Chapter 368 - ONE
Axcel had a really bad feeling about this place and he couldn't ignore that it made his body tremble violently.
The word fear couldn't describe what he was feeling right at this moment. Even his brain seemed to stop thinking, as if he knew what would happen next and he had no power whatsoever to change his fate.
He shouldn't have let them drag him to this place and run away while he still could. He shouldn't have taken Ramon's words so lightly and thought that his new role as a witness against Leon would make his life safe.
All of Axcel's fears were finally proven when David pushed him into a wooden chair and tied him to it.
"Please, please… please… don't do this… I want to talk to Ramon. Where's Ramon? I have to talk to him…" Axcel whined, begging to see Ramon, but David didn't say anything.
Axcel's body seemed to tremble greatly as he looked at his empty surroundings. This dilapidated house was equipped with only one light which was just above his head, while the rest was shrouded in shadows.
"Where's Ramon?! He can't treat me like this! He had promised not to hurt me! He promised to let me go!" Axcel shouted hysterically. "You should ask Ramon first and you can't just do this to me!"
Axcel got hysterical when he couldn't move anymore because the straps on his chair were so tight and after David released his grip on the back of Axcel's chair, the man fell straight to the floor, still tied to the chair, as he kept trying to free himself.
"Where's Ramon?!" Axcel shouted again.
And as if answering Axcel's question, someone walked in with calm steps and an aura that could make the man pause for a moment, finally sensing his presence, like a prey who realized the presence of a predator that locked its eyes on him.
Out of the dimness of the room, and from the shadows, a man emerged into the light and it was none other than Ramon Tordoff himself.
Ramon crouched down in front of Axcel and looked at him with cold eyes as if he wasn't looking at a man who was begging him with all he had, while fear was creeping up on him like a deadly disease.
"Ramon… Mr. Tordoff, please, you have promised to release me, you have promised to free me, you have also promised to guarantee my safety if I do whatever you ask." Axcel started his long rambling, trying to remind Ramon of the sweet words he said earlier. "You promised Mr. Tordoff and I have done everything you wanted me to do."
Ramon tilted his head when he heard that, seemingly watching Axcel's expression carefully.
"I have a question for you," Ramon finally said in a voice that sounded cold, especially in this squalid and terrible place.
"Anything, anything… No matter what the question, I'll answer," Axcel immediately took the opportunity, hoping to escape Ramon's clutches. The man in front of him was terrifying and he didn't know how he could look so scary even when he just half kneeled there and stared at him.
Ramon took the time he needed to ask Axcel. "How did you get your people into my security personnel?"
The fact that Axcel managed to infiltrate his men into the Tordoff family's exclusively trained security team disturbed Ramon greatly.
How could he feel at ease when the people who were supposed to look after him were the same people who worked for his enemies?
Of course, Ramon had to dig to the bottom of this issue and fix what was lacking in recruiting the bodyguards.
"Sure, sure… I'll tell you." Axcel relented, even though he doubted that Ramon already knew what he had done to breach the Tordoff family's security system to get him to Hailee, kidnapping her from her own house.
Then, Axcel started to explain; because every member of Ramon's bodyguard should always go through a strict selection and through a legitimate security agency, Axcel as a prosecutor made use of his connections with people in the government agency and introduced them to the people he arranged beforehand.
Of course this was done with care and they didn't suspect Axcel's motives.
And because the Tordoff family only accepted people who were at the highest rank and not from random selections, then only by including people who had extraordinary abilities and disguised their backgrounds, replacing them with other identities, did Axcel manage to gain access to Ramon's security as soon as the person was selected.
And because the person appointed was the one Axcel recommended, the people in the security agency did not suspect him and in that simple way, Axcel was able to place his people among Ramon's security team.
"That's all I did… really, that's all… I didn't bribe them or threaten anyone," Axcel said at the end of his explanation. He looked at Ramon in fear, while his hands and feet felt cramped from being in this totally uncomfortable position for too long.
On the other hand, when he heard Axcel's explanation, Ramon's face darkened. He looked like someone who was holding back his emotions and looked so furious.
The security system could be breached just like that?
"Who are your people in my security personnel?" Ramon asked again in a very cold and terrible voice.
Just looking at the way Ramon looked at him made Axcel frown and say three names whom he put into Ramon's security team and were involved in kidnapping Hailee.
Axcel said everything without holding back anything because he didn't want to make the man in front of him angrier than this.
"David, have you heard those names?" Ramon asked David coldly and the bodyguard said that he would take care of them right away. "No. Execute them."
What Ramon meant by execution was of course nothing simple but the three people were to be killed.
Hearing Ramon's last command, Axcel felt like his head couldn't think anymore, as if his brain had been frozen and he was unable to speak like his tongue got stuck to the roof of his mouth.
"Mr. Tordoff please… please…" Axcel pleaded, begging for Ramon's mercy. "You promised to let me go."
And when Axcel heard a very loud barking sound, his eyes widened. He knew what made that sound.
"RAMON! RAMON!" He screamed hysterically especially when he saw ten cages being brought into the room, each of which contained a dog of a breed that Axcel did not recognize.
No, his brain had been frozen to think what kind of dog it was, because he saw the ten creatures in the cage as mere threats, dangerous predators and a warning alarm immediately went off in his head.
Axcel felt that he had now signed a contract with the angel of death and now, the angel of death had come to claim his life.
"Ramon! You promised! You promised! I've done whatever you wanted!" Axcel just repeated those words like a broken record.
On the other hand, Ramon didn't show any expression as he said, "Of course I'll let you go. I promised, didn't I?"
And then Ramon stood up and gave orders for his bodyguards to untie Axcel.
However, at the same time, a bodyguard splashed a red liquid on him, which covered his entire body. By the small of it, Axcel knew it was blood. Axcel didn't even want to know where that blood was from...
"I'll give you one minute to escape from this place, before I release those lovely dogs." Ramon walked away, hiding himself in the shadows again. But his voice still echoed in the room. "If you can escape, then it's your luck, but if you can't… it's not my problem."
"What? What?" Axcel looked around and with every bark from the dogs, Axcel could feel their sharp fangs piercing his skin and tearing at his body mercilessly.
Axcel then looked around, the way out of this place were doors and windows that had been broken on several sides.
And before Axcel could properly digest the words that Ramon said or understand the critical situation he would face later, David had started the countdown, which made Axcel feel like all the blood in his body had disappeared.
"Ten…"
"Nine…"
His instinct to stay alive made Axcel move toward the door, dragging his body with difficulty due to cramps in his legs which made it difficult for him to move.
Axcel fell several times, but once he was near the door and was about to run away, all of Ramon's bodyguards raised their guns and pointed them at Axcel, as if warning him that if he got any closer than this, they would shoot him mercilessly.
"Eight…"
Therefore, the only way out that Axcel had was through the broken window on the other side of the room.
"No! No!" Axcel ignored his cramping legs as he walked toward the window and smacked his elbow against it to shatter the remnants of glass, so he could fit himself out of this room before the count was up.
"Seven…"
"Six…"
"AARRGGH!!" Axcel roared in pain as his body was slashed by the remnants of the glass as he tried to pulled himself out of the room. But, that was not the main problem now.
"Five…"
"Four…"
Axcel cursed as his own blood soaked his body and made him feel weak.
"Three…"
Axcel finally managed to get out of the room and fell on the cold ground while the night wind blew against his skin which was full of wounds.
"Two…"
Axcel looked around and it was just an expanse of clearing, where he couldn't see a single place to hide from the dogs.
"One."