Page 103

“Police!” one of the bystanders yells. “The police are here!”

“We have to go,” I snap, severing the ties around Monroe’s wrists, then grabbing her by the hand.

We take off running toward the exit. Our boots pound the cement floor as we shove through the chaos and leap over the turnstile. Monroe nearly stumbles, but I hoist her through and then sprint the rest of the way to the parking lot.

“Get in!” I shout, unlocking the Genesis from afar.

She throws herself into the passenger seat. I slide across the hood to the driver’s side, yanking the door open and jamming the key into the ignition.

The sports car lurches forward as two squad cars fly into the parking lot with lights flashing and sirens wailing. They’re none the wiser—at least at the moment—that the perpetrator has just whizzed past them on his way from the scene.

The Genesis blasts through the streets of Busan. We weave through traffic, cutting off any car that goes at a snail’s pace. I couldn’t slow down if I tried.

My pulse races. It hasn’t come down since the fight on the train platform. Blood still mars the back of my hands and the front of my shirt. Monroe’s breathing hasn’t slowed either; she’s sitting beside me in the passenger seat like she can barely contain her adrenaline rush.

“What’s going on?” she asks finally. “Where are we going?”

I glance at her, then back at the road. “I’m dropping you off at a hotel. Somewhere out of the way. Somewhere safe for now. I have business to handle.”

Immediately, I sense her vehement disagreement. Before she even utters a word.

“Nope,” she answers, shaking her head. “You’re not hiding me away somewhere again.”

“Monroe—”

“You’ve tried that already, Jin.Severaltimes,” she snaps. “You tried separating us, and look where it got us. I was almost kidnapped right after you sent me off.”

I grit my teeth as my jaw clenches, hating that she’s right.

“They’re coming for us no matter what we do. Don’t you get it? Whether we stay together or keep apart. It doesn’t matter anymore. So we might as well fight this together!”

Her voice trembles—not from fear—but from fury.

It earns a sidelong glance out of me. I stare at my rabbit and realize she’s not the same woman I met the night in that alley on Haeundae Beach. The woman who had kneeled in submission and begged and wept for her life. She could barely muster up enough courage to meet my eyes.

Monroe has finally come into her own. She’s embraced the fierceness that’s always lived inside her. Though she still possesses a kind heart and bright spirit, she’s learned to unleash the fire burning inside.

“I want to be your back up,” she says. “I’m not running. Not anymore.”

I nod once. “Alright. You can come. But you do as I say. Understand, Tokki-ya?”

Monroe smirks. “Yes, Jin-tae.”

“Don’t call me that.” I return her smirk with a grin despite myself, then punch the accelerator harder. “I didn’t know my little rabbit is such a smartass.”

She laughs and leans back in the seat, glancing out the window at the buildings we jet past. “So then where are we going?”

“The Claw Lounge.”

“But isn’t that where…”

“The lair of the Baekho Pa? Yes,” I answer tensely. My grip tightens on the wheel. As dusk arrives, the city blurs past in streaks of neon lights. “Something one of the Bulgeomhoe bastards said stuck out to me. He knew I was supposed to kill you.”

Her brows furrow as she glances over at me. “I’m not sure I’m following.”

“That was a direct order. No one outside a select few knew. So how did the Bulgeomhoe?”

“You think someone told them?”