The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 853

Tyler unclipped his seatbelt and got out of the car.

He walked straight to the grey car and pulled its driver's door open so hard the hinge screamed.

The driver was a thin old man in a cardigan, his glasses knocked crooked. His wife sat beside him, holding her neck.

"I'm sorry," the man said. "I'm so sorry, I was looking for my daughter's place, I didn't see behind me—"

"You didn't see me?" Tyler took him by the cardigan and dragged him out onto the road. "You crawl out in front of me like a snail, and you didn't see?"

"Please, young man, it was an accident—"

Tyler hit him in the face. The man's glasses went skidding across the tarmac.

He fell against his own car, and Tyler hit him again, and again, until he sat down in the broken glass with blood running out of his nose.

"Stop it!" the woman screamed through the window. "He's sick! Stop it!"

All along the road, the party had got out of their cars to watch. Nobody moved to help.

"Tyler!" Chloe called, with her own phone held up. "People are filming!"

"Let them film," said Tyler. "Let the whole harbour see it."

"Look at me." Tyler crouched in front of the man and slapped his cheek, almost gently. "Do you know whose car you just scratched?"

"No... no, sir..."

"Tyler Hunt. The Hunts of the north shore. Say it."

"Tyler Hunt," the man whispered. "I'm sorry, Mr. Hunt. Please. Have mercy. I'll pay for it. I'll pay for everything. Please don't hurt my wife."

"Pay for it?" Tyler laughed. "You couldn't pay for my bumper if you sold your house. Get your car off my road."

He stood up, wiped his knuckles on the man's cardigan, and looked round at the whole street watching him.

Then he walked back, got into the driver's seat, and started the engine as if nothing had happened.

"Right," said Tyler. "Where were we? The Royal."

"Tyler," said Patricia. "You already gave him mercy. If I were you, I'd have killed that old man."

"Well, I'm always a good guy." He smiled at Nora in the mirror. "You see? I'm a merciful person, Miss Hale."

Nora answered nothing, which made the whole situation awkward.

"Tyler, is the place close now?" said Patricia.

"It's just round this turn."

The Royal was the newest karaoke palace in the harbour district, all gold doors and purple lights. A manager in a shiny suit came running across the marble with both hands out.

"Mr. Hunt! What an honour! I'm so sorry, the Imperial Hall is booked tonight. May I offer you the Queen's Hall?"

"Whatever," said Tyler. "And two bottles of your oldest cognac. For the birthday girl."

"That's twenty thousand dollars a bottle, Mr. Hunt."

"Did I ask?"

The manager looked as if he might cry with happiness.

The Queen's Hall had gold sofas and a screen as big as a cinema. Every time the microphone came near Alex's corner, somebody took it the other way.

"Not him," said Chloe, when it nearly reached him. "He'll only bark."

Alex sat in the corner with a glass of water and watched the lights go round.

Then Nora sang, low and clear, and for three minutes even Tyler stopped everything to look at her.

"Another one, Nora!" they shouted when she finished.

"No," said Nora. Then she walked past every boy who had made room for her and sat down in the corner next to Alex.

She watched him for a while with a small, worried line between her eyebrows.

"I asked around about Tyler Hunt," she said at last, very low. "A boy at the yacht club crossed him last summer. A week later somebody broke the boy's leg in a car park. Tyler's father paid the family, and that was the end of it."

"Then I'll keep my legs out of his way."

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