Chapter 221
“It's just my shoulder, Donte…” she insisted. “It's fine. I didn't faint from that… I fainted from the shock of him saying that my mother is still alive...”
She trailed off her sentence, feeling her heart leap to my throat, her head burning as tears welled in her eyes.
“Baby, I know you must have been taken aback by it,” I sighed, my chest heaving. “But you can't believe a word that shady motherfucker says. You held him at gunpoint. He was obviously going to tell you what you wanted to hear.”
I let out a sigh, shaking my head. Not wanting to crush her hopes and dreams, and make her miserable. Not wanting to press this subject further.
“Just don't get your hopes up, okay?” I shrugged, with a concerned expression on my face.
“I know,” Sapphire mumbled. “I won't. It just took me by surprise… How much he still fucking lies, despite everything he's fucking done.”
I could feel the pain in her voice, and it tore me apart. We’d both suffered and endured so much, and I just wanted all of the bad stuff to come to an end. I was tired of us both being miserable. We didn’t deserve this pain and heart-ache.
“I know,” I murmured.
Sapphire got to her feet, her breathing laboured.
“Let me clean that blood from you,” she mumbled. “So you're in a fit state to get moving.”
“Baby, I'm fine,” I reassured her. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Nonsense,” she sneered, and then started to dabble at my chest, leaving soft kisses in her wake. “That's better. First things first… We're getting you some fucking food.”
I couldn’t help but to let out a chuckle. This was why I loved her. Even in the worst of situations, she always tried to crack lame jokes to cheer the both of us up.
My beautiful fucking girl.
“I'm honestly fine,” I smiled. “My ribs are a bit sore, but that's about it.”
“Look at all these bruises, Donte…” she sighed. “It's all my fault.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her close to me.
“As long as we're both together, nothing else matters. It's you and me forever, baby. I’d get myself beaten over and over if it meant I could spend one more minute with you.”
“I love you,” she whispered. “I'm glad you have the maturity to understand… To move past this, despite what I did.”
“Of course.” I pressed my lips to her forehead. “I understand. You don't have to worry...”
She sighed underneath my touch, pulling me closer.
“But we'll have time to make up and talk about this properly later,” I said. “For now, we have a murder to solve.”
“You're right,” she smiled. “Let's go.”
She darted her eyes in the direction of the dead body on the floor, and snarled.
“And leave that motherfucker Philip here to rot.”
53
maya
Me and Donte were on our way back to Washington, where my base for the Secret Service was. I'd taken Philip's swipe card from his dead body, so that I could have access to his office, and hopefully get to the bottom of this fuckery once and for all.
“This is Philip's room,” I explained, as we strode into the base. “Let's hope his security card grants me access.”
I swiped his card on the card-reader, and it began flashing green.
“It's working!” I exclaimed. “It's open. Let's go inside.”
We made our way inside of his office, and I allowed my eyes to scan the room. Wondering which place would be the best to look first.
“Is there anything here?” Donte asked thoughtfully. “Anything at all?”
“I'm looking,” I murmured.
I began scrambling through his belongings.
There was so much paperwork here...
Photographs of his father.
Case studies of him trying to prove his father's innocence…
But with no proof.
As I dug deeper, I found all of the evidence that he'd stolen from my room. This shit was going to stay with me from now on. And I'd burn and dispose of it once I'd figured out who was behind the murders.
I continued to search through his things, screwing my face and furrowing my eyebrows, desperately trying to find something useful and valuable.
“Wait, what's this?” I whispered, feeling my heart leap to my throat.