[This story is complete and being edited.]
Armed racing is Atropellado's deadliest and most profitable sport. And wherever there is profit in Atro, there is crime.
Gervassio Blaze has left his most prized possession - ownership of the armed racing f...
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Revealing Lucia to Rose would be a double-edged sword. If G.B. was still breathing, Lancet was sure the man would've had an aneurysm at the idea. In all of Gervassio's years getting into Andrew Gloxinia's crosshairs, and vise versa, in spite of shared business interests, Gervassio never wholeheartedly trusted the Gloxinias.
Lancet was spared whatever history lesson that clarified why the two families were at each other's throats in the first place. When the racer was a young blood, too curious for his own good, he was shot down every time he asked G.B. about it.
"It's personal. Some day you'll know, but today is not that day," the Blaze boss would mumble before shooing him away on some new errand.
"I guess that day will never come now," Lancet thought, "And I can no longer rely on you for Lucia now that you're gone."
Lancet Steel, after earning his stripes, was the epitome of loyalty to Gervassio Blaze. The then sixteen-year-old boy, now a man, had never asked for much aside from a roof over his head, food on the table, and people to call family.
Gervassio gave him all of those things, and Lancet returned it tenfold, or more accurately, by the millions. Once Lancet joined the races, he was an immediate fan favorite, and his championships raked in a steady income that only elevated the Blaze's standing worldwide.
And yet, for all of his loyalty, while Gervassio could bury him in jewels or women, the one thing Lancet truly wanted, was denied to him.
"I've tried," G.B. would say, "But we can't get past their border security. Maybe once the war's died down."
That was the problem. The wars never died down.
Lancet had tried and failed to persuade his boss that this was the cruel reality of the poverty-stricken country he was born in. There would never be an ideal time to sneak into the country. Just as there was never an ideal time to flee from it. Lancet was one of the rare few that not only made it out alive, but with all of his limbs and faculties intact.
He was a fugitive there now. If he dared to cross over into his country's soil again, he'd be shot on site. Not that Lancet wouldn't have tried anyway, but G.B. had decided that Steel's life was just too valuable to risk.
And now here he was, face to face with Rose Gloxinia, about to not reveal his greatest weakness, but to disobey every instruction Gervassio had ever given him about her family.
I really wish I knew why you despised Andrew Gloxinia so much...
"I see you're still upset," he offered when he noticed Rose was still beet red and frowning. "I was only trying to disarm you. If I had wanted you dead..."
It was then that Lancet revealed the shiv he had hidden in his slacks. Her eyes widened and just as he saw her body go rigid, he slid the weapon across the table, out of harm's way with her Aconitum.
