Adam crouched in front of the man shaking on the floor. Blood leaked from the cuts in his sides and soaked through his shirt. His breaths came out sharp and broken.
"If you think I won't know what you did to me," Adam said, voice steady, "then you're a bigger fool than I thought."
The man tried to speak, but only a thin sound escaped him. His hand reached out like he wanted mercy, but Adam didn't blink.
"I warned you," Adam said. "I told you from the start. You betray me once, and you lose the right to breathe in this city."
The man's fingers trembled. "Adam… please…"
Adam shook his head. "No. Don't call my name. Don't use my mouth to beg."
He didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to.
People said Adam was cruel, but cruelty wasn't something he put on for show. It was just a part of him, like his pulse. Ever since he formed the Red Bandits, everyone knew he wasn't the type to forgive. He wasn't the type to run from anything. Running, to him, was what rats did when the light came on.
He stood over the man. For a second, he watched him fight for breath like a fish dragged out of water.
"You should've kept your hands clean," Adam said. "But you chose money over loyalty. Why would you gamble with your life like that?"
The man coughed. Blood touched his lips.
Adam pulled out the blade again. The man's eyes widened, but he was too weak to move. Adam didn't stab him, not yet. He tapped the flat side of the blade against the man's cheek.
"You leaked my routes," he said. "You thought those cops caught me by luck? You thought I didn't see the pattern?"
The man's eyes filled with tears. "I… I didn't mean to—"
"You meant it," Adam said. "Don't insult me."
He pressed the blade to the man's neck. The shaking stopped. The man froze like his body understood that one wrong move would be his last.
"You know something funny?" Adam said with a small smile. "Everyone in this city talks about how the police can't catch me. How the army can't stop me. How the EFCC keeps losing their boys every time they try something. They think I disappear into thin air or I do jazz or something stupid."
He leaned closer.
"But the truth is simple. I'm alive because I think faster than everybody else. And you? You thought you could outsmart me."
He tapped the blade again.
"That's the funniest joke I've heard all week."
The man cried. The tears mixed with the blood running down his face.
Adam sighed.
"You're not the first traitor I've dealt with, but you're definitely the dumbest."
He stood up straight. "Tell me who paid you. Say it now."
The man shook his head. "If I talk… they'll kill my family."
Adam chuckled. "What do you think I'm about to do to you?"
The man swallowed hard.
"I can still protect them," Adam said. "Even after this. But if you lie…" He pressed the blade harder until the man winced. "I'll wipe your name from this city. Nobody will even remember you lived here."
The man broke. His voice cracked.
"It was Lionhead," he whispered. "He offered me ten million. He said you wouldn't find out."
Adam paused. He didn't move. He just looked at the man.
"Lionhead," he repeated softly. "That clown."
The man nodded weakly.
Adam smiled, but it wasn't a pleasant smile. It was the kind that made people shift back a little.
"So he thinks he can touch me now," Adam said. "Interesting."
The man reached for him again. "Adam… help me. Please…"
Adam knelt beside him. "You should've asked for help before you opened your mouth to the wrong person."
He placed a hand on the man's chest.
"Close your eyes."
The man obeyed out of fear, not trust. Adam raised the blade. He didn't hesitate. One smooth move and everything went silent again.
Adam wiped his hands clean on the man's shirt. He looked down at the body like he was looking at a broken tool.
He stood up.
He didn't look back.
_______
Adam stepped outside, wiping blood from his hands. His mind was still replaying the moment the traitor confessed. Lionhead's name kept circling in his head like a fly he wanted to crush with his bare fingers.
He didn't get far before he saw her.
Rebecca.
Rebecca Similoluwa Aloa.
The only girl in the whole city who ever told Adam "no" to his face and walked away like it meant nothing.
She stood there adjusting her glasses, her long hair falling over one shoulder, looking like she had no interest in being anywhere near him but still refusing to leave. She was the type of girl who didn't smile unless she wanted something, and she rarely wanted anything.
Adam stopped a short distance from her.
"You came," he said.
She didn't look surprised. "You called."
Adam smirked. "We're going to get Lionhead tonight."
Rebecca blinked slowly. "Good."
"You can finally kill that bastard," Adam added, voice low. "Then after he drops, we can have that date you keep dodging."
She stared at him for a moment. "When he is dead, then we can talk about it."
"That's what I said."
She didn't react. She just turned and walked off like she had better things to do than listen to him.
Adam shook his head. "Women. I swear, I can never understand them."
He reached for his phone and dialed. "Get everyone ready. Tonight, we end Lionhead."
He hung up and looked in the direction Rebecca went.
He knew her story. Everyone in the gang knew. Nobody talked about it, but they all knew.
Three years ago, her family was alive. Her father had a mechanic shop, and her mother ran a small business. She had two younger brothers who followed her everywhere.
Then Lionhead came into the picture.
He needed money. Fast. He needed a clean place to move weapons. He needed someone quiet to blame if anything went wrong. He picked her father because he worked hard, kept to himself, and didn't know how to say no to the wrong people.
Rebecca had been 17 at the time.
Lionhead used the shop for one job. When things went bad and bullets started flying everywhere, he didn't take the fall. He blamed her father. He called him a "traitor" and accused him of stealing his money.
That same night, Lionhead's boys went to their house.
Rebecca survived only because she climbed out through the back when she heard her mother screaming. She hid behind a drum while they shot her father. She watched her little brothers run into the room, only to fall seconds later.
She didn't cry that night. Not a sound. She only grabbed her mother's phone and ran. She ran barefoot until she fainted on the road.
The next morning, she woke up in the back of an abandoned building.
Adam found her there.
She didn't trust him at first, but she didn't push him away either. She didn't talk much those days. She only said one thing the first time she woke up:
"I want Lionhead dead."
Adam didn't say no.
He fed her. Trained her. Gave her space. And when she was strong enough, he let her follow him into the Red Bandits.
Everyone else feared Adam.
Rebecca didn't fear anyone.
She lived with one thing in her chest: revenge. It was all she breathed, all she ate, all she dreamed about. Even Adam knew he would never be number one in her heart, not until Lionhead was gone.
That was fine. Adam liked things that were hard to get.
---
Rebecca walked into the small room she used for her weapons. She didn't own much, but she kept the things she needed sharp and clean. A few knives. A small gun Adam gave her on her eighteenth birthday. A chain she used sometimes when she didn't feel like shooting.
She picked the chain first and wrapped it around her arm.
"Tonight," she whispered to herself.