Apparently that is not true for Kon the Beast.
Hmm. I like that name. I file it away for later use.
Anyway, there are a few red lights in various corners but other than those cameras, there’s nada.
Interesting.
My journalist brain kicks into overdrive. I catalog positions of cameras, note the makes and models of the other vehicles stashed through the entire underground parking. He’s not lacking transportation. There’s three black SUVs, two sedans, and one motorcycle that looks like it costs more than all the other vehicles combined. Information is currency, baby, and right now I'm broke as hell. Time to start building my account.
The SUV rolls to a stop and Kon unfolds himself from the seat beside me. He moves around to my door and opens it before I can reach the handle, extending a hand that could crush my skull without breaking a sweat.
He looms over me and brushes a thumb down the side of my face. He’s taking a risk getting this near to me and he knows it. But he still chances a good punch to the balls to simply reach out and touch me. But why?
I ignore it and climb out on my own.
His lips twitch, not quite a smile but enough to set my teeth on edge. I've spent my entire life around powerful men who mistake basic courtesy for ownership, who think opening a door means you owe them something in return.
"Independent," he observes in that low rumble of his.
"Stubborn," I correct. My mother called it stubborn. My father called it difficult. My uncle called it a problem that needed solving. "There's a difference."
"Is there?"
I hold his gaze and don't blink. "Ask my uncle. He'd tell you it's the reason I'm still breathing."
Kon doesn’t say anything. He gestures for me to follow him but I draw up short when I spot the industrial elevator he's leading me toward. The thing looks like it belongs in a coal mine, all exposed gears and metal grating, and when he presses his thumb to a biometric pad beside the doors, they groan open like a dying animal.
Fantastic. Death trap elevator. This night just keeps getting better.
"After you, ??????."
I stop and turn to face him. "You keep calling me that. What does it mean?"
The hard line of his jaw relaxes beneath a close-trimmed beard, and warmth bleeds into those dark eyes for half a heartbeat. "Little flame."
I wait for the punchline, the mocking edge, but it doesn't come. He just watches me with those bottomless black eyes like he's waiting to see what I'll do with the information.
I wish I could say I hated it. A nickname I didn't ask for, given by a man who bought me like property should make me mad enough to sink my fist into his face. It should feel condescending. Diminutive. Just another way for a powerful man to make me feel small or powerless.
Instead, warmth flickers in my chest, and that pisses me off more than the nickname itself.
I step into the elevator and immediately regret it. The metal grating bites into the thin soles of my bare feet, cold and unforgiving, and I hiss through my teeth before I can stop myself.
Before I can take another step, hands close around my waist and I'm airborne. Kon lifts me like I weigh nothing, tucking me against his chest with one arm banded beneath my thighs, the other wrapped around my back.
"What the hell do you think you're?—"
"Your feet are bleeding."
I glance down. He's right. Small smears of red mark the metal grating where I stood. I didn't even feel it, too numb from the cold and the night and everything else.
"I can walk," I snap, shoving my fist against his chest. The impact does absolutely nothing. I might as well be punching a brick wall.
His strong arms hold me to him. "You can." He doesn't put me down. Doesn't even acknowledge my struggling. Just stands there, solid and immovable, holding me against the furnace of his body while the elevator shrieks its way upward. "But you won't. Not until we reach the top."
I thump my fist against his chest again. "This is ridiculous."
"This is practical." His voice rumbles through me, vibrating against my side where I'm pressed to him. "You've been through enough tonight. Your feet don't need to add to the list."
