Minseok deliberately lingered once he was off the phone to Taeyong and Chanyeol.  Saying goodbye to Luhan had been difficult enough; it would only be worse if the man was still there when he went back upstairs.  He waited until the time that they’d agreed Luhan would need to leave, and then another good ten minutes or so more just to be on the safe side.  It was as he dawdled in gathering together everything he’d brought with him that his phone rang again.

It was Jongdae.

“Minseok,” he whispered, sounding very, very shaken, and Minseok dropped everything he was holding, suddenly alert.  “Luhan turned my gun on me and ran.  What do I do?”

“Where are you?  Does Yixing know?”

“No.  I’m still in town.”

Minseok bit his lip, worried about making a call on his own, but it was obvious why Jongdae had rung him first: he wanted to know if Minseok had any theories about what Luhan might be up to.  The only thing that Minseok could think of was Luhan deciding to go on the run before officially meeting his sister – because he knew that Luhan was paranoid enough not to trust the police to keep to their end of the deal and just let him go if he wanted to – but he didn’t see how that would help Luhan actually meet Weiyi.  If anything, it was only going to make matters more difficult.

“Call Jongin and then come straight back here,” he said.  “I’m going to find Yixing.  We need to discuss this.”

Leaving his belongings, he stashed his phone into his pocket and legged it out of the spa area of the hotel and back towards the main part.  It was surprisingly empty, not even a member of staff inside until he reached the foyer.  There was a shriek as he burst in and he just caught sight of the two receptionists ducking down behind the counter, but he ignored it because it was more important to get to Yixing.  Fortunately, they were only on the second floor and it was easy running distance for somebody as fit as he was, but as he emerged onto the landing between the first and second floors, he came to a screeching halt as the scent of blood caught his nostrils.

Sprawled on the steps ahead of him as though he’d stepped on the first one and slipped, Yixing was clasping a bloody thigh and breathing heavily as he tried to control the pain.

“Jesus.”  Forgetting Luhan, Minseok dropped to his knees beside Yixing, one leg thrown out down the stairs for balance.

Yixing raised his gaze when he heard his voice, and he shook his head.  Minseok attempted to pry his hands away from the injury.

“What the happened?”

Yixing tried to wave him on.  “Go, just go.”

“Yixing, you’re injured—”

“I’ll live!  Go, your family’s in danger!”

The blood in Minseok’s veins turned to ice.  Numb, he sat back on his heals and stared.  With some effort, Yixing lifted his hip and slid his gun out of its holster, pressing it into Minseok’s hand.

“It has a couple of shots in it and I’ll handle the paperwork, just move.”

Feeling like he was going to throw up, Minseok did, stumbling to his feet.  It was a good number of steps before his legs stopped feeling