Saintess's Worthless Husband Turned Dragon Commander novel Chapter 144

CHAPTER 124 PART 1

The cigar had gone cold twenty minutes ago.

Benjamin Abbott hadn’t noticed. He sat behind his desk on the fourteenth floor of the Red Star Group’s Grayson City offices, one hand pressing his phone to his ear, the other flat against the glass desktop, and listened to the line ring out for the fourth consecutive time. Ives didn’t answer. Wesley Hartford didn’t answer. Even Riggs- a man Benjamin had personally recruited from a private security firm that charged more per month than most people earned in a year – sent him straight to voicemail.

He set the phone down.

Then the video arrived.

He watched it once without expression. Then he watched it again, slower, his jaw tightening on the second The footage was shaky – clearly shot from a distance, Wesley’s hand trembling – but the content was unmistakable. His niece. On her knees. Hair gripped in another woman’s fist. Face already swelling.

Benjamin Abbott pushed back from his desk and stood.

pass.

The door opened before he reached it. Dominic Allen stepped inside – broad-shouldered, close-cropped hair, the unhurried movement of a man whose entire professional reputation was built on controlled violence. Benjamin’s top enforcer for six years. The only man in Grayson City whose loyalty Benjamin trusted without conditions.

“She’s been touched,” Benjamin said, without preamble. He held the phone up. “Crystal Plaza. You know it?”

Dominic’s eyes dropped to the screen for three seconds. “I know it. Edge of our territory. Close to the Lancaster real estate corridor.” A pause. “I recognize the mall.”

“Then you know the fastest way in.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Get the men.” Benjamin straightened his jacket, his expression settling into something that wasn’t anger anymore – anger was too hot, too imprecise. What replaced it was colder and considerably more purposeful. “I’m going personally.”

Dominic nodded once and stepped back into the hallway without another word.

Crystal Plaza’s third floor had emptied with impressive speed.

Foot traffic had rerouted itself organically the moment it became clear that the corridor outside the women’s boutiques was not a place for casual observers. The stores had drawn their security shutters halfway. A mall employee stood at the far end of the hall with the frozen expression of someone who had called for assistance and received no answer.

Wesley Hartford was on his knees.

He had been on his knees for some time now, and the experience had not improved. His left eye was swollen nearly shut. A cut above his cheek had bled enough to stain his collar, and his designer shirt – the kind purchased specifically to signal effortless wealth – was ruined beyond any reasonable recovery. His hands were pressed together in the universal posture of a man who had run completely out of other options.

“Please,” he said, for what was probably the fifteenth time. His voice had lost its shape. “Please, just — I’m Quinn’s brother. I’m family. You can’t-”

–

“You stopped being her family the moment you told her to kneel,” Cosmo said, examining her sleeve with mild

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CHAPTER 124 PART 1

interest.

“I didn’t mean – it wasn’t—”

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