21 Damned prince

Kai pushed himself off the wall against which he had been leaning when he noticed the hooligan finally leaving the men she had defeated.

A lingering smile graced his face as he silently moved in the opposite direction. However, his steps were halted when he suddenly heard a faint yelp.

Kai's head snapped back towards where she had been just a moment ago, and to his surprise, the girl was no longer there. He glanced at the men on the floor; they were all still sprawled there, indicating they couldn't have done anything to her.

Where on earth did she disappear to?

Hastily, Kai sprinted towards the spot where he had last spotted her. He scanned the area, but she was nowhere to be found. "Hooligan... where did you go?" he muttered under his breath.

"Ugh!! Damn it!! Damn it!!" a voice echoed.

His attention snapped toward the direction of the voice. What he saw left his jaw hanging open.

The hooligan had actually fallen into a hole?! This was unbelievable. She had been so cool and badass just a moment ago – she might even be the coolest girl he had ever seen – yet she had fallen into a hole! Way to go, Hooligan! I'm at a loss for words to describe you… Kai shook his head in disbelief.

Kai squatted down and peered into the open hole in the alley. It seemed that some troublemaker had removed the manhole cover, setting a trap for an unsuspecting individual, perhaps an idiot or a drunkard, to fall victim to it.

"Stupid hole!!!" Her voice echoed once more. Kai could tell that she was trying to climb out. He anticipated her to cry out for help, but she didn't, which further intrigued him.

Shaking his head with a smile on his face, Kai switched on his phone's flashlight and extended his hand.

"Come, take my hand and let me help you," he said. The girl hesitated for a moment but eventually took his hand. 

After effortlessly pulling her up from the hole, she immediately said, "Thank you,".

When she tried to stand and walk, she winced in pain. It appeared she may have sprained, and possibly broken, her left ankle when she fell. 

"Your ankle…" Kai reached out and touch her shoes and the moment she looked at his face closely, her eyes almost bulged out. 

"P-p-prince Kai? What are you doing here?" she stammered in surprise.

"Don't call me that. I'm not a prince." Kai replied after a pause.

"Don't lie. I know who you are," she insisted. "I saw you in Vis –"

"I think you should go to the hospital or you might never be able to wear heels again." He cut through her words and when she looked down at her feet, she bit her lip.

"Wait here," he said and then left.

When he returned, riding his big black bike, the girl was already on her feet, pushing herself to walk despite the pain evident on her face.

He pulled up beside her and handed her a helmet.

As she stood there, looking somewhat dazed at the sight of him, Kai opened her helmet and smiled reassuringly. "It's me. I'll take you to the hospital."

She snapped out of her daze when he placed the helmet over her head.

"Wait... I can't go to the hospital. I need to go back and get Abi out of the bar first!" she exclaimed, attempting to remove the helmet. However, Kai gently pressed his hand against her head, securing the helmet in place.

"Don't worry. Alex is with her."

"Huh? Alex… Alexander Qinn is with her?!"

Kai nodded. "He will take care of her so worry about yourself for now, Miss Hooligan."

"Who the hell did you just call a hooligan?! Ouch!!" she winced in pain once more.

Kai got off his bike and draped her arm over his shoulders, simultaneously slipping his arm around her waist, assisting her onto the bike. 

"Wait… can I borrow your phone? I want to call her first." Kelly insisted and thankfully, the prince gave in.

She called Abi's phone multiple times but no one answered. She started to worry that something bad might have happened to her friend as she frantically dialed her number once again.

Gladly, the call was finally received after another three rings.

"Hello? Abi? Are you alright? Where are you right now? Are you by yourself? Why didn't you answer your phone for ages?" Kelly immediately rattled her questions like a mother hen, when to her surprise, it wasn't Abi who responded. Her first thought was that something bad did happen to Abi, otherwise why would a random guy answer her phone?! Her brain stopped working and just jumped to the worst possible conclusions because it was flooded with thoughts of guilt and worry and panic!

"She's with me." The voice was deep and pleasant, definitely masculine. But all he said was that Abi was with him! Who the hell was this guy? He better not have hurt her Abi! 

"Hey, bastard, where's Abi? Why are you answering her phone? Let me talk to her, right now! You have better not have hurt her or I swear I will rip your arms right out of their sockets and feed them to the wolves!" Kelly ranted, worried to death.

"This is Alexander Qinn…" the man on the phone replied calmly, "and you can try but I think you will be quite unsuccessful," he rebutted against her comment about tearing his arms apart. "I'll bring her over to you. Where are you right now?" he continued.

Before Kelly could answer, Kai snatched the phone from her.

"Alex, I'm going to take Miss Hooligan to the hospital… Nope. She hurt herself… It's pretty bad, I think she broke her ankle… She said she's happy to leave her friend with you –"

"What are you… OUCH!!"

"She's nearly dying from the pain now, Alex. We're leaving now. Bye."

Kai then slipped his cellphone back into his pocket and without another word, he lifted Kelly up effortlessly and put her cute little bottom back on the bike. He then hopped on the bike, grabbed Kelly's arms and wrapped them around his waist before he finally accelerated away.

The man rode the bike so damn fast that even Kelly, the fierce hooligan, was scared to her bones. She just barely managed to hang on to his waist and she shuddered to think what other injuries she might have gotten had she not been able to hold on!

"Hey! What are you doing… Are you really going to bring me to the hospital?! You might as well bring me to a funeral home if you're going to keep this speed up, you damned prince!!" Kelly started yelling and thankfully, it seemed like her words somehow worked.

The damned prince slowed down, but this time his speed was so damned slow that she could almost see a bloody turtle overtaking them!

Oh god! This man is definitely not a prince charming!! Argh! Is he trying to annoy me?!

Time ticked by but he kept the same slow pace until Kelly was inwardly fuming.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? A damned turtle is overtaking you, look!" She complained and then she pointed a finger towards an imaginary turtle that was overtaking them on the lane beside them. "I can probably hobble my way to the hospital faster that this!"

Shaking his head, the man finally spoke.  "Miss Hooligan, if that is your wish, I can let you off here and you can 'hobble' your way to the hospital from here," his elegant voice taunted her. Kelly looked around and she realized they were on the highway and it was dark and there was nobody else around because it was already late at night.

"No." She was quick to take back her words. She tried to suppress her annoyance because well, she was in pain and she knew she needed this man's help right now. So she restrained herself, with a lot of effort. Who knew how this prince's brain worked? "How about you let me drive?" She tried a different tactic instead.

"With your injury? Oh sure, go right ahead," his voice was full of sarcasm.

"I can handle it," she insisted and the man just chuckled.

Sighing, he finally accelerated. And this time, his speed wasn't as fast as a damned rocket ship. Thank goodness!