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Chapter
10: Repentance
Sara
awoke the next morning in utter bliss. She stretched out, her arms rising above
her head and her legs extending past the thick comforter she was wrapped in.
Someone rolled over beside her and put his hand over her exposed abdomen. She
smiled and turned in his direction.
Darren
slept beside her, or at least she thought he was asleep. His eyes opened to
reveal those beautiful blue sapphires hidden beneath his eyelids. They were even
brighter than she could remember in this early morning light. Her hand gently
reached over and touched his cheek. He was still a little flushed from the night
before, but it didn’t matter. She moved closer and kissed him.
“Good
morning,” Sara whispered as he wrapped his arms around her.
“Morning,”
Darren replied as he pressed his forehead up against hers.
“Last
night was wonderful,” she commented.
“You
were wonderful.”
Sara
kissed him again. Darren held onto her for a couple more moments before he let
her go. He gazed into her emerald eyes and gently brushed a strand of her dark
hair away from her face. The picture of her beside him that morning would never
leave his memory. Sara was the one every woman would be compared to. In his
mind, she was perfect, and no one could replace her.
“What
are you thinking about?” Sara asked as she tried to read his expression.
“How
deeply I’ve fallen for you,” Darren answered with as much sincerity his
voice could carry. “I don’t think any woman will ever compare to you.”
Sara
blushed as she thought about her own side of this experience. Darren had been
her Prince Charming, saving her from all the “bad boys” she had ever dated.
She never thought dating one of the “good guys” would result in finding her
soul mate. ‘Soul mate,’ she said the words in her mind once more. ‘A
fitting title for the man that I might have just fallen in love with.’
Sara
thought back to her conversation with Gabriel about the man she was destined to
be with. Maybe Darren was Sebastian. Maybe this really was meant to be. Maybe
she really was in love. ‘I’m in love.’ Sara smiled at the thought.
“What
are you thinking about?” Darren asked.
“I’m
thinking about how you’re the most wonderful guy I’ve ever met,” she
answered.
“And
you’re the most wonderful girl I’ve ever met. Some people wait a lifetime
for a moment like this. I can’t believe it’s happened to me,” he said.
“You know what the first thought was that went through my mind when I saw you
at the concert the other night?”
“No,
what?”
“Oh,
my God, I think I’m in love.” Sara laughed at his response. Darren stared
back at her in dead seriousness. She stopped laughing when she realized what he
was going to say next. “Sara, I really do think this was a case of love at
first sight.”
“You
do?” she asked, the lump in her throat forming as she tried to tell him the
same.
Darren
nodded. “Do you believe in love at first sight?” he replied.
With the
tears streaming from her deep green eyes, Sara nodded. She let Darren wipe them
away with his hand, the sensation of his fingers touching her skin making her
heart swell to enormous proportions. “I love you,” she finally cried, her
arms wrapping tightly around his neck. He held her as she cried those joyful
tears until they finally subsided.
“Darren?”
Sara asked as she stared deeply into his eyes.
“Yes,
Sara?” he whispered.
“Do
you believe in destiny?”
Darren
looked at her strangely. He propped himself up on his elbow and stared at her.
There was something about his expression that scared her. It was as if she had
caught him off guard with the question. “If this is what destiny is, finding
the one person that makes your life complete and fills your heart with so much
joy, then I do believe in it,” he answered, but he was clearly not getting her
point.
“Do
you think it’s possible for love to span eternity? You know, like two lovers
that were meant to be finding each other in every lifetime?” Sara managed to
catch him off guard again.
Darren
simply stared at her, unable to comprehend what she was getting at. Was this a
trick question? He didn’t know. He tried to formulate the answer in his mind
as Sara waited and watched him, and just as he was about to speak up, her phone
rang. She stood up and began to rummage through the pile of clothing on the
floor until she finally found her cell and answered.
“McCarty,
what the hell do you want?” Sara said as she stood by the bed.
“It’s
nearly nine and you’re still not here. I was getting worried. You never show
up late,” Jack replied as calmly as he could.
“Sorry,
last night caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting to sleep in this late,”
she lied.
“But
you’re coming in today, right?” he asked. “Because I know you wouldn’t
want to miss all the wonderful work I did last night regarding the new roadie
case. I got that information you wanted about Anastasia Rossini. Turns out she
was born in Rome on December 19, 1974. She lived with her father, who was an
archeologist from the US. He taught her the art of ancient Roman warfare. She
moved to Australia in 1992 and has lived there since. Just a few months ago she
was hired as Darren Hayes’ personal assistant. As for any priors, she was once
charged for wielding a bronze sword in a Brisbane train station.”
Sara
could feel her heart begin to beat faster. It was as if she had just caught the
criminal red handed. “There’s more,” Jake added. “I did a search for any
strange murders in the Brisbane area and found that there were three such
decapitations reported, but have remained unsolved. I even went further and used
the tour schedule to see if there were any other decapitations reported in the
countries that Darren had played, and guess what?”
“How
many did you find?” Sara questioned.
“At
least one in every country. And in the US, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, and
New York were the only places that the decapitations had happened. Most of the
people killed were loners, people who were either very quiet or blended in with
society, people who wouldn’t be missed, people that didn’t have a family or
were out on the streets with no place to go. The roadies didn’t start
happening until New York which suggests a change in her style.”
“Shit,”
she cursed. “Do we have enough evidence to bring her in?”
“Unfortunately,
we barely have enough evidence to continue pursuing this case,” Jake answered.
Sara was
lost in thought for a moment as she tried to formulate a plan that might catch
their killer in the act. But her mind suddenly clicked into another mode. She
remembered the other woman Gabriel had told her about, Amazon, and the fact that
she said she would avenge her death. ‘Oh, no,’ Sara thought in horror.
‘She’s after Darren and me.’
“Jake,
I have to go,” she said. “I’ll be there soon.” She hung up before he
even had time to reply.
Darren
was looking at her strangely again, except this time, the expression on his face
made it clear that he wasn’t too happy. “What’s going on?” he demanded.
Sara
avoided eye contact with him. “I have to get to work,” she simply replied.
“What’s
going on, Sara,” Darren said more sternly. “Don’t lie to me.”
She had
already hopped into her leather pants and was now putting on her top as Darren
stared at her, his eyes burning with anger. Sara looked up at him, her own eyes
trying to stay cool and calm. She knew she had to tell him what was going on.
Looking down at her shoes, she finally said, “I tried to stay away from it
last night because I didn’t want to ruin the evening, but I guess I should
have at least mentioned it to you when you were in my office. Another roadie was
killed. Anastasia called it in. Apparently she didn’t bother to tell you or
Leonie.”
“What?”
he nearly yelled as he shot out of bed. “Who? And why didn’t you tell me?”
“Leonard
Smith, and I didn’t tell you because last night was too good to screw things
up with something as horrible as this,” Sara calmly replied.
Darren
was already running his fingers through his hair in a frustrated manner.
“Shit, now the press is really going to have a field day,” he muttered.
“Look,
Darren, I’m sorry. I know I should have told you,” she began to apologize,
but Darren put up his hand to stop her.
“You
know what, I don’t want to hear it,” he spat. “Just get out.”
“What?”
It was Sara’s turn to be surprised.
“You
heard me, get out of my hotel room,” Darren angrily answered as he wrapped the
blanket around his body and walked to the door to open it.
Sara
grabbed whatever stuff she wasn’t wearing and left the room, taking the hint
quickly. Her anger boiled up inside as she felt the hot tears that stung her
eyes. Her heart was in her throat by the time she reached the elevator. As she
waited for it to arrive on her floor, she finally broke down.
It had
been a long time since someone had broken Sara’s heart this badly. This was
probably the main reason she stayed away from dating. It seemed that every time
she thought she had found Mr. Right, he’d turn around so quickly and become
Mr. Wrong. Darren turned out to be another Mr. Wrong. Maybe she should have shut
him out like so many other men who tried to make a pass on her, especially Jake.
He had tried so many times, but met with no success. The boy was resilient and
innovative; Sara gave him that much credit. But, after all, he was her partner,
and a relationship between partners was strongly frowned upon.
Sara
stopped crying the moment the elevator doors opened. She dried her eyes and
dismissed the whole episode as if it never happened, but in the back of her mind
it would continue to linger, slowly eating away at her. To take her mind off it,
Sara looked down at the Witchblade to find it glowing that angry shade of red
again. Her mind told her to head back upstairs and warn Darren about the threat
Anastasia posed, but her heart was as cold as ice towards him, and she continued
to the lobby towards the valet to get her bike.
“Are you where you
wanted to be? Did you get there easily? Did I make you sacrifice? Did you make a
sharp left when you should have turned right? Are you where you wanted to be?
Did you sell off all of your gold? Did you trade it in? Did you wait for love or
settle for somebody to hold?” The lyrics echoed through the lobby as if the
sounds of the bustling hotel didn’t affect them. Sara recognized the voice as
Darren’s and almost immediately broke down again. She ran out of the lobby,
trying to get as far away from him as he could.
“Barely symphonic,
but strangely ironic, moments contained in one glance. Oh how I adored you
Sara sat down in front
of the hotel on the steps to collect her thoughts. This day has slowly gone from
bad to worse. She knew she looked like shit, but going home to clean up and
change just wasn’t an option. Instead, she opened her purse and pulled out a
mirror with a couple of tissues to wipe off any runny makeup and fix her hair.
Sara had the valet on duty bring her bike around as she pulled her cell phone
out of her pocket and dialed Jake’s number.
“Hey, Pez,” he
almost immediately answered.
“I’m coming,”
she simply answered when the valet pulled up to the curb with her bike.
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