Mr Carlos Huo, She's Your Wife

"I like the way you think." A cigarette hanging out of his mouth, Sheffield sent his wife a message asking her to go to bed early.

There was a moment of silence in the smoking area. Matthew didn't wait for the man who was furiously tapping away at his phone to acknowledge him. "So, after this, go ahead and assume command of the Violet Eagles. When you have time, of course."

Sheffield looked up from his phone, and stared at Matthew. It was a look that said, 'Seriously?' "Now I know you're a masochist. Erica won't be happy." Matthew knew quite well what he was doing. He was muscling in on Erica and Chantel's territory. But he only focused on what he wanted.

"She has me. What does she need a goon squad for? No, I'll be the person she goes to when she needs help." The longer Erica wielded the power of the Violet Eagles, the more dangerous she'd become.

Sheffield put his phone away, and started stroking his chin thoughtfully. "But your wife is using your name to gather power. The branch of the Violet Eagles in our city alone has more than one thousand members. It's a challenge to keep them all in line."

Not to mention the number of people in K Country involved with them. Membership there dwarfed their numbers in Y City. It required a generous amount of funds to maintain an international cartel of that size.

'Matthew knows how to pile on the workload, ' Sheffield sighed.

"If the Violet Eagles were formed using my name, then you can use your name to take over, right?" Sheffield was well-known in gangland. And these guys weren't even all that violent, mostly preferring to run ATM cloning schemes, protection rackets, etc. Should be easy for him to get a piece of the action, and leverage that into control.

Joshua knew what Sheffield was talking about. With a smile, he quietly looked at the two big shots who were jockeying for advantage. Matthew was no dummy, and neither was Sheffield. It was just that neither of them wanted to handle this.

But Sheffield lost it first. He always did. Erica might be able to get Matthew's goat quite easily, but he was better at dealing with Sheffield.

This time was no exception. Sheffield snorted at Matthew, "Don't play dumb. You know that's a damn lot of cash! And I can't get it easily, thanks to your dear sister. She's starting to clamp down on the money we have. I want to see some moolah first before I take this on! You hear me?"

Matthew was unconvinced. He had a wife too. "What a coincidence! My wife's the same way. Only I'm more miserable than you. Rika not only has control of the family checkbook, but has her hands in the company's financial affairs."

at all? Even if he did

watched the two top figures in the city exchange their tales of woe, trying to outdo each other. This was like watching a chess game between two masters. And Joshua was nowhere near as influential as these

one of the richest men in the world. Why are you such a penny-pincher?" Sheffield wondered where Matthew got it from. 'My mother-in-law's not like that, so maybe it

point. "Noreen hasn't told us any useful information yet. Michel Wang is no fool, though. He has to know she has been captured by my men. Still, it wasn't like it was a small thing. It attracted

we can't focus on her right now. Our real concern is Michel. Luckily, most criminals are dumb, so Michel will slip up and leave some evidence behind. He'll give himself away eventually. Don't worry. I consider it my civic duty

was a civic duty to put bad guys in prison, then wouldn't Joshua have to do the same to

a playful punch on the shoulder. "Get real, dude. This

stopped laughing, lost his smile, and let them continue talking.

finally reached an agreement. The three men returned to the wards as soon as

after Damian. Sheffield had wanted to go to Erica's ward and tease her a bit, but Matthew

he thought it might be a good time to rest. He gently moved

he closed his eyes, the sleeping woman slowly opened hers.

sat up in bed. "Ouch!" Because of her sudden movement, it

nervously at the woman. Her face was

I'm going to take revenge! Matthew, I'm going

for a long

a

the scene panned over to show all of her kids tied up, and Erica

Matthew comforted her. "Rika, it's too late now. You're hurt, so you couldn't even if you really wanted to. Just get some rest and focus on getting better,

looked back at the man beside her, confused.