Chapter 211
The next morning.
After dropping Lilian off at her office, Ethan didn't go straight to his. The car sped through the city, away from the busy streets and onto the highway toward the border.
Almost an hour later, the vehicle left the main road. The route now followed a lonely two-lane road, flanked by buildings and rare houses. Only a few cars crossed the path.
Three kilometers ahead, the car turned a corner and left the asphalt behind. The dirt road, surrounded by dense forest, revealed the isolation of the place. There, there was no other vehicle besides Ethan's.
Shortly thereafter, large iron gates appeared, guarded by burly men. The car was allowed to pass. On the other side, a road lined with tall trees led to a simple, single-story red brick building. A black SUV was parked in front.
As soon as the car stopped, Ethan got out without hesitation. The brown wooden door opened, revealing Charlie, who greeted him with a discreet bow.
“Sir, welcome...”
Ethan responded with a slight nod. Charlie glanced quickly at Julian, who was accompanying him, and smiled slightly.
“Please come in, sir. They are already waiting downstairs.”
Ethan walked forward in silence, followed by the two men. At the back of the house, a discreet elevator awaited them. The doors closed, descending to a basement of long corridors, white walls, and cold concrete floors. The black doors, lined up side by side, resembled the hallway of a hotel... a gloomy one.
“Sir, would you like to see Joana's businessman first, or the gangsters?” Charlie asked.
“The gangsters.” Ethan's reply was low, but the anger in his voice echoed like a blade.
“Room 101, at the end of the corridor.”
Charlie walked to the door, typed in passwords, placed his fingerprint on the reader, and turned the latch. The iron creaked. The light came on automatically, revealing the interior.
The windowless room, painted gray, was not very large. Still, it was spacious enough to accommodate seven men lying on the floor in terrible conditions. The sound of the door creaking as it opened caused everyone to turn toward the door.
Their eyes widened in surprise when they saw the figure of the tall man they used to see on the news, Ethan Legrand, appear before them.
Ethan, with his impassive expression, entered the room. He saw that their condition was still the same as he had seen yesterday in the park. The difference was that some of them were wearing basic bandages to stop the bleeding.
He stopped right in the middle of the room, a few feet away from the seven men who now stared at him in shock. He ignored them and turned to Charlie, who was standing next to him.
“Which one of you attacked my wife?”
Ethan's low voice was clear enough for the seven men on the floor, who immediately let out small sounds as if they were cursing in their hearts to get the answer that had been bothering them all night.
They had talked about why that man had appeared in the park! Now they knew that his target was Ethan Legrand's wife.
“Those four...” Charlie pointed to the right side of the room.
“Drag them over here!” Ethan said coldly, looking at the four men now on their knees, staring at him in fear. He would not forgive anyone who hurt his wife, even if it was only in their minds.
Charlie narrowed his eyes at the four men in the corner. “All of you...” he said coldly. “Come here yourselves, or I'll drag you here by force. The choice is yours!”
The four men immediately dragged their bodies closer to Ethan.
“Mr. Legrand, please forgive us.”
Have mercy, sir.“ A hoarse, low voice came from one of the men, who was now three steps away from Ethan.
”Yes, sir... Please, please don't kill us.
“I'll do anything for you, sir... If you let us live.
”I beg you, sir, spare our lives..."
Charlie hissed angrily, listening to their stupid pleas.
“One more word from your filthy mouths and I'll break the rest of your bodies!” Charlie warned them sternly.
Instantly, their pleas disappeared.
The room fell silent again, but their worried expressions were still clearly visible in their eyes.
They all knelt on the floor, clutching at the unspeakable pain that still tortured their minds and bodies. But they didn't dare make a sound. They all waited fearfully for Ethan to speak.
“You want to hurt my wife?” Ethan said in a cold tone that seemed to lower the temperature around him, causing all the men on the floor to feel their blood run cold.
“Sir, we didn't know she was your wife,” the bandit leader replied immediately. “If I had known, I wouldn't have taken this job.”
“That's right, sir. What my leader said was true...”
“Yes, sir, we wouldn't have taken this job if our employer had informed us. But there was no such information about our target.”
“True, true... We would have refused if we had known she was your wife!”
“Please forgive us, sir... we beg you...” The man's voice trembled with fear.
Ethan pretended to scratch his ear with his index finger, as if he didn't like to hear them talk so much.
Instantly, the four men pressed their lips together again, afraid to speak. They froze when they saw Ethan's displeased expression.
After a few seconds, Ethan spoke again:
“If you hadn't done bad things, you wouldn't have taken this job, right?”
His cold gaze returned to theirs.
The four men nodded with their mouths tightly pressed together, not daring to make a sound.
At first, they thought Ethan Legrand would forgive them. They immediately wanted to thank him for his kindness and mercy. But then their words stopped at the tip of their tongues when they heard Ethan Legrand's next sentence.
“But... since you almost hurt my wife, I can't accept your apologies. My wife was traumatized by your actions... she gets scared every time she remembers what happened in the park.”
All the gangsters were speechless when they heard this.
They could only vent the sarcasm in their minds as they stared in horror at Ethan Legrand.