Split Love

CHAPTER 36

WEDNESDAY, July 3, 2019

The sky was still dark when Jasmine picked up her baby blue bike and started cycling through the streets of the town. That night, she couldn't sleep. With her eyes wide open and her mind spinning, she tossed from side to side in bed, and after a few hours of staring at the ceiling, she gave up.

The streets of the small town were completely empty and for the first time since her talk with Agent West, she managed to muffle her thoughts.

The day before, Jamie didn't give him any answers, whether to help them or not. At first, she almost said yes, angry at Micah. But when her rational side dominated her emotional one, she realized that this would be a very complicated task, after all, she would have to extract information from him. And how would she do that? How would she infiltrate that part of his life to the point of having concrete information and passing it on to the FBI?

If Micah found out, he would kill her.

Could he?

From what Jamie had discovered, killing someone was no problem for Mikhail Romanov, the son of the Russian mafia boss in the US. He had killed people before.

He killed people.

The hands that took my face and my body are the same ones that held a gun and took a person's life. A human being.

Jasmine felt her heart racing and suddenly breathing became a difficult task. The air became too dense to enter her nostrils and fill her lungs. Pedaling faster, the burning in her calves began to bother her and she realized she was going to have a cramp.

She stopped pedaling as soon as the street sloped, and let the bike drive her as she felt the wind against her face. Once she reached the North Haven bridge, Jamie clasped the brakes but she lost control and ended up falling. Her left forearm hit the asphalt just before her knee and then she felt the bike tangle around her legs.

- Damn it. - She kicked the bike trying to free herself. Jamie took a deep breath and lying on the ground, she cried.

She had spent the day so shocked by what Agent West had revealed, that that feeling along with the anger that seized her hadn't given way to heartbreak. And at that moment she let herself be overcome by that feeling.

How could I have been so stupid and believed him? Why didn't I ask more questions? I should have asked more questions. I should have insisted on getting to know him more, his life, and where he works. Where he works, she scoffed. This is a joke... just like everything else.

She felt her forearm burning sharply and sat down to analyze the injuries. There was a large scratch on the side of her hand and all the way down to her elbow, where there was blood mixed with small black stones. Her knee was also scratched but not as bad as her arm. Jamie got up and took her bike out of the middle of the street before sitting down on the stone parapet. She swung her legs over with the river running below. She loved sitting there and watching the sunrise, but it had been a while since she woke up that early.

The rising sun colored the horizon red and turned the scattered clouds into cherry-colored cotton candy. In the distance, falling over the valley, dark clouds were forming. A storm was approaching, which made Jamie compare it to her life. She took several deep breaths to try to get her feelings under control. Amidst the silence and tranquility of the early morning hours, she closed her eyes and focused on the noise of the waterfall, hidden by the dense forest that isolated it. Her eyes opened as thunder sounded in the distance.

She ran her gaze over the houses that spread out on both sides of the river. Some had a large yard distancing them from the river, while others were built closer and their large bay windows were arranged in two long, arched rows, which allowed each of them a beautiful view of the river with its crystal clear waters. That morning, the windows reflected the reddish light of the sun. Willow Creek was a unique tourism town, in the middle of the valley, next to the state park and crossed by the river. The mountains created a cozy backdrop and it was a very pleasant place for a mobster to appear.

Watching Willow Creek from the bridge, Jamie knew that town and those people all too well. She knew her connection with the place and couldn't let that calm get dirty with mafia business. Why on earth did Micah show up here? Why does he wanna live here? She tried to find a reason for that and realized that either she broke up with him or she helped the FBI.

Break up with him and let him continue his life of crime in NY or help the FBI and maybe make those crimes stop? That is if she didn't die.

Sitting on the edge of the stone parapet, Jamie closed her eyes again. The water coming with force from the waterfall murmured, with the current dragging the transparent water around the rocks and over submerged logs, dragging through the city. Then she felt a drop of rain hit her nose. Then another and another. After a minute, a drizzle began to fall, gradually evolving into heavy rain, which bombarded the stream and shook its surface. Jamie felt the rain soak her, wet her clothes, and tangle her hair. Then, twisting her body, she jumped down from the parapet.

Jamie picked up her bike and pushed it, walking back to her house as drops of water rolled down her face and pinned her clothes to her body. She saw that a luminous blue sky, just beyond the heavy clouds, cast rays of sunlight and so the windows of the houses continued to be illuminated by the light of the dawn sun.

As quickly as the storm appeared it vanished, leaving only dripping trees and puddles in the street that reflected the blue sky. As she walked down her street, Jamie could hear a thought loud enough like a whispering voice. What if none of that were true? Maybe there will be an explanation for that photo. After all, apart from the photo with the woman and the ones with Jamie, all the others were questionable.

The rainstorm ended and Jamie entered her house with the thought of calling Agent West. They needed to talk again.

- Jamie? What happened? - Before she went up the stairs, her grandmother came out from the kitchen. Her eyes showed concern. - Where were you? I thought you were still sleeping.

- I went out on my bike. - Jamie replied impassively.

- You felt? - She followed her grandmother's eyes to her knee and then she remembered her arm. Jamie lifted her forearm to examine the wound and Debra gasped.

- What happened? You need a bandage.

- It's okay, I...

- No, look at you. - Debra interrupted her. - Are you crazy? How many times have I warned you about this trail? What if something happens to you there? When will I find out?

Letting her grandmother drag her to the bathroom upstairs, the entire lecture was no longer being heard by Jamie. She let her grandma justify her concerns, which at that moment were very valid but her thoughts were far from there.