IN THE CAGE

121. EXPERIMENTS

...NORMAL pov...

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Evan Caspian workspace is not a place that holds good memories in the mind of Anggara. Already several times he and the lone Caspian fight each other boxing in that place, pitting each other strength and dominance even though in the end Anggara who will succumb.

Anggara had to give up because unlike Evan, Anggara still had weaknesses that he had to think about and care about. His family and Indira are the things that make Anggara still refrain from destroying the jaw of the Caspian. Anggara cannot act rashly, not when his family is on the weak side.

Today again, when Evan called out to her, Anggara who was treading in Evan's study felt a gripping aura appear there. Reminding him of the last time he met Evan, he quarreled because the man confronted him about Vera.

"What's wrong?" Anggara asked. He felt he had made a mistake for the umpteenth time and Evan was here to punish him.

"You look calm, Angga." Evan, who was standing in front of his closet, turned his head. He put the book he was reading back into place before turning to face Anggara completely. "You look calm to the man who has dared to argue with me."

What else now? Anggara groans bored.

"There's no reason for me to be afraid of you." Anggara.

"Tell that to Indira," Evan replied before waltzing off to the elegant maroon sofa in the middle of his study. Seeing Evan sitting down instead of hitting him, Anggara thought there would be no brawl today. Anggara feel relieved, but at the same time-watch out.

"You should stop bringing my sister's name here." Anggara catches up with Evan and sits on the sofa. "You think threatening me constantly like that would make me obey you?"

"Of course not" replied Evan. "If threatening you with Indira is enough. You're not going to see that cheap lady..."

"Did you plant a GPS on my b*kong?" Anggara began to be uncomfortable over the very controlling attitude that Evan continues to give. "I said I'd take care of it, you didn't have to interfere."

"Regulate it you mean keep it as a pet. I asked you to kill him, Angga. Not making it your satiating tool."

"Don't..." Anggara raised his index finger, warning Evan not to be presumptuous. "Whatever happens between me and Vera, it's none of your business at all."

"Wrong. Whatever happens to you is my business. You don't seem to be careful enough to understand your situation, Anggara. You're an enemy of Ace Hunter. You should focus on that and not take an interest in his subordinates! Are you so stupid?!"

"As I said, work is work..."

"Tell that to my feet" Evan said. "Ace doesn't care if you're working or not to kill you, Angga. Your life is not divided in two between working hours and rest hours. For God's sake!"

"Then let me think of my own business." Anggara is tired of Evan who always wants to meddle in his affairs. Even if Vera were to kill him, Anggara would handle his own decision. He doesn't need Evan to be his second brain.

"You're frustrating me, Angga." Evan scrunched his forehead.

"You are the same" Anggara replied.

"Well, how do I change my narrative..." Evan took a short breath and exhaled a long one. Talking to Anggara made his entire muscles tense up and he felt like he was squeezed by a rock. "Listen, Anggara.., you seem to have forgotten where you are so I'll re-explain it. Leave that stash of yours and focus on working with me."

"No."

"Haaah, why are you so confident?" Evan frowned. "Do you forget I have Indira in my hands, I have the power to slaughter the Rashid family line, Anggara."

"I believe you have the power to do that" Anggara replied. "However, I also believe you will not do anything rash and that far. You still need Rashid's family, Evan."

"Do you think I don't dare hurt you?" evan asked, his legs crossed.

"You're capable of it," Anggara was convinced Evan was able to get him to kneel at the man's feet. However, Anggara only felt to not obey Evan now. No, he did not want to make Evan feel on the clouds because he already had control over him. Anggara wants to make Evan always have doubts in his heart, afraid to use it.

"So you still wouldn't obey me even if you knew I could hurt you?"

"I will obey you at certain limits. My personal relationship has nothing to do with you."

"Well, you really believe in that cheap woman."

"Vera and I" Anggara insisted. "We have an open relationship. Our work has nothing to do with it at all. You may be wary because it is your right to doubt, but.., I will explain this to you again, Vera is a person you can trust. He may be loyal to Ace, but he doesn't combine his work with his personal life."

"I can't believe I heard this nonsense," Evan muttered to himself. No matter how many times he convinces Anggara of Ace's probability of manipulating him, or the danger of a Vera, Anggara will not listen to him. Anggara trusted his judgment more than Evan's and it was annoying.

"Give up," Evan rolled his eyes. "You're not going to change your judgment at all, are you?"

"true." Anggara. "I'll always obey you, Evan, as long as it's work-related. Vera is my personal problem."

Evan leaned against the shoulder of the sofa, his curly mane blowing gently as the wind came in through the balcony window. "Well, if that's the case, I'll ask you about work..."

"..."

"As long as you approach Margareth, which is a total failure because you can't prove yourself useful"

"Do you want to ask or insult me? I told you from the start getting close to Margot was another madness."

"Failure is failure" Evan said. "Forget it, I have things I need to know. As long as you're close to Margaret, you're listening to a woman who might just?"

"Huh?"

Evan talked about his conversation with Jem. About the mysterious figure that managed to make Ace lose control of his own emotions, making Ace go crazy and almost kill Jem for daring to touch the figure. Evan has done his own research, but because of the length of the investigation, Evan wants to hear Anggara's opinion first. Perhaps something was missing in their eyes.

"I don't remember anything.." Anggara shook his head later.

"Not surprisingly, your focus must be on bodyguard Margaret, right? It's useless."

"If you think you can bring something out of Margaret's mouth, Evan. Then I'll let you try. That woman is 100 percent crazy."

"What about your woman? Didn't he say anything about Ace?"

Anggara was silent for a moment. He tried to dig up any information regarding his conversion and Vera. But, as he thought, nothing. "none. Me and Vera don't discuss our work at all."

"Dull," Evan grieves, underestimating Anggara's brain capacity and abilities that have disappointed Evan over and over again.

"Forget it, you can go."

"In the meantime, why do you want to know about that? What do you think..."

"Don't interfere." cut Evan. "I'll call you when I feel you need to."

After his words were cut rough by Evan, Anggara swallowed all his curiosity and passed from there. It was no use forcing Evan to speak. The man was annoying and sickening, Anggara thought if he kept hearing Evan's insults towards him, he might be able to explode and destroy that arrogant face. Nauseate!

When Anggara retraced out of Evan's study, Rishan was standing guard outside and walked into Evan's office. Rishan, Evan's personal assistant was about to clean the table from the cold teacup that neither Anggara nor her master touched. Rishan monitored Evan's dark expression, wondering what his master was thinking.

Until finally, Evan spoke.

"Rishan," he called. Eyes still on his own nails.

"What's up, boss Evan?"

"It's time to play seriously." Evan smiled in anguish.

"Y-yes?"

"Capture Vera." Evan ordered calmly. "Capture the woman and lock her up in our basement."

"But Evan's boss? What's for?"

"I have an experiment" Evan replied.

Pretty fun experiment.

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