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Chapter Twenty One

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Nina jolts up. A little light peeks in beneath the blackout curtains. It must have been dawn.

She could feel it.

That disgusting man's hands on her. She needed a shower to wash off his damn prints. His unwanted touched. The smell of cigarettes. Nina darts to the suitcase and quietly pulls out a few items. Jin is still asleep.

She would have touched his face but she didn't want to wake him.

One of them atleast needed a good rest.

Grabbing a fresh towel, she heads towards the bathroom. It was a different one this time. Yet she still felt that fear and anxiety. It made her sick. Just in another bathroom that looked exactly like the one she almost was killed in.

She forces herself to shower. Shampoo. Shower gel. Rub. Scrub. As if she could wash away those unwanted prints all over her body. Her mind wanders to a place similar before this incident. When she first woke up from cold sleep. She wondered if she was raped. Waking up naked in a water tank in a body of a young attractive woman. Ogre seized her mind. The scientist seized her body for years. She could only bury those fears as she rode on Anna's confidence and zest for this new world they were born into. Anna wasn't here to bring the glitter.

All that glitters, is not gold.

Nina glares at the mirror. She had dark circles on her eyes. She is pale. She is bruised.

I hate the woman in the mirror, Nina thinks to herself.

She's weak. She's pathetic. She cries. She needs to be saved.

Stop it.

Nina ceased those negative self-talks, it was foreign to her. Normally, she buried any self awareness talks and focused on the task that needed to be done.

She needs to pick herself back up.

She needs to stop dragging Jin into her pit of mess.

He needs someone wholesome. Not someone broken like her.

Jin would never make her feel unwanted and she forced herself to stop thinking those things.

"I'm going to be strong." She says to her reflection. "For me and for Jin."

It didn't matter if she was here or somewhere else, if that serial killer like attacker was after her, if he was going to toy with her, he'd be able to find her.

Her phone rings incessantly when she returns to the bedroom. Jin stirs in his sleep. Nina rushes towards her phone to answer it. It isn't Julia.

Instead the number was private.

She frowns.

Not wasting another second for Jin's sleep to be disturbed, she answers the call and speaks in a hushed tone.

"What?"

Whoever was on the line had to know she was pissed off.

"Nina Williams. Good to see you're okay. I didn't squeeze your neck too hard did I?"

A sharp inhale leaves her mouth. "You got a lot of nerve." She replies dryly. "What are you planning to do next?"

She walks further away from the bed so Jin isn't disturbed. Nina grabs a notebook and pen lying on the desk to jot down the time date and any information that would help police catch this man.

"I never imagined our first conversation in years would go this way. We have twenty years to catch up on, my goddess."

Of course he wouldn't answer her question.

"Get lost." Nina huffed, disgusted at the nickname. She didn't want it.

"Oh my love, have you forgotten? How you adored being chased by me?" He laughed. "You used to play hard to get. I used to watch you having breakfast sometimes from the café window in Cork. Noticed how you always gave away the raspberry on your custard tart to Eun."

Nina inhales again. That was a memory she didn't have.

"Sounds like you were the creep."

His voice becomes defensive. "I wasn't. You just wanted me to grovel and beg you like I was your devotee, you sadistic woman. It wasn't just me with the extreme sadism."

"If I ever gave you a chance, I regret it." Nina says clearly and firmly. She cringed. What if he was her boyfriend from the past? That disgusted her. What the hell was she thinking?

He chuckles. "Don't talk like that to me. It's rude. You sucked me off with that same mouth you know. Swallowed everything I put in there like a good little goddess."

Nina wanted to vomit.

"Disgusting." She hisses. It didn't sound like her at all.

"You being on this line for so long is proof. You want to see me again, baby. Well I gave you a clue on my identity and now it's time for the warning. Your fate is sealed. If you want to protect the one you love most in the world, you have to let them go. I'm a highly skilled assassin. I know how to kill in ways you can't even imagine. You will not be able to stop me. You're just a civilian now with no skills. If you don't end your relationship with your boy toy, I will kill him and make it look like you did it. Understand?" He said coldly into the phone. "Today was just a warning. Tomorrow will be a tragedy. You wouldn't want him to die because of you now, do you?"

Nina looks at Jin who is sleeping soundly on the bed.

"Say your final goodbye and from tomorrow, I want you to separate yourself from him for good. My eyes and ears are everywhere." The assassin warns.

Then he clicks off the phone.

Last night, he ran on very little sleep. Jin loved sleep. Sleeping was a way to restore injuries and perhaps escape reality for a bit. What happened last night, he was on edge, waking up every hour to check on Nina who was in his arms. He checked her breathing and heartbeat. She wasn't wary of this and neither of when he felt her leave their bed. He pretended to be asleep, heard her shower and then talk to someone on the phone.

He wanted to switch the ringing phone off but was too lazy to do so. The conversation Nina had was very interesting. He woke up shortly afterward and she didn't mention the conversation at all. He was waiting for her to say something about it. After refreshing himself, deciding to check out of the hotel and eating breakfast in the hotel café with Nina.

"Did the police call you with an update yet?" Jin asks, remembering that Nina was insistent on the police bothering her with the updates and not disturbing Jin.

"No, not yet." She replies while munching on strudel.

"I suppose you don't want to go to the hospital either for further check-ups."

She shakes her head.

"You were adamant in going to the hospital." Jin informs her, "You were very stern and they had to bring in the paramedics to check in on you."

"I don't remember that." Nina whispers.

Yesterday was a big blur. Even thinking about it makes her head ache.

"They gave you the all clear. I'm glad there's been no damage to you." He sighs in relief. "Even though you got some bruises."

She's relived that she wasn't raped at least.

"What about you?" Nina asks.

"They didn't find the dart that took me out." Jin answers. "Just little mark on my chest. I think the attacker removed it before he left. It's as if he were never here."

Nina sighs. "If the police don't find him, then we are fucked."

What was she thinking? Jin thinks anxiously. He knew she hated feeling weak and he feels the same.

"We have more questions than answers." Jin says. "But don't you worry, I promise when I come across him, I will give him a good beating."

He didn't know when it would happen but he prayed that he'd be given a chance to teach that bastard a lesson. His fists were aching to do some damage.

"I don't doubt that you'd beat him within an inch of his life." Nina says quietly. "But this guy has years of experience on being a skilled killer."

"How do you know he has years of experience?" Jin asks suspiciously.

"Just a hunch." Nina says. "The way he got the both of us. No rookie could do that."

He sees that she's lowered her eyes. It pains him that she hasn't been upfront about the secret conversation she had with their attacker early this morning. She wasn't friendly to the guy, he remembered the disgust in her short replies but the man talked her ear off. What did he say to Nina?

His thoughts are interrupted when he feels slender fingers interlocking with his own.

Jin looks at Nina whose eyes gazes at him with all the love she could give him.

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