Jake is Xavier's elder brother. Xavier is Melody's husband.        

Ch-40 ★Lullaby     

         I made sure the car was locked from inside. From the first few rays of dawn, I could make out the group of four men approaching from both sides.  My hands reached for the glove compartment and pulled out the gun and pocket knife. I quickly tucked the gun and knife under my jacket.

                Ignoring the trembling of my hands and the palpitations in my heart, I called Cassidy. Inside my head, I carefully went over the plan we had made. It wasn’t a plan that guaranteed my safety but it had a small flowers of hope for Jay’s escape and I’m willing to take that risk.

                “They’re here,” I whispered. My eyes widen as I take in the first loud knock on my window.

“Excuse me?” I could hear the familiar tall man with the vivid, scornful smile yell outside. “Could you please tell us the way to Thomason Bridge?”

I gulped, knowing that this was a trap.

I turned my face away from the window so they couldn’t read my lips. “You know who to call,”

[Yesterday]

Before I went to Jay’s apartment, I stopped by Cassidy’s place. There were things we needed to discuss and solutions that needed to be found. When Jay had told me about Jake and his crime, it all seemed so strange to me that I had asked Cassidy to get to the bottom of this. I called her when I was packing my bags to head back home. We agreed on hiring a PI to spy on Jake.

 She sat beside the fireplace. A red hue from the flames, flickering on her face.

“Does your private investigator have any new information on Jake?” I shifted in the sofa, intently watching her while I waited for the answer.  She quickly went through images on her tablet, the ones her PI had sent.

“Some pictures of Jake and the people he met with. Nothing important. Here, take a look at Jake,” She held out the tablet for me to take.

The plastic felt cold in my warm fingers. Fire was crackling as it ate the wood logs away. The ancient grandfather clock in the far corner of the seating room noisily made me aware of every second that passed by but I could not force my eyes away from Jake. He looked everything other than what I had imagined him to be.

                Handsome and coy. Those were two adjectives that perfectly described him. He was dressed in a long coat, button up trousers, and a white crisp shirt and was ballroom dancing with an elegant women in a flowing black gown. They stood in La Bourtie’s lounge area. It was a formal dining establishment in north London.

My fingers glided on the screen. The next image devastatingly juxtaposed with the earlier image.

The handsome and coy man had transformed into a vicious beast. Jake was smiling an intoxicating smile as he held out a knife and had it pointed towards another man. They stood in a rundown bar. The neon lights glowed behind Jake, giving the knife’s metal a strange glow.

Image after image, I was simply fascinated by Jake. It was a kind of fascination that horrified me. How could one person have so many faces? He was a perfect gentleman in one picture and in the next he was a rowdy gangster. It was like he was living two lives at the same time. What a clever man? One personality was for the world to see so he would never fall in shades of doubt and the other one was the real Jake, the one who killed in a blink of an eye.

“I think he has a hint about us keeping tabs on him.” Cassidy’s shattered the trance I had been set in. “There’s has been less suspicious activity. The only law breaking thing he’s done so far is threatening his friend with a knife. We have no proof that he runs an assassination business. That kind of information had only be provided to us because Jay knew him personally,”

I heaved a deep sigh. “Let’s dismiss the PI. He is of no use,”

“Not entirely,” Cassidy leaned forward and tapped her finger on the tablet. A page from some high-school yearbook appeared. “Look at this,” It was a picture of boy with a goofy smile and bright green eyes. He had light brown curls and a slightly crooked nose which made he him look like wolf. “Read what it say under it,”

Xavier Smith – the captions read. I looked up at her, puzzled. “It’s Xavier. Melody’s husband. So what?”

Cassidy gave me an annoyed smile. Her fingers brought back the image from earlier where Jake had his knife pointed at some guy. “See that,” She pointed at the other guy. I paid close attention to him this time. He had shaved all his hair off, in the dim light of the bar I could make out the slender outline of his face. His nose looked like someone had repeatedly punched him.

I gave her an exasperated stare. “What am I supposed to look for?”

She brought back Xavier’s picture and pointed at tiny black mole at the corner of his lip then she slid her finger to left, bringing back Jake picture at the bar back. I squinted my eyes. The same black mole was present above the man’s lip.

                “My PI who had a better view of this guy reported that he very much resembled Xavier,”

“Could it be him? Xavier’s alive?”

                Cassidy shrugged her shoulders. “I said the same thing to Jay. Xavier might not have ever died but he put me off saying that Xavier wasn’t breathing. I have proof now that Xavier is alive. The problem is-“

                “It isn’t enough.”

Cassidy nodded. “Exactly,”

                “We need something solid. Something like a confession of sorts that guy is really Xavier,”

“Which is impossible to get. Why don’t we just report it to the police?” Cassidy held up her hand when I frowned. “I know it’s a double edged sword. It could go both ways and end up hurting Jay-”

                An image came into my mind, an idea that would only hurt me but could possibly save Jay.

                “If I put myself in danger, we could save Jay-“

“What?” Cassidy exclaimed. “Are you out of your mind?”

                “You said Xavier was suspicious. What if his suspicion was confirmed? What if he knew that I had someone keeping an eye on him?”

                Cassidy abruptly got up from her chair. She no longer was my calm, collected lawyer.

“What would you do that?”

                I smiled. “To know his secrets, I must get close to him and in the circle of his crime mates. Because once he knows it’s me, nothing will stop him and his mates from coming after me. He’ll want to know why I’m after him. Without an answer, he won’t hurt me and I won’t give him the answer until I’ve gotten the proof we need,”

 Pacing in front of the fireplace, she fidgeted with the hem of her purple nightgown. “What if he doesn’t care why you’re after him?”

I quirked an eyebrow in surprise- Cassidy’s the smart one- she should know Jake’s nature better than me. “A clever man like him wouldn’t kill without a proper reason. Trust me, he’d want to know if he’s in a bigger mess and if we have some kind proof against him.”

Cassidy stopped pacing and stood still at the foot of the sofa. “He could torture you for answers,”

“He could,” I shrugged. “I’m willing to take the risk,”

“How will you get any sort of proof if he has you locked up in a room?”

                “I’ll be in the middle of everything and I’ll find a way out. Jake won’t obviously hide me in some run down industrial area.” I laughed at the inside joke- remembering the time Hunter had assaulted me. My smile vanished when I remembered that Hunter was dead.

                “Why?”

“He wouldn’t risk keeping me anywhere where I have the slightest chance of escaping. He’d want to keep a close eye on me,”

“This could end horribly. You could get hurt even worse you could die,”

I closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth of the fire.

Jay’s arms were wrapped around me, his breath trickling down the side of my faces- his hands trying to memorize each and every curve of my body.

“Love is more dangerous than we realize, Aulaura.” the thundering sound of the storm was tightly entwined with his voice. “Enough to kill us,”

Lighting flashed in the gray sky. Almost like a spotlight from heaven.

“Then I’m willing to die with you,”

“There has to be another way. I could get another PI-“

I cut off Cassidy’s panicked voice with a scoff. “It won’t work” A tear escaped my eye before I could stop it. “It’ll be too late by then,”

                “Okay,” She sunk into the armchair, as though it her who was going to die. “If you’re doing this then we better get it done properly.”

                Cassidy’s PI was going to slip my name in front of Jake. After that, I was equipped with a tracking devices-hooked to my arms at all times. The private investigator had given me his spy camera- it was to be worn as a brooch on the left side of my chest and could be turned on with a push of a button. A locket which was supposed to be used as an emergency signal for Cassidy to call the police hung from my neck.

                Everything was planned as carefully it could be but only time could tell us how well prepared we were.

                [Present]

                Right now, the handsome and dangerous man stood out my window. His bright azure blue eyes bore into my dull ones.     The wind was howling outside like a wolf locked in confinement. He tapped his long, slender finger on the window.  

                “Please, miss.” A vicious smirk crawled to his mouth. “Help us,”

This erratic plan of mine seemed foolish now that I was trapped with four thugs. Swallowing the fear, I rolled down the windows. The arctic air filled the warm interiors of the cars.

                I smiled. Jake rose an eyebrow. A challenge? His expression read.

“I was hoping you’d find me,”

                His smirk became wider. “Well, then we’ve come to the right place,”

“You absolutely have,”

                He slipped a hand inside the open window and unlocked the door. Even before I could blink, he injected some kind of drug into my veins. I blinked a couple of times, the world drowning around me or maybe it was me who was drowning.

                “You…didn’t… have…to do that,” I spoke in the foggy haze as my eyelids refused to stay open. “I would have come willingly,”

                “Sure, you would,” He slipped his arm under my knees, cradling my body against his chest.  I couldn’t protest. My limbs were frozen numb. He carried me out of the car. The cold outside registered as vague sensation on my skin.

 Before my mind completely gave away, I swear I saw a tear slip from his eye. Like a lullaby, the hum of his deep voice and the darkness took complete control of me.

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Note: According to the original plot, Jay was supposed to be sentenced to life imprisonment but I don’t think you guys would appreciated that. I’m trying really hard not to kill any character.Is this chapter short? I'm aiming for a longer chapter for this weekend. I want to give you, guys  one solid ten page chapter. fingers crossed.

                COME ON, GUYS, PLEASE COMMENT. I feel like a lost writer without feedback. (sad face)