Avery leaned her head back on the wall as she heard the sound of glass crunching beneath Salvatore's feet getting farther and farther away. They were just attacked and she had to do the last thing she wanted to do. That was, to tell him everything about Ava and her daughter. So he would protect her. She only hoped he would. Please let him be human enough to pity her, if nothing else. She prayed.

She touched her neck and winced because of the bruise there. She was almost choked after all, this was the aftermath of it. She touched her jeans over her thigh and felt the blood seeping out of a wound. She held her breath the moment the shreds of glass being broken again beneath someone else's feet returned. Which were now coming towards her.

She swiftly held her Glock aiming for the intruder. She knew that she was dead if there was another wave of those intruders coming for her. But when the figure came in the light of moon shining through the, now broken window, she saw no threat. The guy though stranger, held his hands up in defeat and walked towards her with no evident violence in his eyes or posture.

He said something in some strange language, that felt like he was insuring her of something. He lowered one of his hands and she immediately held the gun back up in his direction. He slowed him movement as he cautiously click on his ear piece. He said some more words of his language to someone unknown and then turned around.

He took his gun out and started strolling like a hyena on a hunt. Few seconds later he met her eyes and said something that she did understand. "Anzendesu". It meant safe. It was Japanese. And the only Japanese guy she knew was Tsuda so he might be his man.

For a moment she relaxed but it was short lived, when she realized what was happening just now. The yakuza was here to take his part of the deal. He was here to take her away, as promised.

A few minutes later the man himself came barging into the room with 2 men on his tail. His eyes hardened the moment they land on her and instantly he started taking off his coat without breaking his stride. All along he was giving orders to his men and one of them went further inside the house.

He knelt down right in front of her and covered her with his coat. He opened his mouth as to say something but closed it again, scooping her up. Though he looked very angry at her, but his hold was as light as a feather. He held her so close to himself, like someone would snatch her away from him any moment now. His hard breathing astonished her, like he knew exactly what she went through and he would have given up anything to be there to protect her. Or maybe he was counting every possible that might have embedded itself somewhere vital inside Avery. And the mere thought was putting agonizing weight on his chest.

"Tsuda..." she pushed at his chest though lightly. Because that was all the strength that was left in her after all the commotion. "Stop it." He said through gritted teeth. She was not at all used to his harshness and decided the best course of action at that time would be to keep silent and let him be.

Once they were secure in the back seat of a car and her stuff was loaded in the trunk of another car, they took off. She looked down and noticed the cream colored seats of his luxurious car becoming red because of the blood from her thigh. "I'm sorry, for your seat." He looked down and cursed. He click on the backrest between them and a secret compartment slid out with a little smoke. She realized it was a mini freezer. She half imagined him to take a high end wine or Champaign out and take a sip, to get over the loss of the precious material she just caused. To her surprise he took out injections and many other stuff from there, all intended to treat a wound.

He leaned towards her and held her pants from over her waist. He took them off with a swift tug. This made her yelp in surprise, as she exclaimed. "What are you doing?" He looked at her with the same anger he did before. "Sewing you up! For God's sake! How could it have been that bad? Why was I not informed? Why did I come late? Why didn't I let the man touch you so he could at least stop the bleeding? It hurts me when someone else as much as touch you! And look what they have done! They will not see a day. I will wipe their existence off the face of the earth! I will make sure..." He mindlessly mumbled in mixture of English and Japanese and would have kept going on if she hadn't wince in pain.

His eyes looked tortured as he filled the injection with something and injected it into her. "What was tha..." her tongue became numb just as her whole body and the pain was gone with in seconds. Must have been some expensive stuff, she thought.

He started cleaning her wound and stitching her up himself. "Was it too much to ask? For you to stay away from harm?" He looked up at her with wrinkles between his brows like he was the one getting his wound stitched. And without an aesthesia at that.

After an hour in their drive the effect of medicine started to wear off so she replied to him. "They were after Ava. They would have hurt her and the child. I had to protect them."

"No you didn't. You never had to protect them. But still you've done enough. Stop with this guilt now Avery. You've redeemed yourself long ago."

She was stunned at the fact that he knew all that while it hasn't even been 2 hours since she told Salvatore about their past. How close they must have been to immediately share their information with each other. It just annoyed her more.

"You know nothing about me to say that." She hissed through pain. "And who's fault do you think it is? I was there, trying to know you and for you to know me but you didn't as much as gave me a second glance." He was angry and about to loose his temperament, she noticed.

"You are his friend." She tried using the same excuse for them to be apart forever. "I apologize! I'm sorry that I am a friend of someone who misjudged your friend and hurt her and pushed her away. But what do you think you are doing to me right now? Aren't you also judging me just because of my connections to your enemy rather than me as a person? Aren't you pushing me away without even considering me as a person just like Salvatore did to Avalyn?" It never occurred to her and even if it did she always avoided this perspective of their connections.

For a moment she was too stunned to even say anything. But then she realized how right he was. But she still had that grudge in her heart which made her want to hurt someone for Ava's sake and he was the only one she could.

She chose to remain silent as she turned away from him towards her window and leaned back with her eyes closed. Her thigh would be killing her for a while she realized.

Minutes later, they pulled up by a jet and she was carried by Tsuda to a bed in one of the few rooms in that private jet. The moment she was left alone, she imitated the dead by the way she slept.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked once she woke up again and had something to eat which Tsuda brought himself. He sat on the foot of the bed looking at her silently. "To my house." He said still looking at her. She looked at the tray of her, now eaten meal, unable to hold his intense gaze.

"Can I have a painkiller? It hurts." He nodded right away. "You just need to say. I'll give you anything you wish for." He gave her the meds that she washed down with warm milk, that he had brought for her. He helped her lie down and covered her with comforters. After which he sat down on the foot of the bed again.

After a while he said, "You must be very tied. I'm tired too. I wanna lie down with you but I'm afraid it will give you another reason to hate me." She looked at the chandelier above the bed and replied. "This bed is yours do whatever you want." He looked at her for a while and sighed.

"Forgive me for giving into my desires, but I could kill for it right now." He took his shoes off and slid inside the comforters minding her wounded thigh. "Thank you." He said as his body relaxed for his muscles were tense a few moments ago. She closed her eyes and decided not to reply to that.

Her eyes were wide open when she felt something cold on her forehead. His palm was covering it wholly. "What?" She asked. "I believe you have a fever, but my hands are too cold to tell for sure.. If you don't mind..." She realized what he meant and nodded reluctantly. He moved closer and leaned down until his forehead touched hers. She held her breath the whole time, for it affected her more than she was willing to admit.

He had his eyes closed but her temperature seemed to be the last thing he was focused on at that time. Much to her displeasure it was their contact, that he was living for at the moment. Right when she thought he was going to retreat, his lips made contact with her burning forehead. And with a blink of an eye he sat back looking through the med kit in this hands looking for fever reducers.

His cheerful and teasing smile was back after that gloomy mood of his disappeared from moments ago. "I'm too greedy a man to let go of an opportunity when it's right in front of me." He grinned and her skin dyed of a faint rose color. It might have been from the sensation she was feeling from having his true self back or from their contact just now. Or it may just be from the fever, she just hoped he would consider only the last possibility rather than the true one.

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My family if they knew what I have been doing in my room, for hours rather than studying for my exam tomorrow.