“It would hurt a lot lesser if you had feminine hands and not the rough one you’re tugging at the needle with”, Jake grumbled.
Yet, for reasons which would continue to baffle Jake, Sean was silent as he nipped the excess thread from the wound and walked away to plant himself in the leather couch just opposite of where Jake was. They shared the silence for a while, each trying to wrap their minds on the events of the previous night. It was a wild one without doubt and they needed answers.
“Where are we?” Jake finally spoke and asked.
Sean shrugged and kept mute, staring blankly at the door as if he expected someone to walk right in. Jake took the moment to look around. He had been in the house before and it didn’t take long for him to realize where he was and that it was Susan Stein’s house. Odd and equally disturbing, Jake wondered why the man had brought them over there. It definitely wouldn’t bring him good memories but he figured there had to be a reason.
“I am my own poison… my own architect of pain and misery”, Sean said with his head bowed and his eyes fixated on the ground.
Seemingly distraught while staring at a picture in his hand, he looked over to Jake and barely said a word or hold any expression in his face other than one of grief and regrets.
“What are you talking about?” Jake asked in a tender tone.
Sean held up the picture in his hand and revealed Susan’s face beaming wildly in it. “We took this on the first day we met… we were undercover on this major terrorist cell bust which would go on to boom our careers but also bring us an enemy I never assumed would still rear its head”.
Jake struggled with the gag around his wrists and finally got free of them before flexing the joints gently and taking a good breath of dusty air. Sean soon got up from where he sat and walked to the window while tucking the photo into his back pocket. He spent the next few seconds staring out the window before turning around to look at Jake.
“I don’t still trust that you didn’t kill Susan but… “, Sean paused.
Jake tilted his head to the side, almost as though he is in demand for further explanation. “What exactly is going on? What happened last night over at Sarah Connell’s house?”
Sean remained mute and unresponsive. He clenched his fists nervously and rubbed his temple as he passed out audible sighs indicating how stressed he was intermittently. Jake needed answers but couldn’t piece through anything other than the fact that the man somehow knew Sarah and they had a history of some sorts.
“The woman you know as Sarah is actually Angelina Hammon”, Sean finally began. “She is the daughter to the current Director of Operations for the CIA and a former formidable Agent so revered she was on course to become the finest ever produced”.
Jake winced and slowly got up from his seat. He limped over to the window and got within few feet to Sean who had streams of tears waddling down his cheeks as he tried to summon courage to continue with his explanation on the cause of events.
“What happened to Sarah… sorry, Angelina?” Jake asked
Sean paused and bore what appeared to be some show of guilt on his face. He rubbed his chin and turned back around to let out a disturbing laugh with his arms in the air and his face looking into the ceiling. He was stalling for some reason and Jake could see this.
“What did you do?” Jake demanded to know. “I need you to tell me everything you know about this woman because she has gone out of her way to frame me for a murder I did not commit!”
Sean turned around with a thick frown immediately, “But you did commit the others! You killed all those prostitutes! What kind of depraved psycho are you!?”
Jake wasn’t going to allow a man who couldn’t even own up to his mistakes lecture him on morality. Clenching his fist into a ball, he swung hard and connected just as intended with Sean’s face, sending him sprawling backwards. Sean wiped off the blood seeping out from the tiny cut where the punch had connected before shaking his head.
“I have no business with you now that I’m sure you might not have killed Susan, but don’t tempt me or I might break your fucking legs!”
Jake called his bluff by mocking him with a laugh. Turning his back to the window and staring at Sean in hopes he would some way get to explain what exactly was going on, Jake stood akimbo and waved for the man to continue his story but Sean seemed to hold some degree of fright in his eyes.
“Get down!” he yelled, lunging towards Jake and managing to pull him to the ground immediately.
Jake had barely struck the pavement when the RPG struck the window and came rushing through the living room before hammering hard into the opposite wall and exploding. Fumes filled the air immediately and both men felt their hearing go numb. Sean rolled on his back and coughed aloud while he couldn’t hear Jake moving or groaning in pain as he ought to.
“Jake!” he called out through the smoke-filled air and chaos.
Jake took a moment to respond but he finally did with a loud cough and sudden gasp for air.
“Get up Jake!” Sean commanded. “Get up now!”
Jake struggled to gain his orientation as he coughed some more and tried to get enough air into his lungs but ended up swallowing more smoke from the explosion. His brain still had not wrapped itself around the fact they were being hunted. He had seen nobody yet but Sean wasn’t in the mood to remain on the ground while whoever was after them would come finish them off.
“We cannot remain here”, Sean said again before managing to connect his hand with Jake and slowly help him to his feet.
Jake nodded, as it was all he could do, while his wound felt like a thousand needle had been prodded inside it. The pain became even more unbearable with each limp before someone kicked the barely standing door and made their way in.
“Bitch!” Sean sounded in angry tone.
Jake turned slowly to look through the smoke which still did enough to obstruct his vision. “Who is it?”
Sean gave no response but dashed ahead and disappeared through the cloud of smoke. Jake limped closer, struggling to make good strides before hearing the groans and sounds indicating a fight had commenced. It didn’t take long, through the clearing smoke, for him to see Sarah otherwise known as Angelina in duel with Sean.
Abnormally fast and with stunning reflexes, she was making a fool of the man whose age obviously had dulled his moves, while his bulky frame also meant he was no match for her guile unless he got close enough to hurt her. Sarah kept him at arm’s length, effectively using her legs to hammer on her assault with some few punches intertwined.
“Jake run!” Sean ordered, before hurrying ahead and ramming his weight into Sarah the best way he could.
She flipped to her side, ran against the wall behind her without looking at it, and flipped over Sean, causing him to crash his head into the brick as she landed just a few feet from Jake. Knowing he was no match for her as evident by what he had just seen her do to Sean, Jake had a choice but he had the feeling he wasn’t about being granted the opportunity to make it.
“I want you to believe me when I tell you that I bear no hard feeling towards you”, Sarah said casually and almost believably had she not jammed her foot into his stomach immediately.
Sending Jake flying backwards and tumbling over the center table, he struggled to get on his knee but felt his wound rip apart its stitches and cause him to begin bleeding again.
Infuriated and groaning as he got to his feet, Jake spoke, ‘It is bad enough having you mess with my house and my life, but I’ve got news for you girl… I dance quiet well too”.
Ripping the arm of his shirt and tying it over his wound to apply pressure on it and avoid it from getting worse, Jake held up his fist and limped around the floor gently to secure himself a good striking spot.
“This doesn’t even concern you”, Sarah said while wearing a frown. ‘This is between him, his dead wife and me!”
Definitely not concerned as he braced himself for her incomin
g assault, Jake replied, “You made it mine the moment you breached my house and fucking messed with my life!”
They were at an impasse and there was definitely no going back. Arms ready and weighing his punches quite well for an attack, Sarah came right at him as he had expected but she wasn’t expecting the wounded man to move as swiftly as he would; finding an opened spot just on her left, he jammed his fist into it and watched her squirm in pain before hurrying backwards.
Looking red in face and unable to believe she had opened herself up to him, Sarah raced through the smoke still somewhat thick on Jake’s left, before dealing a surprise and ultimately blind kick through it that sent him off balance and toppling backwards over the couch.
“I will let nobody mess with my revenge!” she yelled. “Not even you darling… this is bigger than you can imagine and there is no chance in… “, she paused.
Sean held a knife in his hand with the tip bloodied. “You talk too much… I always hated it”.
Jake hurried to his side and without a word shared in between them, they headed for the door, leaving Sarah wincing in pain as she slumped into the couch and slipped her hand into her pocket to retrieve her cellphone.
“Darling… it is time for phase two”, she simply said before tossing the phone to the side and gasping out loud. “They got away”.
She would catch them… she would hunt them down to the ends of the earth if she had to.
***
“Why am I the one doing the driving?” Jake asked, feeling his wounds oozing out so much blood he didn’t have any doubt about the possibility of fainting.
Sean hammered his fist into the stolen getaway car’s dashboard and fumed in exhaustion. “That bitch! She had this planned the entire time… she killed Susan!”
For some reason, Jake felt relieved the man by his side wasn’t accusing him of killing his wife any longer. The relieving feeling drenching through his veins overwhelmed him, making Jake momentarily oblivious to the police cars that had suddenly pulled out from a street they drove past and had begun chasing them.
“That cannot be right!” Jake thought out loud.
Looking back and shaking his head, Sean mumbled, “I have a pretty bad feeling about this”.
Jake floored the gas and drove through a mall, shattering the large wall glass and managing to maneuver through the packed crowd as all hell broke loose.
“We can lose them in here”, he said aloud while Sean didn’t seem to care about however way he did things as far as he got them to safety.
The adrenalin rush was immeasurable and his senses heightened to every possible route he could make his escape through.
“I hope you have a place in mind rather than endless driving through the streets that is bound to get us caught once the fuel goes low in the car”, Sean warned.
Jake had the perfect place in mind and nodded gently but said nothing about where he intended to go.
“Shit!” he cried upon seeing the chopper tiling their movements from the sky.
Things were definitely about getting heated and his wits alone might just be what would save them. But first, they needed to find a way to ditch the bird up in the sky and also get a new car not marked by the cops on their tail already. Jake swerved dangerously left and headed for a large parking lot with overhead covering.
He would hitch a new ride there with Sean and hopefully sneak off without their pursuers getting to find them.
***
Frantically pacing around the room while he ran his fingers through his hair for the umpteenth time, Jake limped and coughed gently before leaning against the wall and taking a moment to think. Sean seemed preoccupied with the view outside the window as he watched to see if the heat had cooled off on them.
It had taken what he could call a miracle for Jake to make their escape come into fruition but he still couldn’t shake off the feeling of being on the defensive and almost like the mouse in the situation.
“To think I actually thought she liked me”, Jake sounded infuriated.
Sean chuckled, rather derisively and also pretty much in an annoying manner. “Trust me, when we were dating, she was the craziest girl I had ever met in my life”.
The information made Jake turn around with widened and inquisitive eyes. He motioned towards Sean but stopped and shook his head with his hands slowly coming to rest atop his waist.
“You dated Sarah!?” he eventually yelled.
Sean shook his head and waved his arms, “Angelina… I dated Angelina”.
“Whatever!” Jake cut him short. “You dated her and you didn’t feel I should know about all of this while she was trying to kill us?”
Sean looked out the window once again before turning around. His look bore a judgmental appearance to it, from the raised eyes brow to his lips trembling as though they were about bursting into laughter in a mocking way.
“Dude, I just got to know you and I probably might never had if I didn’t feel you killed my wife”, Sean replied. “More so, you don’t see me asking you why you are a serial killer… something which still chills my nerves till this very moment as to how and why you even do it”.
Jake felt decapitated in every sense of his moral standing. His words fell silent and his face numb with no expression as he watched Sean wait for him to say something.
“At times I think about it… I read the reports and how cynical you can be or were with your victims and here I am standing with the devil in clothing”, Sean continued. “So tell me… why? Why do you kill and how are you able to cope with yourself living the double life?”
Nobody had ever asked Jake such a question before and nobody definitely knew anything about him being a serial killer until the bodies were discovered. Silent but ridden with some sense of violation rather than guilt, Jake walked to the bed and slowly found his sit on it with his hands placed on his head and his face looking to the ground.
“You would have made a hell of a CIA spy… living the double life, having people see you as one thing when you’re something else in the shadows”, Sean seemed to be having fun. “I will kill to have you work for me but even while I’m fascinated, some part of me still worries about you”.
The latter words prompted Jake to look back up. He could tell the man before him had begun to judge him and he wasn’t going to stand for it, considering Sean’s occupation must have meant he would take decisions and actions even while they may be considered inhumane.
“Why don’t you turn me in then?” Jake asked, staring blankly at the man.
Sean remained silent before walking over to the window again upon hearing car sirens blaring around as they drove past the hotel. He walked over to the television and turned it on before finding a good sitting spot just by the window and staring at the emergency news hour being broadcasted.
“I had a feeling that bitch was going to do this”, Sean sighed.
Unsure of what he was looking at other than ordinary news being aired, Jakes asked, “What?”
Sean placed a finger to his lips and pointed in the direction of the television which had clear pictures of Jake being splashed across the screen. He had been tagged a wanted man in America for the killings of eleven women in cold blood and in what the reporter termed a psychopathic act of a man who simply got the entire world fooled about who he truly was.
“It must be fun watching yourself being likened to Ted Brundy isn’t it?” Sean joked.
As much as he would have love to get himself fascinated by Ted Brundy’s comparisons, Jake felt he was more than just a dreadful and unsophisticated killer. He saw his work as art and one that could not be duplicated but he wouldn’t tell that to Sean. He knew the man wouldn’t come to understand.
“They have it!” Jake gasped and blinked endlessly.
On display was his trophy box being showed to the public to reiterate just how dangerous he was and why they need to call in with any information they might have on his whereabouts.
> “Fifty thousand dollars!” Sean chuckled at the bounty being placed on Jake’s head before casting the man a rather bothersome look.
Jake frowned and warned, “I am worth more than that so don’t even think about cashing me in for such paltry sum”.
Sean had other ideas in mind while he continued to stare into the television screen.
“We will wait it out here until night time when I’ll go hunting that bitch!’ Jake mumbled.
Sean could tell they were walking on dangerous ropes and the man before him might still bear dark sides to him which he had not unleashed yet. His M.O was simply prostitutes but serial killers nap and end up veering towards another path at times.
“I have a plan”, Sean got up and said. “But you might not like it”.
Staring out the window and sighing before turning around to the sight of a fast and incoming blow that struck him hard and sent him falling to the ground. His vision darkened and light disappeared as he passed out unconscious.
“This might be the only way”, Sean leaned over and began dragging him towards the bed.
He searched Jake’s pocket for a cellphone and smiled to himself while he looked over to the television.
Chapter Fifteen
S
arah trotted around the station while chaos and pandemonium existed. Police officers hurried around like ants marching in search for sugar, while others simply followed up on leads about the man they had placed on the public’s enemy number one list but she had other ideas in mind and at least the confidence that she would get to them before anyone else would.
Mike Rondon hurried down the hallway and slipped into the elevator just as it threatened to close. Out of breath and barely able to keep himself standing, he waited for the doors to slam shut behind him before leaning over towards Sarah and trying to kiss her.
With a finger held high and pressed against his lips, she refused. “We have important work at hand right now and I cannot risk having it get jeopardized because we aren’t on out A game”.
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