Chapter 5

Yeosin

“Come on,” I murmured to myself after I had missed my bus and ran down the street away from the billionaire beast man like that was exactly what I had meant to do. I tapped my shoe and anxiously looked behind me at the ATM. “Work, please!”

Two members of the Dragon Clan sat in a blacked-out SUV to my right, watching me.

I drummed my finger on the screen, hoping that this damn credit card would actually let me withdraw cash. Since I left home, I tried hard not to even own a credit card–I didn’t like debt which made this situation even sticker–so I wasn’t sure if this would work.

But if I tried to use my debit card, it would decline and spit my card back out.

“Can this stupid machine go any faster?!” I whispered to myself, hitting it with the palm of my burnt hand and giving myself flashbacks from earlier today when the card machine wouldn’t work for me in front of Grumpy Pants himself.

Once the screen let me withdraw cash, I typed in three thousand dollars. The loading circle on the screen spun and spun and spun, until it finally started to spit out cash in hundred dollar bills onto the ground and into a puddle.

“God fucking damnit,” I whispered, trying to pick up the wet bills but also grab the bills before they could drop into the puddle. I glanced behind me at the car in the middle of the mess, hoping that they’d accept wet bills.

They knew that Alvin wouldn’t pay, because he didn’t care about anyone–that was apparent. But I would because, despite not really talking to my family anymore, I cared so much for them and I never wanted to see them hurt. Or worse. Killed.

When the last hundred dollar bill left the machine, I gathered them all in my hands and counted it three times. Three thousand. It wasn’t nearly enough to pay the debt back, and at this rate, I would have to pull out three thousand dollars from the ATM every day for multiple years.

It could work, but… the banks might get suspicious. After all, it wasn’t my card.

Pushing my shoulders back to feign confidence, I walked over to the blacked out SUV and to the driver’s side. The driver rolled down the window, and I spotted the leader of the Dragon Clan in the passenger seat.

“You have it?” he asked.

“Only three thousand,” I said. “It’s as much as they would let me withdraw.”

A low grunt exited his mouth, and I handed him the money over the driver. He counted it, stopping at the wet bills at the bottom of the stack and raising his brow at me. I grimaced and shuffled my feet, hoping he’d take them.

He counted the money two more times, then nodded. “Ten thousand next time.”

Ten thousand?!

“When’s next time?” I asked, calculating how much time I had.

“Whenever we find you.”

With that, the driver rolled up his window and drove off into the night. Their red tail lights disappeared down the road, and I swallowed hard. Maybe I could convince that billionaire beast man to give me the ten million in cash.

But that maid was right earlier.

If the Dragon Clan found out that I had ten million dollars, they’d take it all.

Maybe that was for the best: get them out of my hair for good.

Rain sprinkled down around me. I pulled out my phone to see if I had enough time to run home to get dressed a bit better for tonight at The Breeding Cave. Somehow that man had convinced me to come back to a place with such a horrid name.

Who wanted to be bred by a beast, his face masked by the darkness?

Maybe those crazy book girls.

The bright white numbers on my phone glowed up at me.

12:01AM.

“Fuck,” I whispered to myself, hurrying down the city streets dressed in the same clothes that I had on since my date–Can I even call it that if he walked out on me?–with Brent. How was it already past midnight?! “I’m going to be so late!”

I hadn’t even had a chance to go shopping for clothes this afternoon!

Fifteen minutes later, when I made it back to my street, a car sat outside my apartment with its lights on, just like he promised.

Before I could make it to the car, the man from last night with a white mask exited the driver’s seat and opened the back door for me. I slowed to a walk until I made it to the car, then I leaned against it to catch my breath.

“You’re late,” the driver said.

“Sorry,” I whispered. “Being late is a normal thing for me.”

Especially lately.

“You don’t need to apologize to me,” the driver said. “But our friend is another story.”

After slipping into the car, I placed my purse beside me on the seat and buckled my seatbelt. I stared at him through the rearview mirror, trying desperately to see through the eye holes in his mask, wanting to see if I recognized him.

“Do you perhaps know our friend’s name?” I asked, wanting to get as much information out of this driver as possible. I mean, he worked for him, didn’t he? He had to know at least a nickname. Or any information about him, right?

“I do.”

“What is it?”

“I am forbidden to tell you.”

“I’ll buy you dinner.”

He tensed. “I don’t believe our friend would like that. He’s protective of you.”

“I know,” I whispered. “Which is exactly why I need to know his name.”

My driver met my gaze in the rearview mirror, and for a moment, I thought he would spill everything to me, but instead he nodded to the seat beside me. “You need to put on your blindfold. I can’t start driving until you do.”

Lips curled into a frown, I picked up the silky black blindfold from the leather seats and tied it around my head, then I pulled it down over my eyes and sat back in the seat. The car moved forward.

“Can you tell me anything about him?” I asked.

“No.”

“What’s your name?”

“Joseph.”

“Well, Joseph, who’s his maid?”

A long pause.

“What’s her name?” I pushed.

“Molly.”

“How long has she worked for him?”

“Five years.”

“Five years,” I repeated, pursing my lips. “Is she–”

“If I didn’t know any better, Ms Cho, your tone sounds quite jealous.”

“Jealous?!” I exclaimed, waving my arms all over in an attempt to convince him that they really, really didn’t seem envious. My questions didn’t sound that jealous, did they? “I just want to know more about him.”

Joseph hummed from his seat. “If you want to know more about him, you’ll have to ask him when I drop you off. Now, sit back and enjoy the ride.” A small snicker left his mouth. “But I’m sure it’s nothing compared to the ride you’ll get in a couple hours.”

Authors Note: Jealous hmmmmm 👀👀👀. How are you liking the characters so far?