Playing with Fire: A BLACKPINK Story

Chapter 23: The Rescue

2019.

"I'm in position," said Amelie. "And this time, we're not going to fuck it up. Right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Right."

"No meeting up with past girlfriends this time, right?"

"Going radio silent, Amelie."

The plan had gone off perfectly, as well as could have been hoped for. Namjoon had contacted Jamie Russell's company, stating that BTS was in the states and would be thrilled to meet with him. In order to decrease suspicion, they had set the meeting up out of the state that Blackpink's next show was going to be in. I doubted that Russell would have thought that BTS was working with Blackpink's ex-bodyguard to get back Jisoo, but it was better to be safe than sorry. We had found that out the hard way.

A few members of BTS were going, but not all of them. All seven would make it too easy to attract unwanted attention. Jin had insisted, and Namjoon had as well. I supposed as the leader, he felt like it was his duty. Yoongi had gone too, but the rest of the members had stayed behind. Lisa had forbidden Jungkook from going, no doubt wanting to keep him safe. Jimin, Hoseok, and Taehyung had stayed behind to keep Jungkook company.

Amelie and I were armed to the teeth, though our weapons were discreet. She was watching from a distance with a sniper, and I was disguised as a maintenance man, pretending to rewire some vending machines. The meeting was taking place in a rather nice hotel that BTS was not actually staying at. It just helped give the illusion that this had nothing to do with Blackpink at all.

"He's coming in," Amelie said.

"Great," I muttered, without turning around to look.

The plan was simple. After he met with BTS for a few minutes, they would get up and leave temporarily, claiming they needed to take a call from their management. I would slip in and take their seat, having a quick conversation with Russell. And how if he didn't give us the location of Jisoo, a sniper would blow his brains out.

It wasn't an idle threat. Amelie's trigger finger was itching.

He would no doubt claim we were bluffing, but that wasn't the case. We didn't need him. There were other contacts we had and other members of his organization that we could easily lean on to get what we needed. One more dead executive wouldn't matter.

We hadn't told BTS that we were planning on killing him if necessary. That was why the meeting was off the books entirely. I didn't want to throw suspicion on them or stain their reputation. If we did end up killing him, we would leak info to the press that exposed his criminal dealings, making it look like a hit ordered by the competition.

"He's sitting down now," Amelie said.

I didn't reply, just kept fiddling with wires. As always, the best disguise was just looking like you belonged somewhere. As long as you worked with confidence, no one would question you. Once again, it had paid off.

I waited while the conversation unfolded somewhere behind me, thinking of Jisoo. She was the motivation that kept me going now, the fire that kept burning inside me. I was going to do whatever it took to get her back. And after that, I would never let anything happen to her ever again. Now that we had mostly foiled Hyun-suk, there was nothing that could keep us apart. I could almost see the future, and it was a future that filled me with a joy I hadn't felt in quite some time.

The minutes ticked by slowly, but patience was part of the job. I could do nothing but wait. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Amelie said, "They just got up. Go in."

I set down my tools and turned around, zeroing in on Russell's table immediately. There were only two bodyguards that I could see, and neither of them were directly with him. They were both seated at other tables, watching from a distance. Must not have expected much trouble when meeting a few musicians.