Chapter 87 A heart of war
Axel's POV
Ever since I began the mission to take back everything I'd lost in full force, Prince had been calling often for updates and to show his support. Despite my hyper-independence, at a time like this, I genuinely appreciated his concern and I also felt empowered knowing that someone believed in me to turn things around despite everything that had happened recently with the last shipment. Even now, he'd called to check in and get updates on how things had turned out so far and as usual, I was willing to share every single detail with him, even though my hold on trusting people had dwindled greatly after being betrayed by Lisa.
"How's everything going? I hope everything's in place now." Prince asked and I could sense that he'd been a little tense because he knew how delicate this mission was to us, we needed a big win so badly.
"We've successfully landed on the remote island where one of our safe houses is located, as per your insistence we've also set up security to the max and things have been going smoothly around here so far" I reported back as though it was an official request, I was however careful not to mention specific details because anyone could've tapped into the call to spy on us and we couldn't afford to slip up again.
"Alright, that's good to know. I would've not hesitated to take the next flight there if there were any complications, you don't need to figure this shit out alone you know?" He sounded relieved from my feedback and that somehow calmed me as well, he didn't need to know how much of a battle it was to look Lisa in the eyes after the way she'd treated me.
"Nah man, it's all good. More importantly, have the Volkovs started suspecting that we're the ones who kidnapped their daughter yet?" I asked him to change the subject quickly but I was eager to hear his response on that particular aspect, and I equally hoped it would be negative since I hadn't gotten any information out of her yet.
"I doubt they have any idea, I believe that they're more focused on the shipment they stole from us for now. That reminds me, how do you intend on proceeding further now? Particularly, how do you intend on getting the information on the lost shipment's whereabouts from Lisa?" He asked as though he was hesitant about my intentions due to my and Lisa's history, and I knew that I'd need to prove that all of that was behind me now.
"As I would with any other person that dares to cross me, I'll torture the answer out of her if she doesn't cooperate as need be," I replied in hopes that I oozed the confidence I'd planned to so that he wouldn't further question my intentions when it came to Lisa.
"Yeah, I hear you, bro. But do you really have what it takes to torture her as you would with other random prisoners? Especially considering how much you love her" Prince replied and as soon as the words "love" in reference to Lisa left his lips, my heart constricted painfully as a result, especially since she'd crushed me so easily.
"That doesn't mean shit now, you know? The love I had for her was a fickle thing and it definitely died down the moment she betrayed me. And about being able to torture her, I gave my father my word that I'd do whatever it takes to fix things and she isn't going to be an obstacle to me this time around" I felt an unusual anger in the pit of my stomach the more we spoke about the love I'd lost and I just needed this mission to be over as soon as possible, it was fucking with my mind and I hated it so damn much.
On cue, my subconscious mocked me for acting all high and mighty despite knowing how much effect this whole ordeal with Lisa had on me. From the moment I'd stepped into her room to kidnap her, my heart dropped at the mere sight of her, she'd looked like the ghost of herself and as though some life had been drained out of her and she was barely struggling to hold on to what was left of her.
At that moment I'd felt like cupping her face in my hands and fixing whatever could've possibly gone wrong especially when I noticed how puffy her eyes were and how lean and beaten down she'd looked then. In all of this, what haunted me the most was that I didn't want to help her because I pitied her, instead it was because deep down I still cared about her well-being despite everything she'd done to me.
What hurt me even more about seeing her miserable at that point was that if she'd just waited a while longer, we would've been together and happy with every single thing we'd ever wanted at our fingertips. All I needed to do was pull off the mission and I would've been able to give away one of my most flourishing territories to Lisa's Dad no matter what it would've cost me.
But guess what? Even to hope for that I'd been nothing but a fool since she'd been playing an elaborately planned game the entire time and all that I held so dear was nothing but a sham. I was ready to sacrifice just about anything to be with her after getting her family's blessing but she'd been lying and pretending the entire time while I bared myself before her because of how deeply I'd fallen in love with her.
Still, as soon as I took in her appearance, I had no idea why someone who'd pulled off a mission that no one would've had a chance of achieving looked like the one who'd lost the most, but I forced myself not to give a shit about her so I didn't let her appearance sway me. Instead, my anger went through the roof because my heart had betrayed me by giving a shit about her despite everything. I hated that she still had some sort of hold on me but I wasn't going to let her see that no matter what.
"You have to wrap things up over there quickly though. I got verified intel from a trusted informant that the Volkovs have plans to quickly disburse the goods from the shipment all over the country so that we'd find it extremely hard to track everything down when we finally retaliate" Prince's voice broke through my thoughts, I'd almost forgotten that he was still on the other end of the line at some point.
How did the Volkovs reason? Did they really think that we wouldn't be on their tails after the stunt they pulled by sabotaging one of our most crucial and biggest shipments? That we'd sit back and take months to strategize before striking back after losing millions to them as well as the lives of some of our best men? They were either overconfident in their abilities or no one's head was screwed on right in their establishment, no wonder they needed Lisa to stoop so low with seduction and lies just to stand a chance at besting us.
"I hear you loud and clear, I'll make sure of that. Thanks for checking in." I concluded the conversation and thanked Prince for his help because I wouldn't have had the slightest idea of what was going on back home if he was constantly checking in.
"Yeah man, Later" He replied and ended the call right after he'd finished speaking which left me at the mercy of my thoughts once again.
I remained rooted in the spot where I'd been while answering Prince's phone call and I began to go look over the surroundings closely. We were at one of my family's hidden mansions that served as safe houses whenever some trouble blew out of proportion and we needed to lay low for a while, or when we needed to hide illegal goods and high-profile prisoners that people were likely to come looking for.
It was located on what seemed to be a deserted island, and it was extremely hard to find even if you happened to be on the island. The mansion was covered by a huge plantation of trees from the outside and strong armored walls in the rare instance that an attack could occur. It was also not a motor-able location, it was only possible to get to it using an aircraft, that's why it was the perfect place to have brought Lisa for questioning without being worried about getting disturbed by her family when they eventually noticed she'd been kidnapped by us.
As I thought of that I remembered that I hadn't checked on her in a while, I checked the CCTV footage that was connected to my phone and I chose the view of the activity in her room. The first thing I noticed was that she'd not touched any of the meals that I'd asked our live-in maid to take to her last night and earlier today. It pissed me off like crazy for some reason that she wasn't eating, she looked like a literal ghost at this point and I hadn't even gotten started with torturing her, what the fuck did she think she'd achieve by acting out when she'd already been captured with no hopes of an escape anytime soon?
I hissed and angrily shoved my phone into my pocket and made my way for the room, I practically ran there because of how infuriated I'd been. As soon as I opened the door of the room where she was, the first thing that hit me was how thin and almost lifeless she looked as she lay helplessly on the bed. The moment she noticed my presence, she sat up to face me and her sad eyes shot up at me as well. Despite how badly her appearance made me feel, it was still nothing in comparison to the anger and betrayal that I felt toward her even now.
I couldn't believe that we'd gotten to this point, it made me so fucking mad at her and myself as well for letting my guard down so easily. I was raging with fury and I knew that what I wanted to do most was choke her to death with all the strength I could possibly muster, at the same time my heart which had a mind of its own was breaking all over again at the sight of her and I wanted to fall at her feet helplessly and beg her to tell me that everything that had happened that night was nothing but a nightmare, and in a way, I was leaning towards taking up the latter option despite how fucking dumb it seemed.
How on earth was I supposed to let go of all the love I'd had for her? Rather than be plagued with rage, pain, confusion, sadness, and self-hatred I would rather be convinced that everything that happened earlier was a fucking nightmare.
What the fuck was wrong with me?