Maluck had officially added “mildly enjoying the free lottery spin” to his daily routine.

  Breakfast? Check.

  Gym? Check.

  Hitting up every convenience store in a ten-mile radius and using The Appraiser’s Lens to cherry-pick only the winning lottery tickets? Absolutely.

  It wasn’t a perfect system. He couldn’t exactly pick the million-dollar jackpot—those were random. But the smaller wins? Oh, those were fair game.

  So far, he’d amassed another $20,000 in scratch-offs, and he was starting to recognize which store clerks didn’t care, which ones were too oblivious to notice, and which ones gave him the side-eye but took his money anyway.

  “Man you buy a lot of those, do you win?”

  “Nyah,….”

  Maluck was pulling in around $5,000 a day from this little hustle, and he had already worked out a system to keep it running smooth.

  About $2,500 of it came from smaller wins under $250—the kind that didn’t raise eyebrows when cashed in at convenience stores. He’d cycle through different locations to avoid getting too familiar, but honestly, most clerks just shrugged and handed over the cash. It wasn’t their money, after all.

  The bigger wins, the ones that couldn’t be cashed at stores and had to be claimed at official lottery offices? Those required a little more planning.

  That’s where Theo came in. Maluck had been sending him on one-time trips to claim the larger winnings, keeping things low-profile. But he knew he couldn’t keep using the same guy every time—even Theo would start raising suspicions if he kept showing up to cash out big winners.

  So, if Theo started getting heat, Maluck had a rotation system in place.

  Chloe, Soi, Cass, and even himself—they’d each take turns cashing in tickets. That way, no single person ever looked like they were on a hot streak, and no one would start asking too many questions.

  It wasn’t some massive fortune, but it was a nice, small, tappable source of income—completely separate from the charity money, Lucky Star funds, or his personal bank account.

  Just a little pocket change from the universe.

  ***

  Maluck was practically buzzing with excitement as he headed to Cars 4 a Better Future HQ to play his new favorite game: pretend secretary.

  Dennis was already waiting, looking his usual mix of nervous and exhausted. “So, all I have to do is ask two questions?”

  “Yep.” Maluck smirked. “I’ve got a big bullshit meter, Dennis. All I have to do is look at someone to know what’s up. For example…” He leaned forward. “What do you think about the company? And are you thinking about stealing from it?”

  Dennis snorted. “I think this company is a piece of shit and I wish I never got involved in it. And no, I’m not thinking about stealing from it.”

  Maluck grinned. “See? I can tell you’re telling the truth.”

  Dennis did not look particularly thrilled by this revelation.

  “Hooray,” he muttered.

  “Hey, buddy, I know I’ve got you in a rock and a hard place situation,” Maluck said, patting Dennis’s shoulder. “But here’s something to cheer you up. Keep doing a good job, and you’re getting a big bonus.”

  Dennis perked up slightly. “Oh?”

  “Yeah. By the way, what’s your actual salary?”

  Dennis exhaled. “$50,000.”

  Maluck nodded. “And I know you’re drowning in gambling debt. How much do you owe right now?”

  Dennis hesitated, clearly embarrassed. “About $7,000… to various casinos.”

  Maluck clicked his tongue. “Well, at least you didn’t have to pay off the bikers. I paid them off for you.”

  Dennis frowned. “You set me up on that trap.”

  Maluck shrugged. “Still would’ve been money you owed.”

  Dennis did not look grateful. At all.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Maluck sighed. “Tell you what. After these interviews are done, I’ll take you to the casino, and we’ll go spend $10,000.”

  Dennis blinked. “Really?”

  “Yep. First, we’ll pay off all your markers. Once your debts are cleared, we’ll gamble whatever’s left. So if we have $3,000 left after paying off your debts? That’s what we play with.”

  Dennis’s entire demeanor changed. His eyes lit up with hope.

  “That sounds great!”

  “Alright.” Maluck smirked. “Do a good job in these interviews, and don’t let them know I’m anything more than a secretary.”

  “Yes, sir!” Dennis said, suddenly much more enthusiastic about his job.

  After whacking Dennis with the stick multiple times already, Maluck figured it was time to dangle a little bit of the carrot.

  The man had been through a rough couple of days. First, he got blackmailed into switching allegiances. Then, he lost all his money at the casino. After that, he got saddled with a mountain of work, and now he had to conduct “performance reviews” while Maluck sat back and played secretary.

  It was only fair to throw him a bone.

  Besides, a desperate employee was sloppy. A slightly hopeful employee? Much more useful.

  ***

  Maluck leaned back in his chair, flipping his pen between his fingers as he looked over the final list. Out of the twenty managers they had interviewed, five were actively stealing from the company. Not just a little skimming either—these guys had been treating Cars 4 a Better Future like their personal piggy bank.

  Maluck slid the list across the desk to Dennis. “These five—gotta go.”

  Dennis hesitated. “How do you know?”

  Maluck tapped his nose. “I can smell thieves a mile away.”

  Dennis still looked skeptical, but at this point, questioning Maluck’s methods wasn’t worth the stress. He sighed and took the list. “Alright… should I fire them all at once?”

  Maluck shook his head. “No. Make it subtle. If we axe them all at the same time, the real bosses running this scam might start sniffing around. And remember—they don’t know we’ve taken over yet. We’ve got three months to figure out a long-term solution before Harrison Lowell starts asking questions. Otherwise?”

  Maluck grinned. “You and me? Totally screwed.”

  Dennis gulped. “Got it.”

  Maluck clapped him on the shoulder. “Good man. Now, let’s go pay off your markers and make some money.”

  Dennis perked up immediately. “Now that’s the kind of management style I can get behind.”

  ***

  POV : Sentinel Security Institute

  Chloe walked into Sentinel Security Institute feeling a little less like an imposter and a little more like someone who might actually belong here.

  Day 1 had been a wake-up call—she wasn’t as skilled as she thought. Sure, she could break into an office with a paperclip, but these guys weren’t teaching parlor tricks. They were teaching serious infiltration skills. And now? She was determined to keep up.

  Her instructor for the day, Grady, was already in the training room when she arrived. Today was individualized training. This one on one training was available for the corse. For a price. And yeah, Lucky Star Ventures had paid that quickly. Money for training to be the best, was definitely a justiable expense.

  The guy looked like he had been born in a military bunker and raised by security cameras.

  “You’re early,” he said, checking his watch.

  “Yeah, well,” Chloe stretched her arms. “Figured I should at least pretend I’m taking this seriously.”

  Grady smirked. “Good. Because today, we’re testing practical skills.”

  Chloe blinked. ”…Like what?”

  Grady’s smirk widened. “Breaking and entering.”

  Chloe was given a lockpicking kit and shoved into a room with six different locks mounted on a board—padlocks, deadbolts, keycard readers, even a ridiculously expensive biometric one.

  “Your job is to get through as many as you can in ten minutes.”

  Chloe cracked her knuckles. “Easy.”

  Ten minutes later, she had successfully picked… one.

  One sad little padlock.

  Grady, arms crossed, shook his head. “You’re doing it wrong.”

  “Oh, wow, thanks for the tip. Super helpful.” Chloe scowled at the lock she was definitely going to throw out a window.

  “You’re treating it like a puzzle,” Grady said. “It’s not. A puzzle wants you to solve it. A lock doesn’t want you anywhere near it.”

  ”…So what do I do?”

  Grady picked up a cheap-looking metal shim, slid it into a different padlock, and—click. It popped open.

  “Most people spend all their time learning how to pick locks. Real pros learn how to cheat.”

  Chloe stared. ”…Wait, that works?”

  Grady tossed her the shim. “Figure it out.”

  After an hour of lock-breaking shortcuts, Grady moved her into a different exercise.

  “Alright,” he said, leading her to a dark hallway lined with cameras. “Walk through this hallway without setting off the motion detectors.”

  Chloe looked down the hall. ”…There’s like twenty of them.”

  “Yep.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  Grady smirked. “Good thieves don’t deal in ‘possible.’”

  Chloe took a deep breath and tried to remember every stealth trick she had ever seen in a movie.

  Step one: Move slow.

  Step two: Stay low.

  Step three: Roll when in doubt.

  She shimmy-crawled, contorted, and practically breakdanced her way through half the hallway before—

  BEEP.

  The red light blinked.

  Chloe froze. ”…I hate this place.”

  Grady, watching on the monitors, laughed his ass off.

  After lunch, Grady sat her down for something completely different.

  “Alright, lesson three. If you don’t need to break in, don’t. The best thieves get other people to let them in.”

  Chloe perked up. “Oh! Like scams?”

  Grady sighed. ”…Don’t phrase it like that, but yes.”

  Her new challenge was to get into a locked office without using force.

  “You can lie, trick, or convince. Doesn’t matter how, but you can’t break the door.”

  Chloe thought for a second, then knocked.

  A guy inside yelled, “Who is it?”

  Without missing a beat, Chloe yelled back, “Package delivery!”

  The door unlocked immediately.

  Grady stared at her.

  Chloe grinned. “Listen, people love packages.”

  At the end of training, Grady actually looked impressed.

  “Alright, you’re rough, but you’re catching on.”

  Chloe wiped some sweat off her forehead. “So… that means I passed, right?”

  Grady smirked. “You survived. That’s step one.”

  Chloe grumbled. “I liked the lockpicking part better.”

  As she walked out of Sentinel Security Institute, she checked her phone. A message from Maluck.

  Maluck: How was school, champ?

  Chloe: Got owned by motion sensors and almost died from a lockpicking-related crisis. Also, social engineering is basically just being annoying until people give up.

  Maluck: Sounds like you learned a lot.

  Chloe: Yeah. Apparently, I need more tools. Can I expense some lockpicks?

  Maluck: Fine, but make sure you put “educational purposes” in the memo line, Soi is gonna lose it. Hehehe.