Page 111 of Ruthless Touch

She opens her door after my heavy banging on it. Her eyes widen as she drinks in the sight of me supporting Joon’s weight and his pale, sweaty face.

“No time to explain,” I say. “He’s in your care now.”

“But what?—?”

“Take care of it. This is important. Life or death. Patch him up.”

She doesn’t have the chance to say anything else as I rush off. I’m back on the city streets, throwing myself behind the wheel.

If Elise wasn’t at the agency gearing up for her suicide mission, then that means she’s already in the thick of it.

There’re only two locations I can think of that she’d go to—my father’s private estate to confront him personally or the Cheongryong headquarters, which is full of syndicate members.

Both are insane, but I opt for the former over the latter.

Knowing Elise, she’d want to take my father out first; she’d want to at least make sure she ended the man responsible for her dad’s death and KD’s too.

I arrive at my father’s estate with tires screeching against gravel, not even bothering to park properly as I abandon the car and rush toward the imposing entrance.

The household staff—the gajeongbus and other employees on my father’s payroll—shout at me in Hangul. I barrel past them, paying no mind to their protests that my father requested alone time in his office.

Skipping up the staircase two steps at a time, I quickly make it to the second floor.

Normally, it’s required that any visitors knock first and wait for permission to enter.

But I shove the door open and rush inside without doing either.

The scene I’ve anticipated unfolds before me—Elise with her weapon trained on my father, her face clenched in misty-eyed fury. Father stands behind his massive desk looking much more mild-mannered and unconcerned.

She must’ve snuck in somehow to confront him. But he couldn’t seem less worried. His gaze settles on me as I burst in the room like he’s expected it all along.

“Get out!” Elise yells at me. She never takes the gun off my father. “This doesn’t concern you!”

“It concerns me as much as it concerns you, feline.”

“Gun-woo, so this is your girlfriend? I should’ve figured. You two were play pals once.” Amusement twinkles in Father’s eyes as he reaches for a bottle of soju and pours himself a drink. He adds a couple ice cubes.

The sound of the ice clinking against the crystal class is enough to drag me backward through time.

I’m under his desk, wincing with my hands over my ears as men yell at each other. Their voices are full of rage and bitterness.

It’s scary and I wish they would stop. I wish they’d go back to laughing like they used to.

There’s a sniffle on my left that makes me glance over. Crouched next to me is a little girl, cheeks shining with tears. She’s hiding with me, hands pressed over her ears too.

She has brown skin and curly hair and stares at the men’s legs from where we hide under the desk.

I want to tell her it’s going to be okay. They’re just mad at each other; they’ll go back to being friends soon.

But then door opens and a third person enters, their footsteps heavy against the hardwood floor. The voices only seem to grow louder.

More screaming. More anger and accusations?—

The memory ends as abruptly as it began. I’m dropped back into the present, blinking out of the flashback as my head throbs with the familiar pain that always follows these episodes.

Father notices at once and asks me in Hangul, “Is your head troubling you again? That’s regrettable. I didn’t mean to crash the car that night, but we were fleeing before the police arrived.”

I look to Elise and find her face deep in thought, like she’s straining to remember details that hover just beyond her reach.