Stephen was checking his bank balance. There was a little over thirty thousand dollars in his account, and this frustrated him.“Tch, I have nothing but this bar on my name,” he frowned. “I have to get hold of Pinkness no matter what. That company will help me and my father’s gang to expand our businesses throughout the country. The Creamer family will soon be earning in millions every year and will achieve much more than we did in the past.”Stephe believed that Pinkness would be a much better place to use the girls to lure male customers and fool them into forming relationships with the girls, thus enabling the girls to suck a lot of money from the male customers. It was also possible to turn the female customers into high-end prostitutes or call girls or escorts or however Stephen saw fit.“As long as I feed the police officers and some politicians, no one will dare point their fingers at me. If they do, I’ll just cut those fingers off in public,” Stephen thought. “Diane did a very

Lark just left Pinkness and was walking away.He remembered a conversation he had with Denver in the past on a certain mountain.“How long will we have to do everything he says? When are we going to fight back?” Lark asked. “I think we have enough power. If we start a war now… we will win.”“You really think that everyone who takes our side will support us until the end?” Denver asked him back while hacking trees. His legs were tied together in chains. His hands were also chained, but he was still able to move his arms together to hack the trees. “If we want a seed to grow into a tree that will touch heaven, we can’t throw manure in the sky. We have to put it in the ground. No matter how high of a result we want to achieve, we have to work at the ground level, Lark.”“Is that way you’re not even caring about going up the ranks anymore?” Lark asked with frustration.“A king can’t see the desires of his people unless he sits at the same table,” Denver replied. “If I aim to sit on the thr

Catherine finished her interview and was returning home by foot. It was only a three mile walk, so she didn’t take the bus in order to save the money.Right now, money was more important than time because she had nothing productive to do regarding her career anyway.Catherine saw two lovers kissing on the road, and it made her remember Denver. And she smiled. “I gave him my first kiss. It wasn’t as crazy as I thought it would be, but I will never forget it.”“You’ll never forget what?” a voice came from her behind. Catherine quickly turned around, only to see her tallest female friend Sia.“What are you doing here?” Catherine asked.“I finished my part-time job,” Sia said, but she didn’t look the least bit tired.“Already?”“Yeah. I only work for two hours. It’s a special job, after all. They pay me forty dollars per hour,” Sia said. “Anyhow, how did you end up with Denver?”Catherine was surprised. “How did you know?”“Yesterday, we came to your flat. He was there. Didn’t he tell you

“Are you going to stay here and wait until my dad arrives?” Stephen asked in a mocking manner. “You acted like you were going to deal with anything that will come at you, but now that you’re seeing the king of the neighborhood, you’re thinking twice, aren’t you? It’s not too late. Fall at my dad’s feet and beg for mercy. He might let you live after severely punishing you, of course.”Denver took a deep breath and walked up to Stephen who was sitting on the chair.Stephen looked up with a cocky, proudful smirk on his face.“It seems just getting the wrists broken isn’t enough,” Denver slapped Stephen with the back of his hand.Stephen spun and crashed on the floor, chin first.“Huhu, you slapped his lights out,” Jeremy loved what he saw.“He was being pretty annoying,” Denver looked at Jeremy. “Can you move?”“I can manage. Why?”“Just in case someone else makes it to this room, you shouldn’t be here,” Denver said. “If possible, go home. Take your daughter and go somewhere else. Keep

Catherine had a long, thirty minute ride in her car and returned to her apartment.“Wow,” one of the female neighbors saw her and asked in surprise, “did you buy a new car?”“It’s my old car,” Catherine flashed a grin free of burden and full of ease. “My man got this car restored to its new look.”“Your man?” She was visibly surprised. “Who? The big guy?”“Yeah.”“Oh. Don’t think of this the wrong way, Catherine, but don’t you think he’s way too out of your league?” she said. “I mean, guys like that don’t stay with women like us for long. Once he finds a woman with a better butt or boobs, he’ll move on.”Catherine frowned initially but then smiled a bit uneasily. “I never dated anybody. I never chased after love because it looked like an unending rat race to me.” She remembered the times when her friends shuffled boyfriends every season for stupid and silly reasons.Neither Catherine nor Diane were allowed to date anybody because their dad strictly forbade them. Diane considered this a