Ruthless Axel

Danielle whisked Lila away to a quiet corner, her eyes shining with pride. "Look at you, the winner of the most prestigious cooking contest, now literally hugging the CEO of Roberts group! I'm beyond happy for you, Lila."

But Lila directly ignored the statement about her hugging the CEO rather she focused on her best friend's compliments concerning the competition, her heart swelling with gratitude. "This award is as much yours as it is mine, Danielle. Your support and encouragement made all the difference. You even left your teaching job to join my team – I can't thank you enough."

Ring! Ring!!

Danielle's phone rang interrupting their moment. Danielle pulled out the phone, looking at the caller ID, few seconds later, she pressed the answer button and began conversing with the caller, a smile on her face. Lila watched curiously as Danielle chatted with the caller, her expression growing more excited by the minute until finally the call ended.

“Who was that?” Lila asked, staring intently at Danielle who was still smiling excitedly.

“It was my brother, Daniel,” Danielle replied, a small chuckle escaping her lips.

"What did he say?" Lila asked, her curiosity piqued.

But Danielle instead chose to tease her first, "Well, guess what?"

Rolling her eyes playfully, Lila said, "Seriously guess? You know this well enough, I'm only good in the kitchen, not at guessing!"

This of course elicited laughter from Danielle who found Lila's reply funny but Lila returned her energy with a furrowed brow. "Okay, okay! I'll tell you. Daniel got us a spa coupon, and the appointment is tomorrow!"

"Wow, your twin brother can be really extra at times but this is amazing," Lila said happily, almost jumping as she reminisced about how Daniel had been doting on her ever since she became Danielle's best friend, he guarded her like his younger sister and always made sure she lacked nothing.

"This spa coupon is exactly what we need at a time like this, to relax and let go of the rigor and stress we passed through in the last few days, I can't wait to go for a spa with you tomorrow," Danielle said, smiling happily as she held Lila's shoulder.

“You know your brother is so nice to me, sometimes I can't help but wish I could steal him from you, but then I think having you is better,” I said, making Danielle break out in laughter, after all we usually joked like that.

"I know, I know. My brother is one in a million!" Danielle yelled forgetting that she wasn't outside prompting me to pinch her and we both burst into laughter.

“But let's face it, he's one in millions and billions,” she said, grinning at me. “Just like me!”

"Enough of the self appraisal, I want to go home, take a shower and prepare for tonight's dinner.See you later tonight and please remember to bring your twin brother Daniel along with you, he is part of our team." Lila said, looking down the hallway to see that the rest of the team were already done packing up.

“We're over here please,” I called out, waving at them to draw attention.

***

“Clear my schedule for the next two hours. We need to go hunting.” Axel said to his assistant, Brian who was opening the door for Axel to get into the black Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII.

“Hunting?” Brian asked as he joined the driver in the front seat, staring at Axel through the front seat.

“The building on the outskirts. Drive.” Axel ordered, meeting Brian's gaze squarely through the overhead mirror, Brian shivering in response.

The car maneuvered the road smoothly and an hour later, the car pulled in front of a three floors high building.

Brian rushed to get the door and Axel stepped out and entered the building, with Brian running to catch up with him. They passed through the hallway with several burly men bowing to greet Axel as he passed by.

They were met by a short man with almost bald hair and a huge and long scar on his face.

“Greeting boss,” the man said, not even meeting Axel's eyes, directing his gaze to the ground.

"Peter, did you get him?" Axel asked, staring blankly at his phone.

"Yes sir, he's in the inner room, he has kept on shouting and disturbing the peace of the building. But we did nothing to him. We left him there since you haven't given any orders specifying what should be done about him,” the short man said respectfully.

"Okay, lead me to him," Axel said, looking up from his phone as he slipped it into his pocket.

The short man led the way and Axel followed him, after a few strides Axel looked back at fidgeting Brian. “I thought we were in this together,” Axel snorted at Brian who jolted back in fear.

"Ah, yeah, yeah, we are, Sir, we are!" Brian stuttered, trying to keep up with Axel's long strides. "I just didn't expect...all this," he gestured to the burly men and the grand hallway. "You're a busy man, Axel. I didn't mean to slow you down."

Axel raised an eyebrow, his gaze still fixed on his phone. "Slow me down? You're the one who's been dragging your feet since we got here. What's going on, Brian? You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

Brian shook his head vigorously. "No, no, nothing like that. I just… I don't know what you're going to do to him. You're not exactly filling me in on the details."

Axel snorted, his eyes flicking up to meet Brian's. "You don't need to know the details, Brian. You just need to do as I say. We're in this together, like you said. Now, let's go see our friend."

He gestured to the short man, Peter, who led them to a door at the end of the hallway.

Brian had always hated the Mafia side of his boss, but the fact that he also had to be involved in it was bothering enough for him. Axel was a ruthless man who had no mercy to show liars and progressively people of questionable characters. But Brian, on the other hand, was a gentle and easy going man who believed that most of the things Axel was doing should be the work of a policeman, not just a mere civilian like him.

When they got to the room, a man was tied to a chair where he slept. He was guarded by four armed men. On Axel's order, a bucket of icy cold water was suddenly splashed to his face, making him jump in shock, gasping for breath.

Axel scoffed, watching him closely, Brian peeking from behind. After a few minutes the man opened his eyes and recognized Axel.

"President Roberts," he called softly, shock written all over his face. Axel nodded tightly in response, a sadistic smile on his face.

"Yes, that is me, Mr governor," Axel sat as he pulled a chair and sat down on it, facing the governor directly.

A chill ran down the back of the governor. It was obvious Axel wasn't for there for jokes.

“Since you're here, why don't you tell your boys to let me go,” the governor began, shivering slightly.

"Hmm, okay I will do that…" The governor let out a smile, nodding his head frantically as he started to thank him but he rejoiced too soon as Axel held up a finger silencing him before continuin, “But not until you tell me why you were so greedy to embezzle such amount of money from the public funds and further went as far as ordering the death of the accountant who tried to expose you." Axel said, tapping on the chair rhythmically.

The governor's eyes flickered into concentration when he heard Axel's words and quickly maintained his composure back " I-I don't know what you're talking about!" The Governor retorted, trying to deny his actions.

“Okay, yeah you're right,” Axel said smiling wickedly, “Fine then, Peter cut off his fingers,” Axel ordered, pulling out his phone while people got to work with a sharp dagger, Brian could barely watch as he tried to hold himself back from puking. Axel watched with satisfaction in his eyes and smiled at the governor who was now screaming with utmost pain and looked with horror in his face.

“So terrifying,” Brian thought aloud, shivering slightly as he watched the blood running down the arms of the chair and puddling at the feet.

“What did you say?” Axel asked, turning to Brian, a cold look on his face.

“N-nothing, nothing boss,” Brian said, almost choking on his saliva in fear. There was only so much he could do that would get Axel angrythat would also warrant his head to be cut off and placed on a silver platter and sent home to his parents. Axel was that ruthless.

"It will only help you to salvage the situation if only you can tell the truth," Axel said, turning back to face the governor who was now whimpering in pain.

"I didn't do it I promise," the governor said while screaming with pain, he couldn't admit it, if he did his entire possession would go down the line as the police and the media won't let him off the hook so easily, especially when a murder case is attached to it.

"Okay then. I also don't have time to waste with a blatant liar, so see you in hell," Axel snorted coldly, clearly disgusted by the fact that the cowardly governor wouldn't own up to his own actions.

"Tomorrow your body will be in the streets and your head will be fed to vultures," Axel said, turning away, with Brian following behind quickly. “You know what to do,” Axel said to Peter who nodded his head and then he left with Brian who was already fidgeting due to the sight of blood.