The CEO

XVIII

I flip through the channels on the TV when my phone starts buzzing.

"Hello?"

"Chloe."

"Hey James, what's up?"

"There's an issue."

"What happened?"

"Ryan," he hesitates. "Uh, he's in the hospital."

My eyes widen and I stood up.

"What? How?"

"He's fine, don't worry. I think he seriously needs to see you."

"But what happened?"

"He got into a fight--"

"I knew it! Did he get punched? Beaten up?"

"Chloe, he broke his wrist."

"Huh?"

"The impact of his punch was so much."

"I can't believe him." I mutter.

"I know. I'll text you the address. Be there as soon as you can."

"Alright, see you."

I grabbed my car keys and left.

.

"Thank you for coming." James said as I entered the hospital.

I followed him to the fourteenth floor which apparently was reserved only for Ryan.

We entered a room and my heart stopped when I saw Ryan. He looked at me and sighed.

"See, I told you she's fine!" James remarked.

"Yeah, alright. Now you can drop her home."

I grit my teeth.

"OK, I'm done with this game, Ryan. You have to tell me what is up." I say.

"Listen--"

"No, Ryan. I'm not going to go through all of the pushing away. You have to tell me what's going on." My voice cracks.

"Alright." Ryan sighs.

"This is my cue to give you love birds some alone time. Toodles." James says and leaves.

"So, when I started fighting, I was a part of this gang. But after a year, I became an individual fighter. This had made my ex-gang members angry and they'd thought I would let out their strategies. So, they'd conspired to kill me. They sent threats to my family, to James. But I always made sure that my people were safe. Once I became the CEO, they backed off a little bit, because if the media found out about their little illegal games, they'd get arrested. When they realized I have a girlfriend, that is you, they thought that they could threaten me by harming you. I didn't want that to happen. That's why I was behaving this way."

"Wow." I say, understanding what he was trying to say.

"But I can't stay away from you. I just can't. I'm miserable without you, Chloe."

"Then don't." I say quietly.

"But you're not safe."

"Ryan, I'll be fine."

"I don't know if I can protect you."

"Ryan, you underestimate me and yourself." I smile.

He rolls his eyes.

"No, I'm more worried about the fact that I've to take the pain of burying you and all. Too much of effort, babe." He jokes.

I smack his uninjured arm.

"I hate you." I say.

"No, you don't," he says. "You just hate that you love me."