Hitting the ignition, I drive through the narrow road. I clutch the steering wheel with the same anger that was boiling inside me a few minutes ago. I would have killed that fucking bastard for touching Nicole. Who the fuck was he? What does he want from Nicole? From the corner of my eyes, I see Nicole staring at me sitting on the passenger seat. It seems like she intends to say something, but she doesn't take any initiative to do that. When I look at her, she diverts her attention back to the road. I don't pry her about it as I try to calm down myself. We ride back in silence. As I turn on the main road, Nicole interrupts.

"Sam is calling. My friends, Samuel and Emily are waiting there. They would be worried about me." She tells, looking distraught. "We have to get back to them."

I revolve around to look at her. She looks at me expectantly with her innocent eyes. I wish I could do as she wanted, but right now, I want to make sure that she is safe, and the only safe place for her is her home. I don't want to leave her anywhere else, especially with that boy she is referring to.

"No. We are going home now." I tell her stubbornly.

"But Sam is calling me. What should I say if he asks where I am?"

"Tell him that you got some urgent work, and you had to leave immediately for the clinic." I look at her for a moment before turning my gaze back on the road. " Tell him that you are doing fine and will be at home soon," I say sounding disoriented.

She looks disappointed by what I said to her. Nevertheless, she agrees with me and picks up her phone. My eyes flicker between the road and her as she talks on the phone with the guy named Sam. I clench my jaws, thinking about that guy. Why is he calling her? It just occurs to me that she mentioned a girl was there too with them. Why can't her female friend call to check on her? I feel like I would undoubtedly burn to ashes by thinking about that boy's closeness to Nicole. Jealousy, My fucking bitch! What if she likes him? Are they both in love? No, that's not the case, She never introduced him as her boyfriend to me. She only keeps denoting him as her friend. God! Christopher, stop poking nose in her fucking life. It's none of your concern to know who she meets or what she does in her personal life. You have no fucking thing to do with it.

I try to distract my jealous ass from the topic by recollecting whatever happened in the last few minutes. Who was that masked man? Why was he trying to kidnap Nicole? I feel the rush of adrenaline through my body, thinking about the possibilities of what would have happened to Nicole If I didn't show up in time. Who would want to hurt Nicole? I saw that there were other people too in the car in which the man climbed. Who were the people in the car then? What did they want from her? Then something instantly struck me. Why haven't I thought about it before? I should have known this. Every muscle tightens in my body when I remember what he had said when he mentioned about Nicole that day. I know who is behind this, and I am going to confront him right now. How the hell he thought of doing that? part of me feels guilty for dragging Nicole into this shit. I am the reason for what happened to her today and I fucking hate myself for that. Why the hell I don't understand that I can never live a normal life. I am in a business where you can never sleep one night without foreseeing that death is always lingering above your head. Now I feel like I am dragging Nicole into this hell hole too.

We soon reach home. Reaching in front of the house, Nicole gets out of the car. She takes a step to make her way to the door, but seeing that I am still in the car, she asks me, tugging a stray strand behind her ear. " You won't come in?"

"No...I have some business to take care of." I say sternly. " I'll be back soon. You go inside and make sure to lock the door." I reflect a sad smile to her.

She nods at me, and I see her walk back to the house with her timid frame.

I reverse my car immediately and race it through the roads. I want to get to him as soon as possible.

I get to my destination within time. I park my car in front of the same hotel where I came a few days back. I go inside and rush towards Richard's room. When I reach there, I find it to be locked. Fuck! Where can he go now? I come down to the reception in a hurry to ask the receptionist about him. There I get notified about Richard having a meeting in the conference room, on the other side of the hotel. She tells me the way, and I storm in its direction. When I reach the conference room, I burst open the door without even having the courtesy to knock. I just want to talk to Richard. I don't give a fuck about anything else right now. As I enter, I see about eight men sitting around a table. They seem to be engrossed in something really important as I find Richard standing in front of them and explaining intently. Shit! this is bad.

Everyone's attention directs toward me as I enter the room.

"I need to talk, Richard." My voice comes out to be breathy, probably due to all the running I did.

Richard flashes an irritated glare at me showing that he is pissed as fuck. "later, Christopher."

"No, I want to talk to you now. Its important, Richard." I persist.

He curls his fists, displaying the evidence of anger on his face. He then sighs trying to control himself from making a scene in front of everyone. "Why don't you go there and wait." He says through gritted teeth signaling towards a cabin door on the right side of the room.

I nod and go into the room, feeling everyone's bombshell stares at the back of my head, especially Richard's. Fuck it!

The cabin is small with a desk and chair. there are cupboards on both the side of the desk. I go in and start pacing around impatiently. I need to talk to Richard or else I'll probably lose my senses. Why the fuck was he acting so normal? Why would he try to mess with me?

After about fifteen minutes, the door of the cabin opens as a disturbed Richard emerges from the other side.

"That wasn't very respectful of you, Christopher." He says with a steely cold voice, addressing what I did back there in the conference room. "I didn't expect that from you." He adds, loosening his tie. I see that he is wearing a shiny black suit. His appearance clearly indicating that the meeting he was having was very crucial.

"Why you did that?" I ask him straight away not attending to what he said earlier.

"What did I do?" He asks with a scowl, acting as if he isn't aware of anything.

"Don't try to act innocent, Richard. You sent your men to kidnap Nicole, didn't you?" I scoff at him.

"Who is Nicole?" He asks staring at me in confusion. After thinking for a moment he continues " Oh, That little girl..." He takes a long pause and then completes the sentence "friend of yours."

He then smirks at me and walks towards the chair behind the desk "I know that things between you and my daughter are not good but that doesn't mean I'll stoop so low, Christopher."

I look at him intently trying to grasp what he is saying. I try to assimilate everything. Actually, there is a point in what Richard is saying. He would never do something like that. I have known him for such a long time, even if he was behind it, he would have accepted it. Richard was never a man who would do things behind the back and deny them, he has always accepted his crimes openly. He wouldn't fear saying that on my face for sure. Of course, he is a man of his words. How can I forget that? From the sharp look in his eyes, I can say that he is truthful about what he is saying.

"You should have known this. You have been working with me since you were seven, and yet you doubt me." He shakes his head in disappointment as he sits on the chair.

"I thought nobody knew me better than you, Christopher." He looks at me trying to read my mind. "But I guess you haven't gained your memory completely after that accident." He says with a sad expression. Oh no, not this again.

"If it's not you then who would have tried to do that?" I snap at him trying to get away from it before he starts with the whole memory loss ordeal conversation. I fucking hate it.

"How would I know? apart from that, I have more important works to do rather than going behind some random usual bitch." He tells in a bored tone.

I snap my head back at him furiously. I see all red in front of me hearing him say that. How dare he call her that? I'll fucking kill him. "Don't call her that." I spat at him. Just because he has raised me like a father and helped me get through my hard times, I am keeping the respect for him otherwise I would have lost it way before.

"Oh, I see... You have gotten very close to her in a short period of time." He says letting out a humorless chuckle. " But I am warning you, Christopher, if you won't stop now, then I am afraid it might cost you a lot in the near future." He says in a stern voice.

"I am good on my own, Richard. You don't have to worry." I say giving him a death glare.

"Anyway, I don't want to interfere in your life." He says in a bored tone checking his phone.

Oh great! finally, he understood that. I might lose my temper if I hear another word about Nicole from him. I should leave before I do something which I'll regret later. "I apologize for disturbing you in your meeting," I say without meeting his gaze. "I may take your leave now," I say attempting to hide my anger and sound casual. With that, I turn in the direction of the door to exit.

"Wait," I hear Richard calling from the back.

He straightens in his chair and says "Remember, I told you about the deal we are going to have with Smith industries?"

I nod in agreement. "Yes."

"I want you to meet Peter Smith, son of James Smith, regarding it. He is a smart man just like you. I hope you two will get along well."

"When have you scheduled the meeting?" I ask him.

"I'll let you know about it after asking James." He says with a straight voice.

"Okay." I sigh.

"This deal is going to be very important for us, Christopher. I don't want any kind of inaccuracy in that. " He warns me.

I shake my head telling him that I understand what exactly he is trying to imply. I know that I lose my temper easily, especially meeting new people. Don't blame me, its not my fault that I always have to deal with shitheads. In my defense, I try to be nice at first but then when they start getting on my nerves with their shitty mouth, I just tend to lose it.

"Good," Richard says significantly.

--------------------------

After meeting Richard I get in my car and drive back to Nicole's house. I want to see how she is doing. Within a few minutes, I reach there. I park my car in front of it, and as I open the door and get out I see an aghast Nicole rushing out of her door in my direction. She looks totally devastated. She then sees me and increases her pace more as she runs directly into me. I jerk back a little with the impact her body smashing me. she then wraps her arms around my waist as she begins to sob uncontrollably.

She hugs me tightly burying her head in my chest. I rub her back soothingly as I hug her back. What the fuck happened inside which made her cry like this? we stay like that for a moment. After some time, Nicole pulls away from me, I look that she appears to be really terrified. Her eyes are puffy and her nose is shining red. she has beads of sweat on her forehead, her lips trembling as she attempts to say something.

"Christopher, Some...Someone is...Th...there inside." She stammers panting hard.

My body turns rigid as I listen to her. "He will kill me, Christopher. They will kill me." She says as she starts weeping harder. I clench my jaw thinking about the man who made my Nicole cry. I'll fucking rip his head.

"Shhhh...Stop crying, Nicole." I cup her face with my hands. "I am here now. Nobody will dare to touch you, Okay?" I say looking straight into her blue eyes.

"Come," I hold her hand gently and make my way to the door carefully not making any noise. I open the door and cautiously check around to see if anyone is there. Nicole peeks from behind me to see if the intruder was still there. I scan the living room and then proceed to the kitchen, keeping Nicole closely behind me. I look in the kitchen and see that the door leading to the backyard is open.

"Did you open it?" I turn to ask Nicole.

She shakes her head in denial. "I was sitting on the couch when I saw a shadow emerging from the kitchen. He was like the same man who tried to attack me in the alley." She says in dread. "But before he can get to me, I darted towards the door."

Maybe the man fled away from the same door from which he came in. I would have gone after looking for him but for now, my priority is Nicole's safety. I can't let her be alone. I close the back door, I feel that Nicole is still clutching to my hand. Oh, my Cole. I'll kill that Bastard for scaring my Nicole like this. I swear that I wouldn't allow anyone to hurt her. I will find whoever is behind this.

I turn around and smile at her. "You need to rest Nicole, let me take you to the bedroom."

She nods and I lead her to the bedroom upstairs. I gently squeeze her hand assuring her that I am with her. I would never let anything happen to her. It feels like she has become an important part of my life. If I am the reason for her life being in this danger then I'll take it as my duty to protect her. I'll take care of her and protect her, no matter to what extent I have to go for it. When we reach her room, I guide her towards the bed. I help her as she gets into the bed hesitantly, I smile pulling the duvet over her as she watches me intently with her big blue eyes.

"I will be downstairs. if you want anything call me, okay?" I tell her. "You don't have to worry as long as I am with you." I smile at her. "Goodnight, Cole," I say to her and turn to leave when I feel something tugging at my arm. To my surprise I find it to be Nicole's hand. I look at her in doubt expecting her to ask something.

Her pleading blue eyes gaze at me as she says. "Please, don't leave."

A/N:

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Janvi❤