"Then thank you for your help, Lorim." Joseph said, offering his hand.

"Come back whenever you like. I'll welcome you." He replied, and once again the handshake felt… warm… and his voice changed back to that sweet one just like before.

"Yeah…I will." Joseph said, and they stepped out of the store.

Meanwhile, back in the store, Lorim watched them leave with a smirk, a small spark of fire flickering in his eyes.

"He's different from what they say about him…" The female employee remarked as she stood next to him.

"Even I was surprised… his entire presence is like an anomaly, something that shouldn't exist. He could truly top them all."

"I don't know… he looked normal to me, at least until I saw his body…"

"The eyes," Lorim said, glancing at her. "The eyes never lie… and his, tell a story all on their own, a story that's just… too much." He turned away, a faint smirk on his face. "Ha… if I were just twenty years younger, how good would that be…"

Lorim straightened, rubbing the spot she'd smacked, a faint grin tugging at his lips. "Decades ago… seems like a lifetime," he muttered, his voice low, almost nostalgic.

Suddenly, a sharp slap landed on his ass. "Don't even think about that life,you left it. And you're old, your knees hurt, your joints hurt, so don't even think about swinging a gun like you did decades ago." She laughed.

He chuckled.. "Ah… nostalgia is a dangerous thing. But some sparks… they're hard to ignore." He said, glancing down on his hands. "Some people… they leave a mark, whether you want them to or not and he definitely did leave one."

The woman sighed. "Just don't get yourself tangled in it again. You've done enough chaos."

"And now I'm just waiting to have a heart attack… was it worth it to not die back then?" He sighed, glancing at the woman.

"Honestly, you've been tempting fate your entire life, Lorim. Heart attack or not… you've survived worse, and now you're remembering the past again. Some things are better left behind."

"Yeah, but when Cassian walks in, it all just comes back—the suffocating sense again… like my body wants to feel it again… how it feels to kill someone, how it feels to be on top of it all… huh, I'm truly old…"

The store felt quiet for a moment as Lorim's eyes flicked toward the exit again, and a faint smile tugged at his lips.

The past of the deadliest sicario never truly fades. Every feeling, every decision, every life taken… it all stays with him, shaping the man he is, even decades later.

"How did you know?" Amine asked as they were putting the bags in the trunk.

"I'd like to bullshit and say I just felt it, but no." He laughed. "I saw his tattoo, and well… some things didn't make sense about him, so I just pieced it together." He put the bags in. "Oh, and that woman at his side… she was strange too."

"Strange?" Hana asked, noticing that he hadn't mentioned anything about her.

"Yeah, I don't know what exactly, but I think she was in some cartel or something too. Maybe a bodyguard. His right hand didn't move at all when she walked or anything, just the left one."

Amine and Hana exchanged a look, and they knew exactly what he meant… though neither of them had even noticed it. Her right hand hadn't moved, it was positioned ready to draw her gun in an instant if needed.

They had truly met dangerous people… but at least nobody had died… so far.

"But I'm hungry. Let's eat some," he said, and he enjoyed it… enjoyed the feeling of getting hungry and actually knowing he could eat whatever he wanted.

Yeah, now hunger was not something to push away, but something he could truly satisfy.

"I know a good spot that sells spicy noodles and soup." Hana immediately said.

"I don't think so… my system can't handle that much spice." Joseph while rubbing his belly.

"But they have other options too… like, very good soups." Hana was… passionate about that place, just like how Amine was earlier about the store…

Once again, he was being… commanded to go somewhere… by women… but at least they now actually acted like human beings with emotions, not like slaves or maids… yeah, finally, but he forgot something.

"I didn't buy anything for you two, should we go back to the store?"

First, they didn't understand what he meant by it… but then they finally realized that he was talking about gifts.

"Oh, we don't need anything." Amine spoke, but it was too obvsies… it was in her voice that she wanted something from Désiré.

"Exactly. We are employees, and it would look bad if you only buy for us and leave out the other girls… it could lead to favoritism and imbalance in the—"

"Then I'll buy for everybody." Joseph interrupted… though it made sense what she wanted to say with it.

If he bought a gift for only them, it could lead to misunderstandings, that he favored them, maybe even that he fucked them or something. But he didn't want to buy the gift just to get pussy, he wanted to buy it to plant more loyalty in them, to remind them that he is human, after all, and a good Don… and maybe then have some pussy… well, the chance was still there.

Though the girls didn't really think about their pussies, no—Amine already knew what she wanted to get, like it was right before her eyes… that bag, that snow-white bag. Meanwhile, Hana got tangled up in her thoughts… she saw so many cute things in the store while Joseph was trying on the clothes that she didn't even know what to choose… and they weren't even in the store yet.

But who would decline a chance like this?

So yeah, they headed back to the store, which surprised Lorim pretty much. That spark in him became a fire as he spoke with Joseph while the girls selected their gifts and looked for the other girls too… and in the end, he dropped another forty grand…

Then from there, they headed to the restaurant Hana was talking about… but on the way, they noticed something… Joseph noticed something… that was exciting.

Three teenagers were beating the shit out of a fourth one in an alley, and on the ground was a plastic bag of weed… he pretty much knew he needed to go there and investigate it…