?Chapter 346:


    Every time Katelyn closed her eyes, the lifeless faces of the man and the scarred viin haunted her. Their eyes had remained wide open until the very end. The smell of blood still lingered in the air, thick and suffocating, almost as if it were clinging to her. More than a hundred people had died during the riot.


    Katelyn couldn’t shake it off.


    She had taken a life.


    It was already three in the morning, and she couldn’t sleep. Fumbling with her phone, she paused for a moment before typing out a message to Vincent: “Mr. Adams, are you still awake?”


    His reply came quickly: “I am.”


    Her grip on the phone tightened without her noticing. Her fingers trembled above the keyboard as she hesitated, then finally sent another message: “I can’t sleep. Can Ie over?” She worried it might be misunderstood, so she quickly added, “I’ll sleep on the floor or the couch. I’m just too scared to be alone right now.”


    Since the incident with Marlon, Katelyn had found herself feeling more at ease whenever Vincent was around. It happened without her even realizing it.


    Maybe it was because he was the only friend she had at the moment. Or perhaps, on some deeper level, she knew she could trust him. She trusted him without question.


    She had to be ready for the days ahead, and she needed her rest. Vincent replied simply: “OK.”


    Katelyn didn’t hesitate. Grabbing her nket and pillow, she crept to his door and knocked softly.


    Vincent opened it and stepped aside. “Take the bed,” he said. “I’ve got work to do, and I might be up all night. I’ll use the couch.”


    Full updat3z h3r3: g??lnoνels.??????


    The words Katelyn had been about to say stuck in her throat. She opened her mouth carefully.


    “Mr. Adams, it’ste. You should get some rest. I’ll sleep on the couch.”


    The couch, with its plush leather, lookedfortable enough for anyone to sleep on.


    As she spoke, she set her nket and pillow down on the couch.


    Having someone nearby eased the knot of anxiety in her chest.


    Vincent’s voice turned firm. “No.”


    He then picked up her nket and spread it on the bed.


    Seeing the firmness in his voice, Katelyn decided not to push back. She quietly settled onto the bed.


    The room was identical to hers, yet lying there, she could detect the faint scent of tobo lingering in the air. It was his.


    Katelyn had always been sensitive to smells and usually hated the odor of smoke. But strangely, this faint trace didn’t bother her. She found it oddly alluring.


    “If you feel uneasy or need anything, just let me know,” Vincent said. “You might have nightmares tonight.”


    Instinctively, she pulled the nket tighter around herself, trying to push tonight’s events out of her mind.


    Her eyes flickered over to Vincent, curiosity sparking. “Mr. Adams, when was the first time you killed someone?”


    The recent chase had shown her how effortlessly Vincent could pull the trigger.


    He fired without a blink, every shot deliberate and precise. Each pull of the trigger had brought someone down.


    It wasn’t just the precision, though. It was his calmness. He handled killing like he was closing a deal in his office.


    Katelyn often saw that same chilling calmness in his eyes—the kind she’d seen in people on the edge of madness.


    Vincent leaned back on the couch, lost in thought as he considered her question. “Maybe when I was nine.”


    “Nine?”


    Katelyn’s eyes widened, disbelief washing over her.


    At nine, she had been ying dress-up and worrying about her dolls. Yet Vincent had already learned how to take a life?


    His expression darkened, his gaze turning cold, as though he had dredged up memories he would rather have forgotten. “Have you heard of the ‘Wolf Management Principle’?”


    Katelyn nodded slowly.


    “It’s a brutal management approach,” Vincent continued. “It thrives on fiercepetition, pushing the survival of the fittest. The weakest are regrly cut to maintain performance. It’s often called ‘wolf culture.''”


    Vincent nodded, but his eyes remained distant. “That’s right, but you missed one thing. It wasn’t applied to apany. It was the rule within the Adams family.”


    .


    .


    .<fna164> ???? ????s? ???????s ?? fι?dnοvel</fna164>