MAXIM
"Last chance to tell us what you know, Albert," Genevieve said to him in a casual voice.
"No. Please. Don't do this."
The guy's pants and underwear were bunched around his ankles, which left him completely exposed to Genevieve.
She got into a kneeling position, pressing the long knife in her gloved hand lightly against Albert's groin.
So far, Genevieve had been careful not to damage the man's vital organs while torturing him. But since he was continuing his stubbornness, she had decided to up the ante.
Genevieve tilted her head, studying Albert's length.
"It's so small, dude. You probably won't miss it."
Albert glared at her through gritted teeth, his face twisted with pain, fear, and humiliation.
"Well?" Genevieve asked, looking up at him again.
When Albert remained silent, Genevieve sighed and looked down at him again.
She rolled her shoulders, preparing to make good on her threat.
That was when Albert finally broke.
"Wait! Don't!" he gasped. "I'll tell you what you want to know. Please, just—just let me die a man."
"Finally," Genevieve said, letting out a tired breath.
She then turned toward Maxim with a large grin.
"Told you I could break him," she said.
"Only took you forever," Levi grumbled from his corner, examining his fingernails.
Genevieve's smile immediately faltered.
She rose to her feet, the knife still in her hand.
"Four hours is not forever, and the only thing that matters is that I got the job done," she said, pointing the bloody knife at Levi.
Levi didn't so much as flinch.
Maxim rolled his eyes and reached out, placing a hand on Genevieve's arm to lower it and the knife.
"All right, we get it, Genevieve," he said. "You did a good job."
Genevieve huffed in response.
Then she turned toward Maxim and inclined her head toward the weak-looking Albert.
"All yours, boss," she said before getting out of the way.
Maxim nodded.
"Let's hear it then, Albert," he said cooly, standing in front of the guy. "Tell me what I want to know."
"And what—would that be exactly?" Albert asked in a tired, ragged voice.
"Let's start with who hired you."
"I don't know who it is," Albert quickly answered him.
Maxim's expression hardened.
"Someone paid you at least seventy-five thousand dollars, but you don't know who they are?" he said. "Albert, I thought you said you weren't going to try to play with me anymore."
"I'm telling the truth!" Albert yelled in an angry voice. "I have no idea who the guy is. I've never even seen his face."
"His?" Maxim echoed. "So it's a man."
Albert nodded.
"Yes. That much I know."
Maxim looked thoughtful.
"Tell me, Albert, how did this man initially approach you and in such a way that you couldn't see his face?" Maxim asked.
Albert's head swayed slightly, looking as though he were dizzy and having trouble focusing.
Maxim wasn't surprised. Genevieve had really done a number on him.
"Stay with us, Albert. I want to hear how this mysterious employer first contacted you."
It took a moment for Albert to answer him, much to Maxim's irritation.
"I… I was walking home two months ago when a couple of men ambushed me in the street," Albert began. "I was no match for them. They drugged me with some kind of drug-infused rag, and the next time I woke up, I was in an unknown place, with a blindfold over my eyes and tied to a chair, kind of like I am now."
Maxim became immediately interested.
"They didn't want you seeing where they took you or who was involved," he said. "To make sure you couldn't identify them."
Albert nodded weakly.
"That's right."
"How inconvenient," Maxim murmured, more to himself than Albert.
"I'm sure it is, but can I continue?" Albert said impatiently.
Usually, Maxim wouldn't let anyone get away with using that tone of voice on him, but since the guy was about to die, he decided to let it slide.
"Sure, Albert. Continue," he said in a calm voice.
Albert spoke again, pain leaking out of his voice.
"When we finally got to the place, they still didn't take off my blindfold. I couldn't see anyone. But I could hear that the boss was already there."
"And what did he say he wanted from you?" Maxim asked impatiently.
"Anything I could think of that would destroy you," Albert said plainly. "And your business."
Maxim rolled his eyes.
"Yes, I figured that part out. Did the man say why?"
"No. When I asked, he said that it wasn't any of my business and that I shouldn't concern myself with it."
Maxim sighed in disappointment at this.
"What else did he say?" he asked, continuing the interrogation.
"After smacking me around a bit for fun with his men, he said he had an offer for me. If I rejected the offer, he'd kill me. But if I accepted, he'd let me go and pay me a lot of money."
"What was the offer?" Maxim asked, though he had a feeling he already knew.
"It was to spy on you," Albert confessed. "To report to them any weakness you might have in your life."
"Of course you accepted," Maxim said for him dryly.
"Well, I had no choice, damn it! I was afraid for my life."
"Even if that were true, you could have lied to them, got out of there, and reported the incident to me. But I guess after you were free, the money was too good to pass up, right?"
Albert went silent, which was answer enough for Maxim.
Sighing, he started pacing the room again.
"So, since they've been paying you, I'm guessing you've told them quite a few things about me," he said, and it wasn't a question. "What information did you give?"
Albert suddenly looked more nervous while not saying a thing.
"I swear I didn't want to tell them anything," he said.
Maxim let out a dark chuckle.
" Just answer my question,Albert."
The guy pursed his lips, still keeping quiet.
Not loving the silent treatment, Maxim bent his knees until he and Albert were at eye level, his expression turning cold.
"Are you going to need some encouragement from Genevieve?" he asked, gripping Albert's jaw and forcing his head up. "Because that can be arranged."
Albert looked into Maxim's cold blue eyes and knew that he wouldn't hesitate to give the order to have him tortured once more. The guy sighed in resignation.
"I didn't tell them that much. Just that they should have kidnapped your former accountant, Robert Lannister, instead of me. He would know more about how to destroy you and the business."
Maxim paused his movements when he heard this, not blinking as he turned to the guy again.
"So you're the reason Robert turned on me. You pointed them in his direction?"
"I did point them in his direction, but Robert's actions afterward are on him," Albert said defensively.
Maxim gritted his teeth at the man's cowardly logic. He reined in his anger, knowing he needed to get more information out of the guy before he killed him.
"And was that all you told them?"
"Yes," Albert said.
But as the guy said this, he stuttered and didn't meet Maxim's eyes.
Maxim studied the guy for a moment, noticing his suspicious behavior.
He then punched Albert in the stomach, listening with satisfaction as a pained grunt escaped the guy.
While he was groaning in pain, Maxim leaned in close to him and whispered in his ear.
"Again, is that all you told them?"
Albert forced himself to look at Maxim again, breathing hard.
"Just one other thing," he admitted.
Maxim's steely blue eyes locked on him again, waiting.
"I told them there was a woman in your life."
Maxim's head jerked back slightly, as if someone had struck him.
He blinked a couple of times, saying nothing.
Behind him, Genevieve and Levi exchanged a look, sensing that the situation could be about to take a significant turn.
"Woman?" Maxim asked in a low, quiet voice. "What woman?"
At the same time, he prayed that Albert would be talking about Livia or any of his other mistresses and not his Ava.
As long as Ava was safe.
"I'm talking about the woman I heard you telling Levi to find after you returned from the courtroom two days ago. Ava Morgan, right?"
A ferocious growl escaped Maxim when he heard this.
"You piece of shit," he barked at Albert. "You made her a target."
Before Albert could answer, Maxim pulled away from him and punched him squarely in the face. He then began raining hard punches on the guy, one after another, not giving him a moment to recover.
"Boss, stop. If you keep this up, you'll kill him before he tells us everything he knows," Levi tried to say, approaching the two.
He knew better than to physically restrain Maxim. It would risk having his rage directed at him too.
"I. Don't. Give. A. Flying. Fuck," Maxim said, punctuating every word with a punch to Albert's face.
Since he had endangered the woman he loved, Maxim was determined to kill the man with his bare hands.
Albert, who previously didn't think he'd have the strength to scream, let alone make a sound, did exactly that as Maxim continued to hit him.
"Stop," he managed through Maxim's punches. "Please. Look, I didn't… I didn't tell them your girlfriend's name."
Despite himself, Albert's words managed to penetrate Maxim's red fog of anger.
He paused, staring at Albert, breathing as heavily as the man. Then he placed his hands on the man's now completely bloody and bruised face.
"What—what did you say?"
"Didn't… tell them… her name," Albert said between ragged breaths.
Maxim stared at him in surprise.
"And why is that?" he asked suspiciously.
He knew the man could be lying, not wanting to be punched to death.
"Wanted more money for it," Albert started. "They agreed to pay, but we didn't get the chance to complete the deal because you took me before that happened." He inclined his head toward Levi.
"So they don't know about Ava?" Maxim asked eagerly.
"If they do, they didn't hear it from me," Albert said.
Maxim let out a sigh of relief when he heard this.
Because Ava was still safe from his world.
And at that moment, Maxim vowed to keep it that way.
If something happened to Ava because of him…
No. Maxim wouldn't think about that.
He would protect her and keep her safe.
"All right, you asshole," he said to Albert. "You're going to tell me everything you remember about the guy who asked you to spy on me. Everything you can think of that might help me identify him."
"I already told you I don't know anything more."
"We'll see about that," Maxim said. "I have a couple more questions for you. I'd like to check if you don't know more than you think."
"Go ahead, then," the guy said in a resigned voice. "But I'm warning you, you won't find much."
"Let me be the judge of that, okay?" Maxim said to him in a cold tone.
For the next twenty minutes, he interrogated the man. Whenever Albert tried to resist, which happened one or two times, Maxim used the threat of Genevieve, which immediately did the trick.
Eventually, Maxim managed to get a few details out of Albert, though it wasn't exactly riveting stuff.
The first was that his mysterious enemy was American. This didn't help Maxim in any way, as this was like most people in Havari.
The next detail Albert revealed was slightly more helpful.
Apparently, his enemy wore a lot of rings, a detail Albert had noticed when the man backhanded him a few times across the face.
One of his enemy's top guys seemed to have a Russian accent.
The final thing Maxim learned from Albert was a bit daunting even to him.
"I suspect he is a madman," Albert casually said, as if he were discussing the weather.
Maxim, who had been pacing around the room, stopped when he heard this.
"Come again?"
"I said I think he's crazy," Albert said to him. "At least, that's what I thought when, while inquiring about how to orchestrate your downfall, he actually called you his brother," Albert mused.
"Brother?" Maxim said aloud.
"Brother," Albert confirmed.
Maxim frowned, turning the information over in his mind, wondering why someone who wanted to kill him would refer to him as a brother.
It made no sense.
The word meant nothing to him. He didn't have any brothers. Only a sister, and even they weren't biological siblings.
In the end, he was forced to agree with Albert.
His enemy was probably a madman.
More good news, Maxim thought.
"That's everything I know," Albert said, his weak voice cutting through Maxim's thoughts. "I'm not lying this time. So keep your promise and end my life. I'm ready."
Maxim looked at the man again, focusing on his plea for death. A dark smile lit his face.
"Sweet, traitorous Albert, I'm afraid that isn't happening. I'm not going to kill you… At least not before I take your precious manhood."
"What?" Albert asked in an outraged voice, wondering if his ears were deceiving him.
"You conspired with my enemies for my downfall, Albert. And for that, you deserve the most horrible death you can imagine," Maxim explained.
"You bastard," Albert growled. "You lied."
"Yes, I did. But surely you understand, Albert. After all, betrayal is a huge part of nature."
"You're such a bastard," Albert whined weakly.
"Well, I'm disappointed that you don't see things from my perspective," Maxim said. Then he turned smoothly behind him. "Genevieve."
The woman moved to stand behind him.
"Your knife, please. I want to do this myself."
"Here, boss," Genevieve said, placing the knife in his gloved hand.
Since she'd released most of her aggression torturing Albert, she didn't mind letting someone else take a turn.
For the next few minutes, they all watched silently as Maxim cut off the man's member.
Albert lost consciousness almost immediately after he began. It was after Maxim was done that he finally decided to show the guy mercy.
He pulled the gun from his waist and put it in front of Albert's forehead. Without hesitating, he pressed the trigger and fired.
The guy suddenly went limp, his head falling over to the side, blood starting to drip from it.
After that the only sound that could be was Genevieve who sighed sadly as the day's main event was over.
On the other hand, while Albert died, so did Maxim's hope of catching his mysterious enemy quickly.
He realizes that this person was smarter and more dangerous than he thought, especially if he was showing interest in Ava.
Because of this, it frustrated Maxim that he only managed to find out the barest details about the guy. That he was no closer to finding out who this person was or how to get to him.
Still, Maxim knew he couldn't give up hope. He decided to wait until his enemy made a mistake, which had to happen at some point.
Then he would find this mystery person and eliminate him once and for all.
"Tell the cleaners to come take care of this mess," Maxim told Levi and Genevieve as he put his gun back in its holster. "As for me, I'm heading home."
"Got it, boss," Genevieve said.
Levi simply bowed his acquiescence.
With that, Maxim exited the warehouse.
As he made his way to his Aston Martin, he felt grateful for the fresh air.
It was a welcome change from the stench of death that filled the warehouse where he'd spent the last few hours.
As soon as he got into the car, he turned his phone back on and checked for any urgent messages that might have come in while he was busy.
Not to his surprise, a bunch of correspondence had arrived from different people during the time he'd been there.
There wasn't one from Ava, unfortunately.
Maxim's face fell when he noticed this. Even more so when he saw messages from all three of his family members, which he decisively ignored. He did the same for a company he was trying to take over.
The one that caught Maxim's attention was from Lovat Security Systems.
The owner of the company assured him that they had completed the job at Ava's apartment and wanted to know when they could expect payment.
Maxim actually smiled when he read it—or, more accurately, smirked.
He'd known that Ava would eventually give in to the security system team's sob stories and, ultimately, to his plan.
Maxim felt jubilant about his success but at the same time a little bad for Ava, knowing how defeated she must feel.
At least, he comforted himself, she must be learning that she was just no match for him. That would definitely help her going forward, he thought.
It would give Ava the push she needed to break up with Blake tommorow, assuming she hadn't done it today.
With that, Maxim concluded that it probably wasn't going to be that long before he and Ava got back together again after all.
With that happy thought,he turned the key in the ignition, bringing the engine to life.
He then drove through Havari, feeling very pleased with himself, having no idea that Ava was about to push back against him.