My Billionaire Husband

The narrow space became more confined because of the tension and depression in the air.

They stood close to each other. It seemed there was a thin veil between them, which could be blown away by a heavier breath. Every second of this moment was precious as well as torturous to Kate.

After some time, she looked to the alley to see the status of the chaos. When she just leaned forward a little, she was pulled back by the arm.

Before she reacted to it, she saw a familiar face. Curly-hair was walking into the alley and passed by where they were hidden. He walked straight ahead and picked a stick from a broken stand on the way.

When he arrived at a crowd of fighters who stood in a circle facing inside, he beat the few guys who blocked his way. They howled and made way for him. He pulled up the guy who was lying on the ground and supported him with his shoulder.

They walked together along the road back to the main street, where they got into a car and left. The sound of sirens came from the distance.

The people who were fighting started to flee.

Jimmy grabbed Kate's hand, and the warmth transmitted from the hand to her heart. She didn't dare look at him, and her body remained stiff.

"Better I take you out of here. It is not safe here." Jimmy said.

A few seconds later, his hand released her. She could feel the intentional delay. Her heart was beating fast in panic when he grabbed her hand, and when he let go, Kate felt a loss.

The alley was messy. Not a single food stand or restaurant was spared from the destruction. There were seriously injured people on the ground that could not flee.

Screaming, cursing, ambulance and police sirens were heard. Police cars blocked both ends of the alley, and almost all the culprits were arrested. Kate could see that this was a planned ambush.

Jimmy walked her to the main street and found a cab for her.

When the cab door closed, she said, "You be careful."

The door blocked Jimmy's smile. When the car drove away, Kate looked back. He was still standing there, seeming a little lost, and his image was blurry.

She sat back, and her heart was aching.

Maybe it wasn't her one-sided love. It was just that the time wasn't right.

She closed her eyes and immersed herself in the bitterness.

That evening, Tristan also mentioned the fighting when he came back. He didn't make any comments, just that it was not safe recently, and asked Kate to be careful and not to wander around in those places.

He asked Ed to accompany her to and from school.

The next morning, on her way to school, Ed said, "I saw you yesterday, with the policeman."

Kate was shocked and met his eyes from the rearview mirror. He was observing and judging her.

He added, "I won't tell the boss."

After a pause, he said again, "To be fair, you won't tell him what you saw."

Kate recalled he helped a man covered with blood and took him out.

Ed then told her slowly, "That was one of my brothers. We made a living together. I was lucky to go work for the boss later. He was less lucky and is now running a small business in that alley and just managing to support his family. He was almost killed by his foe."

"I promised my boss that I would not get involved with these people. I will not do anything to harm him. If you and the policeman…"

"We did nothing." Kate explained, "He just passed by and saved me."

Ed smirked evilly. "It is good then. If he did, he would be the one to regret it."

His expression, which contained evilness in jest, reminded Kate of him beating up others fiercely during the chaos. Kate's heart shrank.

After a while, she could not help asking, "Are you, gangsters?"

Ed was shocked and looked at her, "Who? The boss?"

Kate nodded.

He sneered but offered no answer to her question.

***

In the classroom, the teacher was lecturing meticulously.

Kate was sitting there with a pen in her hand and writing something in her notebook. But she wasn't listening to the teacher.

Running into Jimmy yesterday was like throwing a stone into the peaceful lake of her heart.

Some suppressed emotion came back to the surface.

She could still feel Jimmy's breath. They were once that close-she could not help to measure the distance with the pen in her hand. Her fingers moved on the pen to imagine the distance between them.

It was weird and probably inappropriate to have fantasies about him still, especially after she had had s.e.x.u.a.l relations with Tristan and had indelible marks on her body. It was disrespectful or even insulting to both him and her first love.

Kate indulged in her meditation and was self-abandoned at the moment.

When she came back to her senses, she found the page was full of Jimmy's name. She tore it off hastily, squeezed it into a ball, and put it into her pocket. She looked around and found everyone was listening attentively and was glad to see nobody noticed her action, let alone read her mind.

During the break, Kate took out that paper ball spread it, and tore it into pieces, and threw it into the dustbin at the back of the classroom.

Seeing the pieces flying down from her fingers like snowflakes, she felt she was saying goodbye to her first love. First love, it was the throne she put Jimmy on. It was now just an extravagant memory of hers.

When the last piece of paper fell into the dustbin, Kate rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. She and he were bound to be poles apart.

At the same time, Jimmy was sitting in his office for once, a rare time without field service. He was cl.i.c.k.i.n.g the keyboard of the computer to write a report on yesterday's action.

The plan for removing the gangsters in LA had begun at the beginning of the year. Yesterday was one part of the plan. He was in charge of the field, detecting and informing his teammates to come at the right time to arrest the culprits at the scene.

After he finished the last word of his report, he threw it to the clerk in his office for polishing his wording. Jimmy rubbed his temples and was distracted; he thought of the scene in the alley.

He sighed and pulled out the drawer of his desk, and took out a black cover notebook.

Aunty Aileen, the wife of Jimmy's hero Uncle Jack, had called and told him that she found a notebook while she was rearranging her house. It looked like some work notes, so she called to ask him if he wanted to see it.

Jimmy was excited and went to get it. But after he came back, he browsed it all night and was disappointed. Uncle Jack was rigorous in solving a case, but unfortunately, his writing was illegible. Plus, the notes were for himself only, so the scrawl was indecipherable to Jimmy.

Jimmy took the notebook and flipped through one last time, and then put it back to the drawer and locked it. He leaned back in the chair and raised his hand to his eyes.

In the sunshine, his fingers were long, with thick calluses at the inner side of the palm. He reflected on the feeling of touching another smooth and gentle hand and got distracted.

When he was in love with Linda, she always asked him, "Do you love me?"

He was impatient to this affected dialogue and always replied perfunctorily, and later, he simply ignored her. She would sigh and say, "You don't love me," or "You don't know about love at all."

He was speechless and amused at her words. He asked, "You know? Tell me what love is."

Linda thought for a while and then said seriously, "All in all, love is missing of another person. Sometimes you will feel bitter, sad, angry, jealous, contradictory…"

Jimmy almost wanted to fall asleep. And she concluded, "It is a feeling that you don't feel for any other people except him. And love will make you turn into a different person."

Jimmy took it as a joke, but now he had to admit that he was missing someone.