My phone rings from the bench nearby. At first I ignore it until the call ends and then almost immediately begins again.
Whoever’s calling me refuses to give up.
I pause long enough to snatch my towel and mop sweat from my face, glancing down at the screen. My stomach tightens when I see the name displayed.
Daisha.
It’s Friday evening, and Monroe and I are long broken up. She’s leaving the country in a few days. What could possibly cause her mother to call me?
The towel slips from my fingers as I pick up my phone instead.
“Daisha?”
Her hysterical cry greets my ears as soon as I answer. “Jin, Monroe’s gone! She left hours ago with your man Sang-cheol, and she’s not back yet. Her phone goes straight to voicemail, which isn’t like her. My baby always answers her calls. Sang-cheol isn’t picking up either. Something’s wrong, Jin. I can feel it.”
My mind snaps into focus, shifting gears from thoughts on my fight training to the urgent clarity needed for this emergency.
“Stay calm,” I say, grabbing my T-shirt off the bench and striding toward the door. “I’m going to find her. Did she say where she was goingwith Sang-cheol?”
“I wasn’t home when she left. But she’s been so secretive lately. All these late nights and early mornings looking into things. I’m so worried about her.”
“Are any of the other guards there? Let me speak to Ye-jin.”
In the seconds it takes me to rush from the gym to my Genesis G80 Sport parked outside, Monroe’s mom has gone into the apartment hallway and gotten Ye-jin on the phone.
“Monroe left with Sang-cheol hours ago,” I say as soon as he’s on the line. “Where did they go? Did Sang-cheol say?”
“Sang-cheol mentioned something about a lab in Suyeong, Baekho-je. He said Miss Monroe needed to pick up some test results.”
A lab? Test results?
What test would Monroe need results for? These questions and more spring to mind, but the answers don’t even matter in the moment.
All that matters is finding her.
There’s only one lab in Suyeong that I know if, which means that’s hopefully where she is.
“Stand guard,” I growl at him. “Ensure her mother stays put and you keep her safe. I’ll locate Monroe and bring her home.”
I hang up before he can respond, sliding behind the wheel and promptly starting the engine. The Genesis G80 gives a predatory rumble as it comes to life.
I’m peeling out of the parking spot within seconds, hitting the streets and driving like a man possessed.
Speed limits are ignored and so is traffic. Any cars in the way are either cut off or bullied out of the way.
My grip is steady all the while. My jaw clenched as I glare at the roads ahead and navigate the streets better than any racecar driver.
Each red light I blow through doesn’t evenregister.
The only thing that exists right now is the road ahead and the destination I’m racing toward.
In the meantime, I try calling Monroe. Like Daisha stated, it goes straight to voicemail.
The same is the case for Sang-cheol’s number.
A taxicab blares its horn as I swerve around it, missing its bumper by a hair’s breadth, the driver’s shouted curses fading into the distance behind me. If either of our cars had been half a second sooner, we’d have collided.
I hook a sudden left, barreling toward the highway that will get me to Suyeong fastest. My phone buzzes for the second time in minutes.
