Chapter 3 - The Price of Blood
While Maren recovered in the luxury of the Vance estate over the next week, the underground world of Charlotte experienced a reign of absolute terror.
Jaxson Vance did not sleep.
In the subterranean facility beneath his penthouse office in the city center, Jaxson sat behind a massive steel desk. Standing before him in heavy iron restraints were three men—their clothes dirty, their faces bruised, their eyes filled with pure, unadulterated terror.
Dominic, Jaxson’s chief of security, stepped forward and threw a heavy leather bag onto the table. It opened, spilling out seventy-four dollars and forty-two cents in crumpled bills and loose coins.
"We found them in a back-alley gambling den in West Charlotte, Boss," Dominic reported, his voice void of emotion. "They were bragging about pulling off a job at Howl's Diner."
The tall leader of the trio, the one who had ordered Maren to open the register, was trembling violently. "Please, Mr. Vance! We didn't know the diner was in your zone! It was just a stupid score! We only took seventy bucks!"
Jaxson stood up slowly from his leather chair. The air in the concrete room seemed to drop ten degrees. He walked around the desk, his footsteps echoing like a death knell.
"Seventy dollars," Jaxson said softly, picking up a wrinkled five-dollar bill from the pile. "You nearly took the life of a young woman for the price of a cheap dinner."
"We'll give it back!" the gray-hooded robber sobbed, dropping to his knees. "We'll pay ten times—a hundred times!"
"You misunderstand the currency of this room," Jaxson said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "In my city, money does not pay for blood. Only blood pays for blood."
Jaxson gestured with a single finger toward Dominic.
"Dismantle their operations. Seize every asset they possess, down to the clothes on their backs. And then deliver them to the federal authorities with enough evidence to ensure they spend the rest of their natural lives in maximum security."
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Jaxson stepped closer to the tall man, towering over him with lethal majesty.
"You thought she was a helpless girl with no one to protect her," Jaxson whispered into the man's ear. "You were wrong. She belongs to Jaxson Vance now. And you will suffer every single day behind bars remembering her face."
