When Chloe Sinclair returned to her lab, she saw Shawn Styles sitting on the sofa, looking completely shell-shocked.

Chloe changed into a more comfortable pair of slippers, filled a cup with warm water from the dispenser, and silently placed it in front of Shawn.

After doing all that, Chloe walked to the window and, with a sharp SWISH, yanked open the curtains.

Glancing down, she saw the three thugs lying on the ground, groaning in agony.

When she turned back, Shawn still hadn’t reacted.

"Drink some water. Settle your nerves."

Chloe’s words instantly snapped Shawn back to reality.

He scrambled to grab the cup in front of him and took a sip. Just as Chloe had said, he finally started to pull himself together.

Seeing this, Chloe got straight to the point. "What are you doing here?"

It was the middle of the night. Shawn’s presence here was, to say the least, highly suspicious.

Shawn’s expression stiffened. He clearly didn’t want to talk about it.

Chloe knew he didn’t mean any harm, so she didn’t press him. Instead, she changed the subject. "You noticed something was off a while ago, didn’t you?"

Shawn hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"I didn’t know you were away filming, so I went to the school to look for you. I heard you had a research lab near campus, so I came looking for it."

"When I got here, I saw a few men climbing over the wall, but they left a few moments later."

"But then I got busy with training, and it slipped my mind. I didn’t remember to warn you when I saw you. Today, it came back to me, so I went to your apartment. When I saw you weren’t there, I panicked and rushed over here."

Because he remembered those men, he had spotted them the moment he walked in.

After he finished speaking, Shawn looked at Chloe, his expression tense.

Chloe didn’t say anything for a long time.

Shawn thought she was angry. The sound of their breathing filled the lab.

"I know."

Just as Shawn was about to say something else, Chloe gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Shawn instantly let out a sigh of relief.

"I was afraid you’d be angry."

Strictly speaking, he and Chloe had only really met once before.

Shawn didn’t want to lose the friendship they had just managed to build.

Besides, Chloe was far too important to them.

"I’m not angry."

Chloe really wasn’t angry.

She trusted Shawn’s character. Besides, his story matched what she’d seen on the surveillance footage.

Chloe saw the look of relief wash over Shawn’s face and teased, "Back with us now?"

Shawn froze for a second, then finally realized Chloe had just been trying to distract him.

Thinking about how he must have looked, Shawn’s face flushed with embarrassment.

He tried to explain himself. "I just... wasn’t expecting that."

Even though his view from upstairs was blurry, by the faint light of the security camera, he could still see that every one of Chloe’s moves was ruthless.

He thought it was a good thing for a girl to have some self-defense skills, but he never imagined Chloe would be *that* good!

One against three, especially when all three of them had guns.

"Those guys were here for revenge. A little over a month ago, I put their leader in prison. They must have been laying low since then. Once they found my address, they decided to get revenge for their boss."

"So, what now?" Shawn asked instinctively.

Chloe glanced out the window, and Shawn’s eyes followed hers.

Before Chloe could say a word, Shawn heard the wail of police sirens outside. From the sound of it, there was more than one car.

His gaze snapped back to Chloe. He saw her eyes narrow slightly as she said, "Now, we let the nice officers handle the rest."