Leo laughed as he heard Echo screaming and demanding to be released, after he calmed down, he said, "Why don’t you try and guess who I am?"
Echo was shaken, the laughter sent chills down his spine, and Leo said, "Hello, mic check, one, two, three…"
Hearing this phrase, the young man tied to the chair froze and began to shiver. He raised his still covered head. Leo gestured for Gavin to take off the rag.
The latter did as he was told, and Echo Cardinal’s face was exposed to the air. His forehead had a thick scab and was slightly swollen, and his hair was disheveled, and his eyes were red.
Echo Cardinal did not look anything like his usual elegant young master self. He stared at Leo in stupor and asked, "You aren’t dead."
Leo did not reply and said, "Gavin, can you rough him up a bit more?"
Gavin nodded and before Echo could think about anything, a punch landed on his cheek. The impact caused the chair to fall down on the side, and Echo hit his head on the floor. Gavin picked up the chair back on, and went back to the side. He said, "Sir, his bone might snap if I beat him."
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Leo nodded and said, "Well, find me a pack of cigarettes."
Gavin nodded and took out a pack from his own pocket. Leo said, "Light one up, and the next time he talks back, leave a burn mark on his face."
Gavin, Kyle, and the rest of the men were shocked, how calmly Leo said this. Echo on the other side chuckled and said, "So, you finally show your true color, Knight Of The Cardinals. Hahaha, such a shame your deadbeat father is not here to witness how his decent and innocent son tortures his own blood."
Leo looked at Gavin who was still stunned and stood up from the chair. He slowly walked up to Gavin, took the pack of cigarettes, and then lit it up with a lighter, before taking a puff and stubbing the smoldering end right on Echo’s earlobe.
Echo screamed from the burn. Leo took his hand back and handed the cigarette to Gavin and went back to the chair. He said, "So, Echo let us cut the short. It does not matter to me how you did those things back then, what matters is that you did them.
You planned my parents car accident, you leaked the company secrets to Carole. Then you also tried to kidnap Snow. Well, that is three strikes. So, you can die."
Echo shivered, his rage turned into fear, because he understood that Leo was not the same as he used to be in the past. Leo said, "Echo, I will give you one chance. You can take your pick, an easy death, painless and quick, or a death filled with agony?I assure you, these men are very apt when it comes to such things."
Gavin had regained his composure, they no longer thought that their boss was a greenhorn and he nodded as he said, "I can skin him alive, and then let him see his stomach and innards being pulled out."
Echo shivered and said, "Leo! Spare me! Please spare me, I will confess my crimes and go to prison, you will never hear about me ever again."
Leo shook his head and said, "You could have let my parents go, but you did not. So why should I? You have ten seconds to consider."
Leo began to count slowly. Every time he counted, Echo pleaded louder, the anticipation of death made him babble, he began to confess his crimes and beg for mercy.
Leo did not give a damn, after he said, "Ten."
Echo froze, as if he was the timer. Leo asked, "What have you decided?"
Echo shook his head, he was already sweating a lot, but now, his bladder also began to sweat. Gavin frowned and took a step back. Leo looked at Echo and said, "I had wanted to ask you, after you have taken away everything from my parents, be it the house, the business, the dignity. Why kill them? If you can tell me the truth, I will let you go, I swear."
Echo saw a ray of light at the end of the tunnel and he raised his head as he asked, "Really?"
Leo nodded and said, "I will keep my word, won’t lay a hand on you."
Echo thought for a bit and said, "It was Vincent, he was the one who planned the accident with Carole and not me."
Leo clenched his fists but did not show it on his face and asked, "Why?"
Echo gulped and said, "Carole wanted to kill you because of Snow. He wanted to have her for herself, and that was why he approached me. That day when Uncle and Aunty signed off their equity to my father, they left the manor to the place where you were waiting.
Carole had hired a hitman to kill you. He came over, and found that Vincent was not happy. The man felt that even after acquiring everything his status was not high enough. Carole hated you so much that he decided to take the last pillar of support from you. He told Vincent and the old man agreed.
He said, "If you can kill them, it would shatter Leo’s mind. Then you can have him beg for it before you kill him."
Vincent did it to feed his own vanity and status. He wanted to erase the memories of Mister Cardinal from the minds of the people."
Leo said, "My father sold the equity so that the debts of the people who supported him in the project could be paid off. Had it not been for the constant pressure from the Primal Family, he wouldn’t have done that. Your father didn’t feel happy because he knew that he could never do what my father did.
Well, Echo, thank you for telling me the truth. Gavin, have someone send him on his way. I have something to do."
Echo did not understand what was going on, but Leo stood up from his chair, and turned around to leave with Kyle, when screams echoed, "Leo, you liar!! You bastard!! You promised to let me go!!!"
Leo did not bother, he replied, "I said I won’t lay a hand on you, I didn’t say my friends won’t. After all that you have done, Echo, believe me, I would have killed you with my own hands had it not been for some considerations."
Then he left the factory and waited for a few minutes. Kyle looked at him a few times and Leo said, "If you have something on your mind, tell me what it is?"
Kyle gulped and asked, "Sir, you have such enmity with them, then why didn’t you kill him yourself? We could’ve erased all the tracks that you were even here."
Leo smiled and said, "Kyle, killing someone is not hard, but the aftermath is what scares me. I don’t wish to go back home and look at my daughter with the scenes of bloodshed brewing in the back of my mind. Before you kill someone else, you need to kill a part of you, and I am not ready for that yet. I won’t be easy on those who offend me, but I will not kill with my own hands until it is absolutely necessary."
Kyle nodded and said, "Not many people can have a rational thought process like you, Sir."
Leo chuckled and said, "My wife told me to not dirty my clothes, I am just following orders here."
He was happy that Echo was dead, but that did not mean he would go crazy, because out of many enemies only one was dealt. He took a few deep breaths to calm down before Gavin came out of the factory, and he nodded to Leo, as he asked, "Sir, what should we do now?"
Leo smiled and said, "A return gift to my uncle."