Chapter 7 - (1.6K Words)

You sat there quietly, processing what they had just told you. You kept your eyes down at your lap going through every little thing you had heard come from them. Even though your hands were tied, they were shaking. There were a ton of things going through your mind, and almost none of them were good.

They're going to use me for ransom.

You were certain of it. Everything they had said began to add up. How much you were worth. How they knew so much about you. Why they were keeping you alive. Why they were so interested in your family. Why you were so valuable to them. It all made sense. It was so obvious that it was scary.

"You'll never get away with this," you said, your voice rigid. You squared your jaw and looked up, trying to keep your composure. You didn't know how long you would last. You hoped they wouldn't be able to see through you.

"So you've figured out our plan," Jimin said, sauntering forward to sit beside you. "But there's nothing that you can do to stop us. No matter how hard you try, we'll always be one step ahead."

"As long as you can keep your trap shut, you idiot!" Namjoon angrily stomped down hard on Jimin's foot. Jimin yelped and pulled back, shrinking into your side. You felt bad for him, but you didn't dare to do anything to help him. You were paralyzed with fear beacuse of Namjoon's sudden action.

"You're a smart one, just like me, Princess," Namjoon said, his tone changing again. "Smart enough that we have to be careful about what your pretty little ears hear...." He trailed off, leaning back in his seat and giving you a charming smile.

My pretty little ears?

"Maybe you should try to watch what you say," you said passively, tilting your head. "I can't always control what my ears hear."

Namjoon's smile instantly turned sour. His eyes scanned your face, looking for a weak spot to attack from. Your jaw tightened ever so slightly, as you were still trying to keep your composure. It was hard to do with Jimin still pressing deep into your side, holding his foot.

"I would watch what you say, Princess. You're already walking on thin ice." He moved his hand up to his chin, his face still cold and humorless. "You've caused all of us enough problems in the past twenty-four hours."

"Give her a break, hyung," the man sitting across from Jimin said, finally speaking up. "It's not her fault that Jin and Yoongi didn't do their job right."

Namjoon nodded, keeping his hand on his chin. He lowered his gaze in thought and screwed up his face, although you weren't quite sure why. You sat there and watched him, waiting for what he would do next.

"You're right, Jungkook," Namjoon said, running his hand through his hair. It still looked good, even when it was messy. "They should have been more careful, otherwise we wouldn't be in this mess right now. We can't afford any more mistakes like this."

Mistakes? Like what?

Your mind started working again, but you didn't realize that you were still staring right at Namjoon. You were spacing out, and you just happened to be looking at Namjoon, too. Of course, he was enjoying the attention he thought that you were giving him.

"Like what you see, Princess?" You snapped out of your thoughts. Your eyes came into focus, and you were met with his cheeky smile. You kept your jaw hard and gritted your teeth.

My turn.

"Not so fast, Namjoon," you paused, having said his name for the first time. "What kind of mistakes?" You asked, hoping dearly that you weren't going too far. You didn't really want to push what was left of his patience, you still wanted answers.

"It's nothing that you need to worry about," he said, the muscles in his jaw tightening visibly. "Everything is fine now, Princess. I shouldn't have said anything." You were pushing the limit.

"I want to know what happened to the man on the plane," you said calmly. "I want to know why I didn't see him get off the plane, even though he was right behind me. I want to know what happened to him, who he was."

There was a moment of silence. All three of the men sitting before you were silent. Namjoon's forced smile was gone, and a scowl took its place.

"And why should I tell you anything?" Namjoon angrily moved his hand away from his chin. He didn't even bother to address you by your new title.

I may have gone too far. But I can't give up now...

"I'd rather you tell me what happened before my aunt and I turn you into the police and get your story wrong," you said, flashing a cheeky smile. "I don't want to accidentally jump to the wrong conclusions."

Before Namjoon could fire back a retort, a hand rested itself on his seat. You all looked up, and you saw the man with the broad shoulders. He had a glossy look on his eyes, and he seemed to be deep in thought.

"We're not exactly sure where he is," he said, drawing out his words, and staring at nothing in particular. "But we do know that he's still here, in South Korea. It shouldn't be that hard to find someone like Jackson."

You blinked at the man. Who was Jackson? It didn't seem like he was done talking, so you quieted your thoughts and focused on him.

"We figured out that Jackson had been slowly siphoning money from us. He had taken around three million dollars, in American money," you could tell he added the last part as an afterthought just for your understanding.

Three million?? How do you not realize you're missing so much money??

"Jackson went overseas to deposit the money, in hopes that we wouldn't have access to it," he continued. "It worked, until we found that a chunk of our money was missing. We investigated everyone who works with us, and narrowed it down to three people, one of them being Jackson."

"We hadn't seen one of them in six months, and when we found them, they were a druggie and an alcoholic. The place they lived in was quite awful, so we figured it wasn't them. Nobody with that much money would choose to live such a terrible way."

"The other person we suspected was dead by the end of the week. They were on their way home from the grocery store. They were found in an alley with a bullet in their head, tucked behind a dumpster. When they found the body, the milk was still cold."

"And that left only Jackson?" You asked, not wanting to interrupt, but wanting to let him have a break. He gave you a grim nod, finally looking at you, but his eyes still glossy.

"We then traced Jackson and the money he stole to a bank in America," he cleared his throat. "Yoongi and I spent almost a week there just looking for him. In that time, he bought a plane ticket and was going to be on a flight to South Korea."

"He already knew about our plan for you. He was very clever about which plane he picked for his flight, yours. He figured that if he was seated close enough to you, we wouldn't be able to do anything without getting caught, and he was right. You were the only one that saw anything happen, which made matters even worse."

"Jackson was seated right next to you, which was his lucky break. That meant he could come and go with you as his only witness. It backfired when he came to the back of the plane, where I was waiting for him."

With a knife, you coward.

"The only reason we didn't kill him was because it would look suspicious if a passenger went missing in the middle of a flight. But as soon as we landed, he was free game. Yoongi and I got off the plane as quickly as we could, and waited for you two to exit. We figured he would be right behind you, but he never came off."

"He got away, and that's how our plans changed," he said. "We went back to search the plane, claiming that we had left a bag on board. We couldn't find him anywhere."

You closed your eyes, processing what he had told you. He had the intention of killing Jackson that night. You were probably the only reason that Jackson was still alive. You felt better knowing that he was safe from these men.

At least one of us is alright.

"Because of Jin's screw up, we had to make a change of plans," Jimin spoke up, pointing at the man in the aisle. His hands weren't around his foot anymore, and he wasn't pressing into your side. "He's the reason we've all had to waste so much time in this bus."

"Guilty as charged," Jin said, throwing his hands up and turning away towards the front of the bus.

As he walked away, a lightbulb went off in your head. You thought about the piece of paper with your aunt's address on it. It all seemed a little bit too convenient.

"My aunt never sent me a letter to come to South Korea, did she?" Even before you asked the question, you knew the answer.

"As I said before, you're a smart one, Princess."