The ball dropped and unsurprisingly it landed on Black seven.
An unhidden smile ford on Redy’s face and across the table, Lyon Tusk’s expression darkened instantly. The composure of a seasoned executive cracked for a fraction of a second.
Redy gathered the chips calmly.
"Better luck next ti."
Lyon’s hand slamd lightly against the table although it was not enough to cause a scene, it was enough to reveal irritation.
He said nothing, as he stood and left.
Redy turned to the staff mber.
"I’m done playing. Convert my winnings."
"Yes, Mrs. Eve."
The process was imdiate and efficient.
Once completed, she rose from her seat and gave a polite nod to the remaining players who were eager to continue now that the table tension had shifted.
She left the casino floor without haste.
Outside the hotel, the valet had already brought her car around.
She entered smoothly and drove out of the district, as the car rged onto the main road, but a mont later, a black SUV pulled out from an alleyway.
It blended into traffic carefully and maintained a close distance.
Redy noticed it imdiately, but she adjusted nothing, only maintaining her speed and lane discipline.
But she smiled faintly.
In the back seat of the SUV, Lyon Tusk stared forward.
"Make sure you don’t lose that car."
His tone was controlled and cold.
"Today I’ll put that brat in her place."
The SUV subtly increased pace, tightening the tail while remaining masked within traffic flow.
Redy drove on, as if unaware.
****
Redy then turned off the main road and entered a quieter stretch between two inner-city forests.
Traffic thinned, streetlights spaced wider apart and the limited civilian interference seed intentional.
Two SUVs suddenly swerved across the road ahead of her, blocking the path completely.
In the rearview mirror—
The black SUV that had been tailing her accelerated and sealed the back exit, joined by two additional vehicles.
It was a full enclosure and there was no escape lane.
Lyon Tusk stepped out from the rear SUV.
He had not underestimated her.
Soone capable of resurrecting a dying corporation would not be naïve.
Precautions were necessary.
Masked n exited the vehicles, forming a periter around the white sports car.
They spaced out in a disciplined manner creating multiple angles of engagent.
Lyon adjusted his coat.
"Mrs. Eve," he called out, voice carrying across the distance. "What a way for us to et again. Why don’t you co out so we can discuss."
The sports car did not move, but the engine was still running.
Lyon gestured to one of the masked n.
"Check the car."
The man approached cautiously, his weapon drawn, as he reached the window, but he froze almost imdiately, as his posture shifted and his eyes widened behind the mask.
Lyon frowned.
"What is it!?"
The man’s voice ca out strained.
"It’s one of our n."
At that exact mont, one of the masked n who had exited from the vehicle next to Lyon’s SUV moved.
He struck the two nearest operatives with clean motions, one to the throat and one to the temple.
Both collapsed instantly.
Before Lyon could react, the man closed distance and chopped the back of his neck with controlled force, as Lyon went limp.
The surrounding operatives shifted formation imdiately, as they raised their weapons.
Over a dozen n now encircled the masked person.
Redy removed the mask and drew her arm-rapier in a single smooth motion.
And with no warning, she charged.
It didn’t take long.
Redy’s star power sat at thirty-one and
Lyon’s highest operative had been Lyon himself at twenty-five.
And she had removed him first.
The remaining n were structure without strength.
She moved efficiently and within seconds, over a dozen masked n lay unconscious around her.
She exhaled once, her plan was proceeding exactly as expected.
Lyon’s temper had been predictable.
The casino loss was only the trigger as there was more to it that dated back way before the ga.
Eden Group had intercepted multiple Herbal X contracts, supply chains, clients and profits over the past month.
The pressure will no doubt have accumulated and seeing her in person had converted resentnt into action.
Redy had known he would tail her and she had known he would call for reinforcents.
That is why earlier, while driving and pretending ignorance, she had prepared.
At a turn with limited visibility, she had stepped out of the car silently, leaving it on controlled autopilot, while one of Lyon’s n, captured earlier before she even arrived at the hotel, had been placed inside.
She had taken his uniform and t up with the formation, as she entered the SUV with the others.
It was integration without suspicion, but to be honest she didn’t have to do all that. She didn’t need to act as one of Lyons’ n and she could have stayed in the car and fought imdiately when surrounded.
But that would have been less entertaining.
Lyon’s petrified expression when struck from his own ranks had been worth the extra steps.
As for now the ti was constrained.
Additional vehicles blocked both ends of the road.
If they investigated too early, complications would arise.
She crouched beside Lyon.
Searched his coat and found his phone, as she attached a flash drive beneath it and waited.
After a few seconds the extraction was complete and she removed the device.
Then, almost casually, she held Lyon upright and took a selfie with him unconscious and the masked n scattered behind.
She then returned to her car, as she placed it into her storage ring and without another glance, she slipped into the forest between the roadblocks and she was gone before the patrol realized sothing was wrong.
****
Redy entered the manor through the rear entrance as she noticed Ivy.
"Ivy," she called as she moved toward the sitting room, "I’ll need you to work on sothing for ..."
She stopped, Ivy wasn’t the only one there. So were Felecia, Scott and Adam.
All four of them stood in a loose semicircle around a headless corpse.
The severed head was placed neatly beside it.
Redy’s eyes sharpened instantly.
It’s already started.
She exhaled once, containing the reaction before it surfaced fully.
Her gaze shifted to Adam.
"What happened here?"
User Comments
0 comments from readers