Taking a step forward, he saw her eyes peeking at him under her long lashes. She blinked, tears welling up as she approached, his gun still pointed at her.

But as he approached, he slowly lowered the gun and glared at her menacingly. When he saw her scared, he felt his resolve drop.


Fanny took a step back, making Michel immediately uncomfortable.

"Freeze."

She flinched again making his heart beat faster in his chest.


What's wrong with him?

Michel couldn't explain how he felt when he looked at this girl.


He wants to intimidate her, make her submit to him, and fear for her life.

But when she is, he's not happy either.

Michel moved closer until their chests were almost touching causing her to just sob more in fear, hugging her body tighter and folding into hers, as if she were trying to hide from him. even in plain sight.

Before Michel knew what he was doing, he brought his free hand to her face. Fanny didn't budge. Silent tears streamed down her cheeks and he touched one, stopping with his thumb to wipe it.

She stiffened, he felt her take a breath, hold her breath.

That was also the moment Michel froze.

Something is wrong with him. Serious mistake.

Michel couldn't stop himself as one of his hands went to the strands of hair hanging from her face.

He slowly moved her hair to the side until her entire face was visible to him.

Was his heart racing there for a moment?

He does not know.

Fanny slowly raised her eyes, now staring at him with glassy brown eyes, the color of which reminded him of rich chestnuts.

He gulped, slowly moving his thumb over her soft cheek.

Are not.

Oh no.

Michel suddenly let go of her, taking a few steps back. Waves of emotions ran through him that he couldn't hold back.

First sadness, then tenderness, and finally anger. He decided to hang on to his anger and let it consume him.

There is no room for tenderness in his world. Gentleness makes one weak. Any emotion other than anger makes people weak. And he can't be weak.

Not with the life he is leading.

So he grabbed the anger and let it run through him until his body was shaking. Hot red angry.

Yes, that is familiar. He knows anger. He likes to be angry.

Michel glared at her as he pointed the gun at her again. Her eyes widened and she let out a cry, her hand raised to her chest. She shook her head repeatedly, her mouth opening and closing silently as if she wanted to say something.

"Who are you and why are you here?" Michel growled at Fanny, his voice low, but dangerous.

That tone said a lot and it was clear that the girl understood that. If she doesn't give him an answer he's satisfied with, he'll shoot her without a second thought.

No matter what he had felt before.

"I... I..." She stuttered, finding it difficult to speak.

"Speak. Either you talk now or..." He gritted his teeth, his angry face contorting with every word.

When she still didn't speak, Michel finally lost patience and quickly shifted his hand to the side, firing three bullets through her, shattering part of the wooden shelf in the room.

Fanny yelled, and immediately fell to the floor, clutching her ear and crying.

"Tell me."

But before he could take a few steps toward her again, hoping to pull her back on her feet, the door suddenly opened and Andy and Carlos both burst in, guns ready.

"Michel. Are you okay?" Carlos ran into the room, looked around as if he was expecting to find an intruder, and then sided with his cousin when he noticed that there was no one.

Andy immediately spotted Fanny on the floor, curled up in herself, crying, and acting scared.

"What happened here?" he asked as he crouched next to her, touching her shoulder to get her attention.

But that gesture only made her flinch.

"I'm fine? But why is there a girl from the Phoenix gang in my bedroom?" Michel shouted, gesturing to the crying girl on the floor with his gun.

Carlos frowned, looking back and forth from Michel to Fanny, then shook his head and sighed deeply.

"She's not part of the Phoenix gang, Michel. She's your nurse. Oh my gosh..." Carlos immediately explained, cautiously shoving his gun into its holster for access and taking Michel's gun.

Meanwhile, Andy tries again to calm Fanny, who finally gets to her feet as she tries to pull herself together.

"Come on, I'll take you to your room..." He said to her gently, placing his hand on her back carefully, and leading her to the door.

"No. She's not going anywhere. I want an explanation. Who is she?" Michel interrupted them, causing them to turn and face him.

"We told you. She's your nurse, Michel. You got shot, remember?" Andy confirmed Carlos' earlier statement.

As if trying to piece together his memories, fragments of last week's events suddenly began to invade his brain, causing Michel to frown deeply.

Storehouse.

Unexpected gunfire.

Scream in the car while he feels like he's in a dark place.

There is blood. Too much blood.

Thinking about this now somehow made it all come true. As if he's actually in the same place again...

"Michel. You're bleeding again." Carlos' voice broke his trance, bringing him back.

"What?"

But when Michel looked down at himself, sure enough, there was blood seeping through his white shirt.

"His stitches..." A small female voice said.

Everyone fell silent as Fanny tried to explain, carefully pointing at Michel's injured face, her voice hoarse and hesitant from what had happened just minutes ago.

"They opened up when he was angry." She said, seeing a strange look on Michel's face as she continued.

"Michel, you need to go back to bed." Carlos immediately tried to push Michel back to his bed.

But his cousin didn't want to.

"Stop. I can go by myself." He rolled his eyes in response.

"Oh?" Carlos challenged. "That's what got you into this mess in the first place. You shouldn't have gone."

Carlos led Michel back to the bed anyway, making him lie on his back as the blood stains on his white shirt increased.

"Fanny, what do you need? I'll go get it from the infirmary while Andy picks up Christian."

Hearing this caused Fanny to panic slightly.

Does this mean she will be alone with Michel?

Clearing her throat, however, she knew that she needed to at least act rationally and deal with the situation at hand.

And the situation is, she needs to treat her patient again.