87 – Joey
When Aoto had pushed me under the bushes and told me to stay quiet for at least twenty minutes, then find someone to help, I thought that maybe I would have gotten away and made it to safety. But no… as I had crawled my chunky ass out from under the bush, Jake was standing in the clearing waiting for me.
I had tried to get away, climbing to my feet and starting to waddle off, but I was at the end of my energy. I’d lost blood. I hadn’t eaten for hours, and I was dehydrated, so of course, my legs gave out from under me… and I fell to the ground again.
“Tsk, tsk.” Jake said, stepping closer and I tried to crawl away. “We could have just forgotten everything and lived happily. I would have given you everything, Joey. We could have been happy.”
I crawled across the dirt, not caring if I was getting covered in it, grass, or bugs. I just wanted to be away from Jake. He was not the boy I had loved and grown up with. He’d been replaced by a monster, who seemed to only want to destroy me and everything I had, as if I wasn’t worthy of being happy.
As I slowly crawled, Jake walked behind me, rambling as he did.
“Yamota offered me a place in Japan. My own subdivision of the clan, so that I can build up my name and prestige. I hoped that you’d be able to be by my side, give me children.”
I stopped crawling, my breath coming in labored gasps, and I rolled over and looked up at him. “You’re insane. You honestly thought; after what you’ve done to me; I would want anything to do with you? I would rather die than—”
One minute, I was talking shit to Jake, the next, he was straddling me, his hands around my throat, as he leaned in. “you are a fucking bitch. I gave you everything when we were kids, and now you spit it back in my face and run off with my brother, for what? I bit of dick?”
I slapped Jake’s arms and kicked my legs, trying to get him off me, but he was bigger than me, heavier and at full strength. I couldn’t even scream for help… The pressure in my throat was becoming thicker and I knew it wouldn’t take much longer for me to pass out. I just wasn’t strong enough. I had given my strength to Yuka when I donated blood to him.
I was going to die here, at the hands of my ex–best friend and I would never see Alex again.
That’s what I was most terrified of.
Never seeing Alex again.
Never making him crazy, never having him make love to me, or call me Doll, again.
The edges of my vision were blackening, and my slaps at Jake’s arms were becoming weaker… and his grip became tighter, and he leaned in, whispering in my ear. “I am going to leave your corpse here, for Alex to find… I told you I’d choke the life out of you, Joey.”
Stars were starting to dance in front of my eyes… then they were gone.
I coughed, as the weight of Jake lifted from me, and I rolled to the side, trying to search out what had happened. Jake was in the dirt… with Alex on top of him.
Alex was trying to smack Jake, and Jake did the same back. “Fucking little pussy, I should have broken more than your
nose!”
Jake bucked and threw Alex off, jumping on him and they wrestled in the dirt, as I lay there, helpless. I didn’t have the energy to help Alex, and knew, if I tried, I would get hurt.
They continued to wrestle, each of them gaining an advantage over the other, for only a few seconds, before losing it. But I could see Jake was starting to tire easier than Alex.
Jake was wiry and thin, from god–knows how long of him being sick, or even on drugs.
Alex was healthy. Eating well, training almost every day… if I could put money on it, I’d say Alex was going to win.
Jake knocked Alex onto his back and pounced… but Alex was quicker, and he brought his knees back against his chest and kicked out, as Jake jumped down toward him. With the kick to the chest, Jake fell backward, and Alex scrambled to straddle him, and with one blow, knocked him out.
He sat there for a few moments, while he made certain Jake was unconscious, then he turned and looked at me. “Joey!”
87–Joey
Alex leaped off his brother and ran over, sliding in the dirt and dragged me into his lap, holding me. “Oh Joey! You’re alive!”
He peppered kisses all over my face, then my lips, kissing me as if we’d been apart for years.
I clung to him, tears streaming from my eyes as he held me and he broke the kiss, looking down at me. “A team is on the
with some blood. You shouldn’t have done that. You could have died. It was stupid and reckless.”
way
I looked up at him. “Is Yuka alive?”
Alex nodded. “yes, he is in surgery.”
“Then it wasn’t stupid.” I smiled and Alex rolled his eyes, kissing me again.
“Is Aoto okay?”
Alex nodded. “But Sota isn’t.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“Reiji shot him. Aoto is with him, on the way to the hospital. The bullet lodged in his breastbone. He was having trouble breathing.”
“Pieces have probably splintered off the back of his breastbone,” I said, my own breath coming in short bursts. “And punctured his lung.”
“He’ll be okay?”
“If he gets to the hospital on time. He will be.” My eyes slid closed, as the fatigue really started to kick in.
“Joey?” Alex lifted me a little, shaking me. “Joey, open your eyes, doll.”
I just couldn’t. I was so tired and worn out. My blood sugars would have been at rock bottom right now, and my iron levels shot. My body was having trouble recovering from the transfusion. That was why people were told to eat, drink and rest, after giving blood and not to do too much to get the heart rate up. You ran the risk of passing out.
“Joey. Come on, doll.” Alex shook me again, and my eyes fluttered open. “That’s it. Stay with me, baby.”
A shadow came into my periphery, and I looked up.
“Jake!”
Alex shoved me away, as Jake leaped on Alex again, this time, with a blade in his hand. The little knife arced close to Alex’s face, missing his cheek and Alex threw his arm up, smacking Jake across the side of the head with his forearm. Jake fell to the side, and Alex lifted himself and jumped on top of Jake, just as the knife spun in his hand and pointed up.
“Alex!”
Alex grabbed Jake’s wrist, fighting with his brother over the knife, their bodies getting closer together… until they met. “Oof…”
Alex scrambled back; his eyes wide and my gaze went to Jake.
The knife was buried to the hilt in Jake’s stomach…
“No, no, no! Jake!” Alex scrambled, catching his brother as he pitched backward onto the grass. “No, come on you fucking idiot. Stay with me!”
I stared as Alex cradled Jake’s head, smoothing his hand over his forehead, but his brother went limp in his arms and Alex looked up at me, tears running down his cheeks.
“Joey.” I blinked, “Joey, call someone!”
Alex’s phone landed in the dirt next to me and I picked it up. Opening it, I dialed the last number that had been called and put it on loudspeaker.
“Alex?”
“Oliver? We need help. Jake’s been stabbed. I don’t know where we are. Please…!”
“Jolene? Hang on. I’m going to guide someone to you. You’re not far from the road. Can you get out to it? It’s not more than twenty feet from where you are.”
I looked at Alex, who had stood and was picking Jake up, carrying him like you would a bride, careful not to move the knife
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87 Joey
in his stomach. He looked at me, as I got to my feet, trying not to fall again. “Which way, Oliver?”
“Joey, who has the phone?”
“I do.”
“Okay, take a few steps in one direction.” He said and I did. “Okay, stop. You need to head back the other way. Twenty feet, and you’re at the road. Aoto is on his way. I’ll stay on the line until you are with him.”
Alex started to move, and I went to his side, cradling Jake’s head in my hand. He was unconscious and I was worried he wouldn’t make it. We moved as quickly as we could and finally pushed through the last of the bushes and popped out into a clearing near a road, as an SUV pulled up and Aoto jumped out of the passenger seat.
“Alex! Joey!”
“Aoto, grab Jake. Careful, he’d been stabbed in the stomach, we have to get him to the hospital.” Alex moved, and even though Jake had put us through hell, Aoto took Jake from him so gently, and moved to the back seat of the car. He was helped by another soldier who helped to maneuver Jake in, and he sat down, cradling Jake’s head, as another car turned up. Aoto turned to us, “I’ll get him to the hospital. Promise.”
Alex nodded, as the door closed, and the car sped off and he turned to me… “Joey!”
just as my knees went out from under me.
Alex grabbed me, swinging me up into his arms like he had with Jake and held me to his chest. “I have you, Doll. I have you.”
He took us to the other car, sitting us in the back. “Follow Aoto. Joey needs the hospital too.”
The driver sped off and I lay in Alex’s arms, as he lay soft kisses across my cheeks and mouth. “I love you, Joey. I love you.”
I smiled, as my consciousness started to slip, and I murmured back. “I love you too, Alex.”
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