The cigarette butts gathered around in an ash tray and the three empty bottles of tequila that stood at the foot of the table spoke volumes of the catastrophic emotions I couldn't wait to unleash.
I was unusually calm which is very unlikely for a person of my caliber. When I'm full of unquenchable rage, it's normal for me to explode and everything around me to be reduced to smithereens. I'm ruthless and merciless—and that's been established a long time ago.
Seated silently by the huge mahogany desk, I lift my crossed legs on the neatly polished desk and leaned back comfortably in the chair. I take out another cigarette stick from the pack I retrieved from the tray and lit it up with a lighter, bringing it to my lips, I take a long drag of the cigarette and slowly let out the intoxicating smoke.
It's been an hour since I left the hospital, leaving behind Kamol to keep Nellie company and Wayne—with a couple soldiers—to watch over them and guard Rayne's room just in case the man responsible for the shooting doesn't return back to finish the job.
Though I'm yet to know the identity of the soon-to-be dead man who had the guts to shoot Rayne.
While I pour myself another decent amount of tequila, Kane assembles all the men who were on duty during that time range—when the unknown man shot Rayne without getting caught—right before me. All of them stood still, head raised up high and faces devoid of any emotion but yet, I could detect the fear in them—could smell it even. And fuck, it was so satisfying.
With the cigarette sitting lazily at the corner of my lips, I stood up to my feet, twirling the glass of tequila as I approached the group of prettified men, each of them not daring to make eye contact with me. Kane stood right at the door awaiting further instructions.
“Care to explain how someone could exercise such a task in a place that’s heavily guarded by highly trained soldiers—and not just any soldiers—my soldiers. Do you see how pathetic and humiliating that sounds?” With the drink positioned in one hand, I take the cigarette between my thumb and index finger and took a long drag from it.
The one in charge, Marcus, takes it upon himself to answer, beads of sweat gathering on his forehead as he tries to maintain a calm composure but failing miserably. “I know, boss, and I apologize on behalf of everyone under my command. We didn’t expect —” He stops spitting out such bullshit when I raised my index finger for him to keep quiet.
I stop right in front of him and blow out the smoke in his face. He blinks rapidly, brows raised up high and pulled together. “You see that’s the problem, Lieutenant.” I tilt my head to the side after sipping my tequila. “You underestimated one of our enemies. That’s pretty irresponsible. Don’t you agree, Kane?” I turned to Kane who stiffened at the sound of his name but answers regardless.
“Yes, boss.”
I return my attention back to Marcus, a tiny smirk playing at the side of my lips. “You lost guard and the rest of these incompetent fools followed suite in your idiocy for a split second—and that was all it took for the shooter to take out a fucking gun and shoot Rayne Horton.” My voice rose with every word I spoke and before I know it, a humorless chuckle springs out from my lips. I slammed my fist down on the table causing them all to flinch and take a step back. “And worse—he wasn’t caught. He wasn’t fucking caught. The bastard evaded you cunts. Goddammit, Marcus!”
“Boss, I —”
“Not another word, Lieutenant. Not another fucking word.” My breathing is heavy now from the amount of rage that ravaged through me. I was bloody furious—the reason being that a single motherfucker was able to outsmart my soldiers. I’m not fucking running a goddamn charity event. Fuck. The tiniest part of me admits that Rayne getting shot was also another reason but I will never acknowledge that.
I left the hospital mainly for that pathetic reason. I needed time to clear my head, discipline my thoughts and emotions—that couldn’t happen if she was just a couple of feet away from me along with her daughter. Ever since she hugged me, I haven’t felt the same way since. Now I have this strange but strong feelings that something was missing in my life. No matter how hard I tried to dismiss such emotions, it just comes back with an iron fist.
Placing the empty glass on the desk, I pull open the drawer and retrieved my gun. I dispose of the cigarette and turned to them with a smirk that promised nothing but death. In my state of rage, I break things, murder people and carve out a couple hearts for my collection but when I maintain a calm and relaxed demeanor it only shows just how dangerous and ruthless I can be because it’s satisfying just watching people cower in fear and break completely with a single look and without having to raise a single finger. Your actions are unpredictable.
When I’m calm—like now, my mind runs a thousand miles just to come up with ways I could murder anyone unfortunate enough to incur my wrath.
I dip a hand into my pocket and pull the trigger. Three men drop to the ground, dead, with bullet holes on their forehead and blood spilling out from it.
The men were 10 in number and now that three was down, there’s 7 left. Excellent.
“Boss, please, spare us. We won’t make this mistake again. Please give us one more chance to prove ourselves to you.” Marcus swallows hard, body going still in dread at the murderous look on my face.
“Cut the bullshit before I rip out your tongue from that filthy mouth.” My voice thunders through the silence of the room and his mouth clamps shut. “You’re all useless, a total waste of resources. I should just tear you apart right now and burn what's left of your pathetic self." He continues to tremble in fear beneath my cold hard stare. My eyes darts to Kane. "Escort them out, Kane. I assume you know what's next."
He nods in understanding and leads them all out with a forceful nudge to their soldiers. Once they've all made it out and I'm once again met with the grave silence, I throw the glass of tequila at the wall and it breaks—it doesn't stop there. I grab the empty bottles and smash it against the wall in a fit of rage, followed by the one I didn't get to finish.
"What is wrong with me?" I growl, tugging my hair off its ponytail out of immense frustration and run my fingers through it. Why do I seem to....care? Why the hell does it bother me so much?
"Goddammit!!" I grab the lamp and smash it on the ground.
The doors burst open and Kane rushes in, glancing around at the mess I made with a look of concern on his face and a hint of fear but when he speaks, it's with confidence.
"Boss, you've got to calm down. Breaking things won't help matters at all. The guys have been restrained like you wanted and are being tortured painfully if I may add." With just a look at my current dilemma, he could already tell the reason for my outburst.
"Shut up!" I yell, taking out my phone from my pocket when I feel its incessant buzzing. At the sight of the name, Hana, flashing across the screen, I smash the phone against the wall with a low enraged growl and picked up my blazer from the back of the chair.
"Get someone to clean this mess up and make sure to order me a new phone." I grunt out, leaving the office and heading over to the torture room.
The loud piercing screams of the men is all I hear as I push open the double doors and gazed upon the six soldiers that were strapped to the mechanical bed, drugs being pumped into their veins and probably breaking down their system and causing them immeasurable pain which would lead to a painful death.
Haa....Lethal injection. I haven't used that method of torture in a long time probably because I've been too caught up in the physical aspects of it. I do enjoy hearing their screams for mercy as I rip them apart with my bare hands. Oh the joy of ripping out organs from the human body, the blood on my hands and the satisfaction that follows when they breathe in their final breath right before I crush their lungs.
Some may call me a maniac, a psychotic monster, the devil himself—I don't give a damn. I own it. That's just who I am long after my sister was snatched away from my arms or maybe I have always been that way.
I head over to their lieutenant, Marcus. He's hung upside down from the ceiling with chains, hands tied tightly behind his back. The smell of burning flesh is rendered stagnant in the air and it may seem all too suffocating for someone who has not been through hell and back.
A couple of men take turns in submerging him deep into a large pot of boiling tar. I borrowed that method from the man who I called my father. An old method that's just as effective as brutal beatings.
I raise my hand to stop them and throw my blazer to one of them who quickly catches it before it falls to the ground and well, end up incurring my wrath.
"P–p–please...." His words are nothing but a faint whisper. Eyes barely able to stay open and the skin on his lips torn apart—same goes to the rest of his skin; red, swollen, patchy and fucking bloody.
I roll my sleeves up and re-tied my hair back up into a low man's bun, speaking in a calm tone. "It's always the same with you lots—always asking for bloody mercy when you know I ain't gonna give it." I grab unto his tied hands to keep his body from swaying and immediately located the place of my interest, my fingers carving its way into the flesh which was quite easy because of the boiling tar. "If there's to be another life, this should be a lesson to you. Make no mistake like this ever again because....I don't condone any acts of failure."
Then I'm wrapping my hand around his beating heart and ripping it out from his chest like I have always done multiple times.
I signal for one of my men to bring me a box so I could put it inside and that way it would be taken back to the club and stored away in the freezer in my throne room. Once that's done, I clean the blood off my hands and put on my blazer.
"Boss, we're yet to know the whereabouts of the man who shot Rayne. According so some of our men, they tracked him down all the way to an abandoned train station but they weren't able to find him. He just.... vanished." Kane walks up to me with a iPad in his hand and an airpod attached to his ear as I check the soldiers who died later on due to the drugs.
I snap my head to him with a murderous glare on my face and he gulps. "What the hell are you trying to say, Kane? That one—just one single bastard was able to escape without getting caught and now you're telling me he just vanished? Do you know how ludicrous that sounds?"
“Boss, I didn't —”
“Enough with the bullshit, Kane! Just shut up!” I shout. My voice is loud and filled with rage, gathering the attention of the men present here. "You have till the end of the day to find him—and if he's not found by then, I'll drown you myself in the boiling tar. Got it?"
“Yes, boss.” He answers before handing me the new phone.
Lately, I've been quite reckless with my phone mainly because all my contacts are backed up and I have nothing to worry about. I have lost count of how many times I smashed my phone due to my anger.
I take the device from him and with one last warning glare directed at him, I exit the torture room.
****
I stand by the door of Rayne's room with my hands dipped into the pocket of my black coat, staring through the vision panel of the door as Rayne's grandmother sits next to the bed and prays silently while holding onto her granddaughter's hand.
Kamol had gone with Nellie to the hospital's cafeteria along with Wayne to keep any eye on them while the rest of my men stayed behind. Although Kamol told me strongly that he could take care of himself—which I don't doubt—but ever since Rayne got shot, it wouldn't take that much of a time before someone decides to hurt my son just because Rayne is under my protection.
I will burn the world before any harm comes to him or his brother.
How unlikely that I'm suddenly showing a sign of care towards my son! I have never done that before.
Linda does a cross sign and plants a kiss on her granddaughter's forehead.
Most people believed in religion but I don't. I wasn't the religious type neither do I believe that there's a God. To me, things just happen the way they do. We're all the architects of everything that happens in our lives, including every misfortunes. There's no one to pray to for a better tomorrow. All we have is hope—and hope is a fickle thing. It carries the daunting weight of doubt, yet we place it in our heart and wear it on a sleeve. Such stupidity.
The door opens abruptly and Linda steps out, her face contorting into that of surprise when she sees me.
"Oh, I didn't think you were going to stop by today, again. Your son informed me that you had urgent matters to attend to but I'm glad you're here. I wanted to thank you for paying the bills. I do feel ashamed that someone had to —”
“It's no problem at all, Linda. Rayne is my employee. I don't mind at all that I got to pay all the expenses." I say to her, swallowing the tightness in my throat. I don't like to engage in emotional conversations like this. It makes me feel uncomfortable and irritated but I hold myself together.
She smiles. “You are a good man, Aran, and don't worry, I'm going to pay you back as soon as I have the money.”
Good man?
Some people are quite delusional.
“You don't have to do that, Linda. Money is the least of my problems. Don't worry about it.”
She nods, a grateful smile sliding up to her lips. “Thank you so much, Aran." She didn't wait for any further reply before she makes her way down the hall towards the elevator.
I take a moment to recollect myself only because in the past few hours, I had been tormented by emotional matters such as this and it goes against every single thing I stood for which includes; Violence, death, murder and so on. The list is endless.
The sooner I found out the reason why Rayne was the key to finding my sister, the sooner I get to dispose of her and wipe out her entire existence.
She has me feeling things I shouldn't feel. I was attracted to her. That is very much obvious. I had been with other women before but none of them have been able to drive me over the edge and make me so bloody furious at the same time.
Rayne needed to be.....expunged before she becomes a primary weakness that may just be the sole reason my entire image and the empire I built ends up crumbling to the mud.
With that thought in mind, I stepped into the room and locked the door behind me. My eyes stays fixated on her unconscious body as I move closer to the bed, each step I take fuels the determination coursing through my veins.
It's quite pathetic honestly because the Rayne Horton I know doesn't miss the opportunity to go against my orders and disrespect me but the one that's in my presence lays lifelessly on the bed—eyes closed without any hope of ever opening up again and lips sealed shut—leaving her vulnerable and utterly bare for numerous attacks whatsoever by any unsuspecting intruder.
How ironic, isn't it?!
By the time I got to her bed, I take the oxygen mask off her face and watched in satisfaction at the discomfort that starts to form on her face as she desperately tries to take in air.
The intense beeping sound of the monitor was the only sound that cuts through the dense silence.
Her face slowly begins to loose its color, her lungs which I'm guessing should be constricted beneath all the pressure and difficulty of drawing in a single breath, her chest rising up and down in a fast and hurried pace.
All signs pointing to the inevitable; that she was within the reach of death's vicious claws.
What a befitting end to a pathetic and worthless life!
In that very moment, I forgot about the plans to find out the whereabouts of my sister, I forgot about everything I knew because I so wanted the existence of this woman to be wiped out, I didn't have to stare into the eyes of the only person who have dared to defy me or I've grown to....care about? The word alone sounded vile.
But in the midst of all those cruel thoughts and despicable emotions I felt towards this woman, there it was, a beat—it was small and faint and was barely noticeable but it was there.
Hesitation.
My actions faltered and down went the determination that coursed through me earlier.
It was hard to ignore despite my displeasure and I so hated how merciful I felt.
And because my brain was still in shock, my hand automatically moved on their own accord and placed the oxygen mask back on her face. The beeping sound of the machine gradually reduced and became stable once again, so did she. Her features relaxed and she continued to breathe again like the oxygen was priceless. Indeed it was!
I took a step back. And another. And another, my hands balling into tight fists at my sides. I have never hesitated to take someone's life—that has never happened before. The earth beneath would rather crumble or be cracked open before I ever hesitated to commit murder.
But yet, here I was, standing uprightly, the earth still in intact and the woman I just failed to murder, a couple of feet away from me, serving as a sign of mockery.
How shameful it is for me!
Right as I turned around to get the hell out of here before I completely loose my mind, I hear a voice right after I unlocked the door. It is soft and gentle and the one I hoped never to hear again for the sake of my sanity.
I looked back to see her already staring at me, confused probably because she didn't expect me to be here.
"Aran?" She speaks my name but it sounded more like a question.
————————
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hey everyone,
How are you all doing?
I'm doing surprisingly fine by the way. I've completely triumphed over the writer's block and I'm happy to say that I am feeling quite motivated to write again.
It wasn't easy though. I was only able to pull through because of your support and the undying love I have for these wonderful characters.
The 'No Friday updates' still holds for now and that's because I have been writing three books behind the scenes for a while now including this one so I have limited time to spare.
But regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
More is on the way, loves!