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A sudden, sinking feeling grips my gut, an inexplicable sense of dread washing over me. I shake it off, focusing on the road ahead. Darren has to forgive me. He has to understand. The thought echoes in my mind, the manor disappearing behind us, but the sense of unease remains.
***
Darren
The days without Avon have been sheer torture. I pace my clinic, unable to focus on anything except the memory of her. The look in her eyes when she asked me to leave haunts me. I haven’t slept in days, feeling like I’m dying a slow death. My bed remains untouched, my mind relentlessly replaying our frantic fucking, her soft lips against mine, her body yielding to my touch. The way I owned her. The way she owned me.
I try to bury myself in work, hoping to distract myself, but nothing works. Every patient, every case, is just a reminder that she’s not here. And the longing’s a constant, painful ache.
Those jars with tranquillizers are starting to look pretty damn tempting.
Sitting at my desk, I check the computer when I get a notification that the results from the lab have arrived. As I scan them through, my heart begins to race. Elevated blood levels. Disrupted cellular function. My eyes narrow on the final line of what was found in her system—thallium sulfate. Also known as the master of poisons. Tasteless, odorless, colorless. I shoot off from the desk in panic. Someone’s been poisoning Avon!
A cold rage washes over me, freezing my heart. "Avon!" I shout, the name ripping from my throat, echoing through the clinic. The realization hits like a freight train—I have to save her.
I leave everything in a whirlwind behind me. My staff looks at me with bewildered eyes as I storm past them, but I don’t stop. I can’t stop. I need to get to her before it’s too late.
My motorcycle roars to life, the engine growling like a beast. I push it to its limits, weaving through traffic with reckless abandon. Images of Avon flash through my mind—her smile, her laugh, the way her eyes light up when she sees me.
I won’t let whoever’s doing this get away with it. I speed. My only focus is her. Saving her. Holding her again.
The wind lashes at my face, tires screech as I turn a final corner, my heart pounds with a mix of fear and determination.
Hang on, baby. I’m coming.
***
Avon
The car jolts over uneven terrain, rattling my already frail nerves. Something’s up with Joe. His driving isn’t as smooth as usual, His hands grip the wheel tightly, knuckles white with tension. I glance out the window, expecting to recognize the route to Darren’s clinic, but I don’t. I ask Joe about it and he replies it’s a shortcut, but why does it feel like a detour into the unknown?
I try to focus on breathing, but each inhale is a struggle. The air feels thick, suffocating. I muster up the ability to speak, my voice trembling, “Joe, can you pull over? I need to get some fresh air.”
His jaw tightens, and he doesn’t respond. Panic rises in my chest as I realize something is terribly wrong with me. I feel really bad and I’m going to pass out if we don’t stop soon. I reach for my phone, fingers fumbling over the screen. With trembling hands, I manage to text Darren our location, in case my body finally decides to give in. But just as the message sends, Joe wrenches the phone from my grip and hurls it out of the window.
”The fuck are you doing?” Joe snarls. ”Texting him, huh? Fuck, everything was so much better before he got involved in your life.”
My heart lurches. Fear grips me in its icy claws as suspicions hit me with brutal force.
”What are you doing, Joe?” I whisper. ”J…just pull over.”
”You changed the inheritance,” he sneers, punching the steer-wheel. ”You left it all to him.”
I gasp when it dawns on me. How, what, when…a part of me doesn’t want to believe it but the rest of me can’t deny it. Joe’s after my money. Good, ole Joe that I trusted like a dear friend. He never cared about me. Only pretended to. My heart cowers in my chest. Is he the reason why I’ve been feeling so sick…?
“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you,” I plead, my voice cracking with desperation. “Does Mal know about this?”
”This whole thing was her idea”, Joe snarls, eyes wild with greed and hatred and a chunk of my heart breaks. “She’s been poisoning you half to death…”
The car careens around a bend, tires screeching against the asphalt. Before I can react, the sound of a roaring motorcycle cuts through the air. A hand smashes through Joe’s window, glass shattering into a thousand shards.
It causes the car to swerve, crashing into a tree with a sickening crunch and I scream. I was already close to fainting, but the sudden adrenaline keeps me conscious. Through the haze of agony, I see Darren smash Joe’s head against the steering wheel again and again, fury etched on his face. The world blurs around me, darkness threatening to engulf me but it doesn’t matter, and a slow smile curls my lips.
He came.
Because the good doctor keeps his promises.
***
