When Jacqueline tensed her face in resistance, the grip on her jaw loosened smoothly. The man released her surprisingly easily.

Jacqueline glared at him while rubbing her sore jaw. Though she should have just walked past without provoking him, her judgment was clouded by the despair of Muriel’s death.

She raised her deep, pool-like eyes defiantly. 

The man, leaning against the wall beyond the reach of the streetlight, took out a cigarette from his chest pocket, placed it between his lips, and lit it with a silver oil lighter. 

He didn’t take his eyes off Jacqueline even while deeply inhaling the smoke into his lungs and exhaling it.

“Phew… Want to share a smoke?”

The man wore a seductive smile. Offering cigarettes in back alleys was how men secretly soliciting their bodies operated, but he behaved with complete indifference to such misunderstandings.

Jacqueline frowned at his teasing before passing by him with an expressionless face. She realized that besides alcohol, his body emitted faint scents of frankincense and myrrh. 

Frankincense was the sacred fragrance priests offered at altars, while myrrh was a funeral incense used to wash away the stench of corpses.

The man, embodying both sacredness and profanity, let out a frivolous laugh. Broken glass crunched under his shoes with each step. An ominous halo formed above his head when he stepped into the circle of light cast by the streetlamp.

Jacqueline backed away watching him approach. The blonde man, his blue eyes flashing while closing the distance, grabbed her waist with one hand while simultaneously pulling the trigger of his loaded gun with the other.

A man hiding at the end of the alley jumped out and aimed his gun at them.

“Die, Whitaker!”

But Lloyd Whitaker was faster. Bang, a single gunshot rang out. The mysterious man was hit and collapsed onto a wooden crate.

A few minutes earlier, Lloyd Whitaker had left the cabaret to lure into the back alley the rat who had been secretly following him. He deliberately chose a quiet path where people rarely went, never expecting a woman to be there.

No, he actually thought it worked out well. He figured showing himself seducing a woman would make his target lower his guard, and he was right.

Lloyd Whitaker watched with cold eyes the rat twitching before finally stopping breathing. To make sure, he fired several more shots at the body collapsed on the crate. Bang, bang, bang.

“Tiresome Kazispa bastards.”

Lloyd Whitaker shuddered thinking about the family mafia. He needed to send Don Carlo a strong warning, and was contemplating what would be best when he felt a slight vibration against his chest. 

With an annoyed expression, he roughly pushed away the small red-haired head.

“Get off.”

He was cold, nothing like the gentle demeanor he had shown earlier, revealing it was all an act. He assumed she was hovering around him waiting for the right moment to approach, just like the canary from the previous night. 

Initially planning to use her as a human shield, he ended up saving her when the Kazispa member revealed himself earlier than expected.

‘No gambler will have great luck tonight.’

Because the person blessed by the goddess of fortune was already standing before him. Lloyd Whitaker said to the woman favored by tonight’s luck:

“Be grateful for your good fortune.”

Trembling with fear, Jacqueline bit her lip hard and raised her head. Lloyd Whitaker, who expected a face stained with terror, let out a hollow laugh when he saw her eyes still treating him like garbage.

“My, how disrespectful your gaze is, considering I just saved you. Aha! Could it be true that you’re not a canary?”

Lloyd Whitaker observed the woman from head to toe. While her clothes and shoes could easily pass for a regular person’s, other aspects gave her away. He habitually checked her hands and nails.

People of the underworld had an unspoken habit of examining others’ hands and nails to identify them. Someone wearing gloves like him was likely involved in dirty work.

Fortunately, the woman’s hands were bare, and her fingertips were stained with iron gall ink used for document preservation. This indicated she was an educated professional woman.

Only then did Lloyd Whitaker lower his guard. Thinking about it, a canary familiar with District 6’s ways wouldn’t wander alone through alleys at this hour, nor would she look at him with such eyes.

When Jacqueline tried to leave without responding, Lloyd Whitaker felt inexplicably irritated and angrily grabbed her hair from behind.

“Never show me your back again. It disgusts me.”

Lloyd Whitaker had a habit of lashing out at people who turned their backs to him. Jacqueline, her hair grabbed, cried “Ah!” and pushed Lloyd Whitaker away.

“Huh?”

Who would dare swat away Lloyd Whitaker like a fly? 

She was a woman with no fear and quite a temper. Thinking about teaching her what happens when confronting a dangerous man, Lloyd Whitaker noticed her red hair wasn’t a wig but real hair, and muttered in surprise, “It’s real?”

The roots of the hair tangled between his fingers were also red. A blue silk ribbon came undone and fell, wrapped around his hand. It was the red hair he had been eagerly searching for all this time. Finally, the moment he faced his ideal type.

Lloyd Whitaker’s eyes lit up. Like a chameleon, he instantly changed his tone and behavior. While untangling her hair, he asked in a gentle voice:

“Did that hurt? I’m sorry for frightening you. I thought you approached me deliberately. I have quite a few enemies, you see.”

Though trembling, Jacqueline didn’t take her eyes off Lloyd Whitaker, afraid he might shoot her the moment she looked away. Unaware of her thoughts, Lloyd Whitaker liked how she glared at him. Like a puppy showing its teeth, not looking painful even if it bit…

‘How cute.’

“Being so pretty, we almost died together because I let my guard down.”

In truth, he had almost killed her, but Lloyd Whitaker brazenly complained that both he and the young lady had nearly died together. Even the color of the ribbon wrapping her hair pleased him.

Lloyd Whitaker returned the blue ribbon resembling his eye color to Jacqueline and carefully kissed her hand. His eyes were dreamy, gazing at her like admiring a brightly shining star, but his lips trailing down her white skin were sticky like honey.

Jacqueline almost burst into tears from fear due to Lloyd Whitaker’s erratic behavior.

‘He might point his gun at me again.’

Jacqueline clenched her teeth and endured.

“Ugh!”

Even small groans sounded loud in the silent space. Lloyd Whitaker was aroused by the woman’s moan. This was a first for him. Lloyd Whitaker, who never retreated, quickly realized his own feelings.

‘I guess I was interested in her from the beginning.’

This was proven by the fact that he deliberately saved the woman he could have used as a shield. Lloyd Whitaker absolutely believed in the intuition that had saved him and brought him to his current position.

‘So that’s why I felt attracted.’

Upon closer inspection, the young lady with rose-colored hair and emerald eyes had an even cuter and more innocent impression, truly a face he wanted to torment. He was already overcome with excitement imagining her face moaning while crying loudly.

Lloyd Whitaker welcomed Jacqueline like meeting a long-lost lover.

“Where have you been hiding until now? I’ve been waiting for so long.”

Suddenly, Lloyd Whitaker realized the earlier situation wasn’t very romantic. It was a painful mistake to show what kind of man he was from their first meeting, without a chance to play coy. But he soon didn’t mind.

‘I can make up for it later. For starters, I should give her flowers and jewelry, nothing too burdensome. The suite at Hotel Deus seems too early considering her state. After meeting a few times, I’ll set her up in a house where she can spend money all day…’

Lloyd Whitaker formulated a rather meticulous plan for something just thought up, intending to make her dependent and focused only on him. It was almost like he had prepared it in advance for when he met his ideal woman.

Uncharacteristically blushing, he politely suggested a night date.

“I know a nice bar. Would you like to go with me?”

Jacqueline walked quickly, ignoring Lloyd Whitaker’s warning not to show him her back. She looked straight ahead, pretending not to have seen him commit murder. 

Though she wanted to run away, she was afraid of what unpredictable actions the man might take, so all her attention was focused behind her.

Lloyd Whitaker caught up to Jacqueline in a few steps and began walking at her pace. He realized his mistake. 

A normal woman wouldn’t want to drink with a suspicious stranger in this situation. He had forgotten something so basic that he couldn’t complain if she rejected him.

On the other hand, seeing her heading toward a residential area made him realize, ‘She really is an ordinary person.’ 

A virtuous woman from a world separate from his own, a connection he couldn’t have made if she hadn’t taken the wrong path today, making it all the more precious.

“Where do you live? I’ll take you home.”

Lloyd stuck to her like a leech.

Meanwhile, Jacqueline was terrified out of her mind.

‘What kind of lunatic is this!’

A mentally unstable person who seduced her like a promiscuous man, then brutally killed someone, then acted rudely and intimidatingly, only to turn charming again. 

A psychopath, a perverted bastard, a madman.