Haze was thrusted into the waking world by a floor greeting his face. Grunting at the hurtful treatment, he found his hands were tied behind his back, and his mouth was taped shut.“Boss, I’m here with the fish,” someone said, nudging him with a foot as if he were a stray dog.Squinting his eyes from the light overhead, Haze tried to see who his assailant was. Familiarity stared back at him, he knew who the man who abducted him was.It was Paul Palouci, the arsonist who sold a doomsday bunker to him.“What are you looking at, fish?” Palouci said, then grabbing his hair and pulling him to look at a corner – where a man smoking cig locked eyes with him. “Say hi to the boss.”Haze merely glared. Palouci was the one who taped his mouth shut, now he was just mocking him.Unlike Palouci who looked like a coward in Haze’s opinion, the man smoking cig in front of him was short in stature, but he

Refusing to go to the hospital was a bad idea.It certainly was an idiotic choice, but when has Haze ever made a decent decision in his life?Almost never, he’d say.“Hang in there,” Elaine said with worry in her voice, something Haze marvelled at because she wasn’t one to worry about his life.However, looking back at it, she might see him as Cassius now, considering how much she knew about him already. Nonetheless, it was not helping. A nice shot of morphine would do, but Haze tried to get his mind away from that particular thought.Driving at top speed, Elaine stopped the car to a halt in the hill house’s front yard. “We have to get you inside,” she told him.Thankfully, Haze was still conscious. He was trying his damn best not to succumb to the lulling sleep, he was very tempted to do so.A jerk to his arm woke him.“Come on, only a little walk.”A little walk, sh

It had been two weeks since Maxine went abroad to continue with her school.Haze accompanied her to the airport and waited until her plane boarded. Despite her obvious dislike to him, particularly when he bid her farewell with a ruffle to her short hair, his love at the idea that she was his younger sister grew.After that, Haze had enough time to process everything that happened. Elaine’s betrayal and Leonard’s abuse, he thought really hard about it. Especially the latter.He found that seeing the brunette’s face no longer set an anger in his chest. Along time, he learned that Elaine only did that because she cared about Cassius. She served him for years, of course, when her respected master was dead seemingly out of a sudden, she’d do everything to uncover it.Including playing around with Haze’s mind.Furthermore, Elaine came to his side when he needed help the most. He didn’t know what he’d become if she didn’t appear to take down his captors. He’d probably ended up dead or still

"Wear it," she threw protective body gears, consisting of a padded vest to guard his stomach and chest and a padded helmet for his head. "As much as I want to, I can't just punch you and risk injury. What would Mr. Blackwood say if he found you in the hospital, losing your memory." "Yeah, I imagine it'd be a nightmare for you." After he donned the protective gear, Haze clapped his hands and faced her. "Okay, I'm ready." Elaine cracked her fingers, completing the warm-up from before. She set a timer on her phone for three minutes, and they started. Haze moved with calculated precision, evading each of the brunette's attacks with amateur grace and agility. She wasn't the only one warming up earlier, and the hours he spent gasping for breath during the morning jog somehow made him quite fast to react. But, it was barely enough. Despite their height difference, Elaine was a seasoned warrior who could unleash a barrage of strikes, her movement swift and relentless. Her strike came from

Once they arrived at the hospital, Haze already donned a disguise. It was nothing special, but Elaine turned out to be very capable with a set of make up in her hands. She managed to make him appear different with a blond bleached hair and eyeshadows. The makeup also served a purpose to hide the proof of Maxine’s physical attack.All in all, dressed in a black tee, ripped jeans, and combat boots made Haze look like a rocker losing his way in the hospital. Not one or two, but almost everyone they passed in the lobby stared at him.Haze tried to hide his uneasiness. “Okay, you know what? I think this only makes me stand out more.”“That’s the goal,” Elaine said beside him as they walked to Dr. James Frank’s office, “The more people think you look strange, the more they will not recognize you as Cassius Blackwood.”“Whatever.”Once they reached Dr. Frank’s office, they didn’