The Million-Dollar Heart

Patrick was floored by the girl before him, his words catching in his throat as he fell silent.

Quincy did not bother with further conversation. Grabbing her press pass from the table, she stood up and left.

Patrick tugged at his tie, exhaling a long breath of relief.

Dealing with the devil always comes at a price, he mused.

After leaving Patrick's press conference, Quincy took a shortcut and emerged transformed, her professional aura all but gone.

Dressed in a tank top with overalls and sporting a baseball cap, she slung a canvas bag over her shoulder, the picture of a college student.

She waited at the crossroads until a nondescript black Volkswagen pulled up.

"Are you my Uber?" Quincy asked.

The driver poked his head out, sunglasses masking his eyes. "Yeah, hop in, sweetheart."

Quincy smiled and opened the door. Soon, the Volkswagen blended into the stream of city traffic.

"Captain Wolf, can't you guys get me a better ride next time? This one just doesn't suit my style," Leopold grumbled from the driver's seat, resting one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the door. Percival, seated in the passenger seat, turned his head slightly, disregarding Husky's complaints.

In the backseat, Quincy tipped her cap to greet Vivienne. "Long time no see."

"You've gotten taller." Vivienne smiled back.

They skipped the small talk, diving straight into the heart of the matter.

"Ever since the operation to take down Mark ended, I've been out of the loop, just lying low in Rivenwood. After the lab was blown up by someone named Willa, I got zero instructions. It was not until yesterday that I was suddenly told to come to Sea City and give Patrick his next assignment."

nodded. "Have you met

I know is that the boss goes by F-Poison. The orders come through online messages. I've tried tracking him, but there's

on her laptop but

since our mentor's days. We can't track

GTO had upped their game. Plus, the original backdoor was

into GTO's internal network

by the thought of having such a

pocketed her phone. "As for the bomb on the ship, I was out of the loop. That

"Another team?"

Belle, was captured, I thought F-Poison would activate us, the underlings, but it never happened, and the operations kept running smoothly. This leads me to believe Mr. B was not the

saying F-Poison has more than

bomb incident-handled by her deputy in Sea City. I've yet to figure out who that is," Quincy said, which aligned with Vivienne's

instance. If it had not been for this trip to Sea City

all; she was just the regional head for

was in charge of

F-Poison even

you know if anything else comes up," Quincy said, donning

parked the car, and Quincy stepped

left, Percival moved to the back seat. "What's the plan

City lab is right under the Ashford family's factory. We'll wait

to Patrick soon. Once a person gets too big for their britches, they're bound to make

knowing smiles,

had never happened in decades was happening - the first and the second branches united, completely sidelining Wendy and Eliza to take over the Boyd Group. "Where the hell is the contract with the Ashford family? Speak up, you decrepit old fool!" Teresa slammed her hand on the table,