THIRTY-FOUR
"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions."
—Naguib Mahfouz
LISA
As I watched them I could feel my blood boil, but what else could I do? Mina held Ethan, and fed him some shit in a bottle, that only disgusted me more. But he had to eat, and his mother wasn't here. Pinching my nose, I tried to balance myself. I couldn't even close my eyes, that only made me think of her. How tired she must have been. How well could she fight if she was hungry and tired?
Scarlet does not want to kill her.
I tried to convince myself of that fact.
"Ms. Manoban." I turned to find The Little Engine That Could, standing in the midst of the chaos that was now the NICU, watching me and my family through the glass.
"Officer Scooter."
"Ms. Manoban, I gotta ask you a few questions. In cases like this…"
"They send a rookie cop to find my wife?" And they wondered why I didn't trust them.
He sighed, taking a step forward. "You know, I was handpicked to join the FBI right outta the academy! I may not look like much, but I'm damn good at my job. In forty-eight hours, your bodyguard was shot. The same type of shot, with the same type of the round used to assassinate the president. Now your wife was kidnapped out of one of the most highly protected hospitals in the country. There is a connection here, I can feel it. So help me, ma'am. Help me find your wife. Now everything you say is important."
There was no getting rid of the man. He reminded me of an annoying superintendent I used to know.
"Why didn't you join the FBI?"
"Because this is my city. I'm not abandoning it or the people." Exactly like a superintendent I used to know.
He was going to be a problem. "Before all of this happened, my wife told me she had a strange encounter with you at the station, Officer. So take your morality and get me a real officer. Not one trying to blame my family."
"Ms. Manoban…"
"No. Don't bother. Tell the superintendent I only want the real FBI looking for my wife, nothing less. So respectfully, get the hell out of my face." Grabbing the door handle, I left the blond-headed idiot alone.
Stepping into the NICU, I didn't even bother to speak to my father or mother. Taking Ethan out Mina's arms, she stood up, hand still on the bottle, waiting for me to sit down in the white rocking chair.
"Lisa." My father sighed and I knew that he had seen the officer and me speaking, but I couldn't deal with him right now. I just needed to hold my son. He gave me the hope I needed at the moment.
"I don't understand. How did she know when to get her?" Evelyn whispered, kneeling right in front of me.
The same way she knew everything else…her mole. The only way I would find her was to find that rat. But the only person who could have given her so much inside information had to be close. The only people who were that close were family. So as they huddled around me, my father, my mother, Mina…I pulled back. Who the fuck was betraying me? The only person I could fully trust was the little person in my hands.
Once I knew who it was, I wouldn't hold back.
JENNIE
I hated being drugged. It always left a bad taste in my mouth. My father used to drug me in an attempt to make me stronger, immune. Now I felt as though he knew my mother was a sicko bitch and had been trying to prepare me for her. But I doubted anything could have prepared me for being pulled from my hospital bed, while recovering from major surgery, to now being chained to the seat of a private fucking jet. She sat in her seat, her auburn hair tucked behind her small ears with a wrinkled copy of Wicked in her hands and dark framed glasses on her face.
"Would you like wine, Ma'am?"
I should have fucking known.
I glanced up at the pale, familiar hand of Nelson something or the other… my fucking flight attendant. He poured my favorite red wine into a glass for the woman before me. She said nothing as she held up her wine glass for him.
"You're the rat on my ship."
"Really, Nini Bear? You think I couldn't get closer than your flight attendant?" The woman who gave birth to me sighed before flipping the page.
"Do not call me 'Nini Bear,' you insane bitch. As for you, rat, I will skin you while you beg for my forgiveness, but not before I make you watch me kill your meth-head sister in the most painful way possible." I pulled against the chain, but all it did was cause me pain. I could feel the stitches pull at my skin, and even though it was painful, it made me think of Ethan.
"Nelson, get her something to eat."
"Give me anything and I will embed it in your skull," I hissed. My skin was hot, my emotions were raw, and all I wanted was to be free.
"Suit yourself then, you were always temperamental as a child." She said snidely, again flipping the damn page.
"Maybe it was because I knew my mother was a weak, conniving whore that would one day shoot me like a dog after poisoning my father. In the end, he didn't suffer and I was there. He was happy so you fucking…" the heat that radiated off the back of her hand when it connected with the side of my face only made me smile.
Her glasses were off, her hair falling out of place and her back was bone straight as she glared into me, nostrils flaring and eyes wide.
"Did you slap me because I called you a whore? Or because you didn't get to kill Dong-suk?"
"Leave us," she hissed and every one of the men on her plane went towards the back. It wasn't that far; I couldn't even see why she bothered.
"Are you gonna tell me a secret, Mommy? Are you going—"
"Enough," she said. "You don't understand the shit I've done for you. How hard it was to leave you with that fucking monster, to protect you from Satan himself. You know nothing."
"You poisoned my father for years. You shot me down. You killed my guard and now you've separated me from my wife and child. So fuck you and your life story, bitch. I know enough to say at the end of this, you will die, and I will feel nothing." I wanted to kill her now. I just kept eyeing the wine on the table wishing for two more inches of chain so I could smash it against her skull.
She took a deep breath, and placed her hand on her book. "Have you read this?"
"No, but don't worry, I'll read the spark notes." God, my breasts hurt. Everything hurt, but knowing that my son didn't have me made my heart burn.
"God, you're so much like me it hurts. I've always been so proud of you. I've watched you grow, and become the fighter I knew you were when I first held you in my arms. I swore I would always do what was best for you."
"This," I pulled on the chains, "is not good for me. But, if you're not full of shit, unchain me, hand me a gun, and I'll believe you."
She frowned, taking the wine to her lips. "You don't want to hear this. This layer of anger and sarcasm, it's just you trying to block me out."
"No, it's me, still hormonal and in a shitload of pain because of you. But please go on and tell me how I'm so fucking wrong, Scarlet. Tell me your entire sad, pathetic life story. I will try to hold back my disgust. But while you speak, know that I'm going to be thinking of ways to kill you." While I try to deny how badly I wanted to know the truth.
"You've always liked to test me. Whatever Dong-suk told you were lies, Nini bear."
"Were you poisoning him for years?"
She said nothing, staring out at the dark seas thousands of feet below us.
"Point one for Dad."
"Dong-suk…all the damn Kims are monsters. He killed my uncle, my brother, my fucking mother."
Point two for Dad.
"Women like us, Nini bear, serve the men above us to survive because we are warriors, and until we get our own army, we do as we are told." She spoke in a hushed tone, her eyes glazed over. "If Dong-suk told to you to kill Lisa slowly and painfully, you would have done it. I regret nothing. The Kims, they are the reason why my father was the way he was. I couldn't wait to kill him for the suffering he made me go through; kill Dong-suk, then get out. But you came and I didn't want you to come into this life. But Dong-suk just didn't know when to die and forced you into this trap."
"So what you're saying is that you've always wanted me dead." I wished Dong-suk had taken her out the moment I was born.
"NO!" she snapped, slamming her hand on the table, spilling her wine across it.
Good ole Nelson was there in a flash, cleaning. She didn't even look fazed.
"I've always tried to save you, Nini bear. I knew he would take you and form you into a monster just like him. Just like my father had done to me. But then I had you, and I never wanted to leave you. For years, I stayed in hell for you. To watch you, until one day, I couldn't take anymore. I took my chance. I got you and I planned on leaving, disappearing to where Dong-suk and Ivan couldn't find us. We were going to be happy and free. But Dong-suk came looking for you, and my father for me. I knew Dong-suk would turn you into a monster but Ivan—his granddaughter, a Kim?—he would have thrown you with snakes then sent your body to Dong-suk. I chose the lesser of two evils."
"So you're telling me that Ivan didn't know I was alive all this time? I doubt that. From what I can tell, he knows everything about all the families. So why now, mother dearest?"
"He let you be because I took my punishment and he figured you wouldn't be able to make it once Dong-suk died." She smiled, reaching over the table to take my hand. "But you did. You overcame it all and you fucking showed him how stupid he was to underestimate my daughter."
"You're not my mother. I'm not your daughter. Let go of me and finish your fairytale. What was your punishment?" I pulled my hand back.
Her hands clenched together as she readjusted herself. Unbuttoning her shirt slowly, she opened it, and everywhere were scars and dozens of small brown circular wounds that looked to be cigar burns. They littered her pale shoulders, stomach and I knew it reached her back. The distance between knife scars and burns was short. Luckily for her, none of them looked new. If I wasn't chained to this seat, I may have felt bad…maybe.
"When he was done and satisfied, he let you go, not caring what you did. Dong-suk was destroying his himself and his "empire" was beyond repair. But I watched you. Your first kill was Atticus Flanagan, an Irish mutt who stalked you down at the seaport. You surprised him and he ended up face down in the lake. You were, fourteen?"
"Thirteen."
"You sold your first kilo at—"
"I was there. I know, Scarlet. Why are you fucking with my life now?"
"Because you stupidly laid down with the mutt and his dirty little family. Ivan wanted you dead instantly, but I convinced him that he couldn't take out the head of the mafia. Imagine all the chaos. All the wars as people tried to replace you. He thought I cared about you, that's why I shot you. I needed him to believe that I could kill you if I wanted to. Ivan is all about balance, about keeping the underground under ground. But you are my daughter. You had to reach higher, you had to control the president of the United States. You reached a little too close to home for him."
"Ivan is in the White House?" Shit.
She didn't answer. "I told him you wouldn't win and street wars weren't worth killing you. I made sure to kill the President just to secure his wife. She would have the pity vote, yet you still out-played me. So like I said, you've made my life so much harder than it needed to be. This is the only way I know how to protect you now. We're going to have a do-over. We're finally going home."
"I have a family, Scarlet. A son who he needs me! I won't fucking run from a fight and I sure as hell won't run from him. "
"You're not in a fight. You never even got in the damn ring. Ivan has you. He's the only untouchable one in this game. In an instant he can take your son and burn you like he burned me. He would kill Lisa. But this is a win-win. He gets his balance, the Korean will break away, leaving Lisa less powerful. Lisa will be devastated, but live for your son. He won't even be able to control President Myoi. Once that man gets power, he will block out your wife. Your son will live, and because you're like me, you can watch from afar and learn to be okay. Your child will be okay, Nini bear. He's alive because you loved him enough to stay away."
She's ri—
I pushed that thought out of my mind, and leaned against the chain so she could see my eyes.
"I will get out of this. I will kill you, and I will protect my family the same way I always have. I'm Jennie Ruby Jane Kim Manoban, I don't run away. I destroy everything in my path, which includes you."
She smiled as she lifted her red stained book. "That's why I brought the chains. You will learn, and when you have, I'll let you see him. Pictures, videos, maybe a few of his old toys over time."
I felt my heart stop. I didn't want her anywhere near Ethan, my Ethan. How would she be able to get videos and pictures? The mole. But who would Lisa let close enough to our child for that?
"Mina. Mina is the fucking mole." She hated me enough. She wanted me gone…
"Try again." She flipped her page, but I couldn't see who else. It couldn't be Victoria, she was just too sick, Evelyn…hell no. Bambam? No, he craved Lisa's love. None of the family would betray us like this. But, who the hell would be that close, Hanbin, Chanyeol, Antonio… the only other person would be…
"You know, don't you?"
"Adriana." I hit my head against the seat. Fuck.
"To her credit, she's willing to do anything for you. All I had to do was tell her the truth and she realized what you cannot. You're not safe. She was starting to withhold information, so I reminded her who she worked for. So sad her love had to die because she got cold feet."
This was my fault. How could I trust her? Dong-suk had always told me humans were liars by nature, that friends were foes in disguise and to never make it personal.
How dare she?
"You're hurt."
"No, I'm enraged and looking forward to putting a slug through her ungrateful little heart." Leaning back, I knew I wouldn't be able to relax, but my body couldn't take any more right now. All I could do was close my eyes and plan. Nothing she said had changed how I felt about her. The moment this plane landed, I would have to act. Fast.