The Shadow Circle

Chapter-23

Ryo and Elizaveta walked inside as Julian strode out to the backyard, leaving me in the small clearing with Kai. Kai made a move to leave but I stopped him by lightly touching his wrist. He brushed his hair from his face and looked at me.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"About the FBI?"

I nodded.

"I saw him enter the hotel," Kai said with a small smile. "That and there were few other FBI agents around. They weren't exactly inconspicuous."

"You didn't confront me," I said.

"You hesitated. You were too guilt ridden to tell them anything important. I said I'd get you all out safe and sound, Kestrel. I had him checked. He's clean.  Use him to get your freedom, but don't you dare say anything about me," Kai said.

"I won't. What about your escape plan?" I asked. "It's risky isn't it? The Circle—"

"Will kill me. I know. If we pull this off they'll kill all of us. But there's a chance I can get away," he asks.

"A slim one."

"Be optimistic."

"You're going to die. Yay."

"Rude," he clicked his tongue.

"Ruthless assassin and criminal prince yet the best he can come up with is 'rude'."

"For your information, I'm generally very courteous except—"

"Did you know killing people is incredibly rude?"

"Kes?"

"Hmm?"

"As rude as it may seem, I don't kill small kids, fuckwits and cute animals, but for you I'll gladly break two of those rules," he said.

"Which two?"

Kai smiled condescendingly.

"You must have had some real traumatic past to shape your personally," I commented.

"I'm not planning to tell you."

"I'm not planning to ask."

"No, you were. You just said that because I said I wasn't planning to tell you."

"I wasn't, you just said that because i said I wasn't planning to ask."

"You're just saying that because you have to have the last word."

"In your case, my dear assassin, it would be the last laugh."

"See?" He smirked. "You're doing it right now."

"The last word of this conversation is 'fuck you'," I told him.

"If that's something you wanted, you could've just asked."

"If that was something I wanted, I would have said 'fuck Ryo'."

I saw instant regret on Kai's face for even picking this path of conversation.

"Are you sure you don't want to call your other friends, for back-up?"

"I don't want to call my other friends for back-up."

"Is it because you don't have friends?"

"No, it's because I like my friends," he explained. "So I'm going to do them a favour and keep you away from them."

"How sweet," I said.

"Sometimes, you have to take one for the team," he said and shoved me ahead. "We need to go check on Julian."