anwhile, in one of the districts just outside the main city where a redevelopnt project was currently ongoing...
The streets were desolate, with no one around. Streetlights were sparse, many of them either broken or flickering. And in this quiet area, even a phone notification could echo louder than it should.
DING!
Coming from one of the already abandoned hos was the sharp ping of a phone. The only light inside ca from a flashlight placed on the floor, its beam hitting the dirty wall. Seated in the middle, on an almost-broken chair, was Hugo.
"Hmm?" Hugo’s hum echoed alongside the ping, his knuckles red with blood. That didn’t stop him from fishing his phone out of his jeans to check what Atlas wanted.
After all, Hugo had everyone else’s ssages and calls on mute — except Atlas’s number.
DING!
DING!
Even before he could unlock his phone, more ssages ca in like a flood. Atlas was spamming him. That was rare. Atlas could go centuries without speaking to anyone, and when he did, it was usually short.
"I don’t have a good feeling for—"
His words trailed off when a loud roar echoed behind him.
"You fucker!"
Hugo paused as ti seed to stop. He slowly turned to see a man standing by the entrance, pointing a cheap gun at him.
BANG!
The gunshot echoed through the house, deafening in the silence. But Hugo, trained and used to much louder explosions, rely blinked. He stared as the man collapsed at the entrance.
Despite the dim light, blood quickly stained the dusty floor.
"Ugh..." the man groaned, his hand bleeding as the pistol flew from his grip. "Uh—ugh!"
His pain escalated by the second, and the pressure on his back didn’t help. If anything, the weight pressing down made the wound worse.
Hugo looked up at the person walking on the man’s back as he lay sprawled on the broken entrance door.
"Mint, you’re late," Hugo remarked, unfazed by the man under her feet. "Also, you almost killed him."
Mint leaned against the doorjamb, finding comfort in standing on the man like a carpet.
"I’ve always dread of having a nice carpet that feels like a waterbed. This guy’s fat enough to make think the idea’s not bad at all."
"This is why you’re always broke," Hugo comnted, pulling out his phone again, which was still being bombarded with ssages.
Mint just smirked and looked around the room Hugo was in. He was seated on a chair in the middle, surrounded by unconscious bodies — mbers of a small gang. The sa gang that had been monitoring Mint and Stefan not long ago.
This place was their hive, and these guys were part of the gang’s dirty work unit.
And they were also under the sa gang that Priscilla and Jason Reed had joined many years ago.
’These guys might not be the sa ones from their ti, but they’re deep enough in the group to know a thing or two,’ she thought. ’Besides, these were the sa people who were monitoring before I got ambushed by another group.’
Once Mint was done scanning the bodies with zero empathy, she snapped her eyes back to Hugo.
"Hey, what’s going on?" she asked. "You’ve been staring at your phone. What is it? Did Penny send you a funny ? Let see how funny my future wife is."
But Hugo looked up at her. "You should check your phone. First Brother just sent sothing. A whole wall of it."
"Huh?" She instinctively shoved her hand into her pocket, checking her phone, which was still on mute.
Aside from the unopened hate ssages from Benjamin, there were ssages from Atlas too. Curious, she casually opened them and shifted her stance, making the man beneath her grunt once more before eventually passing out.
Mint didn’t expect much. She figured it was another crumb of intel.
But no. What Atlas sent her was an album of photos — evidence and information, so she already knew... and so she didn’t.
"Holy... shit," she breathed, eyes widening. "We need to go back to Penny’s house."
Without waiting for Hugo, she switched tabs and speed-dialed soone. The call rang only once before connecting, and she was already walking away.
"Clean these guys up and take them to the base for questioning. Shot soone in the hand — he passed out, but he’s not going to die."
anwhile, Hugo rose from his seat, hearing Mint’s voice outside the room. He gazed down at the unconscious n scattered on the floor, taking his sweet ti, as if Mint hadn’t just left him behind.
After a breath, he marched toward one of them and leaned down to observe.
The man on the floor didn’t move. His breathing was steady — like soone knocked out cold.
"I’ll kill you," Hugo muttered, and the man flinched — just slightly.
"Please don’t—"
Just as the man snapped his eyes open and began to beg, Hugo’s foot slamd into his nose. The kick was strong enough to break it, and knock him out again.
"He should’ve stayed unconscious," Hugo mumbled, shaking his head as he walked away. "Did he think playing dead on the battlefield worked? It rarely does. Even if one is down, they still get shot just to make sure."
With that, he exited the room, letting Mint’s n handle the cleanup and haul the gang mbers to the Holand Security base for questioning. He and Mint had originally planned to interrogate them right here, which explained why one had regained consciousness after so ti.
But now?
With all this information from Atlas?
Hugo and Mint knew they had to regroup and break it all down. It was sothing they all agreed on to keep each other in the loop, and the planning with more brains was even more efficient.
But before that, they also had to pick up Atlas and Dean, since those two were currently trapped in a love motel.
Hugo had to save Dean... before the man got pregnant. And the last thing Hugo wanted was another brother-in-law.
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