"I like the way you think." A cigarette hanging out of his mouth, Sheffield sent his wife a message asking her to go to bed early.

There was a moment of silence in the smoking area. Matthew didn't wait for the man who was furiously tapping away at his phone to acknowledge him. "So, after this, go ahead and assume command of the Violet Eagles. When you have time, of course."

Sheffield looked up from his phone, and stared at Matthew. It was a look that said, 'Seriously?' "Now I know you're a masochist. Erica won't be happy." Matthew knew quite well what he was doing. He was muscling in on Erica and Chantel's territory. But he only focused on what he wanted.

"She has me. What does she need a goon squad for? No, I'll be the person she goes to when she needs help." The longer Erica wielded the power of the Violet Eagles, the more dangerous she'd become.

Sheffield put his phone away, and started stroking his chin thoughtfully. "But your wife is using your name to gather power. The branch of the Violet Eagles in our city alone has more than one thousand members. It's a challenge to keep them all in line."

Not to mention the number of people in K Country involved with them. Membership there dwarfed their numbers in Y City. It required a generous amount of funds to maintain an international cartel of that size.

'Matthew knows how to pile on the workload, ' Sheffield sighed.

"If the Violet Eagles were formed using my name, then you can use your name to take over, right?" Sheffield was well-known in gangland. And these guys weren't even all that violent, mostly preferring to run ATM cloning schemes, protection rackets, etc. Should be easy for him to get a piece of the action, and leverage that into control.

Joshua knew what Sheffield was talking about. With a smile, he quietly looked at the two big shots who were jockeying for advantage. Matthew was no dummy, and neither was Sheffield. It was just that neither of them wanted to handle this.

But Sheffield lost it first. He always did. Erica might be able to get Matthew's goat quite easily, but he was better at dealing with Sheffield.

This time was no exception. Sheffield snorted at Matthew, "Don't play dumb. You know that's a damn lot of cash! And I can't get it easily, thanks to your dear sister. She's starting to clamp down on the money we have. I want to see some moolah first before I take this on! You hear me?"

Matthew

looked at the man lying next to her pitifully. "Matthew, I didn't see you when I opened my eyes today. I thought you left me!"

Her distressed look made his heart ache. He lowered his head and kissed her on the lips. Touching her face gently, he said, "That'll never happen, honey. That's not me."

Erica was his life. There was no way he'd abandon her.

"My back hurts. And it itches. Think it'll leave a scar?" When she reclined on the bed, she needed to lie on her side.

"Don't worry. I got this. Sheffield is working hard preparing some traditional herbs for you. Trust in his skill." He'd love her, scar or no. It didn't matter to him. But if she was really broken up about it, he'd take her to get plastic surgery. They could cover up a scar like that, no problem.

She nodded. "Where are the kids? Are they okay?"

She drifted in and out of consciousness. When she woke up this afternoon, Debbie told her the kids were fine. She was hoping to get them on video chat, but she fell asleep before that could happen.

"Of course they are. They came to see you when you were asleep." Matthew wasn't about to tell her about Damian. He was in the ward opposite hers. He was afraid she'd spend her time worrying about him and not be able to get a decent night's sleep. She needed to heal.

"Ahh. They're so sweet!"

She believed him implicitly, and Matthew felt relieved. That was one less thing to worry about. "Yeah, they are. It's late. You need your rest. We'll talk about it tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay!" And he was right. Erica was sleepy. She put her arm around Matthew's waist and closed her eyes.