Twisted Games(Ryeji ver)

YEJI[CHAPTER 17]

TWO DAYS LATER, WE LANDED IN COSTA RICA LIKE RYUJIN HAD promised and drove two hours from the airport to a small
town on the Pacific coast.

I stared out the window at the country's lush landscape,
my head spinning from how fast everything had moved. I
couldn't believe Ryujin, Ms. Safety and Security herself, was
the one who suggested a last-minute trip, but I wasn't
complaining. I hadn't visited Costa Rica before, and four
days in a tropical paradise sounded like, well, paradise.
We'd finished packing the townhouse, and I'd turned in
my keys that morning. Everything else I needed to do, I could
do online. I was, for all intents and purposes, free until we
returned to New York.

"This is it." Ryujin pulled up in front of a sprawling, two-
story villa. "Bucket list number one."

Go someplace where no one knows or cares who I am.
That was definitely the case here. The house was nestled
high in the hills and the only residence around. How had
Ryujin even found this place?

My chest tightened with emotion as we unpacked our
suitcases from the back of our rental car and walked toward
the entrance. "How did you pull everything together so
fast?"
Ryujin would never let me go anywhere without doing the
proper advance work first, but it had only been forty-eight
hours since I told her about my list. For her to have
researched the town, booked the charter jet and villa, and
handled the millions of details that came with royal travel in
such a short time...

"I cheated a bit," she admitted, unlocking the front door.
"An old Navy buddy of mine moved down here a couple of
years ago and owns this place. She's on vacation right now
and let me borrow it for a few days. I visit every year, so I
know the town and people well. It's safe. Quiet. Under the
radar."

"Exactly what I need," I murmured. The tightness in my
chest intensified.
Ryujin showed me around the villa. The walls were all
glass, offering gorgeous three-hundred-sixty views of the
surrounding hills and the Pacific Ocean in the distance.

Everything was open, airy, and made of natural stone and
wood, and the house's design made it seem like it was
flowing into its surroundings instead of dominating them.
My favorite feature, however, was the infinity pool on the
second-floor terrace. From a certain angle, it looked like it
fed straight into the ocean.

Ryujin, being Ryujin, also walked me through the security
setup. Tinted, bulletproof glass all around, state-of-the-art
motion sensors, an underground panic room stocked with a
year's supply of food. That was all I gathered before I zoned
out.

I appreciated the security measures, but I didn't need a
detailed breakdown of the make and model of the security
cameras. I just wanted to eat and swim.

"Remind me to send your friend a big thank you," I said.
"This place is incredible."

"He loves showing it off, usually by letting people stay
here," Ryujin said dryly. "But I'll tell him."
It was already close to two, so the first thing we did after
we finished the tour was change and head into town for
lunch. The town was a twenty-minute drive from the villa
and, according to Ryujin, home to less than a thousand people.
Not a single one of them seemed to know or care who I was.
Bucket list number one.

We ate at a small, family-run restaurant whose owner, a
round-faced older woman named Tsuki, lit up at the sight
of Ryujin. She smothered her with kisses before embracing
me too.

"Ay, que bonita!" she exclaimed, looking me over. "Ryujin, es
tu novia?" How beautiful! Ryujin, is she your girlfriend?

"No," Rhys and I said at the same time. We glanced at
each other before he clarified,