I have a complain to make against you guys. I appreciate that you all comment and vote but you all don't comment in between paragraphs. 😭😭
When I write a chapter and write a particular line...I think what reaction will everyone give to this but everyone just don't give any reaction. 😭😭
I'm sorry if I sounded rude...I meant no disrespect.

Anyway, enjoy while I take a nap cause I'm too sleepy. 😴

Third Person's POV:

Alfresca slowly opened her eyes, her eyes squinted due to the bright light and she closed them back.

She had a headache and groaning, she again opened her eyes. She was in a huge room. All the walls were painted off white and she noticed several hospital beds which were all seperated by curtains and a few people wearing white coats pacing around the room.

Where am I exactly? She thought as she tried sitting up.

She roamed her eyes around the room and then looked to her right as her curtain was parted and saw Geordi lying there with bandages wrapped around his shoulder. His eyes were closed.

"Geordi?" She called out in a hoarse voice.

Geordi opened his eyes on hearing her voice. He wasn't sleeping or unconscious. And he looked at her.

"What happened to you?" She asked with concern.

"Got shot in my shoulder on my way here." He replied.

"Are you okay now?"

He nodded. "Yes. I'm okay."

"And Mr Searlus? Where's he?" She continued to ask.

"Sir left for some work an hour ago." He told her. "He found you unconscious in his office. What happened there?"

Now that he mentioned it, Alfresca tried hard to think about how exactly she went unconscious.

Having ruminated for a minute she said. "I...was...in the office...under his desk...and then...I heard someone...enter through the window... cause I heard it shatter...I couldn't see who...I was too scared. I didn't come out..."

"And?" Geordi wanted to know. So he could tell this to Mr Searlus later and they could find out who exactly was there and why.

Alfresca's brows furrowed. "And...um...I don't remember clearly but...he pulled me out from under the table...I tried screaming...but he had his palm against my mouth."

"Did you see his face?"

She shook her head. "He had a mask on...full face mask...the typical kidnapper type and then he pressed a cloth against my nose...I tried struggling but in the end...I fell unconscious..."

Geordi sighed and hummed in response as he fell into a deep thought.

A nurse came over to Alfresca and checked her to make sure she was okay as Mr Searlus had instructed.

"Can I leave?" She asked the nurse.

"No. You are okay but it's better to stay here only for sometime. Especially Mr Searlus asked us to keep you under special care."

"Okay..." She mumbled and the nurse went away.

He asked them to keep me under special care? She thought. Why?

Her mind wandered off to the moment Mr Searlus warned her about the grenade and how he jumped over her to protect her.

And the way he told her to calm down. She felt her cheeks warming on those thoughts and her heart fluttered.

No. Don't think about him.

"Where's Arthur?" She mumbled to herself and looked around not finding him there.

She turned to Geordi and asked him about Arthur to which he answered. "He's taking care of everything outside. The repair and all."

"Oh...okay."

She laid back down and closed her eyes and soon fell into a sleep.

.
.
.

The next time she opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that her curtains were drawn, giving her privacy from the others.

She turned her head to her left and almost screamed seeing Ruslan sitting beside her bed on a stool.

She placed her palm over her mouth to stop her from screaming as she breathed heavily to calm herself down.

He sat on a stool, calmly, leaning forward looking at her with a neutral expression on his face. His forearm rested on his thighs and his fingers interlocked with each other. He hardly received any injury expect the cut on his forehead which was now covered with a band aid.

"Alfresca." He spoke in his sexy Russian accent.

"Y-yes, sir?" She said removing her hand from her mouth and sitting up straight, resting her back against the headboard of the bed.

He cleared his throat nervously. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better, sir." She answered honestly and he hummed in response.

She bit her lips nervously and his eyes flickered down to them for a moment.

He again cleared his throat so he could stop thinking about kissing her and all those weird things she is doing to him for the past few days.

His eyes bore into hers. "Geordi told me about what you narrated to him. You sure you remember nothing?"

"No, sir."

"And you sure that someone came in from the window and not the office door instead?"

She nodded promptly. "I'm sure about it. I heard the whole glass shattering. Wasn't it shattered when you...came back for me?"

"It was."

"What about the CCTV footage? It must have caught something."

"Someone hacked into it and disabled all the cameras. We got nothing."

"Oh..." She looked down at her hand awkwardly as he stared at her.

He got up to leave and muttered to her. "Get well soon, Alfresca."

She gazed at him and smiled softly. "Thank you, sir." And then feeling nervous, she again bit her lips.

Ruslan mentally groaned as he saw her bite her lips and this time couldn't control himself as he leaned down and closed his eyes.

Just one kiss. He thought. And I will be over her and this stupid attraction.

Alfresca's eyes widened as he leaned closer to her, his eyes closed and his breath fanning her cheeks. His lips hovered above hers.

Is he going to kiss me?

She felt her heart skip a beat and her eyes closed on their own. Just a little more closer and their lips would meet.

Just as Ruslan was about to capture her lips, the curtain was drawn apart roughly, startling both Ruslan and Alfresca and he was quick to take a few steps back.

Arthur was the one who drew apart the curtains and now he stood there looking between them in confusion.

"Sir." He acknowledged Ruslan's prescense and Ruslan nodded curtly at him and walked past him and went away.

Arthur glanced at his retreating figure and then at Alfresca whose eyes were tightly shut, her lower lips sucked in and a blush prominent on her cheeks. She was too embarrassed to look at him.

"Alfresca?" He called in a low tone.

Her eyes opened and she tried to act normal. "H-hey, Arthur..."

"What was he doing here?" He asked as he sat down on the stool Ruslan was sitting earlier.

"Who?" Alfresca questioned back, acting innocent.

Arthur's lips pressed into a thin line. "You know whom I am talking about. Tell me what was he doing here."

She sighed. "He was just asking about what happened with me earlier. Nothing else..." And he was going to kiss me. She added in her mind.

"Please don't tell me you have started to fall for him." Arthur spoke with a hint of anger and annoyance in his tone.

"W-what? No!" Alfresca denied his statement promtly. "I...am not falling for him..."

Arthur didn't look convinced. "You sure?"

"Yes, Arthur...I don't...like him. Why will I?"

Well, there are many reasons to like him. Her conscience said. She immediately shut her thoughts.

No. She doesn't like him. She's just doing a job here.

"Please don't fall for him, Alfresca. He's not a good person, you know that." He took Alfresca's hand in his and gently caressed it.

"Arthur. I am not falling for him. But please don't say that he's not a good person because he's not bad. He is good." She found herself defending him. "He's kind. He's not heartless."

Arthur's jaw clenched. "Alfresca, don't. You are becoming blind to his flaws."

"Yes. I'm blind to his flaws as long as there is goodness in his heart." She stated firmly, surprising Arthur.

He scoffed. "Goodness? He is a Mafia leader for God's sake!"

"I know. But that's not the only thing he is. There's a pair of warm and loving eyes behind those cold ones. There is goodness in his heart behind the evil one. And there is a beautiful soul behind the dark one."

Arthur's eyes widened slightly in realisation. "You are falling for him. And you hardly know him."

"I am not falling for him!"

But Arthur didn't listen to her. He had established the fact that she was falling for him and no one could make him disagree on that.

He shook his head in disappointment. "Pathetic, Alfresca. I never knew that you would fall for a monster."

She wanted to argue about it but he had already stood up and was making his way away from her leaving her alone to ponder on his words.

You are falling for him.

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.
.

Ruslan gripped one of his men's collar in his hand, almost lifting him off the floor. "What did you say?!"

"S-sir..." The man stuttered. "The arms shipments disappeared near the Mexico border."

"What do you mean they disappeared?! How can they disappear?" Ruslan gritted his teeth.

The man was terrified. "I...I... don't know, sir. They just vanished into thin air."

Ruslan removed his grip from the man's collar making him stumble back and gasp for air.

Ruslan started to pace around his office with his hands behind his back. "How can they disappear? Who even knew about it?" He said to himself but the man heard it and said. "Sir. I think the attack was planned for this."

Ruslan's head snapped to him. "What do you mean?"

"I think someone planned this attack so they could sneak into your office when you are not there and hack into your laptop and take out all the information." He explained.

Realisation dawned upon Ruslan as he realised how clever that person must have been.

"But who did this?" He muttered.

"I suspect it was the Meryds." He replied. "Because only they could have done this."

Ruslan's jaw clenched. "Let's pay them a visit then."

Chapter completion on: 3/9/21