Griffith Manor. As soon as Elise and Alexander entered the building, they saw the two men who followed Elise struggling against the rope tying their arms behind their backs.
“Boss, Ma’am.” Two loud voices came from the living room, prompting Elise to turn her head to look. She first recognized Clement, that bodyguard of Alexander’s who had never liked her much, and her eyes fell to his side on a muscular man half a head taller than Alexander.
“Raymond?” she guessed. Alexander once mentioned to her the Four Guardians of Smith Co., namely Johnny, Melody, Clement, and Raymond.
Johnny and Melody were responsible for handling business affairs, Clement secretly made sure Alexander was safe, whereas Raymond was assigned to develop business in Africa back then. He was the best fighter among the four. That brawny body of his made him easy to recognize.
“As expected of you, Ma’am. One look was all it took for you to know who I am,” Raymond grinned. His honest appearance made him look much warmer than the robotic Clement next to him.
“The two of them will be responsible for protecting you from now on,” Alexander mentioned, to which Elise nodded. “I’ll have to trouble you both, then.”
“It is our responsibility to protect you, Ma’am. No trouble at all. Please feel free to instruct us if you need anything.” Raymond earnestly patted his chest.
Being a bodyguard was nothing compared to the tough time he had in Africa. He had already decided that this was a job he wanted to keep until his retirement! Affected by his enthusiasm, Elise couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t hold back.”
“Did you get anything useful out of them?”
Alexander interrupted lightly. “Not yet.” Raymond walked over. “We were waiting for you to interrogate them yourself, Boss.”
As he spoke, he leaned over and tore off the tape on the bound men’s mouths.
“Ptooey!” the bald one spat and glared at everyone. “I’m warning you, you can’t afford to offend the person backing me. Let us go now, or you will bear the consequences for your action!”
The thinner one echoed by roaring, “You’re dead!”
Raymond immediately stepped forward and slapped the thin man unconscious. He then grabbed the baldie by the collar and slapped one of his teeth out.
“Fess up. Who told you to come?” Irvin, who came from upstairs to join in the fun, quietly covered Alexia’s eyes as he calmly watched on.
However, Alexia refused to stay still as she wiggled around and tried even harder to see what was going on by leaning against the railing.
The bald man was bleeding from the corner of his mouth, but he was still arrogant as he cackled with blood in his mouth. “Hit me. As long as you don’t keep me alive, there will come a day I let you have a taste of my bullet!”
“Geez, how hard-mouthed.” Raymond lightly patted the bald man’s cheek. “You can’t beat me with your bare hands. What makes you think I will lose to you in a gunfight?”
Alexander was slightly impatient at this point. “Too much talk, Raymond. Was this how you worked back in Africa?”
Raymond trembled the moment he heard the word ‘Africa’. He never wanted Alexander to send him back to that godforsaken place.
At the thought of this, he turned the bald man over like he was holding a bird. He then found the other’s thumb and loudly snapped it at a ninety-degree.
“Oh,shit–!
“Gah!”
The bald man was rolling around in pain the next moment. However, despite the twisted look of pain on his face, Raymond didn’t let go of him-he even went for the bald man’s other thumb.
“You have five seconds. Give me an answer I don’t want again, and you can say bye-bye to your fingers.
“Five, four, three, two-”
The bald man started panicking when he felt Raymond exerting force during the last count.
“Hellens! It’s the Hellen Family! I’m here under their orders!”
It was exactly as Alexander thought.
“Ah!”
There was another scream and the bald man burst into tears. “You cunning Cittadelian! You have no integrity. I’ve already confessed, but you still went ahead and broke my finger!”
Raymond abruptly withdrew his hand and looked up at Alexander with an awkward smile. “Sorry, I lost control for a bit.”
Alexander proceeded to ignore him and brought Elise inside as he nonchalantly complained about how much racket the bald man was making.
Catching the hint, Raymond knocked the bald man out with a punch before he and Clement each brought one man with sunglasses to the basement.
“Why are the Hellens coming after me?” Elise knew about this powerful family, but she didn’t remember having a problem with them.
“I’m their target. Don’t worry. I’ll handle this,” Alexander confidently reassured her while he poured Elise a glass of water. Seeing how firmly he was saying that, she didn’t say anything else.
Irvin was still upstairs staring at Raymond and Clement walking past downstairs when his eyes glinted. He had a great idea. As he turned around and ran into his room, Alexia quickly followed him. She could tell from his demeanor that something was about to happen.
After a few minutes, the children ran down the stairs one after the other and hurried out through the side door.
“Slow down, Irvin! Don’t let Alexia fall!” Elise called out. However, her warning wasn’t all that effective. The children were already gone in the blink of an eye.
The siblings ran all the way to the basement and just as Raymond and Clement were about to close the door, Irvin stopped them by lying, “Stop! I want to go in to interrogate them. Daddy has already agreed. I will lock the door myself later, so the two of you should go up first, sirs!”
“Yes, Young Master Irvin.”
Without thinking much, the bodyguards handed over the lock and went to stand guard upstairs. The men in sunglasses were still unconscious when the siblings entered the room.
Seeing this, Irvin smiled and walked over before he took out a spray bottle from his pocket and pressed the trigger against the bald man’s neck.
He then retreated and kept his bottle while he quietly observed the man. The bald man took less than ten seconds to regain consciousness, but he was squirming when he woke up.
“It’s so itchy! Goodness, what have you done to me?!” Gradually, his limbs grew uncontrollable as he began to do the scratching motion repeatedly.
It was as if this could help with relieving the itch. After trying to no avail, the man stuck his face on the floor and rubbed it. Still, he was itching all over his body.
Just like that, the bald man begged for mercy while ‘washing’ his face with the floor. “I will tell you everything! I will confess! Please, just kill me! Kill me…”
Irvin continued to stand there without moving a muscle. This drug is pretty potent, he mused.
Before Alexander and Elise came back, Raymond had already told the two children that the baldie and the thin man were people who wanted to kidnap Elise. Anyone who wanted to hurt their mommy had. to be punished for it.
Alexia, on the other hand, couldn’t help but cover her eyes despite knowing that this was the bad guy. She thought this was too cruel, seeing how agonized the man was.
When Irvin happened to catch sight of her covering her eyes, he felt his anger dissipate and he turned around to tug her out of the room.
