At eleven o’clock in the evening, the bar at the Axe’s headquarters was alive with noise and revelry.
The place was packed tonight, the music blasting at full volume, nearly deafening. Men and women were on the dance floor, wildly gyrating their hips and swaying to the beat.
Glamorously dressed women mingled and laughed among the men, teasing them with flirtatious banter.
In an instant, an air of ambiguity filled the entire bar.
In the most luxurious private room on the third floor, Rex, clad in black, stood on a small stage, microphone in hand, passionately singing along to the lyrics on the large screen.
“I’d catch a grenade for ya. Throw my hand on a blade for ya. I’d jump in front of a train for ya. You know I’d do anything for ya.”
He sang with raw intensity, his voice bordering on hysterical, tears streaming down his face.
His dozen or so trusted lackeys and women accompanying them exchanged uneasy glances, unsure of how to react.
Just as Rex was reaching the peak of his emotional performance, the door burst open. Valentin rushed in, drenched in sweat. Seeing Rex on stage, he immediately fell silent, knowing better than to interrupt.
“Black, black, black and blue, beat me ’til I’m numb.”
Valentin’s mind raced, but he knew better than to interrupt Rex mid-song, especially when he was singing his favorite song, “Grenade”. Once, someone had dared to cut him off, and Rex had broken the man’s leg and forced him to sing the song a thousand times as punishment. So Valentin bit his tongue and waited.
As the song ended, Rex tossed the microphone onto the table and bowed to the room. “Thank you, everyone, thank you for your support.”
His lackeys rose to their feet, clapping enthusiastically. “Boss, you sang that so well!”
“Boss, you were amazing! You could win Westergold’s Idol!”
“Seriously, boss, with that emotion and voice, you’d make it to the top four, no doubt!”
“Top four? Boss would win the whole thing!”
The women forced smiles and joined in the applause. Rex’s singing, to put it kindly, was heartfelt and raw. To put it bluntly, it was off-key. But no one dared to say a word against it. They all knew Rex’s temperament. He was a volatile, ruthless man who wouldn’t hesitate to kill.
Rex, oblivious to the flattery, grabbed a tissue and wiped his tears.
“This song… I sang it to a girl I loved after she rejected me. You have no idea how heartbroken I was. I was shoveling dirt over her head while singing this song. It was… painful.”
“It was my first love, the first time I gave my heart to a woman. And she betrayed me for some rich guy, all because he could buy her a house.”
The room fell deathly silent, a chill creeping through the air as Rex continued, still wiping his tears.
“To keep her with me forever, I had to bury her in the backyard. And her greedy mother and sister too. That old hag had the nerve to fight back as I killed her.”
“I had to chop off her hands and feet with an axe and feed them to her dog.”
A woman in a green dress shuddered, her glass slipping from her hand and shattering on the floor. Her face turned pale as she stammered, “Boss, I… I’m sorry!”
Rex ignored her, still lost in his own world. “I really wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Why do women always break the hearts of good men?”
He stepped down from the stage, tossing the tissue to the floor, and sat beside the trembling woman. His voice softened as he asked, “Tell me, why do women always hurt men? I gave her everything, my utmost sincerity, and still, she left me. Why?”
The woman in green stiffened, her voice trembling as she replied, “Boss, I… I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
“You’re a woman. How can you not know?” Rex gently stroked her hair. “Are you planning to betray me too?”
Her back was drenched in sweat as she choked out, “Boss, I… I was wrong.”
“Bang!”
Rex suddenly exploded in rage, slamming her head into the coffee table. He grabbed an ashtray and brought it down on her skull with a sickening crunch.
The women screamed as blood splattered across the room.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
As his subordinates and other women watched in horrified silence, Rex continued to pummel the woman in green with the ashtray, over and over, until she stopped moving and screaming. Only then did he toss the bloodied ashtray aside.
“Damn it! I hate people who can’t answer a simple question.”
Rex wiped his hands with a tissue and spat on the woman’s lifeless body. “Get rid of her.”
Two men quickly stepped forward, dragging the body away without a word.
“Everyone else, get out!”
Rex waved his hand dismissively, and the remaining women scrambled out of the room, terrified of becoming his next victim.
“Boss!”
Once the room was cleared of outsiders, Valentin hurried over, pouring Rex a drink. “Here, boss, have a drink to calm down.”
“How did it go?” Rex leaned back on the sofa, propping his feet on the coffee table. “Did Kimberly and the others take out Seven Wolves?”
“Six men-five dead, one injured.”
Valentin spoke softly, “We lost over thirty men. They had a gun and killed three or four of our brothers.”
“There was a big guy among them, incredibly skilled, who took out twenty of our brothers. Thankfully, Kimberly managed to bring him down just in time.”
Rex responded calmly, “Kimberly didn’t let me down. Once it’s sorted, let the brothers lay low for a while. We’ll need to throw a few men to the police as a sacrifice.”
“With such a large-scale brawl and over a dozen dead, we’ll need to explain to the police.”
Valentin exhaled deeply. “Boss, this time we might not find someone to take the blame, because Kimberly and her team were caught red-handed by the police.”
“Not only did we lose five or six brothers, but seventy or so were arrested. Kimberly had to activate the emergency team to escape from the police.”
“Even so, she got shot and is currently undergoing emergency surgery.”
“What?”
At this, Rex shot upright, his expression darkening. “Seventy brothers arrested? Kimberly badly injured?”
Valentin looked troubled, nodding. “Yes, they were caught at the scene. I’ve spoken to the lawyer. It doesn’t look good for this group of brothers.”
“Noah’s crew also fell into police hands. The police are the real winners this time.”
Rex cursed, “A bunch of useless fools!”
He then fixed his gaze on Valentin. “Didn’t I give you money to bribe the local police? How come they showed up so quickly and even caught us in the act?”
Valentin broke into a sweat. “Boss, I didn’t skimp on the money. The police acted so quickly because the criminal investigation team was directly involved.”
“In other words, they anticipated our move and were lying in wait near Sunflower Hotel.”
Rex’s expression shifted. He leaned back on the couch, coldly stating, “Who led the police this time?”
Valentin forced out a name. “Judith!”
Rex’s eyes blazed with fury. “That woman again. If it weren’t for her father’s influence and connections, I’d really want to teach her a lesson!”
Then he scoffed, “They want to catch my gang? I want to see how many they can actually catch.”
“Valentin, immediately send a message to all branches of the Axe. I’m declaring full-scale war on the Apex.”