CHAPTER 364: HELP ME OUT

Clara stood in the elevator with her legs set apart, her arms crossed on her chest, her chin slightly lifted, and a smug smile on her face. Clearly, she was waiting for Lane to chase after her.

After all, it confirmed her suspicions that the man didn’t let her take the credit out of pure laziness and lack of care.

And she was... not wrong, not entirely. Lane indeed had his motives... Except that they truly had nothing to do with Clara! It was a show he had put on for Ethan, to conceal his capabilities. It would be a shame if Clara ruined it by revealing the truth, which is why he had chased after her, but...

Now that he looked at her self-satisfied face, he started to think that perhaps it wasn’t so bad, even if he were to be exposed. It was just showing that he was good at scouting, nothing else... Even if it was suspicious, it didn’t prove anything...

"So?" Clara quirked her brows expectantly. "Finally feel like talking?"

Nope! Not at all! Quite the opposite, the more he stared at the woman, the less Lane wanted to talk to her!

But he had already stopped the elevator. Wouldn’t it look stupid if he backed out now? Not that he cared how he looked in front of Clara, but...

He clicked his tongue, annoyed. "Can’t you just be a decent person for once and keep your mouth shut?"

"...A decent person?" Clara blinked, dumbfounded. Did Lane even know what being a ’decent person’ meant? Either way, "I am going to share your achievements with the rest of the team, instead of claiming the credit. That’s precisely what a decent person would do."

She might not have been doing it so that she would be ’decent’ to Lane... But that was just a minor detail, there was no need to mention it!

Lane’s eyes twitched as he stared at Clara, his exasperation going off the charts. If only she weren’t Damien’s sister...

Right, that was it!

"Damien, can you help me out here?" he called out to Damien, who had followed them out of the apartment and into the hallway. Although Clara had said that she didn’t want to disturb her brother, and only needed to have a word with Lane...

How could Damien possibly leave them to talk alone, without any supervision? Yes, they had gone on a mission together, just the two of them, and returned without having ripped each other into shreds... But that was in the dungeon, when they had to be on alert for external threats! That didn’t mean that he could trust them to behave when they were in a safe environment.

And it seemed to have been the right decision. Although the two were not at each other’s throats, at least not literally... His intervention was still needed.

He sighed, and stepped forward. "Can you just let it go?" he turned to Clara. "Lane didn’t have anything bad in mind when he asked you to make the report..."

Clara paused for a moment, her brows furrowing. "If he didn’t have any bad intentions, then why can’t he explain himself?"

Damien shifted his gaze to Lane, looking for an answer...

But Lane only scoffed, showing no signs of willingness to cooperate. He’d much rather not explain anything to Clara, if he could avoid it!

The reason was simple: he didn’t trust the woman. It wasn’t just out of pure stubbornness (although it might have played a part...) It was one thing when it concerned his unregistered abilities, as it could also get Damien in trouble, so Clara would have no choice but to keep it a secret for the sake of her brother... But his report, while suspicious, didn’t necessarily prove anything illegal. It could still be explained by Lane having a superior sight, far surpassing his rank. Just like Damien’s wavelength sensitivity, if it were just his inherent capability that didn’t require any activation, it wouldn’t count as an ’ability’, and thus wouldn’t have to be mentioned in his files. It would be a bit of a stretch, but the Association would probably buy it.

The problem was Ethan and the Allens. Lane didn’t want his parents to know anything unnecessary, since the more they knew, the more Lane would lose on the element of surprise once he finally went against them. Both his sight and his ability to analyze the situation, which hinted at his extensive experience, were things he didn’t want the Allens to know.

But Clara had no reason to cover for him in front of his family, since the Allens discovering the truth wouldn’t cause any harm to Damien. In fact, it was possible that she might want to cooperate with them to separate Lane from Damien...

Although Damien didn’t know Lane’s train of thoughts - he couldn’t read his mind, after all - he could still tell that it would be hard to convince the man to explain himself to Clara. So, rather than try to attempt the (near) impossible, he turned back to his sister instead.

"Can you keep it a secret for me? Please," he asked.

"Ugh..." Clara groaned, clearly displeased, but finding it hard to resist. How could she possibly say no when Damien was asking her so nicely? Still... "But why?"

"I’m sorry, but those are Lane’s private issues, I can’t explain it to you."

Clara grumbled under her nose, stepping from one foot onto the other. She was disgruntled and suspicious of all the secret keeping... Of course, it was natural for couples to keep some of their issues private, even from their families, but... She simply didn’t like it. She knew all too well how nice people, such as her brother, could be taken advantage of by their not-so-nice lovers.

And if there really was something sketchy going on behind the scenes, then it would be Damien who would end up suffering in the end.

She stared at Damien for a while, before looking Lane up and down...

"Fine," she finally sighed, letting it go, albeit hesitantly. "I’ll keep it a secret this time... You better don’t make me regret it."

She threw Lane one last warning glare, before pushing him out of the elevator, so that the door could finally close.