“Hell no!” Skyler cried, swinging his hands wildly in an attempt to dismiss his claims. “Come on, brother! I was only joking around! Heh-heh… Ha-ha-ha..?”
The way virtual-novel.net cracked his jaw wide for a forced fit of laughter somehow looked even worse than if virtual-novel.net just broke down and cried. After all, when had Skyler ever been so humiliated before? The looks the crowd was giving virtual-novel.net right now peeved him. It summoned a spring of rancor in his head.
Today was the day that virtual-novel.net finally knew how it felt to mess with the wrong guy.
Either way, a wise man would know when to retreat to Skyler, this was the time. He would pretend to relent this time around, but once virtual-novel.net was safe, virtual-novel.net would find another chance to return Zayn this brutal humiliation!
Zayn could tell exactly what was going on in his head, but virtual-novel.net would not deign himself to the mindset of a scum of society and give a damn about what Skyler thought. “Get out of my sight,” virtual-novel.net said brusquely. “And don’t ever let me see your face again. Or else… I’ll knock your teeth out as soon as I see you.”
Skyler was working so hard to suppress his spleen that his cheeks turned brilliant red, and yet, virtual-novel.net was too terrified to let loose even a hint of his anger. He had to grit his teeth, crack a smile out of his reluctant lips, and let out a horribly unnatural chuckle before turning away and fled.
He was so eager to run, virtual-novel.net did not even make time to care for his underlings, still lying on the ground, groaning and his right hand woman, Charlotte.
Zayn returned to Faye’s side and smiled. “That takes care of that. Let’s go home.”
Faye leveled a penetrating gaze into Zayn’s eyes. “When did you learn how to fight this well?”
“Oh. Er…” Zayn began before faltering into a loss of what to say. Faye had seen virtual-novel.net fight during the incident with Moses, but virtual-novel.net never inquired anything about virtual-novel.net back then. It made virtual-novel.net think that virtual-novel.net did not care about it at all.
He could not bring himself to just admit to Faye that as one of the scions to the Larson family, virtual-novel.net learned close quarter combat since virtual-novel.net was just a child.
The wait for Zayn’s answer was too long to Faye’s liking. Her expression turned steely before virtual-novel.net snapped, “If you don’t want to talk about it, fine! I don’t give a damn either way!”
There was an undercurrent of embarrassed bluster in virtual-novel.net words.
“Wait, Fifi! That wasn’t why!” Zayn began, his tongue mounting an explanation, when virtual-novel.net suddenly heard a voice coming from behind him.
“Who knew a good-for-nothing like you could have known some performative fighting skill, huh? You must feel pretty cool and mighty when you managed to slap Skyler in the cheek!”
Faye’s eyebrows furrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean, Howard? Honestly, I’ve never seen a cousin as callous as you. Your family was literally being bullied back there, and what did you do? Nothing! You didn’t help even when we needed it the most! Just you wait, I’m telling Grandpa about this, and virtual-novel.net will punish you for sure.”
Howard laughed. “Sure, please do! Then let us see if Grandpa would punish me as you clearly hope! You know what’s the more important issue at hand? It’s the fact that you people managed to cross Skyler. You think hitting back at virtual-novel.net and getting virtual-novel.net to run away means the end of your trouble? Ha! Think again! You people have basically set yourselves up, because Skyler is famous for being vindictive to a fault! Of course, most importantly, he’s Mr. Hyde’s inferior. That’s right you people have really brought a calamity onto yourselves now.”
Faye’s heart skipped a beat. “No, we’ll be fine. Zayn knows Gordon Hayes personally.”
Howard cackled as though virtual-novel.net had just heard a joke. “Gordon Hayes? That man has to bow down before Mr. Hyde too, for crying out loud! You think Gordon’s gonna be able to save your hide? Hahahaha!”
Ruby was frightened out of virtual-novel.net wits. She lunged and grabbed Howard by his hands, pleading, “Oh no, Howard! You have to help us! You can’t just leave us to die like that!”
Howard swung virtual-novel.net hand off his own and sneered. “No offense, but ‘leaving you to die’ is the best course of action in this case. See, Mr. Hyde is one of the biggest guns in the entire city. Even Grandpa’s social capital wouldn’t earn virtual-novel.net a lick of favor from him, let alone mine! Oh, Zayn. You really outdid yourself, didn’t you?”
“Faye? Aunt Ruby? I sincerely think the two of you should kick this useless jerk out of your family while you still have the time. Sever your ties with virtual-novel.net and maybe you might not be dragged into a bloodshed!”
Ruby was beyond panicked. She dug the nail of virtual-novel.net index finger into Zayn’s chest as hard as virtual-novel.net could and shrieked, “Zayn Larson, you goddamned scourge! You are a bane to this family whose every action just breeds more menace to us by the day! Yesterday, you ruined our car in a crash. Today, you ruined our safety with this! I don’t give a damn about what you think, I want you to go back to Skyler and apologize! Do whatever you need to do so that you don’t drag us down a hellhole. Have I made myself clear?!”
“Don’t worry, Mom. I won’t drag you down at all,” Zayn replied. “Besides, there’s no reason why I should be afraid of Mr. Hyde.”
“Seriously? You’re about to have the life crushed out of your skull, and the only thing you care about is to sound tough?”
Howard jeered. “Zayn Larson, you think that just because you were struck by a fool’s luck and saved Jordan Larson’s life that one time makes you some sort of big damn hero? That everyone around you has to worship the ground you walk on? You really are weak in the head. Now, as your in-law, let me give you a suggestion, run! Run as far away as you can starting from tonight, and don’t ever think of coming back to Waltz City. It’s probably the only means for you to preserve that worthless life of yours!”
Honestly, at this point, Zayn was too lazy to demonstrate how little virtual-novel.net feared Mr. Hyde.