The Man in the Alley ⇉ Mark Lee

⇉ Chapter 14

   Mark cruised the street along the cliff edge as I paid more attention to the churning waves down below. The wall of jagged and discolored rocks closed us off from the city a couple meters above and gave me a sense of peacefulness. It was strange to feel such a thing when I'm riding in a car littered with bullet holes and with a back windshield almost shattered, but with the waves down below and silence being the only thing between me and Mark, I felt oddly calm.

   "I forgot how nice the drive to Melbourne was." Mark spoke, cracking the silence that I wanted to last.

   "It's beautiful all right... but is the first half always that hectic?" Mark glances at me, arching a brow in the process.

   "Not normally." He chuckles, fixing his eyes back onto the road. He turns off the pavement and onto a dirt path, the car bouncing as it goes along. As the headlights trailed up the trees, creating shadows that resembled towers, they caught onto a metal gate, then a black car I saw that evening. As the gate slid aside, the headlights illuminated more, catching onto the sleek and modern exterior of a house and several men that were strewn across a well cut front lawn. Though the sky and land underneath it was shrouded in darkness, it was clear that their base in Melbourne was more pristine than back in Kingston.

   Mark edged closer to the lawn, turning so that my window had a clear view of the agitated and slightly worried faces of the four men on the lawn. Mark reached back and retrieved his sack, unlocking the door and kicking it open. He hopped out of the driver's seat, looking back at me and jerking his head to the side, gesturing for me to leave the car. I did so as quickly as possible, slamming the door and stumbling back into someone's arms. I whip my head up to find Jungwoo, his smile laced with concern.

   "Are you okay? What took you so long? What did Mark do-" I push his arms out from under mine, stepping back and watching as Jungwoo's worried expression increased. I sigh and point at Mark, who was getting flooded with similar questions.

   "What the fuck happened to the car?" Taeyong demanded, though in a tone of voice that seemed rather calm for a situation like this.

   "I forgot to change to license plate before leaving the base and-"

   "And someone found you, didn't they? Lit the car up and nearly broke the back window." Johnny said, oddly calm as well, as he inspected the damage on the car.

   "Yep. Kang and I fought them off, but I'm positive the Blood Angels aren't finished with us yet." Mark seethed, throwing down the gun he used hours before with a hollow clatter.

   "Wait..." Doyoung said, appearing at my side, "Kang fought the pursuers off? She hasn't trained with guns yet, did she do well?"

   "Did you get hurt?" Jungwoo hurriedly asked, gripping my shoulder.

   "I'm fine, God." I retort, yanking my shoulder free. "I shot the driver and the windshield. Mark was the one that got hurt." The man aforementioned scoffed. "He shot the passenger, if that holds any importance. The car slammed into a tree and fell down into a ditch."

   "Quit being cocky, Yubin." Doyoung elbowed me. "But Mark, are you sure it was the Blood Angels? For all we know it could have been Monsters or 17."

   "I've dealt with those assholes for years, and I know what their gunners look like. It wasn't Changkyun nor Vernon and Chan - Dino - whatever! From what I could see, it was no one from Monsters or 17."

   "Yeah, Monsters wouldn't send out one of their recruits to handle a car chase." Johnny said, walking over to Doyoung and dropping a bullet into his hand. "Found this. Don't know if it's useful, though." Doyoung nods, sliding the object into his pocket.