I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I could feel comfortable softness at my back and a familiar warmth, similar to Kinn’s embrace in the forest. I felt so relieved and secure. Am I still in the forest, leaning on Kinn?
“Kinn…” I whispered in a raspy voice, throat parched, before slowly opening my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
“Hia! Hia’s awake! P’Tem, P’Jom!” my brother’s voice happily shouted. “How are you feeling?” he asked me.
I pushed myself up slowly and pain shot through my body. My eyes scanned the room—my hand was hooked up to an IV drip and I was wearing a hospital gown.
“Hey, how are you doing? You slept for two days straight.” Tem and Jom beamed at me from beside my bed.
“Chay!” I pulled my brother into a hug. I’d been so worried about him.
“Are you thirsty? Have some water.” Chay pulled away to pour me a glass before bringing the straw to my lips. I drank my fill and tried to make sense of what had happened, when I suddenly remembered…
“What about Kinn?” I asked. The only thing I remembered before everything went black was Kinn getting shot as we fought those guys.
They all went still and silent. I began to feel anxious. I wasn’t sure why, but my heart sank with dread.
“How is he?” I asked, my voice tense.
The three of them looked at each other silently.
“Shit! He’s dead?” I asked, biting my lip. My heart ached. No matter how much I hated him, I still didn’t want him to die like that. Besides, I felt guilty—I was his bodyguard. I was supposed to be protecting him, but he’d been the one to protect me. I was responsible for his death. I felt despair creeping in.
“No…” Tem tried to tell me something, but my mind was spinning in circles. I just wanted to see Kinn one last time.
“What temple8 is he in? Take me there,” I said, trying to get down from the bed. Tem and Jom quickly grabbed me.
“Porsche, listen to me!”
My friends were trying to tell me something but I refused to listen. I tugged at the IV line in my hand.
“Let me go. Take me there. At least let me pay my respects,” I said. My voice trembled with grief and fear, even though I should be happy a bastard like him was gone.
“Porsche! Stop that, Porsche!” my brother and my friends yelled as they all tried to push me back onto the bed.
“No! I’m going to the temple! Take me there!” I shouted.
Click! The door opened to reveal a smiling face. We all froze.
It was Pete, wearing casual clothes. “You’re awake? What are you all doing?” he asked. He walked over to us, looking confused.
“Pete! Take me to the temple,” I cried out, trying to push my brother and my friends away as they held me down.
“Why? If you wanna pray away your misfortune,9 you can wait until you’re better. Luang Por10 isn’t going anywhere,” Pete said. His brow was furrowed, but he was still smiling. I didn’t understand why he wasn’t wearing black to properly mourn his boss.
“Take me there, please. I want to ask for forgiveness from Kinn one last time. Let me go see him,” I pleaded with Pete, but I just seemed to confuse him further.
“Wait, wait, I think you’re misunderstanding.” Pete came to a stop in front of me and nodded at my brother and my friends to let me go.
“Kinn is dead because of me! Fuck!” I cried, slamming my hand on the bed.
“Porsche, wait! Listen to me!” Pete laughed. “Mr. Kinn is in the room next door!”
I gaped at him. “What did you just say?” I asked, just to make sure.
“Mr. Kinn isn’t dead, dumbass!” Pete said, shaking his head and laughing. “He just hasn’t woken up yet.”
“Oh!” I fell silent for a bit, glaring at my friends. “Then why were you all making such sad faces?” I groused, but I felt the weight in my heart lifting.
“We were trying to tell you that, but you weren’t listening at all. Mr. Kinn’s still unconscious,” Jom told me with a small smile.
“Motherfucker! You all looked so serious it made me panic,” I complained, settling back into the bed.
“You can go visit him if you don’t believe me,” Pete said.
I hesitated. “Are you telling the truth? That he’s not dead.” I needed to be sure.
“Yes! Look! If you listen carefully, you can hear Khun singing his face off,” Pete said. It was true—I could hear faint singing emanating from next door.
“Damn! Making a scene so early in the day—what’s your boss’s problem?” Jom asked Pete.
“Well, he read somewhere that music soothes the patient and promotes healing,” Pete said, resigned.
“I think Mr. Kinn isn’t waking up because he doesn’t want to deal with all that noise!” said Tem. We all nodded in agreement.
“You wanna go take a look?” Pete asked me with a smirk, his eyebrows raised. The fucker was teasing me.
“Nah, I’m too tired to deal with Tankhun. He’ll just give me a headache. Wait for him to leave first, then I’ll get Chay to take me over,” I said quietly. I wanted to see with my own eyes that Kinn was safe, but right then I’d rather not go. Tankhun’s raucous voice echoing through the walls was already making my head hurt.
“I’d rather not. I don’t want to see Kim,” Chay said, scowling. I was surprised Chay even knew who Kim was.
“Do you know him?” I looked at Chay questioningly.
“I don’t want to know him,” Chay muttered.
What the hell does that mean, Chay?
“Yeah, forget about him. Are you hungry?” Pete cut in. I nodded in reply.
“You three go down and get him something to eat… I’ll watch him,” Pete told Tem, Jom, and Chay, and they complied. I knew he wanted to talk to me alone—probably about what had happened in the woods.
Click!
Once the door closed, Pete dragged a chair over.
“Do you know anything?” I asked immediately.
“No. We didn’t recognize the dead bodies, and the rest of them got away from us. We were too shocked to go after them, seeing you pass out and Mr. Kinn get shot,” Pete said, voice somber.
“I don’t even have any enemies,” I told him, serious. Pete frowned and asked me to recount everything.
I started with the day Kinn showed up at my place. I didn’t go into too much detail, just focused on anything that might be useful information to Pete, especially what the men were talking about in the van: how they planned to capture me alive but kill Kinn. The more I talked, the more Pete’s face fell.
“Damn! This isn’t just a nuisance anymore! This involves both you and Mr. Kinn,” he said, analyzing the situation. “Fuck, I’m drawing a blank here. Ever since the incident at the hotel, they’ve been targeting you, and Mr. Kinn is affected, too.” I didn’t understand how Kinn was affected—they only wanted me. Kinn was just unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“But I don’t know who would want to target me,” I said, trying to think about everything that had happened recently. “Maybe the guys that attacked us at the shooting range want to get revenge on me for killing their men?”
“I thought of that at first, but what happened when you got, uh…drugged… It’s all too strange. I don’t know how everything connects.” Pete stumbled over his words, like he was trying to be considerate of my feelings. I turned away, thinking about what happened to me that day.
“Hmm… And why did it take you guys so long to find us?” I jokingly scolded him.
“You bastard, do you know where I found you and Mr. Kinn?!” he exclaimed. I shook my head. How would I know? I was unconscious the entire time—both ways!
“In the forest near Khao Yai!”11 Pete said. “When your brother called me, I went to your house right away. He was sitting there out back shaking and crying, the poor thing.” My heart sank when I thought of how scared Porchay must’ve been.
“I tracked Mr. Kinn’s phone signal all the way to the outskirts of the city and it just fucking disappeared,” Pete went on, explaining further. “So I had to get all the traffic cam footage and piece it together until I could get a rough idea of where you were! We got there a day before they found you two, and we had to spread out to search. Then we heard gunshots and our hearts dropped into our boots! Fuck!”