Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder by Alice Knightsky
Chapter 111 Soren Met Derek
I rode in the backseat of my carto the location where Thomas had instructed my driver to take me. “I’m impressed by your little daredevil.”
“What do you mean?”
“I gotta say, had you not told me to keep a close eye, I would’ve been tricked by her.”
I didn’t respond, waiting for him to continue.
“She was selling on the market, and honestly, her products sold pretty well-”
“Get to your point.”
“Yes, yes, here’s the thing. Most of her customers stopped to talk to her before they picked up their products, except for one. He grabbed a bag from her and walked away.”
I thought for a moment, and asked, “A bag of money?”
Thomas whistled. “Bingo! Impressive, boss.”
I frowned. Why would Rosalie give him money? “You got the guy? What did he say?”
“His name is Derek. He admitted that he had blackmailed her.”
The driver pulled the carto a stop, and I took a few deep breaths, trying to keep my cool.
Whoever that person was, it wouldn’t do for him to see just how agitated I was, not to start with anyway.
I got out of the car, tugging on my cufflinks as I went. I straightened my tie and had a quick look around.
Thomas had picked a great location for this. We were on the outskirts of town, away from houses, in an old warehouse.
Where no one would hear him scream.
A few of my men walked in front of me, others behind, as we approached a side door. The scent of old cardboard hit my lungs as the door whipped open, one of my men holding it for me. It was dark inside, only a bare bulb hanging over the head of our captive.
He stared up into my eyes, and I could see the fear gleaming back at me from his dark orbs. Our footsteps echoed off the concrete floor as we made our way over to where Thomas and a few others stood around him. He was tied to a folding chair, but his mouth wasn’t bound. The stench of his sweat burned my nostrils and stopped me short of the circle of light that illuminated only him.
His lip was bleeding, and his eye was swollen. Other than that, he looked like he’d gotten off easy. This time. He’d already lost a hand.
Today, he might lose even more.
I observed him for a moment, letting him squirm a bit, letting the anticipation for who I was and what I wanted build.
When I finally stepped into the light, I saw the recognition on his face. An eyebrow raised slightly, his eyes widened a bit.
“You and I have a little matter to discuss. Your name is Derek?” I began, keeping my voice even, my tone calm. It was more frightening that way.
“W-we do?” he asked. “I… I don’t think so….”
“Oh, I think we do,” I said. “It seems you sent a little note to a friend of mine. And I don’t like it when people like you send notes to friends of mine. Especially when those notes aren’t very nice.”
His eyes widened as he realized what I was referring to. “I’m sorry. ..I didn’t know—”
“Now, now, Derek,” I held up a finger and wagged it back and forth. “Don’t start making excuses. It’s best not to start making excuses. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t know that she was my friend, or you didn’t realize I would find out, or any of the other excuses you want to spout off to me. The bottom line is, you f’cked up.”
I stepped over to him then, and I watched him lean back in his chair.
But there was no place for him to go.
“And now… you’re going to pay.”
I pulled my fist back and let it fly, twisting my hips so that all of my muscle was thrown into the punch. I connected with his cheekbone and heard his eye socket shatter as I made contact.
Derek screamed in pain. Hearing him cry out in anguish was exactly why I’d left the gag out of his mouth.
I wasn’t done, though. I was only getting started.
Hauling back again, I hit him with a left hook, followed by a right jab and then another. I hit him several more times, blood flying up and sprinkling my men that were standing nearby. None of them even flinched.
“Please!” Derek cried. “What do you want? I’ll do it!”
I stopped. “Good,” I said. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Now, I’ll ask the questions, and you’ll answer them. Got it?”
His only answer was a small whimper. That was enough for me.
“Where are you from?” I asked him, giving him a moment to catch his breath with an easy question.
“Tragoria,” he said, spitting blood.
“Uh huh,” I said. “And how do you know Rosalie?”
“She’s… my sister,” he said, looking into my eyes.
That response made me angry in a way I couldn’t describe. I bursted out laughing, and lit into him again, punching him squarely in the nose and hearing a crack as the bone splintered. How did he dare to insult her?
“Humor me, she’s your sister? You ugly f*ck!”
He shrieked in pain as blood spurted everywhere. “No! Please! Stepsister…!” he continued. “She’s my stepsister!”
I tipped my head to the side and narrowed my eyes at him.
“Your stepsister?” I had to seem skeptical. Only then it would pressure him to tell me everything he knew about Rosalie.
“What kind of a man would choose your mother over Rosalie’s mother?” I patted his face, “What the f*ck did your mother do to make Rosalie’s father fall for her?”
I c****d my fist.
His eyes grew large as he realized I was going to hit him again. “No! No!,” he said. It was difficult to understand him because his mouth was so swollen. “He… he remarried because Rosalie’s mother died…”
I punched him again. “Go ahead to make up your f’cking lies!”
“No, no, it was true!” he explained as fast as he could. “Her mother died due to a rare disease.”
“Ha, how did you know that?”
“Really, really! They said her hair turned white all of sudden, and she died not long after that….”
I leaned back as I thought over what he was saying. In all of my intelligence collecting about Rosalie, I hadn’t heard anything about her mother.
“I have no f*cking idea what you’re talking about, you a’shole,” I told him. “I think you just made that sh*t up so I’d stop punching you in the face.” I glared at him, but in the back of my mind, I decided I needed to have his statements investigated.
I was done with this jacka’s, and my hand was tired from punching him in the face.
“Listen, you b’stard,” I said, stepping forward and grabbing the back of his head. I yanked his head backward, hard. He grimaced and stared up at me. “You told Rosalie you needed money, and you have it now. Get your a’s off of this island. You’re going to leave, and she is never, ever going to hear from you again.”
I pulled tighter on his hair, and his eyes bulged. “If I ever hear from you again, I can guarantee you, the next person who sees you will be trying to identify your body. You got me, slick?”
“Y-yes, sir,” Derek stammered. “I understand.”
I let go of his head, snapping his neck forward and held my hand out to Thomas. He handed me a wad of cash, and I shoved the money in the b*rea*st pocket of Derek’s button-down shirt, which used to be white. I hated giving him any money at all, but if that’s how Rosalie wanted this to be handled, then I’d let it be.
I recognized at this point, her wishes were my wishes.
I glared at him one more time before I turned and headed out of the building, snapping my fingers as I went. My men followed me out. As soon as we stepped outside, I told them, “Take him straight to the port. Put him on a boat. I don’t care where it’s going. Just make sure it’s headed far, far away from here. Buy him a one-way ticket. I never want to see his face again. Make sure all of our men know, if he shows up on our island again, he’s dead.”
“Yes, sir,” they replied, and I noticed that Thomas wasn’t there.
“Boss!” As I was wondering, I saw Thomas walk from the other side of the door. “Update regarding the supply vessels.”
I could tell from his tone that whatever the update was, the news wasn’t going to be good, so I gestured for him to create some distance between us and the rest of the group.
“What is it?” I turned and looked at him.
He said quickly, “Not good. The supply vessels were attacked. We lost a lot of ships. Others had to be rerouted.”
I swore under my breath. “Ethan?” I asked him. “Why didn’t we hear it until now?”
“They blocked our communication. We just restored it.”
It seemed that I’d underestimated my half-brother. He wasn’t running from my manhunt; he had used himself as a bait!
“He got away?”
Thomas nodded. “Yes, and… he managed to get to the frontline. We lost a couple of cities.” F’ck!
“How the h*ll did he get away?” I roared.
“A seaplane,” Thomas said.
I gritted through my teeth, “From now on, feel free to shoot all unidentified seaplanes out of the f’cking sky!”
“Yes, sir.”
I took a deep breath and calmed myself. Things didn’t go as well as I hoped, but that was why I always had a backup plan.
I smirked, “It seems like we need to step up our agenda now.”
“Yes, sir,” Thomas replied.
Ethan might be lucky this time, but his luck would run out.
As I walked back to my car, I realized that I forgot about something. “Also, send men to Tragoria. See what they can find about Rosalie’s mother.”