Deadlock || ᴠᴍɪɴ

Chapter 11

It took a while for Jimin to calm himself. V’s words had inflicted so much pain on him that he was left reeling and unable to recover immediately.

However, once he regained his calmness, he wasn’t about to keep wallowing in his emotions. No doubt V had said those things to motivate himself to act. He had cut himself off from his sentimental side in front of Jimin on purpose. All to accomplish his goal.

V’s true feelings were clear: he had not rejected Jimin. He had brutally rejected his own weak heart that yearned to be loved. Instead of love, he had chosen to carry a hatred so large he could barely contain it. V’s whole demeanour seemed to scream that sentiment.

A pitiful, wounded, lonely soul wandered this world in search of just one thing: Corvus. In that sense, V reminded him of a dead man on earth unable to go to Heaven; however, V was no ghost. His vengeful obsession itself was the phantom. V was perfectly able to live his future freely, if only he allowed himself to.

Jimin was overcome with a sense of urgency to capture Corvus as soon as possible. He was not about to let V kill the man. The moment Corvus took his last breath would be the moment that V lost his purpose in life. Although Jimin didn’t have the power to erase the hatred that resided in V, he knew that the man was headed straight toward his own destruction. Given that knowledge, he couldn’t help but try to block his path, even if it meant becoming the target of V’s hatred.

As he tried to return to the party, Jimin caught sight of a group of people. He stopped in his tracks, unable to believe what he was witnessing.

Manning, Waddell, and Egan were together, surrounded by a few bodyguards. They were chatting amicably as they were leaving the ballroom. The party was scheduled to go on for a while, so there was no way all three of them were leaving early. It was obvious to anyone who saw them that they were only stepping out for a moment.

Jimin’s instinct told him that they were headed to Waddell’s room to have a discussion.

Once the three men disappeared into the elevator, Jimin stepped straight onto the next one without hesitation. As the elevator swept him up, he called Rob’s cell phone, but there was no answer. Left with no choice, Jimin switched his cell phone to vibrate. He didn’t want his phone to ring while eavesdropping in the room next door.

Once he arrived at the top floor. Jimin walked leisurely down the deserted hallway. He fiddled with the key card, pretending to be a hotel guest as he found the room he was looking for. Waddell’s room was a corner suite at the end of the hallway, and two uniformed guards in black were standing in front of the door.

Jimin nonchalantly walked into the room next door. The moment he closed the door, he dashed agilely to the closet. He opened the door to see the contact mic nestled in a corner.

He scanned the white wall, wondering where to place the mic, when he spotted the letter “R” written lightly in pen. It was Rob. Jimin smiled and put on the earphones before pressing the brass mic against the mark on the wall. It took only an instant for the high-performance mic to start catching the conversation of the three men going on next door.

“Are you sure he can be trusted? He won’t give himself away, will he?”

“Not to worry. He has information that only the perpetrator should know. The FBI won’t be able to poke around and cause unnecessary trouble.”

The first voice was probably Waddell, and the man who answered him was probably Manning.

“Speaking about causing unnecessary trouble,” said a third voice. This was Egan, and he sounded thoroughly irritated. “Why did you send men to attack Rob Connors, using my name of all things? Do you know how much headache you caused? The FBI came to question me.”