Kai pounded the hotel door like a man possessed, having been led here by Qian, and stood bristling with fury like a madman. His body crackled with pent-up testosterone and a need to rip San’s head off his shoulders, leaning so close he could almost lick the spyhole.
San’s face drained of color instantly when he met with the three familiar men of his past, and he had a moment of ‘oh, shit’ as Kai’s murderous gaze honed in on him. Seeing them and summarizing this was far from good, and he stepped back in uncertainty.
Kai punched San square in the face with a champion boxer’s swing, a crunch as bone met bone and sent him crashing backward into his room, taking down the flower arrangement on the stand behind him as the table wobbled with force. His body crumbled to the ground with the flying foliage and smashing glass.
Kai followed, seemingly possessed, grabbing him by the chest of his shirt and dragging him upright before throwing him further into the room with unveiled rage. Sending him fleeing into the coffee table. San was too startled, and his brain still reeled from that first punch to react. Being thrown like a rag doll, so he didn’t instinctively defend his body when colliding with the furniture.
Tian and Qian gave each other a ‘here we go’ glance, sighed, and walked in calmly behind the devastation playing out before them. Qian shut the door and stood guard, offering Tian the room with a little hand motion to go ahead. Not exactly unfamiliar with Kai’s reckless, violent side, given years of clubbing and drunken punch-ups. Tian watched Kai drag San up again and lay an abdomen punch on him before sighing and shaking his head in frustration.
San wasn’t fighting back because he was still sparkled from the first hit and was a useless opponent. Even as a kid he had never bested Kai in a fight and was about to get his ass handed to him in this one.
Tian was an old hat at dealing with Kai this way.
“Enough,” Tian warned, a flat palm to Kai’s chest with enough of a thud to snap him out of his trance. He delivered it in a deadly tone of command that served its purpose and had Kai recoil a little, his red mist clearing to see Tian before him with that steadfast gaze that was a serious warning not to make him intervene further. Tian could be a demon, too, and despite his cool demeanor, Tian was more than capable of taking down most men. “We came to get answers, not blood.”
Kai was breathing like he had run a marathon, vibrating with adrenaline, body antsy with pent-up aggression, sniffing back his fury as sweat rolled down his face from the sudden exertion. He was panting, mostly due to his erratic emotions and rage.
Taking a moment to curl into an upright sitting position while holding his painful body, he had to choke and cough to get air and answered in broken rasps.
Kai was simmering, catching his breath, and not done using his rage to beat down San, but Tian knew that would be pointless.
San had always tried to live with easing his guilt, looking for any excuses for the role he played even if he knew he was lying to himself. It’s the only way he had managed to carry on living.
Yes, he had his blame.
Kai knew how forbidden it was to choose a girl of no status and ignore his parents’ wishes for him to marry for their family’s future.
That’s what rich kids did.
They were raised to obey, and their spouse was picked for status and opportunity to further their wealth and position. Love was not an option, and even if you met someone you cared about, responsibility was supposed to take precedence over emotions. He was supposed to throw Meilei away, step up to the plate, and marry as obeyed to someone that would further their company’s standing.
To him, she had been his reason to wake up every day. She brought him sunshine and warmth with her presence, and he had been living in darkness since he left her.
If she had only said something. He would have stopped it. He would have sent San back to the States.
Another kid raised in her manipulation and always so fast to do as commanded. How had they all grown so blinded by how she used them as puppets their whole life?
San gazed up at Tian and nodded. No longer fearing he was about to get a beat down as long as he opened up and was honest. He had longed to do this so many times.