by Laiza Millan
"Why?" Drake asked hoarsely, his voice still rough. "Why go through all the trouble over just to find if she was pregnant? We weren't even in a relationship at the time."
Jay shrugged, looking blasé. "No, but I did know that you two had history. When Melissa told me she had someone name Emma Collins as a patient, I knew she was the one who helped Drake's lawyer, causing him to have the least amount of jail time."
He walked over to Ian and lifted his hand up, caressing Aidan's head.
"Don't touch him with your filthy hand!" Emma screamed, trying to break away from Drake's hold.
Jay continued on, as if he was never interrupted. "So that time when you asked him to babysit Aidan, Richard took him over to Melissa for DNA testing; just to you know, double check if Drake matches. When they confirmed to me that Drake was the biological father of this little angel, I knew this was my chance to get back at him."
"This is bullshit!" Drake snapped, "Like I said, Emma and I were not even together! At the time, I didn't even want Aidan! In fact, I told her to get rid of him! Hell, I couldn't even look at Emma without even insulting or hurting her!"
"Oh do stop it, Drake." Jay sighed, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "We all knew that was all a façade. I knew that you were in love with Emma all those years ago, the moment you told me you were having second thoughts joining my gang."
He paused before letting out a sigh, "Don't think I don't keep track on my fellow members, Drake. I do have to keep tabs in case they decide to betray me... Like you did, unfortunately. You were in love with her and I knew that you still did; still do."
Drake shook his head, but didn't say anything back. He just looked back at Emma and gave her a tight squeeze before murmuring against her lips, "I'm so sorry."
Emma only hushed him, not letting him continue. There is no reason for him to apologize. He did what he had to do; it's only this ass in front of them that is giving them hell.
"All this trouble for a petty revenge?" Emma asked Jay in disbelief. "You must be crazy."
"I am." Jay nodded, giving her a smile. "Insane."
Emma threw him a disgusted look and gave her attention to Drake, who was looking paler every minute. "Are you okay?"
Drake raised his eyebrows and let out a scoff, "The fuck? Am I okay? Emma, I found out that my best friend and Ian were playing me this whole time, your dumb doctor turned out to be another criminal of her own, and my dead father is here. Living and breathing and-"
"Oh yeah, that was hilarious... You people thinking Oscar he was dead." Jay interrupted, overhearing them. He shoved Oscar on the shoulder and smirked. "I only told Ian that because I wanted the news to get to you. If I told Ian it was fake, it wouldn't seem authentic, would it? I needed to see your reaction."
"My reaction to what?" Drake scoffed, feeling drained.
"I wanted to see if your father means anything to you or not." Jay shrugged one shoulder, a small grin forming on his face.
"Drake," Oscar spoke for the first time. His voice demanding yet low. "You know why I -"
Jay turned his whole body to face Oscar, "You don't get to speak, old man."
Oscar only shook his head, keeping his attention back to Drake. ''Son, I'm sorry. I had to leave because of our family reputation. I know it was wrong of me but -"
"This is getting too touchy for me." Jay yawned obnoxiously.
Without any warning, he took a gun that was hidden on his back pocket and aimed it towards Oscar.
Emma screamed, edging herself to Drake's side. He immediately wrapped his arms around her, and pushed her in back of him; shielding her body with his incase Jay decided to do something stupid.
"What the hell are you doing?" Drake roared, watching as Oscar lifted his hands in surrender.
"This." Jay lowered the gun and instantly shot Oscar's right foot.
"STOP IT!" A heavy feeling punched Drake in the gut as he watched his own father scream in pain as he collapsed.
Emma let out another panic shout; burying her face against Drake's back. Her whole body shaking with fear as she silently begged for the police to come. Why aren't they here yet? Did they lose her track?
Aidan jumped at the sound, letting out a surprised cry. Ian immediately rocked the baby smoothly back and forth, covering him with the blanket.
"Shut that kid up," Jay groaned, covering his ears with one hand, while the other remained turning to Oscar.
Melissa, who was also looking as petrified as Emma, rushed to Ian and tried to pry Aidan from his arms. Ian handed Aidan with no hesitation; but kept his eyes on him.
"Baby!" Emma pushed Drake away from her and ran towards them.
"Emma, no!" Drake panicked, trying to grab her.
He's afraid that Jay might shoot her out of spite.
Emma ignored him as she neared their son. "Give him to me!"
To her surprise, Melissa actually listened and handed him over without a fight.
Once Emma felt her arms wrap around her child safely and securely, she couldn't help but burst into tears.
She placed kisses all over Aidan's face, murmuring how much she loves him. "It's okay, you're okay!"
"Emma!" Drake made a move to follow her, but Jay was now pointing his gun at him.
"Move and I'll blast you here, man." Jay smirked, "After all, I plan to kill someone tonight."
"Leave my family out of this," Drake snapped, "Let them go, Jay. This has nothing to do with them!"
"Oh it has everything to do with them." Jay scoffed, rolling his eyes.
He glanced at Melissa and nodded. Right on cue, Melissa immediately grabbed Aidan from Emma's arms.
"What are you doing?!" Emma panicked, once Melissa backed away with Aidan.
She went to pull Melissa back but stopped when she felt something heavy and cold touching her head.
"Ian, don't!" Drake could feel his heart drop the moment he saw Ian pull out a hidden gun from his pocket and aiming it on Emma. "Don't you bloody dare, Ian!"
"Well done, Ian, my man!" Jay laughed encouragingly, "You too, Melissa. Way to give her that false sense of security. Now take Aidan away, please. We wouldn't want that poor child to see such a mess."
He doesn't care that Jay was pointing a gun at him. He doesn't care that anytime Jay could just pull the trigger. Without thinking, Drake ran towards Melissa.
Bang!
A sharp pain hit his foot, causing him to trip and fall. He could hear Emma's screams and Aidan's scared cries as they muffled in his ear, yet the stinging pain in his foot was starting to dull. He glanced down at his foot and was thankful he wasn't fully hit.
"You're lucky I missed." Jay snickered, "If only by an inch."
"Leave him alone!" Emma screamed, not even caring her voice cracked with her cries. She continued thrashing when Ian wrapped an arm around her to stop her from running after Melissa. "Stop this, please!"
She was beginning to feel helpless.
She doesn't know what to do; she wants to get Aidan and punch Melissa so hard, she wants to make sure that Drake is okay, she wants to shoot Jay herself; yet she can't do all these things because the damn betrayer is holding her with a gun touching her head.
If she does anything or move in a threatening way, either Jay or Ian can just end her right here in a heartbeat.
"Aw, this is sad." Jay tilted his head to the side as he watched Emma panic. "See this is your entire fault, Drake. If only you left this lady and kid alone like you were supposed to do in the beginning, none of this would have happened."
"What do you want?" Drake growled, as he stood up. "You got me here, now what the hell do you want?"
Jay made a thoughtful face, enjoying this. "Mmm, I don't know. There are so many choices, it's difficult to choose."
He turned to Oscar and nodded, "What do you think, Papa Drake? Should I just gun down your son, or shoot you? Based on all the shit you put Drake through, I'm sure he wouldn't mind." He looked at Drake and grinned, "Am I right, or am I right?"
"You're rig
ht."
Drake and Emma turned to the side, seeing Richard walking towards them with a grin.
"Drake always told me how much he hated his own father." He reached Jay and nodded towards him, "Sorry for the delay, man. One of your customers wouldn't pay so I kind of had to force it out of him."
"Rich?" Emma whispered, not really believing this was real. "No... Please don't tell me everything he said is true."
Richard glanced at Emma and frowned, "Sorry, Em. Jay's been my buddy since ever so... yeah." He shrugged, before turning to Jay. "Anyway, what I miss?"
"You fucking asshole!"
Drake lost it.
Without thinking, he ran and threw himself at his former friend, tackling him in the process.
When he saw that Rich was groaning in pain, Drake took his chance and leaned his fist back before throwing all his weight on the punch he connected to Rich's face.
"I trusted your sorry ass!" Drake continued to shout, as he felt his fist pummeling every inch of Richard he can reach.
He could feel his own knuckles beginning to swell and bleed, but he doesn't care. His mind is clouded with anger and his face flushed with rage.
"No Drake!" The sound of Emma's cries barely reached his ears. But he ignored her as he continued to give Richard a good beating.
So this is what it feels like to be backstabbed by a friend? To feel like everything you thought about your best friend were all just lies?
Actually no.
This is quite worst than that elementary feeling. It's a different sort of pain he can't describe because it's overbearing.
He felt a hand grab his shirt from the back, roughly pulling him away. He fell to the ground with a loud grunt, but quickly stood up for he was still fueled with this heavy feeling in him. He started to turn his fury to the person who pulled him away, but was greeted with the opposite end of Jay's gun.
"Temper, temper." Jay chuckled, watching the inner turmoil in Drake. "Really ought to work on that anger of yours, man."
He helped Richard get up, and handed him a bandana handkerchief. Richard took it gratefully and began dabbing his face, wincing when he touched a sensitive spot.
"Thanks a bunch, you prick." Richard snapped, giving Drake an annoyed look.
Drake felt a small trail of something going down the side of his face, causing him to pause his comeback. He reached upward and touched his head, hissing in pain from the sensitivity. He pulled his hand away to see blood, not realizing he had hit his head when he fell to the ground.
"Brilliant" Richard snapped sarcastically, when he saw blood on his own handkerchief. "Never can take the sight of blood."
Jay laughed an amusement, "Not even from your best friend?"
Rich glanced at Drake before shaking his head, "Not even."
Jay smirked and shrugged, "Well shall we get started?"
He peered to the side and motioned Ian to bring Emma closer to them. He then did the same to Richard, only with Oscar.
Ian placed Emma a few feet away from Drake's right side, and tossed Rich an extra gun while he pulled Oscar to the left side.
All three of the members had a gun pointing at them.
Jay stared at Drake and heavily sighed, "What a melancholy image, Drake. You were supposed to be the next big thing in our town, huh? You were going to be considered to be the next leader of our group, but no. You chose a different lifestyle. Now here you are, in the middle while your loved ones are here on each side of you."
"Shut the hell up." Drake muttered, "The sound of your voice makes me want you to pull the trigger."
"Drake!" Both Emma and Oscar shouted.
However, he ignored them.
"Who should I kill first?" Jay asked both Ian and Richard.
Ian let out a laugh, while Rich merely shrugged; looking bored already.
Jay gazed at Emma's direction and smirked, "How about the beautiful lady?"
"Don't you dare." Drake hissed, when he saw Emma take a step back. "I told you, leave her alone!"
"Or what?" Jay challenged, "You aren't going to do shit."
"You're not going to shoot her." Drake continued, taking a step closer to him, "Or so help me -"
Jay moved his gun and aimed it at Emma instead, "Challenge accepted."
He pulled the trigger.
Emma dropped to the ground with a scream, clutching her head as she curled into a ball. Drake rushed to Emma's side, wrapping his arms around her as he felt his own heart being ripped by the sight of how frightened and scared she is.
"You're not hit," Drake whispered to her, as he rubbed her back to calm her shakiness. "You're not hit, you're okay."
However, Emma continued to scream.
It's a petrifying feeling when she thought that second was her last. To hear the gunshot as it was aimed towards her, literally took her breath away even though Jay didn't actually shoot her.
"I'm so sorry," Drake kept apologizing in repeat, murmuring against her ear as he placed kisses on her head and teary face. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."
No amount of forgiveness is enough to cover what he caused. He did this. He knew putting himself back into her life would bring only trouble to her and Aidan.
Now his stubbornness is paying the price.
"Oh boo freaking' hoo." Jay snapped, "You're lucky I didn't shot her."
Drake snapped to Jay and growled, "You have five seconds to get the hell away from here, Jay. You, Ian, and Richard! Get the hell out of here!"
"I don't like that attitude, Drake." Jay made a tsk-tsk sound. "Maybe if I actually do shoot her, you'll learn to keep your mouth shut."
"Jay," Oscar spoke again, his face pale and hands shaking as he put his hands up in surrender. "Just stop this, son. You don't want to do this."
"Son?" Jay glared back at him and scoffed, "Actually dad, I do."
Bang!
He shot Oscar.
"No!" Drake cried out, having to go through the same pain of watching his own father getting shot. "Jay, fucking stop this!"
Oscar looked like he was trying not to scream in torment, as he clutched his shoulder. Great, his foot and now his good shoulder?
This bastard.
"One thing I agree with my half-brother Drake, though." Jay said, his focus now on Oscar. "You were a horrible father. In fact," He aimed the gun again, "Maybe I'll be doing us both a favor and kill you now."
He was about to pull the trigger, but was stopped.
"I can't let you do that." Richard swirled around and aimed his weapon at Jay.
What the hell?
"About time!" Ian snapped, glaring at Rich as he did the same. "Waiting for the last minute!"
"What?" Rich scoffed, "I didn't know Jay was actually going to shoot somebody. Anyway," He turned to the poorly lit trail. "You lot can come out now!"
The silhouettes of Alona, Nancy, and five armed policemen came into view.
"Had to bring them here and retell the plan, that's why I took so long." Rich explained.
Emma squinted her eyes and gasped loudly, seeing Melissa with a sleeping Aidan in her arms. Melissa gave her a reassuring yet apologetic smile.
"Ian!" Poor Alona looked scared and relieved. "Thank goodness!"
"Drake!" Nancy cried out, she spotted Oscar and let out a few sobs. She turned to the police and snapped, "What are you waiting for? Get Jay!"
They ignored her, but kept their trained eyes on the target.
"Well done, men. You can put the guns down now and come over here." One of them called out.
"Are you joking?" Ian growled, "Jay is still armed. He can just shoot us if we run towards you guys."
"What the hell is this?" Jay snarled, whipping his head back and forth to see Ian and Rich turning against him.
Rich rolled his eyes and nodded to Ian, "Care to explain? I'm tired of this shit."
Keeping his gun aiming towards Jay, Rich rushed to Oscar and looked at his wounds. "I wasn't joking when I said I hate blood though."
His gun still tra
ined on Jay, he signaled for Nancy to help Oscar get up. Once Oscar reached the others, Rich began towards Emma and Drake.
"Shoot me, and Ian will shoot you." He warned Jay, noticing the twitch in his hand.
"What's going on?" Emma whispered; her voice hoarse from screaming.
Ian sighed, "We knew the whole time that Jay was after Drake. So we pretended to be members again so we can see what Jay was up to. I'm sorry we told Jay that you were the biological father, Drake. But I felt like he already knew, and was just testing to see if we were legit or not. We needed him to trust us, you see."
"So we're like double agents." Rich looked incredibly smug, and gave Ian a knowing look. He slowly helped Emma get up. "Anyway, we told Melissa about the whole DNA plan and she reluctantly agreed. She knows this is going to jeopardize her work, but she said it's worth it because of our situation. Ever since then, she wanted to stay involved."
He threw Ian a teasing look, "Couldn't let her brother-in-law have all the fun."
"But what about Nancy and Alona?" Emma asked, "What are they doing here?"
"Of course if it involves Drake, Nancy had to come." Ian suddenly grew red in the face, "Alona overheard Rich and I talk and pretty much gave me an earful. But when she found out Aidan was in trouble, she let me."
"Let you." Rich snickered, "Way to let a woman control you." He turned to Drake, who was silent the whole time. "Drake understands that, right?"
Drake stared at Rich for a few seconds. His mind was filled with questions, confusion, and relief but all that could come out of his mouth was, "Mate, your face is bruised like crazy."
Rich glared at him, but noticed the way Jay was too quiet.
"What?" Rich mocked at him, "Too scared to even speak?"
"No." Jay muttered, "Too pissed to even do anything."
"Good." Rich shrugged, "Like I said, shoot me then Ian will shoot you. So might as well stop aiming me with that small pathetic weapon of yours."
"You're right." Jay mocked back, turning his gun point to Emma instead. "I'll just shoot her."
He pulled the trigger with a bang that echoed.
But he wasn't fast enough, because Drake had already roughly pushed Emma away with his own body; feeling the bullet pierce his stomach.