Conquering His Cold Heart

317 The Runaway

Faraway from the relatively peaceful night in Sorvando, the same night seemed to be a little harsh on select few people in Xanmar.

Regulus was still doing everything in his power to come closer to catching the murderer of his brother. No matter how bad his relationship with Romulus was, he still wanted to find the culprit and give them the harshest punishment.

After all, his pride didn’t allow him to let the murderer of the bearer of his family name roam around freely.

“Has there been any progress, Milord?” Jake asked Regulus after joining the young lord in the garden in the middle of the night.

Regulus was sitting down on a rocking chair with his legs crossed. He had a burning cigar in between his lips. Although the weather was a little chilly, Regulus was enjoying the soft cool breeze, and also the company.

Regulus lifted his eyes from the battered and bruised man who was kneeling in front of him with his head down and glanced at Jake who had just joined him.

“I’m in the middle of hearing a very interesting story,” he replied without removing the cigar from his mouth.

“Interesting story?” Jake asked with a glimmer of curiosity reflected in his eyes.

“Yes, this man was telling me why he ran away from Xanmar amidst all this chaos. It took a lot of convincing to make this man talk, you know...”

.....

Regulus looked back at the trembling man and rested his head comfortably on the backrest of the chair. He slowly started to rock the chair back and forth and blew out the smoke of the cigar.

He rested his arm on the armrest of the chair and asked the man with golden-brown hair, “Did I ask you to stop?” A hint of passive-aggressiveness was evident in his voice when he asked that.

The man who was kneeling down flinched a little when he heard that calm voice that managed to send tremors in his heart. He slightly lifted his head to reveal that it was Lorenzo who was in that pitiable state.

He fisted over his knees and gulped before resuming what he was saying earlier before Jake came and interrupted him.

“As I was saying, it was never my intention to run away from Xanmar. But when I felt that excruciating pain that night, I was terrified. I knew that something horrible had happened to the alpha. But I couldn’t bring myself to come here and see what had happened.”

The frown lines in between Regulus’ brows deepened when he slightly leaned forward and said in a reprimanding tone, “Are you listening to yourself? You aren’t making any sense! Why would you decide to leave the Kingdom when you felt the demise of your alpha? Unless you had something to do with it.”

Lorenzo instantly lifted his right hand towards the sky and shouted, “I swear on the moon goddess that I had nothing to do with our late alpha’s death. I wouldn’t even dare to think about it, not even in my dream!”

Regulus wasn’t having any of it though. He turned his head to look at Jake and asked, “Remind me what my brother did to this man again, what he did before he passed away.”

By now, Jake had stopped seeing Regulus as someone who was incapable of handling the position of the alpha and had started to respect him.

He looked at Lorenzo with accusing eyes and instantly answered Regulus, “The late alpha had grown unexpectedly close to this man who was a mere informant for us. However, a few days before he passed away, he had some disagreement with this man.”

Jake darted his eyes along all the bruises which had turned blue and purple by now. And he finished what he was saying, “And because of it, this man was punished severely and was kept under house arrest.”

Regulus shook his foot that was resting on top of the other leg. He took a puff of the cigar and then spun his theory like always, “Since you were beaten to a pulp like this over some disagreement, you took your revenge by killing him and the others, didn’t you?”

Lorenzo froze for a while upon hearing that absurd theory. And he immediately denied the accusation, “I was still under house arrest when the alpha died. How could I have killed him? Even if I had somehow escaped, I would never be able to kill so many people, all of whom were way too stronger than me.”

“Maybe you hired someone to take your revenge for you while you were still locked up.” Regulus casually accused him again and leaned back.

Lorenzo, on the other hand, desperately tried to prove his innocence, “Where would someone like me get the money to hire an assassin? And how would I be able to send an assassin after my own alpha when my wills were literally bound by the bond?”

“So, let’s assume for a while that you had no hand in Romulus’ death.” Regulus paused as if he was thinking of something.

He then gave a piercing glare to Lorenzo and tried to probe into Lorenzo’s mind in order to check if he was worth keeping alive.

“After you felt that bond being broken, you took the chance to break free amidst all the chaos and run away? You were desperate to get away from the shadow of my brother, weren’t you?”

“I don’t know why I ran away…” Lorenzo dabbed the corners of his eyes with the back of his palm. He could sense the smell of bloodlust that the acting alpha was giving off at the moment. And he whispered in his trembling breath, “I just know that I wanted to live. That’s all…”

“Why were you still lurking near the border then?” Regulus put the cigar on the ashtray that was on the ground. “You should have crossed the ocean before my men found you and dragged you back here,” he added.

“I guess… I couldn’t leave my life here in Xanmar that easily,” Lorenzo mumbled.

Regulus leaned forward and looked at a scared face of Lorenzo. Lorenzo quickly averted eye contact, which made Regulus think that he was hiding something.

“Spill it out, whatever it is that you are thinking,” he asked in a stern voice.

The sudden sharp voice of Regulus made Lorenzo flinch again. And he immediately mumbled, “I wanted to return to the capital and meet the King. I wanted to ask for his help since I have no other people to rely upon.”

“Ah!” Regulus raised his brows and leaned back on the chair with his arms crossed in front of his chest. “So, even a peasant like you has a good connection with the King, huh?” he wondered out loud at that revelation from Lorenzo.

Lorenzo realized what he had blurted out in his fear. He didn’t want Regulus to suspect that he was always unfaithful towards the late alpha.

So, he instantly tried to correct himself, “No, it’s not what you think. I…” He looked at the advisor of the Atkinson clan who was still standing behind Regulus and was silently listening to their conversation as it played out.

He wasn’t sure how much the advisor knew about the devious plans of Romulus. What he knew was that he didn’t want to spill everything in front of Jake and ruin the perfect image of the late alpha in his mind.

Thus, he looked at Regulus and requested, “I would like to speak to you in private, Milord.”

Jake was obviously offended when a suspect was seeking to talk privately with Regulus. “How dare you say that?” he immediately shouted. “Are you afraid that all your dirty deeds will be known by everyone if you speak in front of me? I am not going anywhere!”

Jake seemed adamant about staying there.

Regulus, on the other hand, sensed that what Lorenzo was going to say was related to what his brother did in secret.

Since he knew that his brother wasn’t someone with a good personality deep down, he gestured his hand and asked Jake, “Why don’t you leave us alone, Mr. Greyson? I will keep you in the loop if he spills something of relevance to the case.”

Jake couldn’t deny it when Regulus asked him to leave. “I will leave you to it then.” He bowed his head to the lord and gave a glare to Lorenzo before disappearing from the garden.

After the advisor left, Lorenzo quickly looked up at Regulus and said, “I would have taken this to my grave. But since you are the late alpha’s brother, I will tell this to you.”

“Tell me what?” Regulus slightly raised his brows and became attentive to what Lorenzo was about to say.

Something told him that he was going to hear about some ugly deeds that his brother did.