Protected [Han]

3

HAN POV

This was it. I was going to die.

I was in a windowless, concrete room that was completely dark. As far as I could tell, the room was empty, but I noted it did smell mildewy and musty so there were potentially old boxes somewhere. I could also faintly smell gasoline that I hoped wasn't near a flame.

Yeah...I tapped my toe on the smooth, cold floor...it was definitely a garage or basement of some sort, and I doubted any of my screams for help were being heard. Knowing him, it was probably soundproof. He wasn't going to let me get away again. He would've taken every precaution to keep a technicality (like a neighbor overhearing my screams while walking their dog) from letting him kill me.

My wrists were bound in chains that hung from the ceiling and anytime I got even remotely comfortable, a siren would blare and force me to stay awake. It had been at least 48 hours of this torture. My eyes and arms were heavy. I was basically just hanging there at this point.

He hadn't come in to get me or harm me yet, but I knew I was being watched...I could feel it. I shouted into the void, "Did you kidnap me just to look at me?"

Nothing. No light. No siren. No indication that he was there at all. This was so unlike him.

"If you hate me so much, I'd imagine you'd kill me more creatively than by starving me," I taunted.

Nothing again. I tugged helplessly at the chains, hoping I could squirm free, but of course, I couldn't. It hadn't worked the first 800 times so I don't know why I thought it may work this time. I was just desperate to get home.

Suddenly, I heard someone pounding on the door. The siren began going off and a red light illuminated the space that I could now definitively tell was a basement. I braced myself for all of the possibilities of who could walk through that door.

Most obvious would be Jeongin (though he'd have no reason to struggle opening it); then Lee Know (my sweet husband who I hoped was not here); and then of course the police.

The banging on the door got louder and louder until an entire SWAT team burst through which I hadn't expected. I wasn't important enough for this many resources.

"We found him!" a man shouted.
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I woke up in a sweat. I pressed my hand to my forehead and made sure I was real and awake and alive as I gasped for air.

"1..." I inhaled a shaky breath as deep as I could before letting it out.

"2..." I repeated as I'd been instructed to in therapy. Apparently, this exercise was meant to help people calm down after a panic attack.

"3..." And I needed to be able to self-soothe now that Lee Know wasn't here to help.

I pinched my eyes shut, attempting to hold back tears. I'd been avoiding thinking about him. It was too hard.

I missed him. I missed him so much, and I wasn't allowed to contact him until Jeongin was found. He was after me for revenge more than anything. I'd wanted nothing to do with his parents' fortune and had defaulted the inheritance to Hyunjin.

I supposed Jeongin still saw it as his own money and believed I should've given it to him or kept it in an account for him to access from prison or after prison. I'm not sure what he expected me to do, but whatever it was, my not doing what he'd wanted had made him mad enough to break out and come after me.

I was just grateful Lee Know and baby Yoonseo weren't home the day he had come to take me. He'd taken me. He'd tortured me. But they didn't get hurt. They were okay.

I could do nothing but hope that they still were until next week when I'd get my weekly letter from my agent with the code word we'd chosen for their safety...

Moon

My moon. My honey. My everything and I had to stay away.

I hoped they found Jeongin soon. I hated being gone from my family for so long. They were in protection somewhere else and somewhere together...a choice I'd made so that there'd be less risk of them getting hurt. I hoped I was right.

I yawned and forced myself to get out of bed so I could wash the sheets that had gotten damp with my perspiration.

First, I sighed at my reflection in the mirror...

"Your name is Peter."

I stared down at my hand and my bare finger that longed for my wedding band to be back on it. I had to remind myself that I was doing this for them.

"You're a transplant from California."

I wondered where Lee Know and Yoonseo were. I hoped it was somewhere near the beach. Yoonseo loved the beach. Or maybe the mountains so Lee Know could teach her how to fish and camp...and then I wouldn't have to go anymore because she could join him.

I smiled as I recalled our last trip together before we'd adopted Yoonseo. Our tent had gotten filled with mosquitos, and it was so humid out that I could do nothing but complain. But then Lee Know lit a campfire and made us s'mores. He'd told me that night under the stars that he wanted a baby. I'd agreed right away.

"You moved here to South Carolina for inspiration for your book," I said blankly.

I'd thought choosing to make me an author was stupid when the agent had provided me with my new persona. I was too much of a rambler to ever make a good writer. The agent had coached me on speaking less and more concisely, but I'd found it didn't help much.

"You're 25, not 23."

I sucked in a sharp breath and touched the bruise on my jaw. "Your Peter."

The bruise had happened to Han, though. It was even harder to imagine myself as Peter when I'd also never heard Lee Know call me that. My identity was so tied up in him that it felt like a betrayal by being someone different. I hated it.

I walked out to my kitchen which was lit up by the bright morning sun. It was just rising and looked pretty, but I knew the sun was a tease. In a few hours, this very same sun would make all of Charleston a boiler room, and I'd melt into a pool of sweat.

I walked past the basket that Malena had dropped off in my entryway on the walk to the kitchen and spotted a jar of locally sourced honey. I popped open the lid and inhaled deeply. It smelled so much like Lee Know. It smelled like home.

I carried it into the kitchen with me and opted to make tea, so I could have a taste. I dropped some into my mug and sucked the remainder off of the spoon, savoring it as much as I could.

I then carried the mug outside to sip on. As I did, I determined my goal today would be to talk to one person. The agent had told me to set realistic goals while I was here so that I wouldn't go insane. This one seemed very reasonable. Maybe I'd stop by Malena's house and make it even easier on myself for Day 1 since she was already my friend...my only friend here.

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NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Did I plan for this to become a sequel to Untouched?

Not at all. But the more that I wrote, the more I realized that's exactly what it was becoming. So...if you haven't read Untouched I'd recommend doing so or you'll have a lot of spoilers!