The War of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 3) (71 page)

Wiping off blood splatters from her face, her emotionless eyes
involuntarily shifted over to Eve and her two children, all of whom were hiding in the back corner of the truck, shaking relentlessly. Eve was tied up and bound with sturdy ropes while the small boys, the only ones untouched by the Scorpions and herself, were tending to their mother. Their innocent brown eyes were wide with fright while they looked at their aunts and uncles. The extended family may not have been related to the children by blood, but it was clear to Soo Jin in the way they would whisper comforting words to the boys that they loved them nonetheless. It was also obvious to Soo Jin that the boys were fighting between the need to stay with their mother and the desire to run over to one of their aunts and uncles to help tend to their wounds as well.

Their fear of Soo Jin wh
en she raised her bloodied knife to motion for them to sit still, however, cemented them in their positions. Helpless, they wrapped their small arms around their mother, shaking with her while she cried at the sight of her deceased lover’s family getting beaten to death by the Scorpions who stood behind Soo Jin.

Remember to “cry” when you kill those three
,
Soo Jin reminded herself when the truck came to a halt.

The terror in the
enclosed space thickened when the entryway of the truck was wheeled up. The cold night’s breeze crawled in. A collective hush came over the truck. Everyone knew what was to come. They were going to meet the one behind all of this.

Young Jae.

Standing before them, dressed in one of his impeccable black suits, Young Jae had on his signature expression. It was an expression that held severity, yet also hiding a hint of warmth as if to fabricate the verity of his true intentions. Even under the eyes of his soon-to-be victims and his Scorpions, he was still acting it up for them. It was a wonder to Soo Jin that she only now caught up with his act.

Though less than thrilled with seeing him, Soo Jin
manufactured a smile and silently greeted him with a wave of the knife.

Pleased
that he had the entire extended family in his grasp, Young Jae gave Soo Jin an approving look before he motioned with his fingers for the Scorpions to bring the family members forward and take them into the club.

“I want to kill two birds with one stone and do something else while we’re here,” Soo
Jin said, jumping out of the truck. The rest of the family members had quietly been filed in. It was just Soo Jin and her brother standing out on the desolate street.

Young Jae
didn’t appear to be paying attention.

“We’ll discuss it
later,” he said distractedly. He lifted a knife that he was holding by the blade and handed it to her. “But before that, torture them and find me Tony. After that, you can do whatever you want.”

A smile graced Soo Jin’s lips. She was
ecstatic to hear her predicted answer from him. Soo Jin grabbed the knife by the blade and walked into the club with her guns behind her back. The end justified the means, and if torturing them meant she would become the Lord of the Underworld, then she was all too happy to bestow hell on to them.

An hour and a half
was how long it took for Soo Jin to singlehandedly torture thirty-one family members, kill sixteen, and then leave the remaining fifteen to writhe on the floor like dying worms. The three left—the mother and her two children—sat in the corner unharmed. But not for long.

“I don’t trust him,
” Young Jae whispered. His eyes roamed the room from the balcony while he spoke to her.

The floor was littered with blood
, amputated fingers, disembodied flesh, and corpses.

After finding out Tony’s location—useless information given that her
brother was the one who had him—Soo Jin went up to the balcony. She brought up finding a “prized” heirloom for Ju Won in order to get his favor on their side. It was a lie that she started to perpetuate while she was torturing the family members by asking them where the infamous jade knife was. Unfortunately for Soo Jin, Young Jae had never gotten along with Ju Won. He was anything but cooperative when it came to procuring something for the eldest Advisor. But fortunately, Soo Jin was a cunning and persuasive individual. If she wanted something, then there were few who could deny her.

“What could it hurt if
we continued to torture them?” she placated diplomatically. Splatters of blood stained the jeans and black jacket she wore.

S
oo Jin would be damned if she couldn’t get the jade knife and the riddle. She had to get to the mother and the two children. She knew that the only option was to openly interrogate them in front of her brother. It was the only way to avoid suspicion.

“Nothing matters any
more,” she continued, her mind already wheeling the plan into motion. “The moment they stepped foot in here, they were going to die anyway. Why not try to find out something for Ju Won while we’re at it?”

The vindictiveness of
her own words made her proud.

What a blessing to be above crippling human emotions.

“You trust him too much, lil sis,” said Young Jae. His eyes on her were severe. “Ju Won is a snake and the worst possible kind. Nothing he offers you should be taken lightly.”

“He’s offering our family his
empire, oppa,” Soo Jin lied, raising her voice, yet keeping it respectful to avoid pissing him off. “You know the pendulum of power that comes with that exchange. The Serpents are becoming stronger. Kwon Ho Young not only has the support of China’s Underworld, but he also has a trump card—his younger brother. His brother is on his way to ruling over the 1
st
layer. You know how influential that layer is when the Corporate Crime Lords are united. If we don’t move Ju Won over to our side, then all the power will shift to the Serpents. Is that what you want? For this world to kneel under the rule of the Serpents? The fuckers who murdered our father?”

There was poignancy in her eyes that
flickered for a split second. It was one that almost betrayed her knowledge that it was her brother who killed their father.

“Don’t speak to me as if our father’s death affected you more than
it affected me,” Young Jae warned, detecting her bitterness even when she tried so hard to hide it. “You have no idea what I’m going through.”

Soo Jin bowed her head as her apology, mentally chastising herse
lf for giving her emotions away. “I’m sorry,” she lied. “You know how much I hate them whenever I think about our father.” She persevered, refusing to give up. “Our world is changing, oppa. The three gangs are growing stronger and stronger everyday, but there’s a shifting of power now. Pretty soon, once things are in order, there will only be one Lord of the Underworld to rule over this entire layer and the two layers above it. I can’t stand here and allow the Serpents to have that power, especially when all we have to do is find out whatever it is Ju Won wants from the family below.”

Her eyes
fastened onto the floor where the unharmed mother and twins sat huddled in the corner, their faces paled from fear. She had been eyeing them the entire night with dwindling patience. She had to get information and she had to get it from them now.

“
You’re not touching them, Soo Jin,” Young Jae warned softly, though she knew by the dark undertone of his voice that he wanted her to. He wanted her to kill them, he wanted her to take the blame, and he wanted her to kill the entire family for the sake of his reputation.

In that
moment, the stage was set with two performers: An Young Jae and An Soo Jin.

Soo Jin was determined to be t
he best performer of the two.

“Look
at how they shake,” she directed coldly. “That woman was Hwang Hee Jun’s girlfriend, and although the children aren’t his, I’m sure he loved them like his own. From the fear in their eyes, how they shudder, and how they looked at me when I tortured and shot those sixteen people, I know that they are the ones who have the answers we’re looking for.”

“You’re entertaining the idea of torturing a
mother and her two children?”

“In
every war there are casualties,” said Soo Jin. The emotions in her eyes were unreadable because she made it that way. “I plan on interrogating them, and I’ll do what’s necessary if they refuse to tell me the truth.” She turned to him. “Have the others leave, oppa,” she told him, wanting as few people in the room as possible. She didn’t want to risk the other Scorpions being in close range. “It should only be the two of us who hear any of this.”

“You’re not invincible,
baby sister,” said Young Jae, though he made no effort to physically stop her from going after them. “Murdering gang members is very different from hurting innocent people.”

Or killing our father?
She wanted to add, but bit down the urge.

Instead
, she passively said, “She should’ve known better than to get involved with the King of Siberian Tigers then.” Soo Jin held his eyes with hers, knowing exactly what to say to get him to give in. “What happens tonight will be placed under my name and my name alone. I killed those sixteen people, and I’ll finish the rest. What I do to the mother and her children will have no effect on you. I don’t want to do this either, but if it’s for the good of our gang, then I’ll torture them all night if I have to.”

Young Jae took a long, thoughtful moment to deliberate everything. He acted as if he cared
, yet she could see it all so clearly now. He wasn’t deliberating—he was rejoicing.

“Don’t hurt them too badly.”

“You were always the kindest of the two of us.” It disgusted her to say this because she had once truly believed it. She knew better now. As she jumped over the balcony, prepared to do what was necessary to be the one standing in the end, she was more than willing to be the more ruthless out of the two.

Her boots landed on the floor, crushing two amputated fingers beneath her before she raced ov
er to the mother and children.

And then
. . .
it began.

“Get the fu
ck over here,” Soo Jin growled, grabbing the mother by the curls of her black hair. She forcefully dragged her over to the corner of the club where stairs and a white pillar stood.

Something set off in Soo Jin the moment she heard
Eve shriek in pain. A tormented scream from a distant past played in the backdrop of her memory, reminding her of a life before her reign as a Queen. Agonizing flashes of Ju Won ruthlessly pulling her hair while she cried and begged him for mercy on the first night of her training swarmed her mind, nearly causing her to collapse where she stood. She had to take a preparatory breath before the images dispersed from her mind, bringing her back to the present.

Soo Jin swallowed uneasily, unnerved from this awful memory of her lowest point in life. Though thunderstruck by this peculiar event, she struggled to focus on the task at hand. It was an endeavor that proved to be a difficult task. While she continued to drag Eve across the room, t
he blood that pumped in her veins wasn’t that of usual excitement from hurting people. Strangely enough, it was one of dread. Dread of hurting an innocent person; dread of hurting someone who was as innocent as her before she lost her soul to the Underworld. It was an emotion she did everything in her power to suppress, no matter how nauseous she was beginning to feel. She had a job to do, a plan to keep, and a future to maintain.

Eve screamed while
her children chased after her and Soo Jin. Eve tried to resist, but found it was futile, as her hands and legs were bound with sturdy ropes. In order to put on a believable show, Soo Jin decided that she had to give the mother more hell than the others. She knew this, but somehow, in addition to the unease she suddenly felt, this logic was not executed so easily.

The weight of her arms and legs seemed
to have increased in mass. This was something that had not happened since her earlier training days. It took a great deal of effort to lift them, making it nearly impossible to use them. It felt like weights had curled itself around her leg when she raised it up to kick the mother across the face. The wail of pain that escaped from Eve tormented Soo Jin. She was flabbergasted that it took effort to not only listen to the mother wail in agony, but to also watch her children crawl beside her to try and tend to her. Something in her heart cracked at the sight, but she had to push through it.

S
oo Jin narrowed her eyes on the children. She couldn’t have the kids distracting their mother. She would never get the information if they were there to distract her. Knowing that Young Jae was watching the scene closely, she was careful with keeping her act up. The kids didn’t get too far with tending to their mother before she kicked them both out of the way. Breath stalled in Soo Jin’s chest when she heard their small, delicate bodies hit the floor.

Eve scream
ed out for her babies, worsening the headache forming in Soo Jin’s head. She inhaled painfully to gather her nerves for her next set of actions. Running up to Eve, she seized her by the collar of her dress. Soo Jin was growing impatient—and apparently losing her wits. She had to get this done as soon as possible because it was killing her mentally and physically to be in the same room as the mother and children. Being heartless was no longer easy for her; it was no longer second nature to her. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening to her. Why the hell were the memories from her past coming back to her, and why was she trembling at a moment like this? Nothing made sense to her but the daunting task at hand. The only thing that made sense was getting the answers from Eve and closing the chapter on this bizarre night. Perhaps when it all ended, she would return to normal.