Chapter 6

"Oh, Angel!" Ricardo Luciano exclaimed happily, embracing a man who approached his side. The tall man in casual attire bent his waist considerably to allow Luciano to embrace him and received kisses on both cheeks.

The man who had been embraced and kissed by Luciano straightened his waist. The blue eyes of the remarkably tall man immediately turned toward Eugene. Eugene involuntarily stopped breathing when he saw the man's face. It was the blonde killer, Valentine.

While Eugene remained frozen, the blonde killer also exchanged Italian greetings with lawyer Mateo Martino. After completing the greetings, he fixed his gaze on Eugene again and sat down in the seat next to him.

Valentine's blue eyes did not leave Eugene's face. Eugene stubbornly kept his gaze fixed straight ahead. He didn't want to make eye contact with him. Luciano looked alternately at Valentine and Eugene, then smiled deeply, creating deep wrinkles around his eyes.

"Our Angel has always been very particular about people since he was young. Since Angel likes you, there's nothing more to consider. I approve too. I look forward to your future activities."

Luciano said with a broad smile. Eugene couldn't understand at all what he was approving of or what activities he was expecting. But he didn't rashly ask about it. The Italian elderly man Luciano looked as if everything had been decided by his words just now, and considering that he was mafia, it was certainly not a good idea to question a matter he had already decided.

Luciano and his lawyer resumed their focus on the meal. Eugene turned his gaze in the direction he had been deliberately avoiding. When their eyes met, the blonde killer gave Eugene a very attractive smile.

The sunlight coming through the window reflected off his magnificent blonde hair, making it sparkle as if golden dust had been sprinkled. His unblemished white skin was like porcelain, and his handsome and beautiful features took one's breath away several times more than the memory from last night. And his blue eyes. Those deep blue eyes that seemed to pull you in just by looking at them briefly had such a clear and intense blue color that all the blue eyes Eugene had seen before seemed like rotten fish eyes in comparison.

Eugene was momentarily captivated by the killer's beauty before barely regaining his reason. The blonde killer known as Valentine, and also called Angel, did not take his eyes off Eugene, and his blue eyes lingered particularly long on Eugene's lips. When those blue eyes rested on Eugene's lips, the corners of his mouth would shoot upward, and his eyes would narrow slightly. Seeing this, Eugene could be certain.

'So he did suck me off.'

"It's not fun to stay with old men for too long. You should get going now," lawyer Mateo Martino said to Valentine and Eugene. Then he looked at Luciano as if seeking agreement. Luciano nodded slightly as if giving permission. Valentine rose from his seat as if he had been waiting and exchanged greetings with the two elderly men.

After exchanging greetings with Valentine, Luciano extended his hand toward Eugene. As Eugene reached out and grasped it, he felt the rough, hard palm riddled with calluses. It seemed like it wouldn't be penetrated even if stabbed with an awl.

"We'll see each other often," lawyer Mateo Martino said as they shook hands. Eugene merely nodded slightly without answering.

After the greetings, Valentine placed his hand on Eugene's waist and headed toward the entrance. Leo, who had been sitting at the window table, put down the newspaper he had been reading and went ahead to the entrance to open the door.

The car they had arrived in was waiting right in front of the restaurant door. As Leo opened the back door, Valentine pushed Eugene into the back seat and got in himself. Leo closed the door, got into the driver's seat, and started the engine.

As the car started moving, the space became completely isolated. People were passing by outside the car window, but none of them gave any attention to the occupants of the passing car. Sitting side by side with the blonde killer in a narrow, enclosed space was suffocating. Of course, Leo was in the front seat, but he too had recently held a gun to Eugene and broken down a door. Both the blonde killer and Leo were threatening presences to Eugene.

"Where are we going?" Eugene asked in a calm voice. As he said "where," Valentine overlapped his hand on top of Eugene's, startling him so much that he bit his tongue.

Eugene looked down at Valentine's white hand covering his own. It was a hand so large that it completely concealed Eugene's hand just by overlapping it. That hand was white and clean like porcelain, just like Valentine's face, and his fingers were very long and elegantly shaped. When he slightly moved his fingers, the bones on the back of his hand protruded. It looked like the hand of a piano player that Eugene had once seen and admired.

Though it looked that way, the feeling of the palm touching Eugene's hand was completely different. The palm touching the back of his hand was hard like Luciano's. The fingers slightly touching Eugene's were also surprisingly calloused. It was a beautiful hand that evoked admiration, but it was certainly a killer's hand.

"Where are we going?" Eugene asked again, this time looking at Valentine. When their eyes met, Valentine's eyes narrowed slightly. The blue eyes staring as if dissecting him were too intense.

Valentine didn't seem interested in answering Eugene's question. Eugene also had no intention of repeating the same question three times. The car continued driving in silence for a while longer before stopping. Contrary to the terrible scenarios running through his head, there was no deserted harbor or abandoned building.

Leo, who had turned off the engine, got out of the car and opened the back door. From what he had observed of Leo's actions so far, Eugene roughly concluded that he was acting as a driver. Valentine got out of the car first. Eugene considered opening the door on the opposite side and running away. But no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't outrun a bullet, and even if he escaped, that escape wouldn't last long.

Eugene obediently got out of the car and looked around.

The car had stopped in front of a roughly ten-story building with newly renovated exterior. Standing with his back to the building at the intersection, he could see two bridges on either side. The one on the left was the Brooklyn Bridge, and the one on the right was the Manhattan Bridge. On the side where the Manhattan Bridge was visible, there was a small park with trees, and the East River was slightly visible.

Valentine placed his hand on Eugene's waist, just as he had done in the restaurant, and headed toward the high-rise building. Despite his hand being in an awkward state of neither fully touching nor leaving Eugene's waist, there was a strange sense of pressure as if his waist was completely in Valentine's grasp.