With All That I Am: Bound To You

You're Everything I Need

When the plane landed, Karina didn't move until Mark knocked on the door. Winter had spent the entire plane ride to Nevada in bed with Karina. Her struggles and complaints made no difference, so she gave up and stayed still the rest of the ride back to Sin City.

Sin City.

Winter couldn't escape it.

"She's gone," Mark had said.

"Who's gone?" Winter demanded, knowing full well he was referring to Yizhuo. "Where did she go, Karina?"

"Back to her family. Her mother needs her more than ever. Yizhuo's father passed away two months ago from a heart attack." Karina sat up and paused as if she needed to get her bearings.

"What?" Winter blinked in confusion, "Uncle Henry passed away?"

Karina only gave her a mere glance, and Winter suddenly feels a new gush of tears in her eyes. Bad things just kept happening.

"Let's go," Karina tells her. Winter doesn't move for a bit, trying to let the news of another loss sink in. Why did God hate her so much?

"Minjeong," Karina calls out to her again. She blinks out of her thoughts and finally stands up. When Karina reaches for her hand, intertwining their fingers together, Winter doesn't flinch. After laying in bed with Karina the whole flight back, hand holding was nothing.

Karina led her out of the private jet, and into another SUV. The dry, desert heat of Las Vegas pokes at Winter's skin and she's reminded of where she was.

There was new security in the front seat, ones she didn't recognize again. Winter wonders just how many guards Karina had to replace while on her killing rampage. Does Karina even feel guilty about the people who have been beside her, with the job of protecting the Yu's, only to have lost their lives?

"What are you thinking?" Karina's voice snaps her from her thoughts again, the warmth of her touch on Winter's thigh familiar and overwhelming.

Winter turns to look at Karina. And in the year and a half Winter had fled from Karina, this was the first time she had really looked at her.

Winter was easy to read. Her eyebrows furrowed, and her eyes swimming with every emotion she was feeling. Unlike Karina, who wore sunglasses to hide her emotions because she knew, no matter how hard she tried to mask them, Winter could see everything through those hazel brown eyes.

"My love?" Karina squeezes her thigh to bring her back to earth.

Winter had no idea what was going on in Karina's head. There was something brewing beneath the surface, and Winter doesn't think she can handle finding out what that side of Karina was. She didn't want to find out.

Instead of voicing out what was actually swimming through her head, Winter lowers her gaze to her fiddling hands on her lap. "I want to be with Yizhuo. She needs me."

Karina locks her jaw. "She has her mother to comfort her."

Winter doesn't even have time to protest and demand that she be there for Yizhuo because the door of the SUV is pulled open, and Karina is climbing out of the car. Winter is pulled along with Karina into the house as she's propelled into the familiar space.

She gives her surroundings a cursory glance. Nothing has changed. Being back here made Winter want to weep out of frustration and rage.

"Shower." Karina leads her up the stairs and into the bathroom.

Winter pulls her hand from the older woman's grip, taking a step back and crossing her arms. She felt dirty and definitely in need of a shower, but she was not going to take one with Karina.