Chapter 25 Elise #2
“What other choice did I have? They’d have killed me otherwise. I had to get him before he got me. I pulled the trigger. Left him bleeding on that floor while you cried under the desk. Then I framed Tae-hwan for the whole thing—the betrayal, the murder, everything.”
More tears streak down my cheeks, though I don’t lower the gun. “And me? What was I to you?”
“You were my insurance policy. My weapon.” He steps closer, emboldened by my paralysis.
“I raised you on hatred for Tae-hwan and the Cheongryong. Trained you to be the perfect assassin. Because I knew one day I’d return to South Korea and reclaim what Jamie and Tae-hwan built.
The weapons empire, the connections, the power—it should’ve been mine all along. ”
“You used me.”
“I made you into something extraordinary,” he counters. “Without me, you’d be nothing, baby girl. Just another orphan lost in the system. I gave you purpose. Direction. A target for all that rage.”
The rooftop tilts under my feet. Everything I am, everything I’ve done, everything I’ve ever known—it was all a lie.
It was all part of his master plan.
His revenge. His greed.
“You destroyed our lives,” I choke out. “Poisoned Tae-hwan. Murdered my father. Raised me to be your weapon.”
“And you still won’t pull that trigger,” he cackles. “Because deep down, you know I’m the only family you’ve got left. You need me, baby girl. You always have.”
The gun wavers in my grip, dipping toward the ground.
…because he’s right.
As much as I hate him, as much as I want him dead… he’s my uncle.
The man who raised me after Dad died. The one who taught me to fight, to survive, to be strong.
He’s the only real family I have left.
My moment of hesitation is all he needs.
Uncle Jerald lunges forward, faster than a man his age should move, slamming into me. His hand catches my wrist, twisting violently ’til he breaks my hold and the gun clatters across the concrete.
“NO!” I shout, but it’s too late. He’s already on me.
We crash to the ground, limbs entangled as we grapple. I throw my knee up hard, catching him in the ribs. He grunts but doesn’t let go, using his weight to pin me down. I try my elbow next, jamming it up into his jaw.
It’s not enough to get him off me. He’s too strong to muscle my way through this.
Uncle Jerald flips me over, smashing my face against the rough concrete. Pain explodes across my cheek as skin breaks and I’m scraped up.
Before I can recover, he hauls me up by the back of my shirt, dragging me toward the rooftop’s ledge.
“Let go!” I thrash in his grip, trying to right myself. Regain my footing and have a fighting chance.
But he’s relentless. He’s not taking it easy on me, pushing me toward the edge.
I’m hanging half off the roof as he hovers above me, his fist tight in my shirt. If he were to let go, give a simple shove, I’d go tumbling off the building.
My heart slams against my ribs. Below me, the tarmac stretches out impossibly far. One slip and I’m gone.
I’d fall and break who knows how many bones. I’d probably not even survive.
“You should’ve finished what I started, baby girl,” he pants feverishly. “But you never had it in you. Now I’ve got to take you out like I did the others. That’s what you get!”
My fingers are slipping. The concrete ledge cuts into my palms as I scrabble, kicking my legs out and struggling against his grip.
But there’s nothing I can do except peer up at the man who’s supposed to be my uncle. The same man who’s now trying to kill me.
Unc seems to relish this opportunity, grinning down evilly at me. He’s so focused on my undoing that he doesn’t see the man barreling toward him.
Gun’s finally made it from the opposite end where he had gone to block Uncle Jerald off. He slams into him from the side with the force of a freight train, tackling him off his feet.
They hit the concrete hard, rolling in a tangle of fists and fury.
I’m quick to push myself up from where I’m dangling over the ledge, gasping for air as my arms ache in protest.
I collapse once on solid ground, watching as Gun pins Uncle Jerald under him.
Gun’s fists come down.
Once. Twice. Too many to count once he passes three. Blood splatters Uncle Jerald’s face as his nose and lips swell and he feebly tries to block Gun’s blows.
But Gun refuses to stop, each punch for his father.
For mine.
Finally, when Unc’s on the verge of blacking out altogether, he drags him up by his shirt and drops him at the edge. The same ledge Unc had almost thrown me over.
“You’re just like your father,” Jerald spits through broken teeth, defiant even now.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Gun says, his face cold and furious. “He might’ve taken mercy on his best friend’s brother. He might’ve let you live. I won’t.”
He lets go, releasing Uncle Jerald and sending him tipping over the rooftop’s ledge.
He doesn’t scream as he falls. His eyes widen in silent terror, his arms windmilling uselessly ’til his body smacks into the tarmac below with a sickening thud.
I stare at the spot where he disappeared, unable to move. I’m unable to even breathe.
Uncle Jerald’s gone. He’s dead.
It’s finally over.