1 CHAPTER 1

The taxi driver turned off his engine as we halted at a place. It is where my client lives and he wanted to close the deal inside their mansion. As I close the door of the car, I wear off the black sunglasses and slid it into my tuxedo pocket.  I spotted my bodyguard two meters away from me. He was wearing a black tuxedo with an earpiece. I gave Justin a sign that he should keep his distance. He nodded twice and leave behind the darkness.

It was Sunday night and I need to close this deal with my client. Hence, he will keep on sabotaging my plans. Kai Wei Long, well-known as Mr. K, one of the business tycoons in Underworld, wants to be my business partner for a project. However, I knew him too well and his ulterior motives. I knew he was just doing this to kick me out in the Underworld. Pathetic old Chinese man. He thinks he could manage to do that. It's not that easy to bring me down as I am the top-grossing mafia in the Underworld. I have wide connections, not just in China, but in other places too. 

Heels clicking on the floor, I went inside the high-end bar. It may look small from the outside but the area is very large when you come in. The baritone voice of Zayn Malik and Sia surround the atmosphere as I went to a red door.

The two men in black open the door for me and I fix my tie before stepping into another room. The light illuminates my face when I saw the whole place. The sound of music played by the DJ irritates my ears, adding the beat irritates me more.

I hate that music! Turn that fucking off now! A man like me will never be surrounded by these kinds of people partying their life every day. I want peace. I don't like smokes and effects inside the bar. In short, coming to this place is such torture for me. But I have to come to him, personally, without any guard to tell him, right in front of his fucking face, that I am not interested in the deal. I even bring him a small gift.

Inside of this steel briefcase is a box of condoms for that old and perverted Chinese bastard. Watching those prostitute below the deck makes me sick. What the fuck are they doing? Selling their soul and body for money? If that's their reason, they can come to me and I would gladly slap them a dozen dollars if that's what it takes to get a hold of their hungry pussies. 

Even if I'm a man, it will never occur to me to visit this kind of shitty place. This will be my last time entering here, and I swear to God I will shave my beard if I'll visit once again. Not over gonna happen, sweetie.

"Hey," a slutty bitch whispered beside me and softly touch my arms. Oh, another slutty ant. I halted for a moment and remove her arms that clung to mine.

"I'm gay," I said as an excuse.

She looks shocked but a grin was plastered on her face. "That's alright. I can still make you cum." The use of word boils my blood.

"Excuse me," I said in a voice of finality and fasten my pace. But that bitch keeps on irritating me. "Hey, wanna hang out?" she said again in a most slutty way.

I stop walking and glared at her. "Do you want to die instead?"

"Die in laceration? Sure." She bit her lips. It looks like she's seducing me but it's the opposite, the more I provoke her, the more she wanted to have sex with me tonight, because that's what prostitute do, right? In return, you will give them money.

"Do you want money?" I asked her, eyeing her cleavage in front of me. She noticed that. "No, I want you," she said, laughing.

"I can't give myself to you. How about this one?" I pulled her waist towards me and kiss her just like what she wants. She responds aggressively and let out a long moan. It's just a kiss but she's already wetting. I can sense it in the middle of her thighs.

I stop for a moment. "It's not that one, my bad." She looks confused at the same time drowned in my kisses. "I meant this," I whispered and showed to her the gun slipping on my jeans.

She pushed my chest and looks scared. "Son of a bitch," she whispered and went back to her business.

Before she finally left my sight, a familiar scent of a person grabs her. I didn't saw who was it, but I know for sure it's the familiar scent of a person I know from afar.

No. It can't be. She's not the type of person who's like that slut I met a while ago. I shook off the thought and focus on my goals this night.

A  shiny black door appeared in front of my sight and another man in black open it for me. The two of them slightly bowed to me so I did. You can't hear the irritating blast of music in this place as this is the room where my client is waiting.

When I went inside, the walls were painted white and the couch in the middle was also colored white. You could see the lights of the city beside the pair of a couch because of the transparent wall built in the two corners of the room.

"Mr. Tinerv! It's nice to meet you!" the old man in the white cap said in a Chinese accent. It looks like he is Mr. K. We shook our hands and he offered me a seat. He also sits adjacent to me and gave his bodyguards a hand gesture. They went outside, leaving only the two of us in the room.

I put the briefcase on the glass table.

"How are you, Mandemus?" he asked on a first name basis. Since when did we agree to call each other on a first-name basis? I haven't met this old man before, not until now, but he sure is aiming to give me a good impression. Not bad.

"Let's close the deal. I want my assets back and you need to – " Fuck. I stop in the middle of our conversation when I smelled the familiar scent of a woman again.

A pair of high-heels clicking on the marble floor was heard inside the room. In the big staircase adjacent to the couch we were seated, a woman wearing lingerie inside her white robe appears in front of my sight. I was dumbfounded to think that her face looks so familiar to me. I just couldn't take a guess where I saw it and who it was.

"Mexica…" the old man whispered and maliciously eye the woman who has now a name. Mexica? Where did I hear that name? It's like I was used to calling her that.

"Her name is Mexica. She is one of my women. You like her, huh?" Mr. K  said to me proudly. But I didn't break my eyes off towards the woman named Mexica.

We locked our eyes.

She looks intimidating, maybe because of her brown eyeshadows and strong jawline. She doesn't seem the type of woman to be in this place. Precisely, she doesn't fit in this room, in this kind of environment. Her eyes look cold and soulless, she doesn't seem to be the type of a talkative person, just like the slutty bitch who happened to be interested in me. She looks merciless but at the same time fragile when you look at her eyes, deeply.

How could a woman like her who sells their body and soul just for money affect me so much? Who the fuck is this woman?

"Yeah, I like her," I answered to Mr. K when Mexica went to the veranda to get some fresh air. It's cold outside. Why did she go out? And wearing that fucking lingerie, huh? Is she out of her mind?

"I can give her to you," said Mr. K again which irritates me.

"Give?"

"Yes. If you can close our deal tonight and give me good results. Just take it as my gift."

I didn't respond. Wait, why am I anticipating? I should've directly told him my decision about our deal! And that is fucking no! I will never agree with those dirty hands!

Mr. K suddenly barks laughter and stand up. "I will leave the two of you in a minute. Then think about my offer, Mandemus," he winked at me and I knew what he meant. He expects Mexica to fuck me just to close our deals. It's cheap and it's not my type in negotiating business deals. Is this one of his dirty tactics to close the deals of some businessmen?

Before I stop him, he already went outside and lock the room, leaving the two of us, Mexica, inside the room. Mexica went inside the room and closes the door on the veranda.

She asked me. "When will you go out?"

"Why would I go out?"

"That old bastard went out, weren't you supposed to follow him?"

Woah. Old bastard. She also addresses her master in that way, huh. "Do you often call him that?"

"Who are you to dictate what I say?"

"Aren't you a sex slave of your master?"

She seemed hurt. Why? What's wrong with what I said? It's the truth. If not, then why is she here?

"You don't know me," she answered, finally.

"You seem familiar to me. Have we met before?"

"I told you, you don't know me." She look away when she said that. Something's fishy.

"I think I've seen you somewhere," I stated and stand up. When she was about to run away from me towards the big staircase, I grab her arms. "Tell me, you know who I am, right?"

She looks cold and fragile. "I don't know you," said in a harsh voice and with finality. 

"Your eyes contradict," I said.

"Remove your hands, Mandemus!" she said, aggressively.

I was shocked because she knew my name. We didn't introduce our names. "You know my name…" I whispered.

"I… I just heard it from my master."

"And now you're calling him your master?" She was about to run away again from me, but I grip her arms. "Who are you?" I asked her in a baritone voice.

"Didn't you hear my name? I'm Mexica! Stay away from me!"

"Do you know what your master told me?"

"I don't fucking care!"

"You are supposed to do your best to make me feel better."

"Why should I do that?!"

"You know what I mean."

"I don't! And stay away from me!"

"I'll count one to three."

"I told you! I don't fucking care!"

"Three," I said and pulled her in my chest. I stroke her hair to calm her down. I hug her and we stay in that position in a minute. We didn't talk. I just continue to stroke her hair until her shaking subsided. She must be very, very, petrified of me. Maybe she expects me to be one of those men like Mr. K who will do such things to a woman like her. But I'm not that kind of person.

"Aren't you going to force me to kiss you?" she asked in between sobs. She is now crying like a baby in my arms.

"No," I answered.

"I thought you changed. Your body is telling me so."

Inside my head, I smiled. She knew who I am from the very beginning.

"Who are you?" I asked her.

She started to loosen up herself and tell me her story. "I didn't want to be here in the first place. My family moved to China a few years ago to sell me in ginseng house and I ended up here. They went back after getting the money." She looked up to me. There was raging anger in her eyes.

"I'm Valkyrie, your childhood friend. Do you remember me, Mandemus?"