𝓒𝓸𝓵𝓭 𝓐𝓼 𝓘𝓬𝓮 [𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖓𝖓𝖎𝖊]

16

Jennie moved through the jungle, trying to envision herself as a stealthy cat, afraid she was more like a water buffalo in a china shop. First off, the white T-shirts had been a mistake, she should have gone for something darker, less conspicuous, something that would blend in with the background. She just wasn't used to subterfuge outside the courtroom. Never in a thousand years could she have imagined herself on a run for her life, a loaded gun tucked in her waistband, ready for use. What if she actually had to shoot someone?

What if she had to shoot Rosé?
She'd do it, no question asked. She wouldn't hesitate, wouldn't think about it. Not until later.
But that wasn't going to happen, she decided grimly. Life had handed her a series of difficult choices, but having to kill Rosé Park would be too cruel, even for a patently sadistic universe.

She shouldn't waste her time with what-ifs. There wasn't enough time left.
She had the gun drawn as she crept up toward the back of the storage shed where Kai was being held, assuming she could believe the schematic. There was no noise, not the muffled sound of someone breathing in a deep, drugged sleep. Was it too late?

She edged around the corner, cautiously. There was a small window in the side of the building, but it was blacked out from the inside, and she could see nothing. She waited, long, breathless moments, and unwillingly the memory returned of hiding on the boat, only to face her nemisis after what should have been sufficient time.
If nemisis was what she was, she'd been her lover, what had gone on between them physically, emotionally, made that fact undeniable. No, scratch that. She had no emotions, it had all been on her side.
But her heart had been pounding, her strong and sexy body trembling as she'd held her. It made no sense, she made no sense, but she had no time to figure it out right now. If she survived she'd have more than enough time to dissect the madness that had afflicted her during the last thirty-six hours.

She couldn't wait there forever. The shed was still and quiet, and she took a deep breath and rounded the corner, to find the door open and no one, neither Kim Jongin nor his captors, in sight.
There were drag marks in the dirt, someone had hauled Kai's limp body in the direction of the main house. He was either too drugged to walk on his own, or...
There was no blood in the tiny shed, and no blood on the ground. But that proved nothing, there were bloodless ways to kill people, and Rose would know all of them.

Jennie glanced over her shoulder. The path to the far side of the island, the hidden bunker, was still clear enough in her mind.
But Kai was being taken back toward the main house. And that was where she had to go, whether she liked it or not.

She heard the noise first, the grunting, groaning sound of a man struggling with too heavy a load.
Make that two men. Their voices came back to her, and she breathed a small sigh of relief that neither one of them was Rosé.
There were too busy arguing to even notice anyone was approaching. "You told me my job was done once i set the charges." It had to have been Chanyeol speaking. "I've already done enough shit work on this assignment."
"You're the one who gave him too much of the drugs," Bobby snapped. "And you can't expect her highness to bother with old Kai, can you? She's the brains of the operations, and if we know what's good for us we'll do what she says without arguing."

"I just don't like the fact that she got to spend the last day in a billionaire's love nest with a decent piece of tail while we were camping in the jungle. I'm half covered with bug bites."

They'd reached the back of the house, and if there was any kind of electric security it had been turned off. They dragged their burden through the gate without incident. "That's why she gets paid the big bucks," Bobby said in a sour voice. "Right now she's sitting on the deck of the ship, drinking champagne and waiting for us to get back before she takes off. Count your blessings. We're both expendable and you know it, no one would ask questions if she just lef tus here to disappear along with half of the island. But Park has a reputation of never leaving a mate behind, even if they're wounded. At least we've got that much going for us."