CHAPTER TEN

The next morning was quiet and awkward. Mostly awkward with Damien not knowing how to explain everything to Lauren. His eyes were red with eye bags, evidence that he hadn’t slept the previous night. Lauren’s face wasn’t far from his.

He had gone out early that morning to get her clothes as she hadn’t come with any, so now he was pacing outside his door and wondering how to give her the items.

Finally, he knocked lightly before pushing the door open when he got no response. He heard the shower running, he should have left then but he didn’t. he placed the shopping bag on the bed and went to the bathroom.

He could see her through the transparent glass, his body suddenly aching for her. he shook his head and left abruptly when she put off the shower. He didn’t know why he was still thinking of her, it was enough punishment already that he was making her leave.

The table was set when Lauren walked into the kitchen, she ignored it, not touching anything no matter how much her stomach growled. The nerve of her to be hungry at such a critical time.

Damien said nothing when he came out and saw the untouched food, he knew she wasn’t going to eat it. He drove her back to the airport before escorting her to his jet. It was a good thing he had called ahead of time for it to be inspected.

His heart hurt as he watched her walk away from him, for forever this time because all he planned to do was get Harry back, then leave them for good this time. With every step she took she put a thousand miles between them.

There was no coming back, perhaps he should say goodbye but he couldn’t bring himself to. that was the only way he could keep them both safe. She turned one last time and looked at him, her face blank and void of any emotions before she climbed up the stairs and left Damien for good.

Damien turned around when she was already high in the air and was about to enter his car when he heard an explosion. He turned swiftly, horror setting itself in his heart, it couldn’t be what he just heard.

He watched the jet that had Lauren in it just a few moments ago go up in flames, the force from the explosion throwing him a few inches off the ground as he fell face flat on the floor.

There was ringing in his head as he watched the remains of the plane burn on the ground. He crawled on the floor, towards the tail of the jet that was now on the floor. It couldn’t be. Lauren did not just explode with that jet.

With heart-wracking sobs in his chest, suddenly unable to breathe he felt arms hold him back but he struggled anyway. If Lauren was in that fire, then he wanted to be there with her. Leaving her was painful, but it was something that he could live with. Knowing that she was safe and alive, but this… knowing that she was dead, not in this world with him anymore. He wanted to die with her.

****

When Damien woke up later in the hospital, his sight blurry and in a place he couldn’t identify, he wished his prayers had been answered. That was dead, too, and could finally be with Lauren till eternity.

“Mr. Damien,” a distant voice called to him. Whoever it was was dressed in white; Damien could tell because it was the only light in his otherwise gloomy world. He was consumed by the dark again, and when he woke up the second time, he knew that he wasn’t dead.

The beeping sound of machines was the first thing he registered before his eyes opened to see the neutral colors of the hospital he was in. He could feel the needles that were poking his side as he struggled to sit upright. Why didn’t the heavens just take him?

The door open and a mean-looking doctor walked in with Luke coming in after him.

“Luke…” Damien said, his voice croaking due to how dry it had become.

“Did you find anything?” Damien asked.

Luke nodded. “We’ll go over it when he discharges you,” he said, gesturing to the doctor that was already checking Damien. He removed the wires that were attached to him before ticking a few things off from the chart that he was holding.

“He’s good to go,” the doctor said to Luke “But he must not do any strenuous activities, he hit his head badly,” he finished.

Luke nodded as the doctor left, before going over to help Damien up from the bed. He resisted, not used to someone else helping him. Luke did help him anyway by giving him a ride back to his house.

Luke threw a couple files and pictures on the table. Damien picked them, his frown deepening as he examined each of them. They were pictures of Nathan entering an empty warehouse.

“How are you sure this is it?” Damien asked him.

“I’m sure of it. I didn’t want to act until I got your approval. Men are ready to be discharged there at your command.”

“No!” Damien yelled, “Harry is in there, so we can’t just barge in. If we upset him, he might do something rash. We have to tread carefully with this one. He is a psychopath; there’s no telling what he would to a little kid.”

“Then how do you suggest we attack?”

Damien thought for a while, all the plans that were coming up in his head were either too dangerous or Nathan could see right through it.

“He has your clone…” Luke started to speak.

It immediately set off an idea in Damien’s head “You’re right. He has my clone, which means that I can go inside his laboratory acting as my own clone,” he said, many wheels already turning in his head “I’ll have to go first and somehow find the clone so we can take him out, then I’ll attack from the inside, then you and your men will attack once I give you the signal.”

Luke nodded, that was a brilliant idea. “I’ll mobilize the boys immediately, you get ready, the warehouse is not so far from here.”

“That was how he was able to monitor Lauren and me, he was watching this whole time,” Damien said, the realization of what had happened weighing them. He had brought Lauren straight to the danger that he was supposed to protect her from.

“Just go get everything ready,” Damien said, waving Luke off.

Damien slowly walked around the house, his eyes scanning all the corners of the house, checking if there were any hidden cameras in his home that Nathan was watching him from.

He found nothing after circling the house about five times. He ended up at his sidebar where he pulled out all the alcohol that he had in his house.

He poured himself a glass and gulped it down immediately. Lauren was dead. The realization hit him as tears rolled down his eyes. He had lost everything precious to him.

One glass turned into a bottle, and in no time, he was a crying mess on his kitchen floor. All the memories that he had of her played in his mind pushing him further out of the edge that his sanity was holding onto. If he thought leaving everything behind was torture, this right here was pure hell for him.

How on earth was he going to explain to his parents that Lauren was dead and he was the reason for it. He was certain that they would despise them for killing his fiancée and Lauren, the both of them blowing up to ashes.

He was still trying to deal with Jane’s death, and now this? His life was a complete mess and he did not know exactly how to fix it.

He had this particular memory of her. They were at the beach, and she was dressed in a two-piece bikini, exposing herself so much that Damien didn’t like it. She wanted to get a tan but Damien was more concerned about all the boys that were ogling her body.

Her perfect body should only be his. Lauren was beautiful inside and out. Her perfect curves were not what had attracted her to him. Hell, they’d been small when they first met. Her family had moved in from Los Angeles, trying to leave a quiet life after they lost their mother.

Damien had been playing in the sand with Nathan when she ran across her yard and came to where they were playing. She didn’t ask to join them; she just sat on the floor and took over their play bucket. Even when she was small, she had that dominating streak in her that came out every once in a while.

After that, the three of them had been inseparable. Everything changed when Lauren traveled for summer and came back looking like a shining goddess with her tan and hair that had to grow considerably longer. Her curves were starting to show.

Their first kiss happened that night of their return, under their favorite tree that was in her backyard. She had told him that he wanted to place her lips on his like she had seen a couple do at the beach and he let her.

Technically, she kissed him first. The kiss was forgotten until they were graduating high school and went to a party. that was when Damien told her how much he loved her and thankfully she felt the same.

It was both of them from then, what they failed to see was Nathan running towards Lauren with a card where he had written just how much he loved her with a teddy bear in his hand. He was sure that Lauren felt something for him but when he went to her room that night, it was Damien who was tangled in the sheets with her.

He was pushed to the background ever since then, being the third wheel and taking most of the brunt whenever they had relationship issues and weren’t speaking to each other.

Damien should have seen it. How Nathan grew even quieter over the years, the way his eyes would linger on Lauren for a moment too long whenever they hung out, all the signs were there. Damien wasn’t just paying attention and now it had cost Lauren and Jane their lives.

He stood up from the floor, everywhere turning into a blur as he staggered and fell back to the floor. He screamed and hit his fit repeatedly on the floor with so much force that he had a crack but at this point, he was willing to take physical pain in exchange for what was going on in his heart.

He stood again, holding onto the kitchen counter as he stood up. He walked slowly to the room Lauren had stayed in, holding the wall or support as he staggered into it. Her scent still lingered around the room.

He stood there looking at the bed and remembering the night they had spent in it, him buried inside her and her soft voice moaning his name. he heard her voice then, begging him to save her.

Damien clutched his ears, falling onto the bed as her scream grew louder in his ears. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, imagining the pain that she must have felt before dying.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered until he surrendered to the darkness and hoped that he would die this time.