Chapter 237 How Rough Was It?
Josh stood by the car door and perfunctorily gestured for Britney to take her leave. “Miss Price, please leave.”
Britney protested, “I need to talk to Alex—”
“President Duncan is currently occupied,” he interrupted as politely as he could.
There were others who were passing by the hotel and since she did not want to cause a scene in front of everyone, she stepped aside. She watched as the silver-grey sedan sped off without any further delay, leaving only dust in its wake.
Just then, a man dressed in a suit and leather shoes approached Britney from behind. “Like I said, my cousin has little regard for anyone else when he’s working on something important. If he could cast his own mother out of the Duncan Family when he was thirteen, what made you think he’ll treat you any differently? After all, you were only his fake girlfriend for the past couple of years and he saw you as nothing more than a shield.”
“Shut up,” she snapped with an icy expression. “You knew he’d be here today, didn’t you? Did you deliberately set me up so that he’d catch me talking to you?”
“Do you take me for a psychic?” James Duncan asked with a glint of amusement in his eyes.
“Don’t flatter yourself. As far as I’m concerned, you can’t even begin to compete with Alexander. Scheming was the only way for you to get to where you are now,” Britney countered without any reservation.
Upon hearing that, his eyes darkened as a thought seized him. He scoffed and gave her an unreadable look before he drawled, “Just you watch. Duncan Group is now under my control and it would thrive under my leadership more than it ever did under Alexander’s. I couldn’t be much worse off than him and should I fall, it would be much harder for him to rise again.”
Britney’s face blanched at his words. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m not going to do anything. Let’s just say that I’m planning ahead.”
The fallen leaves that were scattered by the hotel entrance rustled as the night breeze swept them along the pavement. She looked at James and she could not help but shudder at the deadly calmness in his eyes.
Courtney went around several times in a secluded bar district in Shanghai before she finally saw the elusive sign which read ‘White Moon Hotel’. The building was tucked behind a dive bar and upon entering, she was met with an odd look from the receptionist at the front desk. She frowned and went upstairs to discover that one of the room doors was left open while the room service attendants were cleaning inside.
Courtney then glanced into the room without much thought, but when she caught sight of what lay within, her face paled.
The room was basked in a strange purplish-red glow and a red-and-black contraption—which measured up to the waist and resembled body-building equipment—stood right in the foyer. There were leather whips and candles littered all over the floor; all of them were used and stained with unknown liquid substances.
Courtney felt a shiver down her spine at the grotesque scene before her as she began to understand why the hotel operated in such a seedy neighborhood. In retrospect, the receptionist at the front desk was dressed up in a provocative manner and appraised with what could only be described as a habitual sultry gaze.
It made her cringe. After all, Tobias was from a wealthy family. Who could have thought that he has a fetish for something as distasteful as this?
She circled the entire fourth floor of the hotel, but failed to look for Room 419. She started to think that he had made a fool out of her when she heard the loud wail of sirens resonating throughout the hallway.
The hotel seemed to erupt into chaos and before she could react in time, a couple of people who resembled managers were running past her.
“Something happened on the top floor! Quickly call the boss!”
“Someone’s about to die! There is blood everywhere upstairs!”
“Call the police!”
“Are you stupid? We can’t call the police over to this place! Quickly get security and call the ambulance!”
The panicked voices died down as the people went further down the hallway. No one noticed Courtney in the midst of the chaos; she looked too plain for anyone to take a second glance at her. Just to be on the safe side, she had deliberately chosen to wear a suit that made her look like an insurance agent before coming over to the place.
When she heard that somebody was dying upstairs, a chill of fear swept over her. How rough did they have to be to cause someone to get hurt? Are these people really not going to call the police?
With that thought in mind, Courtney felt for her phone and called 911. “Hi, is this the police? I’m calling from the White Moon Hotel. Somebody’s injured.” She paused as she listened to the response to the other line. “Yes, that’s right. Please hurry! It’d be great if you could get an ambulance to come over as well.”
After she hung up on the call, she went around the fourth floor once more to ensure that there was nobody around before heading over to the stairway. She made her way up the stairs on her own, hoping that she could take photos to use as evidence for when the police questioned her later.
The shady establishment was obviously a brothel operating in the guise of a love hotel that was undoubtedly run by unethical groups who profited from the sex trade. Now that Courtney had arrived, how could she be expected to ignore something as flagrant as that?
The incident took place on the top floor. The building was well-hidden despite its size; there were fifteen floors in total, the last of which being where the incident was. When she arrived on the fifteenth floor, she saw that a crowd—mostly made up of members of the hotel staff—had gathered outside the room at the end of the hallway. A large man stood among them with his hands on his hips. When he spoke, it was with a gruff Northeast Otharian accent. “Oh, for goodness’ sake, what are you all standing here for? Go and pull them apart!”
“Sir, we’re not going in there while they are fighting like this. We’ll wait for security.”
“Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on? I was trying to sleep when the ruckus broke out. Why should they fight in a place like this when they can sit down and work things out like adults?”
By the time Courtney reached the room, the entrance was entirely blocked off from view and there was no way for her to see what was going on in the room. In exasperation, she turned to look at the large man, who was watching the fight with keen interest. “Excuse me, sir, but what’s going on in there?” she asked.
The man from Northeast Ortharia was a friendly character. He gave Courtney a bemused look as he answered, “Apparently one of them was caught sleeping with the other man’s wife and now they’re fighting it out. What are you doing here, miss?”
Courtney’s eyes widened and she waved her hand dismissively while sputtering, “Oh, no, don’t take this the wrong way, sir. I’m here to look for someone!”
The man chuckled lightly. “I think you’re the one who has taken this the wrong way. My wife and I couldn’t find a hotel nearby and since it was getting late, we decided to crash here for the night instead.”
She raised a brow. Of all places, this is where you decide to crash for the night? She pressed her lips into a thin line since she did not have time to indulge in polite conversation with him. She swiped on her phone display screen and turned on the video-recording feature on her camera before tiptoeing as she tried to record the footage in the room.
“Oh, no, you’re far too short to do that, miss! Here, let me help you.”
After he said that, the large man plucked Courtney’s phone out of her hand. She looked up to see him pushing his way into the room with the phone in his grip, ready to record the fight.
When they saw his actions, the hotel staff grew frantic. “Sir, you can’t take photos here.”
The man let out an impatient huff. “Well, it’s not my phone. The miss over there wants to take a video of the fight, but she can’t see because she’s tiny! I’m just helping her out,” he retorted and ignored the staff as he turned his bulky physique toward the room to begin filming in earnest. The employees were all far too skinny to barricade him, so all they could do was make a fuss on the other side of the threshold.
Courtney felt awkward as she stood to the side. This man is something else altogether, she thought.
While the hotel staff argued with the man, the crowd at the door began to disperse. She managed to catch a glimpse of what was going on inside—to say that the room was trashed would be an understatement; the appliances were all smashed and fragments from broken lamps were littered all over the floor.
Meanwhile, through the layers of sheer purple drapes, she could see that there were two men wrestling on the bed as both of them were engaged in a violent fist-fight. She could hear herself gasping at the dull thudding sound of fists pummeling mercilessly against soft flesh.
Courtney’s mouth felt dry as she kept her eyes on the man who was delivering the punches. She suddenly realized that there was something familiar about him. Wait! Isn’t that…
“Alexander,” she gasped before she hurriedly pushed her way through the crowd to enter the room. She pulled the sheer drapes that obscured her view and her eyes widened when she saw the man on the bed. “What are you doing here?” she asked in astonishment.
At the sound of her voice, Alexander froze with his fist in mid-air. The man beneath him seized the opportunity and forcefully punched him. Alexander grunted as he fell off the bed and the dynamics of the fight changed almost instantly.
“I’m going to f*cking kill you!” Tobias flipped over and grabbed the lamp by the headboard before he swung it toward the back of Alexander’s head.
