Take My Breath Away

"I like the way you think." A cigarette hanging out of his mouth, Sheffield sent his wife a message asking her to go to bed early.

There was a moment of silence in the smoking area. Matthew didn't wait for the man who was furiously tapping away at his phone to acknowledge him. "So, after this, go ahead and assume command of the Violet Eagles. When you have time, of course."

Sheffield looked up from his phone, and stared at Matthew. It was a look that said, 'Seriously?' "Now I know you're a masochist. Erica won't be happy." Matthew knew quite well what he was doing. He was muscling in on Erica and Chantel's territory. But he only focused on what he wanted.

"She has me. What does she need a goon squad for? No, I'll be the person she goes to when she needs help." The longer Erica wielded the power of the Violet Eagles, the more dangerous she'd become.

Sheffield put his phone away, and started stroking his chin thoughtfully. "But your wife is using your name to gather power. The branch of the Violet Eagles in our city alone has more than one thousand members. It's a challenge to keep them all in line."

Not to mention the number of people in K Country involved with them. Membership there dwarfed their numbers in Y City. It required a generous amount of funds to maintain an international cartel of that size.

'Matthew knows how to pile on the workload, ' Sheffield sighed.

"If the Violet Eagles were formed using my name, then you can use your name to take over, right?" Sheffield was well-known in gangland. And these guys weren't even all that violent, mostly preferring to run ATM cloning schemes, protection rackets, etc. Should be easy for him to get a piece of the action, and leverage that into control.

Joshua knew what Sheffield was talking about. With a smile, he quietly looked at the two big shots who were jockeying for advantage. Matthew was no dummy, and neither was Sheffield. It was just that neither of them wanted to handle this.

But Sheffield lost it first. He always did. Erica might be able to get Matthew's goat quite easily, but he was better at dealing with Sheffield.

This time was no exception. Sheffield snorted at Matthew, "Don't play dumb. You know that's a damn lot of cash! And I can't get it easily, thanks to your dear sister. She's starting to clamp down on the money we have. I want to see some moolah first before I take this on! You hear me?"

Matthew was unconvinced. He had a wife too. "What a coincidence! My wife's the same way. Only I'm more miserable than you. Rika not only has control of the family checkbook, but has her hands in the company's financial affairs."

'What's Sheffield playing at? It's not like they're an unruly bunch. They're a well-oiled machine. Why would he need any money at all? Even if he did need cash, Sheffield could afford it. It's just a few mil, ' Matthew thought. 'He doesn't deserve to be my brother-in-law if he can't afford that.'

Joshua put out his cigarette and kept smiling. He watched the two top figures in the city exchange their tales of woe, trying to outdo each other. This was like watching a chess game between two masters. And Joshua was nowhere near as influential as these guys. He knew better than to interfere.

"Wow! Matthew, you're one of the richest men in the world. Why are you such a penny-pincher?" Sheffield wondered where Matthew got it from. 'My mother-in-law's not like that, so maybe it was... Aww, forget it.'

Sheffield was also one of the richest men in the world. Matthew didn't want to put up with his crap any longer. He got straight to the point. "Noreen hasn't told us any useful information yet. Michel Wang is no fool, though. He has to know she has been captured by my men. Still, it wasn't like it was a small thing. It attracted a lot of unwanted attention. I don't think he'll try anything dumb, though. But we can look into it."

Sheffield nodded and said seriously, "But we can't focus on her right now. Our real concern is Michel. Luckily, most criminals are dumb, so Michel will slip up and leave some evidence behind. He'll give himself away eventually. Don't worry. I consider it my civic duty to put people like him behind bars."

Joshua laughed and mocked him, "People like him? You're not so innocent yourself." If it was a civic duty to put bad guys in prison, then wouldn't Joshua have to do the same to Sheffield?

Sheffield chuckled and gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. "Get real, dude. This is serious!"

Joshua stopped laughing, lost his smile, and let them continue talking. "Please, go on."

Matthew told Sheffield his plan, and they finally reached an agreement. The three men returned to the wards as soon as the smell of tobacco on them faded.

Sheffield and Joshua looked after Damian. Sheffield had wanted to go to Erica's ward and tease her a bit, but Matthew kicked him out. So, he had to hang out with Joshua in the boy's ward.

At 2 A.M., Matthew caught a quick shower. He'd already set everything up, so he thought it might be a good time to rest. He gently moved Erica over, slipped into bed himself, and decided to catch some zzzs.

However, less than half an hour after he closed his eyes, the sleeping woman slowly opened hers.

In the darkness, she sat up in bed. "Ouch!" Because of her sudden movement, it aggravated her injury.

Matthew sat up too and looked nervously at the woman. Her face was contorted in pain. "Rika, what's wrong? You hurt yourself, didn't you?"

When the pain gradually subsided, she shouted, "I'm fine! I'm going to take revenge! Matthew, I'm going to kill Michel Wang!"

Erica had slept for a long time and had been dreaming.

There were quite a few people in her dream, including Michel. He had wrapped a rope around Boswell's neck and told her, "Back off, or I'll kill your kids!"

Then the scene panned over to show all of her kids tied up, and Erica awoke, enraged.

She was panting in anger, her heart beating a mile a minute. Matthew comforted her. "Rika, it's too late now. You're hurt, so you couldn't even if you really wanted to. Just get some rest and focus on getting better, okay?"

She suddenly looked back at the man beside her, confused. "Matthew?"

"Yeah. It's me." He wanted nothing more than to hold her, but he simply helped her lie back down on the bed. Her ribs were broken, so hugging her would be bad.

After crying for a while, Erica finally calmed down, shook off the anger and fear.

She looked at the man lying next to her pitifully. "Matthew, I didn't see you when I opened my eyes today. I thought you left me!"

Her distressed look made his heart ache. He lowered his head and kissed her on the lips. Touching her face gently, he said, "That'll never happen, honey. That's not me."

Erica was his life. There was no way he'd abandon her.

"My back hurts. And it itches. Think it'll leave a scar?" When she reclined on the bed, she needed to lie on her side.

"Don't worry. I got this. Sheffield is working hard preparing some traditional herbs for you. Trust in his skill." He'd love her, scar or no. It didn't matter to him. But if she was really broken up about it, he'd take her to get plastic surgery. They could cover up a scar like that, no problem.

She nodded. "Where are the kids? Are they okay?"

She drifted in and out of consciousness. When she woke up this afternoon, Debbie told her the kids were fine. She was hoping to get them on video chat, but she fell asleep before that could happen.

"Of course they are. They came to see you when you were asleep." Matthew wasn't about to tell her about Damian. He was in the ward opposite hers. He was afraid she'd spend her time worrying about him and not be able to get a decent night's sleep. She needed to heal.

"Ahh. They're so sweet!"

She believed him implicitly, and Matthew felt relieved. That was one less thing to worry about. "Yeah, they are. It's late. You need your rest. We'll talk about it tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay!" And he was right. Erica was sleepy. She put her arm around Matthew's waist and closed her eyes.