Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

Tristan leaned back slightly, but soon recovered and grinned, preening from the praise.

"Your song was extraordinary, too. If I wasn\'t there, you surely would\'ve deserved the victory. Too bad we are competing in the same city."

Nel laughed at Tristan\'s humor, making Tristan laugh together, and pulled Tristan away from the stage and toward a quieter hallway.

When he turned toward Tristan again, he was as serious as a rock.

"It\'s a wonder California didn\'t sink under the weight of your smugness yet. But I didn\'t come here to just congratulate you! Well, that too, but—Ugh. Listen, I saw these two again!"

Tristan frowned. It clicked a moment later.

"The thugs? They are still here? The security\'s been up on their ears even if performances went as usual."

Nel nodded.

"I… Well, after all that, I didn\'t want to hang around. The award ceremony is tomorrow, anyway. But as soon as I went to the parking lot—there they were! Just hanging around like nothing was wrong in the world! Jesus."

"They didn\'t notice you?"

"No, thank God. Maybe they wouldn\'t have recognized me if not for the makeup… I was too lazy to take that off, too… Anyway, Tristan, you can\'t leave through there. That\'s what I came to tell you. We have to avoid them somehow! Maybe even actually call the police…"

Tristan nodded.

"The warning is appreciated," he said with deep honesty.

Nel wasn\'t obliged to help him. Even when Tristan helped him out before, it was to save his own skin as well.

Now Tristan was thinking about what to do about the two pests.

He could change identities and walk out calmly. He even had a change of clothing fitting his Hayes identity.

However, after Nel\'s effort to warn Tristan, he couldn\'t just leave him on his own.

"Don\'t call the police. If they don\'t see the thugs pointing guns at us, I bet these two will slip away. They look like the type who knows how to."

If they weren\'t ready for risks, they wouldn\'t have stayed around for so long, waiting to deal with witnesses.

"Then what are we going to do?" Nel asked. "Maybe… sneak out from the back? Ah, damn, there are iron bars on all the first-floor windows, so that won\'t work…"

"I know someone who can help us."

Tristan was absentmindedly toying with his left ear, which currently didn\'t have the earring. Right now, it was hanging from the thin chain he wore under the shirt.

"Really? Someone who\'s not the police? That kinda sounds even more illegal, you know?"

Tristan chuckled.

"I guess. But he can make sure these two won\'t give us any more trouble. I will have to go out to meet him on my own, though. You should wait here until I give you the signal that it\'s all clear. What\'s your phone number?"

Nel blinked, but recited it from memory.

Tristan smirked and patted his shoulder before giving the other young man a slightly threatening gaze.

Slightly.

"Don\'t go out until then, and don\'t worry about me. The less you know, the more plausible deniability you have, get it?"

Nel nodded, dumbfounded.

This all was shady as fuck. Normally, he\'d never just obey a command like that.

Normally, he\'d already be calling the police, even if he didn\'t trust it much.

Yet Tristan\'s attitude inspired trust, despite still being shady as fuck.

It was paradoxical, but Nel didn\'t overthink it—he just accepted it as a fact.

"I will wait here. And then we can celebrate getting through that mess with burgers, whatcha think?"

Tristan chuckled.

"Deal."

***

Tristan walked to the parking lot dressed as Tristan Hayes, leaving his Gemello things stashed in a dressing room. People were already coming and going, but the place was so spacious that there still was some privacy if you hid between the rows of cars.

He soon spotted the duo Nel had talked about.

They sat in a car with tinted windows. However, one of them was smoking and opened the window, letting Tristan see what was happening inside.

Both of them were scanning the surroundings.

The place they parked at was in the view of the music hall\'s entrance, but slightly off—away enough for some privacy.

\'Time to go and kill two… no, three birds with one stone.\'

Tristan walked up past their car, acting like just a person walking somewhere past and only coincidentally getting close. These two still had at least one gun, after all.

But when he was only a couple of steps away from the cigarette smoker, Tristan suddenly lunged forward.

He crossed the distance like lightning.

One moment, they were just looking for the two troublesome loose ends, and the next moment Tristan grabbed the smoker\'s head and pressed a knife to his throat.

The cigarette fell onto the asphalt.

"What the—!"

"Shh," Tristan cut the thugs off. "You don\'t want to shout and attract anyone\'s attention to the illegal weapons you have, hm? If you want to keep your buddy\'s skin whole, be quiet and don\'t move."

"Who are you, bastard?! What do you want" the hostage asked frantically. A tighter press of the knife to his throat made him do it quietly.

"A friend of someone you crossed today," Tristan said.

He expertly held the hostage with one hand while unlocking the car door with another.

Covering the scene with his body from anyone who could walk past, Tristan pulled the hostage with him to the back seat of the car and closed it.

Now the tinted windows of the car protected Tristan from anyone who saw.

He grinned.

"So. You had one chance, exactly one chance to leave in one piece. Now… Have you heard about Mr. Andrew Pierce?"