Dominance Evolution System: Sweat, Sex, and Streetball

The atmosphere in the parking lot changed in a sharp second. Nash frowned, and his body went completely still. Victoria also stopped breathing. Her eyes got very wide.

The worst part was that Saya was completely stupid. She didn’t realize at all that the ice under her feet was extremely thin. She was digging herself deeper into trouble while Victoria was standing right next to her.

With her dirty, shaking hand, Saya pushed her greasy hair behind her ear. She was trying to act like she was in control of the situation, like she was making a deal with them.

She swallowed and kept talking with her broken voice.

"I know exactly who the rats are in the Blacklist team," she said, breathing too fast, completely nervous. "You would never guess. They are people who work right next to you. And I know because I helped them. Yes, me. I was with them. I guided them, and they really put you in deep shit, didn’t they? But now... it’s unfair. I’m the one who’s going to die in the street while those rats stay quiet with no problems at all. It’s not fair for you either, right, Nash? That the guys... or the girls who destroyed your plan pay nothing. I’ll give you all the names, I’ll tell you everything... but you give me a roof tonight."

She looked at Nash with her big red eyes that were shaking with desperation.

"I’m not asking for much, Nash," she whispered, still holding her stomach. "Just a roof... Even a fucking dog kennel would be fine. Just save me from the street."

There was a huge silence in the parking lot. It was very heavy. Sarra and Lina didn’t understand anything anymore. They looked at Nash, then at Saya, completely lost. Nash was in shock. His mouth was open. In his head, he started connecting the points. One plus one equals two. The leak came from Blacklist. A shadow that was walking right next to him. Suddenly he understood the whole plan and it hit him hard.

But of course, how had he been so stupid? The mole, or rather the moles, were around them the whole time, spying. And the worst part was that this idiot had been smart enough to add the girls so no one would suspect.

It could be anyone, not just the guy who was supposed to play the role of the buyer.

He was surprised and almost angry that he had been played like an idiot. He lifted his head, his face tight, but when a shadow passed next to him, he immediately understood that the ice under Saya’s feet had just cracked.

"Shit... wait..."

But it was already too late.

Victoria charged at Saya like a monster jumping on its prey. Her hand moved extremely fast. She grabbed Saya violently by the collar of her dirty, greasy jacket and lifted her up in one hard pull, taking her feet off the ground.

Their faces almost touched. Victoria was terrifying. Her eyes were burning with hate. Saya panicked right away. She started shaking like a leaf and tried to push Victoria’s hands away.

"Wait! Wait! I swear I know! I’ll talk, but please... just a roof!"

"The only roof you will see is the slab of your grave," Victoria hissed right into her face.

Her voice was so cold it sent chills down the spine. Saya’s eyes were wide with pure terror. She had never seen anyone this scary.

"No rat that went after me has ever stayed standing to tell the story," Victoria continued, shaking her like a rag doll. "Did you just admit that you took part in this shit? You made me lose the Midnight Rest?? My employees??? And you think you can negotiate with me????"

"No! No, not really!" Saya stuttered, screaming in panic, choked by the collar of her jacket. "It wasn’t me! It wasn’t my idea! I just... they came to me! I only suggested..."

Victoria shook her even harder, her fingers digging into the fabric at Saya’s neck.

"Shut your fucking mouth! You’ve talked enough, you piece of shit! You said you had a problem with the parasite in your belly, right? Perfect. I’ll be happy to kill two birds with one stone and dry that thing out at the same time as the corpse carrying it! How much rodenticide does a rat as light as you need to swallow before she starts pissing blood, huh?!"

That was the moment Saya understood that by trying so hard to escape death, she had opened the door wide for it. She completely broke into tears, her feet barely touching the concrete ground. The girl who had earlier treated Victoria as "just a person" wasn’t acting tough at all anymore. She just looked like a miserable piece of human trash begging for her life.

"I’ll tell everything! I swear! I want to be good, I’ll cooperate! Help me, please!" she cried, her voice completely broken.

"I don’t need to negotiate with a dead rat to make her tongue move!" Victoria screamed right in her face. "You think you have a choice? You want to negotiate? Then don’t say anything! Don’t say a single word, I beg you! I’ll tear your skin off centimeter by centimeter, and we’ll see if you don’t write the answers with your own blood!"

Saya started crying hard, her body completely soft, destroyed by fear. Behind them, Lina and Sarra were shaking with their whole bodies, pressed tightly against each other.

It was the very first time they were seeing Victoria’s real face. She wasn’t just a strict businesswoman. She was a monster with no mercy.

"I was right about her... She’s so terrifying..." Lina whispered, her voice trembling.

Suddenly, a large hand landed on Victoria’s shoulder. Victoria turned around, her eyes full of rage, and saw Nash. He just looked into her furious eyes and gently shook his head to tell her to stop.

Victoria was shaking with frustration. She stared at Nash for three seconds that felt like hours, then let out a big angry sigh and released Saya.

Saya collapsed on the ground like an old sack of potatoes, coughing and trying to catch her breath while holding her throat. She looked so miserable on the floor.

Nash immediately stepped forward.

"Calm down, Saya. We’re going to listen to you. And we’re going to give you a roof."

He crouched right in front of her, on the ground, so he was at her level.

"Look at me," he said.

Saya tried to stop sniffing and crying. She lifted her pale, dirty face to look him in the eyes.

"We’re going to listen to everything you have to say," Nash told her. "But you need to understand one thing clearly right now. From today, your future depends only on your cooperation. You already said too much, so understand this: from now on, your life is in our hands. You cannot lie to us, and if you dare... you understand?"

Saya let out a big sob and nodded very fast, her tears washing the dust off her cheeks.

"Yes... yes!... thank you... thank you, Nash... I’ll tell everything, I swear..."

Victoria turned her back on her and walked toward the Porsche with heavy, angry steps. But just before opening the door, she stopped. She turned her head and locked her killer stare directly into Saya’s eyes.

"Don’t imagine for a single second that you’re out of danger," Victoria said. "You will pay for every second of my time that you wasted tonight. You will pay for every bit of stress you put into my organization. I promised you death, and you will die one way or another. I will take care of it personally."

Saya stayed frozen on the ground, completely paralyzed by terror. She had spent her life with scumbags, bad boys, and violent men from the Underground, but looking at Victoria, she understood.

This rich woman in a suit was a thousand times more dangerous and heartless than any brute from the streets.

The car ride happened in a heavy silence. Nash held the wheel of his Porsche without saying a word, his eyes fixed on the dark road of the Underground. Next to him, Victoria was typing furiously on her phone.

Her fingers hit the screen with so much force it looked like she wanted to break it. In the back, Sarra and Lina sat pressed tightly against each other, shrunken into their seats. They kept throwing terrified glances toward the front, their hearts beating very fast. They were still in shock from the cold violence Victoria had shown in the parking lot.

As for Saya, she had curled up against the back door, trying to make herself as small as possible. She was trembling in silence, not even daring to breathe too hard so she wouldn’t dirty the perfect leather seats with her clothes full of dust and dried grease.

Nash parked the car a first time to drop Sarra and Lina in front of their building. He gave them a small nod to tell them to go rest, without giving any explanation. He didn’t want them to stay one more second in this dirty story.

Once the two girls were gone, Nash immediately started driving again with Victoria and Saya.

It was out of the question to take Saya to his private villa. Nash didn’t want her to discover that the Baby-Boom girls were with them. Instead, Victoria made a quick phone call and booked a suite in a luxury hotel right in the heart of the Spires. It was a very selective, ultra-secure, extremely expensive place — a luxury that definitely didn’t fit a rat with no future.

When they entered the hotel room, Saya stayed completely stunned. She stopped dead on the doorstep, mouth open. She had never seen a place like this in her life. The marble floor was shining so much you could see her reflection in it, and the huge bed had perfectly white sheets, so clean they looked like they had never been touched. But instead of reassuring her, this luxury made her feel even more miserable. She stayed standing near the entrance, arms crossed over her stomach, feeling like a giant mud stain in the middle of a palace.

She was terrified of moving, of walking on the carpet or sitting down, especially with Victoria’s black and contemptuous stare following her everywhere like a bird of prey.

Victoria walked into the room and sat down on a large leather armchair. She crossed her legs with perfect elegance, but her eyes stayed two sharp pieces of ice. Nash remained standing, arms crossed.

"Sit on the floor and talk, you dirty rat," Victoria ordered in a low voice, cutting like a blade.

Saya rushed to obey, panic clear in her eyes. Nash sighed, but said nothing. How do you play bad cops with a time bomb like this?

Saya let herself slide onto the luxurious carpet, pulling her dirty knees against her chest. Her hands were shaking so hard she had to press them together to stop. Her voice came out completely dry, broken by the tears she had been holding since the parking lot. She started her confession, trying to change a few details a little to soften Victoria’s anger, desperately hoping for a bit of pity.

"I... I met Jinzo and Mac in a small restaurant," she began, sniffing, her voice trembling. "What started everything was our resentment. They were so full of hate, Nash. They wouldn’t stop spitting on you. They said you were taking too much space, that you were acting like the king of the world ever since you started working with Blacklist and this rich woman. They felt pushed aside, forgotten, like they were nothing."

Saya paused, lifting her swollen and teary eyes toward Nash, looking for a sign of understanding on his face. But Nash stayed completely still. She swallowed and continued, more and more nervous, waving her hands.

"Well... me too, I hated you a little... I mean, not hated!... Just... I was angry... humiliated... your words really hurt me last time... and after that you were right... but that’s how we met, them and me. This common resentment against you. Later they came back to see me. They were super excited, laughing. They told me they had spied on you during a match, I think? And that they had listened to your private conversations. They were the ones who discovered your whole secret plan to buy the Baby-Boom and double-cross Apex Records! I swear, I’m not the one who leaked the info online! I didn’t do anything wrong, I promise! I just... I barely encouraged them to use what they knew to get revenge on you. They’re the ones who spilled everything, they’re the real ones to blame! Me, I just listened... They used me because I was angry and desperate..."

Victoria let out a mocking laugh, a sound so cold it made Saya jump.

"Are you fucking with me, you dirty rat?" Victoria spat, leaning forward, her eyes locked on Saya like she wanted to tear her skin off. "You encouraged traitors to destroy my business, you took part in this shit that almost sank us, and you think I’m going to swallow that you’re innocent? You’re just as guilty as they are, and that little victim face of yours isn’t going to save you from what’s coming."

Saya shrank on the carpet, starting to cry hard again, terrified by Victoria’s black anger.

Nash put a hand on Victoria’s arm to calm things down, then gave her a small nod. The two of them moved to the other side of the hotel suite to talk quietly, leaving Saya trembling alone in her corner. Thinking about it again, everything had been so obvious. Jinzo and Mac had always had weird attitudes and shifty looks lately. Victoria, even if she was less violent than in the parking lot, still had a huge grudge eating at her.

"I’m going to wipe them out, Nash," Victoria whispered, her nails digging so hard into her palms she could have drawn blood. "I’m calling an emergency meeting right now to finish them."

"Calm down," Nash sighed.

"Blood is going to flow tonight, I’m telling you!" she insisted.

"Oh, come on, chill, will you? We can’t do that right now," Nash answered, a bit more annoyed.

"What? Why?! You’re joking, right? They tried to destroy us! If Harlan hadn’t been such a big idiot all your Baby-Boom would have been his sex slaves!"

"Think about the timing, Victoria. Be pragmatic. We’re going to get rid of those two pricks, that’s a hundred percent sure, they’re going to pay. But with Drex leaving, we’re already at the strict limit of the number of players we can legally use on the court for Blacklist. If we cut or make Jinzo and Mac disappear right now, we simply won’t have enough guys left to play the next matches. And buying new players in a rush at this stage of the competition, just for one week of games, is impossible. It’s extremely risky with the league rules, we risk a direct disqualification. We’re stuck because of the numbers."

Nash rubbed his chin, staring into space while thinking out loud.

"I could try to see if we can delay the second match of the..."

He froze right in the middle of his sentence. When he turned his head, he saw Saya trying to listen to their conversation, her big round eyes full of panic.

Seeing Nash stop and look at her, Saya thought her last moment had come. She completely panicked, raising her dirty hands in the air, her face covered in sweat and tears.

"I swear you can talk! I didn’t hear anything, I promise! I’ll never say anything to anyone, I’d rather die!"

Victoria turned toward her, shooting her a killing look.

"’Will’, not ’would’. Do you really take us for idiots, you dirty rat? You think we’re going to trust the public toilet of the poorest idiots in the Underground?"

Nash stayed silent for long seconds. He was calmly studying the situation. He looked at Saya broken on the floor, her hand nervously holding her stomach to protect the baby, and at Victoria’s hate. Suddenly an idea formed in his head. His face relaxed, and a small smile appeared on his lips.

He walked slowly toward Saya. His tone completely changed, becoming almost soft, which made the scene even more disturbing for her.

"We’re going to help you, Saya," Nash said, stopping in front of her. "We’re going to give you that roof. We’re going to take care of you, of your future, and we’re going to take care of that baby. You won’t lack anything, you’ll be safe here."

Saya blinked, completely stunned, her heart stopping. She couldn’t believe her ears. After all the harm she had done to him, after betraying and humiliating him in front of everyone back then, Nash was deciding to be good to her.

A huge wave of emotion and guilt crashed over her. She broke down in tears, heavy sobs shaking her whole body as she hid her face in her dirty hands.

"N-Nash... Nash... my God... Nash... thank you... my God, thank you... I don’t deserve this... You’re so good... I’m sorry, so sorry..."

"However," Nash interrupted, his voice suddenly becoming much firmer and colder. "Don’t celebrate too early."

He grabbed a wooden chair near the table, turned it around with a sharp move and sat on it backward, right in front of her. He rested his arms on the backrest, locking his steel gaze directly into Saya’s eyes.

"You’re going to get all the help I just promised you, yes. But you’ll only get it after you do one last job for us. Listen to me carefully, Saya. This is very important. You’re going to go back there, and you’re going to create the plan of the century to save the Dust Dogs and permanently bring down the hype of Nash Blaze."