From Busboy To Iron Lord: The Almighty Rowan Lachlan Returns

Chapter 4

One minute Donovan Locke was smiling, the next, his jaw went slack.

No one in the room had seen Rowan move.

To the naked eye, the towering bodyguard had simply reached for Nancy, only for his wrist to spontaneously snap backward at a sickening angle.

“What the hell is this? I don’t pay you exorbitant sums to break your own wrists on the job!” Donovan gritted his teeth, his face flushing red from anger.

The giant bodyguard looked down at his mangled hand. As the shock wore off and his brain registered that his wrist was shattered beyond repair, an agonizing scream ripped from his throat.

He collapsed to his knees, clutching his arm.

Donovan was fuming. Convinced the man had injured himself on purpose to claim paid sick leave as stated in their contract, he was immediately blinded with rage.

He stormed into the adjoining bedroom and marched back out gripping a heavy iron golf club.

While the bodyguard was still writhing in pain, Donovan swung the club like a baseball bat, slamming it brutally into both of the man's knees.

Crack! Crack!

The giant tumbled to the ground, a crippled, sobbing mess.

“I already paid you for this month and the best three, I’ll be damned if I let you get away with eating my money, you son of a bitch!” Donovan spat.

He ruthlessly beat the bodyguard man until he finally stopped moving, falling unconscious on the plush carpet.

A flash of sheer terror crossed Nancy’s eyes at the sight of the bloody violence.

Trembling, she instinctively looked toward the tall redhead standing between her and the billionaire.

Six years ago, the Williams family busboy had been scrawny, stressed, and barely stood at five-foot-nine.

The man shielding her now was a towering six-foot-five, his shoulders broad and his presence suffocating. She didn’t recognize him at all.

Instead, she was just terrified for him.

Even if he was a brave police officer, he couldn’t possibly save them from a monster like Donovan Locke.

If she tried to grab her boys and dart out the door, hotel security would just drag her right back up here since Donovan was one of the hotel's major shareholders. They were trapped.

Donovan stopped hitting the unconscious guard and pointed the bloodied end of the golf club at the remaining two giants.

“Don’t just stand there like lumps of wood!” he hissed. “I want this bitch tied to my bed, naked and screaming.”

The two bodyguards nodded immediately, stepping over their fallen comrade. But Rowan didn't flinch.

He simply shifted his stance, perfectly shielding Nancy and the twins behind his wide back.

“Do you have a death wish, cop?” the first guard grimaced, cracking his massive knuckles.

“No. Do you?” Rowan deadpanned, his icy blue eyes sweeping over them with utter indifference.

“Boss, this retard seems tired of living. Say the word and I’ll grant his wish,” the second bodyguard mumbled, glancing at Donovan.

“Mr. Locke, this bastard is not to be trifled with! He easily took down your four guards at the door!” Leo quickly butted in from the corner.

Rowan had humiliated him, handcuffed him, and shoved him into a car like groceries. If anyone was going to die today, Leo wanted it to be this redhead.

Donovan thought it through for a moment, resting the bloody golf club on his shoulder as his brows perked up in amusement.

“Hey, I’ve been lenient with you because I play golf with the Police Captain,” he warned, a sinister smirk on his lips. “But if you keep pushing me, I’ll make sure when they find your body at the bottom of the river, it takes dental records to identify you.”

In response to the threat, Rowan slowly whipped out his remaining set of steel handcuffs, looking at Donovan stoically.

“I only have one set of cuffs left. Order your men to stand down, and I’ll arrest you without issue. You’ll only go to prison for a few years. Resist, and I will…”

“That’s enough. I’m bored of this guy,” Donovan interrupted rashly, his eyes dimming.

He plopped back down onto his couch and lazily waved a hand at his men. “This bastard doesn’t know his place. Teach the worm how to crawl on his belly.”

The two giants nodded and lunged toward Rowan simultaneously.

Rowan’s eyes narrowed. He fiddled with the steel handcuffs in his right hand.

Both men were taller and significantly heavier, but Rowan didn't need size. As they closed the distance, he stepped smoothly into their guard.

Stretching upward with blinding speed, he whipped the steel chain of the handcuffs around the thick neck of the first man, pulling sharply.

In the exact same fraction of a second, he drove a devastating, two-finger military strike directly into the second man's Adam’s apple.

“Haha! Who do you think you are? My bodyguards are underground boxing champions! If you think you can just strangle them with a frail body like yours, you’re severely mistak…”

Donovan was cackling to himself on the couch when the guard whose throat was struck suddenly grabbed his own neck.

His eyes bulged out of his skull as he choked on air, pitching forward and crashing face-first onto the floor.

Beside him, the first guard clawed frantically at the steel chain crushing his windpipe.

Unable to break Rowan's iron grip in time, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed into a heap.

As the two giants fell over each other, the room plunged into a deathly silence.

This time, Donovan’s smug face turned unimaginably ugly.

He sprang to his feet, sauntering forward to kick his men, expecting them to get up.

They didn't even twitch.

He stared in sheer disbelief. “Impossible!”

Leo swallowed hard, genuine fear finally gripping his heart as he looked up to see Rowan staring right at him.

Desperate to deflect, Leo turned his anger on Nancy. “What is this?! I try to help you secure a contract, and you unleash a rabid dog on me? The Renard family didn’t teach you to repay favors like this!”

Nancy ignored him, pulling her terrified children tighter against her chest, her wide eyes locked on Rowan.

What kind of police officer was this?

“Come work for me! I’ll hire you right now and pay you ten times whatever the precinct pays you!”

All of a sudden, Donovan walked past Leo, his eyes shimmering with manic excitement.

Donovan Locke was a fanatic for raw violence.

Seeing a man take down two of his best underground champions without breaking a sweat was intoxicating.

But Rowan didn't entertain the offer. He simply grabbed the man, pinning him face-first against the luxury wallpaper and effortlessly slapped the handcuffs onto his wrists.

“Donovan Locke, you’re under arrest for the intimidation, coercion, and attempted assault of Nancy Renard. Anything you say or do will be used against you in a court of law.”

Rowan’s voice was completely monotone.

As the Iron Lord, enforcing civil law was vastly beneath him. Furthermore, only his most trusted lieutenant knew he had entered the Imperial City.

Making a public spectacle of this and drawing the military's attention wasn't an option, so he had to play this role of the righteous cop.

Rowan then took out his phone.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Leo sneered from the corner, his fear evaporating as he realized Rowan was actually going through with the arrest.

“Mr. Locke is best friends with the Police Captain! Are you stupid? You’re digging your own grave!”

Leo was right about one thing: standard protocol meant Donovan would be out on bail in five minutes, and the arresting officer would be fired… or worse.

But Rowan didn't call the local precinct. He simply dialed a secure number.

Within the span of sixty seconds, his call triggered a cascade of military directives, passing through a hundred high-ranking officials until the final, undeniable order landed directly on the desk of the Imperial City's Police Captain.

Rowan looked at Donovan and spoke softly into the receiver of his phone.

“An arrest has been made at the Grand Meridian Hotel. If anyone attempts to bail them out... arrest them too.”