I'm Nothing Without You Chap 22

‘Klive…’I heard someone called. I looked for it and there I found Mr. John hiding himself in someone’s tombstone. He was only four tombstones away from us and was ready to kill someone. He was holding a 45 caliber in his right hand and with him were Ms. Alice and some I didn't recognized. I bet they were Klive’s bodyguard. ‘I have a plan…’ he started. ‘I’ll create a diversion and on my signal you need to bring Miss to your car and drive.’ He instructed him. ‘I’ll send someone for you as your back up.’

Klive nods at him. ‘Ticiatriz…’

I looked up. He was still hugging me. I saw something through those expressive grey eyes of his that made me hold my breath. I saw his urged to protect me. It was as if he’ll do everything in his might to do so and it scared me. All my life I saw people I love died just to protect me and I can’t let that happen again.

‘Do YOU trust me?’

Another bullet was fired on us. I dodge at the ground and so was Klive. He used his body to protect me from those bullets. All of a sudden the place gone quiet, no movement I heard from the assassins and Klive’s bodyguard. I looked at Klive. ‘I trust YOU with my life.’ I told him sincerely.

He smiled at me and quickly kissed the tip of my nose. ‘That’s all I NEED to know.’ He looked at Mr. John and nodded. ‘Come on.’ Carefully he helped me get on my feet. Klive hold my hand tightly and looked straight at my eyes. ‘Don’t look back, okay? Just run as fast as you can.’

‘O-okay…’ I answered him nervously. ‘How about Mr. John and Ms. Alice we can’t just leave them here?’

‘They can handle this. For now, MY top priority is YOUR safety.’ He told me.

I just nod at him. I looked at Mr. John. I saw him in his fighting stance, ready to kill anyone. ‘One…’ he mouthed at us. ‘…two…three…’ he fired his gun and so were the mercenaries.

‘Now!’ Klive shouted.

Instantly I run with him holding my hand. The deafening sound of firearms was nerve racking. One bullet hit the ground and was only inches away from my right foot. I lost my balance and trip on the ground. Klive stopped abruptly and helped me. We resume running towards his car. I thought we’re safe but someone was following us, firing his weapon. Seconds later we reached Klive’s car. He instantly opened the door for me and puts on my seat belt. I heard another gunshot and this time it was near us. The bullet hit the car’s window but nothing happened to it. I shouted and panicked.

‘If you panicked, you can’t think straight.’ He reminded me then he closed the car’s door.

I screamed again as I saw the assassin hit Klive at his nape with the assassin’s magnum three-five-seven. ‘KLIVE!!!’ I removed my seat belt and tried to get out but I can’t. Klive had locked me inside. The assassin hit him again. ‘Klive. Oh God! Klive…’

I froze as I saw Klive grabbed the assassin’s gun. ‘No!’ I yelled. ‘Klive NO!!’ I Screamed my lungs out but Klive didn’t hear me. My tears started to fall. I was really worried about him but I can’t do anything about it. I was locked inside his car.

Minutes later I heard two gunshots. ‘Oh My God…’ I said weakly and I broke into sobs. I saw Klive standing there with the assassin. ‘Klive…NO!’ I closed my eyes tightly and cried. ‘Klive…’ I heard someone tried to open the other door.

‘Ticiatriz? Are you okay?’

I looked up and saw Klive seated next to me. ‘Klive…’ I whispered and then hug him. I know he was stunned but I don’t care, I was so glad he was fine. I buried my face on his chest.

‘Hey what’s wrong?’ he asked me as he wrapped his arms around me.

I shook my head.

‘Did I scare you?’ he asked my while stroking my back.

I nod at him.

‘I’m sorry.’ he pulled back and wiped my tears. He looked at me intently and then he hugged me again. He buried his face in my hair. I’m sorry.’ he whispered.

I pulled back and looked at him. I shook my head vigorously at him. With a trembling hand, I reached up to touched his cheek and smiled weakly at him. He placed his hand on top of mine and then slowly turned his head towards my hand and kissed my palm. After a minute Klive released my hand, looked at me, smiled and then he puts my seat belt. He started the engine.

I sighed audibly. My hands and my lips were trembling so badly and I panicked. The scenes earlier were kept on repeating on my mind. Oh no! I was having another post- traumatic stress disorder. Every time I was ambushed I’d a PTSD and I’m bad in handling it. My chest heaving with each tortured breath. Later that I knew I passed out.

I lazily opened my eyes but only to close it again. My face was hit by the sun’s rays. I’ve forgot to close my blinds again. I looked for my alarm clock. Oh shit! I’m late. I have an elective operation at 8, I silently though. I sighed and began to move. I felt a hand tighten on my waist as if hugging me. Confused, I turned and looked at it. I froze and I can’t believe my eyes. There lying next to me was Klive, peacefully sleeping beside me. He used his bare chest as my pillow and his arms were wrapping me. I just stared at him, not knowing what to do. Then reality hit me. We were ambushed yesterday and then I passed out.

Suddenly he moaned and moved closer to me making my face buried in his bare chest. For a while I didn’t moved afraid to wake him. I just looked at him intently and for some reason I was contended. He moaned again and right away I closed my eyes. I was afraid he might catch me staring at him.

He woke up. I felt his hand on my cheek and caressing it. I tried to control my self but it was hard. My heart was slamming so hard that I was afraid Klive might notice it. He slowly then removed his arm that I used as a pillow and carefully replaced it with a real one. He removed my hair that was covering my eyes. I felt him hovering just inches away from my face. I can’t help myself to take a deep breath as I felt his face lowered to mine. I thought he WILL going to kissed me but on my forehead. He gets off the bed and carefully closed the door.

I open my eyes and released my breath. I stared at the ceiling thinking of my situation. I was so damn tired of running away and hiding from those guys. I want to know who was behind all of these. The one who killed my grandparents, my parents and Gareth was the same person. The way that person worked and planned things, I’m positive with it. My theory was that person’s target was me. The day my grandparents were shot, I was supposed to be with them, eating breakfast but that day I had a class so I skipped it. The day my parents decided to have a vacation, I was supposed to come WITH them but I had to report at the hospital for my internship. And if Gareth didn’t insist on switching places it was supposed to be ME not HIM. I know pretty well the person wants to eliminate me, hired someone to do their dirt works, mostly professionals.

‘Good morning.’ Klive greeted me from the door. He was carrying a try with foods in it. ‘How are feeling?’

I got up and sit on the bed. ‘I’m okay.’

He smiled at me. ‘Are you hungry? Your breakfast was done but it’s not as good as your cooking, so don’t expect much.’ He told me with a smug smile on his face. He puts the tray in front of me.

I chuckled at his comment and I dig in. ‘It’s good.’ I told him.

He seated next to me and watched me eating. He smiled at my comment. ‘I called Ethan last night and I told him what happen. We came up with a plan-’

I dropped my fork. ‘What? YOU called Ethan?’

‘We agreed not to let you out our sight… out of MY sight.’

I flinched. ‘What? Okay I’m out of here.’ I told him. I instantly stood up but I couldn’t walk because of the pain I felt on my ankle. Leaving without a choice I sat on the bed and throw an inquisitive looked at Klive.

‘You twisted your ankle when you trip off yesterday.’

‘But I NEED to go to the hospital. I’m scheduled to do operation today.’

‘Ethan will handle that matter and besides you’re no condition to do an operation.’

I sighed. The guy was right. In my state right now, I’m not in condition physically and emotionally.

We were quiet all of a sudden. Then Klive broke the silence first. ‘Can I… ask you something?’

‘What is it?’

‘How long you’ve been together with Gareth?’ he asked me seriously.

I stared at him. I got to say I was stunned at his question. I chuckled and shook my head. ‘I didn’t saw that one coming.’ I sighed. ‘We’re together about a year.’

‘How you guys met?’

‘OKAY… we met at his photo gallery. My friend Janice was his friend. One time Janice bragged to him that she has a friend had also a talent on sketching and painting. Without knowing it she made a promise to Gareth to bring me to his gallery. So leaving without a choice she dragged me to his gallery and introduced us. We’ve talked the whole night and found out that we ‘click’ and… I guess the rest was history.’ I smiled sadly as I remembered that particular night.

Klive looked away. ‘Gareth was a nice guy…’

‘He was PERFECT.’ I told him slowly as if I was day dreaming. ‘Our relationship almost reached into perfection, you know what I mean right?’ he nodded. ‘But Mrs. Evans didn’t like me for her son. She told me I didn’t deserve HER son. He was too good for me. Her reasons? I’m JUST a surgeon.’

‘What?! That’s ridiculous! What’s wrong with surgeons? That’s a great job!’

I smiled at him. ‘Thanks.’ I cleared my throat and continue. ‘Our families have different traditions right? Mine have a LOT but being the last person in the first generation, the hell I care about it.’ I said truthfully at him. Some of the Killian’s tradition I didn’t follow. ‘Anyway, one of their traditions was very member SHOULD marry in the same circle-’

‘But YOU are in the circle.’

‘Nobody knows about that. That time only Ethan, Janice and Gareth were the only person knows who I really was.’ I sighed. ‘Dr. T Killian is different from Ticiatriz Killian. I’ve worked hard for that. I didn’t want my patients doubt me because of it. And investors might not invest on our company because well, of it…’ I sighed. ‘I’m kind of paranoid about this. I love to practice medicine and at the same time I didn’t want to lose the company my family worked hard for.’

‘Hey I remembered you told me once that your sick of seeing a highly skilled-’

‘I was referring to myself. After Gareth’s death my whole world crushed. All of the sudden I didn’t want to practice all I want was just sat at one corner and mourn. Then Nana came and I became Avie Henrich. Avie moved to a far place and wasn’t able to visit the island for decades so the people forgot her, the way she looks I mean. So it was easy for me to pretend as her.’

He was quiet for a while as if thinking for another question. ‘How’s-’

‘He’s perfect! I mean his patience about my attitude, my mood and my job was amazing. Every time I whined at him about having two jobs he just showed me the positive side about it, then I’m good. We exchanged ideas about our company. He comforted me when one of my patient died on my OR table.’ I smiled to my self. ‘ He taught me how to whittle. There was one time I was having a seminar for my specialty. He suddenly appeared at the last day of our seminar and insisted that we should take the weekend off. There he taught me a little about photography.’ I looked at Klive. ‘The picture that was on your office, I took that one.’ I saw him flinched as if he didn’t believed me. ‘I was so upset at him that time. But- ’

‘It’s so damn hard to compete with someone who was so GREAT.’ He told me seriously. ‘Especially if he died a year ago and you can’t even forgot or let him go.’ he sighed. ‘Can’t you just give me a little of your attention? That is all I need. I’m not asking so much am I?’

I stared at him. ‘Klive, what are you talking about?’ I asked confusedly at him.

I sighed. ‘You know what, for a girl like you you’re kinda DENSE.’ He told me. There was a flashed of irritation on his eyes.

‘What?! Me dense?!’ I asked furiously at him. ‘I can’t believe this!’ I said. I was getting irritated at the guy next to me. ‘I’m out here.’ I stand up and ignore the pain I felt on my ankle. I marched towards the door.

‘Hey wait!’ he called behind my back.

I slammed the door on his face. How dare that guy called me dense. I tried to walk as fast as I can. ‘Ticiatriz wait.’ He called from the stairs. I ignored him and continue walking. Minutes later I was out. I hurriedly waited for a cab but someone hit my stomach. The guy gave me an upper cut. It was damn so painful and the impact made me spit blood. I immediately felt weak. I saw Klive with his fighting stance. I recognized that stance, KARATE.

I opened my eyes and coughed horribly. My stomach was still hurting. I saw a guy watching me struggle to sit down. My hands and feet were tied together. They didn’t put something on my mouth so I can freely talk and make some noise. ‘Where am I? Who are you?’

‘Ms. Killian is awake.’ He announced. He moved towards me and yanked me holding my hair. ‘How can we access YOUR system?’

‘What?! What system? I didn’t know what are talking about.’ I lied. I know I’m not good at this but being Avie Henrich for the last six months it helped me a little.

‘The system that you just blocked seven months ago, the one which contains a connection worldwide and cost multimillion, I’m pretty sure you knew about it. ’

‘Stop it!’ Klive shouted next to me. ‘If the lady said she didn’t know about it, she didn’t.’

‘I’m glad you woke up Mr. Billionaire. Try to talk and convince your GIRLFRIEND here to tell us the access code to the systems she had hacked.’

Klive snorted. ‘I’ve been trying to convince her that I LOVE HER for these past six- seven months. She’s THAT stubborn, so a best of luck to you.’