Chapter 39
39 The Stakes Are Bloody
Someone nearby cursed under their breath, yelling at the guy to hurry up.
Yunice looked around and figured this was probably some kind of upscale gambling den.
Finished
They walked all the way to the back. Jordan pulled back a curtain and stepped through first. Just as Yunice was about to follow, someone suddenly tumbled out at her feet.
The man was curled up on the floor, screaming in pain, clutching his thumb–which was gone, and gushing blood
Yunice didn’t even flinch. She hated being hit, but blood and gore didn’t scare her.
She calmly stepped over the injured man and stood behind Wyatt alongside Jordan, careful to avoid standing dead center and drawing attention.
As her slight frame passed by, Wyatt–seated at the card table–glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. He twirled a domino between his fingers, then set it aside and leaned back, finally looking at the man bleeding on the floor.
Someone crouched down and yanked the guy’s hair to force his head up. “You knew the pill had side effects, and you still pushed Wyatt to sign off on it in bulk? How much did the Powell family pay you?”
Yunice’s fingers clenched . She instinctively glanced at Wyatt. Am I even supposed to be hearing this?
Wyatt didn’t say a word–just watched, entertained.
He couldn’t stand up, let alone beat anyone himself. Stuff like this, he never got directly involved in.
The guy on the ground sobbed and pleaded. “No, Wyatt, I swear–there’s no way I knew the Alphasirox pills had side effects
Before he could finish, there was a flash of metal. He let out another blood–curdling scream–he was no longer clutching just his thumb, but his entire hand.
Four fingers had been chopped clean off.
And it wasn’t over. The bald man with the knife grabbed the guy’s other hand, clearly ready to do the same.
The man broke down./”It was Jensen! Jensen gave me ten million!”
The bald man pressed a foot down on the guy’s one good hand, waiting for more.
The man’s face was ashen. He kept gasping, licking his lips between each word. “Jensen told me to cover up the side effects… Once the drug hit the market, Wyatt would be hit with massive lawsuits, Huaxin’s reputation would crash, and the old man would never acknowledge him as part of the Powell family…”
Yunice looked at Wyatt again. So he’s the old man’s illegitimate son–and Jensen’s biggest threat.
Jensen was pushing forty with a mediocre career, so of course he saw Wyatt as a thorn in his side.
And Wyatt–while sharp in business–was constantly backstabbed by his own people. He didn’t know medicine, so he had to trust whatever the department heads told him. That’s how he’d almost walked straight into a trap.
Once the guy had confessed, he was useless.
The bald man hauled him up by the jaw and dragged him out.
As the guy’s terrified gaze briefly met hers, Yunice quickly turned her back so he couldn’t see her face.
The moment he was gone, a cleaning crew came in to mop up the blood. No one batted an eve. They just went right back to
Finished
39 The Stakes Are Bloody
Yunice glanced at the dominoes on the table and shook her head.
He didn’t seem disappointed. Still lounging lazily, he gestured toward the table. “Help me draw.”
The young man across from him grinned. “Oh ho, Wyatt’s had rotten luck all morning–finally switching it up for some lucky hands, huh ? ”
“Women’s hands are always lucky, right? Watch, next round Wyatt’s gonna turn it around!”
Another guy pulled up a chair for Yunice right beside Wyatt .
She glanced at him. He was looking down at his phone, clearly not paying attention to the game.
When it was her turn to draw, she hesitated a moment, then picked two tiles and placed them face–down on the table..
The other three players used their fingertips to feel the dots on their tiles.
Yunice pecked again at Wyatt–he still wasn’t playing. So she quietly felt her way through her own tiles while reading the Jothers expressions.
The loudest one flipped a tile with a dramatic flair. “Nine! Who’s raising?”
Yunice was playing for Wyatt, so naturally she didn’t add anything.
After some joking and bickering, the other three all revealed their hands–nothing impressive.
Yunice glanced at them, then laid down her two tiles before anyone else could. The three men paused, caught off guard.
“Double nines… Not bad!” Two of them threw their own tiles in, then looked at the last
guy .
Seven–seven, eight–eight–not nine. If he had nines, he could’ve had triple bottom, double nines, or even a king pair–all stronger than Yunice’s hand.
But to everyone’s surprise, he sighed dramatically. “Ugh, busted, busted.” Then he pushed his tiles away.
“All that noise and you pulled junk.”
“Pay up, pay up! Congrats to our boy Wyatt–finally got a win!”