the princess,” he tells Ren in Japanese. “Let her go.”
Ojou-sama.
Again. He’s calling me a princess and now I’m even more sure that I met him before this year.
Maybe when I was young…
“She’s resisting,” Ren says in the same language, sounding bored to death.
“Or you’re taking a long time to do a simple task, Ren.”
“Are you calling me useless?”
“Your words, not mine.”
“K-Kai…?” I stammer, cutting off their back and forth.
The man I thought was a PI slides his gaze to me. Unlike Ren’s mocking presence, Kai’s is serene, calm, soothing almost.
I always felt some sort of safety with him and even an urge to talk to him about everything and nothing.
That’s the type of image he projected, anyway. A big brother of sorts.
A pillar.
A manipulator.
Because now I’m even more sure that none of this was a coincidence. Not how I first connected with him, not how I remember him calling me Ojou-sama at some point in my life, and definitely not the black van and Ren’s involvement.
It all has to do with my father. The same father I never knew and who Mom protected me from because he’s dangerous.
Kai smiles and it’s warm, inviting. That’s what made me fall into his trap in the first place. His damn welcoming smile.
Now, I realize it’s no different than the devil when he’s on the mission of luring his victims.
“Hello again, princess.”
I twist my arm from Ren’s hold and he surprisingly lets me go. My entire attention is on Kai. “What is all of this about?”
“I said I’d take you to your father and I always keep my promises.”
“You couldn’t have done that without kidnapping me?”
He shakes his head once. “I told you, you need to suffer a loss.”
I point a finger at Ren. “He promised he’d get Sebastian a doctor.”
“That won’t work. He has a nasty infection and it must’ve spread to his lungs, because he’s barely able to breathe. He needs a hospital and ICU care, and in order to get them, he has to leave in about…” He stares at his watch. “Five minutes, more or less.”
God no.
I knew he was doing horribly, but I’d hoped it wasn’t that critical.
“Do it!” I snarl at Ren. “Fuck me and keep your word.”
“I’m insulted.” He places a hand on his chest. “You really think I’d finish in five minutes? I need at least…thirty?”
“You’re a monster.”
“More or less.” He grins.
“There will be no sex,” Kai’s voice cuts through our conversation.
My head snaps in his direction. “There won’t?”
“No. It was a test and you passed.”
I stare back at Ren and he grins again, showing his straight teeth. “You’re right. Your father would torture and kill me if I touched you. Though we could always do it behind his back?”
Oh.
So my father is really behind this.
I can’t help the taste of betrayal that gathers at the back of my throat. My little girl dreams incinerate, leaving a heap of ashes and slaughtered wishes. All these years, I’ve held on to a distant fantasy of reuniting with my father. I never thought it would be under such circumstances or that Sebastian could pay the price for it.
“What does he want?” I ask Kai because, for some reason, he seems to be the one in charge.
“It’s simple.” Kai tips his head in my direction. “You.”
“Me?”
“Yes. You see, he’s been wanting to reunite with you for as long as you have.”
“He could’ve just shown up instead of pulling this stunt!”
“Not with the way Riko has been poisoning your head about him, no. Everything requires the right timing.”
“Like how you pretended to be a damn PI?”
“I couldn’t let you go to some stranger when we have in-house intel, Ojou-sama.”
“So, now what?”
“You’ll agree to our terms and adopt your real name. Naomi Hitori.”
I’m sure their terms are equivalent to selling my soul to the devil. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone as far as kidnapping me, starving me, and shooting Sebastian.
They must know how much I care about him and that I would play right into their hands if his life was threatened.
And that’s true.
I don’t care what I have to do as long as it keeps him safe. If it means selling my soul for parts, so be it. He’s the one who made me well aware of that soul in the first place. It seems fitting to sacrifice it for him.
A part of me fractures and splinters into pieces all around me. I have no idea what awaits me, but something tells me it’ll be harder than anything I’ve ever