7. The flame burns

Amidst the sound of the music, Rooney came to join them in congratulating the spouse, passionately hugged Nicole and Abraham. He turned around, was stunned to see Drake looking completely different. He could not believe his eyes when he saw Drake looking like a rich man.

“Drake? Is that you?” Rooney's voice sounded very surprised.

"How are you, Rooney?" Drake smiled happily at Rooney like a dog in heat looking at an unretrievable bone, but he also felt his breath catch at the mention of auntie to Nicole.

Rooney neglected his question. “What are you doing here? How can you wear that costly dress and come here? You know, you can’t come in if you don’t have the invitation card and show it to the security. This party is only for rich people, not for moneyless people like you.”

Drake hated to hear the repeated question and asperse because they should have known who he was now. “I know.”

However, Rooney grabbed Drake's suit quickly. "You must have stolen those clothes and sneaked in here from the back door, right?"

Without further ado, Rooney punched him without waiting for Drake to answer. He dragged Drake to the exit, but from behind two guards held Rooney back and kept him from doing anything that would hurt Drake. The other two guards glared at him.

"Don't try to hurt our Master or insult him or you will get the consequences. I won't think twice to kill you."

The bodyguard threw a punch at Rooney that left him bleeding from the nose. The two guards holding him released their grip, causing Rooney to fall to the floor. Abraham and Nicole panicked at the sight.

“Are you alright, sir?” A bodyguard asked Drake and looked panicked.

“I’m fine. Let me do my part. Take him to the shed!”

The bodyguard nodded and led Rooney away to his destination. Drake was surprised to look around as he turned around everyone was watching them, including Diana and Jacob behind his parents. However, he didn't see Jessie among them.

“Congratulations for your engagement, Diana. You're a match for him and I’m sure you won’t treat him the way you treat your ex-husband.”

Drake left the room and the people with a fantastic bomb that shocked them all about 'your ex-husband.'

***

Drake was as satisfied for his first vengeance as saw Rooney paralyzed on the chair and unmoved any part of his body as the bodyguards tied him tightly. His hands were in his pocket standing before Rooney who narrowed his eyes.

Rooney seemed to defy Drake as though he kept a joker of playing cards with him. He couldn't show Drake his confusion of Drake's transformation.

"Who are you? How have you changed in just two months? You're a cleaning worker suddenly being a young master, that's questionable, Drake!"

"You talk too much!" Drake said, giving his impressive smile. "I still can trust my mind that you're just a human resources officer and you were there at the party. Isn't it for the rich only, Rooney? Why were you there?"

Drake awaited him, but Rooney kept quiet. "You didn't belong there."

Now Rooney merely gave a smirk to Drake then laughed out loud at him. "Why didn't I?" Rooney replied with the hoarse voice of a monster ready to pounce on prey.

"Cos you're a bit better than me. That means you're not eligible to join them. So enlighten me, who are you?"

Drake didn't take his eyes from him and came closer then grabbed his hair. "I heard you calling her, aunty. What's your relationship to the Johnsons?"

"Not on your business! I should've asked you, Dude! You disguise yourself as a cleaning worker obtaining some information from Osch to sell it to the others. Who are you?"

"I'm your angel to send you to hell!"

BANG

Drake punched his face before one of the guards carried on his hit that made Rooney unable to fight him back. Like him that time, the bodyguard punched Rooney repeatedly in the stomach and face until he was battered. However, he repeatedly tried to counter through his legs, which was restrained by the guard.

"Don't beat him on the head. I still need his brain!"

The guard paused. "Yes, sir!"

Drake smiled with satisfaction as he witnessed Rooney bleed from the mouth and nose.

"Sir, here's the information about him." Another guard came and gave a file to him.

Drake read it seriously and nodded afterwards. "Rooney Norch is the nephew of Nicole Johnson who is his mother's sister." Drake looked at him surprisingly. "Amazing, Rooney. Amazing. You should've been in Hollywood for an act. Your acting is so incredible and natural."

Drake was blown away by his drama of pretending to be a human resources officer for spying, or Rooney truly worked in the company just like him?

"Stop it! Get away!" Drake yelled as came closer spotting him with argus-eyes.

The guards took his step backwards.

"If I hit you on the head like you did, then I'll lose a lot. I shouldn't retaliate against a little rat like you, but you ruined my life so much, Rooney. I even barely died because of you."

Drake grabbed Rooney's short hair. He looked up right in front of Drake. Rooney's condition looked weak but in fact he still had the strength to reply to his interlocutor.

"Traitor! You stole some information from Osch for your interest," Rooney growled.

"You're the traitor. You're the one who spread the news that Diana was married to me, right?" Drake purposely asked that question when he remembered about the marriage. He needed to trap Rooney into confessing his actions.

"Because you did marry her, right? Moreover, now you're a rich man who is equal to her despite stealing someone's property. Why are you afraid? But you still don't deserve to be with her," Rooney chuckled with cracked and slightly blue lips. "You're not a descendant of the rich and not a real rich person like other rich people's children."

It was no longer important for Drake now to know the culprit who broke up the wedding, but since Rooney turned out to be Diana's cousin it made Drake conclude Rooney as the culprit. All that mattered to him now was to get back at them for what they had done to him.

"That means it was you who spread the news."

"How can you accuse me of that shit when I know nothing about your and Diana's marriage?"

Drake knitted his brows when Rooney said about 'your marriage and Diana' that meant that Rooney had known the marriage.

"You knew it and you did it, and you made Diana accuse me and my mom as a doer!"

"Argghhh!" Rooney screamed when he was hit by Drake. "SHIT!"

"You made her insult my mom!" Drake shouted at him. His eyes flashed out.

"I don't know anything about that!" Rooney replied equally fiercely.

In Jessie's unused warehouse, Drake had prepared everything for Rooney the day before. While working at Osch Mines, Rooney had been a provocateur for others to join in insulting and hurting him mercilessly. His dismissal that day was also due to a proposal from Rooney who used his authority as part of the Johnsons. Drake found out after becoming the CEO of Brannet, Ltd.

Drake let go of the whip as he felt his body heat up and burn. However, he didn't take his gaze from looking at the shocked Rooney.

Rooney saw Drake's fiery eyes and felt the nearby temperature was extremely hot like being surrounded by flames. Following that, a blazing fire came out from the periphery of Drake's body which made him gape and unconsciously pee his pants.

Drake's hand gripped Rooney's arm which made him scream in the heat. His sleeve was burnt and left burns on his skin. The bodyguards in the warehouse also almost ran away in fear seeing the flames on Drake's body. Their tongues abruptly froze and the air held on the chest.

Suddenly, Rooney and the chair flew until they hit the wall of the warehouse ten meters away from Drake. Slowly, the flames began to catch the legs of the chair and the rope binding Rooney.

Another guard dashed into the warehouse and shouted, but then he stopped in shock seeing what was going on. He found the other guards standing still witnessing the flames burning Drake, the place and Rooney over there.

“Master! Master!” He dashed to Drake to save him from the flames. "Put out the fire! Hurry up!!"

As the guard's yell rang out, the other guards gasped. They rushed to get water and burlap to extinguish the flames.

The bodyguard, however, came to a halt when he saw Drake spitting fire rather than burning. When he saw Drake's furious face, his eyes widened and his mouth gaped and tense. He instantly retreated due to the heat of the flames around Drake.

The flames engulfed parts of the building as sparks touched a pile of dry straw. Smoke billowed from the unventilated structure. As the flames grew, the lamps' bright light became dazzling. The electricity also was on fire.

The other guards attempted to extinguish the fire, while another quickly cut the rope and carried Rooney out of the warehouse.

"Master! We gotta get out of here, Master. This place is on fire!" yelled another bodyguard.

The bodyguard who had been silent near Drake gasped. He was astounded to see how chaotic the surroundings were, and how the flames greatly grew, almost burning the entire building.