I woke up in the morning without Kinn beside me. The doctor was there to give me a checkup. The night before, I’d struggled against Kinn until I was so exhausted I fell asleep.
As for Chay, Tem, and Jom, they helped pack everything up to get me ready to leave. Unlike my first day there, my body had now fully recovered and I had plenty of energy.
“Hia, I’ll go with the others and wait for you downstairs. We’ll put everything in P’Pete’s car,” Chay told me. I nodded in reply, and they all filed out as Pete entered.
“Mr. Kinn requested you see him before you leave,” Pete said. He checked that everything was in order, then sat down on the sofa.
“Do I have to?” I asked, irritated.
Kinn needed to be monitored for a few more days before he could be discharged. Honestly, I’d have preferred it if he got stuck here for a month just so I wouldn’t have to see his face. Kinn was so fucking annoying.
“Just go with it. You’re still his head bodyguard—he might want to assign you some work,” Pete said.
Shit, I forgot I had to work. I wasn’t even out of the hospital yet and I already had duties. Fucking hell.
“Fine! I’ll go,” I grumbled, deciding I might as well just in case it was his dying wish or whatever.
“Oh, Porsche?” Pete’s voice suddenly turned serious. I turned to face him. “I’m not teasing you, but what’s going on between you and Mr. Kinn?”
It was true, he didn’t have his usual teasing expression and playful tone—he looked deadly serious as he stared at me.
“…Nothing, why?” I mumbled.
“I don’t want to pry, it’s just… I was just teasing you before, but lately I’ve noticed this thing between you and Mr. Kinn…”
I was quiet as I listened intently. He sighed before he continued. “You don’t actually have feelings for him, do you?” he asked, looking at me in concern.
“No!” I exclaimed, swallowing thickly.
“That’s good… I’m sorry for teasing you this whole time. I figured a guy like you wouldn’t feel anything for him anyway.”
I looked away and began to pack a charger cable into my bag. “Hmm,” I hummed instead of replying to Pete.
“And this whole sleeping together thing,” Pete pressed. “You’re just sleeping together, right, not sleeping together?”
“What do you mean?” I tried to act normal, looking everywhere but at Pete.
“I see you as a friend, Porsche. I hoped when the both of you disappeared together—in that hotel room and in the forest—that you would get out okay. You wouldn’t have done anything untoward with Mr. Kinn, right?”
I bit my lip hard, feeling strangely hot as sweat formed on my skin. “Just say what you want to say,” I told Pete.
Pete looked unsure. I doubted he actually knew anything that was going on between me and his boss—he was just teasing me.
“I’m warning you, Porsche,” he said, “if you climb up to such high places, it hurts when you fall…”
I stared at him, trying to understand. Did he mean his boss was far too high up for someone like me? That he was out of my league?
“Don’t worry, your boss is just trying to annoy me,” I said.
“I’m warning you because I know Mr. Kinn very well… I don’t want to see you get hurt,” Pete said somberly. “But I know you’re totally straight, so you can’t be too far gone.” He looked at me with uncertainty.
“I’m fine! You can go. The fuck are you going on about, anyway?” I said, hauling my backpack onto my shoulder. I heard Pete sigh as I walked out of my room and headed toward Kinn’s. I knew Pete was warning me out of the goodness of his heart, but it was kind of too little, too late…
Bang! I slammed open the door, then stopped in my tracks when I saw someone unfamiliar in the room with Kinn.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you had a guest,” I said evenly as I looked at Kinn. He was sitting up against the headboard.
“Come see me tomorrow evening,” he told me.
I looked at the stranger. He had opened the door to the balcony and was leaning against the doorframe, blowing cigarette smoke outside. Wait, why had no one told me smoking was allowed in here?! I wanted a cigarette! I’d been so fucking stressed out!
“What did you call me here for?” I turned to ask Kinn, frowning.
“You still work for me. I have an assignment for you,” he said calmly.
I sighed in frustration. “Uh-huh,” I answered with a weary expression on my face.
“Mek, are you going to leave now?” Kinn asked the stranger—Mek, apparently. “I can have Pete drive you.”
I turned to look at Mek. He was tall, with darkly handsome features and a slightly stubbled face. His gaze was trained on the cigarette smoke billowing in the air in front of him. I stared at him, feeling my hair stand on end. He was good-looking, but also oddly off-putting.
“I’ll go back by myself,” Mek’s deep voice answered.
“Didn’t you say your underlings already left?” Kinn asked.
“I happen to have some business to take of nearby,” Mek said. He eyed me from head to toe, sending a shiver up my spine.
“If that’s all, I’m leaving,” I said. Kinn nodded at me in acknowledgment, so I turned and immediately left the room.
I came downstairs to find that Chay, Tem, and Jom had already dealt with my things, and Mr. Korn had taken care of the hospital bill. Pete had brought a fancy-looking car around and parked it out front. I waved goodbye to Tem and Jom, who were going back to their separate homes, before I got into the car. I sat shotgun and Chay sat in the back seat.
“So who’s that Mek guy?” I asked Pete as we pulled away.
“Mr. Kinn’s friend,” Pete replied.
“I’ve never seen him before.”
“They don’t really hang out. Something happened, so they’ve been distant for a while. Today is the first time I’ve seen him,” Pete said in a worried tone. Pete seemed strangely out of sorts today, so I dropped the subject, letting him drive us back to the compound without any further questions.
“You’ll be staying in the main house, Porsche. On the first floor beside the stairs, next to P’Chan’s room. Arm and the rest moved your stuff out of your old room,” Pete told me as he led me to my new room.
“What, why?” I asked. Why did I have to change rooms?
“Your brother’s going to be living here, and your old room wouldn’t be big enough,” he said as he headed inside, leaving our stuff on the bed. “So, Mr. Korn is having you two brothers move into this room instead.”
I looked around the room curiously. It was larger than my room in the bodyguards’ quarters, with a queen-sized bed, some furniture, and an ensuite bathroom. It wasn’t the fanciest, but it was so much roomier. It would have been cramped squeezing Chay into my old room.
“You get some rest first. I’ll go watch the boss,” Pete said and left the room. Pete was currently working practically two jobs, looking after both Kinn and Tankhun. I wondered what his salary was for toiling away this much. Kinn himself was using Pete to do his bidding and entertain his every whim—he was no better than Tankhun. Pete must be so tired from all that work.
“Hia, can we really not go home?” Chay asked as he arranged our things.
“Hmm… I don’t want to risk you going back there right now,” I said.
“I told you to quit from the start,” Chay complained. “Now it’s too late.”
I was too lazy to listen, so I collapsed onto the bed and played on my phone until I fell asleep.