Chapter 2

Vivian told me that the fifty bandits would arrive in town six hours before the sandstorm hit.

She and Victor Kane had come to the town half a year in advance and rented out the entire Crown Hotel in order to scout the place.

Although the town looked desolate now, there had been a mine here a few years earlier, and every household in town had money.

They planned to loot every home when the sandstorm arrived and the town was cut off from the world.

With their communications severed, the three cops in town wouldn’t be able to stop them at all.

Now.

I lifted Victor Kane’s mangled corpse and threw it into the pit, burying my hope along with it.

When we returned to the hotel, Vivian poured me another glass of liquor.

The liquor spilled by accident, and I was so scared that I hurriedly wiped it clean with my sleeve.

Vivian grabbed my arm, narrowed her eyes, and let out a cold laugh. “Vic, wrong move.”

“If one of your men spilled your liquor, you’d lose your temper and beat him up.”

“Remember, you are an inhuman bandit.”

“If you aren’t crueler and crazier than everyone else, who’s going to fear you?”

I quickly nodded. “Got it.”

At dawn, Vivian and I slept in the same room.

She held me in bed and soon began snoring.

But aside from fear, I had no other feelings or thoughts at all.

I dug my nails hard into my palm until the skin broke, forcing myself to calm down as much as possible.

I had seen how ruthless Vivian was.

Victor Kane was her man and her boss, yet she killed him without blinking, so why?

The only reason I could think of was that she wanted to keep all the money from looting the town for herself.

After she got the money, would I still be alive?

No.

I was only a tool she was using.

And once the other bandits arrived, whether Vivian’s plan succeeded or failed, my ending would be certain death.

My only way to survive was to contact the police before the bandits arrived.

Thinking of that, I gently pushed Vivian away and climbed out of bed.

Luckily, she didn’t wake up.

But when I reached the door, I found it had been locked from the outside and couldn’t be pulled open at all.

In the darkness, one of Vivian’s hidden men spoke in a hoarse voice. “Stay put. You trying to die?”

My heart lurched in fear, but I still gritted my teeth and forced myself to say, “Fuck you.”

“Did you forget I’m Vic now?”

“You dare talk to me like that?”

I was gambling.

I was betting that I was still useful and that, for now, they had to humor me.

After a moment of silence, the man on the other side replied, “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking a piss.”

The door opened, but there was no one in the hallway.

They had to be watching me from the dark.

I gathered my courage and went to the bathroom.

After closing the bathroom door, I took out a sheet of drawing paper as fast as I could, hastily wrote one line on it, and tossed it out the window.

There were three cops in town, and the youngest was named Luke Parker.

He had a habit of jogging in the morning, and he had been very friendly to me.

He wanted me to draw a sketch of him so he could mail it home, so his fiancée would have something to hold on to whenever she missed him.

Compared with a photo, he thought a drawing was more romantic.

Bang!

A sudden loud crash startled me so badly that I jerked, cutting off my thoughts.

It sounded like something heavy had hit the ground.

I hurried out and saw that Vivian was already awake.

In the lobby downstairs, two dark figures were carrying something and heading outside.

Vivian yawned and waved at me.

“It’s fine.”

“A little guy had promised to join me, but at the last minute, he betrayed me and tried to send a message to the Strategist.”

“My people found out, so they threw him to his death.”

“Vic, you won’t betray me, will you?”

I nervously shook my head again and again, hurriedly saying I wouldn’t dare.