even have a cell phone! For God’s sake, this is the first time I’ve seen someone who doesn’t have a cell phone.” The man rubbed his face in frustration.

Mia stared at the man furiously. The man had no business whether she had a cellphone or not.

“Sir, it looks like you have the wrong person. I don’t know Jaxon Bradwood, and I’m not going to look for a foreign man who lives on the other side of America just to be a courier.” Mia made up her mind. With a sharp gaze, she made sure the man understood her words. “Why don’t you just go over and hand yourself the envelope?”

There was no way Mia was looking for a stranger she didn’t know back in Colorado just because an old man asked her to. She even felt the situation was so strange that she raised her guard.

The middle-aged man smiled faintly as he slowly shook his head.

“You don’t need to know why I didn’t go to Denver. Make sure Jaxon gets this yellow envelope. You have to give it straight into his hand, don’t give it to anyone other than Jaxon.”

Mia felt that the man in front of her was crazy. She was about to leave because nothing made sense to her.

“If you leave like this before hearing my explanation, believe me, the first to die is you.”

Mia’s steps, almost approaching the stairs, finally stopped. She turned and looked at the man fiercely.

“I don’t know you, whoever you are, I have nothing to do with you! Don’t say something just to scare other people!”

Mia walked quickly up the stairs, but the man’s following words stopped her steps.

“Allisa! Your real name is Allisa, not Mia,” said the man with a tone full of emphasis and a little threatening intonation.

Mia’s body shuddered at once. She turned to face the middle-aged man standing at the bottom of her apartment’s stairs.

“H ... how do you ...” Words lost. Mia looked at the man with big round eyes. Her tongue was throbbing with a scared look.

“Let’s make a deal,” said the man with a flat face without a smile.