Dopamine Addiction - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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18.
“!”
The man who’d just shot his own partner froze in shock. Liam used the brown-haired body as a shield and closed the distance in a single stride.
Bang. Bang.
The startled man squeezed the trigger frantically, but his bullets went wild.
In that opening, Liam rushed to within arm’s reach and hurled the dead man at him.
“Ugh!”
As the man twisted away from his partner’s corpse, Liam swept at his wrist. The gun spun through the air with a whine and clattered to the floor.
The panicked man reached for it, but Liam was quicker. He kicked the fallen gun across the floor.
“You—!”
The man’s eyes gleamed with something cold and sinister before he threw a punch without warning.
Liam caught his wrist and elbow with practiced ease, then twisted them the wrong way. A sickening crack split the air.
“Aaaaah!”
The man shrieked and rolled across the ground in agony. His bloodshot eyes suddenly fixed on a single point.
The gun lying on the floor.
At the same instant, Liam read his intention. Both men lunged for the weapon simultaneously.
But the man was closer. He stretched out his hand with something like a bitter smile—then froze.
“!”
Liam and the man’s eyes went wide.
“Don’t move.”
Hee-joo had materialized beside them and picked up the gun first. She aimed it at the man.
“…….”
Silence settled over the moment—one neither of them had anticipated. The man’s face twisted with frustration.
Liam rose slowly to his feet, then studied her face.
She was supposed to be hiding behind the wall. Yet here she stood—the woman throwing her first punch at someone today, gun trained on him with steady hands.
Was this amusing? Or pitiful?
“You wouldn’t actually shoot, would you?”
The man curled his lip in a sneer, masking his tension with false bravado. As he took a step toward Hee-joo—
Bang.
The bullet punched into the ground at his feet. He jerked back, paralyzed.
Liam’s expression shifted to surprise as he looked at her. Hee-joo kept her gaze fixed on the man and spoke.
“My marksmanship isn’t very good. When I aim for the legs, I usually end up hitting the head. So you’d better be careful.”
“Oh.”
Liam’s eyes crinkled with amusement as he approached the man. The man’s gaze flicked between Hee-joo and Liam, and he shifted his weight toward Liam.
Liam raised one eyebrow slightly.
“Didn’t you hear? Don’t move.”
“Hng.”
The man let out a strangled sound and glanced at Hee-joo. In that split second, Liam sprang forward and struck his temple with a shin kick.
Thud. The dull impact echoed. The man’s eyes rolled back and he crumpled.
“Go, now!”
In one fluid motion, Liam broke into a run. Hee-joo responded like a sprinter at the starting gun, her reflexes sharp.
They bolted straight for the cart. Liam reached out a hand; Hee-joo threw him the keys.
Liam climbed in first and started the engine. Hee-joo jumped into the passenger seat beside him.
The four-wheeled cart—the kind you’d see on any golf course—was faster than it had any right to be. As they cleared the main gate of the Hospice, Hee-joo glanced back.
The man who’d taken the baseball bat was staggering out of the gatehouse, limping badly. She saw him pull out a phone.
She turned forward again and looked down at the gun in her hands. “What do I do with this?” she asked.
Liam glanced over and held out his hand. When Hee-joo passed the gun to him, he tucked it smoothly into his waistband.
“PM Makarov.”
“A Russian pistol?”
“You know weapons?”
Liam’s eyebrows rose. Hee-joo swept her disheveled hair back and nodded. “That much, yes.”
“I noticed their English had a Russian accent, but seeing they carried Makarovs clinches it.”
“Russian Mafia?”
“Possibly.”
“Why would a Russian organization be after me? My assignment wasn’t Russia. Wait—it wasn’t me. It was my father.”
Hee-joo shook her head, lost in confusion.
“What could he have done to deserve this…?”
She trailed off, then exhaled deeply. The reality of her father’s death had suddenly caught up with her.
“What will you do?”
At Liam’s question, Hee-joo wiped her cheek. She didn’t deliberate long.
“I need to go back to Korea.”
“…….”
“I need to investigate my father. Find out who he really was. And who they are.”
Liam nodded. It was the only practical choice.
When they reached the main road, they abandoned the cart and flagged down a taxi. Back to her normal composure, Hee-joo pulled out her phone and began searching for the earliest available flight.
Liam rested his chin in his hand and watched her face reflected in the window, thoughtful and distant.
***
San Francisco International Airport looked exactly as it had when they’d first arrived. Then again, if an airport changed in a single day, that would be far worse.
Vast ceilings. Towering buildings. Endless crowds. The din of a thousand conversations.
Every airport, regardless of country, had that same unsettled atmosphere—the anticipation of departures mingled with the relief of arrivals, creating an odd weightlessness in the air, a sense of suspended gravity.
Yet Hee-joo had no room for such sentiment. Not now, just as she hadn’t when she’d first arrived.
She kept her eyes down, watching her own feet move. She only glanced up to read the signs, otherwise lost in thought.
On the escalator, she turned and looked back at Liam. He stood two steps below her, their eyes nearly level.
Late one-eighties, perhaps. Maybe just into the one-nineties. She estimated his height while glancing at the bright digital display of the time.
“I booked a flight departing at four p.m., but I should check with the airline to see if there’s an earlier option. Then we’ll grab something to eat.”
“All right.”
Liam nodded readily, then studied her face. She was handling logistics with crisp efficiency even now—an intriguing contrast to everything else about this situation.
Her biological father was dead. He’d never raised her, but he’d shared her genetics. And now a Russian organization was on her trail.
Yet Hee-joo remained composed. Remarkably so for someone who’d never seen field work before.
As Liam’s eyebrows twitched slightly, she turned forward again. Reaching the third-floor departure level, she walked toward the Alpha Airlines counter.
Liam followed with his hands in his pockets, moving at an easy pace. Hee-joo stood in the queue, still clearly thinking.
Liam didn’t want to interrupt her thoughts. A strange premonition told him he shouldn’t.
She seemed calm on the surface, but underneath ran a deep current he couldn’t touch. There was a boundary he couldn’t cross.
She had to open that door herself. Otherwise, no one would ever get inside.
He wouldn’t make a careless mistake.
A Middle Eastern man finished his lengthy complaint and walked away, apparently satisfied.
Finally, it was Hee-joo’s turn. She offered the airline attendant a polite smile and stepped up to the desk.
“What’s the earliest flight to Incheon?”
“One moment, please.”
Liam let their conversation fade into background noise while his eyes drifted across the terminal.
Airports all looked the same. Travelers dragging massive suitcases, parents hurrying children along, a baby crying for no apparent reason, an elderly couple browsing a pamphlet at leisure, and businessmen in suits glancing around.
“…….”
As Liam observed them more closely, one of the suited men moved toward the Air Korea booth.
Liam leaned toward Hee-joo.
“Which airline was our reservation with?”
“Air Korea. Though I noticed Alpha Airlines also flies to Incheon.”
The attendant answered: “The earliest is one p.m.” Hee-joo leaned forward on the desk, her upper body angling closer.
“Can I book that now?”
The suited man in front of the Air Korea booth began studying each face in the crowd methodically.
Suspicion became certainty. Liam grabbed Hee-joo’s wrist firmly.
“Go.”
“Wait—”
“How many passengers will be traveling, ma’am?”
The attendant’s question made Hee-joo freeze. The man waiting in line behind her caught her hesitation, stepped forward abruptly, and thrust his passport across the desk.
Cut off, Hee-joo had no choice but to follow Liam away.
“What’s happening?”
“Look at the ground. Walk. Fast. Don’t lift your head under any circumstances.”
His tone was unmistakably urgent. Hee-joo’s eyes dropped immediately, and she followed his instructions, keeping her gaze on his heels.
Liam tapped the knee of a young woman sitting in a chair. Her book fell.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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