THE FLIGHT

Worry about the things that are worth worrying about, sweetheart.

***

CHAPTER IX

*****

THE PRIVATE JET was only five minutes away from landing, but to me it felt like that wouldn't be quick enough. To me it felt like Daniel was only seconds away from dying.

"He's got a high fever and is bleeding out profusely," I told Pablo. He nodded before walking away to deliver the message to the pilots who were speaking with the paramedics waiting for us at the airport.

"Just keep applying pressure on the wound, Ara, he'll be fine," one if the security detail said to me. I glanced up at him briefly before nodding and bringing my attention back to Daniel.

The good news was that he was unconscious so he probably couldn't feel how painful it was. The bad news was that... he was unconscious.

I sighed and used my other hand to wipe his brown hair out of his face as Pablo walked over to us. "The pilot said that he's about to land so you need to put on your seat belt."

"Then how am I going to continue applying pressure to his wound?" I asked in outrage as Pablo took a seat in one of the luxurious, golden chairs of the jet and buckled himself in.

"You're going to have to try, Ara, because if something happens to you, who's going to take care of him?" He pointed to Daniel and I saw reason in his words.

With a begrudging nod, I slowly manoeuvred myself off the floor and onto a seat facing Pablo. I pulled Daniel's torso into mine and held onto his unmoving body as tight as I could as I felt the plane start to decline.

The ground started meeting us quickly and for a second, I felt a wave of panic wash over me as I believed we were actually crashing instead of landing. I calmed down significantly when all the wheels made contact with the runway's tar and the pilot began driving the plane to where we were supposed to stop.

A smile almost grew on my face as I realised that I had spent most of the flight worrying about Daniel, I didn't even have time to panic about the fact that I was flying.

Daniel woke up that morning feeling sick. He couldn't keep down his food and sweat constantly trickled down his neck even though he claimed to be cold. We knew it probably had something to do with his bullet wound, but we didn't think it would get serious enough to halt our travel plans.

So we hopped in the cars and the drivers drove us a couple minutes to the airport where Daniel's private jet was waiting to pick us up.

According to him, the reason why we didn't travel here with it was because he wanted to lay low. Now, there was nothing to lay low from.

It was halfway during the flight that we noticed how he had bled through his bandages and his black shirt. His forehead was burning when I touched it and then suddenly, when he passed out, that's how I knew that whatever was going on was very serious.

And could possibly be life-threatening.

Once the plane came to a complete halt, the airport paramedics made quick work to fix up the stairs and open the door. They ushered all the guards out including Pablo, but they didn't make me go away because he was leaning completely against me. He didn't fall like that, but I had to find a comfortable way to apply continuous pressure somehow.

Once they reached us, they slowly pried my bloody hands and the red face towel I was holding against Daniel's wound off his body. They tore up his shirt with a sharp razor and slowly started to unwind the sluggishly made bandage around his wound.

"Bring in the stretcher," one of them said into a microphone attached to his uniform. He then turned to me, "ma'am-"

"I'm going," I cut him off, raising my hand up in surrender. With a small amused smile, they carefully removed Daniel's body from my own and left enough space for me to take off my seat belt and get up from my seat. Daniel groaned as I did this. I wasn't sure if it was from me leaving or from the pain, but I assumed the latter.

I made my way down the aisle of the jet, finding myself constantly looking back at the paramedics. On my way out, I had to make room for two tall, tan guys with a stretcher to get in, but apart from that nothing else happened.

I walked out of the plane door and onto the stair platform, feeling the warm wind whip through my frizzing hair. I let out a relieved breath to finally get in some fresh air before I started making my way down the stairs.

Pablo was by my side in and instant, lifting me up into his arms over the last three steps and onto the hard tarred ground beneath us.

My legs wobbled, finding it difficult to get accustomed to being on ground floor again, but Pablo held me in his arms, so nothing came of them. He ran his hand through my still straight, black hair as I closed my eyes and leaned into his embrace.

"It's alright. He's going to be fine, so you don't have to worry about him," he said into my hair. Although I felt like he was more rather saying it to comfort himself rather than to comfort me. "That fucker doesn't die."

"How's my brother? What happened to him?" A sharp voice made me pull away from Pablo and look over to where Emma, Daniel's sister, was following the medics as they carried the stretcher cautiously down the stairs and towards the ambulance with its lights still flashing.

On the stretcher, he looked dead. His face was a ghostly pale colour and he just wasn't moving. I wished in that moment that he would move, because I already experienced this before and it wasn't pretty.

Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I walked over to a sobbing Emma and placed my hand on her shoulder. She whipped around to me, stopping her from verbally harassing the medics as she took me in.

Taking me by surprise, she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me in for a long hug. I patted her back sympathetically, not finding it in me to be uncomfortable or awkward as she buried her head in the crook of my neck and cried.

"I didn't even know he was shot," she cried, shaking her head against me. "Trust him not to tell me he was shot."

"Vincent fired at him," I said lowly as the tears started filling my eyes. The slow realisation of the moment suddenly dawned on me and I felt even more heartbroken than I did before.

And it was all my fault.

***

"So, the good news is that the wound was only infected."

Emma snorted at Guillermo, making his smile turn to a frown "If that's your good news, I don't want to hear your bad." She looked to the side and folded her arms over each other.

"Well, you're still going to have to hear it anyway," he said, glaring down at her. "The bad news is that he's lost a lot of blood and he's going to need a blood transfusion."

"That's... actually not that bad," I muttered under my breath as Emma nodded in agreement with me.

"And I think they mentioned something about permanent nerve damage as well," he added, making us roll our eyes and huff. I leaned back in my seat and covered my eyes with my hands.

"Whatever. I'm going to go see if I can donate blood," Emma said, dropping her bag on her seat and approaching the nearest doctor. I turned to Guillermo who was staring after her.

"She's been having sex," he suddenly confessed, turning to me and rolling his eyes at the shocked look on my face. "It's true."

"And how do you know this?"

He sat down next to me and shrugged. "Look at the way she walks."

I watched her as she followed the doctor down the hall and into her office before turning back to Guillermo with furrowed brows. "I don't see it."

He chuckled and shook his head before leaning back into his seat. "Women tend to not notice it."

"Even if she was sleeping with someone, who would it be?"

"Pablo. Duh." I looked at him, but his eyes were shut and he didn't notice. "If the two haven't fucked yet, they obviously want to. You can see it when they look at each other," he said, making me think back to all the the times that Emma and Pablo had been in the same room. It did make sense.

"Oh my God, you're right," I gasped, looking down the hall to see if Emma was coming before looking back at Guillermo with a smile to continue our gossip.

"I'm always right."

I rolled my eyes and shut up. The last thing i realised I should've been doing in that moment was gossiping about Emma and Pablo's possible love life when her brother and my boss was currently in intensive care.

"How are you?" he asked after a moment of silence.

I went with the usual response. "I'm fine. And you?"

"No," he laughed and peaked his eye open to look at me. "I mean how are you? You know, after Vincent?"

Dread settled deep in my stomach as I suddenly remembered him. There was so much going on that allowed me to take my mind off the fact that I had actually killed him and he tried to use me. But know the only thing that Guillermo wanted me to do was think about it.

"As good as you can be when you take someone's life," I said, looking down at my open palms. I could practically see the blood staining them; dripping off my fingers and onto the marble hospital floors.

Guillermo exhaled loudly from beside me and drew my attention to him. "You'll get used to it."

"To what? Killing people?"

"No, to the feeling," he said, making me look at him with furrowed eyebrows. "At first you'll feel like a terrible person; it's normal. But then," he paused and glanced around the hospital waiting room. "You stop feeling all together."

I couldn't say anything after that. I could only stare at him in astonishment. Thankfully, that was the same time that Emma came storming back.

She collapsed onto her seat after pulling her bag up from behind her and let out a loud, irratated groan.

"They're all a bunch of assholes."

"What happened?" I asked, turning to her with concern. "What did they say?"

"They said that I couldn't give blood because of my condition," she said, rolling her eyes and rubbing her forehead in annoyance.

"Emma, its fine. I already told them that I'll donate," Pablo said, coming down the same hall she came from. As she looked at him, I could see her resolve crumbling.

She was smitten for Pablo!

"But you don't have to! He's my brother. I want to be able to help out too," she said. We sat in silence for a minute before she shook her head and stormed towards the exit doors of the hospital, muttering something about 'stupid condition' under her breath.

I looked at both the men and then got to my feet. "Well, I should probably head back home before The Witch strangles me," I said, picking up Emma's abandoned bag. "I'll catch a ride with Emma now before she abandons me."

"Alright. See you, Ara," Guillermo said as he got up to hug me. Pablo only waved as he occupied my seat.

I nodded at the both of them. "Let me know how everything goes." And then I left.

*****

I might update again since this one is kinda a boring.

Anyhoo, I need help. This story is kind of split in two, but I don't know if I should end this book and make a sequal or just slap on 'Part 1' 'Part 2' chapters and continue on.

I don't want to make a sequal because I feel like that'll make no sense, but at the end of the day it's what you guys want.

I might ask this again when we get closer to the end of part 1 so you don't have to decide now. I just know that this book is loooong and if that turns you off, that's completely fine because I'm the same.

Since I'm updating bit by bit consistently, though, I don't think it'll be that much of an issue.

Anyhoo love ya, Ommy xx

Sorry for the long A/N btw I just like talking ig