CH 13

“Ngah, ahhh…” The paparazzi, who was still collapsed on the ground, burst out in tears. The ground was soaked with his leaked bladder. His head was dripping blood from where the bullet had grazed him, and his pants were wet beyond repair. As the grown man sat frozen, his entire body trembling and him sobbing uncontrollably as if he had lost his sanity, Josh felt irritation well up within him. Unable to contain the pain, Josh clenched his own wrist and looked down at the paparazzi.

“What are you doing? Get out of here quickly.” His voice came out sharp. If the man stalled any longer before Chase’s eyes, Chase would run even wilder. Even now, Josh could intermittently hear the bodyguards get smacked from behind him.

Daring to photograph Chase Miller’s private life meant that he was either a newbie who didn’t know how things were in this business or a dufus who was blinded by money enough to throw away his own life.

Once, a foul paparazzi who specialized in photographing naked bodies of celebrities had been caught trying to snap Chase Miller’s bare body. He was rendered bedridden forever. Since then, Chase Miller was crowned the number zero celebrity to avoid among paparazzi. Of course, Chase never had to face any consequences for that incident. If anything, the public began to reflect on how they had an exceedingly voyeuristic interest in celebrities’ private lives.

However, even though he was on the verge of death, the man continued to tremble where he laid. Josh became both anxious and annoyed. He grabbed the man by his collar and yelled, “Can’t you hear me? Get lost!”

The paparazzi finally came to and quickly crawled away, despite how unseemly the act. Josh subconsciously gritted his teeth. This must have been a learning experience for that man.

At the very least, he must have learned that he should never poke at Chase Miller.

The shattered camera was rolling around on the ground not too far from them. ‘The price of the camera is nowhere near the price for saving his life,’ thought Josh.

He glanced at the pitiful state of the high-performance camera that cost upward to tens of thousands of dollars. A little scared now, he slowly turned around.

Meanwhile, the scene had already been somewhat wrapped up. When the bodyguards noticed that the cause of the commotion had disappeared, they immediately stepped away from Chase. For the first time in a very long while, Josh came face-to-face with the man.

‘This is driving me f*cking insane,’ Josh cursed in his head, coming close to saying it out loud.

Even without expelling his pheromones, Chase Miller looked like he could kill a man just by standing there.

As the purple eyes characteristic of Extreme Alphas shifted onto Josh, that was how he felt—and it wasn’t just because of the overwhelming pressure.

Chase’s eyes, which always missed Josh’s, were staring straight into him. 

At that moment, Josh’s heart began to pound scarily hard. Fear and intense agitation filled him. There was no way that Josh could smell Chase’s scent as he had instinctively held his breath, and yet he feared for his life. All of it was an infinite stimulation for Josh.

This didn’t stop at just his scent.

“You,” he opened his mouth for the first time. When Josh heard his voice, he was captivated. As Josh stared blankly at him, Chase smiled slowly—a smile so unbelievably bright.

“Do you want to die?” he beamed.

Nobody dared to say anything. Everyone glanced around, trying desperately to think of a way to avoid the situation from escalating. However, no such way existed on this earth. 

Struggling to roll the candy that remained in his mouth with his tongue, Josh replied, “No.”

“Why did you do that, then?” asked Chase, still smiling brightly. As unlikely as it seemed, his smile was as refreshing as that of a teenage boy. The way he slowly and nonchalantly bobbed his finger, however, was far from it. Josh gulped at the sense of foreboding that he may grasp his fingers around his neck any moment now. If he were to say one wrong word here, he might actually die.

As ridiculous as it might have sounded, however, the thought of Chase Miller’s hand taking hold of his throat was unbelievably alluring. If it weren’t for Pete, Josh would have gladly offered Chase his neck. Josh had to roll his hands into tight fists to hold back his dangerous impulse.

Thankfully, Chase’s Desert Eagle was thrown sorrily on the ground far away from them. ‘At least I don’t need to worry about being shot to death,’ Josh thought pointlessly as he desperately searched for an answer. In the spur of the moment, Josh blurted out, “I was concerned that you might get dirty.”

“Hah?”

Chase scrunched up his brows. The other bodyguards also stared at him as if to ask what kind of bullsh*t he was talking about. 

Feeling their gazes raining down on him in the silence, Josh quickly added, “If you shoot from such a close distance, the blood will splatter on your face. Your suit will also get dirty…”

Chase stared at him without a word, as if he was trying to figure out if Josh was being serious.

Josh forced a smile. “I assumed that you wouldn’t want to be dirtied by the blood of a paparazzi.”

The suffocating silence lasted for another few seconds before Chase finally opened his mouth.

“Bring it.”

For a moment, Josh didn’t understand what Chase was referring to. When he just stood there blinking, Chase scowled irritably and tossed his glance toward one side. There lay the Desert Eagle that Josh had thrown down.

Having belatedly realized what Chase had meant, Josh quickly walked up to the item and picked it up. While he bent his torso forward, picked up the gun, and turned around to walk up to Chase, the heavy silence continued.

‘Ah…’ Josh exclaimed internally.

He saw Chase staring down at him and forgot how to breathe. He held out the gun with a blank expression as if he had been enchanted. Chase brought his hand up. Josh saw Chase’s hand grip the Desert Eagle. The next moment, Chase thrashed at Josh’s head without mercy.