His men immediately swarmed the crew, violently ripping out cables and smashing the broadcasting equipment to force the stream offline.
Augus sneered at Serena. "I don't care who you are! In my house, my word is the only rule that matters!"
"You want your money? You want my hand?" He let out a sinister laugh and waved his arm.
Dozens of heavily armed thugs, who had been waiting for the signal, instantly flooded the track. Brandishing weapons and wearing murderous expressions, they completely surrounded Serena.
"Let me remind you, I own everyone in this building. Even if I don't honor the bet, what exactly are you going to do about it?" Augus's eyes gleamed with malice as he stared at Serena's hands. "In fact, I'm not paying you a dime. Instead, I'm taking one of your hands as compensation for my emotional distress."
Seeing the thugs, color finally returned to Anna's pale, tear-stained face.
"Yes! Do it!" she shrieked, her voice dripping with venom. "Augus, don't let her go! Chop off her hands! Ruin her face! Let's see her act arrogant then!"
Standing safely in the back, a wicked smile crept onto Isabella's lips. So what if Serena won the race? So what if she had skills? This was Augus's turf, and the man was notoriously petty and vindictive. After Serena humiliated him so thoroughly, there was no way he'd let her walk out alive.
Yet, completely surrounded by a mob of bloodthirsty enforcers, Serena didn't so much as blink. She looked incredibly bored.
Casually brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear, she turned her head toward the man who had been leisurely watching the show from the sidelines.
"Douglas, are you done enjoying the show?" she drawled, her tone lazy. "Time to go to work."
The cherry of his cigarette glowed bright in the dark. Douglas let out a low, rumbling laugh. "You were acting so arrogant, I thought you were going to handle these guys yourself."
"Why would I exhaust myself when I have a perfectly good backer standing right here?" Serena said unapologetically. "I'm tired."
Douglas chuckled. Stepping forward with his long legs, he placed himself directly in front of her, shielding her from the mob. His voice carried a helpless, indulgent fondness Even the little monsterknows when to call for the adults."
He smirked, shifting his gaze to Augus.
Dressed in a long black trench coat, Douglas cut a tall, imposing figure. He radiated
a lazy but suffocatingly dangerous aura.
Riding high on his own adrenaline, Augus pointed a metal pipe straight at Douglas and spat, "Don't think I'm scared of you just because you're Anna relative. I know you outsiders have a saying-a king doesn't mess with the local boss! On this turf, I could kill you right now and no one would ever know. Get out of here before I end you too!"
Douglas casually pulled the cigarette from his lips and blew a cloud of smoke. He was still smiling, but the freezing intent in his eyes was absolutely terrifying.
"Local boss?" he scoffed, lightly tapping his ashes onto the ground. "In the United Realmon States, absolutely no one dares to claim they are the boss in front of me."
He placed the cigarette back between his lips, his predatory gaze locking onto Augus.
"I am Rex."
Just three simple words, delivered in a quiet drawl.
But they made Augus's twisted expression instantly freeze in sheer, unadulterated horror.
The surrounding thugs went completely rigid. Clattering sounds across the
echo halt as.metal
pipes and knives upped "from their trembling hands and hit the ground.
Rex?
The man who controlled half of the nation's entire underground empire? The
ruthless, terrifying new king of the underworld... Rex?