Ron Donaldo: Rise Of The Apex Don

Chapter 21

Marcus Thorne knelt on the thick, soft carpet of his massive corner office. His hands were covering his head. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut. He was shaking like a freezing child. 

He heard the loud DING of the private elevator in the hallway outside. 

Then, he heard the heavy footsteps. Thump. Thump. Thump. 

The footsteps were moving slowly down the hall. They were coming toward his office. The Director had sent his elite clean-up crew. They were coming to kill him. They were coming to erase all the mistakes. 

Marcus could not breathe. His heart hammered in his chest like a wild bird trapped in a cage. Sweat poured down his face, completely ruining his expensive silk collar. He waited for the loud sound of automatic gunfire. He waited for the heavy wooden door to burst open. 

But the gunfire did not happen. 

Instead, the brass handle on his office door slowly began to turn. 

Click. 

The door pushed open quietly. 

Marcus kept his eyes closed. "Please," he whimpered, his face pressed against the floor. "Please, I have money! I will give you everything! Do not shoot me!"

Nobody answered him. There was no gunshot. 

Marcus slowly opened one eye. He looked at the doorway. 

It was not a team of men with masks and machine guns. It was just one man. 

The man was an absolute giant. He wore a dark mechanic’s uniform. His arms were thicker than tree trunks, covered in dark, terrible scars. His face was hard and empty of all emotion. 

It was Jax. The silent fighter from Ron’s Iron Legion. 

Marcus was so confused. How did this man get past the building security? How was he on the ninetieth floor? 

Jax did not say a single word. He walked into the office. He moved with total silence, which was terrifying for such a huge man. He carried a large, flat box made of shiny silver metal. 

Jax walked to Marcus’s beautiful glass desk. He placed the heavy silver box right in the center of the desk. Thud. 

Then, Jax looked down at Marcus on the floor. Jax’s eyes were cold. He pointed a massive finger at the box. He turned around, walked out of the office, and closed the door behind him. He vanished as quickly as a ghost. 

Marcus was left alone again. He was panting heavily. His knees were weak. He slowly pushed himself up from the floor. He used the edge of the desk to stand. 

He stared at the silver box. It looked like a very expensive briefcase. 

Marcus’s hands were shaking violently. He reached out and grabbed the two metal latches on the front of the box. 

Snap. Snap. 

He lifted the heavy lid. 

Inside the box, resting on a bed of dark black velvet, were thirty small objects. They were black plastic squares, about the size of a matchbox. Short, colorful wires hung from the bottom of each square, looking like they had been cut with a sharp knife. 

Marcus knew exactly what they were. They were GPS tracking devices. They were the highly expensive, top-secret trackers that Blackwater Shield used to protect the gray armored trucks. 

Ron’s men had carefully cut every single tracker out of the trucks before they stole the lithium. 

But Ron did not just throw the trackers away. He had glued them to the black velvet inside the box. He had arranged the thirty black squares very carefully to make a specific shape. 

It was the shape of a dragon eating its own tail. 

The mark of The Apex. 

Resting right in the middle of the dragon shape was a small, white piece of heavy paper. It was a business card. Marcus picked it up with a trembling hand. 

The card had only a few words written in neat, black ink:

This is your first warning, Marcus. I own your trucks. I own your metal. I own you. — Ron.

Marcus stared at the card. He felt completely sick. Ron had sent this box to show that he could reach Marcus anywhere. Ron had put his giant fighter on the ninetieth floor just to deliver a message. Marcus’s castle was totally broken. There were no safe places left. 

Suddenly, a sudden noise made Marcus jump backward. 

Ring. Ring. 

There was a cheap black burner phone sitting in the corner of the silver box. It was ringing loudly. 

Marcus stared at it. He was terrified to answer it. But he knew he had to. He slowly reached into the box, picked up the phone, and pressed the green button. 

"Hello?" Marcus whispered. His voice cracked. 

"Do you like my gift, Marcus?" Ron Donaldo’s deep, calm voice came through the speaker. 

"Ron," Marcus cried. "How did you do this? How did your man get in here?"

"I am an engineer, Marcus. I know how buildings work. I know how the ventilation shafts connect to the service elevators. I have been watching you all morning," Ron said. His voice was as cold as a frozen lake. "The dragon in the box is a promise. It is the first warning. Next time, I will not send plastic trackers. I will send pieces of your company."

"Ron, please!" Marcus sobbed loudly. "I do not care about the company anymore! You have to help me! The Director is coming! He sent a clean-up crew! They are in the elevator! They are going to kill me!"

"I know," Ron said simply. 

Marcus stopped crying for a second. "You know? You know they are here?"

"Of course I know," Ron replied. "I told you, I am watching the building. I can see the Director's death squad right now. They just stepped out of the elevator. They are wearing dark gray body armor. They have silenced submachine guns. There are twelve of them."