Chapter 36
The Colour of Dirty Money
The morning light cuts through the heavy curtains, waking Tessa from a deep sleep.
She turns her head, expecting the chaotic wreckage of the previous night.
Instead, the bedroom is pristine. Every trace of their intense, breathless encounter is gone.
The sheets are crisp, and the air smells faint of expensive cologne and fresh linen.
A sharp knock rattles the door.
"Coming," Tessa calls out, her voice still thick with sleep.
A maid steps into the room, holding a silver tray.
She offers a polite smile and asks whether Tessa prefers breakfast in the living room or right here in bed.
Tessa quickly sits up, pulling the thick duvet tight against her chest to hide her naked body.
She reaches for the offered bed tea, taking a slow, quiet sip as the warmth hits her throat.
"Where is Lucius?" Tessa asks, looking up at the maid.
"He left early for a meeting, ma'am," the maid replies softly. "He mentioned he will not be returning home today."
Tessa’s eyes widen. A sudden weight drops in her stomach. She reaches for her phone and quickly fires off a message to him. No reply. She stares at the screen as the minutes tick by. The message delivers perfectly, but the status never changes to read. An hour passes in absolute silence.
Frustrated and anxious, Tessa opens another chat and texts Emily and Olivia. Are Victor and Alex at home?
The reply comes back quickly from Emily. No, they are out with Lucius for a business matter.
What kind of business? Tessa types back.
The pink money business, Emily replies.
Tessa stares at the words, completely confused. She knows what black money is—the dirty cash people hide to avoid paying taxes. But pink money? The underworld has its own colourful vocabulary, and she is completely in the dark.
Sighing, Tessa slips into the previous night’s gown and heads to the bathroom. She takes a long, hot bath, washing the lingering tension from her skin. Once dressed, she walks into the living room where breakfast is already waiting.
She steps forward and stops, staring at the plate. It is a tall stack of fluffy pancakes, dripping with a thick, golden coating of honey.
Her breath hitches. The sight instantly triggers a memory.
She remembers the heavy heat of the previous night, the feeling of Lucius's hands, and exactly how he had poured honey over her bare skin.
A flush creeps up her neck. Shaking the thoughts away, she sits down and forces herself to finish the meal.
Attempting to distract herself, she turns on the TV, but her mind refuses to focus. Her feet move on their own. She wanders down the hallway to Lucius’s private study. She turns the handle and pushes the door open.
Tessa freezes.
Stacks of cash are scattered openly across the massive wooden table. Loose bills litter the floor like autumn leaves. The sheer volume of wealth is staggering, raw, and completely exposed. Heart racing, she steps back and quietly shuts the door behind her.
Tessa walks out to the balcony, taking a deep breath of the crisp morning air. The glass door slides open and the maid steps out beside her.
"How do you feel since coming here, miss?" the maid asks gently.
Tessa looks out over the city skyline, her shoulders dropping. "To be honest, I feel incredibly lonely. Since coming here, I feel like I've forgotten how to actually live. I miss the chaos of working in my dress designing shop. Even the bad moments felt real."
For now, this maid is her only anchor. She is the only person Tessa can talk to, the only one who can bring a brief laugh to her lips in this gilded cage.
On the other side of the city, the atmosphere is freezing and lethal.
Lucius stands in a dimly lit, abandoned warehouse, surrounded by mountains of drug money. Beside him, Teajun is reviewing the latest chemical data. As the group's medical expert, Teajun knows exactly which narcotics cause the fastest, most fatal overdoses.
"The high-overdose batches are the best for sales," Victor explains coldly to the new, jittery street dealers lined up before them.
"Everyone wants them. It takes the users straight to heaven while keeping them breathing just enough to crave more. They are alive, but their minds are completely gone."
Teajun shrugs, his voice dripping with pure indifference. "We are here to make money. We don't fucking care who buys it, and we don't give a shit whose health gets ruined."
Lucius steps forward, his shadow looming over the crowd. "Do you all understand the fucking order?" he demands, his voice a low, terrifying growl.
A chorus of hurried nods and muttered agreements ripples through the room.
But Lucius’s eyes narrow. He notices one boy in the back.
The boy's body language is off. He isn't moving with the rhythm of the group.
When Teajun shares the final distribution details, the boy turns his head sharply, looking around like a panicked motherfucker.
He doesn't belong to this syndicate. He is an outsider. A rat.
Lucius’s expression turns ice-cold. He already knows exactly how this boy's life will end.
Without a word, Lucius draws his gun and walks toward him, his boots clicking heavily against the concrete floor. The distance closes in seconds. Before the boy can even scream, Lucius fires a single, precise shot into his kneecap.
The boy collapses to the floor, screeching like a fucking gay slut.
Victor steps in instantly, slamming his boot onto the boy’s chest and gripping his neck to stifle the noise. Victor looks up at Lucius, a dark smirk playing on his lips. "I will take this piece of shit down to your basement. Kai will love breaking him."
Lucius gives a single, cold nod.
Turning back to the remaining dealers, Teajun resumes the briefing. He explains exactly how to handle the police if a deal gets interrupted.
"If the pigs show up midway," Alex interrupts, adjusting the heavy straps of his gear, "I shoot them. Then we run and put on the masks."
Alex gestures to the massive crates stacked against the wall. "We have almost twenty thousand boxes of product here. Each of you will take four to five boxes and move them within a week. Do not think about the money. Just focus on where the fuck you are going to dump these packets."
A young dealer from the back named Romania raises his hand nervously. "Can we take them to any city? Any country?" Lucius smiles—a terrifying, devilish grin that twists beneath the edge of his mask. "Yes."
Every senior member in the room—Victor, Lucius, Alex, and Teajun—is wearing a mask made of solid, pure gold.
The heavy metal covers their entire faces completely, leaving only their cold, unblinking eyes visible to the terrified crew.
"We have fixed specific territories for all of you," Victor states, tossing a map onto a crate. "Go there and move the boxes."
After a gruelling, tense discussion, Lucius waves a dismissive hand. "Dismiss the juniors." The new boys scramble out of the warehouse, terrified for their lives. Once the doors slam shut, the senior gang leaders—men who have worked for Lucius for more than eight years—step into the inner circle.
Teajun steps up to the main leader. "How much did we clear this week?" "Two hundred million dollars," the leader replies proudly.
Victor narrows his eyes behind his golden mask. "And what about the other two hundred and thirty-five boxes of drugs?"
The leader goes completely pale. His jaw tightens. He clearly wants to say something, but the sheer fear of Lucius’s brutal punishments keeps the words trapped in his throat.
Lucius doesn't waste time. He draws his gun and presses the cold metal barrel directly against the leader's trembling hand.
The pressure works instantly. The leader spills everything, his voice shaking. "The other boxes... the A.G. Gang members intercepted them. They destroyed the entire shipment."
Alex's eyes turn blood-red behind his golden mask. He screams, his voice echoing violently off the warehouse walls. "What the fuck were you doing during the ambush? Fuck your mom, you awesome gay guys! Fucking assholes!"
Victor steps forward to intervene, but Alex is faster.
A deafening gunshot rings out as Alex fires directly at the leader's hand, cleanly severing his pinky finger.
The seasoned leader doesn't scream; he simply clamps his other hand over the bloody stump, his jaw locked in agony.
Lucius watches the display with an unblinking, icy stare, while Teajun merely chuckles, entirely unfazed by the sudden burst of violence.
"You are no longer the leader of that crew," Alex spits, his voice deadly calm beneath his golden mask.
"From today, you work as a cleaner at Base Number 3."
Lucius knows this is the ultimate humiliation—a man who commanded loyalty for eight years, now reduced to scrubbing blood, dirt, and grime off the floors while his former subordinates watch.
Teajun steps into the man's space, tapping his shoulder impatiently, demanding to know where the cash is.
The demoted leader looks up through a haze of pain, panting, and confesses that the pink money is outside in the trucks.
Alex leans in closer, asking about the trade money and how many people paid him to execute targets.
Fighting the blinding pain, the man whispers that there is only forty million dollars, and it is in the car outside.
Lucius stands up, his towering frame casting a long shadow as he approaches the broken man.
Without a word, he rips the leadership badge from the man's pocket, tearing the expensive fabric of the suit right down the front.
Just then, Lucius's phone vibrates with a text from Kai: Come down to Hacker Base Number 6 in the basement of your new penthouse.
My brother and I are waiting. With a sharp nod, Lucius dismisses the remaining senior members.
Meanwhile, back at the penthouse, Tessa sits in the sprawling living room with Netflix playing on the screen.
She isn't chilling; her mind is completely consumed by thoughts of Lucius and his whereabouts.
As she glances down at her phone for the hundredth time, the heavy main door swings open with a soft click.
She spins around to see a strange man stepping inside.
Panicking because she doesn't recognise him, Tessa bolts into the kitchen, grabs a sharp knife from the counter, and turns to face the intruder.
The man—Kai—simply lets out a soft, amused huff and smirks, walking directly toward her, completely unbothered by the weapon.
"You know me, miss. You just haven't seen my face before."
Tessa doesn't hesitate; she lunges forward to stab him, but Kai twists her arm with effortless precision, spinning her body around until her back is pressed hard against his chest.
He bends down, his deep, husky voice vibrating right against her ear, telling her that she knows him but just hasn't seen him, adding that he is the brother of the head hacker.
Realising he is one of Lucius's trusted men; Tessa relaxes her posture and drops the knife onto the floor, breathing out a quick apology.
Kai releases his grip, but instead of stepping away, he takes her cold hand in his and presses a slow, lingering kiss against her skin.
Tessa freezes, acutely aware of the intense warmth of his lips against her knuckles.
Before another word can be exchanged, the maid creeps up from behind and brings a heavy frying pan down onto the back of Kai's head with a loud, metallic clang.
Kai drops to the floor instantly, completely unconscious.
"Oh my god," Tessa gasps, wasting no time as she runs to the front door, shouting for the guards outside to help lay him down on the couch.
The bodyguards rush in and stare at the scene in stunned silence, wondering what on earth these two innocent-looking women just did to Lucius's top operative.
They lift Kai up and lay him flat on the sofa.
Three hours pass in tense silence before Kai finally groans, his eyes fluttering open.
The maid immediately jumps back in fear, her voice trembling as she asks if he is okay.
Kai groans, rubbing the massive lump forming on the back of his head as he forces himself to sit up.
He glares around the room, his voice dripping with pure disbelief.
"I just want to know who the fuck hit me like I am a goddamn cockroach."
The maid instantly claps both hands over her mouth, her face turning entirely pale as she steps forward.
"It was me," she whispers, terrified. Kai's eyes go incredibly wide, locking onto her as he gasps dramatically, "LIKE A COCKROACH?!"
Before the tension can escalate, Tessa rushes over holding a cold glass of water.
She offers it to him with an apologetic expression, trying to soothe the situation.
"I am so sorry, Kai. Honestly, my maid had no idea who you were. But after that hit, she definitely knows exactly who you are now."
Kai lets out a ragged sigh, taking the glass and draining the water in one long gulp.
He hands it back to Tessa, still wincing as his fingers touch his bruised skull.
"I will be back down in the basement, okay? Just wait until your man comes home."
He slowly stands up, keeping one hand pressed against his head to stop the throbbing. He walks toward the heavy front door, pulls it open with a quiet click, and disappears down the corridor toward the private elevator.
Tessa watches him leave, but when she turns around, she notices the maid is still frozen in place.
The woman's eyes are completely fixed on the empty doorway, her cheeks flushing a bright pink as she twists the edge of her apron nervously.
Tessa suppresses a small smile, noticing the sudden, quiet change in the room's atmosphere.
The dramatic blow with the frying pan has certainly left an unexpected impression on her maid.
~