Kenneth dropped his arm on the side, smirking in satisfaction. In front of him was a man, missing all his teeth with thick blood dripping from his mouth. He was trembling and he had a hazed look in his eyes, as if all hope was gone.

I ran a hand through my hair and sighed.

“You happy, you little shit,” I said to Kenneth who pouted at me.

“Hey! I still saved something for you!”

Clark, who was sitting on the table, smoking, looked at me.

“He said the person who hired him was Jacob Sarmiento,” he said in a dead voice, obviously uninterested in all of this.

Jacob Sarmiento? The councilor of the city where North Vale was? Wasn’t he a close associate of Carlos? Did someone told him to do it or was he bribed? Perhaps someone offered a bigger cut to take down the influence of the Torres-Shao in the police force.

I walked towards the guy.

“Why’d Sarmiento hired to you to kill Mendoza?” I asked.

He kept still, eyes trying to focus on me. I patiently waited for him to answer but only strings of begging came out of his mouth.

I sighed.

“Hang him upside down.”

I felt everyone tensed from what I said except for Clark who perked up, excited from what I was planning to do.

“Jesus Christ, Hiro, seriously? The waiting game?” Anthony complained.

I glared at him.

“Well if it wasn’t for you and your brother, doing this thing like it’s a game, we wouldn’t have to do this,” I retorted, smacking Kenneth on the head.

“Aw! That hurts!” he yelped.

“It’s supposed to hurt,” I said through my gritted teeth.

I took off my jacket and threw it to the nearest guy. They began arranging the guy, pulling him out of the chair and grabbing both his feet to tie a rope around it. He was struggling amidst his weakness.

“No…! No, please, please, please! Stop!” he begged but no one was listening to his requests.

I walked towards him and squatted to talk to him face to face.

“You know what I’m gonna do to you, right?”

I saw the flash of fear in his eyes and that ticked something in me, switching that one trait I was always hiding because it greatly reminded me of my father.

How he had embedded inside my core who I’m going to be.

This was the kind of life given to me and I had no choice but to embrace it.

The guy saw my lips curling upwards.

Leaning close towards his ear, I whispered, “I’m going to make sure you’ll be screaming your mother’s name for help but just so you know, not even your god can save you.”

His eyes widened, horrified.

“I - I’m gonna talk! P-please…just let me live! I’m going to talk, everything! A-about Sarmiento…and…a-and…!”

I stood up and started taking my shirt off. I saw Anthony and Kenneth with Clark, in the corner of the room.

I sat down on the chair directly facing him and crossed my legs.

“Ugh!”

He was now hanging upside down and was still struggling to get out of the ropes. But it was futile, he was weak from what Anthony and Kenneth did.

“When you’re upside down, your organs will extra weight on your lungs and it’ll be harder for you to breathe. It can cause asphyxiation and that’s not a good way to go,” I said, smiling kindly at the guy.

“I’m talking…ugh, I’m…t-talking! Sarmiento…wants a bigger cut b-but…they d-didn’t give him money…and so he got r-revenge…by taking Mendoza’s…life!”

I raised a brow.

A warning, huh? What an idiot. Doesn’t he know Carlos would be coming for him now.

Damn, that means my job’s going to increase. Now I know why he wanted to meet me and Clark. Carlos already knew who hired Sarmiento. He just wanted a gift to give back to Sarmiento for what he had done and by gift, I meant the body of the hitman he hired.

Sick motherfucker.

“You better go and sleep,” I said to the Torres-Shao brothers and to Clark as well.

Anthony and Kenneth shrugged their shoulders.

“Fine, this will take all night and day,” Kenneth mumbled, yawning.

His brother sighed.

“Just text us if you’re finish, okay?”

I shooed them away and the stuck their tongues out at me. When they were gone, I looked at Clark who stayed behind.

“Go to sleep,” I said.

“And miss all this?” he asked, smirking at me, “no fucking way.”

[End of Uncensored Part]

--

I threw the photo of Sarmiento’s dead hitman on Carlos’ table and the sight of it pleased him. A satisfied smirk on his face appeared before looking up at me.

“You’ve done well, Hiro,” he complimented which I didn’t appreciate.

“200,000, all cash,” I said.

A week had passed and I was busy doing jobs for Carlos. It’s already getting boring, killing, torturing, blackmailing, nothing could excite me anymore.

Clark was sitting on the couch, hands inside his pockets while patiently waiting for me to finish my business with Carlos. I didn’t want to bring him here but after knowing that Carlos wanted to talk to him, he insisted in coming. And anyway, this kid would do anything just to get out of North Vale and be with me.

Carlos’ eyes shifted to Clark and I kept my guard up, just in case he offers him a ridiculous job with ridiculous money that would definitely entice him.

“Clark,” he called, gaining Clark’s attention.

“What?”

“I have a job for you.”

Narrowing my eyes at Carlos, I asked, “what kind of job?”

“A job that would be difficult that it needs the two of you in this,” Carlos casually answered.

Clark stood up and walked towards the table, standing beside me as he stared at Carlos.

“Kill Jacob Sarmiento.”

I snorted.

Killing a politician just because he ordered to kill one of his boys. This man doesn’t forgive and forget. He would do anything to take back what he had lost, even if it’s something expendable. That’s how much he values his property.

Because everything for Carlos was power.

Complete control, unlimited money, power over the law, everything.

“Let me guess, you want it sensationalized, hmm?” I sarcastically said.

A death of a politician would surely grab everyone’s attention, especially the media and that’s what Carlos was aiming for. He wanted everyone to know that double-crossing him would end up with death. Every politicians working with him would surely knew what was going, hence inflicting fear that if ever they try to do or plan something against the owner of North Vale, they would end up the same way Sarmiento ended.

“Make it rain bullets, okay?”

“I’ll kill him however I want, I don’t care, but how much are you offering?” Clark asked.

I clenched my fists but didn’t say anything.

“Half a million,” Carlos offered.

“Cash?” Clark inquired.

“Cash.”

“Done.”

Carlos grinned.

“Nice doing business with you, Clark, finally. Maybe this will be the start of our partnership?” he said, reaching his hand it with Clark.

I slapped his hand away, pushing Clark behind me as I glared at Carlos.

“I’m the one who’s going to kill Sarmiento. Don’t drag him in your fucking problems,” I warned.

Carlos tensed but smile nonetheless.

“Clark is not a part of any group, Hiro. Besides, it’s his choice to do it,” he then looked behind me, still smiling, “right, Clark?”

Clark didn’t answer.

“He’s not going to be a kid forever,” Carlos said in a low voice, eyes gleaming in desire, “I’m going to use him too, Hiro, someday, surely.”

“Don’t push it,” I said, putting an arm around Clark’s shoulder, ‘not everyone is under you, Carlos.”

Before he could say anything, I already pulled Clark out of his office.

“Why’d you do that?” Clark asked, taking my arm away from him to face me. “I can do this job. I’ve trained all my life to become an assassin, like you.”

I stared into his blue eyes and remembered the first time I saw him. He didn’t changed much from how he was when he was a kid. Indifferent, emotionless, taking human lives was nothing to Clark. He was molded to become a better assassin than Matthias and Lucas and with the kind of skills he have, people in the underground world would fight for him.

He’s been used by the wrong kind of people for the wrong kind of reason.

He had the potential to become the next Mikhail and I’m not going to let it happen again.

After everything that happened to them.

“You’re going to stay out of it. I’ll let my men do the heavy work,” I said.

I was about to walk away but Clark grabbed my shoulder to stop me.

“You’re not my boss, Hiro,” he said.

I noticed the drop in his voice. He was looking at me as if I’m one of his targets.

Yeah, he definitely got it from them.

“Not yet,” I said, gripping his chin to make him look straight into my eyes, “but you’ll be working with me, Clark.”

Clark held my arm and forced it away from his face.

“The Italian Mafia doesn’t need two monsters. You’re enough for them. I’m going to find the person I want to work for.”

--

The ride to the hotel we usually stay whenever we’re out in a mission was silent. Clark was just sitting beside me, looking out of the window without uttering a word.

I sighed.

“I’ll give you this one.”

Clark perked up, snapping his head to finally look at me.

“Really?” he said, his voice still dead but I could tell he was excited.

“I’ll let you do anything you want but in one condition.”

The small smile in his face faltered.

“What?”

“I’ll take the money.”

His jaw dropped in disbelief.

“What?” he asked, brows furrowing in anger, “why?”

I stepped on the brake before the light turned red.

“I’ll tell your dads what you’re doing here in the Philippines and they’ll take you back, in that island with nothing, Clark,” I said, “you don’t want that, right?”

“You won’t dare.”

Clark’s only weakness was money.

That’s all it would take, besides the fact that I could easily persuade his parents to take him back to their isolated island.

He sunk on the seat and grumbled.

“Fine. You do the killing.”

I smiled triumphantly. I didn’t want to blackmail him but it’s the only way to let him back down. If he ever finish this job, Carlos would do anything to make him join the Torres-Shao group.

He doesn’t belong there.

Clark’s too strong for a small group like the Torres-Shao.

--