I heaved, finally having a grip on my senses. I looked at my hand, clutching the broken bottle, and then at James.
"I-Is he dead?"
"He better be."
Suddenly, the door rattled, as if someone was trying to break in.
"Relax."
"Athena, what are you doing?"
She unlocked the door.
"Athena!"
Opening it, a familiar figure stepped in. Isaac.
He kept his eyes pinned on Athena as he came closer.
"What is he doing here?" I asked with a frown.
"How did you think we navigated the underworld so far without any trouble?"
"Because of him?"
Isaac glanced in my direction. I want to look away, but I don’t. I panicked when he came towards me, but he was simply going for James.
He crouched and asked. "You did this?" He eyed the bottle still in my grasp.
"Yes..."
Saying nothing, he pressed his fingers into his neck to check for a pulse.
"I’ll handle it from here."
"I-Is he dead?"
"I said I would handle it from here. Leave."
Still a fucking asshole.
I tossed the bottle somewhere and stormed out. I made sure to fix myself along the way, but I was afraid I couldn’t calm myself down. I’m seething. James words running through my mind.
Two heirs. Do they seriously believe that Adrian was his son?
I slammed right into a wall. I was quick to step back, ready to pounce on whoever had put a wall right in a way, but I froze when my eyes connected with Reed.
I quickly broke my gaze and masked my expression.
"You should watch where you’re going..." I said more softly to disguise my voice.
I walked past him, my mind reeling on several things. What’s Reed doing here? Does he know it’s me?
No, no... there’s no way he does.
"You go by the name Vixen, don’t you?"
I froze in my steps. Take a deep breath, Catherine. I turned back to him, slowly.
"Who’s asking?" I uttered, my eyes raking him from head to toes in an unimpressive way.
Now that I took a better look at him, he doesn’t look well. He was leaner, and he had cuts and bruises on his face. What happened to him?
"My name doesn’t matter."
"You know mine, it’s only fair that I know yours."
His gaze roamed around like they were watching him or something.
"C-Can we talk somewhere private?"
"Try again..." I turned to leave.
"Please, this is a matter of life and death."
I felt a constriction in my chest, but on the surface, I gave an unreadable expression.
I sat down, crossing my legs, and I observed as Reed took his, grunting as he clutched his side. He was hurt. It was at the tip of my tongue to ask if he was okay, but I couldn’t.
"They have been observing you."
"That’s one thing about the underworld, isn’t it?" I said, taking my glass and bringing it to my lips. "Money and power."
"You have that."
I shook my head. "As I said, I just want to play games, yet they are herding around me."
"They wanna give you power because they know they are gonna gain from it."
"Huh..." I feigned a thoughtful expression. "Then I know just who I’ll get that from..." I sipped from my glass. "Don King."
Reed’s entire body went still, and he looked away, trying to conceal his anger.
"Do you happen to know this Don King and how I can get an audience with him?"
"I came to you and not the other way around."
"That’s the thing with me... I take advantage whenever and however I can..."
"Don King is not someone you wanna mess with."
"Everyone keeps saying that. They are afraid of him."
"As anyone should be...." He clenched his teeth. "I used to work for him."
"Used to? What happened?"
"None of your business."
I set the glass down louder than expected. "Is that so Mr. Cross?"
His eyes widened. "H-How did you..."
"I have money... and that can get me a good amount of information."
"How much do you know about me?"
"Not much, but I was hoping we could get to know each other..." I pointed out. "You don’t look good, Mr. Cross. I’m gonna wager, you have some falling out. And in everything I have heard about Don King... the Devil. No one crosses him and lives to tell the tale."

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