Chapter 447: Foreboding

The chair crashed the wall with a loud noise, the echo reverberating across the whole warehouse. It was eerily quiet inside, similar to the one after a thunderstorm. However, everyone knew that this was not the end. Contrarily, it was the silence of foreboding, sending sirens of upcoming catastrophe. 

Jared was incensed, and the man looked nothing less than the devil he was with the way he was glaring at the wall, his fists colored with blood. His stance spooked the hell out of all the men in the warehouse except his Godfather, who sat unfazed. But that did not mean he was not vexed. Charles was beyond furious, and he was just short of losing his cool.

"Maggie escaped?" Jared seethed, clenching his fists tight, the blood from his hand dripping beside him, courtesy to the men he had killed. After he was rescued from the secret room, Jared had gone on a killing spree, killing the remaining men who had hid from their unknown enemy. He was vexed for a list of reasons, most important of all being Maggie's escape.

Nobody answered. Although they were standing still before the man who controlled their possibility of remaining alive in the future, their legs were almost on the verge of giving away. With their heads lowered, they stared at the ground, not daring to meet the monster in the eye. 

Their silence only added to his fury, and he choked the man who was, unfortunately, standing closer to him. The man started to wriggle his arms in the air, clutching Jared's biceps, trying to escape his death. "How dare she!!" Jared bellowed, his harsh voice sending tremors through everyone's body. They shivered in their places, hoping to run away from the place before they too met the same fate as their deceased brothers.

A pile of dead bodies lay outside the warehouse, all belonging to Jared's gang. Their unknown opponent had been smart enough to take away their injured men with them to not give away who they were. So, nobody from the Vipers knew who had attacked them, nor did they know if they had even managed to kill even one foe.

The man's face turned blue, and instead of letting him go, Jared's only tightened his grasp, cutting all the possible supply of oxygen. In less than a few minutes, he stopped wriggling, and Jared threw his body like a piece of rag. The man was now dead. Jared had killed him in a fit of anger, but his anger only amplified as he remembered the way the girl had tricked him.

He could not forget the way she had escaped from his grasp even before he could get to her. Moreover, the girl had trapped him in his own warehouse, rendering all his moves useless while she escaped unscathed, taking away all the pieces of evidence she had gathered over time.

"Jared," Charles called out to him, and that was all it took for the man to drop his temper for the time being. He was scared beyond words, dreading what awaited him, and Jared took slow, careful steps towards his Godfather, who was glowering at him, his face giving nothing away about his disposition. If Jared was a monster, then Charles was the reincarnation of evil, the demon himself.

Just like their Master, even the members of the Vipers gang were terrorized by Charles's low and lethal voice, and they cried at their unfortunate misery. Since the time they had joined the Vipers, they had been dealing with danger daily. If not for Jared holding their's and their families' fate, they would have long run away from the devil's lair.

Jared braced himself for the man to unleash his wrath. However, to his surprise, Charles did nothing, staring at him with an unfathomable expression. "Have you checked her room?" His question threw Jared off guard. This was not what he had expected.

"No, Godfather. I have not." Jared answered honestly, wondering what the man was thinking. "But it is of no use."

"Why do you think so?"

"The girl had nothing with her when she left, nor did she bring anything in the first place."

"Are you sure?" Charles frowned, trying to find a solution to the mess they were in.

"Yes, Godfather. But there is nothing harm in searching once again."

Jared, Charles, and two other men from the Vipers began searching her room, in hopes of finding something about her. Although Charles knew that the girl belonged to the Intelligence, he was hoping to extract more details about her. However, as they had expected, her room held nothing that could be of use to them.

"Check the devices," Charles ordered, an ominous feeling filling his heart. He was suddenly becoming restless, a feeling he had not experienced in the last thirty years. This similar sense of presentiment was making him restless and antsy. 

One of the two men who had knowledge about electronic gadgets took his seat and started devices only to find them all wiped out clean. There was nothing in them, nothing at all. Maggie had cleared everything, erasing all her work history, making it impossible for anyone to find out what she had done. The devices were as good as new, and Charles's body shook, dread taking over him for what lay ahead for him.

"Finished, everything is finished." He mumbled, his legs giving away. If not for Jared who held right on time, he would have dropped to his knees. Jared was shocked to see the man who had never feared anyone, scared out of his wits. It was the first time Charles had shown his weak state, and Jared had no idea how to deal with it.

"Godfather," He shouted, trying to bring the man out of his reverie. Charles was lost as he kept mumbling about his end that was nearby. His mind had stopped working, and all he could think about was how everything he had built over the years would be ruined in a matter of few days.

"Jared," Charles held the man's arms, his eyes losing their focus, and the next instant, Charles's head lolled to the side, his body collapsing completely in Jared's arms.