"No, it's not."
"Then what the hell do you want?"
"My freedom." Her answer was swift and clear.
"You can be free with me."
"I don’t think so."
"I love you, damn it. Can't you understand that? I almost lost my mind when you disappeared the first time. Yes I admit I reacted in the worst way possible, and that my careless words put you in a worse situation, that made me realize just how much I need you, how much I love you."
"It took you a lot of time to realize that don’t you think? You left me in his hands for too much time." She yelled, furious.
"I couldn’t find you. No one would tell me where he was keeping you." He tried to explain.
"He's your friend, Jordan. How the hell do you expect me to believe that?"
"Because it's the truth."
"I don’t believe you."
He walked over to her and held her arms. "I love you."
"No, I don’t believe you. I even doubt you know the meaning of that." Her heart was being crushed in her chest, but she wasn’t going to allow him to hurt her again. And he would, she was sure. He would use her for a while, until he got tired of playing the love game, and then he would throw her away. She was not going to go through all that pain again.
He let go of her and walked a few steps away. "Is there any way I can convince you I'm telling you the truth?" he asked, his back to her. "Any chance you could learn to love me?"
"No, there isn’t." You couldn’t learn to love someone, you simply did or didn’t., And despite the fact that she did love him, she didn’t believe he loved her, not the way she wanted to be loved.
He stiffened but didn’t say anything else for a few moments.
"Very well. What do you want to do then?" he asked, in a cold tone, with no traces of the supposed love he had for her. You just had to see how quick he was giving up on her.
"I want to go home." She said, in a low voice.
"Of course. Pack all your things and leave then. We're done here." He replied, not even turning to look at her.
She bit down her lips to hold back a sob, turned around and walked to her bedroom. Once there, she took a few deep breaths to control her tears, picked up her purse and her cell phone and left. She didn’t need anything else. All of the things she had there were just part of a fantasy that had reached its end.
The pain strangling her heart in that moment, though, was too damn real, and she was even having trouble breathing without crushing into a million pieces.
She turned around and left the room, closing the door and saying goodbye to her heart.
She opened the main door and left the house. No one stopped her, and she was happy with it, or so she kept telling herself.
After she went by the main gate, she stopped, looking around, not sure of what to do. In that moment, the gate opened and Jordan's SUV came out and stopped. Jordan hopped out, dark glasses covering his eyes.
For a moment, her heart almost stopped, hope flooded her whole body, and during that precious moment, she believed. But it only lasted a moment.
"Come, I'll drive you home, it's the least I can do." He said, in a cold, polite tone.
She swallowed hard, and shook her head. "There's no need, thank you."
He walked around the car and he was almost to where she was standing, when it all happened.
Jordan looked to the other side of the road and suddenly yelled, at the same time as an explosion was heard, and he threw himself over her, sending her to the ground with him covering her body.
After that, all hell broke loose. Jordan's men came out of the house, some of them chasing someone, the sound of a car speeding out of there at high speed, and the shouts of Wilson and Garcia.
"Boss, boss…" Soon they were kneeled beside Jordan and Ashley and she still couldn’t understand what was going on, or why Jordan wasn’t moving.
"Don't move him, we need to see where he's hurt." Wilson's order was a brusque call back to reality.
"Jordan… Jordan…" she called him, trying to hear him, but to no avail, anguish settling in her heart.
"The bastard shot him, he's unconscious. The ambulance is on its way." Wilson explained, in a cold tone, but she could see just how hard he was fighting to stay in control. He had taken off his t-shirt and he was pressing the wound on Jordan's back with it, trying to determine the extent of the damage.
"No… no, this can't be happening." She cried out, pulling her face to his, desperate to feel his breath on her skin. "Jordan… you can't leave me… do you hear me?" Tears were rolling with no control down her face as she covered his face with kisses, trying to get an answer from him. "Please… I love you… don’t leave me alone."
"I thought… you didn’t love me…" Jordan's voice against her chest, was a gift from heaven.
"Oh, god, thank you, thank you." She kept saying, as she cried.
"Boss, are you alright?" Wilson immediately leaned over him.
"The bullet… went through and through… check her." He ordered, obviously in pain.
"We shouldn’t be moving you, boss…"
"I'm alright…" Ashley assured, but he didn’t listen.
"This won't kill me… help me move and check her." He insisted, and Wilson knew better than to protest. With Garcia's help, they moved him from on top of her, while Garcia held him in his arms.
Wilson turned his attention to Ashley, examining her.
"Did it hurt her?" Jordan asked, impatient.
"Just a scratch on her arm." Wilson informed.
In that moment, the ambulance arrived and soon they were both on their way to the nearest clinic. Fortunately, the bullet hadn’t touched any vital organ and the doctors only kept Jordan in the clinic for precaution. They had treated and bandaged Ashley's arm, and after that she barely had left his bedside.
One of those rare moments was when his family arrived at the clinic. She left the room, feeling she didn’t belong there, in that moment, and went to wait in the visitor's area.
Ashley took a seat on a chair, leaned her head back and allowed the tears she had been holding back.
"Hey, what's up?" Wilson was there, crouched down, in front of her, with concern in his eyes.
"Just tired." She answered, taking the tissue he was handing her.
"He's asking for you."
"What for? His family is there now." She said, trying to prepare herself to accept whatever role he had for her in his life. This evil episode was more than enough for her to understand she couldn’t live without him, that she would live, up until the last second possible, next to him. She would manage the future when it presented itself.
"Don't ask me. He just ordered me to come get you, or he would do it himself." He explained, getting up and stretching his hand towards her.
With a sigh, she allowed him to help her up and they both returned to his room.
"Ah, Ashley… come." Jordan stretched his hand towards her and held her hand pulling her close to him. "Mom, dad, Alexandra, this is Ashley Perez." He introduced her, making a pause to look her in the eyes. "The woman I will marry as soon as possible." He added, oblivious to the commotion he had conjured amongst the other people in the room, as he pulled her close to him and kissed her passionately.
"Oh, hijo, you make us so happy." Jordan's mother said, smiling and crying at the same time.
"I'm the happiest one, mom." He assured her.
Epilogue
One year later, Ashley looked at the clinic's hospital room, sure it was the same one they had used last time. But this time, she was the one lying on the bed, and though she was in pain, she wasn’t wounded.
"Are you sure you don’t want me to call the doctor, nena?" Jordan asked, the anguish in his face would be funny if she weren’t in such pain.
"The meds will start working soon, I'm sure." She insisted, as another contraction made her growl with pain.
She was only taking another breath, when another contraction attacked her. "God… yes, I
think you should call the doctor, this shouldn’t be happening this fast." She said, panting hard.
Jordan grabbed the phone and called the nurses' station. "No one's answering."
"I will go get them." Wilson said, running out of the room. Ever since that day, a year ago, Wilson had become Ashley's shadow, and she knew she would never find someone so loyal to her, apart from Jordan, of course. He too, would die for her.
But Jordan's son was as impatient as his father. He didn’t wait for anyone and ended up being born into his father's arms.
A moment so perfect, that it made everything worth it.
After all happy endings were Jordan Martinez' thing.
THE END
Jordan's Redemption: Bad Boy Mafia Dark Romance book (The Generals' Sons 2) Page 11
