Don't You like Little Dogs? Now that I'm Taking Liberties, You're Suddenly Reluctant? - Chapter 10

The Fourth Squad’s vehicle drove back to headquarters in dead silence.

Crocodile was the last one to scramble into the car. The moment the door shut, Cheetah, whose face was livid, spun around and slammed a heavy fist into Crocodile’s face.

“Dammit.” Caught off guard, Crocodile was knocked flat onto the floor, his lip splitting instantly.

“Why the hell did you do that?” Cheetah’s low growl vibrated with suppressed rage. He grabbed Crocodile by the collar and hauled him halfway up.

Crocodile spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm. Instead of being afraid, he twisted his face into a distorted grin. “Why? Who in this squad can stand that little brat? Huh?”

He scanned the other members sitting nearby in silence. “Why does he get special treatment from Fourth Brother? He is just a kid whose hair has barely grown in. Was this not the perfect chance to get rid of him? If we all tell the same story—that he ignored orders and acted on his own—who would doubt us? Dead men tell no tales.”

“Do you have any idea that he was the one Fourth Brother specifically asked for?” Cheetah was practically roaring.

“I did it because I knew!”

Crocodile roared back, his eyes vicious. “It is precisely because Fourth Brother took an interest in him at such a young age, and because the brat actually has talent, that we cannot let him grow up. If he actually climbs to the top, will there be any room left for us?”

Cheetah snapped his head around to look at the other members. “And you? Is this what you all think?”

Several people instinctively avoided his gaze. One looked down at the floor, another silently wiped blood from a weapon. No one spoke up to contradict Crocodile.

A tacit, eerie, and ice-cold silence filled the air.

Cheetah looked at those numb, evasive faces, and his heart sank completely.

“Fuck,” he cursed loudly.

He finally realized what kind of jealous, short-sighted thugs he was leading.

Inside the high-level executive office, Jiang Si was checking the casino’s monthly records with the Lieutenant.

Suddenly, the office door was slammed open. A subordinate, pale and breathless, rushed in. “Fourth Brother. Lieutenant. The mission in the East District. It failed. The brothers suffered heavy casualties.”

Jiang Si and the Lieutenant both looked up, their expressions shifting instantly.

“Details,” Jiang Si’s voice was suddenly cold and hard.

The subordinate swallowed hard, his voice trembling. “We were ambushed. We lost several brothers. We barely broke through.”

Jiang Si’s brows knit together tightly. “Where is Cheetah? Where are the men from the Fourth Squad?”

“Cheetah and the others. Their car should be back soon.” The subordinate’s voice grew lower, laced with obvious fear. “But. But Pei Ye. He did not make it out.”

“Did not make it out?” Jiang Si repeated, as if he did not understand the meaning of the words.

The color drained from his face. He froze for a second, then stood up abruptly, his chair legs scraping harshly against the floor. “Where are the others?”

“Right downstairs.”

Jiang Si kicked the obstructing chair aside and strode out of the room. The air pressure around him was terrifyingly low. The Lieutenant, his face equally grim, followed immediately.

They reached the headquarters entrance just as the Fourth Squad’s vehicle came to a stop. The door opened and Cheetah was the first to step out, his face still marked with lingering anger and exhaustion.

Jiang Si charged forward and grabbed Cheetah by the collar, nearly lifting him off the ground. His voice was squeezed through his teeth, bone-chillingly cold. “Why did you leave him behind?”

He used the word “left,” not “lost” or “failed to keep up.”

Cheetah’s lips moved, but facing Jiang Si’s murderous gaze, he ultimately remained silent in shame.

At that moment, Crocodile jumped down from the car and spoke up first, his tone carrying deliberate grievance and indignation. “Fourth Brother. It was Pei Ye’s own fault. He ignored orders and acted on his own, that is why—”

“Ignored orders?” Jiang Si interrupted him sharply, as if he had just heard the most absurd joke in the world.

He threw Cheetah aside and crossed the distance to Crocodile in a few strides, delivering a brutal kick to his stomach.

“Ugh.” Crocodile let out a pained cry, curling into a ball on the ground as he clutched his stomach.

Jiang Si looked down at him, his eyes so dark they seemed to drip with malice. His voice was terrifyingly calm, carrying a sense of extreme danger. “Claiming my dog was disobedient. That is probably the most ridiculous joke I have ever heard in my life.”

He whipped out his gun. With a metallic click, he chambered a round and pressed the cold muzzle directly against Crocodile’s forehead. His gaze swept over every member of the Fourth Squad, including the struggling Cheetah.

“I will ask one last time,” his voice was not loud, but it made the hair on everyone’s neck stand up. “How exactly did he fail to come out?”

The threat of death and the unmasked, explosive killing intent radiating from Jiang Si completely crushed the last bit of defiance.

A young squad member could not handle the pressure and cried out. “It was Crocodile! Crocodile kicked him out! Right at the door! Just to save his own skin!”

“Yes. It was him.”

“We. We did not stop him.”

Others began to chime in, desperate to distance themselves from the act.

Listening to these words, the muscles in Jiang Si’s face twitched slightly.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, there was only a cold, tangible fury. He thought of that little mad dog who was terrified of everything yet only wagged his tail for him. He thought of the way the boy carefully hooked a finger around his own. He thought of those obsessive eyes when the boy said, “I will work hard.”

His possession, the dog he had not finished playing with and had not yet fully tamed, had been “discarded” so easily by this group of trash?

He withdrew the gun from Crocodile’s head. Without a glance at the slumped man on the ground, he gave a sharp command to the Lieutenant. His voice was as cold as iron. “Get the cars ready. Call the men. We are going to the East District.”

The Lieutenant did not hesitate for a second. “Understood.”

Everyone who heard those words, including the Fourth Squad members who had just escaped, was stunned.

Fourth Brother was going personally? For a child he picked up? To charge back into the dragon’s den that had nearly wiped them out?

“Dammit.”

Jiang Si had already turned toward the garage. His silhouette was resolute and freezing, every step carrying a violence that seemed ready to crush anything in its path.

To hell with this. He felt like killing someone right now.