Cookie

49

"Missed me, pumpkin?" he asks in that voice that used to make me feel safe and protected, but now only makes my blood run cold.

"Liam..." I start to say stupidly pointing to him, like Jasper would need an explanation like he wasn't the one to pull the trigger, incapable of putting two and two together at first or maybe simply not wanting to admit that he just shot him. 

"You're a murderer!" Tiffany says crying and screaming, her voice sounding so desperate that it scares me even more. "You killed Liam! You killed him, you bastard!" 

And even if I am crying, even if I just stopped screaming, even if my heart shattered moments ago, that's when it really hits my brain "Liam was shot..." I say stupidly kneeling next to him, taking his hand in mine and trying not to shiver when I realized how cold his hands were, how empty his eyes looked, and how uneven his breath was. 

"Baby" Liam starts but stops, more blood coming off his mouth. 

"Shh, don't talk, it's gone be okay, you're gone be okay" taking my eyes off him I turn to look at Jasper. "Call an ambulance. Now!" I say yelling at him. 

"Why would I do that when I just want him to die already and get the fuck out of our lives." 

"Monster!" Tiffany says and despite the fact she's covered in bruises and blood she still has the courage to defy him, even with a gun pointed at her. She kneels on the other side of Liam, taking his other hand and squeezing it. "Hold on, big guy, we're going to get help, ok?"

Liam turns to face her just a second, before his eyes turn back to me, a tear falling down his cheek. "I'm sorry," he says his fingers folding over mines, his skin colder than ever. "I'm sorry we didn't have more time..." more blood in his mouth, more blood on the carpet. "...but I... I love you, Nataly!" 

Tears fall down my cheeks and the realization of his words awakes my brain somehow, it makes me understand the situation we are in, how much need of medical assistance Liam has, and that Jasper has another gun pointed in our direction, that Tiffany is here too which means someone else is probably hurt. "Babe, don't talk and don't fall asleep, ok? We will have all the time in the world and you will tell me you love me when you're going to be better, not like a goodbye." 

I look at Tiffany and she looks at me with worry, but I nod trying my best to tell her that everything will be ok for us too. "What do you want?" I ask lifting my head to face Jasper, who walked past us and took a seat on the couch drinking from my coffee cup. 

"I never understood how you can drink this without any sugar in it," he says without looking in our direction like he is in a courtesy visit like there's not a bleeding man on the floor and not any man, my man. 

"Stop the chit-chat and tell me what the hell you want to call an ambulance for Liam." 

Turning his eyes towards us he smiles looking at all the blood that now starts to stain my knees and at Liam's way too pale face. "Why not just letting him die?" 

I get up, ignoring Tiffany's attempt to pull me back down, and walk where he's standing up now, a finger pointed in his own face. "Listen to me, you monster, if something happens to Liam I swear to you I will spend the rest of my life making you wish you would have been the one dying today." he looks at me trying to maintain his amused mask, but I know he saw just how much I meant every single word. "Now tell me what the fuck do you want from us?!"

If Jasper's first time hitting me in that parking lot was painful for my soul, his second hit is painful too, but for my face. Somehow my soul, my brain, my entire being understood and made peace with the fact that the man who gave me life and raised me was a monster. He doesn't slap me this time, but he uses the back of his gun to hit me with, my cheek burning where it touched me and my lip hurting, a metallic taste in my mouth telling me he probably broke my lip. I stumble backward, the impact making me lose my balance.