Chapter 104
The territory that had once belonged to the Orgo and the Blackwater Syndicate was now undeniably Azura land. Black jackets bearing the golden sun appeared on every street corner and in every shop doorway, from the southernmost blocks of the 9th District to the northern boundary where Daniel's hotel stood as a monument to the gang's growing influence.
Seven days had passed since Elijah absorbed Daniel's organization into his own, and in that time the Azura Gang had tightened its hold over both territories with surprising efficiency. Patrols ran day and night on staggered routes, and shopkeepers who had once paid the Orgo or the Syndicate now handed their ten percent to Elijah's collectors with little more than a grumble.
Consolidation, however, came at a cost Elijah had not anticipated. The free coffee at the gambling den required equipment and staff training that had never been budgeted, while the new strip club locations demanded deposits, renovations, and permits. Aurora's clothing brand needed designers and photographers paid upfront, and converting rooms at Daniel's hotel required contractors in a city where skilled labor never came cheap.
Then there were the breathing techniques. Elijah had spent the past week shut inside his mother's house with books, notes, and the scattered pages of Daniel's Wolf Hunter technique, trying to understand Ki circulation well enough to build something new. The system had always created techniques for him without requiring him to understand how they worked, but now he had to shape the raw mechanics himself into something that would not kill the person who used it. His progress was nowhere near enough, and the frustration was wearing him down.
The house was quiet that afternoon, with his mother at work and his sister at school, as Elijah sat cross-legged on the living room floor with Daniel's notebook in his lap and his research spread in a semicircle around him. His red eyes were bloodshot, his black hair was a mess, and his white shirt was stained from a week of coffee he had brewed, forgotten, and reheated.
Kai let himself in with his spare key, took in the empty cups and the hollow look on his friend's face, and pushed aside a stack of books to sit across from him.
"We need to talk about the finances," Kai said. "Rena finished the weekly report this morning, and the numbers are worse than we thought."
Elijah looked up, and it took a moment for his eyes to focus on Kai's face. "How bad is it?"
Kai unfolded a sheet of paper and spread it between them. "We're losing money, Elijah, and this isn't a temporary dip we can ride out. If nothing changes, we'll be bankrupt within a month."
"That isn't possible," Elijah said, staring at columns he could barely read. "The gambling den is packed every night, the fight club is drawing record crowds, and Daniel's businesses are bringing in money we never had before."
"Revenue is up, but expenses are up even more," Kai replied grimly. "The coffee equipment cost fifteen thousand dollars, and we haven't seen a return on it yet. The deposits for the new strip club locations came to forty thousand, and those buildings won't open for at least another month. The clothing brand has burned through twenty thousand in design and marketing without selling a single item, and the work at the hotel will cost at least fifty thousand before the new services earn anything. We're bleeding cash, and we don't have the reserves to keep bleeding much longer."
Elijah let his head fall back against the couch cushions and closed his eyes against the headache that had been building for three days. "What about the money we set aside each week for the Vice Leaders?"
Kai's jaw tightened, and he kept his gaze on the paper. "There's nothing left for them, or for anything else. The weekly revenue has been covering operating costs, and whatever remained went straight into the projects you approved. The Vice Leaders haven't been paid in two weeks, and neither have you."
The silence that followed was heavy, and something cold settled in Elijah's chest that might have been fear or simply the recognition that he had made a serious mistake. "I didn't know," he said quietly. "Rena never told me."
"She didn't want to add to your stress," Kai said, his expression softening. "She's been trying to cut costs without bothering you, but she's running out of options, and she asked me to come because she couldn't bring herself to tell you."
Elijah opened his eyes and traced the cracks in the ceiling plaster that he had known since childhood. "We can't just stop the projects, because we've already put in too much money to walk away."
"Then we have two options," Kai said, folding the paper back into his pocket. "The first is to cut our losses and return to the businesses that were already profitable, meaning the gambling den, the fight club, the original strip club, and the hotel as it was. If we're careful, we could survive on those."
"No," Elijah said immediately. "We've come too far to retreat now."
Kai nodded as though he had expected that answer. "The second option is to borrow enough to keep the projects running until they start paying for themselves. There are lenders in the 8th District who handle this kind of thing, but they aren't bankers. They're criminals like us, their interest rates would make your head spin, and they'll only lend to people who can offer collateral."
Elijah's heart sank. "You mean territory."
"Territory is the obvious choice, although they might accept a share of our revenue or a stake in the businesses instead," Kai said. "It's a dangerous path, and I don't suggest it lightly, but it may be the only way to keep moving forward."
Elijah slumped back against the couch as the failed research, the endless calls from Vice Leaders, and now this crisis pressed down on him all at once.
"I can't do this," he said, his voice hollow. "I can't figure out the breathing techniques, I can't fix the money, and I can't be everywhere at once answering everyone's questions. I'm tired, Kai, and I don't know what to do anymore."
Kai laughed, and the bright, unexpected sound made Elijah turn his head with a mixture of confusion and annoyance. "What's so funny?"
"You are," Kai said, his blue eyes warm. "You're sitting in a pile of coffee cups, looking like death warmed over and telling me you can't do this, when I've heard you say that a hundred times. Every time, you've figured it out, because you're too stubborn to give up."
Elijah let out a breath with no humor in it. "This is different, because it isn't a fight I can win with strength or willpower. I'm trying to understand something I don't have the foundation for, while leading a gang that's falling apart because I pushed it too hard and too fast."
Kai leaned forward and held his gaze. "You aren't leading this gang alone, and that's what you keep forgetting. Henry can handle training, Aurora can handle the clubs, Tristan can handle the patrols, Jack can handle security, Daniel can handle the hotel, and I can handle the finances. You need to trust us with our jobs so you can focus on the one thing nobody else here can do, which is creating and upgrading breathing techniques."
For a long moment Elijah stared into the middle distance, and then he nodded slowly. "You're right. I've been trying to do everything, and I've done nothing well because I'm spread too thin."
"That's the first sensible thing you've said all week," Kai said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Now get up."
Elijah did not move. "My body doesn't need sleep while my Ki core is full, but my mind is exhausted, and that isn't the kind of tired a full core can fix."
Kai studied the dark circles under his friend's eyes and the faint tremor in his hands, signs he had seen in fighters who pushed themselves too far and once in his own reflection.
"Then you need to rest," Kai said gently. "Before that, though, I have an idea."
He connected his phone to the speaker by the window, and as the opening notes filled the room, Elijah recognized the song immediately. It was the one they had argued about in the car on the day they picked up Amy from the train station, and the one that had played on repeat through the long summers of their childhood.
Kai began singing along in a rough but sincere voice. "As long as I got you, my brother, I know that we can make it through the night. As long as you're standing next to me, there's nothing in this world that we can't fight."
Elijah laughed and pushed himself up from the floor with energy he had not known he still possessed. The exhaustion remained, but something inside him had loosened, and he joined Kai for the chorus in a harmony that was imperfect but genuine.
"When the world comes crashing down and the walls are closing in, I don't need to be afraid because I know where I've been. We've walked through fire, we've walked through rain, we've walked through every kind of pain, and as long as I got you, my brother, I know we'll rise again."
When the final notes faded, Kai turned to him with a grin that held equal parts mischief and determination. "My idea is the same one we used back when we had nothing. We need a lot of money quickly, and there's only one way to get it in this city without selling our souls to a lender."
Elijah's eyes widened as he understood. "You're talking about the underground fights."
"I'm talking about the higher underground rings," Kai said, his expression turning serious. "You, me, and Jack would enter, and Henry could join us when he gets back if he's willing. If all of us win, the prize money could reach a million dollars, which would be more than enough to carry us until the new businesses start paying off."
Elijah weighed the risks against the rewards. Kai stood at the peak of the Beginner Knight Stage and was close to breaking through, while Jack had already reached the Advanced Knight Stage with stats that exceeded even Elijah's own. They could win, and they could win decisively, and the money would buy them the time they needed.
"Okay, we'll do it," Elijah said, his voice steady despite his exhaustion. "It won't be tonight, though, because I need to rest and be at full strength before I step into that cage again."
Kai smiled and held the bedroom door open for him. "Then sleep, and I'll handle everything else. When you wake up, we'll make a plan and win back everything we've lost."
Elijah crossed the room on heavy feet and collapsed onto the bed without bothering to remove his shoes or jacket. As the pillow pressed soft against his cheek and the blanket settled warmly over him, he closed his eyes and, for the first time in seven days, let the darkness take him.