Chapter 4

I escaped from the office and started to run down the stairs. I suddenly heard footsteps coming from the opposite side so I entered a door to a random floor. So many things were going on rampaging in my mind.

I was so focused on my thoughts that I didn't even see someone standing right there in front of me. I ended up hitting the man and falling down to the floor on my butt. I looked up to see who I'd hit and it turns out, it was the man who held the knife and guided me to the top floor. Now that I can see the man clearly, he looks like any normal guy with black hair and blue eyes wearing dark blue jeans and a black shirt. He even looks close to a 20-year-old young man. The man reached out his hand to me. He didn't even wait for me to grab his hand when he forcefully pulled me up.

"You're the boy from earlier." The man said without any hint of emotion. I had forgotten I was still Richard Knight, a boy. Because of the 2 men knowing my true gender, I have completely forgotten I was still dressed as a guy. I straightened myself up, without needing help from the man, and started my role of Richard Knight in front of him.

"What's it to you?" I said, trying to act strong.

The man stood there. "Do you ever stop asking? Anyway, where do you think you're going?" His question may be in a questioning way but his expression and tone speak otherwise.

I replied to him, pushing all the confusion away just for the moment for me to speak. "Where do you think? I'm going home to my apartment." I said in a rather harsh tone in my voice. I walked past the man, heading for the doorway to the staircase.

I was about to continue walking my way out but the man suddenly spoke again. "Going home without your dog?"

"!!!" I was so shocked that the supposed calm demeanor I wanted to make for myself vanished. I look at him with wide eyes in disbelief. "You took my dog as well?!" I shouted to his face.

"Your dog wouldn't stop attacking the men, so we took him." He replied with such cool air around him, it made me angry.

"Show me where he is!" I shouted to him without hesitation.

The man looked at me with an uninterested look and walked in my direction. He walked past me and to the staircases behind me.

"Aren't you coming?" He said as he looked back at me from the door frame.

I was so angry but I was also desperate in getting Hunter back. He's the only family I have left. I started to walk and once again followed the man. Arriving on the 3rd floor of the building, we walked through the gray corridors with the various turning of corners when we suddenly reached a single door at the end of a corridor. It was faint but I could hear barking behind the door and ran straight to it. When I opened the door in a hurry, a large dog jumped on me and we both fell down on the floor.

"Who'd know a dog like that would miss a guy like you?" The man said as he looked at me and Hunter enjoying our short-lived reunion. When everything was fine between me and Hunter, I stood up from the floor and looked at the man with Hunter by my side.

"Could you show us the way out? I need to get out of here before I go mad." I said. It shamed me to say it. I didn't even know the guy yet he helped me not once but twice in one day. Of course, it might just be orders or what but he still helped me.

"First order of the leader, huh, I expected it to be more interesting." My head whipped to his direction.

Leader? He must know about me and that man's relation. I still haven't accepted it yet but everyone here thinks that I really am the child of that man I know nothing about. I looked at him dead on with a cold look in my eyes. "I'm not ordering you. Besides, I didn't accept that man's offer to become this mafia leader anyway. I'm asking you a favor as a normal person."

"..." We were locked on a sort of staring contest with one another. He looked at me with his ice-cold eyes and I looked at him with my frightened eyes. It took a while before he could speak.

"...Fine." That was all he said before walking away from me and off to somewhere else. "Just so you know, you're bound by the White Dragons starting today. Even if you don't want to become one of us, technically you're part of us by being related to the boss."

The man didn't even turn around just to say scarring words to me. I was displeased by those words but I didn't dare argue with him because I know it would be useless to fight what is true. I'm not saying I accept the fact of being his daughter, but right now, I should probably play along with it if I want to get out. I started walking to the man with Hunter in tow and walking up the stairs. It confused me. The exit should be located on the first floor but the man was leading me up the stairs until we reached the 5th floor.

I would very much like to question the man but his frightening words to me were still in my mind, so I remained quiet as I followed him anxiously. I saw a window wide open and looked out to the view, battered up cars in one direction and the filthy city of New York in view. I figured out where I really was, in the low city of New York where there are pubs and drug dealers on the streets. I stepped away from the window and walked to the man, I saw him standing next to a sort of chute door in the wall.

"What's this?" I questioned him as I pointed to the chute door.

"It's a garbage chute." He replied back to me like it was my first time seeing it.

"I know but why are we here?"

"You can't pass the main entrance because of the other members, and since you're small and thin for a guy, I thought that you and your dog would fit here."

"Because of the members? Why? Are they going to kill me?"

"... So you're not clueless after all."

I was curious about his words to me. I repeated my words in a more serious way. "Answer me."

He didn't say anything to me but he opened the door with a strong pull, probably rusty from old age. He looked at me with a serious face. If looks could kill, he would fit that.

He pointed to me with his right index finger. "Look at you, small, vulnerable, and weak." The man said as he analyzed me. "Do you want someone like that?"

Of course, I wouldn't like someone like that. Before I could reply to his question, he grabbed my wrist and pushed me to the chute. I was too startled by his sudden action, it made me stop speaking, and I was easily thrown in the dusty and dirty garbage chute sliding down it screaming. When will this slide of horror ever end?

When I thought that it was an endless chute leading to nowhere, suddenly a patch of sunlight shown on my way down. I was ready to get off the chute and soak myself in the sunlight and smelling the air full of smoke from cars. I was out of the chute and then landed on a pile of garbage in an alley. I would have been standing up right now if it wasn't for Hunter who suddenly also slid down the chute and splashed dirty garbage water on me.

"Are you done playing?" The man said when he emerged from behind the building. I looked up and saw the black-haired man again there looking at me.

"Where have you been?" I asked. I was still sitting on top of the pile of garbage when I asked him.

"I came out through the exit like a normal person would do." He said it like it was the sanest answer there is.

"What! You're the one who threw me out of that chute." I yelled at him.

"Just get out of the garbage. I don't want to walk with someone who stinks."

"'Walk with?' You mean you're going to take me home?" I asked him. My emotions were jumbled up. I don't know if I should be happy now that this nightmare will be over or cautious of this man if he'll try anything next.

He looked at me raising his eyebrows in question. "I'm walking you to a cab. You're not a kid anymore, right?"

He simply walked away, leaving me to struggle out of the garbage, and calling for a cab. I got up from the garbage and walked to his side smelling awful with Hunter next to me. While the man was signaling a cab from the road, I decided to have a conversation with him, not like the previous conversations that ended up wrong.

"I don't even know you and you helped me, why?" I asked trying to make myself look presentable as I did so.

"...Jason Adams." The man said next to me just when a taxi parked beside us.

"What?" I questioned repeatedly him.

"It's my name, Jason Adams." He repeated to me with his monotone voice.

The cab stopped right next to us. He first went to the driver and talked to him before coming back to stand next to me. Jason opened the door, pushing me in the cab and Hunter as well.

Since he was introducing himself, I decided to introduce myself as well. "Then, my name is Richard Knight," I said as I introduced him to my male identity.

"I know, you're the guy I have to play bodyguard with." That was all he said which left me dumbfounded.

"What?"

Jason grabbed something in his pocket and gave me some money. "It's money for the cab." That was all he said then slammed the door shut in my face. Jason started walking back to the building and the cab started moving. I was shocked to move and I stayed that way for a while. I recovered seconds later from the shock.

I muttered to myself. "My Bodyguard..." I was repeating it over and over in my mind until it formed clearly in my mind. "WHAT THE HELL?!!!"