Broken Bond: Between Vices and Virtues (BL)
Chapter 198: Ready to set out

Chapter 198: Ready to set out

[Content Warning: Torture methods ahead!!]

Azrael pushed open the heavy wooden door, the sound of creaking hinges breaking the silence that pervaded the room. In the dimly lit room, a single flickering bulb cast an eerie glow over Diego, the bearded man whose name they finally found out, bound to a chair in the center of the floor.

His only clothes—trousers—were bloodied and torn, and his eyes, wild and fearful, darted around with confusion and dread. On his neck hung a white cloth dirtied with sweat, tears, and snot, and stained red with blood. It was used as a blindfold.

Azrael’s cold and unwavering gaze scanned the room as he entered. Nothing has changed since the last time he visited. There was no trace of food being served, and water to drink might been given to the captive, but there was no spill or any trace of wetness.

The air smelled clouded as it was before, mixed with metallic and iron.

Azrael approached Deigo with a purposeful stride. The sight of him, the man responsible for the assault on his omega father, was a reminder of the pain that had driven Azrael to this point. The satisfaction of seeing him in this state was overshadowed by the pressing need to tell his father the truth.

"Diego Allens," Azrael said, his voice low and devoid of emotion.

Diego’s eyes widened with fear and realization, but only a gurgling sound came out from his mouth, even when he tried to shout and form words, it felt like his tongue was missing, like his mouth was numb and he lost feeling in his lips.

Azrael grimaced. "You can still recognize your name, huh? Seems like my methods had become too easy. Monsters shouldn’t be able to recognize their names. No...they should not own a name at all. You are still recognizable and look human."

He walked to the corner of the room and grabbed a branding iron heated in the small furnace in the corner. The smoke sifted in the air, and the crackling of embers from being disturbed was heard.

Diego screamed when Azrael hadn’t even branded his face. He rattled the chair, his arm bleeding from the bruises and marks of the tight ropes, but Azrael showed no mercy or stopping at all.

Diego’s upper body was already filled with burnt marks from the branding iron he held. Scabs have already grown on some parts, while some are still fresh and excreting pus. Now, Azrael’s goal was the man’s face.

Azrael walked behind the man, and fixed his blindfold, tied it tightly on his head, before he began marking the man on both of his cheeks, using the heated iron he held. The head of the iron was carved messily, like a mesh wire crumpled, so when it touched the skin, hundreds of tiny lines webbed together burned the skin.

Deigo screamed and thrashed in his seat, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t do anything. Blood seeped on his face after Azrael put away the heated iron. He threw it back on the furnace, then he went to the table and grabbed the pliers.

Checking Diego’s fingers, he realized he hadn’t finished pulling all his fingernails. "I was thinking of pulling your teeth today, but you still have a pinky nail. Let’s take care of it first."

Diego only could make a gruff sound. He shook his head, attempting to wear off the blindfold. He couldn’t even afford to cry, for the salty tears would make his facial wounds sting with pain.

After pulling that pinky nail, Azrael heard footsteps approaching. He threw the pliers on the table and pressed the play button on Diego’s phone. A music with repetitive, monotonous beats played through.

Diego stopped his wild movement after hearing the first beat, like a robot that stopped responding after hearing a signal. Azrael then walked to the door and shut off the only light source in the room. He closed the door and faced Kayden, who stood a few steps above him.

"Azi..."

Azrael walked up. "He’s still alive."

Kayden sighed and followed his cousin. Sandro and Luis were already in the living room, waiting by a table strewn with maps and documents.

Luis bowed at Azrael slightly, while Sandro nodded. Kayden sat on the single-seater and gestured his hand to Sandro. "He found something very helpful."

Azrael sat on the long sofa. "What?"

Sandro and Luis sat across Azrael. Sandro then began, "We’ve confirmed that Chairman Rage keeps a ledger—a comprehensive record of everyone involved in his dealings. It’s very crucial to our plans, now that the traces of evidence he left purposedly were destroyed by Miss Raine."

Kayden turned to Azrael, wondering. "You didn’t know about this?"

Azrael, tapping his fingers above his knee, briefly shook his head. "When I took over the group, I made sure to tell him that I’d create an empire devoid of weaknesses. I clipped off everything rotten on the outside, while he let the inside pester."

"Uncle knew you’re always ready to nip whatever could ruin the image of the group, so he made sure to keep everything buried behind. However, not all people are like him, burying risky illegal proofs. So, his last resort, to hold his business partners at bay and not dare to bite him back, he made a ledger," Kayden stated. "...is what my mother said."

"Did you find out about it through her?" Azrael inquired.

Kayden, "Yes. Mother visited uncle the day before. She found out Lyssana took a day off—a rare occurrence deemed even by your father. She was suspicious, so after she left, she contacted Kayla and inquired of Lyssana’s whereabouts. You know she already planted some spying devices on her after learning the truth about your omega father. The tracking device pointed to the shopping district, which didn’t seem suspicious at all, but when they played the audio recording, they found out about the ledger."

"She met someone in the shopping district," Sandro remarked.

"Possibly. The bug was planted inside her car, but she was talking to someone about the ledger on the phone. The talk was recorded after she visited the shopping district, so there’s no guarantee that she met someone there."

Azrael, "No one followed her?"

Kayden shook his head. "Mother said sending people to follow him might be risky, so no, there was no one. Though she said, the ledger is hidden in one of uncle’s safehouses."

Sandro, "His safe houses are all well-guarded and located in different places. There are only a few on the outskirts of the city, but surely, he wouldn’t put the ledger there, right?"

Luis took the map of the country and laid it in front of them. "That’s why we brought this."

Azrael’s eyes narrowed on the map. He sighed, but his eyes showed determination. "He has a lot of properties outside the city. Trespassing all of them in search of the ledger will take us weeks or probably months. On top of that, we have to deal with the strict security."

Kayden leaned forward. He studied the map. "Then, the best we can do is to narrow down the possible location. Maybe the most visited house by your father is where the ledger is."

Luis and Sandro nodded in agreement. Azrael then commanded, "Check all the nearby CCTVs on every one of them. See if my father visited recently or these past few days."

"Yes, sir."

Luis and Sandor answered. Their eyes looked weary, but they still obeyed quickly after Azrael dismissed them. Kayden stood and mentioned, "I’m going to check in the hospital. Call me if they find something."

With that, he left. Azrael was then left all by himself in that spacious living room. The house returned to its eerie quietness and Azrael immersed himself into thinking about Lyssana and her intentions.

Reminiscing the times he relied on that vile woman and even obediently acted in her favor and considered her feelings and wishes, Azrael wanted to smash his head on the table in extreme regret. The resentment inside him was growing stronger, something that was eating his sanity away.

The music he made Deigo listen to has only a few words in the lyrics. It was played repeatedly along with the repetitive beats and melody. Until the time Diego Allen no longer recognized himself, but the words on the lyrics were imprinted on his head even in his sleep, only then will Azrael let the man go.

On his monitor, he will watch him do his task, like an obedient monster raised by his master.

On the other hand, inside the Horace Mansion, Knox had started to prepare himself to infiltrate the safe house Lyssana told him. He learned self-defense during his college years, and he was fast in running in case he got discovered.

But he knew it was absurd to think of running if the guards bring guns. He sighed and steeled his resolve. If this will help them achieve their peace and happiness, then Knox is ready to step on the enemy’s lair.