[1] Midnight Lips | Ghost

𝐂𝐇. 36

GHOST
༻☠︎︎༺

     My heart was up in my throat, trying to get out alive and threatening me to die alone. Two alien thoughts went through my mind right as Rodolfo finished his sentence. Did I hear that right? Do I want to believe I heard that right? They'd never crossed my mind before. If I heard something clear, that was it. Either it was right or wrong, but it was clear.

This time, though, this time I shook my head and decided to believe that none of it was true, that the signal went off as Rudy spoke, cutting him and half of his statement off—which was all a lie.

Oh, bloody Jesus, why was I doing that? Being insecure and extending the little time we had? I could not—in any circumstances—afford to waste time right now, but I was certain my brain wasn't getting the memo. He didn't understand that every goddamn second counted. Every fucking minute could be one broken bone. Every hour could be... one death.

Shit.

I forced myself to breathe in and out of my nose, get air into my lungs until they were full and kind of hurt, and then exhaled, asking them to work properly. I forced my heart to slow down, too. To steady its beat and blur the clocking sound away from my head and ears, leaving me the fuck alone as per usual. I forced my brain to focus, to remember the very reason we were here, and think wisely.

After I flew away from Valentina against my own wishes about two hours ago, I wasn't surprised to find out that Soap had made it out alive as well. He was a tough man, one of the reasons why Price contacted him in the first place, and I trusted that man's judgment.

I was going to leave him behind, had I not known he was wandering through Las Almas with a bleeding wound and twenty men searching for his head. We met up and together ran off to Alejandro's safe house. The one that he mentioned to me right before everything went downhill. "Just in case," he had told me, patting my back like a good old friend. It was as if he already knew what was going to happen, and that made me respect him all the more.

The warehouse was well-equipped. We had everything we could ever hope for, only we were down to three men against the entire Shadow Company because Alejandro was no longer here with us (captured by the Shadow rats, along with his Vaqueros) but Rudy was, and with his help and knowledge, we tracked down Alejandro, Los Vaqueros, and Valentina.

I knew long before that Valentina was the only person worth saving, but I decided—had decided right when Soap contacted me after Graves' betrayal—that Soap and Alejandro were worth saving too. And so we were ready to get them back. It was time for me to get her back. Which was why I needed to come back to the present and stop trying to bullshit my head.

Still, I couldn't help but ask Rudy to repeat himself and what he said just moments ago, selfishly hoping he was very, very wrong.

But then his voice came through and proved to me that I did—in fact—hear him correctly. "No sight of Valentina," he rasped. Once again my heart jumped out of its cage as if it was a thing of every single day, as if feeling my heart do something other than constantly beat—feel that it lived—was fucking normal.

"That can't be right," I heard myself say. A million scenarios consumed my mind now, and suddenly I was on my feet with a purpose in mind, even though I was still plotting my next move and had no idea how to even start.

"That's what I'm saying," Soap roared, I could hear the anger in his voice even through the earpiece. "There are two cameras in two different cells. Alejandro is in one, the other cell is completely empty. I wonder—no, I believe the empty one must be where Valentina is supposed to be, but now it's empty. She's gone."