by A. G. Khaliq
“Why's the action been blocked?”
“My boss must have known that I would do some digging,” I snarled bitterly, trembling with rage. “That I would try to find Donte, so he's restricted my access to the database. So we've basically come all this way for nothing.”
I broke off my sentence, seething. I was so angry in this moment, that I wanted to smash up this whole system. I was growing insane with the worry and sheer thought of something happening to Donte, and me not being able to do anything to stop it or help him.
I was so pissed off.
So damn fucking pissed off.
“Not
necessarily,”
Arturo
interjected, narrowing his eyes.
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“Why?” I mumbled.
“Pedro is a top-class hacker,”
Arturo explained. “He's good at hacking databases. After all, he's another software developer at my brother's company.
Studying Computer Science can come in real handy sometimes.”
I allowed my mind to process this for a few seconds, feeling heat roar to my ears as the nerves continued to overwhelm my body and mind.
“So you're saying that we should let Pedro in on this?” I murmured.
“I don't see any other option,”
Arturo admitted matter-of-factly. “He'll be able to infiltrate the database, to grant you access.”
If Pedro was able to do this, then 479
even I didn’t see any other option. I had to save Donte, no matter what it took, and no matter what means I had to take to achieve that. I was ready to sacrifice everything for his sake.
As long as he was safe, that was all that mattered to me.
“Okay,” I confirmed, letting out a heavy sigh. “Call him and let him know of the situation.”
“Alright,” Arturo breathed. “Don't worry, I'll warn him to be civil with you.
We don't want any bad blood between us. Our main priority here is finding Donte.”
“Of course,” I mumbled.
The next thing I knew, Arturo had his phone pressed against his ear, and he was speaking to Pedro on the other end 480
of the line, debriefing him on everything that was going on, and sending him the coordinates of my base so that he could come and make his way down.
Five hours later.
Pedro had arrived now. He made his way inside. Base was quiet today and nobody was around, so there was nobody to interject or ask any questions about who Pedro and Arturo were. We had the space and privacy that we needed.
“So let me get this straight,” Pedro began, as he joined us in the security control room. “You want me to hack this database, to grant Maya access, right?”
“Yes,” Arturo confirmed.
“Gotcha,” Pedro nodded, and then he got to work straight away.
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Sometime later
“I've got a location on Donte,” Pedro breathed, as he continued to infiltrate the system. I jolted backwards, startled, amazed at how smart and clever this man was, and how quickly he was able to work and hack the database.
“That
fast?”
Arturo
denied,
furrowing his eyebrows.
“Yes,” Pedro reassured.
“What are we waiting for then?” I cut in nervously, shrugging. “Let's go.”
Pedro let out a deep breath, his chest rising upwards and downwards.
“It's not as simple as that,” he said awkwardly.
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I found myself narrowing my eyes in confusion, not sure what he meant by this. I folded my arms uneasily, feeling the colour drain out of my face.
“If me and Arturo go, Donte might act aggressively, and say that he doesn't want to be rescued,” Pedro mumbled.
“That's how much he loved you, Maya.
He would die for you.”
I could feel my breathing hitch in my throat. I didn’t even know what to respond to this. My body felt like it was on fire, feeling consumed by guilt and hurt.
“What are you implying?” Arturo interfered exhaustedly. “I don't think it's a wise decision for Maya to go. He won't want to speak to her after what she did.”
Pedro sighed heavily. “As much as 483
I hate to say this, if Maya explains things from her point of view, he might be understanding. He might forgive her, because we all know how much of an impact she has on him and his feelings.
She’s the reason he fucking breathes.” He broke off his sentence, shaking his head.
Looking like he was about to say something to cuss me, but he closed his mouth, not wanting there to be any bad blood between us. “And he might stop acting so suicidal,” he muttered instead.
“I guess you have a point,” Arturo agreed nervously.
“But you do have to be careful, Maya,” Pedro warned. “It's not going to be pretty. Your boss is likely going to be there, and he's going to be armed. You have to remain vigilant.”
I nodded feebly, not knowing what to say. I could feel my body tense up with 484
nerves, goosebumps rising on my skin.
“But you have to do this on your own,” Pedro breathed. “If you take backup, it's gonna be a blood-bath… And we can't risk another threat to Donte's life.
I've had enough of innocent people dying from getting caught in the crossfire.”
“I understand,” I mumbled finally.
“You're Secret Service, Maya,”
Arturo added. “You've been trained to fight. Just make sure you're careful. Take in a gun for self-defence. Get Donte and get out of there.”
“I understand,” I repeated timidly.
“I have to do this. I'm forever in Donte's debt.”
They folded their arms uneasily, their eyes burning into mine. My head felt like it was about to explode, my heart 485
constantly feeling like it was being ripped out of my chest.
After what I did…
I would do anything to protect Donte.
Even if it meant that I died at the scene.
Even if it meant that I would have to sacrifice my own life, just so that he could get away and live his.
I had to do this.
After all of the pain and heartbreak I'd put him through...
I had to show him how sorry I really was.
I had to make him see how much I 486
loved him.
That I was willing to die for him, too.
That I was willing to make sacrifices for him, too…
It was a suicide mission, going in there. My boss probably had bodyguards.
But Arturo and Pedro were right.
I couldn't let any more innocent lives die at my own hands, especially after I had been unable to solve all of the mass murders and who was really behind them.
All of the people I’d seen getting hurt…
Yet I did nothing to help them.
487
I had to make things right.
I had to.
I had to do this on my own.
I had to prove to Donte that what we had was real.
I didn't want to live a life without him…
So I would die for his sake.
He had so much left to live for, so much left to achieve.
I couldn’t rob him of that.
At least I would be up with my Mama up in heaven...
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My Mama who died at the mercy of my boss.
489
50
maya
I arrived at the place where the security cameras suggested was Donte’s location.
The place looked so damn shady… But I knew I had to do this. As I walked through the grass, I’d been saying prayers the whole time. Prayers to God, to let me die a peaceful death, to let Donte live a happy life, and move on without me.
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I searched every room inside of the abandoned building, from the dusty cabinets to the worn-out offices. It
was in the middle of fucking nowhere.
I made my way through the different rooms in the place, but I couldn’t see Donte or my boss anywhere.
This place was a fucking tip. It looked like nobody had set foot in it for years.
And then I walked into the final area inside the place.
A deserted corridor.
And I felt my heart leap to my throat in terror…
Because I saw something terrible.
Something I didn’t expect to fucking see.
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Donte had been handcuffed to the wall, bruised and beaten and bloody. He was naked, with just boxers to cover him.
He’d been completely violated and stripped of his dignity. He’d been tortured… And tears were streaming down his face.
Tears caused by me.
I bolted up to him, sobbing. Unable to hold back my emotions. Feeling completely and utterly broken.
As soon as he saw me, he looked like somebody had just walked over his grave. He looked so empty and hollow, that it was impossible to read him. He looked tired, exhausted, defeated.
He looked like a dead man walking.
“I’m so sorry…” I wept. “I’m so 492
fucking sorry, Donte.”
“Why are you here?” he breathed.
“Please don’t make this any harder than it already is. You played me.” He broke off his sentence, trembling. “You fucking played me.”
“I love you, baby,” I pleaded.
“Everything we had was real. When I was sent on the mission, falling in love with you wasn’t part of the plan. That’s why I tried so hard to stay away from you. I kept cutting you off, to avoid you getting hurt. Because I knew that this would happen when the truth came out.”
Donte couldn’t speak. He looked so torn, it was like his soul had been ripped out of his body and battered to shreds.
“I saw you for who you really were, Donte,” I whispered. “I knew it wasn’t you behind the murders. I did all I could 493
to prove your innocence, to gather evidence to find out the real culprit, but my boss stole it all from my room. He broke in, and he trashed my room.
“I love you with all my heart, baby… You’ve gotta believe me. I would die for you. If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t be here fighting for you right now. Here to get you out of this place.”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore,
Sapphire…”
Donte
murmured, his voice dropping to barely below a whisper. “I know your name is Maya, but you’ll always be Sapphire to me…”
I broke into fresh tears, my heart feeling like it was splitting apart. Like I was about to explode.
I couldn’t breathe.
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Seeing him like this…
It was pushing me to fucking breaking point.
“I love you too, Sapphire,” he mourned. “I love you so fucking much. It feels like my heart has been ripped out of my chest. Like I’m in a nightmare and I can’t wake up. I don’t know if we can move past from this. I can’t live without you, either…
“But I can’t forget what you did. I can’t erase it from my memory.
“I gave you so many chances to come clean. I told you all about me, all about my involvement in the Mafia.
Maybe if you’d told me earlier, we could have moved past this. But now, I’m not so sure.”
He trailed off his sentence, 495
clutching his chest in agony. Looking completely empty and numb.
“Please, baby,” I pleaded. “I can’t live without you. I would rather die than live a life without you.”
“I would rather die than live a life without you, too…” Donte sighed, his heart hammering against his chest into a frenzy. “Despite everything, I still love you so fucking much. But the truth coming out just keeps playing itself over and over in my damn head. It’s torturing me. The signs were there from the beginning… Signs that you were hiding things from me. But I was just too blinded by love to take notice.”
“Everything I did…” I sobbed. “I did it for you, Donte. I hate the circumstances in which we met… But if I’d
never
came
to
Manhattan
undercover, I never would have met you.
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And I can’t imagine a life without you in it.
“Everything else that I told you about myself is true. Fibonacci, and all that shit. I’m willing to tell you the truth about everything else.
“The only difference is that I studied Criminal Law at university, not Computer Science. And after I ran away from Fibonacci…
“I started fighting in underground fights. Illegally. Because of how much abuse I’d endured, it was like my outlet for my anger. And I met my boss there.
He offered me a job in the Secret Service from then…
“I met Brett at the Service. It was a relationship of convenience… I didn’t love him. I broke up with him before moving to Manhattan for the mission.
497
And that stuff about my mother being dead…
“My boss killed her.”
“He did what?!” Donte roared.
“He killed her because I wasn’t paying attention to the mission,” I wept.
“He’d been tracking me the whole time, and found out that I was actually trying to protect you from him, and prove your innocence. And he was so fucking mad…
“He told me he specifically wanted you behind bars. But I was so fucking mad at him for killing my mother. I stopped investigating. And that was the day that I started pursuing a relationship with you.
“Because I’d wanted you for so damn long, and I’d been keeping myself away from you for the sake of the 498
mission, but after what my Boss fucking did, I didn’t care about the mission anymore. I just wanted you. I wanted to be happy, after losing the only family that I had left. And you made me so damn happy. You made me feel so good about myself. You made me feel on top of the world. I love you so damn much, Donte.
I swear to you… I swear to you, it was all real.
“You have to understand it from my point of view. You have to understand why I did what I did.”
Tears fell out of Donte’s eyes as he stared at me, letting his walls break down. Letting his naked, raw emotions out on the surface.
I put my hands on Donte’s chest gently, sobbing against him. Soaking him with my tears. Tears continued to slide down his own cheeks. I traced the scars 499
on his chest, which were weeping with blood.
“I’m so sorry he hurt you, baby…”
I breathed, feeling my heart shatter into millions of tiny pieces. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”
I left a soft kiss on his scar, and broke into fresh tears. I knew he wanted to reciprocate. I could feel his walls breaking down again, his heart thumping against his chest as I touched him. I knew he could never hate me.
But he was handcuffed to the wall.
He could barely move.
“It’s gonna take more than a few punches to hurt me,” Donte murmured.
“It was the pain of the thought of losing you, having to live a life without you, that was really hurting me…
500
“I love you, Sapphire. I can’t live without you. I can see you love me too. I understand why you did what you did…”
I broke into fresh tears at his words.
Even after what I did, he was so forgiving and understanding. I looked up at his face, all bruised and bloody. And I couldn’t stop my tears from falling.
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his mouth. I softly cupped his face with my hands, rubbing the bruises gently, and I started crying again. Knowing how much pain I’d fucking inflicted upon him. He kissed me back softly, tears sliding down his own cheeks. I could feel my heart break into millions of pieces.
“I love you, baby…” Donte mourned. “But I can’t let you get hurt.
&n
bsp; You’re putting yourself in danger by being here. Please get out of here… Let me die on my own.”
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“Never!” I shouted. “I’ll never fucking leave you! If anybody’s dying today, it’s me!”
“It wasn’t a request, Sapphire,”
Donte sneered. “It was a demand.” He trailed off his sentence, shaking his head.
“You’re too late. I’m handcuffed to the wall… You can’t get me out of this. At least I’ll die in peace, knowing that what we had was real.
“Please, get the fuck out of here!
He’ll be back soon, and he’ll fucking kill you!”
And then I felt my heart leap to my throat in terror, as I heard the cocking of a gun behind me. The movement of a body. The loading of bullets. I slowly turned around, my heart thumping at two-hundred miles per hour, knowing that I wasn’t ready for what I was about 502
to see.
“Well, well, well,” Boss snarled in a low tone. “What do we have here?”
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51
maya
I let out a blood-curdling scream, boiling with rage. Wanting to kill this bastard.
Wanting to make him beg for his life.
Wanting to make him suffocate.
504
To torture him.
To rip his eyeballs out.
To sever his balls.
To torch him and leave him to fucking burn.
This bastard…
This fucking bastard…
“Why are you fucking doing this, Philip?” I roared. “What have you got against Donte?”
He cracked up with manic
laughter, relentlessly, and he wouldn’t stop.
“Well, seeing as you're both dying tonight, I might as well tell you,” he sneered. “I planned this whole thing 505
from the fucking start, Maya. There's a reason why I sent you on the mission and not Brett. Because I knew only a pretty woman would be able to get inside Donte’s pretty little head.”
“You better start making some sense, you filthy bastard!” I screamed bloody murder.
