第1章厨房春潮-我的妺妺h

He stopped in front of a door labeled *VIP Room 6*, knocking hard. **Bang, bang, bang.** The sound was far louder than it would have been with a regular hand, the metal reverberating down the hall.

"Who is it?" came an irritated male voice from inside, the tone heavy with annoyance.

"It\'s me, Vik. You might want to come see this," T-Back answered, his tone as casual as ever.

There was some scrambling behind the door—**thump**, **shuffle**, the sound of jeans being pulled on—and soon the door swung open to reveal Viktor, still fumbling with his belt buckle, his frown deepening.

Behind him, T-Back could see the outline of two girls under the covers, their legs barely hidden by the sheets. It wasn\'t unusual—around here, scenes like this were the norm.

Viktor finished adjusting his belt, irritation clear in his expression. "What the hell are you waking me up for so early? The whole reason I pay for this overpriced room is so I don\'t get disturbed."

T-Back, unfazed by Viktor\'s anger, merely shrugged. "Trust me, you\'ll thank me for waking you. Now follow me."

Viktor frowned, annoyed at the lack of deference from someone he saw as a lowly bouncer. But despite his frustration, he didn\'t speak up. Instead, he gave a sharp nod and followed T-Back out of the red-lit corridor and into a much more plain, worn-looking hallway.

The vibrant luxury of the VIP area gave way to cracked concrete floors, damaged metal panels, and peeling paint—a clear downgrade.

They stopped in front of a door labeled *Rest Area*. Viktor raised an eyebrow, looking disgusted. "This is where the Deadly Damsels let staff catch a break? This place sucks."

T-Back, walking ahead, didn\'t bother to turn around. "We can\'t all be sexy women," he said dryly, pushing the door open.

The room inside was as lackluster as the hallway. A cheap, old wooden table sat in the center, surrounded by mismatched chairs, its surface littered with cigarette butts, empty beer bottles, and a few scattered playing cards.

A single worn-out sofa faced a small flat-screen TV mounted crookedly on the wall. But it wasn\'t the sad state of the room that caught Viktor\'s attention—it was the man trembling under a dim lightbulb in the middle of the room, right under a light bulb near the table.

Viktor\'s eyes widened in recognition. "Frederico? What the hell are you doing here—"

He stopped mid-sentence, his mind immediately flashing back to the last time with Marcus. The resemblance between the two was chilling, and Viktor\'s gut twisted with dread. He didn\'t need anyone to spell it out for him—this was bad. Really bad.

Before Viktor could question Frederico, a woman\'s voice called out from behind. "Vik, it\'s Ash. She wants to talk to you now."

Viktor turned, his irritation spiking as he saw a woman wrapped in a bedsheet standing in the doorway, holding out a phone. He clicked his tongue and stormed over, snatching the phone from her hand.

"Hey, Ash?" Viktor demanded, his voice tight. "We\'ve got a problem."

Ash\'s voice came through the phone, seething with anger. "You don\'t fucking say! Why am I only finding out about this now, Vik?!"

Viktor frowned, confusion creasing his forehead. "What the hell do you mean? I *just* found out too. It\'s not too late to save the stash. Let\'s just send out a couple of the guys and—"

"OH MY GOD, can you just turn on the fucking news!" Ash interrupted, her voice full of frustration and fury.

Viktor\'s face tightened with barely concealed rage. Being yelled at by a girl young enough to be his daughter stung, but he held his tongue. Instead, he shot a sharp look at T-Back, who had been standing silently by the door, listening to the entire exchange.

Without a word, T-Back walked forward, grabbed the remote off the table, and flicked on the small TV. The screen crackled to life, and with a few clicks, he switched to a local news channel.

The broadcast immediately displayed a live helicopter view of the warehouse Don had attacked the night before. The headline read in bold letters: *Warehouse of Horrors.*

The news anchor\'s voice echoed through the dingy room: "It came as a shock to the first responding officers when they discovered the bodies of multiple gang members, all believed to be part of the notorious Hell Riders gang. Authorities say the violence may signal a brutal shift in the ongoing gang wars that have plagued Santos City..."

**BAM!**

Viktor\'s fist slammed into the TV screen, sending it flying off its mount. The screen shattered on impact, pieces of glass scattering across the room.

Frederico, standing under the light, flinched violently, his entire body trembling in fear at the sound. His eyes darted between the broken TV and Viktor, too terrified to speak.

T-Back sighed heavily, running crossing his arms. "You\'re paying for that," he said, shaking his head.

Viktor ignored him, too consumed by his own rage. He then turned on Frederico, grabbing him roughly by the collar and yanking him forward. "You better tell me what the fuck happened... NOW!"

Frederico\'s voice shook as he tried to speak, but no words came out at first. He was barely holding himself together.

He knew what had happened—he\'d witnessed it all firsthand—but how could he possibly explain it to Viktor? How could he make sense of the nightmare that had unfolded in that warehouse?

"I—It was..." Frederico stammered, his eyes wide and glassy. He felt Viktor\'s grip tighten on his collar, the man\'s breath hot with anger, and he knew he couldn\'t stall any longer.

"It... it wasn\'t human," he finally whispered.

Viktor\'s frown deepened, lines of anger etched across his face. His grip on Frederico\'s collar tightened as he yanked the trembling man upright again. "You think this is a fucking joke, huh?!"

**Bam!** Viktor slammed Frederico into the wall with a furious shove, the impact knocking the breath out of him. Frederico slumped to the ground, coughing and clutching his ribs. He tried to speak, his voice shaking. "Please, I\'m telling the truth—"

Before he could finish, **bam**—Viktor\'s boot connected with Frederico\'s face, sending him sprawling to the floor. Blood sprayed from his nose, and his lip split on impact.

"I\'m going to need more than \'it\'s not human!\'" Viktor growled. **Bam!** Another kick to the stomach.

Frederico curled in on himself, wheezing, his hands weakly trying to shield his head.

"Tell—" **Kick!**

"Me—" **Kick!**

"Something—" **Kick!**

"Fucking—" **Kick!**

"Useful!"

Viktor raised his foot to deliver another blow, but before he could bring it down, T-Back\'s large hand gripped his shoulder firmly, pulling him back with ease.

"Calm down," T-Back said, his voice low and steady. "Don\'t forget where you are."

Viktor jerked away, glaring at T-Back as he shook his hand off. "Do you have any fucking idea what we\'ve just lost?!" he shouted, his voice raw with frustration. "And all this idiot can say is shadows and fucking inhumans? What the hell am I supposed to do with that? It\'s fuck all information!"

Frederico, lying on the floor with his face bloodied and swollen, stared up at Viktor, fear written all over his features. His body trembled, and he could barely form the words as he hesitated. But he knew that if he didn\'t say something, Viktor might just kill him right here.

"It... it said to tell them... Predator is coming," Frederico stammered.

Viktor paused, his rage giving way to a sudden, unsettling quiet. He turned back to Frederico, eyes narrowing. "So you saw it, and you heard it speak?"

Frederico shook his head, his swollen cheek throbbing painfully. "N-no... I didn\'t hear or see it."

Viktor\'s eyes darkened, the veins in his neck pulsing. "Then how did \'it\' give you a fucking message? Did it airdrop it into your empty skull?!"

Frederico flinched at the sharpness of Viktor\'s words. He looked down, his bloodied hands trembling as he recalled the moment in the warehouse. "It was... it was written. Written in the blood and... and guts of one of the guys it killed," he muttered, his voice shaky, barely able to keep his words steady.

"Every time the lights went off and came back on... someone died."

Viktor\'s anger simmered, but now something darker flickered behind his eyes—something close to fear. He glanced at T-Back, then back at Frederico. As much as he didn\'t want to believe this nonsense, there was a nagging truth to it.

The Hell Riders had been targeted three times now, and every time it had been something inexplicable. They couldn\'t afford to dismiss it anymore. Maybe it wasn\'t a ghost, but someone or something was after them.

Viktor\'s gaze shifted to the flickering light overhead, a knot forming in his gut. Whoever—or whatever—this "Predator" was, they were deadly, efficient, and left no trace. Viktor felt the growing sense of dread settling in his chest.

His daze was interrupted by Ash\'s voice still crackling over the phone. "Vik!" she shouted, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"What?" Viktor barked back, his mind still half on the chilling details Frederico had just revealed.

Ash\'s voice was tense, still full of anger. "Who the fuck is Predator?!"

Before Viktor could respond, T-Back chimed in, crossing his arms as he leaned against the doorframe. "You mean *what* the fuck is Predator."

Viktor shot T-Back a hateful glance, but didn\'t waste any more breath arguing with him. He put the phone back to his ear. "I don\'t know," he admitted. "But I\'ll dig for information. And I\'ll find out why the cops we pay didn\'t warn us about this shit."

Ash scoffed on the other end. "Maybe it got them too."

Viktor clenched his jaw but didn\'t argue. Ash had a point. If whoever this Predator was could slip through unnoticed and leave a massacre behind without any of their paid-off contacts giving them a heads-up, it was possible that their network was compromised.

"Fine," Ash agreed. "Anything else?"

Viktor lifted his gaze again to the flickering light bulb above him, the fear of the unknown creeping further into his thoughts. "Yeah," he muttered slowly. "Tell everyone to carry a fucking torch."