Before Ryan could respond with anything more than a frosty glare, a Ferrari zoomed through the night.
It was Bill.
Echo let out a whoop and bolted from the car, hopping into Bill’s Ferrari in one fluid motion, completely forgetting about Ryan.
Bill raised an eyebrow and gave her a mischievous grin, saying, “You’re dead.”
Echo hadn’t even had time to snap back when she suddenly remembered Ryan was still back in the other car.
She’d only thought about saving herself and left him behind.
Oh god, was she suicidal or what?
Her mind raced, but her body moved faster. She darted back out of the Ferrari and sprinted to open the door for Ryan, bowing and smiling nervously as she met his ice-cold gaze.
“Very nice. Very nice,” Ryan said slowly, his voice thick with barely-contained fury.
Echo immediately felt a chill down her spine, her whole body tingling with fear.
Echo immediately tried to please Ryan, reaching out to help him out of the car, her tone overly sweet as she smiled, saying, “My bad, totally my bad.”
Ryan glanced at her forced smile and scoffed coldly, “What exactly was your mistake?” He asked as he got out of the car.
Echo smiled, nervously responding, “I forgot, the boss always goes first.”
She stayed close, guiding him toward Bill’s Ferrari. But after just a few steps, she suddenly remembered Ryan’s rule about not getting close to women. She quickly let go of his arm, her eyes flashing with confusion as she looked at him.
Ryan’s expression darkened, and as soon as he sat in the Ferrari, he moved with lightning speed, grabbing Echo’s arm and yanking her inside. She was tossed into the car, landing hard on Ryan’s lap, his iron grip tightening around her waist.
Echo gasped in pain but didn’t dare move. Her chest ached again from the earlier hit, and now her entire body hurt from crashing into his knee.
Ryan said nothing, and Echo kept silent, too afraid to speak. She stayed awkwardly draped across his legs, knees bent at his feet, pain shooting through her. She could feel his hand gripping her waist tightly while his other hand slowly traced the back of her neck.
It wasn’t gentle, but it wasn’t violent either. It was just…dangerous. That creeping, cold danger sent chills down her spine.
Echo knew exactly what this meant. Ryan was giving her a chance to figure out her mistake. She only had one shot at this. Getting a second chance from Ryan wasn’t something you took lightly.
Echo wasn’t sure if she should feel grateful or scared out of her mind.
“Mr. Ryan, I didn’t mean to disobey your orders. I was just trying to get evidence for you. You went after Street Family’s associates, and that’s going to be hard to explain yourself. I know you don’t care, but breaking the rules of the underworld isn’t great either. I was thinking of your interests.”
As Echo’s mind raced, she sighed internally. Nothing got past Ryan. Still, dodging the real issue had always been her strong suit.
Ryan let out a cold snort and yanked her hand hard. Echo, still on his lap, let out a muffled groan of pain. Her wrist, wrapped in his sleeve, revealed a bright red stain-blood.
Panic hit Echo instantly. It was that woman’s blood. In all the chaos, she’d forgotten to wipe it off.
Ryan’s face grew even colder as his eyes locked on hers, filled with fury. “No one who lies to me lives,” he said slowly, his voice chilling.
Echo felt his grip tighten around her wrist, nearly crushing it. She knew she’d crossed a line-Ryan’s biggest rule.
The intensity of his anger was impossible to ignore.
Desperate, she stammered, “I’m not lying! I swear, I’m not! Ouch-”
Ryan’s rage boiled over as he twisted her wrist painfully, pulling her hand forward.
“I’m asking you one last time,” he growled.
At that moment, Echo thought her wrist would snap. She was on the verge of tears, the pain overwhelming.
She gasped between breaths, “It’s-It’s going to break!”
“Then tell the truth already! Boss hates being lied to. Do you want to die, or are you going to admit what you were really doing?” Cobra spoke from the front, glancing in the rearview mirror.
He couldn’t see Echo’s expression, but Ryan’s face was burning with fury.
Cobra’s words seemed like a reprimand for Echo, but in reality, he was trying to help her understand why Ryan was this furious.
Ryan’s expression darkened as he coldly said, “Who told you to speak?”
Cobra quickly replied, “I just noticed her voice is shaky, and she’s still injured. She can’t handle your strength, Boss. Let her explain what she was doing earlier. If she really betrayed us, you won’t need to lift a finger-I’ll be the first to deal with her.”
Bill chimed in quietly, “Hurry up and tell the truth. Do you really want to make the Boss mad? Just say what happened. It’s not like we’ll eat you alive.”
They all knew Echo wouldn’t do anything to truly betray them, and Ryan surely knew that too-otherwise, she’d already be dead.
Whatever happened earlier had a reason behind it.
Echo’s obvious lie wasn’t fooling anyone, and no one could lie to Ryan without consequences. He hated lies more than anything, and if she messed up, she’d face punishment.
The Dark Family had its rules, and Ryan wasn’t unnecessarily cruel to his own people.
But lying? That was a death sentence.
The fact that Ryan hadn’t acted yet showed he was already being lenient. If she didn’t tell the truth now, no one could save her.
Ryan let out a cold grunt, ignoring Cobra, and lifted Echo’s hand again. His voice was furious, “Are you going to talk or not?”
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” Echo wasn’t dumb.
She could hear from Cobra and Bill’s words that Ryan was angry because she hadn’t been honest, not for any other reason.
Realizing there was no point in lying, she decided to come clean-it really wasn’t that big of a deal, she just hadn’t expected Ryan to react this strongly.
“Talk,” Ryan commanded, slightly loosening his grip but still holding her tightly.
“That woman didn’t deserve to die. She didn’t even do anything to you. You may have the heart for it, but I don’t.” Echo knew there was no hiding the truth anymore, so she admitted it all.
Ryan frowned slightly when he heard this, releasing her wrist and flipping her over so she was sitting on his lap, facing him. He saw the pain on her face, but no hint of guilt.
In a cold voice, Ryan asked, “So, you disobeyed my orders because of a woman?”
Echo’s wrist throbbed with pain as she sat on Ryan’s lap. Hearing his unreasonable question, she looked up at him, locked eyes, and quickly said, “A life is a life! Your life is valuable, but so is hers. If someone doesn’t deserve to die, they shouldn’t be killed. If I hadn’t been there, fine, but since I was, I couldn’t just let it happen.”
Echo, abandoned since childhood, had always known the value of life. She cherished her own, but also respected the lives of others. That’s why she never killed, despite her dangerous lifestyle.
Years of racing, and not a single death at her hands. But for those who brought misfortune upon themselves, she could be as ruthless as anyone, without sympathy or a second glance.
Ryan saw Echo staring back at him, her face filled with defiance, her eyelashes still wet with tears. Her mix of fragility and strength made him frown slightly.
He felt no compassion for that woman who had crossed him. Anyone who violated his rules deserved to die.
To him, life existed only to end, and he was valuable because of his own efforts.
The lives of others? He saw them as nothing more than ants. So what if they died?
Coldly, Ryan said, “Wrong. If someone has power, they are right. If they have no power, even if they’re innocent, they’re wrong. The weak deserve to die. This world only respects strength, not weakness.”
In his world, it wasn’t about what was fair or right-only about strength.
From a young age, Ryan had known that to survive, he could only rely on himself. He couldn’t count on anyone else, nor trust anyone else. He had been fighting for his life since he was a child.
Back then, he hadn’t deserved to die either.
But the world was cruel. It didn’t spare you just because you didn’t deserve death. If you wanted to stay alive, you had to fight for it.