King's Prize (Kissed By The Baddest Bidder)

Chapter 16: Distraction

She slept all throughout the ride.

Since he wouldn't tell her where they were going, Satine leaned her head back and promptly fell asleep, Eisuke looking at her from time to time despite himself. He had to admit he liked it whenever she was with him, but never bothered to ask himself why and he had no intention of doing so now.

He just knew he had to do something.

Akira had given him a call and it was very rare the old man would do so, but apparently he had heard about Eisuke's refusal to meet with some important investors and wanted to know why he had cancelled the auctions he himself had scheduled. Eisuke didn't have to explain himself, the call was merely a reminder and Akira had been a father to him for as long as he could remember, but the old man sure knew something about him was off.

Satine fidgeted from her seat, slowly opening her eyes as if she'd somehow felt they have already stopped.

***

I looked around a deserted land with nothing but grass, which stretched as far as my eyes can see, and realized we must be far out of Tokyo; it was around midnight when we took off and now the sun was already rising in the horizon, casting the place in reddish glow.

I hesitated but seeing Eisuke get out of the car, I did the same, watching him carefully.

There was something about him I couldn't quite place, as if coming to this place had somehow changed him.

He stood there ramrod stiff facing the endless road, arms crossed over his chest, his back turned to me, allowing me to watch him freely without being seen, confused by what the others had told me about him.

Cold and calculating. Harsh to the point of cruelty.

Yet so far, he had shown me quite the contrary.

"What are you thinking?" He asked without looking at me.

I fell into step beside him. "Wondering about the contradiction, Sir."

He frowned. "I ask because you seem a bit hard to decipher and now you're giving me a vague answer."

I smiled cheekily. "How alike we are then."

He smirked.

"Are you ready to tell me why we're here, Sir?"

"Yeah. I used to live here."

My mouth gaped open in surprise. "Here? As in, here?" I looked around as if some magic would make the unseen seen. "There's nothing here."

"They grazed everything to the ground."

I felt my heart pinch at the barely concealed anger in his voice, but I couldn't think of anything to say, and knowing him, pity was the last thing he wanted.

"I started the auctions to gather information about the man who betrayed my father."
Oh shoot, he was telling me now! I leaned closer, placing a hand on his arm which he didn't seem to notice.

"I wasn't born an Ichinomiya, and this is common knowledge. I belonged to a wealthy family but my father lost his everything when a friend betrayed him, and that was when Akira Ichinomiya took me in." Eisuke paused only to take a deep breath and exhaling, he continued. "I have been on a mission for years. Find the man. Find my sister. I see no reason for stopping what I have started, the auction providing me connections which are too important to let go of."

He turned around to face me, his eyes glowing in the morning sun.

"Then you came."

Huh? Startled, I frowned up at him.

"You made me question the things I've worked so hard to establish. For once I started to question myself if I'm doing the right thing."

"But I never said anything," I protested weakly.

"You did."

I gasped softly, my head reeling. "S-Sir, I admit it wasn't easy to accept but..."

"You distract me."

How could I have done that? Frantically I searched his face for any sign he might be joking, but I knew deep down it wasn't like him, the man has the sense of humor of a tree trunk and bluntly honest, too. Yet the way he said those words seem oddly in a negative way and I knew at once something bad was going to happen.

"I will let you go now."

"W-what do you mean, Sir?"

"I can't have you around, Satine. I can't have someone questioning the things that I do, or distracting me. It's better if you leave the penthouse. After all, isn't that what you wanted?"

My heart felt like it had been squeezed unmercifully as I stared up at him in shock.

"You still haven't accepted us for what we are anyway."

I felt my throat constrict, unable to say anything.

Eisuke nodded. "I thought so.