Jungkook staggered into the nightclub. The same one he had first met her appa in over two weeks ago. He walked straight to the back table. Yoongi was occupying it tonight. Lee Kwangjo was nowhere to be seen.
Jungkook practically fell into the booth, coming to half-recline on the bench across from Yoongi, who had his arm around a beautiful woman. His head was bent over her shoulder as he kissed her neck from behind. He glanced lazily up at Jungkook.
“Do you mind?” Yoongi asked.
“Very much,” Jungkook intoned in a slurred voice. Then he raised his hand to signal to a passing waitress. “Hey, doll, can I get a soju?”
“A soju?” Yoongi’s eyes raked over him. “I hardly think you need any more soju.” Yoongi glanced at the waitress. “Get him a cup of black coffee.”
She bowed her head and disappeared.
Yoongi bent towards him, hissing, “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“Perhaps I am,” a bleary-eyed Jungkook responded faintly. “Then I wouldn’t care about anything anymore. And Bora could move ahead with her life. Marry a company man, pop out a couple kids, and drown herself in soju. I rather think any sudden disappearance on my part would make the whole world happy.”
Yoongi’s arm tightened around the girl sitting on his lap. He leaned forward. “Snap out of it! Bora needs you!”
“There is nothing I can do to help Bora! I can’t get anywhere near my appa!”
“That’s not true. You had a meeting with him today.”
Jungkook eyed him. And as Yoongi watched him, he realized that Jungkook’s eyes were sharper than he had, at first, believed.
“Did you think we wouldn’t know that you had a private consultation with him?”
Jungkook didn’t bat an eyelash.
“Is he dead?”
“You didn’t really think I’d be able to kill him in his own offices, did you?”
Yoongi glanced sideways at the girl in his arms. But she had leaned her head back against his shoulder and closed her eyes. The substance she’d smoked an hour ago had robbed her of coherent thought. Jungkook’s eyes brushed over her sadly. Suddenly, he commented.
“I expected better of you.”
“What are you talking about?” Yoongi asked sharply.
Jungkook tilted his head towards the girl. “Taking advantage of a helpless female.”
“She’s helpless by her own choice. And I’m not taking advantage of her. I’m protecting her from all the creeps in this place,” Yoongi hissed at him.
Brow furrowed, Jungkook stared at him for a moment. “I don’t understand you. What are you doing here? In this company? Working for your uncle?”
“Hey,” Yoongi breathed, “I am staying alive. That’s what I’m doing. And I would advise you and Bora to do the same.”
“Your uncle has set me an impossible task. And he knows it. He did it on purpose. To keep me from Bora.” Jungkook sighed as the waitress set a steaming cup of black coffee in front of him. “I should have listened to her. I should have stayed away from her. If I had, at least she’d have her freedom now. Instead of being locked in some dark room somewhere.”
Yoongi laughed mirthlessly. “What an imagination you have! She’s not in a dungeon, you know.”
“No?” Jungkook quirked his left eyebrow. “Where is she then?”
“On a tropical island. Sipping mai tais. Working on her tan.” Yoongi sniffed. “And missing you, I’m sure. Probably out of her mind with worry over you.”
Jungkook studied him as he lifted the coffee cup to his lips. He took a sip and grimaced. He hated black coffee. He set it down and pushed it away from him.
Surreptitiously, he was taking note of the number of men Lee Kwangjo had stationed in this place. Out of the corners of his eyes, he’d identified ten likely candidates. Not including Yoongi. And he was a wild card. Jungkook couldn’t quite decide if he could trust her cousin or not.
