She didn’t know how she drove her car so fast without crashing but she managed to make it to the abandoned apartment building that Mark said he was living out of in one piece.

All things considered. 

Her heels were getting wedged in the cracks on the stairs but she would just yank them up and continue running up each floor until she found the one door with light bleeding underneath. Lucy’s poster was fisted in one hand as she banged on his door with his other. She wasn't sure what she wanted from him, but she needed him to know exactly what was at stake.

The door finally swung opened and her eyes widened as she stared at the woman in front of her, “Y-Yuna?”

Yeonhee’s face mirrored the same shock and confusion, “H-Heiran…what are you doing here?”

“Wh-I-I—“ Her brain was short-circuiting struggling to piece everything together when Mark’s voice echoed. 

“Who's at the door, Yeonhee?”

Heiran’s eyes darted across her face, trying to match the new name to it, “Yeonhee?”

The girl winced and held the door open wider. Heiran looked over her shoulder where Mark stood, shirtless, walking out of his bathroom running a towel through his damp hair. When their eyes met, he flinched, letting the towel fall around his neck. He did very little to hide the shock as he took in her appearance, silk, satin, and heels standing in doorframe that was rotting from old mold.   

“What’s going on, duchess?” His voice dropped an octave as he stepped in their direction. 

Yeonhee frowned, looking between the two of them before a sick realization kicked in, “You’re his daughter? You are Mark’s assignment?” She turned to glare at him, “Why didn’t you tell me that I knew her?”

He ignored her and crossed the small apartment in quick strides until he was standing next to Yeonhee, leaving a sizeable gap between them, his eyes dark as he stared Heiran down. “What happened?”

She glanced at Yeonhee’s expression, discomforted by her annoyed look, before pushing past him and storming to the kitchen island where she slammed the poster down. 

Mark was on her heels, standing behind her and looking over her shoulder at a picture of the smiling little child, “What the hell is that?”

“That’s my daughter’s Missing Child poster.” She growled, whipping around to stare at him, unfazed by how close they were now standing to each other.

He reached around her and picked up the piece of paper, bringing it close to his face to inspect it, “Someone threatened you?”

“They’re saying if I talk, they’ll take her.” She fought back the scream of frustration. She hated how no one ever seemed as shocked or as appalled about the things that were happening to her other than herself.

Yeonhee rolled her jaw and slammed the door shut, not that it broke either of them out of their conversation. She watched them, how close he stood to her, how tension filled his face, and how he never sounded annoyed or bored the way he always did when he spoke to her.

Mark flipped the poster over, his eyes landing on the letterhead before they flicked to hers in morbid confirmation. 

“Where did you find this?” He asked. 

She stiffened but met his gaze challengingly, like she dared him to react to her confession, “At the police station.” 

He didn’t react, of course, he just watched her closely, trying to dissect the look in her eyes, he didn’t like that it was not easy to do. She was a civilian, someone who didn't have illegal secrets hiding in the closet, so why was it always so hard to dismantle her? 

“Why the were you at the police station?” Yeonhee snapped. 

Mark closed his eyes, letting out a breath, and looked away as Heiran’s body tensed. He knew the pair of them would clash the minute they found out who each other was. Heiran's glare was unrelenting, “I was going to turn myself and all of you in. What are you going to do about it?”

Yeonhee scoffed incredulously at Heiran's blatant taunt, “Are you insane? 

Heiran let out a breath before attempting to move around Mark and close in on Yeonhee but Mark’s fingers wrapped around her wrist and pulled her back. 

“Don’t.” He said quietly. 

She gaped up at him, thrown by the sheer audacity that he had, telling her what to do when it didn't concern her safety. She twisted her hand out of his grasp and knocked her shoulder against his as she moved towards Yeonhee.

“I don’t know, maybe I am. Maybe, after being nearly run off the road, shot at, and having my house broken into, I’m going a little ing insane. But I don’t deserve this life, I don't deserve to live in fear when all I've done is live my life with integrity.”  

“Oh, is that what you’re calling it?” Yeonhee asked with a laugh, “We all know you were going to sell us off to Samsung. I mean, it wouldn’t have worked, we would've stopped you before they started poking around but get off your high horse. Integrity? You lied to my face.”

Heiran’s face twitched, she couldn’t believe the young woman who she viewed as an innovative entrepreneur whom she admired, ended up being a criminal thug, just like her father.

To believe that she once actually liked Yeonhee.

“At least I wasn’t breaking laws or endangering you. You would’ve been bought out with a fat check, I have people trying to kill me and threaten my daughter because of what your gang did and what you helped them do.” She snapped. 

“Well I—“

“Yeonhee.” Mark spoke firmly, but not enough to call commanding. Regardless, Yeonhee stopped mid-sentence and looked over at him. 

His eyes lingered on the back of Heiran’s head. Her normally perfectly styled hair was pressed and matted at the back and he didn’t understand why the sight of it unsettled him. 

“Leave her alone.” He said quietly, but enough to cause Yeonhee’s eyes to widen. Mark never defended anyone from verbal sparring, “You should head home, it’s getting late and we need to deal with this.”

Yeonhee couldn’t believe it, after everything the two of them had, even if it wasn’t as much as she wanted, she still earned more than this from him, “You’re kidding.”

Mark was just silent and she fisted her hands against her side before grabbing her things and storming out of his apartment, casting the two of them a look of utter disdain before slamming the door. 

Heiran could feel a headache growing as a silence fell over them, the only sound being the agonized of the old dilapidated pipes in the building. Then she heard him sigh before speaking, much to her dismay.

“So…the police station, huh?”

She whirled around and glared at him, “Can you blame me after what happened?”

“No, I can’t. Actually, I thought you’d crack and go to the police a lot sooner.” He said honestly, “But the cops can’t help you, even if you turned yourself in and took full responsibility.” 

She walked back over to him and he saw the pure fatigue in her eyes as she picked up the poster and stared at her daughter’s smiling face, “Clearly.”

“That’s not what I mean, duchess.”

Instead of meeting his gaze, she stared at his chest and the beautiful designs that covered almost every inch, almost calming her to a trance. It almost didn’t even feel like he was shirtless. “Then what do you mean?”

“DS has people everywhere, including in the police, even if you were put in a holding cell, you wouldn’t be safe, they have an officer take you out before you were questioned, it’ll just make it easier for them and harder for you.” He explained. 

She leaned her back against the kitchen island and pitched forward, bracing herself on her knees, “Oh god. I’m going to be sick.”

Mark walked over to her, resting against the island next to her and staring down at her head. His fingers itched to detangle the knots in her hair, he didn’t feel comfortable when she didn’t look put together.

“Why would they put that poster up when they could’ve just locked me up and killed me like you said?” She asked, her voice muffled at her angle. 

He crouched down so that they were leveled and just leaned his head back in thought, “Not sure, they probably didn’t want to risk the attention it’d bring, or maybe there’s something else they have in mind.”

“Oh, fantastic.” She deadpanned. “What are you going to do about this? I need her to be safe. I need to make sure no one takes her from me.”

“I’ll start taking her to her school, then. I’ll bring her back to your office and we’ll all leave together, okay? Send your driver on vacation or something.” He offered, the last thing he wanted to do was have to spend time alone with the little creature but he didn’t have much else to offer to ease her mind.

Not after a direct threat.

She chewed on her lip, her eyes knit in concentration before she sat down next to him, “Fine, okay but you need to always update me when you're with her.”

"You got it." He agreed.

She nodded her head quietly to herself, “I always knew Lucy would be in danger, but they know she exists already. They’re going to use her and I’m too much of a coward to try and call them on their bluff.” She admitted. "I thought I'd be to keep her out of it for much longer."

He watched her with careful attention. He had never seen what a good parent looked like but he imagined Heiran got pretty damn close. She was so young but she put her child above everything. He wondered if all parents were like this; he wondered if his were. 

“Lucy is lucky.” 

Heiran looked startled, “What do you mean? Why?”

Mark opened his mouth to answer when he realized what his answer would’ve been. 

She’s lucky to have you.

He shook his head, “Look, they don’t want Lucy, they want you, they’ll use her to scare you but they won’t hurt her, not when you’re alive.” 

“Gee, reassuring.” She grumbled. 

Mark looked straight ahead, lacing his fingers together, “I know DS, they keep their collateral damage low to avoid attracting too much attention. They want you, they might use Lucy to scare you but hurting her won’t even be on their radar because she's not the one who they think sent the cops after them.”

“How do you know them so well?” She asked, “Is there like some gang version of Facebook?” 

He grinned and tilted his head back against the banister before his smile fell off, “You spend long enough time in this business, you find out that it’s actually a very small world. There are only a few key players and after a while, you start to bump into each other.”

“That’s a euphemism, isn’t it?” She asked. 

She was fast.

“I forgot I was talking to someone who knows more than she should. Yeah, it’s a euphemism. After a while, you start killing people close to them to send messages and they retaliate. Everyone knows everyone down here.” He said. 

She tilted her head, “Down here? Like in hell?”

He didn’t understand how everything she said made him want to laugh, not sardonically, but a good hearty laugh, “Maybe. Everyone has a history with each other. I specifically have one with DS.” 

“What’s the history?” She pried. 

He rolled his jaw, “I think you’re forgetting something.”

“What’s that?” 

He locked eyes with her and she shivered, it was sometimes beyond her that she was looking into the eyes of a man that had watched the life drain out of the eyes of others. Those were the eyes of a man who killed for a living, he shouldn't look so normal. He reached out and slowly twirled a strand of her hair around his finger in a lazy way that had her holding her breath.

“We’re not friends, duchess. You don’t get to rifle through all my dirty laundry.” He sang.

She pulled her hair out of his finger and crossed her legs to face him, “I feel like I need some insurance if I’m supposed to be trusting you with my life and Lucy’s.”

He turned away, “This isn’t a trade.” 

“I’ll share mine if you share yours.” She suggested. 

He didn’t trust her, someone who successfully ran in the corporate world knew how to play people, they knew how to manipulate trust and work for their own benefit. She was smarter than her father gave her credit for. His Boss thought she was some poor defenseless doe, but Mark knew there was something more dangerous lurking underneath. 

Maybe that’s why a part of him was so ing intrigued by an assignment he thought would be a pain, he could sense dysfunction and pain the way a drug-sniffing dog found . 

She was a dragon and she was looking for a way to exorcise the devil.  

“I didn’t know you were dating anyone.” She said suddenly. 

Mark blinked and moved his gaze to her, “What?”

She shook her head, “I don’t know. I just never pictured you as having a life outside protecting me and doing whatever you do for my father. It’s weird thinking you have a normal social life.”

“I’m not dating her.” His tone was too sharp and he answered too quickly, it was an uncharacteristic display of emotion, even to Heiran who had only known him for such a short time.

“Oh…okay. Sorry I brought it up.” She muttered. Maybe trying to share small talk with a killer wasn’t the most productive use to time. 

He looked over at her, it was