Chapter 187: Scheming

Damian struggled to keep a straight face as Twenty returned to the room with an ugly expression stamped across his face. The man dropped into his chair, picked up his cup, and glared into it like it had personally offended him.

“Ungrateful ass hoe drooling over my brother?” he muttered under his breath before throwing the contents of the glass down his throat in one go.

Bam!

The cup slammed hard against the table as Twenty lifted his head and locked eyes with Damian.

“You promised you will help me pull some bitches in the club. You better keep your promise.”

Damian chuckled and nodded firmly. “Don’t worry, brother, just pick the time and I’ll be there.”

Twenty’s frown melted into a satisfied smile, a clear image already forming in his mind. There was someone specific he had been chasing, someone he had been failing to reach. If Damian could bridge that gap for him, then losing Kalya over this would not sting nearly as much.

“Alright, let’s get down to business!” Twenty said, energy flooding back into his voice.

He grabbed the file, flipped it open, and slid three photographs across the table toward Damian.

“We’ve got a closed church, an old community center, and a corner storefront.”

Damian studied each image carefully, one after the other. None of them were perfect, but perfection was not the goal at this stage. With enough renovation and proper conversion, any of them could serve as a temporary base while the real foundation was being laid elsewhere.

A faint burst of purple flames flickered into existence in his palm, consuming two of the photographs instantly, leaving only the image of the old church untouched. Damian dropped it back onto the table and leaned into his seat.

“How long will it take to purchase and renovate this place?” he asked.

“Three weeks max,” Twenty replied without hesitation.

Damian nodded, a satisfied smile forming. The timeline aligned perfectly with the first hearing of Councilman Delaney’s case. The sooner he established himself in the role of a priest, the faster he could begin shaping influence.

“And the cost of property purchase and renovations?”

“Two to three million dollars should cover everything.”

Damian reached for the cigarette pack and lighter without breaking eye contact. “I’ll send over a subordinate to hand you three million in cash first thing tomorrow.”

Buzz!

Twenty froze. For a brief moment, his mind failed to catch up with what he had just heard. All this time, he had assumed he was the one carrying the financial weight, that Damian would rely on him for funding. The man had even given him a five hundred thousand bonus just for handling a case.

“Come on, man, I sold my soul to the devil. The least thing I should lack is money. Don’t you think so?” Damian said, lifting his gaze as the flame touched the tip of the cigarette.

He dropped the lighter, leaned back, and took a slow drag before exhaling a steady stream of smoke, his eyes following the burning tip as if lost in thought.

Twenty remained silent for a moment, processing. Then it clicked.

It made sense.

Damian had never looked poor. Never behaved like someone constrained by money. Just mysterious. Calculated. Untouchable in ways he had not questioned deeply enough.

And those wives of his? Women like that did not stay without reason.

Only now did Twenty realize he had been underestimating him this entire time. If Damian charged him that much, then what kind of figures were attached to someone like Councilman Delaney? How much had this man already accumulated behind the scenes?

With his intelligence and abilities, money should have never been a limitation.

“Of course… of course,” Twenty replied, forcing a casual tone, though the shock still lingered in his voice.

Damian did not react. To be fair, his wealth was recent. Even he was still adjusting to it.

Pa!

“So we got the plan and the money down. All that’s left is time,” Twenty said, laughing as he grabbed the bottle again and refilled his glass.

He was genuinely excited now. From the very beginning, Damian had been someone he admired. After learning about his abilities, that admiration had only deepened. There had never been jealousy in his heart, only pride.

To think that a man like Damian, with all that power and wealth, still chose to work with him…

It meant something.

“So tell me… what’s your plan for the main church?”

Damian had been waiting for that question. He leaned back slightly, his thoughts already refined from hours of silent planning.

“To be honest, I’m thinking of buying a large piece of land for this project. The church itself should be the size of a football stadium. Come on, it’s our headquarters. But we also need a private section, a kind of… exclusive space within it. That’s where high-profile clients will be handled. And we leave extra land around it in case we need to expand or add new facilities later.”

Twenty nodded slowly, absorbing every word. He had never doubted the success of this idea, not with Damian’s abilities. In fact, he expected it to grow beyond anything they could currently imagine.

But projects of this scale required serious money. Building something the size of a stadium was far beyond cartel-level funding.

That was why Damian’s wealth mattered.

“So what’s your budget for this project?”

He lifted his glass and took a sip.

“Considering the size and scale, somewhere around two hundred million…”

Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffff!

The drink exploded out of Twenty’s mouth as he choked violently, clutching his throat, his eyes turning red as he coughed uncontrollably.

Two hundred million dollars.

If this man could casually commit that kind of money to a single project, then what exactly was his net worth?

“Are you serious?” Twenty managed to ask, his voice strained.

Damian chuckled at his reaction and nodded calmly.

“I’ll cover the cost of everything. I just need you to handle all the groundwork,” he said, as if he had just offered something trivial.

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