Chapter 48

Jack turned around, his gaze landing on Robbie.

His eyes were deep and calm, steady and unreadable, as if he'd just done something completely ordinary.

Then Jack walked toward Robbie, one step at a time.

"Y-you... don't come any closer!"

"Don't come near me!"

As Jack closed in, fear slammed into Robbie. Clutching his broken wrist, he stumbled backward until his spine hit his own car and he had nowhere left to go.

Jack stopped in front of him, looked him over, and said flatly, "You just said you were going to kill me?"

Robbie pressed harder against the cold metal, the chill seeping through his clothes. It was nothing compared to what he felt standing in front of Jack. Looking into those bottomless eyes, he felt like prey pinned under a predator's stare, his breathing turning shallow.

"No... it wasn't me..."

Robbie's voice shook; his teeth chattered. He tried to explain in a frantic rush, grasping for any excuse, trying to shove the blame onto his men or pretend it was all a misunderstanding.

"It was... it was them... I just..."

"Shh."

Jack lifted one slender finger and set it lightly against his lips, cutting Robbie off.

"I don't like hearing losers make excuses."

Jack's voice was quiet, almost gentle, but the pressure behind it was suffocating. He leaned in slightly, his handsome face looking oddly chilling in the moonlight, the corners of his mouth curving into a faint, unreadable smile.

As he spoke, Jack raised his right hand, slowly enough that Robbie could track every finger.

Robbie's eyes widened. He tried to shrink back, as if he could melt into the car.

"Don't kill me... please... I have money... I'll give you money..."

Robbie begged, tears and snot running down his face, with none of a Speeding Gang boss's swagger left.

Jack's hand paused in midair. Instead of striking, he flicked at a speck of invisible dust on his cuff.

"Money? I don't need it."

Jack said it with quiet disdain. "And your life... It's not worth taking."

Hope flickered in Robbie's chest.

Then Jack's eyes went cold, like winter that never ends.

"That said, I'm sparing you. I'm not letting you off."

His voice stayed even. "Since you like running your mouth, I'll make sure you remember what that costs."

Before the last word was out, Jack's hand snapped forward and clamped Robbie's jaw.

A grinding crack rang out in the night.

White-hot pain burst through Robbie's chin, as if the bone had been crushed. Then a brutal force drove him back, pinning his head and shoulders against the motorcycle with one hand.

"Ah!"

Robbie whimpered, trying to fight back, but his strength drained away. He sagged under Jack's grip, limp and helpless.

Jack looked down at him, his eyes cold, like he was looking at something already dead.

"Remember this feeling."

Jack applied a little more pressure. Robbie's jaw gave a strained, sickening creak, his mouth visibly twisting out of shape.

"Next time, it won't just be your wrist and your jaw."

With that, Jack released him, his expression settling back into calm.

Robbie clutched his throbbing jaw and crumpled to the ground, gulping air in ragged breaths. His face was a mess of tears and snot, utterly pathetic.

But his eyes still burned with venom as he stared at Jack.

He'd never been humiliated like this.

Robbie swore to himself.

He would make Jack pay. The moment he found an opening, he'd repay him ten times over, a hundred times over.

Jack saw the hatred in Robbie's eyes and didn't care.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he looked down at Robbie and said flatly:

"What?"

"Planning to get revenge on me later?"

"Can't say I'm not giving you a chance."

"If you want revenge, you're welcome anytime."

"My name is Jack."

With that, Jack turned and walked back toward Vivian's car.

Robbie's expression, still twisted with hatred, changed the moment he heard that name. His pupils contracted sharply.

Jack.

That name.

Lately, in Viridis State's upper crust, it hit like thunder.

Rumor had it he killed Morgan's son, Bill, and caused chaos at Bill's funeral, yet Morgan had still seen him off with a smile. Even the Sanchez family had told their people to keep their distance when they spotted him.

Robbie's Speeding Gang counted as a respectable outfit in Viridis State.

But next to the Sanchez family, it was nothing.

And Jack was someone even the Sanchez family couldn't afford to provoke.

He never imagined this unremarkable guy was actually Jack.

In an instant, Robbie's face went whiter than paper.

He had just... actually been thinking about getting revenge on Jack?

It was like an ant declaring war on an elephant. Ridiculous.

Robbie started shaking without meaning to, and warmth ran down his pant leg.

He... he'd been scared into wetting himself.

The mighty Speeding Gang boss had actually pissed himself just from hearing Jack's name.

That alone said everything about the weight that name carried.

Jack shut the car door and looked up to find Vivian staring at him without blinking.

"What's wrong?"

"Is there something on my face?"

Jack asked.

"No... nothing..."

Vivian snapped back to herself, her cheeks flushing red. She turned her eyes away, not daring to meet that gaze that felt like it could see straight through her.

"Just think... Mr. Carter is amazing."

Jack chuckled softly. His expression stayed calm, as if none of this had been a big deal.

To ordinary people, the Speeding Gang looked fierce and hard to handle.

To Jack, they were just bullies leaning on numbers and noise, nothing more.

Compared to the enemies he'd faced before, they weren't even worth mentioning.

The days of moving through gunfire, of living on the knife-edge between life and death, had long since tempered his nerves into something like steel.

"Just some minor trouble," Jack said lightly.

He reached up and fastened his seatbelt, neat and unhurried, as if the person who'd just beaten a gang to the ground wasn't him.

"Let's go, Ms. Roberts."

Jack turned his head, looking out at the pitch-black road ahead. The corners of his mouth curved into a barely there smile.

"I think the way's clear now."