Whispers of Refuge Box Set

CHAPTER 28-2

It didn’t take Jae long to incapacitate the two guards. He tucked his rope into the back of his pants and covered it with his shirt, ready to pull it out again in an instant if he needed to.

According to the girl with the cut bangs, Sun’s door was the last at the end of the long hallway. Jae frowned at the moldy ceiling and stained walls. How could Sun survive in a place like this? She deserved a mansion, a palace in the heart of Pyongyang, where performers entertained every night and rice was served three times a day. He felt no remorse for attacking the guards. Anyone who held his sister captive deserved even worse.

His hands remained steady as he cracked open the door. Even though her back was facing him, he recognized Sun immediately. She was thinner, though he wouldn’t have thought it possible, and he noted several bruises on her arms. He fought the urge to run to her and stood transfixed. What’s happened to you? The question didn’t escape his lips. He shut his eyes once, clenched his fists, and took in the wounds on his sister’s flesh. Until now, he had held on to hope, some kind of irrational possibility that everything was a mistake — the broker, the baby, the brothel. But here she was, with the make-up and nightclothes of a cheap prostitute and the injuries to prove her new position.

It was no less than the wench deserved. In fact, bruises were too good for the likes of her.

Sun turned around and gasped when she saw him. Her face lit up. “Brother Jae!” Sun ran to him, flung her arms around his neck, and kissed him on the cheeks, the familiar embrace scalding his skin, warming his heart. “How did you find me?”

Jae cleared his throat. With both hands on her shoulders, he held her an arm’s length away. She moved as if to embrace him again. “I didn’t hope you’d ever find me. I’m so sorry, Brother. I must have made you and Mother sick with worry.” She put her hands on top of his and gazed into his eyes. She was radiant. Radiant and beautiful. Jae’s blood pressure rose. Sun was charming, deviously charming and clever with her lies. After what she had put her family through, how could she act so relieved? Had she no shame? Jae shook his head, blinking to try to break free of his sister’s spell, trying to fight the instinct to pick her up in his arms like he had that day the river swept her away.

“You found us just in time.” Sun prattled on, clutching Jae’s hands, examining them from every angle. Repulsion threaded its way up his veins. “You probably have it all planned out, right? We don’t even need to keep making this rope anymore, do we?”

Jae narrowed his eyes. “Have what planned out?”

“Our escape. How you’ll help us get back home. We need to take my friend, too. Mee-Kyong’s in trouble.”

Jae looked at the woman in the gaudy red dress, which clung several sizes too small for her body in spite of her emaciated appearance. How could his sister consort with such a creature? He crinkled his face in disgust and swallowed down the lump in his throat. “That’s not why I’m here.”

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