After a solid dinner, the crew's energy was still high, so Jake took everyone straight to karaoke.It ran late past nine by the time they finally wrapped up. Amy showered and headed straight to bed once they got home.The weather had turned properly warm now, and with no AC installed at the house yet, Jake wandered out to the small courtyard, ready to get some work done.That afternoon, Pete had sent over another haul of scrap nearly three thousand dollars' worth this time, mostly large appliances. Thinking about the system's daily bonus threshold, Jake couldn't help feeling a spike of anticipation.Hit a thousand points in a single day, and he'd unlock two lucky draws. Today's haul alone was easily worth two thousand points which meant four total draws waiting for him. Just thinking about it got his pulse up.Wonder what I'll pull this time.Jake sorted out the newer-looking appliances, stacked the rest of the junk together, and pulled up the recycling interface."Recycle."The pile

"What exactly are you doing right now?" Jake stared at Kayla's outfit, torn between laughing and groaning."This is a bar, old man. This is a completely normal outfit, thank you very much. I'm willing to sacrifice a little dignity for the job. It's not that big of a deal to quit acting scandalized," Kayla huffed, shaking a fist at him."Fine, fine. Just remember why we're here tonight. If we get something, great. If not, we call it a night out and head home, no arguments," Jake said."Yeah, yeah, let's go. Tonight these criminals are going to learn what this lady's made of. According to my intel, Danny's always been one of Marcus's guys. There's a real chance Marcus is hiding out right here!" Kayla's eyes were practically glowing.Jake buried his face in his hand and gave up trying to reason with her. If anything, Marcus probably wanted Danny's head on a spike more than anyone in the department did right now. The odds of Marcus casually showing up here tonight were basically zero.He

"Move, we're getting out of here!" Danny read the room fast and tried to bolt but with Marcus already standing right there, there was never really a way out.A handful of Marcus's guys surged forward immediately, colliding with Danny's crew in a full brawl, and Danny found himself frozen, completely thrown.Every plan he'd laid, every angle he'd calculated, none of it accounted for Marcus skipping strategy entirely and just showing up to settle things head-on.Every careful arrangement Danny had put in place evaporated in an instant.Turned out he'd badly overestimated his own position. The whole operation he'd taken over had been Marcus's people to begin with, loyal to Marcus, not to him. It might have worked out fine if Marcus had simply vanished for good. The instant he reappeared, that loyalty snapped right back to where it had always belonged.Jake and Kayla stayed pressed into their corner, watching the whole thing unfold like a live show. Jake studied Marcus up on the stage in

Jake wasn't going to pretend he wasn't scared. Hank was genuinely on another level, and flanked by his crew, the man radiated a kind of casual menace that made everything worse.There hadn't been much time to think it through, someone needed to keep Hank occupied, and Jake figured Kayla would come back with backup soon enough. Seeing Jake charge in, one of Hank's men, a wiry guy named Dean who'd been hovering close to Hank's side snapped to attention, eyes blazing, practically vibrating with eagerness."Boss, go ahead and get everyone clear. I'll handle this idiot myself, kid's clearly got a death wish."Dean cracked his knuckles and sauntered toward Jake. "You stupid punk, you have no idea who you're messing with. Ask anybody on the street nobody messes with Dean and walks away smiling. You wanna ruin our night? Fine. Say goodbye."Dean was a career street brawler, and his fighting instincts ran circles around anything Jake had picked up. He lunged in for a crushing bear hug, and Jak

Hank finished his threat and pulled a black handgun from his jacket. With his connections running deep into the underworld, sourcing weapons like this had never been a problem.He'd left more than a few bodies behind over the years because of it. And tonight, Hank knew with absolute certainty getting caught wasn't an option. Whatever waited for him after that wasn't something he planned to find out.Marcus froze at the sight of the gun. His own operation had always stayed relatively clean, no drugs, no trafficking, mostly just leaning on shopkeepers for protection money with a machete for leverage if things got tense.He'd never needed to carry an actual firearm. Digging through his own pockets in a panic, all he managed to produce was a small folding pocketknife, which he raised anyway, forcing himself to look braver than he felt.Jake felt a fresh wave of cold sweat break out. He'd genuinely expected Marcus to pull out something more substantial after all that fumbling instead, here