Chapter 180

Chapter 180

The woman clearly felt William's gaze and slowly turned her head. The moment their eyes met, she gave him a faint, barely-there smile.

William kept a straight face and went back to his food, as if the eye contact had never happened.

For the rest of the meal, neither of them looked at each other again.

William and Stefan had just stood up to leave when a calm but firm voice came from behind them.

"Mr. Brown, would you come with me?"

They turned around to find the woman standing gracefully behind them, gesturing for them to follow.

Stefan's eyes went wide, and a knowing grin spread across his face. "Lord Warden's having a lucky day, I see."

The words had barely left his mouth before William's icy stare shut him up instantly. Stefan stumbled backward, startled.

"I don't think we've met," William said, his tone flat but his eyes sharp.

"Not yet, but that's about to change. After all, Ms. Zara Jenkins sent me to find you." The woman extended her hand with a graceful smile. "Allow me to introduce myself — Natalia Ruth."

At the mention of Zara's name, something flickered in William's eyes. He turned to Stefan. "You can go."

"Got it, got it!" Stefan looked relieved and hurried toward the exit. That look William had given him nearly scared him half to death — there was no way he was sticking around.

Once Stefan was gone, William spoke. "Ms. Ruth, shall we?"

"Right this way." Natalia smiled and led William toward the underground parking garage.

As they walked, William's instincts started picking up on something off.

The route Natalia was taking was getting more and more isolated, and they were clearly heading toward the deepest dead-end corner of the garage.

William stopped in his tracks, his gaze turning razor-sharp. "You're the one who impersonated Zara to come after us, aren't you."

"What are you talking about?" Natalia's expression didn't change, but a flicker of surprise crossed her eyes.

His instincts are sharper than I expected. He caught on that fast.

"Drop the act. I was there when you called Stefan. You pulled it off pretty well, but your voice gave you away." William let out a cold laugh. "After all my years in Celestial Prison, you think I haven't seen every kind of con artist out there? Your little disguise trick doesn't even come close to a Blood Rose apprentice."

"And here I thought it was flawless." Natalia let out a resigned sigh, her warm demeanor vanishing in an instant. "Since you've seen through it, I guess you'll just have to die here."

The moment she finished speaking, several large men in black stepped out of the shadows, gripping gleaming long blades and fixing their deadly stares on William.

"Mind telling me why?" William seemed completely at ease.

He had already torn the Heaven Organization out by its roots, and Greasley was still on the run. Neither of them could have bounced back this fast. A new enemy, then?

"You destroyed the Heaven Organization. Did you really think I wouldn't come after you?" Natalia drew a dagger and spun it between her fingers, a cruel smile on her face.

Remnants of the Heaven Organization. They just never know when to quit.

William narrowed his eyes and scanned the men like a radar, instantly reading their fighting habits and weak points.

He slowly raised his hand and gave them a contemptuous wave. "Come on then. I'll give you two free shots. If you can't kill me with those, I'll be sending you all to hell myself."

A terrifying killing intent rolled off him like a wave. Just standing there, William made everyone in the room feel like death itself was watching them.

The hitmen glanced at each other, fear flashing in their eyes.

They were no strangers to blood and danger, but standing in front of a true killing machine like William, they felt like children.

"Do it! Kill him!" Natalia gripped her dagger and hurled it straight at William's head.

"One." William slipped aside like a ghost, caught the flying dagger effortlessly, and dodged a slashing blow from another hitman at the same time. "Two."

"Both shots are used up. My turn."

The words had barely left his mouth before William vanished from where he stood and lunged at Natalia like a leopard.

Natalia froze for a split second, then realized she was his real target.

"Damn it!" She spun around and ran without hesitation.

But her speed was nothing compared to William's. She'd barely taken two steps before an iron-grip hand clamped down on the back of her head.

Her face met the cold concrete floor hard, and she blacked out instantly.

William let go of Natalia and turned to face the hitmen closing in on him, a bloodthirsty gleam in his eyes.

He wove through them like water, dodging every strike while landing precise counters on each attacker.

"What the hell, how does he keep slipping away!"

"Fight us straight up if you're so tough!"

The hitmen roared and kept swinging, but their encirclement had already been torn apart completely.

Three minutes later, William looked at the bodies scattered across the floor and shook his head. "Decent enough fighters. Too bad they picked the wrong person to work for."

William dragged the unconscious Natalia to a hidden corner of the garage. Once he was sure no one would pass by, he drove his foot into her stomach.

The sharp pain jolted Natalia awake.

She looked around in a panic, and William's cold voice reached her ears. "Don't bother looking. Your people are all taking a nap. They won't be up for a couple of hours at least."

"Looks like I underestimated you. Didn't think you could fight like that." Natalia gritted her teeth against the pain, her voice bitter.

If she'd known William was this capable, she never would have gone at him head-on.

"A little late for regrets." William crouched down and grabbed Natalia by the hair. "You're not actually with the Heaven Organization."

Natalia let out a cold laugh and flipped him off without flinching. "Says who? You think just because you destroyed the Heaven Organization, none of us would come back for revenge?"

"Most of the Heaven Organization's members have already been wiped out. The ones left are just a bunch of cowards running for their lives." William's voice was dripping with contempt.

Those people didn't have the guts to come looking for revenge.

"Well, I'm not one of those cowards." Natalia kept her chin up.

The killing intent in William's eyes surged, and the air around him grew even more dangerous. "If you won't talk, I'll have to try something more persuasive."

"Like what?" Before the words were even out of her mouth, a searing pain exploded from her right arm.

William had twisted it into a grotesque angle. The crack of breaking bone was unmistakable.

"Then just kill me!" Natalia clutched her mangled arm, eyes red, and screamed at him.

"Kill you? What a waste that would be. You've still got plenty of useful information in that head of yours." A cruel smile crept across William's face. "Starting with the most important question — where is Zara right now?"

"Her?" A strange smile spread across Natalia's face. "She's already dead."

His fist connected with Natalia's face and knocked her out cold again.

"Pathetic. One punch." William cracked his knuckles. "Doesn't matter though. I've got all the time in the world to wake you back up and make sure you enjoy every bit of what comes next."