15.

Tiger stood in front of a tall, ominous building under the dim light of a clouded sky. The structure loomed ahead, its cold, steel facade reflecting the harshness of the task at hand.

He was in his black attire, a mask covering the half of his face while his raven-black hair and forehead was hidden with a black cap. His backpack contained everything he needed for the task.

He raised a hand to the earpiece nestled in his ear, the small microphone brushing against his cheek.

"All set?" His voice remained calm and raspy as he asked.

"Yes." A brief pause crackled through the line before a voice on the other end, calm and composed, replied.

Warren.

He had his system opened in front of him, every nook and corner of the building displaying clearly in small boxes through the CCTV surveillance he hacked into.

Tiger exhaled slowly, feeling the cool night air fill his lungs. He scanned the building once more, recalling the intricate layout he had memorized earlier-each room, each corridor, every exit point etched into his mind. He visualized his entry point, a side window in the middle of the building obscured by shadows, and the escape route on the opposite side, where a narrow alleyway led to relative safety.

He breathed deeply, feeling his blood run hot, muscles tightening, eyes narrowing, focused and straight. He knew just what he was about to do, the task was as risky as his drifts, as dangerous as his intentions, as wild as his adventures.

He knew he would be doomed if got caught, but that's the thrill of it all. It was either kill or die, and he was a master at killing, not scared of death, wouldn't budge with anyone, unfazed and unaffected, dangerous and feared. He was named Tiger for a reason, and he brought every justice to it.

His eyes narrowed as he committed the details to memory one last time, the reality of what he was about to do settling over him like a heavy cloak. With a final, determined breath, he stepped forward, his gaze locked on the entrance, ready to execute his plan.

He moved towards the back of the building, slowly and cautiously, avoiding being seen by any of the guards patrolling around while taking his hideout at the nearby tree.

His attire was completely hidden under the shadows of trees and leaves. He fixed his mask on his nose, gazing up at the building and finding his target. The window. He got it.

He opened his backpack, taking out a rope. He carried it in his arms before climbing up the tree like a professional athlete. His muscles flexed under his jacket, bulging and releasing with his swift movements. Hanging from a strong branch with one hand, he steadied himself, taking in a breath, examining his surroundings in alert.

He wasn't in sight of anyone, no one was in his sight. Good.

He strengthened his hold on the branch while using his second hand to work the rope out. He held it from the middle, lowering his hang before throwing the rope with a sudden force. The hook fell and tucked just at the open window beneath the closed one-the one he needed to sneak in from.

He held on to the rope tighter and stronger, letting go of the branch as his body hung on the rope completely, sending him flying towards his desired spot.

Tiger hung from the rope hooked at the window just below his actual target, his body pressed close to the building. The rope swayed slightly as he steadied himself, his fingers gripping the rough stone ledge just above the lower window. His dark clothing blended with the night, making him nearly invisible against the wall.

Above him, the window he needed to reach was still a few feet away. The climb was trickier now, with the rope anchored below rather than above. Carefully, he shifted his weight, moving one hand up to grasp a narrow crack in the wall. His muscles tensed as he pulled himself upward, his feet searching for any small foothold.

The stone was cold and unyielding, offering little in the way of support. Tiger's breath came slow and steady, his focus entirely on the task at hand. Each movement was deliberate, every inch gained a small victory. He glanced up at the window above, its faint glow almost within reach.

He tightened his grip, his foot slipping momentarily on the slick stone before finding purchase again. For a moment, he hung there, one arm stretched high, the other clinging to the ledge beneath him.

With a deep breath, Tiger gathered his strength once again. He pulled himself up, his fingers brushing the sill of the window above. Slowly, he inched higher until he was able to hook an arm over the ledge. With a final surge of effort, he lifted himself just enough to peer through the narrow opening, his eyes scanning the room inside. He moved the glass to allow him enough space to go in. He paused, listening for any sounds from within, before preparing to quietly slip in.

"I don't see you in yet." Warren's voice vibrated in his ear which was more of a question than a statement.

"Yeah, I'm sneaking in." He answered, swinging one leg, then another, landing on the carpet floor of the room.

"Okay, I see you now," Warren stated.

He walked up to the table and settled in the centre of the room, with a big chair behind it, and piles of files and documents organized on the marbled smooth surface of the glass table.

He walked deeper into the room, circling the table, finding a sequence of drawers attached to it. His lips curved up in a smirk. He knew one of those drawers had what he came there for, and he was going to take it with him tonight.

He bent down and opened the first drawer, rummaging through various documents and files, trying to find the right one, but he didn't see any.

Another drawer. And nothing to be found again. His brows collected in a tight frown as frustration crept in him, wondering if he was going to get the thing or not.

His ear itched with the earpiece; he breathed out, pulling out the device from his ear and placing it on the table before burying himself into his mission again. He needed to get it today, by hook or by crook.

Warren gasped, cursing Tiger for taking off his earpiece.

"Stupid, wear your damn earpiece," He urged, knowing and watching that he can't listen to him.

"Look who's the idiot now," Warren muttered, watching his not-so-lovely friend engrossed in his task.

He leaned back, wishing nothing would happen that would put Tiger in danger in the meantime. He can't inform him about anything until he tucks that device in his ear again, and that didn't seem to happen anytime soon since Tiger was way too drowned in finding the papers than paying attention to a small thing, which could lead them to a bigger mess.

Warren would frequently change his focus in between the cameras, mainly keeping his eyes on the corridor which fell in the route of that room, office room to be precise.

Something, or rather someone came into his vision, walking towards the office room Tiger was in. Warren's eyes widened twice their size, his breath getting stuck in his throat as he watched a familiar figure moving towards the room casually.

Oh shit.

"Ti, move out of there." He didn't know why he was whispering, panic settled into him, his hands stilled on the keypad of his laptop, his heart racing, palms sweating, mind reeling.

Tiger fumbled through the mess of pages and files, his brows knitted in utter focus, hand moving and flipping through the legal and illegal documents. He opened the last drawer once again, crosschecking it a third time, unaware of the threat coming his way, unaware of his mistake of removing the earpiece, unaware of the heart attack Warren was about to have as he kept on screaming through his mic.

He paused, his eyes falling onto a certain document. He fished it out, flipping through it. This was it. Finally.

But he couldn't take the original copy, there had to be a duplicate one. He reached into the drawer again, messing through the same files again before finding the duplicate ones. He sighed, relieved to complete his half of the mission.

And the other half was to get out of there without a trace. He stood up, folding the papers and hiding them under his jacket safely.

He was about to turn and take his clean leave when the door shut open, and a goon walked in, the attire of his belonging gang. Tiger paused, it was fight or flight. And Tiger was all, but a coward. Then fight it is.

The guy stilled in his way when he spotted Tiger, caught off guard by the unexpected invasion of a masked guy he didn't seem to recognize. That's when Tiger realized that had he not removed his earpiece in haste, he wouldn't have got caught.

Fuck. But what now?

"Who are you?" The man held the gun, pointing it straight at him, brows zeroed on the much more muscular Tiger.

"Your death, most probably." Tiger answered, tucking the small device back into his ear, his voice calm and collected, unfazed by the steamy situation.

"We're dead, we're so dead." Warren muttered through the earpiece, his voice a clear representation of his shock.

No. We aren't, Warren.

He stayed composed, not giving any sign of shock, surprise, fear or any emotion that could give away that he was intimidated. Because he wasn't. He wasn't scared; he stood tall, unafraid, as if he wasn't at gunpoint right now, as if he didn't get caught doing something he shouldn't.

And it was scary for the other man in the room; despite having the gun fully loaded, pointed right at Tiger's head, he was still afraid of him, his hands trembling, fingers shaking, sweat forming on his forehead, knowing Tiger didn't lie about being his death.

He knew him, he knew his brutality.

"What are you doing here?" The man asked, tightening his hold on the gun and trigger while taking slow cautious steps towards Tiger.

"You're a fool if you think I'll answer that." Tiger replied, his face neutral, eyes empty but dark, not a twitch in his jaw or even a popped vein on his neck, nothing about his calm demeanour indicated that he was even a bit fazed by the situation.

He wasn't, and that was deadly.

The man holding the gun gritted his teeth, eyes narrowed in a frown, his face blended in confusion and anger.

"You do know what you have got yourself into, don't you? One loud shot and everyone will be here, you'll be dead on the floor and your soul will answer us what you've been doing here." The man spat, his face turning red seeing no reaction but those hawk-like eyes boring holes in his soul.

"Really? That's all you've got?" Tiger asked, the man raised his brows.

"You know you can't fight me alone, so you're gonna bring the whole gang here," Tiger stated, his collected, deep voice cutting through the air, the truth in his words playing with the man's ego.

"Alright then. Let's get hand to hand." The man dropped his gun on the floor.

Tiger stared at the man, his mask hiding his victorious smirk underneath, knowing he had successfully fooled the man. He knew the power of his words, and he used them wisely, smartly, and menacingly.

The man, having just dropped his gun in a moment of unrecognized surrender, clenched his fists and charged at Tiger, driven by adrenaline. He threw a straight punch with all his might, aiming for Tiger's face. But Tiger sidestepped swiftly, his movements fluid and precise. In a flash, Tiger delivered a brutal kick to the man's leg, sending him crashing to the floor.

Before the man could recover, Tiger was already on him, his eyes cold and calculating. He hovered over the man, throwing a sharp punch to his face which made him wince loudly. Blood seeped out of the injured man's mouth, his lips now parched, bleeding profusely, his breaths coming in ragged gasps.

Without hesitation, Tiger reached behind his back, pulling out a gleaming dagger hidden beneath his jacket. He pressed the cold steel to the man's neck, the blade hovering just above the skin, a silent promise of death. The man's eyes widened in fear as he stared up at Tiger, realizing too late the deadly mistake he made.

"You all are so stupid." Tiger pushed the sharp metal deeper into the man's skin, making him still in his place, though his body trembled in pain.

The man grabbed Tiger's hands, attempting to pull the latter away from himself. But Tiger had the strength of a bear; his hold would only tighten more, making the knife pierce deeper with every tug.

"Tiger, you're making a grave mistake." The man managed to speak between his struggle for air and staying unmoved. One movement and his life would be gone; that's how deep Tiger had already dug the knife into his neck.

"Worry about the mistake you just made that will soon take you to your grave," Tiger whispered, his voice a deadly mixture of evil and sin.

"No-" The man's eyes widened, pain surged through his neck suddenly, feeling the steel pierce his skin open, blood splattering out his neck like a red fountain, his hands trembled under the excruciating agony, his breath lost in his lungs as a gasp got stuck midway in his throat, his back arching up. And the very next moment, his body thumped down, eyes open wide, mouth hung open, limbs scattered on the floor, lifelessly, gone and dead.

"We aren't dead, War. Someone else is." Tiger fixed his earbud, looking at the camera as he pressed on a certain word, a name he rarely calls Warren with, but a name only he calls him with.

Warren breathed out, his lungs finally working after dysfunctioning for those two minutes.

Two minutes, or even less than that. That was all Tiger needed to fix the mess. Iconic as it is.

"Get out of there already." Warren urged, his eyes fixed on a block of the camera where a man sat on a couch in his rich office suit, a laptop opened in front of him, watching everything happen in front of his eyes through his own set of system, which displayed the same rooms as Warren's laptop.

Warren swallowed, feeling the heaviness hanging on him like a night ghost, his stomach in knots though he breathed just fine.

------

"So, this is what he wanted you to get?" Warren asked, examining the papers as he read between the lines.

"I didn't know she was this rich." Warren leaned back on the headrest, sinking himself in the softness of the couch as the papers lay flat on his lap.

"She ain't rich. She just has this property left in her name." Tiger answered, taking the chicken out of the fridge.

"And DK wants this property?" Warren asked, his eyebrows raised in question.

"That's what it looks like." Tiger moved around the kitchen counter, taking a knife and starting to cut the vegetables.

Warren nodded.

"Why?"

"That's what we need to ask her."

"How?"

Tiger gave him a blank look, brown eyes shooting daggers at him, daring him to ask something again.

"Alright, I'll shut up." Warren rolled his eyes, seething his lips tight.

Warren quietly watched the other preparing food, the warm aroma of chicken and spices filling his senses, chilled air flowing in through the main door bizarrely, ruffling his hair and caressing his face timidly.

Only if life was this comforting as it felt at the moment. His gaze down in his lap, his right hand moving on his left one, caressing the skin with his thumb, feeling the scars that lay all over his wrist and hand through his covered skin, a reflection of his survival, an attestation of his reality, a proof of his rough life.

He suddenly remembered her. A sad smile hovered on his lips as her memories crossed his mind. Only if he met her in different circumstances, only if he wasn't such a coward, only if he had the guts to fight, to love, to live.

Only if.

"Take the porridge to her crib. We can eat when chicken is done." Warren broke out from his thoughts, bringing his focus to Tiger, trying to recall what the latter said just a second ago because he wasn't paying any attention.

Tiger would cook porridge for her separately every day. Since she was still healing, though it had been quite a few days-with the attacker gone in DK's other hideout placed and no further attacks, thankfully-her wounds were deep, taking time to recover.

In the meantime, Tiger has tried everything-nothing physical-to get her to agree to sign the papers so both of them could get it over with. Once she does, DK will get her killed after the work is done. Tiger wasn't bothered, but Warren surely was. He knew the rules, he knew the game, but he also knew about the way his heart clenched painfully in his chest whenever he would look at her, the way he felt drawn to her, as if there was a rope tied to his chest and she held the other end, pulling him towards her.

He had warmed up to her within the days-can't blame him, he had attachment issues. She would talk to him normally too, or at least not as rudely as she talked with Tiger.

"Have you thought about what I suggested earlier?" Warren raised from his seat, placing the papers on the table in front of the sofa.

"I already gave you the answer." Tiger gave him a stern look, silently telling him to not open this topic again.

"And I told you to think about it again." But Warren was Warren, stubborn and persistent.

"We can't do that, Warren. You know it." Tiger frowned in a warning.

"Why not? We can just ask AK. He might know how to help." Warren knitted his brows together, frustration creeping into his tone.

"You've gone nuts?" Tiger stared at him, "You want to help her escape out of here?"

"Yes." Warren stared back.

"And how will we explain this to DK?" Tiger asked, leaning on the counter, emphasizing the intensity of his words.

Warren stayed silent. Of course. There was no answer to that. The forest out there was scattered so wide and large that no one could get away from there if they did not have the route stuck in their mind.

And Hayat had never been there before. She can't escape on her own; the territory was under DK's name, and nobody else stayed there. The fingers will straightly come to them.

"Alright," Warren muttered in a small voice, taking the bowl of porridge and a spoon before walking to Tiger's room.

-----

"What?" Hayat asked as she took the spoonful of the porridge, the semi-liquid stuff warming her tongue, melting and sliding down her throat with ease.

"Nothing," Warren had his eyes fixed on her, that warm look of admiration and something like a friendly love.

She wondered how such coal black eyes could speak so many emotions, so many hidden tragedies.

A beat of silence passed, the buzz of crickets outside and the tapping on the keypad being the only sounds echoing in the room. And somehow, the latter was more irritating.

Warren glanced over his shoulder from the floor. On the bed, Tiger was working on something on his laptop, his fingers moving rapidly across the keyboard, disrupting the others in the room.

"Why are you so loud?" Warren snarled at him. Hayat followed his gaze, chewing on her food.

"Quite bold coming from someone who never shuts up." Tiger continued with whatever he was doing.

Hayat chuckled when Warren cursed something under his breath, making both the men turn their faces to her.

Her muscles tensed under his eyes, heart skipping a beat just because his gaze pinned her to the wall behind her, choking her, disturbing her.

She knew he wasn't the kindest person-quite the opposite. But the fact that he hadn't touched her, not once raised his hand against her, or done any of the things she feared since day one made her respect him a little, just a little. If she had been under anyone else's watch, they would have stripped her of her dignity long ago.

"Hey, can you bring me some water?" She cleared her throat, trying to break the awkward bubble. Tiger's attention was back to his laptop.

"Why do you address us as 'hey', I have a name, you know?" Warren asked, a confused pout adoring his lips. She wouldn't call them with their names although she was familiar with them now.

"That's not your real name anyway." She shrugged, shoving another spoon of food in her mouth.

"H..h-how do you know?" Warren asked, perplexed. Of course, nobody name their kids 'Tiger' so it was quite predictable, but 'Warren' sounds pretty decent to be considered as a real name.

"I know things even you don't know about." She smiled.

Smiled; evil and mysterious, revealing and hiding the destructive secrets that she knew of, the secrets they both didn't had any idea of.

That caught his attention. His brown eyes stared at her, wondering what she knew, to what extent she knew, to what depth she knew.

Warren blinked at her, his face a perfect blend of disbelief and amazement. He looked behind at Tiger, finding him already watching her.

She said something with so much ease and went back to devour her food, leaving the two men completely puzzled.