Chapter 123 - Strike First, Ask Questions Later

While Damien was busy with his conference call, the door to his office opened with a loud bang, making him snap his head towards it. He saw Katherine coming inside, looking reddish. She staggered on her way to him, a hand on her neck while the other reached the wall as she tried to steady herself.

His eyes widened in shock and without delay, he abruptly removed his headset, tossed it aside and jolted towards her. 

"Katherine!" he called in alarm.

Just before she fell to the floor, Damien was able to catch her in time. She had some red patches on her neck and she had labored breathing

"I… can't… breathe…" she wheezed.

"Sh*t."

Realizing that she was going into anaphylactic shock, Damien carefully laid her on the floor and rushed towards his desk drawer. Spotting the Epinephrine auto injector, he grabbed it and dashed back to where she was. 

After removing the safety cap of the EpiPen, he swiftly swung and pushed it onto her thigh. A few seconds later, Katherine let out a slow exhale, seemingly able to breathe better.

Damien's heart was racing because of the shocking incident. He ran a hand through his hair, slightly relieved that her breathing looked like it had returned to normal. Soon after, he scooped her up from the floor and immediately headed towards the underground parking lot. 

"I'm taking you to the ER."

He was thankful that he made the right choice in stocking EpiPens in a lot of places after what happened to her the first time. Even though he had already given her the injection, he still needed to bring her to the hospital.

He set her down on the passenger's seat and buckled her belt. Bending down, he grabbed her hand and he met her sleepy eyes. "You're going to be okay," he reassured before placing a kiss on her forehead.

As he drove, he glanced at her to check her condition. He made her face him so that he could see how she was doing. There were beads of sweat forming on her forehead and she was looking weak. 

"What happened?" he asked as he reached for her left hand and squeezed it. 

"I'm not really sure… It was very sudden."

"Walk me through what happened to you since this morning," Damien requested as he carefully drove in the traffic.

Katherine tried her best to recall everything since the hour that they started working in the morning. Her voice was a little weak and she had to fight the drowsiness. "Those were the only things I did before eating."

His brows knitted and he turned to look at her with a confused expression. "You already ate?" His gaze shifted to the clock on the dashboard and saw that it was a little over past one.

Nodding, Katherine replied, "The food delivery came."

"You ordered food?" Damien was still puzzled as they would usually eat together unless either one of them had other plans. 

She raised her head and furrowed her brows. "What? I... thought you ordered them?"

He shook his head and he was even more confused. "I didn't order anything… I lost track of time because I was in a meeting. What made you think I ordered it?"

Lowering her stare, she contemplated. "It was from the same restaurant that you always ordered from. And it was the dish that you usually got for me too. It wasn't you?"

Damien shook his head again. His hand gripped the steering wheel tightly as he thought about the possibilities.

…

Hillcrest Hospital

After Katherine went through a thorough check-up, Damien arranged a VIP room for her to be warded in for further observation. Jeffrey Evans came as soon as he heard the news and the two of them talked about what just happened as they sat on the sofa.

Looking at Katherine from where he was, Damien noticed that her complexion had gotten better. 

"Do you really think that someone was trying to harm her? Maybe she just made a mistake?" asked Jeffrey.

Damien shook his head. "I have a bad feeling. I already asked Markus to investigate an hour ago. We should hear from him very soon."

Nodding, Jeffrey glanced at Katherine. "I feel bad for her, man. She had gone through a lot over the past years. Good thing you found her again."

Damien's heart was throbbing. He was also feeling distressed about what was happening to her. Everything looked like it had been deliberate and not knowing who they were up against was pretty dangerous. Upon hearing what Jeffrey said, he couldn't help but sigh, "I should have found her years ago…" He felt so incompetent at the moment. Two distressing events already happened that day.

Several minutes later, there was a knock on the door before it swung open. Damien raised his head and saw Caleb and Markus coming inside together.

Markus came to his side. "Boss, I found the delivery man."

"Where is he?" Damien's eyes were cold.

"Felix is watching over him at the underground parking lot."

Standing up from the sofa, Damien turned to Jeffrey, "Can you watch her for me?"

"Sure. I'm done seeing my patients anyway."

Damien walked out of the room with Markus. Feeling that something was going to happen, Caleb muttered, "I better go and make sure he doesn't do anything extreme…"

…

As they reached the underground parking lot, Markus led Damien towards the very far corner where Felix parked their car.

The overhead dome lights inside the car were lit, allowing them to see the man at the backseat of the car looking anxious. 

Damien's expression turned dark as his deathly stare zeroed on that man. As they strolled towards the car a few meters away, he took off his black suit coat and handed it to Markus before he rolled his sleeves up his elbow. 

He rotated his neck from side to side, making a cracking noise as he did that before a disdainful chuckle escaped from his lips.

"Oh, dear…" Caleb uttered upon sensing his best friend's vicious aura. The air around them suddenly became strangely chilly in the middle of summer.

Damien reached the car and it was too late for them to stop him because as soon as he opened the door to the backseat, he grabbed the man by the collar, hauled him out of the car and slammed him onto the wall beside it.

"AH! What the f*ck!" 

The man cried out in pain when his face greeted the cold cement. His brow immediately bled, red liquid trickled down his face as he gaped at the brutal eyes that were looking down at him. Damien was a foot taller than the man, making him appear even scarier.

"Who are you?" Damien asked in a low and nearly toneless voice. 

Though he wasn't shouting, the way he asked the question didn't seem like he was asking nicely. For Caleb, this was how his best friend was when he's outraged – Strike first, ask questions later.

While Markus thought the same, he also knew that most of the time, the calmer his Boss appeared to be, the angrier he actually was.

The delivery man almost peed his pants. He couldn't look at Damien in the eye. "W-Why w-would I tell you?"

Damien grabbed his hand and twisted his wrist, a cracking sound was heard together with the man's cry. "Let's try again. Who are you?"

The delivery man thought that the scary man was nuts! How could he be so violent? "I-I'm Ed! I'm just a delivery guy!"

"We didn't order anything. So who paid you to deliver the food to Katherine Miller?" Damien pressed him against the hard wall, making the man wince in pain.

The man's eyes watered as he recalled the person whom he met before he delivered the food. He knew that it was wrong but the wad of cash blinded him to agree, after all, he only had to deliver. Thinking that he would be in deeper sh*t if he admitted, he shook his head. "I-I don't know anything! I swear!"

'Fool.' Caleb hissed and wanted to dash forward but Markus held him back. "You know you can't stop him."

Damien sighed before clicking his tongue and in a lazy tone, he spoke, "You really haven't learned anything from the past two minutes… Haven't you, Ed?" As soon as the last word left his mouth, Damien raised his knee and kicked the man's leg, hitting the side of his knee and another cracking sound was heard.

Caleb and Markus flinched while the man shrieked as he dropped to the floor. He clutched his knee as he cried out, "Y-you monster! You broke my leg!"

"Oh, yeah? I can make it even for you and break the other one." Damien casually answered as he loomed over the man.

"N-No no no! Wait! I'll talk! Please stop hitting me." The man's voice was already weak. How could he trade his legs for this?

Bending down, Damien listened to what he had to say and his expression turned bleaker.

Caleb, Markus, and Felix who were several feet away listened as the man told them about the person who gave him money.

"...That's all I know! She was really pretty and tall… I think I might have seen her somewhere but I don't know who she is, I swear!"