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     "You guys...did all that...for my sake?" I asked from shock, tears pouring out of my eyes as I now found out what really happened.

     "We always cared about you Julien. The Elders were cruel, but we always watched over you," Minji tells me.

     I quickly wiped my tears as Romeo held my hand tighter.

    "So President King...when were you going to tell me about him?" Romeo eventually asked me.

     I knew he has been suspecting the president, and I know I promised President King that I'd keep it a secret from Romeo. But somehow, I'm glad Romeo has finally found out about it.

     "I also found out about it just recently. I wanted to tell you sooner, but the president himself asked me to keep it a secret from you," I answered.

     Romeo sighed, but somehow, I could see that he was glad that President King was actually somehow a good guy, "That old man...he's like his son, they're both good at tricking me."

     "That's why Eric barged to your company as well. We knew Mr. Matthew King worked there, so we asked Eric to look for Julien at the Valentino Company," Minji explained.

     "But what did President King want with your gang? Why on earth would he need a gang for his revenge?" Romeo asked, and obviously no one knew the answer to that.

     "Let's not concern about him for now. What we should concern about is our brother. Where's Jiyong? Who the fuck took him?" I asked instead, anger now slowly consuming me.

     "We don't know. And I'm afraid we might be too late," Hana suddenly says.

     "No!" I shouted as I immediately stood up from the floor.

     "I was already there, I should have looked for him rather than wasting my time by plotting his death. I thought my family resented me, I am a fool to not have noticed anything," I tell them, but then my eyes widened from shock when I realized something.

     "My family never resented me. So everything that happened...they never really tried to kill me. They always...targeted you," I say, now looking at Romeo.

     "The kidnap...I always wondered why it was too easy. They never really planned to harm me. The one who they wanted to harm was Romeo all along," I continued.

     Romeo's eyes widened from realization as well.

     "They're using your men to mislead us," Romeo says, now understanding the whole situation.

     "That man...he must pay for what he did to Jiyong, and to Romeo," I continued, clenching my fist from anger.

     Romeo stood up as well and said, "Then what do you want us to do? I'm with you all the way, just tell me."

     "We need to go back," I immediately say as I looked at Romeo.

     "Go back? You just got here!" Hana said from surprise.

     "Jiyong has been in America for almost a month, and we don't even know where he is," I reminded them.

     Hana was about to say something again when Romeo's phone suddenly rings.

     He quickly takes his phone and looks at the caller, "It's Mat," he tells us.

     He answered the phone and put it in speaker mode.

     "Val! We got ambushed!" Mat shouted through the phone, panic present in his voice.

     "What?!" Romeo and I shouted from shock.

     "Men from Julien's brother came again, but there were at least twenty of them now. Twelve of our men got killed, Antonio got shot multiple times too while protecting the others so we quickly sent him to the hospital. We killed at least seven of these fuckers, but most of them were able to escape," Mat explained, making my sisters gasp from shock.

     "That can't be...J-Jiyong's men?" Hana asked, now confused even more.

    "And you? What happened to you?" Romeo immediately asked.

     "I got shot three times at the arm and shoulder, but I'm okay. I'm assisting some of the injured men now," Mat answers.

     "Alright, we'll leave here immediately."

     "Okay. Be careful," Mat says before ending the call.

     Romeo looked at us with worry, when in reality, we should be the one who's worried of him because his men just got ambushed.

     "This isn't right!" Minji angrily shouted, now standing up as well.

     "Why is Jiyong's men doing this!" she continued.

     "We don't know," I honestly say.

     "Someone else must be controlling them. Someone must be threatening them or-"

     Hana quickly cuts Minji off and said, "Romeo, do you have any leads, someone who somehow wants you dead?"

     Romeo shakes his head and answer, "I thought it was President King, but now...I don't have an idea. A lot of men honestly hates me, so I don't know who would plan all this just to get me killed."

     "But Romeo, if it's someone who is within the family, why on earth would they attack the Valentino household?" I confusingly asked.

     "There's only one way to find out," Romeo says as he looks back at my two sisters, "I know this is rude, but is it alright with you if we leave now. I promise to bring Julien back here again when everything is over."

     Hana stands up and nods his head, "No, take your time. Look for that monster, make sure he pays for playing us like fools."

     "I will."

     "We will gather the men and send them to you as fast as possible. Please be careful," Minji tells us.

     I quickly ran to them and hugged them again, "I want to stay, but instead, I will make you guys proud and return with victory."

     "I know you will," Hana tells me.

     When we parted from the hug, I looked back at them and said, "Thank you for everything. Thank you for being with me in the past, and thank you for still being with me now."

    Hana smiles and gently touches the tattoo on my face. Then she looks straight at my eyes and answered, "Thank you for being alive...little brother."

*****

     "We have landed," the pilot says through the speakers.

     I slowly opened my eyes and realized that I have actually been sleeping on Romeo's lap.

     I looked out the window and saw that we were now back after 18 hours of traveling from Korea to here.

     "Rome," I called out, but Romeo wasn't budging.

     So I decide to carefully stand up, but when I did, Romeo suddenly grabbed my waist and forcefully made me sit back on his lap, burying my face on his chest like before.

     "Good morning," he whispered in my ears while his eyes were still closed.

     I smiled and brushed his hair back with my fingers, "Good afternoon actually."

     Romeo finally opened his eyes to look out the window.

     When he saw that it was already bright outside, Romeo groaned and buried his face on my shoulder.

     "I know this is a selfish request...but just a little while, let's stay like this," Romeo says.

     "Okay then Mr. Ego," I tell him as I comfortably snuggled myself closer to him.

     Romeo closes his eyes again. I thought he was going to sleep, but then he starts kissing my shoulder, then he kisses my neck and my chin.

     I looked at him and kissed his right eye, making him quickly open his eyes for me.

     Romeo lowly chuckled and pulls me closer to give me a kiss. He softly kisses me for a while, then, he pushes his hot and wet tongue inside my own mouth.

     He devoured me for a couple of seconds before I could pull away to catch my breath, but Romeo pulls me back and kisses me again.

     He hugs my waist and continued to aggressively kiss me. The kiss felt so good that I was unknowingly grinding myself on top of his crotch now.

    Romeo lowly moans, and I knew that nothing good was going to come out of this if we continued. So I quickly moved away again and put a finger on top of his lips to stop him.

     "This isn't the right time for us to do this," I whispered to him.

     Romeo lifts his hand and starts caressing my cheeks, "I love you," he whispered to me instead.

     I put my hand above his and took a deep breath, like his touch alone was giving me strength.

     "We'll find your brother, I'll make sure of it," he continued, and I quickly leaned forward and kissed him again.

     "We'll find the man who killed Johnson. That I'm sure of as well," I tell him back.

     Romeo nods his head and quickly kisses my forehead before hugging my waist and standing up; carrying me like how he always does when we're like this.

     "When all of this is over...let's go back to normal, okay?" he asked, but before I could answer, he puts me down.

     "So where should we go to first?" I asked as I fixed my clothes.

      I went to Romeo to fix his own clothes too as he answered, "We have to go to the hospital first. I heard my uncle is unconscious now."

     "Oh no, I hope he's alright," I honestly say.

     Romeo takes my hand and intertwines our fingers together, "Well we'll find out when we get there."

*****

     "Antonio Valentino," Romeo asked as he looked at the nurse who was on the reception area.

    "Are you a family member?" she asked Romeo.

     Romeo takes out his wallet and shows her his ID, "I'm his nephew."

     "Oh I apologize. He's at room 304, and it says here he just woke up a few hours ago," the nurse explained.

     "I see, thank you," Romeo tells her. Then we immediately went to the elevator to go to Antonio's room.

     Romeo knocks on the door. He doesn't wait for anyone to answer as he opens the door and goes inside.

     Antonio was eating his food when we entered the room.

    When he saw Romeo, he quickly puts his spoon down and says, "Romeo! I'm glad you're back. We were-"

     Antonio suddenly stopped midsentence when he saw me appear behind Romeo.

     "You!" he suddenly shouted, shocking me.

     "This is all your fault! Your men killed my brothers and even almost killed me!" Antonio continued to shout at me.

     I was about to apologize when Romeo suddenly blocked me and said, "You're lucky your injured uncle, or I might not control myself and injure you again."

    "What?! You dare side him?! After what happened?!" Antonio angrily asked him.

     "His brother is innocent," Romeo quickly tells him, finally calming Antonio down.

     "When we went to Korea we found out that Julien's brother was supposed to safely take him back to Korea, not kill him," Romeo explains further.

     "W-What do you mean?" Antonio asked, now even more confused on what Romeo just told him.

     "Someone is using his men so we would end up thinking that he's the bad guy," Romeo says, and all Antonio could do was put his head down from shock and confusion.

     "So all this time, we were tracking the wrong man?" Antonio continued to ask.

     Romeo was about to answer him when I gently pushed Romeo away from me so I could face him, "I am sorry about what happened to you Antonio, and I'm sorry if I mislead you into thinking that my brother was the bad guy. But please, he was taken, and no one knows where he is. If you know something...something that's off with even one of the family members...please tell me," I practically begged him.

     Antonio looked at me, and it looked like he was genuinely thinking, "I...I'm sorry. I handled the trades and the business of the family. I'm not at the house all the time too. So I'm sorry, I do not know where your brother might be."

     I knew he was going to answer that, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed when I heard it myself.

     "Thank you uncle," Romeo says as he walks closer to them.

     He touches Antonio's arm and says, "You should rest now. I heard from Mat that you protected some of the men when you were ambushed. So for that I am thankful."

     Antonio nods his head and says, "I will do everything for the family.

     "Well then, we should head out first to see the damage at the household," Romeo says as he lets go of Antonio.

     We were about to leave when Antonio suddenly called out for me.

     I stopped and looked over my shoulder.

     "I'm sorry for accusing you when you haven't really done anything wrong. I promise, if I remember something, I'll tell you," Antonio sincerely tells me.

     I gave out a small smile and nodded my head, "Thank you."

     Then, without wasting time, Romeo and I left the hospital and went straight to the household.

     "Don Romeo is back!" someone suddenly shouts when the gate of the Valentino household opened.

     Everyone inside quickly formed a line when the car parked at the front.

     Someone opens the door for him.

     He goes out first and shows me his hand so I could take it. When I got out, Romeo intertwines his fingers with mine like it was already normal for his men to see us holding hands with each other.

     "Welcome back Don Romeo," everyone greeted while holding there chest.

     Romeo nods his head to acknowledge them. He was about to say something when suddenly...

     "Val!" Mat suddenly shouts when he runs towards me.

     Mat looked like he hasn't slept the whole day. He even has stitches and patches in his arm due to the gunshots from the ambush yesterday.

     He takes a deep breath and looks at the two of us, "I know you just arrived, and I know you two must be very tired, but yesterday, when they were taking the dead bodies, I did a little investigation."

     "Investigation?" I asked confusingly.

     "If you don't mind, please...follow me," Mat tells us. But without even waiting for us to answer, Mat started walking back inside the house.

      Romeo looks at me confusingly, but I shrugged my shoulder and just pulled Romeo so we could follow Mat inside. The rest of his men followed inside as well.

     While we were following Mat, Mat suddenly started explaining, "We got attacked out of no where. It never occurred to me that they'd ever do it because Julien nor Romeo was here at that time. I'm pretty sure your brother would attack if you were here or-"

     "My brother is on our side," I quickly say, making Mat stop walking, and making the rest of us stop walking as well.

     "What?" he asked as he quickly turned to us.

     "He was here to take me back. Someone's using his men so we'd end up thinking that he's the bad guy," I explained, and Mat looked like he'd fall from shock.

     "That doesn't make sense," Mat says, scratching his head from the sudden information that I just gave him.

     "Mat, what on earth were you going to show us?" Romeo angrily asked, obviously being impatient.

     Mat flinched and quickly looked back at us, "Well when we were gathering the bodies of the people who ambushed us, I noticed that most of them attempted to go to the basement."

     "The basement?" Romeo and I asked in unison.

     Mat nods his head and starts walking again, "Most of them ran towards the basement. Like they were looking for something. So I went down to the basement and found out that there was a locked door just beside the torture chamber."

     "A locked door?" Romeo asked, like he wasn't aware that there was such a room.

     When we arrived at the basement, Mat led us to the locked door that he was referring to.

     The door was made of metal, like no one really wants anyone to go inside it.

     "What's in that thing?" I asked as I looked at Romeo.

     "That's where the family hid their riches. But for what I know, father stopped putting our properties there. It's practically abandoned" Romeo explained.

     "So they were planning to steal something from inside this thing?" I asked, but Romeo was unsure about it too so he didn't answer.

     "This is where they were heading. I don't know what's in it, but it looks like those Asians really want something that's inside this thing," Mat says.

     Romeo looks at the door, then he turns around and looked at the six men who followed us down here as well, "Search the whole house. Look for a key that might just match this keyhole."

     "Yes Don Romeo!" the men shouted before running back upstairs.

     "So every incident that happened...that wasn't your brother?" Mat suddenly asked.

     I quickly looked back at him and nodded my head, "Apparently the mastermind is just using them. And apparently, they've actually been trying to kill Romeo, not me."

     Mat's eyes widened from realization of what I just said.

     "The time with Johnson, and when they raided Val's house...they weren't actually looking for Romeo. Somehow that makes more sense now," Mat says, then he looks back at me and asks, "But your brother? Where is he then?"

     "I don't know. My sister's think he's dead, but I think he's being held hostage by the monster that's playing us. And if what your speculating is right, I'm guessing the final key that he needs, might just be inside this room," I explained, pointing at the door.

     "But if your brother is innocent, who's the real bad guy then?" Mat asked, but before I could answer, the men suddenly ran back to us.

     "Well that was fast," I heard Mat whisper.

     "We found a key that perfectly matched the door Don Romeo," one of the men says as they gave Romeo a silver key.

     "Where did you find this?" Romeo asked.

     Then, the man answered, "At underboss Antonio's room sir."

     "Uncle Antonio's room? Well it would make sense if he has the key to this room," Romeo tells us, but just hearing what that man said, I immediately knew that something was off.

     "Well let's see what those Asian's were trying to take," he continued as he finally puts the key in.

     "It's the right key," Romeo says as he slowly turns the key.

     I don't know why, but every one of us were feeling tensed as Romeo opened the metal door.

     But when the door finally opened, my eyes widened from shock. I immediately fell on the floor, covering my mouth so I wouldn't end up screaming.

     My heart almost stopped beating. Tears started pouring out of my eyes as I said, "B-Brother?"

- END -