It’s late at night when a loud noise startles me and wakes me up from my sleep. A powerful bang on my door jolts me from my nightmares and makes me run to the window in nothing but a pair of boxers, searching for anyone that might be in on my front porch.
Grams…
Hurrying down the stairs whilst putting some clothes on I open the door and see grams in her nightgown sobbing in front of me. Immediately taking me in her arms, I return the embrace and hold her close to my chest. ‘Grams, what is it? What’s wrong?’ I ask, fearful of her response, searching the street for anyone who might have brought her here. ‘It’s Daisy…they killed, Daisy! she cried and as I was about to ask who had done it, my grandfather came into view, with blood on his own nightwear and a shotgun in hand. ‘What happened?’ I demanded to know from him, since grams was shaking in my arms unable to even speak. ‘That lady you warned us about, she came in the night and tried to enter the house. Poor Daisy was just trying to protect us but she shot her so she could have her way.’
I squeezed grams tighter against my body and let her sob on my shirt, ‘Where is she now? How did you escape?’. Grams sobbed harder now and something told me Daisy dying wasn’t the only thing that had happened tonight. My grandfather, slightly ashamed looked at his shotgun and said, ‘I shot her from behind…’. Regretful of his actions, he added ‘She’s not dead, son. She’s in the hospital. I called John right away and we came here to make sure you were alright.’
I rushed them inside and started preparing a tea for them both, bringing them clothes in which to change so that they didn’t have to look at those bloodstains anymore. ‘I don’t understand how she got past John’s men.’ I acknowledged, doubting John had sent some inept deputies to do the job.’They were drugged, so there was nothing in her way.’ he stated but my grams was quick to add her part, ‘Except Daisy.’.
Those were the first words she’d spoken in the last twenty minutes and her face had gone from sadness and grief to somber hatred, even towards my grandfather. ‘Grams…’ I called out but wasn’t able to offer her any solace except for a long embrace. I couldn’t bring Daisy back. Hell! I couldn’t bring Mia back either. I couldn’t help anyone. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t there. After yesterday, John and Agent Thompson were sure she was going to come and find me. If I had known…’
She shook her head as tears poured down her cheeks, ‘It’s not your fault, dear. It’s not. I just hope now that you have her you can find Mia.’ she exclaimed, hopeful that at least something good would come out of this. Thor and Loki slowly approached us with caution, both looking confused at our expressions. Grams immediately crumbled to her knees, hugging them both and my grandfather followed suit, grieving their beloved Daisy alongside her soulmate and their pup. My phone began ringing in the distance and I answered believing it to be John on the other end, but I was wrongly mistaken. ‘Listen to me you son of a bitch, if my daughter dies in that shit town of yours you can say goodbye to your precious girlfriend and to everyone in your life. I will hunt you down and kill everyone you love in front of you before I end you as well.’ the male voice threatened and I interjected in the same tone, ‘Nina or whatever her name is isn’t dead but I’ll make sure to put a bullet in her heart if you don’t return Mia to me!’
His daughter’s life for Mia’s.
Scared of my words, both my grandparents turned their eyes towards me and held their breaths. ‘You think you’d make it alive to the hospital kid?’ he continued, mocking me as if I was some mediocre man incapable of doing anything bad. ‘I wouldn’t even need to move from my house to get to her and right now, I have every reason to since she tried to kill my family and took away Mia.’ I warned him of the potential consequences if I didn’t get Mia back if she was still alive. I reached the point where a life in jail would be worth it for killing at least one of these bastards.
‘And what is it that you want in exchange of you leaving her alone?’ he laughed not caring that her daughter might be dying in a hospital bed at my hands, ‘Mia. Just Mia, alive!’ I demanded.’I want what James stole from me. Mia is the key.’ he answered with decisiveness. ‘She doesn’t know anything, dammit! You’re wasting your time and your daughter’s by holding onto her.’
‘I don’t think so, Hunter. She knows more than she’s letting on.’ He sighed and made a short pause before leaving me with no leverage to bargain Mia’s life for, ‘My daughter knew the risk of this mission. She knew she might get caught and she went for it anyway…’. A sense of regret accompanied his tone and I realised he was giving up on her. ‘I heard she won’t make it through the night so Mia’s staying with me. I’ll let you say goodbye to her if you promise to let my daughter die in peace.’
As both my grandparents approached me and held me close, I put the phone on speaker and said,’Let me say goodbye to her.’ hoping we would at least get some solace and closure from potentially never seeing her again. ‘Hu…Hunter?’ her voice cracked, as did the heart inside my chest beating for her. Grams squeezed my shoulder harder as tears streamed down her face and I called out to Mia ‘Baby?’ as she sobbed inconsolably. ‘Baby, it’s me. I will find you, I promise. Don’t lose faith.’ I pledged to her despite sensing she was out of faith at this point as well as hope. ‘It’s okay if you don’t…’ she confessed, ‘I still love you.’ she added, absolving me of the only sin I had committed against her. I took her words in as a goodbye, telling her for the first and last time, ‘I love you too, baby. Always and forever.’
Note: Thank you for reading the next part of this story. I’m sensing it’s coming to an end and I’d like to thank everyone who has supported my blog whilst writing it. Your likes and comments really make me want to keep on writing! Thank you for everything. Don’t forget to like this and stay tuned for the next part.
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