Seeing things take an unexpected turn, Eleanor’s expression grew serious.
She slowly moved closer to Matthew, while unstrapping her watch and wrapping it around her fist.
In contrast to Eleanor’s tension, Matthew seemed extremely relaxed.
“Yes. It is indeed time to settle our old scores.”
“By the way, Pietro, I can’t quite remember how much money I owed you guys. Why don’t you tell me?” Matthew asked, playing dumb.
Pietro wasn’t very bright to begin with, so he naturally didn’t catch the underlying meaning.
Of course, even if he had, he wouldn’t have taken it seriously—after all, in his eyes, a pushover who could be easily manipulated a few months ago couldn’t possibly turn things around overnight.
“If I remember correctly, during your three years of school, you borrowed a total of twenty thousand dollars. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Then how much did I pay back?”
“Thirty thousand.”
“There you go…” Matthew spread his hands.
“Not only did I pay back the principal, but I also overpaid even by the highest market interest rates. Now, instead of me coming to ask for the overpaid money back, you’re coming to demand more money from me. Do you think that’s right?”
“Boss, he has a point,” a gang member nearby muttered in a low voice.
Pietro: “…”
“He has a damn point!” Pietro barked at the dim-witted gang member beside him, then turned to look at Matthew.
“Matthew Lawrence, you don’t actually think the interest of our Maggia is the same as a bank’s, do you?”
“I’ve done the math. Excluding the thirty thousand dollars you paid back, you still owe me twenty thousand!”
“Of course, you can choose not to pay—but you should know very well what the consequences of doing that are!” A cold light gleamed in Pietro’s sunken eyes, and his hand timely patted the bulging object hidden beneath his loose tracksuit.
Matthew naturally knew what that was.
He had long heard of the saying, “Land of the free, home of the daily gunfight.”
Seeing that the other party had a gun, Eleanor didn’t hesitate for a second and immediately shielded Matthew behind her.
“Sir, they have a gun,” she whispered a warning.
“I see it.” Matthew’s gaze swept over Pietro’s waist.
Just as the atmosphere grew tense and hostile, a cynical voice broke the silence.
“Yo—isn’t this Mr. Matthew Lawrence and Miss Eleanor Ross? Running into some trouble?”
Tony Stark and Happy pushed their way through the crowd.
Tony hadn’t wanted to meddle, but after hearing Happy in the car say that he knew Eleanor, he decided to step in and defuse the situation.
“Do you know Tony Stark?” Eleanor asked in a whisper, seeing how familiarly the man had greeted them.
“No… What about you?”
“I don’t know him either. But I do know the man beside him—back when he was still a boxer.”
One had to know that Matthew’s father had left behind many assets, including a promotion company specifically for signing boxers.
At that time, Happy Hogan was just an obscure boxer in the company.
After he lost a match, the company planned to let him go, but it was Eleanor’s allocation of a large amount of operational funds to the company that changed their minds.
Although Happy later left the ring to become Tony Stark’s personal bodyguard, this unintentional kindness had truly thrown him a lifeline when he was struggling to make a living.
This was also why he had been able to recognize Eleanor just from her back earlier.
Hearing Eleanor say she knew Happy, a flash of understanding crossed Matthew’s eyes.
Seeing someone suddenly barge in, Pietro’s already gloomy face darkened even further.
“Mr. Tony Stark, if you’re only here to chat, I suggest you find another place… We still have business to discuss here.”
“Discuss business? You?” Tony Stark scoffed mockingly.
If not for this incident, someone like Pietro would never have crossed paths with him in a lifetime.
Yet now he dared to speak of “discussing business” in front of him—the World was truly getting crazier and crazier.
“Actually, I already understood the ‘business’ you wanted to discuss just now. It’s nothing more than a few tens of thousands of dollars.”
Tony Stark took off a decorative ring from his finger.
“This ring is worth about two hundred thousand dollars. I don’t think the business you mentioned is worth anywhere near two hundred thousand, is it?”
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be taking this gentleman with me.”
Taking the ring, Pietro glanced at his lackey beside him.
The two muttered to each other for a moment.
When they looked back at Matthew and Tony, a flattering smile appeared on Pietro’s freckled face.
“Mr. Stark, you can take your friend with you this time.”
“However…” Pietro shifted his gaze to Matthew, his tone dripping with threat.
“Matthew, I think we will meet again.”
“When we meet next time, I hope you will personally pay off the money you owe. Otherwise, you know the rules of Maggia.”
After he spoke, a dead silence fell over the surroundings. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
It was as if even the sound of the nearby traffic had quieted down.
Hearing Pietro’s shameless words, Matthew was so amused that he actually laughed.
Wait, did you misunderstand something?
When did I ever say I was leaving?
You think you can just run after offending the abbot?
—It’s not that easy!
“Mr. Stark, this had nothing to do with you in the first place. You should leave first. I’m very grateful for your help in defusing the situation just now,” Matthew said to Tony.
Tony wanted to say something more upon hearing this, but in the next second!
Several cars bearing the Umbrella Corporation logo pulled up right beside them.
Immediately after, dozens of burly men with bulging waists piled out of the vehicles.
Before anyone could react, they had already pinned Pietro and his men to the ground.
Those who still wanted to resist were put straight to sleep with a swift elbow.
From the moment the cars parked to the end, the entire process took less than thirty seconds.
So much so that Pietro, the main party involved, didn’t even realize what was happening when he was pinned to the ground.
“Hey! Hey! Let go of me! Did you guys make a mistake?!”
“I didn’t do anything to Mr. Stark! I’m looking for that kid named Matthew!”
“Let me go! You’ve got the wrong guy! The wrong guy!!”
Pietro struggled frantically.
But the burly man on top of him was pinned like a massive boulder, completely motionless, making it extremely difficult for him to even breathe.
“No mistake,” Matthew said, looking down at Pietro, who was pinned to the ground.
He bent down and fished out the recently pocketed ring from Pietro’s pocket.
Matthew wiped the dust off it using Pietro’s clothes.
With a flick of his wrist, the ring drew a graceful arc through the air and was caught firmly by Happy beside Tony.
“It’s precisely because you wanted to find trouble with ‘that kid Matthew’ that they arrived so quickly.” Matthew squatted in front of him, a harmless-looking smile appearing on his face.
“Ross, I recall the headquarters needs some volunteers for experimental drugs, right? I think these guys have pretty good physiques… perfect for the role of volunteers.”
With that, Matthew’s expression turned cold.
“Take them away.”