Page 100 of Marked By Him

He grins at the recognition that dawns on my face.

The compartment door slides open and the man in the dark clothes steps through. He twists the lock on the door, the click resounding in a space that suddenly feels way too compact.

Panic surges through me like a lightning strike.

The attendant lunges at me first.

I react on instinct, swinging the only weapon I have on me—the thick historical book Jin bought. The book slams against his skull with a loud thud and sends him crashing to the ground in a dizzy heap.

The man in dark clothes is unfazed. He merely starts toward me next, stepping over the attendant’s limp body.

“Calm down, little rabbit,” he taunts cruelly. “We just want to skin you alive.”

I leap onto a seat, dodging the sweep of his arms. He straightens up to snatch hold of me a second time, but I’ve gone for the luggage rack overhead. It’s stocked with what looks like extra cargo from some of the other compartments.

Wrenching it open, I let the heavy pieces of luggage rain down on him. Things like a metal case for instruments, some rolling suitcases, a couple duffel bags, and a trunk that descend on him like an avalanche.

He’s out cold, buried under their toppling weight.

The attendant groans from a few rows away as he staggers to his feet. I leap to a different row of seats as we begin a game of tag. He scrambles over the wide, leather seats with outstretched arms, desperate to wrap them around me.

I move to jump to the other side, but he grabs hold of my leg first and yanks hard.

I smack into the ground stomach first. The air in my lungs is knocked out of me. The whole train car rattles like the earth has been flipped upside down. I haven’t even begun to recover when the attendant climbs over me, desperately trying to pin my wrists.

I thrash beneath him and vaguely remember what Jin had told me just last night—that I need to fight dirty in situations like these. That I’m at a disadvantage, so I need to level the playing field any way I can.

“GETOFFME!” I scream, then spit into his face. My nails go for his eyes, digging into his eye sockets ’til he’s screaming in agony and backing off at once.

Shoving him off me, I roll free and stumble toward the exit.

The compartment door slides open before I can reach it.

Two more men enter. Both broad and brawny, clearly the enforcer type like the first man in dark clothes. The same crimson tattoo snakes up their necks. The one on the left taps a metal baton against his palm. The other simply grins.

My heart sinks. There’s nowhere left to run.

I was lucky enough to fight off two men. But four?

I stagger a step back, pulse thundering in my ears, and the walls of the compartment start to close in. The bleak reality of the situation settles over me.

The man grinning steps forward and raises his fist.

His tattooed knuckles are the last thing I see before a burst of white light and then… everything snaps to black.

24.Jin

“You touch her, you die,”I growl, the phone pressed tight against my ear.

I shove past a couple hauling wheeled luggage, narrowly missing a platform attendant checking tickets. Both yell at me as I rush past them. Their outrage doesn’t register.

I merely sprint faster, making quick work of the concrete structure that’s Gijang Station. My heart pounds inside my chest so loudly, the rest of the world is on mute.

“She’s sweet, this one,” taunts the voice over the phone. “But she has a spark, doesn’t she? A little rabbit with some fire.”

“Your life is over,” I snarl. “I’m going to kill you. All of you.”

The man on the other end laughs. The longer the conversation goes on, the more familiar his voice sounds.

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