No, Hongjoong couldn't back out now. He was so close. This was his first ever job. If he wanted to be a proper detective and fight the crime eating at their city's roots, he needed to grit through this. A beautiful smile and some taunting words couldn't bring him down.

It was personal now.

Hongjoong wouldn't let a criminal fool him, no matter his beauty.

So he met Yunho's expectant eyes. The fire was back in his gaze.

"I will crush him between my fingers."

"That's what we love to hear," Yunho chuckled. He tugged a loose paper from his pile and jotted a few notes. "This is the number of Wooyoung Jung. Call him to have him or his assistant back you up. If we can find jujus in Park's possession, we can easily frisk his home for clues about his murders."

Resolute, Hongjoong pocketed the note.

"Will do as soon as morning greys."

"Wooyoung will love you for that," Yunho chuckled, then he stretched. He stood to pick up his jacket and pushed his chair to his table in an attempt to minimalise the chaos. When Hongjoong held the door for him, he dipped outside with a nod.

"Staying for another smoke?" He offered Hongjoong, but the peeper shook his head.

"I'll figure out a plan tonight. See you once I was successful." 

Yunho lingered in the corner under the roof and flicked on a light against the darkness. 

"Good luck."

Hongjoong marched off in the direction of his home. It wasn't far from here and the night air cleared his senses. Few cars were around, so his mind had the peace to be fuelled by gritty determination.

However, he didn't make it far. Just as he rounded the corner onto the side street behind their building, the shadows around him came to life.

He noticed the man tailing him first and whipped around to warn him off. But another came from the alley behind him. Their hands clamped down on his shoulders and twisted his arms onto his back before Hongjoong had the mind to reach for his bean shooter.

"What do you want?!" He hissed, taking them for hooligans or rumpots who mistook him for another. 

But the click of heels coming down the alley was hauntingly familiar to him. A long pipe glimmered between Seonghwa's fingers. The lace attached to his hat covered his face diagonally, and his uncovered eye relished how the detective bared his teeth at him and squirmed against his hold. 

He could call for Yunho from here, but the detective suffered the lasting effects of his injury. He would merely make another body on the concrete.

And if this was his ticket into Seonghwa's lair, it sped things up.

Just going alone was the risky part.

"I was listening in on your conversation. Pardon me. Seems like you still have business with me, detective. Let's move along so both of us can have our peace soon," Seonghwa suggested. After patting him down to confiscate his artillery, a beckon of Seonghwa's pipe had his helpers drag Hongjoong into the shadows, towards the shiny black Alvis Speed which Hongjoong was sure hit the stores just weeks ago.

Thrown onto the bench smelling of leather and Seonghwa's cloying perfume, the detective glared at the widow as he glided behind the wheel. His gloved fingers steered them further away from the city and towards a mansion in the countryside. The peeper had no other choice but to listen to the roar of the powerful engine and watch the moon drifting past as he became the widow's newest plaything.

Once they arrived at the old villa that must have belonged to one of Seonghwa's former husbands, the two lugs dragged Hongjoong once more. They followed behind the graceful saunter of the widow inside the spacious villa.

It was dusty with age, not lived in for a while. Gorgeous Victorian decorations wound around the ceilings and railings, and the old furniture was worth more than anything Hongjoong ever possessed combined. 

As Seonghwa shrugged off his coat in the garderobe, one of his goons reached to help him. A single glance had him back away.

Though Hongjoong was busy staring at the red, tight dress that unveiled the widow's slender form, a distant cry had his head jerk up. It must have come from upstairs, but as he was being kept, Hongjoong couldn't rush to investigate.

Seonghwa tutted. Long sleeves hugged his hands, and he tugged off his leather gloves to leave his matching painted fingernails bare. The dress reached over his knees and hugged his frame, leaving little to the imagination.

"I assume our guest is impatient for us to return. Check on her first. I will call for you shortly." Seonghwa told his goons and, without hesitation, they stalked off. Leaving their master with the flailing detective.

Was Seonghwa able to defend himself? Or did they overestimate how peaceful Hongjoong was?

Not leaving the widow out of his sight, Hongjoong followed him into the sitting room. The big painting on the wall was crooked, and it showed Seonghwa himself sprawled over a cushioned chair in a long dress, pipe in hand as the twinkle in his eyes offered the beholder to come hither. 

Uncaring of the dust that contrasted his glamour, Seonghwa sunk into a seat and crossed his legs in a mirror of the picture on the wall. He beckoned Hongjoong to sit.

"What are you up to?" The gumshoe gritted out. He had lost his lid when they dragged him into the car, and Seonghwa's supercilious smile didn't sit right with him. Out here, there was no one to hear a cry for help.

"Patience," Seonghwa hummed with a vexing smile. When a door opened upstairs, Hongjoong flinched. He stayed near Seonghwa, ready to grab him in a risky manoeuvre as a hostage. He may be unarmed, but he wouldn't easily give up his life.

Heavy steps dragged down the stairs. With them sounded an occasional whimper, and a moment later, Seonghwa's two goons stepped into the foyer. One carried the bound body of a woman over his shoulder. They placed her in the middle of the living room and Hongjoong sucked in a breath when he realised the many bruises and cuts littering her body. The edges of her skirt were torn and bloodied feet scrambled over the rough ground to escape.

The lugs held her down, and one of them ripped off the pillow case obscuring her features. Once a beaut, but now marred by fresh scars, the girl blanched in fear at her company.

Messy brown hair tumbled around features that could barely be of legal age. One eye was swollen in a purple mouse, and the other one widened at Seonghwa's sight. Her split lip wobbled. She looked parched, tormented for days.

Hongjoong glared at Seonghwa. In utter nonchalance, he got a slant at the girl before his feet. Scratches at her neck and wrist meant some jewellery had been ripped off her with force. She curled away from Seonghwa on instinct. Were those small, rectangular black bruises on the backs of her hands from his heels?

"This is Elizabeth May," Seonghwa explained to Hongjoong. The purr of his voice was naughty, not sharing the detective's horror at the doll's pitiful state.

"May?" Hongjoong echoed, having stared for so long at that last name on the files.

Seonghwa crossed his fingers in his lap. The tilt of his head was patronising.

Elizabeth whimpered, not daring to glimpse at him.

"My late husband never deemed it necessary to introduce his two spouses to one another. She cried so prettily when she found out he liked acting like a dog with men."

Hongjoong gulped. That was a crime on Mister May's side. The tormented girl bit back tears she no longer had left to shed. Disgust repelled her from Seonghwa, while the vamp sat untouched. His standing was hard-earned.

Roaring, the detective whirled around to him.

"Is this your revenge plot? She is innocent!"

"You may notice her age, young detective. What do you reckon, how long were they married? She was his first wife," Seonghwa smiled ironically. Hongjoong's lips clamped shut. When Seonghwa leaned forward, his bare hand with the pointed red fingernails traced up his leg. He caressed the sheer stocking, slowly trailing up to the seam of his dress.

Hongjoong couldn't look away as more and more of his long pins were exposed.

"Is it so bad to kill those who do wrong? Who cheat, and rape, and use their capital for foul purposes?"

Parched, Hongjoong glanced back at the helpless jane. At her squirming before her tormenters.

"Then why kill her?!"

Seonghwa's shrug was so nonchalant. His perfume gave Hongjoong a headache. His nose felt numb. How fitting of the widow's cloying sweetness.

"She is a witness I need to get rid of. A thorn in my eye. And she is your trial, Mister Kim."

"What do you mean by that?"

Seonghwa's fingers halted at his upper thigh. A gleaming shiv was tucked against the pale skin where his stockings ended. He slipped it from the garter and exposed the curved, polished steel.

Hongjoong was frozen in place. Staring at the knife and the skirts that fell back down. 

In Seonghwa's hands, the weapon looked terribly fitting. As if he knew how to handle it.

With a smile as sharp as its edge, he offered it out to Hongjoong. The room fell silent when Elizabeth held her breath.

"I'm giving you a choice, detective. Your life for that of poor sweet Elizabeth here. Sacrifice yourself and I will let you run free. Otherwise, bump her. You have seen too much to lam off in one piece, but I would adore having a young and honest sheik by my side. Someone to come home to after a hard day of work. Kill her and be free or sacrifice yourself in the name of justice."

Hongjoong trembled. His hands bunched into fists by his sides.

"How do I know you won't kill her after me? We both have seen too much to live."

"You'll have to trust my word," Seonghwa whispered with gleaming lips. He offered Hongjoong the blade.

Choose now:

Kill the hostage -> Go to chapter 22

Sacrifice yourself -> Go to chapter 18

Attack Seonghwa -> Go to chapter 26