Page 9 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 1-4 (The Residency Boys #6)

Damian: Hope you’re sleeping well. Tell me when you’re awake.

Jun curled up in a ball, elbows pressed to the mattress next to his knees, and typed back. Awake. There’s a cat.

“Damn, you’re flexible.”

Jun craned his neck up. Mi Hi twisted her lips to the side and nodded at his posture. “I can’t do that.”

“I’m a dancer?” Jun offered. They’d been over this yesterday, hadn’t they?

“I know. I know. I’ve seen your videos. You’re like crazy flexible. It’s just…seeing it like this is different.”

Awkward. W hile so many people knew of him, he wasn’t a real person to most of them.

He pushed his lips together and shrugged.

“Well. You can hang out here or come down to the main floor. I’m going to run out and get stuff for breakfast.”

BoBo wandered back and flopped against Jun’s face, purring.

“I think BoBo has spoken.” Mi Hi knee-walked out of the bed and grabbed clothes. “Take care of each other, boys. I’ll be back.”

“Do you need your phone?”

“Is your man texting you?”

“Yeah.”

“Keep it.” Mi Hi disappeared down the stairs.

Jun crouched on his elbow so he could use his hands to pet BoBo. He didn’t know what the next day held, or even the next twenty-four hours, but here, right now, texting Damian and petting a cat felt pretty good.

The app pinged. Still on the plane. Three more hours to go. We’re working on retrieving your passport. We have to decide how to retrieve you next.

Jun puffed out his cheeks and texted back with his thumb: Who is “we”?

The little typing dots bounced up and down. BoBo purred. Jun rocked back and forth, his butt in the air.

Eventually, Damian’s answer arrived: Me and my mentor and dom, Richard Reevesworth.

Jun sucked in a big breath, staring at the screen. BoBo lifted his head and pawed at Jun’s hand. Pet me. The rest of the world doesn’t matter. PET ME!

Jun’s left hand picked up the motion over BoBo’s back. He texted with the thumb of his right hand. Why? I mean, I don’t understand?

He left it at that and just sent it. Inside his head, thoughts ran around like hamsters in a hamster wheel surrounded by two rats chasing each other and a parrot observing it all from above, yelling encouragement to stir up more confusion.

He dropped his forehead to the bed and groaned. But since his hand kept moving, BoBo was not disturbed. If anything, he purred back and stretched out one leg, resting his hind paw against Jun’s ear.

It took him way too long to remember he could safely use Mi Hi’s phone for whatever he wanted.

He jumped over to a browser and searched Richard Reevesworth’s name.

The entire first page of results were recent newspaper articles about a double kidnapping, a shooting with a Russian operative, and a triple hospitalization.

He shook himself, shivered, and then did another full-body shake before going back to a comforting rocking back and forth.

BoBo tapped him with a paw: Seriously, human, settle down and pet me. There is nothing that petting me cannot fix.

Jun narrowed his eyes at the cat. I don’t agree.

BoBo blinked once. When Jun’s hand continued with the petting, he let his head flop back onto the blankets.

Jun: Your Reevesworth person just got shot. Why is he flying?!!!

Damian responded immediately. Richard is fine.

Jun scowled. Then our definitions of fine are very different!

Damian’s typing dots bounced along merrily. He had the best surgeons in the region and immediate attention. He’s healed well. It’s been weeks.

Jun thumped his head against the bed in between punching in his reply. Why are you helping me?

Damian’s reply came back so fast the little bouncing dots didn’t get to do any dancing at all. Because you’re my person, remember?

How could he be so glad and so scared all at the same time that Damian was going to such extremes to help? Why did it feel like such a threat?

Part of him wanted to run to somewhere Damian could never find him, and the other part of him wanted to throw himself in Damian’s arms.

* * *

Damian

Local security met Damian and Richard curbside at the airport with two cars and an interpreter sent out from the local branch office of Reevesworth Industries. The middle-aged woman, Mung, smiled and bowed toward Damian, greeting him in Korean. “It’s been a while.”

Damian grinned back and bowed just a fraction lower.

He outranked her now, but she had had a small part in his education years previous, and he was younger than her by at least a decade.

She was a consummate professional; Richard would be in good hands if Damian was not at his side.

“Every time I’ve visited, you’ve been elsewhere. ”

She smiled and nodded to the side. “Many trips. Saudi Arabia last week.”

“They’re keeping you on the road.”

She smiled a little wryly. “Perhaps I enjoy being on the road.”

They all entered the SUVs. Damian texted Jun. On the way to the hotel. About forty-five minutes out.

Mung sat in the back seat of the seven-seat SUV. She leaned forward to Damian but spoke in English. “There is media presence at the hotel.”

Damian rubbed his forehead with the knuckle of his thumb. “How intense?”

“Maybe twenty people right now.”

“We can handle twenty.” Damian glanced at Richard.

Richard nodded in agreement. They’d handled worse.

Bryce texted. BBB3 is claiming they don’t have the passport. They say J has it and that he’s not available.

Damian grimaced. It was a move he’d seen as a possible response, but still, it eliminated a range of options. If Bryce pushed, then he’d reveal that he knew Jun did not have his passport. And that would put Bryce at risk.

There were two next logical steps: breaking into BBB3 and searching the premises or, secondly, and more legally, having Jun report his passport as lost or stolen. Though then he would be at the whims of the Korean government for a reissue.

Damian turned to Richard. “I think I’ll pay his company a visit now.”

Richard raised an eyebrow. Damian turned his phone so Richard could see Bryce’s text. With Richard watching, Damian went into Jun’s text stream and tapped out: Is there anyone who would be willing to walk into BBB3 with me? Someone who belongs there but willing to help you?

Jun started and stopped texting several times. Finally, he wrote back. Gigi. One of our choreographers. I think she’s still here. I don’t know her number. Family name Ricardo. But I’m not sure she has direct access to the office any more than I do.

Damian shot a note off to Collin. With the virtual team or Ash behind him, someone would have a number for Gigi soon.

Collin wrote back in less than ten minutes. This is the number on her professional profile for South Korea.

Damian saved it in his contacts and shot off a text. This is Damian Sathers, attorney at law. I need a favor. Are you in Seoul now? We have a mutual friend in need of help. Can you meet me at Cheonggyecheon Stream? You pick the bridge.

Damian forced himself to turn off his screen. He looked out the window at the passing landscape, barely seeing it. On his own, he usually took the train. Traversing the same region by car was different but not novel enough to override the tension in his belly

It was ten long minutes of waiting before his phone buzzed. He picked it up, hopeful.

Unknown number: After all I did for you, and you can’t even give your old man a call .

It was badly spelled. He had to read it twice to be sure he had the words right.

Not today, Satan. Damian mentally smacked himself.

He hit block on the number and slid it into his pocket.

Now there was an entirely new reason that he couldn’t see the landscape sweeping past the window of the SUV.

There was another face in his memory. One of the last times he’d seen that man in person, his face had been covered in blood. Blood Damian had put there.

Most times of the year, he could forget he had a family of origin, people tied to him outside of the family The Residency had grafted him into, but as Dalia had more children with birthdays hitting more months and then always during the Christmas season, the ties reawakened with the slightest touch of contact.

If he was quiet enough, they seemed to forget he existed.

When he sent gifts, they suddenly remembered he was gone.

If only they would just take the money and be content.

Some therapist from the past surfaced in his mind with a reminder. Money is energy. Where you spend it matters.

What good was he even doing sending the money? It wasn’t enough to change anything. It just…

It was penance.

I’m sorry. I got out. I don’t know how to rescue you. Forgive me for surviving. I care about the kids even if you don’t let me know them. Even if I can’t stand to be close enough to you to get to know them.

His phone buzzed again.

More slowly, he looked down again.

Gigi: Has our mutual friend gone for a night walk?

Damian: Yes.

Gigi: You better look like your LinkedIn profile picture. Can you be there in an hour? She finished the message with a screenshot of a map with a portion of the Cheonggyecheon Stream circled. It was near a waterfall. He knew the place well.

Damian checked his location and texted Gigi back. See you in an hour.

Richard read over Damian’s arm. “We should separate vehicles. Mung, could you ask the drivers to pull over somewhere soon?”

“You’ll meet Mi Hi for me?” Damian asked.

Richard nodded. His eyes met Damian’s, soft in a way that Damian knew he reserved for only certain situations. “We’ll be waiting for you.”

Damian left his bag with Richard and took only his briefcase. There wasn’t much in it, but it looked official.

* * *