"Emma?"
Tae-min's voice was raspy, saturated with a hunger that the previous night had failed to tame.
Emma stood frozen, her back against the wall, the black escape card searing the pocket of her silk robe like a coal from hell. Tae-min approached, his obsidian eyes scanning her pale features. He didn't ask what she was doing; he was utterly blinded by his own ego and his driving need to possess her.
He slammed his large palms against the wall behind her, caging her in. He leaned in until their noses touched, inhaling her scent deeply. "You look pale, my angel... did the thought of losing me frighten you?" he whispered with an overwhelming masculine arrogance.
Emma swallowed hard, forcing her lips into a facsimile of a smile. "It's just... been a crazy day."
"I'll make you forget everything," he interrupted, giving her no room to breathe.
He lunged at her lips in a fierce, wet, and intensely possessive kiss. It was the kiss of a man trying to brand his very soul into her. His rough hand slid beneath the black silk robe, touching her bare skin with a scorching heat. He trailed his fingers along her waist before rising to seize her breast with a force that made her gasp into his mouth.
(Ten hours...) Emma thought, her mind building a wall of ice to stave off a total breakdown. (Ten hours until 10:00 PM. Just endure.)
His boldness escalated. He dropped his lips to her neck, sucking her sensitive skin to leave fresh red marks, while his other hand slid down to cup the curve of her backside. Then, his fingers pushed boldly between her thighs.
Emma's entire body jolted. A terrifying rigidity began to crawl through her muscles, and that phantom, suffocating stench of the past nearly choked her. To distract her mind from this intimate invasion, she fixed her gaze on a button of his open shirt and began silently counting its threads. (One... two... three... I am not here... I am just a shadow.)
Tae-min interpreted her jolt as a shiver of pleasure. He growled with satisfaction and nudged her toward the velvet dressing sofa, ready to consume her entirely.
BAM! BAM! BAM! Violent, rapid pounding erupted on the suite's double doors.
Tae-min stopped, his jaw pulsing with rage. "Who the hell dares—"
"Tae-min-sama! I apologize deeply, but it's an extreme emergency from Yura-san!" the head of security shouted from outside.
Tae-min stood up, cursing under his breath. He left Emma gasping on the sofa, clutching her robe around her shivering frame, her heart nearly leaping out of her chest.
Simultaneously – Yura's Office
Yura stood before the surveillance monitors, her eyes gleaming with a lethal chill. Beside her stood a cyber-security expert.
"Are you certain?" Yura asked.
"Yes, ma'am," the expert replied, wiping sweat from his brow. "There is a covert attempt to breach the penthouse alarm system, programmed to disable the kitchen and rooftop cameras tonight at exactly 10:00 PM. This is a highly professional job. Only the Yakuza could pull this off."
Yura flashed a diabolical smile. (So, the lovestruck manager is coming to reclaim his princess. How romantic—and how pathetic.)
"Do not disable the breach," Yura commanded coldly. "Let him believe his plan is working. But... change the central lockdown code. The moment Kento or his men set foot inside the penthouse, seal all steel shutters remotely. We'll drop him into the trap, and we'll let Tae-min see for himself exactly who this girl is when he finds her trying to flee with a gang leader."
Elsewhere in the city, another bomb was detonating.
Mizuki, having lost everything, appeared in a live stream on her personal account. She looked severely intoxicated, her hair a mess, tears ruining her makeup.
"You think Tae-min is an angel?" Mizuki laughed hysterically into the camera, waving a wine glass. "He's a possessed monster! And that foreign girl... I didn't pay the reporter to lie. I paid him to tell the truth Yura is hiding! The girl belongs to the Yakuza! And today... tonight... a war will break out because of her. If I die tonight, know that Tae-min and that witch are the cause!"
9:45 PM – The Penthouse
The penthouse was in a state of internal crisis. Tae-min stood in his glass office, screaming at his lawyers over the phone to contain Mizuki's catastrophic stream, which had trended globally within minutes.
"Shut down her accounts! File for insanity! I don't care, just silence her!" Tae-min roared, smashing a glass on the floor.
In the bedroom, Emma stood before the mirror. She had dressed in simple black clothes—slim trousers and a tight jacket—and tied her hair back. She checked the clock. 9:50 PM.
This was her chance. Tae-min was completely distracted in his office on the lower level of the penthouse.
Emma crept out with silent steps, moving like a panicked cat. She crossed the dark hallway, her breath burning in her chest. Every shadow looked like a guard; every sound felt like Tae-min's footstep.
She reached the vast marble kitchen. In the corner was the heavy steel door leading to the rooftop emergency stairs.
9:58 PM.
She pulled out the black card. Her hands were shaking so violently she nearly dropped it. (Fear kills. Move!) she screamed at herself.
She swiped the card over the electronic reader.
Beep... Click!
The red light turned green. The heavy door groaned open slowly.
The emergency stairwell was bathed in total darkness. A gust of cold air hit her, carrying the scent of rain and the Tokyo night.
She took one step out.
Suddenly, a powerful hand reached out from the darkness, clad in a black leather glove. The hand clamped onto her wrist with crushing force and yanked her violently into the gloom of the stairwell.
Emma gasped, trying to scream, but another hand clamped firmly over her mouth. Her back slammed against a solid chest. A familiar scent—the smell of clean coffee mingled with the night's chill and a faint metallic tang (the scent of gunpowder)—invaded her senses.
"Hush... I'm here, my little one," Kento whispered in her ear, his voice resonant and dark, yet overflowing with a terrifying tenderness.
Emma let her body go limp for a second, turning to embrace him, finding the sanctuary she had sought. But as she wrapped her arms around his waist, she felt the cold steel of the pistol tucked into his waistband.
"We have to move fast," Kento said, his hazel eyes gleaming in the dark like a night wolf's. He gripped her hand firmly and began pulling her up toward the roof.
But then...
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
A terrifying alarm shrieked—not just in the penthouse, but in the stairwell too! Powerful red emergency lights strobed everywhere, blinding them.
Yura's automated voice boomed from hidden speakers:
"Full lockdown protocol engaged. All steel exits have been sealed."
A massive crashing sound echoed from above. The rooftop door they were supposed to escape through was sealed by an impenetrable steel shutter. From below, the kitchen door slammed shut with a horrifying metallic clang.
Kento stopped, instinctively pulling Emma behind his back and drawing his pistol in a fraction of a second.
"It's a trap," Kento hissed, aiming the gun toward the sealed kitchen door.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Violent blows shook the steel kitchen door from the inside. These weren't the strikes of security guards. They were the strikes of a man who had completely lost his mind.
"EMMA!"
Tae-min roared from behind the door, his voice carrying a manic rage, a destructive jealousy, and the primal agony of a man who had just discovered the ultimate betrayal.
"Get away from him, Emma!" Tae-min screamed, the steel door beginning to dent slightly from the force of his hysterical blows with a heavy metal object. "I swear I'll kill him! I'll tear him apart and drink his blood if he touches a hair on your head! Open this goddamn door!"
Emma stood in the narrow, red-strobing stairwell, trapped between Kento's muzzle as he prepared to kill and the savagery of Tae-min as he tried to shatter the steel to get to her. This was no longer an escape; it had become a slaughterhouse, and she was the blood-stained prize.