"Here you go, Sir," Scorpion said, handing Mark the gun with a respectful bow of his head. Mark's fingers curled around the cold metal, his jaw tightening. He stared at Jake's battered body lying on the ground. The man was barely breathing, but Mark's mind screamed for finality.This ends tonight.
If he spared him, Jake would still die from his wounds eventually. But Mark didn't want eventually. He wanted certainty. He wanted silence.Without a second thought, Mark lifted the gun, the muzzle aimed directly at Jake's chest.BANG! The shot echoed in the warehouse, a deafening punctuation to the night's violence.
Jake's body jerked, then went limp. His eyes rolled back, and his head lolled to the side. Mark's lips curled into a grim, satisfied smirk.
"It's done," he murmured.What he didn't know was that Jake's heart still beat weakly, faintly, almost imperceptibly. To any other eye, he looked dead.But he wasn't. Not yet.
"JAKE!!!"
Aurora shot up in bed, a scream ripping from her throat. Her nightgown clung to her skin, drenched in cold sweat. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her chest tightening as if someone had wrapped iron chains around her ribs.She clutched her heart, pain stabbing through her as though it were breaking apart inside her chest."No… no, no, no," she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I knew it… I knew something was wrong."
The dream still burned in her mind a vision of Jake, bloodied, calling her name.
"Jake… where are you, my love?" Her voice cracked. "Please, come back to me. You promised… you promised you wouldn't leave me. I can't…" She choked on her sobs. "I can't survive losing you." Her body trembled violently as she wept into her palms. Minutes passed before she reached for the small bottle on her nightstand, taking her pills with shaking hands. She curled into herself, the ache in her chest still raw, until exhaustion dragged her back into uneasy sleep. "Congratulations, Charles," Mark said with a cruel grin. "Finally, we killed him."
Charles smirked, the firelight glinting off his glass of whiskey. "Dispose of his body. Make it look like he vanished from his company. Oh, I can already picture the headlines. This… is going to be fun." The two men spent the night drinking, toasting to their so-called victory, the sound of their laughter mingling with the clink of glasses.But as dawn broke, a gnawing unease twisted in Charles's gut. Something didn't sit right.He slammed his empty glass on the counter and stood. "No," he muttered. "I need to see it myself." Within the hour, he was showered, dressed, and making his way to SCOTTRA, his expression grim.
Aurora awoke to the pale light of morning filtering through her curtains, a dull headache pounding behind her eyes. The first name on her lips was Jake's, but the silence that followed made her heart sink. She exhaled heavily. "What could possibly be keeping you away from me?" she murmured, pushing herself out of bed. The lingering heaviness from the night before still coiled in her stomach.I don't like this feeling. I can't ignore it.Determined, she dressed quickly and headed downstairs."Maxwell!" she called, her voice echoing through the quiet house.
From the kitchen, Maxwell appeared with a warm smile. "Hey, baby. What is it?"
Aurora hesitated, twisting her fingers together. "Have you heard from Jake? I'm… getting worried. He left last night and still hasn't come back. I tried calling, but his phone's unreachable." Maxwell's smile softened into reassurance. "Oh, sorry, Aurora. I forgot to tell you he called me yesterday. Said there was an emergency at the company. He also told me he found something that will 'change your life completely.' He didn't go into details, but he wanted me to tell you he's fine… and that he'll be home this afternoon."
Her brow furrowed. "Something that will change my life? "He sounded happy," Maxwell added.Aurora nodded slowly, though the unease in her chest didn't ease.Breakfast passed without Jake, but she couldn't keep her eyes from flicking toward the front door every few minutes.Yes… everyone noticed.
Angel and Aurora later settled in the living room with their work. Independence had always been important to them even if they didn't need to work, they loved standing on their own.
Aurora flipped through her appointments, her eyes scanning the long list of surgeries she was scheduled to perform that week. Angel was buried in her own files.But no matter how busy her hands were, her heart was somewhere else out there, with Jake.