“Mr. Halford, I’m begging you.”
Valentin, who stood less than five feet tall, looked pale, filled only with deep fear and helplessness.
Afraid to move and provoke the venomous snakes, he would have already knelt down if it weren’t for that fear. “Sir, please help me remove these two snakes.”
Valentin feared nothing except these slippery creatures. His skin was covered in goosebumps, and his body felt cold.
“As long as you help me get rid of these snakes, I’ll do anything you ask. Please take them away. They’re about to slide into my pants-”
“A great man once said that the best way to overcome fear is to face it head-on.”
Darnell didn’t remove the snakes but instead reached for Valentin’s phone, copied its contents, and opened the dial pad.
“I can help you take off the snakes, but you need to give me Rex’s number. You should understand what I mean.”
Valentin was slightly surprised. He hadn’t expected Darnell to know Rex was back. He vaguely guessed that Darnell’s call to Rex wasn’t for anything good.
The best outcome would be Darnell informing Rex that he had been captured by the Apex. But he dared not think too much about it since the venomous snakes were slithering across his body.
He opened his mouth and recited a string of numbers.
As Darnell pressed the numbers, he activated the speakerphone on the device. “Tell Rex you’ve been defeated, and the Apex is launching a poison attack.”
Valentin was slightly stunned. “Is it that simple?”
“Just that simple.”
Darnell spoke calmly, “Just tell Rex about tonight’s battle, but make sure it’s detailed and keep the call going for a while.”
Valentin’s head ached. He felt something was amiss but seemed to have no choice at the moment. He could only stare at the phone.
“Hello!”
A raspy voice came from the other end of the line. “Valentin, what’s the situation? Did you manage to annihilate all members of the Apex?”
Clearly, Valentin had already reported the initial situation.
“Boss, it’s bad, really bad. We’ve been breached.”
As Darnell pulled one snake from Valentin’s chest, Valentin trembled and lowered his voice as he reported to Rex.
“Callum poisoned us. All our brothers were affected and couldn’t withstand the Apex’s assault. Luckily, I noticed something amiss in time and escaped. Otherwise, I might have been slaughtered by them by now.”
“Boss, you need to hurry and notify the reinforcements so they don’t fall for the same trap at the Apex.”
After Valentin’s words fell, a cold reprimand came from the other end of the line. “Useless! Two hundred people couldn’t stop Apex’s attack?”
“What kind of useless are you? Don’t blame Callum for poisoning. You’re supposed to be the Axe’s strategist! Couldn’t you foresee they’d use such tactics?”
“You’d even have Kimberly poison Luca. Couldn’t you anticipate Apex would do something similar?” he scolded furiously.
Valentin shivered. “Boss, I’m sorry. It’s my incompetence.”
Rex’s voice carried a chilling tone. “Three hundred reinforcements are on their way. I’ll have them contact you and give you another chance.”
“Lead these reinforcements and bring me Callum’s head. If you can’t capture them, then bring me your own head. The Axe doesn’t keep useless people.”
Sweat dripped from Valentin’s forehead. “Yes, yes.”
At Darnell’s nodding gesture, Valentin hurriedly shouted another sentence to prevent Rex from hanging up.
“Boss, Luca is so insidious and shameless. He not only tipped off one of our strongholds to the police but also sent Callum to ambush us. Shouldn’t we teach Luca a lesson?”
“Otherwise, the Apex will only become more arrogant.”
Upon hearing this remark, Rex grew even more furious. “The Apex is so rampant because of your incompetence!”
“If you hadn’t failed repeatedly, would Luca dare be so arrogant? It’s because of useless people like you that he thinks the Axe is full of idiots like you.”
“Alright then. I’ll deal with Luca myself. You just focus on your task-remember to bring Callum’s head to see me.”
“I’m currently negotiating compensation with Miss Chavez and others. I don’t have time to discuss Luca with you now.”
Valentin nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, boss, please rest assured, I won’t disappoint you again.”
After hanging up, Valentin looked at Darnell fiddling with another phone with a complex expression on his face.
Darnell took Valentin’s phone away before turning it off and tossing it aside. Then he dialed a number on his own phone. Moments later, it connected.
Darnell spoke softly, “Martin, Kingslanding Clubhouse.”
Valentin was initially stunned but then trembled violently upon realizing that Darnell had used him to locate Rex! Was he planning an attack on Rex?
As thoughts raced through his mind, Darnell stepped forward and pulled both venomous snakes off Valentin before tying them together and tossing them away.
Valentin watched in awe with an indescribable sense of admiration in his eyes.
“Alright, you can leave now.”
After discarding the snakes and wiping his hands with wet wipes, Darnell spoke up to Valentin, “Callum should have left. You can go back now.”
Valentin trembled incredulously as he looked at Darnell. “You’re letting me go again?”
The last time when Darnell let him go, it was already unbelievable, and now granting him freedom again left him puzzled, so he asked once more, “You’re just letting me go like this?”
Darnell looked at him with a look of confusion. “You’ve helped me make calls and behaved well. Why wouldn’t I let you go?”
“Or do you want to stay with the Apex for meals? Let me tell you, they can’t even support themselves, so there’s no way they’ll feed an enemy like you!”
Valentin was baffled, unsure of Darnell’s intentions.
He wiped the sweat off his face, staring at Darnell and bitterly smiling, “Mr. Halford, you’ve captured me three times and released me three times without doing anything, making me feel extremely anxious.”
“Could you kindly tell me what your purpose is?”
Though Valentin feared death, the three captures and three releases felt like a disrespect to him.
“No purpose!”
Darnell kicked him over without hesitation, scolding, “You don’t want to leave when I let you go? Do you have a masochistic streak?”
Valentin felt quite wronged as he got back up, hesitating for a moment before asking, “So, I’ll take my leave now…”
Darnell shouted, “Get lost!”
Valentin hesitated but eventually turned to leave, glancing back several times as he made his way down the mountain…