His Effect [h.s] AU

𝐒𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐬

Everything happened so fast.

The speeding car, the ear piercing gunshots, the oozing blood, Jo's knees giving in and collapsing, gasping for air. I had caught a quick glimpse of Zach in the passengers side of the car. I'm almost certain they found out I came clean.

"No, no, no," I stutter, kneeling down on the ground, desperately trying to find the wounds but there was so much blood I didn't know where it was coming from. "Hey, it's going to be okay, alright? Just stay with me." At this point, the neighbors from my apartment building were already peaking through their balconies and windows, trying to see what had happened. "Someone call an ambulance, please!" I plead, relieved when some of them obliged.

"Harry." I hear Jo softly say, gurgling sounds coming from her throat and I knew it was blood. "It hurts." She cries and at that moment, I felt myself feeling her pain.

"I know, baby." My voice breaks, but I continue to support her head from the pavement, my hand took her hair away from her face that was sticking due to her tears. "You're going to be okay, we're going to leave and we'll start over, remember?" I say through a blurry vision, I know there was no way she'd survive this.

"Can we go to Hawaii?" She asks, her eyes were glossy and I let out a soft chuckle as some of my tears fall onto her face, I wipe them away and caress her cheek.

"We can go anywhere you'd like." I say.

"And can we get a dog?" She adds and I nod.

"Whatever you want." At this, she smiles, it was still hard for her to breathe and I could hear the incoming ambulance and police. "Please, just hold on a bit longer for me."

"I'm scared," She sobs, her hand weakly going up to my hand that was currently caressing her cheek. "I don't want to die."

By now, there was no way I could stop my tears from falling, no matter how many times I wiped them on my shoulder. My lip trembles as I watch her struggle to breathe.

Her small hand softly reaches up to my face, her thumb wiping under my eye collecting the moisture and my hand grasps hers, making me kiss her palm while it remained on my face. "I love you, Harry." She gives a soft smile.

"I love you back." I cry, watching as she takes her last breaths and before I knew it, her eyes become lifeless and her hand goes limp. "Jo?" I say, hoping it wasn't true and this was all just a nightmare. I softly shake her, but her body was cold and limp and her eyes stared into nothing.

"Please come with us," the police man says, helping me up from the ground. Her body was already being moved inside the ambulance in a stretcher and all that was left on the floor was a pool of blood. There was also blood on me and I felt the need to throw up.

On the way to the police station, I kept blaming myself. I knew I should've gone to her the moment I was let out of the questioning room. That same day, I could've begged her to believe me and we would've been on our way to London, none of this would've happened if I had just left everything behind.

And now, she's gone. I didn't want to believe it, even though I watched her soul basically leave her body. The cops gave me a few minutes to myself in the cold, windowless interrogation room. I recollected myself and waited for them to come in.

I watch as a female officer joins me in the room and she closes the door behind her before sitting in the chair in front of me. "How are you holding up?" She asks.

"How do you think?" I say, leaning back on the chair. I had a major headache and I was aware my eyes were bloodshot. She nods and opens a Manila folder in front of her before sliding a picture of my bandana to me.

"Okay, we're commencing this interrogation. I'm detective Johnson, it's currently three forty-one in the morning. Please state your name." She says, placing the small tape recorder in the middle.

"Four." I reply short.

"Like the number?" Her eyes scan my face which resembled a stone.

"Did I stutter?" I retort.

"Please refrain from sabotaging this interrogation, we are suspecting that there is a killer on the lose, this isn't a time to joke about." I sit up, huffing air out as I refrained myself from saying a word else.

"Continue."

"Let's start from the beginning—how did you know Josephine Clemonte?" She asks, writing down something on a notepad she hid behind the desk.

I breathe out, remembering her face as she gasped for air making my fists clench. "She was my girlfriend." I say, propping myself up on the table by my elbows. "We went to the same school."

"Were you there the night of the robbery?"

"After it happened I was. We were...in a fight."

"Why were you in a fight?" She asks and I bite the inside of my cheek. "Would you like me to repeat that?"

"She had found out that I was supposed to be distracting her for when the robbery happened. Her brother Jaque knew about it, and he didn't like me for it. I kept putting it off and Jaque decided he was going to get it over with to get revenge on me."

"Why did you put it off?"

I shrug. "I didn't want to go through with it because I fell in love with her." I say truthfully. It felt like every day I just kept retelling the same story. "I wasn't there the day of the robbery."

"Forensics came back, they found your DNA on that bandana found at the scene."

I shake my head. "I was framed," I say. "Thomas, my cousin—he was working with Zach. Tuesday night he came to the gym I work at while I was there alone with Jo. He got into my duffel bag and took my things." I explain and she nods, writing down what I was saying.

"Do you have any idea who might've murdered Josephine?" She asks and those words sound like a fever dream. I look down at my hands, still covered in Jo's dried up blood.

He's sitting right in front of you.

—

"Styles." I am taken away from my reoccurring flashbacks by a deep voice making my eyes quickly advert to the man before me. "My first priority was to protect the only one I have left. Considering the odds, I am in no position of doing so yet." I watch him speak through the other side of the bullet proof glass. "I need to hear you say that you'll bring her back. Safe."

"I'll get it done." I say, and he nods.

"Protect Valentina at all costs. Do what you have to, I'll be out in a few months and we'll meet in Maine. I'll have Alfio inform you on when to move." Vincent says, before the security shows up behind him, meaning the visit time was up. "Good luck."

I hang up the phone back in it's place and exit the prison in which I was for over three years. There was a black truck parked out front with a man dressed in all black. "Lets go." I say and they nod.

Images of Jo flash in my mind, her grey eyes pierced my head and the day she got shot replayed itself everyday as nightmares.

"She has been located in Mexico with Fiore," Alfio, Vincent's right hand says from the back seat, handing me photographs of her with her family. "Clyde said you better have the money to do the exchange." Alfio chuckles.

I give the photographs back and nod at the information. I grab my gun from the duffel bag and observe it.

"I'll get her back, don't you worry."