CH 24

There was no better way. Isaac, who was standing by the door, quietly stepped aside. Mark cleared his throat and knocked on the door. When he opened the door to the waiting room, a sweet scent burst out from within.

“Mr. Miller.” Mark forced a smile and stepped inside first. Josh was the last to enter—of course, with another candy in his mouth.

‘I’m gonna get diabetes at this rate,’ Josh gloomily thought to himself, feeling his mouth growing dry. When he closed the door behind him and turned around, he saw Chase sitting alone among the well-built men who were standing around him. He had a cigarette in one hand and a paper cup filled with black coffee in the other, his face still as expressionless as a bisque doll.

Mark explained the plan and finished off, “…And that’s what we came up with. If you have any other ideas, do let us know.”

Throughout Mark’s explanation, Chase was resting his chin on his hand without a word. Josh wondered if he was even listening properly. Chase scanned the bodyguards one by one with squinted eyes.

Finally, punctuating every word, Chase asked, “Who do you plan to use as my proxy?”

Mark glanced at Isaac. “Well, Isaac’s stature is the closest to yours, Mr. Miller. And for the second wave, we’ll have Seth—”

Chase followed Mark’s gaze and stared at Isaac.

“No,” he spat. Everyone looked at him, stunned. With a straight face, Chase continued, “He’s ugly.”

A cold silence fell over the meeting room. Isaac was certainly fairly ordinary-looking for an alpha, but he wasn’t ugly. If anything, about three out of 10 people had about the same level of attractiveness as he did.

Chase arrogantly pointed at Josh and Isaac, one after the other. “Your face, your body. Make it work.”

An exasperated sigh escaped Isaac’s mouth. In his stead, Mark replied, “I’m sorry, but we cannot separate their heads from their bodies. You’ll have to choose one.”

Chase pointed at Josh and offered another simple solution. “Then you, stretch your height right now.”

“That… also cannot be done, unfortunately.”

“You incompetent motherf*ckers, what can you do?” Chase threw his coffee at the wall in response to Mark’s firm refusal. The black coffee that was in the paper cup splattered gruesomely over the wall, oxidizing into a brownish-black stain. Even then, Chase didn’t seem any less angry. He whipped his head toward Josh and gritted his teeth. “Why do you have to be so short?”

Everyone’s eyes instantly shifted to Josh. Chase had said the same thing when they had first met—although Josh didn’t expect him to remember.

Before Josh could say anything, Chase snapped, “How pathetic. Why the hell is that b*stard even here? Tell me, what can you do? What use do you have? If someone were to shoot me in the head, how do you plan to stop them being that short?”

Including Chase, everyone was well over six feet. Aside from the fact that Josh, who was just barely six feet, naturally seemed shorter in comparison to everyone else, Josh could never understand why Chase expected him to sacrifice his own damn head to protect Chase’s oh-so-glorious head—both back then and right now.

“Why not wear a helmet?” grumbled Josh.

“Josh!” Mark cried, frantically stopping Josh from saying his daring final words before getting brutally murdered. He hurriedly continued, “There is no other way right now. If you have any alternatives, please let us know.”

That was Mark’s way of cushioning “If you think you’re so great, then you come up with a good idea.” Chase was silent for a moment. Mark planned to wait just three minutes before sticking it in his face if Chase couldn’t come up with anything.

As Mark glanced at the clock, Chase’s lips slowly fell apart. “The helicopter.”

Mark jolted, and Josh blinked his eyes.

While everyone remained frozen, Chase continued. “There’s a helicopter stationed here, isn’t there?” he asked, shifting his gaze onto his secretary.

She belatedly realized what he had meant and nodded. “I’ll see to it immediately.”

“Oh, I’ll come with you—” Josh tried to seize the chance to escape the room after her. However, his little trick was quickly foiled.

“Stay right there.” Chase’s cold voice echoed from across the room. Josh instinctively halted on the spot. He hesitated a little before turning around to find Chase sitting at the end of the path formed by his teammates who had each stepped to either side, just like the Crossing of the Red Sea.

His piercing gaze seemed to be seeing right through Josh. He couldn’t run away like this. Josh had no choice but to give up.

“…Yes,” Josh replied wearily. He closed the door once again and stood as far away from Chase as possible. Seth stared at Josh with pity in his eyes.

“Among you…” Chase opened his mouth. Everyone’s eyes rested on him once again. Josh was flabbergasted by the fact that a single word—no, a single gesture—from Chase was enough to make everyone’s stomach tighten up. However, unfortunately, he was no different. He wasn’t in a position to pity anyone. 

“Who knows how to fly a helicopter? Can all of you do it?” interrogated Chase.

“No,” Mark said.

‘Oh, Mark, anything but that,’ Josh pleaded in his head.

However, Josh’s desperate prayer didn’t reach Mark. Mark went on, “Josh and Isaac can, but Josh is probably better at it. Right, Josh? You used to fly helicopters when you were in the army.”

Using Mark’s words as the cue, Seth quickly jumped back. Josh’s efforts were for naught, and he became completely exposed to Chase’s gaze.