The idea of leaving Blackwater Prison was something the inmates had long since stopped dreaming about. The day they were brought here, they accepted one harsh truth, they would never walk out alive."Boss... can we really leave this place?"Lemuel swallowed hard, his voice trembling with excitement. His eyes were filled with hope.If anyone else had made such a claim, he would have dismissed it as fantasy. But Hudson wasn't like anyone else. Everything Hudson had done since arriving at Blackwater Prison had shattered what everyone believed was possible.For decades, the prison had been considered inescapable.Could its rules really be broken?"It can be done," Hudson replied calmly. "But there are conditions."He didn't waste time and immediately laid out his proposal.If the nine men wanted to leave with him, then from that day forward they would have to erase their former identities. They would disappear from the world and become his shadow warriors, following his orders without que

Hudson froze, his face flushing with embarrassment. Seeing Reilan watching him with guarded eyes, he cleared his throat and quickly turned away, lowering his gaze."Damn it... way to betray me now."At this rate, there was no way he could continue the treatment. He silently recited a calming mantra, forcing himself to regain his composure.Behind him, the tension in Reilan's expression slowly eased. Despite his shameless mouth and constant teasing, she had to admit that he still had some principles. Not every man would be able to restrain himself in a situation like this.Even so, her emotions remained tangled. A question she didn't want to face lingered in her mind.‘If Hudson really lost control... would I fight him... or simply accept it?’Two minutes later, Hudson finally returned.His breathing had steadied, and the awkwardness on his face was gone. Without another word, he picked up the silver needles and resumed the treatment.Only then did Reilan finally relax.She clenched he

"A beautiful woman came looking for me?"Hudson frowned in confusion.‘Who could it be?’The moment he looked up, he found six pairs of eyes fixed on him. Ivory, Shienna, and Hyan were all staring at him with unmistakable suspicion.Their expressions seemed to say the same thing.Explain yourself. Were you flirting with someone again?Although Ivory, as the eldest among them, rarely spoke about matters like this, Hudson knew all three women shared the same concern.The more women who entered his life, the less time and affection each of them would receive.Naturally, none of them wanted another "sister" joining the household.Hudson quickly searched his memory.Recently, he hadn't really met any women outside. Aside from Reilan, whom they had never met in person, there was no one that came to mind. Reilan was one of California's legendary War Gods, and her face appeared on news broadcasts and official posters all the time.As for Lena from Mountain Village, that seemed even less likel

Hudson asked that question for one reason. The room was missing Kitty's medicine basket.Unlike Hudson, who could travel almost anywhere with nothing more than a pouch of silver needles, most doctors carried a medicine basket filled with herbs, medical supplies, and treatment tools.Hudson clearly remembered seeing Kitty's woven bamboo medicine basket back at the Medical God Association.Now it was gone. That meant Kitty had left with it herself.If she had been dragged away by force, there was little chance she would have remembered, or been allowed, to take her medical equipment with her. The missing basket suggested she had left willingly, believing she was simply going to treat another patient."Yes," Amelio answered without hesitation. "She always carried a medicine basket."Hudson nodded thoughtfully before asking another question."Did anyone from Seaside Ridge ever come here looking for treatment?"Amelio nodded again."They did. Quite a few of them, actually.""They even invi

From what Hudson had learned during the interrogation, he had already pieced together how the human trafficking operation in Seaside Ridge worked. At first, he assumed Kitty was being held somewhere in the mountains.That was why he had stopped pretending to be unconscious after Roven and Rennie planned to separate him from Viena at the brick factory.But the truth was completely different. Kitty wasn't being held in the mountains at all.A woman as beautiful as Kitty was an extremely rare prize, and multiple wealthy buyers had already expressed interest in her.To squeeze out the highest possible profit, Roven and his associates decided to hold a private auction, allowing the bidders to compete against one another.According to Roven, Kitty was already being transported to the auction site, where the bidding would begin promptly at five o'clock that morning.To satisfy whichever buyer won, everything had already been prepared in advance.The room had been arranged so the winning bidde