Steve didn't know how he had survived the past few days.
All his misfortune had begun that night more than ten days ago, when Charlie and his team had slipped into his villa.
Though Steve still burned with the desire to tear Charlie and company to pieces, he had to admit that the group had managed, in a short span of time, to evade both him and the layers of surveillance inside his villa.
Not only had Charlie and his crew slipped into Steve's villa, but they had also walked off with two safes weighing several tons.
And to this day, Steve still has no idea how they pulled it off.
The thought alone forced him to admire Charlie's world-famous thieving skills.
But it was exactly that admiration that made Steve itch even more for the man's speedy death.
Ever since that night when the two vaults holding most of his fortune were stolen by Charlie's gang.
Steve's streak of bad luck had begun.
After checking the footage supplied by his security firm, he confirmed that Charlie's crew were the ones who'd robbed his safes.
Then, racking his brain, Steve recalled that the lockpicking master he'd once shot dead, John Brief, might have had a daughter.
He pulled every string he had and launched a full-scale investigation.
In no time he zeroed in on the owner of Brief Locksmith Company, a small but known outfit in Los Angeles.
The beautiful lock-picking expert, Slate Brief, was John Brief's daughter.
So Steve sent his men to abduct Slate.
Just as he'd expected.
Charlie Clock, who'd long been smitten with Slate, soon reached out to her.
Steve then informed Charlie that he had Slate and demanded the loot from the villa in exchange for her.
Everything was playing out exactly as Steve had scripted.
But what he never saw coming was Charlie arriving that night with a carload of fake gold bricks.
With explosives strapped to his body, Charlie threatened to blow them all up unless Steve released Slate.
While Steve hesitated, one of Charlie's partners fired a crossbow bolt that pierced the villa's power box, plunging the whole place into momentary darkness.
Charlie drew their gunfire.
His partner seized the chance to kill two of Steve's men and slip away with Slate.
Right after that, Rob and Left Ear—Steve's former comrades—risked their lives, using explosives to extract Charlie.
Though Steve was sure he'd shot Charlie at least twice, one round square in the chest.
And that Playboy Rob had probably taken a bullet as well.
The fact remained: they'd escaped.
With explosions rocking the villa, Steve realized the place was no longer safe.
He ordered his rattled men to chase Charlie, then slipped away in the chaos, driving off with that carload of 'gold bricks'.
At first Steve figured that if he could recover his lost fortune, letting Charlie live wasn't out of the question.
But once he reached a safe house and examined the loot.
Steve flew into a rage.
He discovered that the 'gold bricks' in Charlie's car, though identical to the ones they'd lifted from the Italian Mafia in Venice, were nothing but fakes.
In other words, Steve had been duped.
Realizing he'd been conned again, his fury exploded.
After all of Charlie's games, Steve had lost nearly everything.
On top of that, both the LAPD and the FBI had issued warrants for his arrest.
With nothing left, Steve became even more dangerous.
For the moment he couldn't track down Charlie's hideout.
So he staked out the area around Slate's company and her rented apartment.
He knew very well that unless Slate was an idiot, she wouldn't show her face anytime soon.
But he couldn't swallow the humiliation.
Steve had lost everything, and having tasted the life of a super-rich tycoon.
He would fight to the death to reclaim what was his.
So Steve decided to gamble.
He bet that the woman would come back.
What Steve didn't know.
Was that he would never see Slate again.
Hidden near Slate's apartment, quietly watching her building, Steve.
Suddenly felt a surge of restless unease.
He trusted his sixth sense; that gut feeling had saved his life more times than he could count.
In fact, on the night his villa was robbed over ten days ago.
That same instinct had almost let him catch the thieves who dared steal his safes.
But!
Clearly, this time his intuition was again a step too late, just like before.
As he lifted his head and looked around in confusion.
Danger arrived with a sharp whistle through the air.
Whoosh!
Thud!
Amid the tearing sound through the air, Steve suddenly felt as if something had smashed hard into his body.
The next moment, it felt like a titanic force had slammed into his chest—dull, crushing, stabbing.
Staggering back from the surprise attack, Steve belatedly realized he seemed to have been shot.
Instinctively he ducked behind a nearby tree and looked at the spot on his chest that throbbed from the impact.
There, a slender alloy bolt quivered gently with every movement he made.
'This is...'
'A crossbow bolt?'
Blood gushed from his chest as though a floodgate had burst.
Steve even felt the sticky warmth spreading across his back.
Pain screamed from every part of his body; his head grew heavier and his vision darker.
He knew at once that the bolt had punched clean through his chest.
Pfft!
Bloody froth and bubbles began to spill from his nose and mouth.
He understood—the quarrel had pierced his lung.
His time was running out.
'How... how did... it come to this...'
Steve opened his mouth, unwilling to accept it. With his last strength he lifted his head, trying to look toward Slater's villa.
But because he had fallen, all he could see was another apartment building dozens of metres away.
On one of its floors, something caught his eye.
A figure seemed to meet his gaze for an instant.
Then, without hesitation, it turned and left.
'Charlie... is that you?'
Steve muttered venomously.
The thought that he had failed to outdo this former comrade in the end...
In his unwillingness he let out a faint, barely audible whisper.
Then his eyes closed forever.
----------------------------------
I've already posted 70 new chapters on Patreon!
If you like the story and want to reaad more, please visit my patreon. Every support is very meaningful!
[patreon.com/Kazenova223]
Thank you very much!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"