The atmosphere in the room was a bit oppressive. Lance looked at the photographer whose eyes were darting around. “Have you seen this girl?”
He shook his head. “No, sir.”
Lance tilted his head. Hiram, wearing brass knuckles, punched him in the cheek.
His brass knuckles had four sharp corners like a file, which directly split the skin on the photographer’s cheek.
He didn’t even have time to scream before he was punched in the face again. He could only hold his face and lie on the ground, begging for mercy.
“This girl, I’ve seen her. I took a picture of her. The photo is in the album.”
Lance’s gaze shifted back to Manager Mike’s face. At this moment, Manager Mike’s scalp was already a little numb. He hadn’t seen this girl in the photo albums these past two days.
This could only mean one thing: she had been “delivered.”
“My patience is limited,” Lance looked at him. “I just want to know this girl’s current situation and where she is. I am already being very patient and trying my best not to lose my temper. I hope you won’t waste this opportunity.”
“Mike, right?”
“Don’t push me.”
After weighing his options, Manager Mike gritted his teeth. “The general manager should know about this.”
“Where is his office?”
“He’s not in the company right now.”
Lance suddenly stood up. Manager Mike explained nervously, “He’s very busy and only comes back occasionally, but I know where he lives…”
The general manager was indeed very busy, busy with socializing, busy with pleasure.
This was a very profitable business. A girl like Faya had no cost, but by sending her to the basement of those powerful people, they could get tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands.
If this girl died, and was made a mess of, then they could get another large sum of money for cleaning up the body, which included hush money.
The entire company’s operation was completed in two parts.
The first part was the Dream Crystal Modeling Agency. They would collect girls who met the criteria within Likalai State for the powerful people of the Bay Area to choose from.
The second part was the executive company with the “Termite Gang Extermination Company” as its core. They were responsible for the specific kidnapping and the subsequent clean-up work.
They had also participated in the promotion of the mystery of the rising water of Angel Lake and were heavily laden with sin.
A single person could bring him a net profit of at least over a hundred thousand. By doing two deals a month, his annual income could exceed two or three million.
So most of the time he was enjoying himself.
In his mansion.
There were also several girls imprisoned here. Having seen dark things, one would also be eroded by the aura of darkness.
At first, he didn’t understand why those powerful people would do these things, but gradually, as he came into contact with more and more dark things, he also gradually felt the meaning behind the powerful people’s actions—
Controlling life!
Yes, they were playing with life, controlling life. They were blaspheming divine authority.
Those girls knelt on the ground, their terrified eyes filled with the deepest fear for him. To live, they were willing to do anything.
Personality, dignity, everything was ruthlessly crushed by the desire to live. As long as they could live.
At that moment, he felt that he was no longer an ordinary human being. He was a god.
The god of these people.
He gradually began to enjoy these things.
Making money and recreation became one of his jobs.
He stood on the terrace of the second floor of the villa, wearing a floral shirt, beach shorts, and a straw hat, looking down at the girls playing in the swimming pool below, a look of contentment on his face.
This was fucking life.
Just then, his trusted assistant walked over. “Mike is here, and he brought some friends.”
The general manager swirled the wine glass in his hand. The sound of the ice cubes clinking against the glass made people’s attention focus on the amber liquid. He tilted his head back and drank the wine in the glass. “Let them in.”
He went to change into a casual outfit and met Mike and the few people with him in the living room.
He noticed that Mike’s hand was bandaged. The white bandage seemed to hide a redness that was about to seep through.
In fact, you couldn’t see the blood now, but for some reason, he had a feeling that before long, the blood would soak through and overflow.
“I hope there’s nothing major wrong with your hand!” he said, then looked at Lance. “How should I address this gentleman?”
Mike introduced with sweat on his forehead, “This is Mr. White.”
“Mr. White has something he wants to talk to you about.”
“‘Talk’?” The general manager emphasized this word. “Alright, let’s talk.”
He had someone send in some drinks, iced juice. He liked iced juice, especially iced orange juice.
Sweet and sour was his favorite.
“What do we need to talk about?”
Manager Mike was so nervous he couldn’t speak. Others didn’t know how formidable this general manager was, but he did.
If the businesses they were running were exposed, they could be hanged a hundred times and it wouldn’t be enough.
But for so long now, no one had come to trouble them. This could only mean that behind the general manager, there were big shots supporting him.
And, he also knew that the general manager also had some desperadoes under his command.
He didn’t want to get involved in this kind of thing.
Lance took out Faya’s photo, placed it on the coffee table, and pushed it over with two fingers. “I want to find this girl. They say she once appeared in your company’s photo album.”
The general manager was taken aback for a moment. His gaze towards Manager Mike began to turn cold.
But in the end, he decided to look at the photo first.
He picked up the photo from the coffee table and glanced at it. He recognized who this girl was at a glance and already knew where she had gone.
Mr. Bowen was a man of high position and great power. Although he himself was not terrible, the influence he had was something the general manager could not contend with.
If this matter implicated Mr. Bowen, he might be in big trouble.
In the eyes of others, he was a great person, but in front of the powerful people in the Bay Area, he was like a small pebble on the roadside, which could be kicked away with a casual kick.
He shook his head and put the photo back on the coffee table. “I haven’t seen this girl. My employees may have remembered wrong. We haven’t registered her information.”
Lance looked at him. “I came to see you with great sincerity. If you want money, name a price.”
The general manager became a little impatient. “I said, I don’t know about this.”
He stood up as he spoke. “If you have nothing else, then leave. You are not welcome here.”
He even glared at Manager Mike, but the latter had already shrunk his head into his chest. He wished he could lie on the ground right now.
A few bodyguards also approached, vaguely surrounding Lance.
“Is there no room for maneuver?”
“I just want to take her away.”
The general manager sneered. “Get out of my house, now!”
The bodyguards all puffed out their chests, as if showing off their muscles.
But the next second, gunshots rang out. Bullets pierced through those magnificent pectoral muscles. The general manager looked in disbelief at these people who were shooting wildly in his villa. He wanted to run, but his legs wouldn’t obey.
There were some girls’ screams outside, but they quickly stopped.
The moment the gunshots rang out, a car crashed through the villa’s large iron gate. Then Elvin and their cars quickly entered, controlling the entire villa area.
Lance looked at the pale-faced general manager who was being held down on the sofa. He crossed his legs, his ten fingers intertwined on his lower abdomen. He said slowly and deliberately, “Now can you remember where she is?”
Although the general manager was very scared now, there seemed to be a breath in his heart supporting him. “You’ve gotten yourself into big trouble, you know that?”
Lance blinked. He looked at Hiram. “It seems our general manager still hasn’t figured out the situation. Help him sober up.”
Hiram grabbed the crystal ashtray on the table and smashed it on the general manager’s knee. After a sickening sound of bone breaking, he let out a sharp scream.
He held his knee and slipped off the sofa, rolling on the ground. “My knee!”
A fracture is one of the most intense and unbearable pains.
His entire knee was shattered. The pain of the bone, and the double pain of the bone fragments poking into the flesh, were tormenting him.
In an instant, large beads of sweat began to emerge from his pores, and his whole body was soon “wet.”
At this time, Elvin came in from outside. The people in the house had been controlled. He had briefly searched the entire villa. “There’s a basement in the gardener’s house, but it’s locked.”
Lance’s gaze shifted to the general manager. “Where’s the key?”
The general manager might have already passed the initial period of unbearable pain. Whether it was the secretion of some hormone in his body, the intensity of the pain had decreased.
He carefully held his knee, lying crookedly on the ground and looking up at Lance, who was looking down at him. After weighing his options for a while, he finally said, “The key is in the drawer in my bedroom.”
He couldn’t help but continue as he spoke, “I’m just a small character. you have no idea what big trouble you’ve gotten yourself into.”
Lance glanced at Hiram again. Hiram was picking his nose, a large piece. He squatted down and wiped the booger on the general manager. Under the other’s terrified gaze, he punched him on his shattered knee.
The scream at this moment was off-key.
He cursed and rolled around in pain again. At the same time, he also understood one thing: don’t continue to provoke these people.
After he had stabilized again, Lance lit a cigarette. “Where is that girl?”
He didn’t speak, remaining silent.
Lance tilted his head. Hiram’s hand suddenly grabbed his knee. He twitched in pain, then used his hands to hit Hiram’s hand forcefully, trying to make him let go.
He was also cursing some profanities, but the more fiercely he cursed, the tighter Hiram’s grip became.
In the general manager’s head, a nerve snapped with a twang.
“He’s passed out.” Because he was still breathing, he could only have passed out.
It was the first time Hiram had encountered this kind of situation. He also didn’t know what to do.
And Elvin, who had already gotten the key and opened the basement door, walked over with a grim look on his face.
“You’d better go and see for yourself.”
Lance had someone watch him, and then the group went to the basement.
The lights here were very bright, but some of the girls here had been tortured beyond recognition. They were curled up in a corner, each one covered in scars, some old, some new.
The oldest was only in her twenties, the youngest was only a teenager.
A wave of tyrannical emotion surged in Lance’s heart. Elvin stood by, his voice a little muffled. He had always felt… that they were actually bad enough.
They killed, smashed, stole, robbed. They would do almost anything that had to do with crime.
But at this moment, here, he suddenly felt… that they were no different from saints.
“Should we let them out?”
Lance nodded. “Put some clothes on them, take them out. Have Corinda bring a few girls over to soothe their emotions.”
When he returned to the villa, Lance poured the water and ice from the ice bucket onto the general manager’s head.
In an instant, he shivered and woke up from his coma. He took a deep breath, the sound of his inhalation carrying a hissing sound.
After two or three seconds, he finally realized what had happened.
“Give me a name,” Lance said.
The general manager didn’t speak, but after a second or two, he shivered and subconsciously looked at Hiram. Hiram had already left an indelible and profound impression on him.
He wanted to be tough, but the severe pain made his will weaker and weaker.
He was not some spiritual warrior with a grand ideal of transforming human society. He was just a living demon.
He would be afraid, he would be terrified, and he would compromise.
In the process of his hesitation, Hiram took his hand from his control, placed his little finger on the desk, and then raised the hammer he had found in the basement.
Hiram didn’t give him any time to buffer at all. Then the ring finger, the middle finger…
He finally couldn’t take it anymore. These people were all fucking demons, madmen!
“Bowen, Bowen Hayes. I’ve said it. Are you satisfied now?”
“Let me go!”
Lance looked at him as if he were looking at a fool. “You… are you still fit to live?”
“For God to let you live is God’s mistake. I am not God. I sentence you to death.”
“But before you die, I want you to experience all the pain you have inflicted on others.”
He was dragged into the basement. There were many instruments of torture there, each one very horrifying, especially a very special dagger.
It looked like a leaf, with many barbs and cracked places, and the whole thing was dark red.
When the general manager saw this dagger, his whole body trembled.
This dagger was one of the instruments of torture from a civilized ancient time. It was not sharp at all, and was even very blunt, but the pain it brought to people was unimaginable.
Because it did not cut people’s tissues, but tore them.
He shouted until his voice was hoarse, unable to even make any sound.
He was hung on the torture rack, his head hanging low. The ground was covered with bloodstains and sweat, and also his excrement.
He could only say in a weak voice, “Kill me…”
But no one killed him. They just left, re-locking the basement door. Lance casually tossed the key into a low bush.
Undoubtedly, he would continue to endure pain in the basement. The double torment of body and mind would drain his last bit of reason, and he would meet his end in madness.
When they came up, Corinda had already arrived. They were comforting the released girls.
These girls came from different cities. They had suffered very terrible trauma, both physically and mentally.
Even after being rescued, they did not show the joy of survival in the first moment, but just looked at these people with fear and unease.
“This son of a bitch!” Lance cursed. His gaze swept over these girls for a moment. “Settle them down first. Find a psychologist and see if it’s of any use.”
Then he let out a heavy sigh. “I hope it’s not too late.”
As for the others?
Besides the innocent pool girls, the others had all ended their sinful lives after a burst of gunfire.
Of course, to reduce the workload of the local police, their bodies would be put into oil drums to contribute their own strength to the upcoming filming of “The Legend of Angel Lake.” This could also be considered a kind of compensation to society.
After getting the name, Lance did not act immediately. He had to first find out who this person was and see if he could get that girl out through other methods.
The first person he thought of was Councilman Williams.
Councilman Williams was curious about Lance’s sudden visit, but as Lance stated his purpose for coming, Councilman Williams also showed a thoughtful expression.
“This person, Bowen, is not small in influence. He has many friends in the state government, the governor, the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state.”
“If you want to act rashly, it will cause very terrible consequences,” he reminded Lance. If a character like this were to be killed, it would cause a collective panic among the politicians of Likalai State.
At that time, they would unite to deal with Lance, this person who had broken the rules.
Lance didn’t speak. He knew that Councilman Williams must have more to say.
Sure enough, he continued, “Do you have to save this girl?”
Lance nodded. “This is an obsession. God guided her father to kneel before me and beg me to help him find his daughter.”
“I cannot refuse. I must bring her back, even if it’s a corpse.”
Councilman Williams chuckled twice. He nodded. “Wait for me for a moment.”
In front of Lance, he dialed a number. After a while, the call was connected. He was not directly calling Bowen. Lance didn’t know who that person was.
But he heard that the other party had agreed to help with this.
Lance didn’t know what Councilman Williams had to pay for this, but he would be grateful for Councilman Williams’s contribution at this time and would remember his contribution.
After hanging up the phone, Councilman Williams said, “If that girl is not dead, you will be able to see her soon.”
If she was already dead, she had most likely been disposed of.
At the same time, the phone next to Bowen rang. He looked at the phone for a long while, as if he could see through the meaning behind the ringing of the phone.
But in fact, he couldn’t.
He picked up the phone. “This is Bowen Hayes.”
“Hey, Bowen, it’s me, Wade. Someone asked me to find you for something…”
(End of chapter)