Recap: Melody is Jay’s ex-girlfriend. Her husband Xavier had killed her and Jay had killed Xavier as revenge. Jake is Xavier’s brother who has been blackmailing Jay for seven years because he knows that Jay had killed Xavier. Now Aura risk her life to find out the truth. Had Jay really killed Xavier? Or had this been Jake’s and Xavier’s scheme for money?

Ch- 41 ★The Chase  

                [Aura]

Location: Unknown

A crash woke me up, rather it lifted the haze from my eyes. Water dripped from my face. I blinked a couple times. A tall shadow hovered over me. Another mouthful of water was splashed on my face. It was the final straw and everything became clear.

                The dull, grey colors and the moist, humid air hit me like a shock.

Jake towered over me. An empty bottle of water clenched in his hand. The muscles in his arms were taunt with tension. With the back of my hand, I wiped the water off my face, taking in the surrounding for the very first time.

My body was sprawled on a cold cement floor. I was in a small, empty room. The walls were grey and unadorned. Few feet away from me, there was rusty iron door. 

I gasped as Jake pulled me to a standing position. The sudden jerk of his hands taking my arms caused a ripple of pain to surge through nerves.

I nearly staggered fell back but he wound his arm around my torso. A cold metal pressed in the palm of my hands. It was my gun. My fingers felt the pocket inside my hoodie. Indeed it was empty. “Take this and run,”

“Wait, What?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “If you give the slightest shit about ya life, just fucking run,”

“This is a trap.” I gripped onto the gun tightly. It probably was empty. They must have dumped all the bullets in the drain.

“It isn’t. Just believe me.” He brought me closer to himself. “Have you heard of love at first sight?” Heat coursed through my veins, drowning my skin in red. He’s lying, Aura. He wants to know your real motive.

When I didn’t reply, he continued speaking. “I checked your phone’s contact list. Jay’s girlfriend, Huh? Ya pulled off such a brave stunt. I admire you for that. For the very first time, I’ve met some as reckless as myself,” He let me go. I quickly placed some distance between our bodies.

“Trying save that rick bloke, aren’t ya? He don’t need no saving. He’s got plenty of money and all he’s got to do is keep paying us. What’s the problem with that?”

I gripped the gun tightly, the metal grip frame pressing against the inside of my palm.

“The problem is you’ve killed the man inside of him. The guilt is killing him,”

Jake laughed, his slender fingers resting on his lanky waist. Of-course, someone who took lives on a daily basis wouldn’t understand this. “Guilt?” He spoke in between breaths. “Darling, if guilt were real, I’d be dead by now,”

I hated how switched between dialects. One minute he was talking to me like a downtown gangster, the next he was an upper class man. I understood that his thug appearance was just a façade.

I clenched the fabric of my jersey, in the hope of turning on spy camera in the bird shaped brooch.

“Just get leave before someone gets here,”

I think I had turned clicked the button.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?”

“Because you remind me of her,” He smiled, misty eyed. How can a man like him have emotions?

“Who?”

“My sister-in-law. Melody,”

“Your brother killed her.”

“It was an accident.”

I rose an eyebrow. “How do you know? The only witness was your brother and he’s dead.

“He’s an assassin. You’d think he would know how to play dead.” He smirked, his azure eyes had a dangerous spark in them.

“Are implying that he’s alive?” All suspicions were confirmed. Cassidy had been right after all. Xavier is alive and Jay had been fooled all this time.

Jake lifted a slender finger to his chin. “He can hold his breath for twenty minutes which causes his heart to slow down, almost stop. To a common man, he’s good as dead.”

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. These men were monsters. Cassidy was right, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

“But I never wanted Mel to die, she was so innocent. My brother had almost became a good man,”

“Almost?”

                Jake had a lost expression, his eyes vacantly staring at the wall behind me. “Jealousy is a wicked thing. Xavier and Melody had a fight because of your boyfriend, she lost her temper and fell from the stairs. You have to understand, darling. We never wanted her to die. She was like an angel to us,”

                “I don’t believe you,”

Jake smiled a sad smile. An icky sensation crawled beneath my skin as I felt my stomach give up on me.

                “You have her eyes,”

“She’s my half-sister,” I couldn’t believe that I was actually telling him that. Why? I don’t know. In his tainted soul, I saw purity, a kind of purity ‘good’ people failed to achieve. What was the story behind that wicked smile?

The rusty door in the corner flew open and in walked a bald, tall man. It took me a second to realize that it was Xavier. He had the same wolfish grin, bright green eyes, and misshapen nose from the photograph.

Panic crowded Jake’s handsome features. He motioned me to hide the gun and I tucked it under my red jersey.

Xavier eyed me suspiciously. “Did you find out why she sent a PI after us?”

Jake placed an elbow on Xavier’s shoulder and yawned. “Just another fan girl fallen for your brother. She saw me at Lady Aurnite’s ball,”

                Xavier didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure? The PI got a hold of our ‘business’ hub,” I knew Xavier was referring to the bar downtown. It was the place where most of their clients came to meet them but the PI hadn’t gotten a single deal they had made.

                “Pretty sure. Ask the girl,”

Xavier stared at me, his eyebrows scrunched together. “She looks familiar,”

                Jake stepped back, laughing like madman. “What? Bro, you kidding me?”

                “What?” Xavier growled.

“Don’t tell me you fancy her,”

                “I don’t,” He snapped back.

Jake folded his arms across his chest. “Then why do want to keep her. Let’s just let her go,”

                With a slight tilt of his neck, Jake indicated me to go and I did.

I started walking towards the door, my heart beating very fast. A droplet sweat trickled down my forehead. The door was few inches away from me when Xavier’s voice stopped me.

                “Wait,” He screamed. “She’s Charles Grey’s daughter. I saw her face in the magazine. Bro, we could get ton of money out of her,”

                In that moment, I understood everything. Looking between the two men standing behind me, I realized that Xavier was the rotten one. The greed was crystal clear in his eyes. On the other hand, Jake’s eyes were wide with horror. He didn’t want me to suffer and I knew why. He was the one paying the cost of his brother’s greed.  

                It was his saving grace that made me run faster than I had ever before. I bolted through the door. They had hidden me in some cargo loading site. Large, wooden crates filled the huge walled area. Dogging a couple of men in haggard, torn clothes, I raced towards the large double doors at end of the hall. Even if I make to that door, the chance of making it out of here are zero to none. Five thugs were chasing me, excluding Xavier who screaming wildly at his men to catch me.

                “Get that bitch! YOU FILTH, YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING! Get her,”

They could have dragged me to the sea port as I much as know and how in the world was I supposed to hitch a cab from isolated a sea harbor.

                There were chains hooked in the ceiling which were flung in my direction. I ducked to dodge them. Gunshots were fired but they missed me and hit wooden crates instead. A white powdery mist filled the entire hall. The wooden crates must have been filled with packets of this powder.  Lucky me, now I can easily hide in this mist.

                I brought out my gun and fired at the wooden crates, hopping it would thicken this white fog. The crate I had fired at contained beer bottles, the liquid seeped through the holes in the wooden planks. The mist was clearing now. Adrenaline rushed through my veins. My ribs ached and legs were sore. I wonder for how long I had been out.

                I reached for my locket and pressed the red gem. Hopefully Cassidy will get my emergency signal and it won’t be too late by then. A bullet whizzed past my ear, nearly missing head.

                A second later a bullet was fired into the space between my shoulder blades. I staggered, gasping and slowed down a bit. Then I looked over my shoulder, Xavier and his five thugs were only five- six feet behind me. Slowing down now means death. I forced myself to keep running.

                The closer I got to the double doors, the bigger the wooden crates got. They were about the size of a small, one story house and were arranged in a maze like pattern. There was an opening between two large crates. It was the beginning to the maze. Clever of Xavier to bring me here. There is no way I can figure the way out of this maze unless some miracle happens.  

                The path ahead of me forked into two direction. I end up taking the right path since from a distance the door looked like it was on the right side. I pressed a hand on my shoulder to prevent leaving a trail of blood.

                My breathing is hard and my fingers relentlessly grip the gun. I walk as quietly as I can. There is another opening ahead and a gigantic brown crate divided the path into four directions. I walk into the one right ahead of me.

There’s a voice behind me, I look behind myself and all color leaves my faces.  Despite having my left hand tightly pinned to my shoulder, droplets of blood had managed to stain the gray floors.

                A burly man appears behind me. He has a cleft lip and a rifle propped on his arm. “Over here!” He screamed.

                He takes aim and the click resounds in the air but the bullet never hits me. I am thrown off the course of the bullet as Sam appears and the bullets hits the crate behind her. She was wearing a tight black jumper, a silver gun looped in her hand. There is fierce expression on her face as she shoots down the man.

                The bullets hits his left leg and the burly man falls limps to the floor.

“Come on,” Sam takes my hand in hers. “We don’t have much time,”

                “How did you find me?”

She glares at me. Once we get out of here, she’s probably going to kill me for being so reckless.

“Aulaura Grey, you’re the archetype of trouble,”

                I begin laughing but my laugh is cut short as a bullet sears through my back. I felt myself gasp. The burly man hadn’t fallen after all. An overbearing amount of pain takes control of me. Sam gripes my shoulder, her eyes wide. “Are you alright?”

                “Let’s keep moving,” I bite down on my tongue until a rusty taste seeps in.  

“I should have killed him,” Sam turns around to fire at him but I stop her.

                “I don’t want you to kill anyone,”

Sam laughs, a mirthless laugh. “These hands have plenty stains, few a more won’t hurt.” With that she aims at the man’s chest, I close my eyes at the sound of flesh collapsing.

                We run through the maze. Sam had dropped bullets as an indicator for the way out. With each passing step, I felt conscious slip away. There were loud steps behind us.  I knew the men were catching up to us. I was too slow. We weren’t going to escape this.

                There was light ahead. Fresh air and bright sunlight waited for our arrival. Bang-bang and soon enough a bullet is wedged into my left thigh, I stagger on my feet. “Fuck, fuck” I groan in pain.

                Xavier is yelling at his men. “I don’t want her dead! Keep her alive.”

                I collapse onto the ground. Sam sinks to her knees next to me. The war is over. We lose, they win. The only regret I have is that I had pulled Sam down with me. She wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for me.

                Just when we’ve lost all hope, like an angel from heaven, a loud voice booms behind us. “Put your weapons down. We’ve got you surrounded.

                I look out the door where Cassidy, her PI and the entire police force stands on guard.

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                Note: The next chapter is the last one. *CRIES* I already have it half of it written so the update won’t take too long. I wrote this chapter four times. Sorry I’m really emotional right now.

Btw. . . I really messed up with the past and present tenses, didn’t I?