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"You can either wallow in self- pity,
or do something about it."
- Dominic
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Chapter 48 - Damn Those Eyes
▪️J E E - M I N▪️
When we arrived at the designated location, we easily spotted Jade's car as the chrome purple colour vibrantly gleamed in the mid-afternoon sun.
The men and I quickly exited our vehicles and ran towards the diner.
We had reached just in time to witness a large Mexican man throw Jade's seemingly lifeless body into the trunk of an unmarked silver SUV before speeding away.
There were also some other Mexican men who put an unmoving Cristiano into a second identical vehicle before driving off as well. The remaining men turned towards the third SUV and, while in the process of getting into the vehicle, we wasted no time in firing our weapons, killing them.
Miguel, in his arrogance it seemed, had decided to make a quick call on his mobile phone, instead of getting into the SUV. He was located a few meters away with the device pressed firmly to his ear.
I had no doubt that he was talking to José, letting him know what had transpired. Miguel was standing on the pavement and I assumed that he had instructed the other men to drive off with Jade and Cristiano, while he would follow behind in the last SUV.
Unfortunately, the call would result in him being captured.
After we had killed his men, we turned our guns on Miguel who knew he had no way of escaping. I heard him tell the Cartel boss that he was sorry and immediately dropped the phone on the ground and mashed it with his feet, destroying it and the sim inside.
From the look on his face, it was obvious that the Fuentes twin tried to think of a way to create a distraction to give the vehicles carrying Jade and Cristiano a bigger head start, knowing that the least he could do was stall us. However, from the way he stood frozen in place, it seemed that he was unable to think of a plan as he was immediately surrounded.
"Drop your weapon!" I shouted while pointing my gun in his face.
Without taking my eyes off of Miguel, I quickly shouted at some of the men to go follow the Mexicans' vehicles.
Miguel did as he was told. His grin was wide as he watched me, taunting, "And to think I came to Aelbank City today for something completely different. Imagine my surprise when I got a call about the beautiful Jade being unprotected. I would have thought Calvetti would have been more careful in protecting his bitch!"
A muscle at the side of my temple ticked as I ignored the man's heckling, "Where are you taking Jade and Cristiano? Where is Blaire?"
There was a slight hitch in my voice at the end when I mentioned the raven-haired girl's name and I hoped that no one noticed.
The only answer given to me came in the form of the Mexican's loud and maniacal laugh.
Nigel walked up to Miguel and started punching him in the face, "Where is Blaire?" Growing impatient, the Irishman then head-butted the man, immediately knocking him out.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, I holstered my gun, "You do realise now that we have to carry him, right?"
"Shit..." Nigel cursed as he dropped Miguel's heavy body to the floor. He then turned around and signalled for some Irishmen to load the man into one of the vehicles.
As I entered into the diner, I already heard the police sirens in the distance.
On the floor laid numerous bodies. A few belonged to severely injured Mexican men, while the other motionless figures were clearly dead. The scent of fear and blood was thick in the air.
What made me stop in my tracks was seeing Blaire on the ground in a pool of her own blood, dead, in the middle of the walkway more towards the back of the diner. I felt as though I were dreaming, as I could not believe what I was seeing.
"No, no, no..." I mumbled to myself.
Running to her, I abruptly dropped down to my knees, not caring that my pants were getting stained with her blood as I turned her body over and held her.
There was blood, so much fucking blood.
Looking down at her unmoving face, seeing her light brown eyes unmoving broke my heart all over again and a soft sound of despair escaped past my lips. Damn those eyes of hers, so beautiful, once full of life now staring blankly up at me.
Those eyes of hers would haunt me forever.
I held her to me as I whispered, "Oh Blaire, I'm so sorry I wasn't here to protect you my love."
Unknowing to anyone, I had had feelings for Blaire.
Naturally, I had suspected that Jade and Quintin may have known of my hidden emotions, as they would often tease me about her over the years. I knew that Blaire had liked me, but she had been a teenager when we had first met, so I had never encouraged her behaviour.
Although, to be fair, within recent years, I had secretly enjoyed our witty exchanges, especially whenever she teased me or tried to irritate me to get some form of response. Over time, I had found myself looking forward to our sibling-like banters.
Also, because of my duties to the Calvetti organisation, I felt that it was better to keep my distance as I did not want to bring Blaire into the mafia life.
One could only imagine my surprise when she started hooking up with James.
It had eaten away at me, but knowing Blaire's promiscuous behaviour, I had just chalked her time with James up as a short fling. I had not expected their relationship to last and so I had decided that, whenever she grew bored of the Irishman, I would admit my feelings to her.
Unfortunately, as fate would have it, I never got the chance as Blaire and James ended up falling in love.
To be honest, I had been truly happy for her, but I would be lying if I said that I did not regret never telling her how I felt. Especially as everyone around me was seemingly taking a leap of faith where their emotions were concerned.
Now, as I held her dead body in my arms, I could not help but feel my eyes burn as I rapidly blinked back the unshed tears.
My eyes noticed the edge of something dangling out of Blaire's closed fist. Slowly peeling back her fingers, I realised that it was Jade's charm bracelet. It would appear that Jade must have left it there for us to find.
When Nigel entered, the large Irishman immediately ran and came to Blaire's side. A string of Gaeilge curses fell from his mouth.
Not wanting to get any more blood on the trinket, I took out my handkerchief. I then removed the bracelet and pocketed it before getting out of the way to give the larger man some space as he held Blaire's body.
Wiping my bloodied hands on my pants, I immediately walked over to the counter. The customers and owners were still visibly shaken, paralysed with fear.
"I need the video surveillance," I demanded, my voice laced with emotion.
After quickly reviewing the inaudible footage, I downloaded a copy on an USB-drive. I attentively listened to some of the eye witnesses retell what they had seen take place, knowing that their input could add details that the video could not.
Details such as Cristiano being the son of the Cartel drug lord José Hernández García.
The shock I was experiencing rendered me speechless.
I was often good at reading people; it was part of my job after all. Where Cristiano was concerned, I had grown to like the young man over time, and truly felt that he had been a real and genuine friend to the girls.
It seemed that everything had just been one big set up from day one and no one had seen it coming.
Even though the witnesses confirmed that Cristiano had tried to save them, I could not help the anger I felt towards him and was eager to get my hands on him. Someone would pay for what happened today.
I felt proud knowing that most of the dead Mexicans were a result of Jade's actions.
In my heart, I knew that she could survive whatever hell that she was going to face at the hands of the Mexican Cartel. A part of me unconsciously relaxed, knowing that she would definitely be able to fend for herself against Cristiano if he did indeed pose a danger.
After a few more minutes, I could hear the police arrive.
Looking out through the window, I saw that Dominic and James were pulling up as well. Commissioner Edgehill was talking briefly with Dominic while Vincent, Quintin, and the others rushed into the building.
When James saw his fiancée on the floor, he pushed Nigel out of the way and held her dead body to his chest. He started cursing and crying all at once, not caring that people were watching him.
"What happened?" Vincent asked.
I gave a quick summary and handed over Jade's charm bracelet as well as the video footage to the tall Italian, then added, "We have Miguel in one of the vehicles, hopefully we can make him talk into telling us where they took Jade."
"No doubt to that bastard José. He's in Miami somewhere last we knew, but where is the question," Quintin spoke, his face flushed as his emotions fluctuated between being sad and angry, "I bet that's where they're headed!"
In that moment, Dominic entered. His pale face was tense while his blue eyes were taking in the scene before him. His fists were clenched at his sides, the muscle in his jaw visibly ticking as he breathed deeply.
Shaking his head to seemingly clear his thoughts, Dominic stated.
"We need to go. The longer we stay here, the farther away Jade moves from us," the silver-haired man instructed.
I nodded in understanding.
"You have a choice, Jee-min. You can either wallow in self- pity, or do something about it. You can't do both!" he said firmly as he turned and left.
Dominic was right.
As cold as it sounded, there was nothing we could do for Blaire. She was already dead and I could mourn her loss later. But there was still time to save Jade, and from the look on Dominic's taunt face, I knew that he would be damned if he lost her.
I observed the way Dominic's hand fisted Jade's charm bracelet as Vincent handed him the bloodied piece of jewellery. He visibly exhaled in deep, sharp breaths while his lips pulled back into a snarl as his intense blue eyes narrowed.
From the way he clenched his jaw and flared his nostrils, I knew that he was close to unravelling.
That was the thing about Dominic Calvetti, even though he was known for his violent outbursts, there was so much more than that brewing beneath the surface. What people did not know was that the rumours they heard about him could not be further from the truth. For in reality, Dominic was much worse than anything they could imagine.
God alone knew what he would do to get Jade back.
Turning my gaze over towards Nigel's troubled face, my mind ran on James. It was only obvious that the Irish mafia boss would be too distraught to be of any real help and I could not even imagine the pain he was going through.
As a result, Dominic decided to leave the man to grieve, knowing that the Irishman would meet up with us later to interrogate Miguel.
Walking up to Quintin, he filled me in and let me know that in other parts of the city, the other mafia bosses were doing their best in trying to track down The Road Crows. I knew they would be successful, I just hoped that we would not be too late.
Getting to the bikers would be our best bet in finding out where Jade might be.