It was at that moment that Victoria knew how she had f*cked up.She was more than certain that the call Javier had made to Lloyd had been legitimate. No one else other than the boss of her company could have the ability to cancel her in such a short amount of time. Nor could anyone else have the power to take away all of her resources and opportunities as a star, including any advertising work and talk show appearances.As he flicked the ashes off his cigarette again, Javier’s toothy grin remained the same. “Yep, it was me. What, you wanna punch me in the face for it?”Victoria dared not, even if she wanted to. Three months of inactivity could chill one’s momentum to stardom enough when it came to an actress of her type. Even if she could, theoretically, rise out of her hiatus and back into new heights, it was still going to be an uphill battle. What more could she expect after being canceled altogether?She might very well have no way of continuing her career.How could she not p
Javier went inside his villa and accompanied Jade as she discussed home décor with the team of designers they employed. He was already starting to forget about the event that had happened just minutes ago. It was so trivial to him that he would not waste any effort by caring.It was not trivial to Victoria, though. After getting back up to her feet with the aid of her own rage, she snarled at her parents for a while before putting her mask and shades back on and leaving. As she passed by Boulder Bear, the ire of his defeat rushed back to her, and she shot a mean, harsh swing at Boulder Bear’s crotch.Had this overpriced useless piece of sh*t beaten that *sshat into a sniveling pulp from the get-go, she would have never needed to expose her identity and get canceled!She turned on her heels and stormed off, not even pausing to look back at her brutalized mother and her bewildered father. The old woman cupped her cheek, choking back tears as she asked in a quivering voice, “What…happe
Someone had shot Chessie, and no one could tell who it could have been.All the text stated after that was where they were right at that moment.Javier wasted no time reporting the address to Herschel. The car took a sharp turn away from the airport and into the freeway, the flight aborted and abandoned.Faye would never have texted him if it were not that big of a problem, and reality made Javier suspicious. When he called her on her personal number, no one picked it up.That meant that Chessie’s condition was severe enough that it prevented her from picking up her phone.The revelation moved the deepest part of his lividity. What kind of special foolhardy motherf*cker would dare touch one of his women?!His rage even boiled over to Faye. What the f*ck was she doing if the woman she had been sent to protect had ended up getting harmed anyway? And harmed this severely at that! How useless was she?!Fighting back the ugly flame in his chest, he called Trevor and told him there wa
Javier met him in an old, abandoned warehouse. Saul Smith was a man close to his fifties and yet he still looked rather fit and ripped. Tattoos crawled all over his body, except his face, which was quite a terror to behold as it was. A long scar, indicating that it used to be a knife wound, ran down his right eye and reached the left corner of his lips, accentuating the inhumanity of his appearance.Javier could hear Saul’s voice reverberating from the warehouse even before he stepped inside. “You mad motherf*ckers. Showing your pretty faces like that for me with no care in the world. Why are you so sure I won’t kill every last one of you once I’m outta here, eh?”He studied the bandage around Running Man’s shoulder and asked, “How bad is this?”Running Man waved. “Just a scratch, Boss. The wussy retaliation of cornered prey holding a knife, more like it. Ain’t nothing to be compared to bombs on the battlefield.”Javier smiled and patted him on the shoulder. He took a cigarette out
Saul watched Javier approach him with the submachine gun in his hands and trembled despite himself. “W-What the hell are you trying to do?”Javier smiled. “Relax. I’m not gonna kill you! Besides, aren’t you pretty unbreakable according to your own admission? Stay strong!”He pulled the middle section of the trigger, disengaging the trigger safety, and aimed at Saul’s knees. He turned to Gran Turismo Racer, who had his phone at the ready, and shouted, “You got the angle right? The angle needs to be good, man. Gotta make Saul a household name in the underworld!”GT Racer raised his thumb. “Nailed the perfect angle, boss! He’s gonna look so cool! I even made sure he’s the only character in our short film!”Saul knew exactly what he meant: Javier was not going to show up in the video. It would just be him, and they were going to broadcast it.How insane were these people? A gory, graphic video like this—one that involved firearms—going online would attract all kinds of attention, incl
The third day after what had happened in the abandoned warehouse, both sides of the world clamored at the news. Everyone knew what had happened to Saul—his limbs were broken, and his sight, sense of hearing, and taste were all gone.What that meant was that the organs responsible for those functions were gone too. The man had survived without much of an issue, but he was as good as a goner.His lover had taken his money and fled, his wife had gone abroad with his kid, and his “bros” had shared the territories that had once belonged to him. Rumor had it that all this had happened because of Chessie. The latter had been shot and Saul had been made obsolete. This was worse than death itself because Saul did not even have the right to die now. If he wanted to jump off a building or jump into a river, he would not know where either of them was because he could not see. If he wanted to find out what was going on in the world, his eardrums were busted and he could not hear a sound. He c
Javier stayed by Chessie’s side for the following half a month. It put a blissful smile on Chessie’s face every day, as she was very happy about it.That did not mean Javier was free for the time being, though, as he instructed Herschel and GTR to take Chessie’s men along and wreck Saul’s previous territories. Anyone who was disobedient and chose to resist would be taken care of properly.Worried about the insufficient manpower, Javier called Mackenzie and authorized Herschel to deploy the mercenaries anytime he needed them. Javier was determined to take over the territories that had made Chessie bleed—even if he had to deploy the mercenaries.In fact, the mercenaries did not have the chance to show themselves. To Herschel, who had been to war, taking over these territories was a piece of cake. Although there was a lack of manpower, Herschel did not use his recently acquired right to deploy the mercenaries.He had chosen to get some men from Sam’s new security company, as he wanted
“Design adjustment at a later stage will still be required. We want to make a racing car and compete with other race cars. It’ll be a Chinean general and make our name known in all racetracks. It’ll no doubt be of great help to our brand.“That engine, which will go through special tuning, will be the presence that spreads your name, Professor Jepson.”Liam was overjoyed. At his age, wealth was no longer an issue. He was only after fame. He would think that this was a life worth living if the car’s propulsion system ended up dazzling the world, like Mazda’s rotary engine back then.“Don’t worry, Mr. Kersey. I’ll tune this engine carefully, and the lower-power version will limit the consumption and fully follow the safety standards for family sedans. The hydrogen consumption will be decreased alongside its horsepower. The higher-power version will be adjusted to the top specs model with the best-matched power, under the condition that safety is guaranteed.“The sports version will u