“Enjoy this Willow,” Manchez grins, raising his gun. “He’s about to be splattered all over his own windshield.”
“I copied the information!” I cry, thinking quickly. “His members have it. If you kill him, they’ll just use it. You’re wasting your time.”
Manchez lowers the gun and spins around, gripping me by the hair and hauling me off the ground, pulling me close to his face. “What did you say?”
“I didn’t stutter,” I gasp.
He spins me around and wraps an arm around my throat, pressing the gun to my temple. Jagger’s car comes to a stop and when he gets out with Ace by his side, his face is ashen, and his eyes fall to me.
“Ah Jagger, just in time to see the show,” Manchez grins.
“Let her go,” he growls, confusion washing over his face, and I see the moment he realizes that he has been played.
“She just broke the news to me, you’re smarter than I thought.”
Jagger’s eyes move to mine, and I plead with him to play along.
“She said you have a copy of the information and I’m going to need that back.”
“You let her go or you’ll get nothing.”
Jagger takes a step forward.
Manchez tightens his arm around my throat, and I struggle to breathe.
“One more step, Jagger, and she’s dead.”
“Let her go,” Jagger growls, his voice tight.
“Where is my information?” Manchez roars.
He squeezes so tightly my vision goes blurry, and then I hear the sound of a gun being fired. Suddenly, I’m on the floor and Manchez is beside me, half his face blown off, bits of blood covering my face. I retch and struggle to breathe as gun shots ring out al around me. I’m fighting against passing out and trying to get up. I manage to clear my vision just in time to see Angel, gun pointed at one of Manchez’ men. He pulls the trigger, and the man falls to the ground.
The gunshots stop.
Then I hear Ace’s pained voice.
“Jagger?”
I push to my feet and look over to see Jagger on the ground, his stomach bleeding. I rush over with shaky legs, dropping to the ground beside him.
“Jagger!” I yell, gripping his shoulders.
His eyes are closed and there’s so much blood.
“Jagger!” I scream.
Angel leans down and checks his pulse. “He’s still alive. We have to get him to a hospital, now.”
“Jagger,” I croak, shaking him. “Please wake up.”
“Willow,” Ace urges. “We have to go. The cops will be here any minute.”
I turn and stare at the dead bodies lying around on the ground. Then I see my father, he’s lying about two meters away, right near Manchez’ dead body. I force myself to my feet again and walk over. He’s bleeding from the mouth and his body is jerking. The gurgled sounds coming from his mouth is enough to have my entire body shutting down.
“Dad,” I say, putting my hand on his face.
His eyes are fluttering, and they crack open, just a touch.
“Willow,” he croaks.
“Dad, it’s okay. It’ll be okay.”
“I’m sorry.”
He gasps and then begins choking, blood pouring from his mouth.
“Dad!” I cry, taking his shoulders.
But it’s too late.
He gasps again and then his breathing becomes shallow, the air slowly trickling away.
“Willow, we have to go,” Ace urges.
“I can’t leave him here,” I yell, slapping my father lightly.
“He’s going to die. He’ll never make it. We have to go, or Jagger will die. The choice is yours.”
The choice is mine.
I stare down at the man who brought me into this world, and the man who betrayed me in a way I’ll never recover from.
“I’m sorry,” I say as I lean down, kissing his cheek.
His body stops twitching.
The gasping fades away into silence.
There are no more sounds.
I know he’s gone.
Ace pulls me to my feet as a pain I didn’t think I’d feel crushes at my chest. Angel lifts Jagger, then we rush back to the truck and get in. I sit on the back seat, Jagger’s head in my lap. His breathing is labored and he’s as pale as a ghost. My tears fall onto his cheeks as I send a prayer up to the heavens.
“Please, don’t you leave me. Jagger, please.”
JAGGER IS WHISKED AWAY as soon as we get into emergency. I’m taken to a room and put into a bed to get checked over. It turns out I have two broken ribs, and they want to run some scans to make sure I haven’t punctured anything. I lay in the bed, numb and staring out the window. I think about my father, and all of the things I wish I could have said but didn’t get a chance to. He’s gone this time, really gone, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
I hear voices soon after, and Jenny rushes into the room closely followed by Ava. I don’t meet their gazes, I just stare blankly back down at my hands. They both crawl onto my bed, neither of them saying anything. They just hold onto me and when they do, the sobs break free, releasing all my emotions. When I finally fall into an exhausted sleep, they remain beside me. Like they always are.