THE ORPHAN GIRL IS THE MARTIAL ARTS QUEEN의 모든 챕터: 챕터 21 - 챕터 30

The apartment was quiet by the time they got back, the adrenaline from the parking lot slowly draining out of both of them. Elaine set a first aid kit on the kitchen table and gestured for Kael to sit, and for once he didn't argue, dropping into the chair while she rolled up what was left of his torn sleeve.The wound was shallow, the bullet having skimmed across muscle, it was a graze. She cleaned it in silence, his jaw still tight, his eyes fixed on some point past her shoulder. He was really angry."You're still furious," she said, taping the last of the gauze into place."I'm fine.""You're not. You've barely said a word since the garage." She capped the antiseptic and set it aside. "I need you to calm down. I'm capable of taking care of myself, Kael. In case you forgot, I have a background in this too."He didn't answer, his jaw tightening further.She tried a different approach, leaning back against the counter with a small, teasing smile. "You have to admit, you looked pretty g

Ray spent the night parked outside Vicky's apartment building, a cigarette burning low between his fingers while he stared up at her dark, empty windows, hoping to see some kind of movement. He'd lost count of how many times he'd called but the same mechanical voice had told him her number was unreachable. By the time the sun started climbing over the rooftops, he'd smoked through half a pack and hadn't slept a single hour, his mind spinning through every possibility possible.She wasn't home. She hadn't been home all night. And nobody he'd managed to reach, knew where she'd gone.Elaine found him slumped against his own car when she arrived that morning, with Kael being a watchful presence a step behind her. He'd insisted on coming, especially after the parking garage, and Elaine had stopped arguing."Ray." She crouched in front of him, taking in the hollow look in his eyes. "You're burning up. When did you last eat? How long have you been sitting out here in the cold?" She was worri

Juliana stared at her phone for a long moment after the call ended. Felix had never once, in all the years she'd known him, called her directly for anything. He barely acknowledged her existence at family gatherings beyond the obligatory greeting, and yet here he was, voice almost friendly through the phone, asking if she had time for coffee.It didn't sit right but curiosity, and the restless boredom of having exhausted every plan she could think of on her own, she found herself agreeing to meet him.The Gilded Cup sat between two boutiques on a quiet street, small and understated from the outside, the kind of place that didn't advertise how expensive its coffee actually was. Felix was already seated at a corner table when she arrived, dressed impeccably as always, and he rose slightly as she approached, gesturing to the chair across from him with the same strange warmth."Juliana, thank you for coming." He waved a waiter over the moment she sat down. "Order whatever you'd like.""Ju

"Not the hospital please." Elaine's voice came out slurred, barely audible over the wind rushing past the car window. Her fingers found Kael's sleeve with surprising urgency. "Doctors won't help. They won't know what this is." She painfully told him."Elaine, you need.""Listen to me." She forced the words out through the confusion in her mind. "If I had the antidote, it would help. I don't. I never made one. I never thought I'd need it on myself." Her head lolled against the seat whiles her eyes fought to stay open. "Take me home. Please."Kael changed direction without another word, he trusted her. Whiles he drove as fast as he could, he seemed to have confirmed what he'd suspected about her these past months but never had confirmation of. The herb garden, the locked room behind the false wall and the particular precision with which she'd treated his own gunshot wound about a year plus ago. She was simply too good.He'd have his answers soon enough. Right now, none of it mattered be

The apartment felt somehow empty the moment Elaine stepped inside. Seeing the note propped against the coffee maker was the only sign anyone had been there at all. She read it twice and keep staring at it for a long time. He still pretended nothing happened.She became so angry, she tore the note. How could he just leave after that incident. Was it what he wanted all along? Elaine couldn't explain how she felt.She threw herself into cleaning instead of sitting, scrubbing counters, reorganizing shelves. In fact she did anything to keep her hands and mind occupied.Once the apartment was very spotless, she freshened up and turned her attention to the ten packages waiting in her hidden workroom, each one wrapped in unmarked brown paper and sealed with wax stamped, a symbol only her buyers would recognize. She loaded them into a nondescript courier bag and made her way to a rotating series of lockers. Her drop points changed weekly, each package placed inside a different locker with a co