Too many secrets

Shen quickly arose from the table and walked out.

Lina was immersed in conversation with Rika. She didn't know Shen had already got the wheels turning, investigating her past and the recent events at full capacity.

Ayu and Ro-kun were the most competent members of his staff. They were back with news in just a couple of hours.

As Shen convened the meeting with them in the study, both subordinates looked almost uncomfortable.

Ro-kun started speaking.

"Master, we went through all the traffic cam surveillance footage available around the vicinity of the café and where Lina's Lamborghini was parked."

Ayu passed a small USB stick to Shen as he plugged it into his laptop and she continued reporting their findings.

"Sir, madam seems to have walked out of the café with the spilled coffees you found near the alleyway. That's when she seems to have been..." Ayu stopped and uncomfortably cleared her throat.

The demon was about to fly into a massive rage when he would see that his wife had been ambushed.

His eyes were glued to the laptop screen.

The traffic cam was positioned directly above where the Lambo was parked.

He watched Lina approach it smiling to herself, holding two coffees. As he zoomed in, he saw they were marked Americano and Soy Milk Cappuccino.

His heart began racing...she remembered?

Is that why they had been marked? Because she picked the wrong one the first time they met?

His lips almost curled up into a smile, when a suddenly, a quick, furtive hooded figure entered the screen and quietly walked up to Lina's back.

Since the surveillance camera was on top, Shen could see the brutal jagdkommando knife pressed to his precious wife's back. He saw her figure stiffen, and the smiled wiped off her face.

Shen grit his teeth. His fists were clenched on the table, his nails digging into his palms. His exquisite face was contorted, full of anger.

He watched as the man forced Lina to walk, which was where the footage ended since the camera did not cover the alleyway.

He had already been informed of this footage through James' hacking, which is why he found her so quickly, but watching it closely, and seeing how his wife was ambushed and alone, his aura burned with ferocity.

Since the perpetrator was hooded and moved quickly, it was hard to tell who he was or definitely identify him. He seemed to know about the surveillance cam and kept his face turned away.

Shen had already checked Lina for wounds and she had been unharmed. But what had transpired in that alleyway?

There was no way out of there, besides the entrance. There were only high walls surrounding.

He had found Lina in there alone.

"Master, it seems that this man is extremely skilled. He knew how to dress, how to move and got away before we found madam."

Ro-kun had already come to the conclusion that he was skilled and trained.

"Exactly. Moreover, the fact that he escaped without a trace as soon as we got there, he must have climbed or jumped over the walls in a split second."

Ayu, who also trained in martial arts, noticed that that was the only way out.

"Will you talk to madam about it?" she asked her boss.

Ayu had been worrying about Lina since they found her panicked and collapsed. She had been more proactive than Ro-kun while investigating.

She was trying hard to restrain her anger and worry in front of Shen.

After all, her concern for Lina went beyond normal. Lina was her boss' beloved wife, and she had no right to care about her that much.

Ayu's hands were respectfully behind her back, while speaking to Shen, as she stood alert. But Ro-kun saw, that behind her back, she was tightly pinching her wrists to keep herself grounded.

She too, knew the destruction a jagdkommando knife could have done, with just one false move from Lina.

"She knew...she knew what he was holding to her back." Shen whispered, thinking aloud. "She didn't even have to think twice before she stood still and stiff. These are unnatural skills."

Ro-kun and Ayu agreed.

Shen was quiet for a long time. Too many secrets put a vast distance between them.

First the headshot killing the sniper from his office, then her fighting all his security staff, breaking his heavy, high tech security doors not once, but twice and dodging the tranquillisers that he himself couldn't have avoided.

She was far too skilled to be normal. But she herself didn't know where she got it from.

Lina had never betrayed these traits before the coma. So she must have been deliberately hiding them. But now it was based on pure instinct, survival and a need to protect Shen.

But there was one thing that was more important than all this.

"But she remembered something...about us..." he said this more to himself, than to the subordinates standing in front of him.

That's why she had opened up to him. She had accepted and returned his kiss. And she had allowed him back into the bed.

The barrier was thawing, little by little, with love, patience and independence.

He faced a dilemma now.

Should he pry into her life, ask her about the encounter and force his way into digging up her past or continue slowly on the same path and allow her time to regain her memory and talk to him of her own free will?

He wanted to continue investigating...after all, she had lost her memory, and was now left vulnerable to unforeseen threats.

But would that destroy the trust he had been building between them?