Chapter 40

I could vaguely hear sounds coming from the main hall.

No one was coming out of the back door for now, and Charles and his team were lying in wait nearby.

I was leaning against the wall with my arms crossed.

I knew Charles must be really nervous right now, but I'd already discussed our strategy with him on the way here.

The reason they chose to hit the casino today must be because something happened at the casino that we didn't know about.

And if there really was a mole, he definitely wouldn't feel safe leaving. Instead, he'd stay at the scene to see if Virio and his team would find any evidence against him.

Only after making sure Virio wouldn't trace anything back to him would the mole feel safe to leave.

But in my theory, the mole definitely wouldn't use the front door.

So I stood guard at the door, and sure enough, after a short while, I heard footsteps coming from the back door.

Then I heard someone on a phone call.

"What idiots. None of them noticed, and I've been waiting here all along."

"Haha, I didn't show up for the past few days, and I don't know why they felt so comfortable letting me in! Having this identity really comes in handy!"

It was a completely unfamiliar male voice, at least to my ears.

I was certain I'd never met this person before.

But I unconsciously looked toward Charles, whose face was half-visible in the distance. His expression looked particularly serious at this moment.

He seemed to have already recognized who this person was.

I was about to say something when I heard the person on the phone already walking toward the door.

"It's fine now. I've already gotten away, and they didn't find anything." The man said as he walked to the door. When he pushed it open and saw me against the wall beside it, our eyes met.

The man's face bore some resemblance to Virio's.

But in comparison, his features were rougher, not exactly handsome.

With long hair, he looked somewhat sinister.

The man's expression changed slightly the moment he saw me, and I was certain he recognized me.

Perhaps because of the shooting incident last time, or perhaps because Virio had been keeping me by his side recently.

I had been leaning against the wall, but instantly straightened up.

"Hello?" I took the initiative to greet this man.

The surprised expression on the man's face flashed by, then he put away his phone and walked toward me with narrowed eyes.

Charles was still in a nearby corner, using the shadows to hide himself, but I knew he was watching my every move and would come help me directly if he sensed something wrong.

But even so, watching this man walk toward me step by step, I still felt an overwhelming sense of intimidation.

The aura around this man was not friendly.

Given Virio's status and position, when he appeared in a crowd, the sense of pressure he brought was already quite obvious.

Back when I didn't know him, I'd only heard about this man through hearsay and knew he was someone difficult to deal with.

Even after truly getting to know and interact with him, even though our relationship was now quite close, I could still feel that strong aura from Virio.

He was a man standing at the top of the pyramid.

Even my uncle Killian's presence weakened a bit when facing Virio.

The man before me had a similar aura to Virio's, but with a bit more instability.

But it was precisely this instability that made him look especially sinister.

The man looked at me and walked toward me step by step, finally stopping just two steps away from me.

"Ms. Lacey, what are you doing here?" When the man spoke, his tone was quite calm, completely different from the casual and smug manner he had on the phone just now.

I keenly sensed he was acting in front of me.

All of this was a disguise for him.

I looked at him, trying to stay calm. "You know me? Then who are you?"

But this question seemed to trigger some psychological reaction in the man. He narrowed his eyes again, looking me up and down.

"You tell me first, what are you doing here? Why did you come to the back door specifically? Do you know this casino well?" As he spoke, he moved closer to me again.

When I finally got a clear look at his face, I realized my initial judgment about him was wrong.

His resemblance to Virio was almost thirty percent.

So they were blood relatives?

Which meant this mole I'd almost confirmed was someone from Virio's family!

Realizing this, I felt increasingly dangerous and instinctively backed away.

But because of this small movement, the man saw that I must have heard something, and his face showed a fierce look. "There's only the two of us here, so just tell me honestly what you heard, and I can spare your life."

He deliberately lowered his voice, pretending to sound very gentle. "I know that to my cousin, you're a very good plaything, so don't worry, I won't let him know what happened here today."

So the man before me was Virio's cousin, that man called Hadrian Soren.

Realizing this, I became even more nervous.

Hadrian seemed to notice my emotions too.

My nervousness exposed what I'd heard earlier.

The back door of the casino really wasn't a place many people would visit.

Those desperate gamblers were too busy making trouble in the main hall. With something like this happening today, they were all busy cleaning up the scene.

I figured Virio must still be frantically trying to find someone to save Luca, or perhaps still cleaning up the entire casino, or perhaps still thinking about what to do next.

The man before me was clearly taking advantage of this situation.

I licked my lips, not knowing what to say for a moment. "I didn't hear anything."

"Do you think I'll still believe you if you say that now?" Hadrian smiled and continued walking toward me, the distance between us constantly shrinking.

But Charles still hadn't come over.

Finally, I saw Hadrian suddenly pull out a small handgun from inside his jacket with extremely quick movements.

Then he approached me and pressed it against my waist.

His skills were exceptional. At least better than what I'd heard about.

Regarding Hadrian, I'd only heard Virio mention him a few times.

Hadrian was the son of Virio's uncle. Since childhood, he'd been constantly compared to Virio, but because he lacked ambition and was irresponsible, whenever the family gathered, Virio's uncle would inevitably lecture him.

But their relationship was supposedly pretty good.

At least when Virio mentioned this cousin to me, there was a smile on his face.

I could feel that although Virio kept some distance from his family members, he cared about them.

But now, it was his own cousin who had betrayed him!