Roulette ♧ 엑소

t h i r t y o n e

$ t h i r t y o n e $

Tao had the body dropped off in front of Fu Jian's house in the middle of the night and collected the money which the jewelry businessman had set in a different location so that he wouldn't be tied to the kidnapping. The very next morning it was all over the newspapers. Russian royal family descendant Iva Romanov Petrova found dead in front of her home in Beijing--Husband, Jewelry businessman Fu Jian, grieving her loss. It was all that was being talked about on the news. That, and how there were no leads as to who might have committed the crime.

The girl looked enough like Iva that her husband and her father didn't realize it wasn't her. Not long after, the investigation was closed, and Tao knew that the police hadn't done nearly enough to find out what had really happened to her. Still, the body had been given to her husband who sent it to her homeland of Russia to be buried.

Meanwhile, Iva was still locked up in the basement, having no idea what was going on in the outside world. 

They were halfway into her second week in captivity when Tao decided to reveal himself. She would find out sooner or later, and he wanted to be the one to tell her. He wanted to be the one to explain to her what had happened and he wanted to inform her of her new identity. With his connections, he had gotten her a fake birth certificate, claiming her to be an American citizen of Russian descent named Herminia Pavlova. 

He opened the door to the basement, this time without wearing a disguise. When she saw him, she shot up from where she sat on the old mattress, relieved to be seeing a familiar face. She didn't at all find it odd that he had so easily found her and that he had been able to open the door without so much as a struggle. In that moment, all she could think about was that she was finally seeing someone familiar to her. Her bare feet slapped across the cement floor as she cut the distance between them and threw her arms around him. "I'm so glad you're okay." She found herself saying. She quickly added a question. "What about Jian? Is he okay?"

Tao bit down on his lip as he tried to think of a way to tell her gently. But there really was no easy way of telling her that her husband had only married her for money, and that he had sent her off to die in order to keep her fortune. It was one thing Tao would never understand completely.

How could Fu Jian throw someone like Iva away?

She was a good person, she was smart, and kind, and--if he was being honest with himself--she was fucking beautiful. It just didn't make sense to him, how he could throw someone like her away like that. And even though he had ignored her the way that he had, she still cared about him enough to ask if he was okay.

"Iva, your husband doesn't love you." He told her. Better to say it right away, than to beat around the bush. 

He saw hurt in her eyes, but no surprise. It had become obvious to her when he abandoned her in his house and never came back until just the morning that she was kidnapped. She wasn't even surprised by the next words that left his lips. 

"Fu Jian paid me to get into your house and watch you." He admitted with a sigh. At this, he was unable to look her in the eyes because he knew she would think their friendship of the last few months had been a lie. He had lied about many things before, but not about that. He continued, "He paid me to stage a kidnapping. He paid me to kill you. But I couldn't do it because...I fell in love with you."

Iva blinked back the tears that were stinging her eyes. "He asked you to kill me?"

He gave a silent nod of his head in confirmation.

"He thinks you're already dead." Tao informed her, matter-of-factly.

Iva pulled back away from him and took a step back, falling onto her knees in defeat. Her eyes were widened in surprise and there was a distant look in them. 

"Iva..." Tao took a step towards her.

"Don't come close to me." She begged, and he stopped in his tracks. A frown formed on his lips, but he couldn't blame her for her reaction.

She quietly asked him to give her some space and he left the room. As soon as he had closed the door behind himself, he heard her burst out into tears. He wanted to tear the door open and pull her into his arms, to provide her with comfort. But he respected her wish to be left alone.

He didn't know if she would ever forgive him.

-

Kyungsoo and Jagi had been given a room at the Jackals' house and the family continued growing. Though it would soon get smaller in the next few days. The boys of the younger pack were planning to soon move into one of the old warehouses in the abandoned factory district that they knew as the badlands. Junmyeon had told them they could stay until he could find them a proper home. But Taeyong and the other boys were just aching to get their independence from the older Pack.

They were the third couple to live in the Jackals' home, not including Darleen and Sehun, who were not exactly a couple yet. 

Junmyeon had allowed for the assassin to get a few days of rest before returning to his duties. He had also called a doctor for him, about the red mark he had on his neck from wearing his shock collar all those months. Kyungsoo had taken his alpha up on the offer to spend the next few days resting, and literally spent them in bed with Jagi. It was nice to be able to sleep in an actual comfortable bed with actual covers, like a regular person. He almost just wanted to stay there forever and forget everything else in the world.

"I'm so glad to be back home." Jagi said with a sigh of content.

Kyungsoo nodded his head in agreement with her. "Seems like it was forever that we were last with them."

Since they had been gone, many things had happened that they missed. Jongin and Jiyeon had gotten married, the rivalry with the Coven was forgotten, and Miran was having a baby. Jongin had informed him that Jiyeon was even in talks with Junmyeon to start a homeschool for the children, once all the members decided to have children. She was a school teacher and teaching was her passion. She would be able to continue her passion with the children of the Pack. Jongin had also mentioned to his best friend that Baekhyun and Miran planned to fill Joy's entire classroom with kids to teach. Neither of them doubted that to be true. 

Kyungsoo felt a bit sad that he couldn't be there for all those things, but he was happy to be back with them. He was especially dismayed that he couldn't be there to reunite with his brothers from the Coven.

But now that they got along, he planned to call them and maybe even visit them in China.

"We have to help Suho hyung rebuild now." Kyungsoo commented after a moment. He and the other members were trying their best to return the Pack to its former glory days, where they had been feared and respected by everyone in Korea.

At that, Jagi nodded in agreement. Taking his hand in hers, she said, "We will be the most powerful family in Korea again. Our enemies might have been able to take us down momentarily, but its our time now." Kyungsoo loved that about Jagi. She was determined to do anything to help out the family, even though she had recently joined the Pack. He was just as dedicated to them as he was.

-

another fillerish chapter for you all. but not to worry, as i have mentioned many times before, there is more suspense to come in the next few chapters. so stay tuned for that. also, thank you for getting this story to 4k reads.

it means a lot to me.

i have to go shower now before i go to bed because im getting up at 7am to go to work at 8am. i hope you're all having a wonderful week. 

comment which characters you'd want to see more of! ^.^

-clary