Chapter 131
Damien
Another tomorrow
Play - Somewhere Only We Know by Rhianne
My heart is telling me that something is wrong. Before I even kill the engine I feel it. I leave it parked there, grab my gun and move toward the door of the house with it in my hand.
There’s blood on the floor. Thin, streaking across the entrance and disappearing down the hallway.
I follow it, and it leads toward one of the rooms at the back of the house and before I can reach it, I see someone lying on the floor. Ethan.
Blood covers the side of his head. But blood covers most of this fucking room.
I cross the place in two strides and grab him by the collar, hauling him upright.
“Where is she, Bennett?”
He looks at me, confused, as if he just woke up from being unconscious for minutes.
“Where the fuck is Mireya?” I repeat again.
“I–I don’t know.”
I slap him across the face to wake him up even more. “Don’t make me repeat myself. Where is my Mireya?”
He doesn’t reply, so I drag him to his feet. “Nothing? Then you’re going to help me find her.”
I keep him in front of me as I move through the house, my gun raised, checking every room, every doorway, every fucking corner. Until I reach a corridor where a man stands at the end of it.
He turns toward me, Ethan freezes in my hand and I immediately understand.
“That’s your father?” I ask.
He doesn’t reply, but the man there smiles. “Aren’t you—”
A gunshot tears through the walls, and he drops immediately.
Ethan’s face has gone white. Killing him didn’t bring me any satisfaction. The man I’ve been hunting for years. The man who haunted me. He’s lying on the floor, a hole in his head and I don’t care.
“I–I didn’t know he would do this…” The bastard’s finally speaking now.
“Where did she go?” I ask.
He shakes his head, squeezing his eyes as if the wound there was too painful. So I put pressure on it with the gun. “Talk.”
“She…she was bleeding and walked out.”
“You son of a bitch knew and didn’t do anything,” I spit out. “She fucking trusted you and you let that happen.” I shove him aside thinking of nothing for a second before burying a bullet deep into his skull. “I never liked you.”
Then I turn back to the entrance. The blood is everywhere. I follow the train outside, walking fast, looking around if she’s hiding somewhere, if she escaped and is waiting for someone to pick her up.
But the trails become faint against the ground.
I can hear the ocean. My heart is fucking pounding so hard against my chest I can barely breathe.
“Mireya!” I yell, hoping she’ll hear me and run to my arms. That’s what’s supposed to happen.
Nothing.
I keep following any dark stain on the ground until I see her.
She’s standing near the edge, disheveled, exhausted, long lines of blood across her wrists and on her chest beneath her ruined clothes. My shirt. She had my shirt on this morning.
“Mireya…”
She turns around, her eyes find mine and I can’t move.
A little paper star rests in her palm and I want to throw it with her, to make her hope more.
I take one step toward her and whisper, “Come here, baby.”
She shakes her head softly before replying in the lowest voice ever, “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” I say carefully, taking another step forward.
“No, Damien..” Her voice is too low. “I really can’t.”
Don’t do this to me…Please.
Her voice comes out smaller when she talks again, “Do you love being here with me, Damien?” No. No. No. “Can you take me to see the stars again?”
“I can, I promise,” I say, voice tired. “Look at me, Reya. Do you have the lighter on you?”
A tired smile touches her mouth. “Damien, I’m seeing it already, the cliff.” Her eyes fall to the ocean, then back at me. Sad, empty, beautiful, the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. “I can’t come back anymore.”
“You don’t have to come back to everything,” I whisper. “Just come back to me.
Her lips tremble, her head lifts up as much as she can to the sky. “I wanted a tomorrow with you.”
“You still have one.” Another step closer. And I can see fresh scars on her soft skin. Tears dried up on her cheeks.
She opens her hand, holding out the little star turned red now. “I saved this for you.”
I’m so close. I can reach her. One more step, just one more–
“Come with me, we’ll talk elsewhere, please,” I beg.
“I will find you at the same place, okay?” She lets it fall into my palm and adds softly, “I love you…”
“Mireya.”
One step. Her eyes never leave mine. My hands close around nothing, only the paper star remains on my palm.