Chapter 127 - Fear Of Death

These were his last words whispered to the devil and foe that he hated himself for trusting because in the end that was both his only true known enemy and ally, 'Don't follow me. But instead, can I ask you for a favor in which I could repay in hell? Please I'm begging you Leo, watch over my wife if something happens to me.'

Heaidng straight into the enemy's den without a plan was similar to asking for death.

Death?

Death was something all humans had to experience. He used to think he wasn't afraid of thing intagible thing called death. Now, circumstances were different. It wasn't death itself he was afraid of but the things he would miss out on. He was more afraid of leaving her alone by herself while she was still picking herself up from that cage she lived in her whole life. There were so many things he wanted to hold onto because she changed him for the better.

As Dane quietly climbed into the large black sedan, he noticed the driver wore a mask and all black to disguise himself with dark shades. Dane was walking straight into a trap and he knew it. He sat in the backseat and the drive resulted in silence. There was no use making small talk as the driver would probbaly have not answered any of his pressing questions.

Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned into half an hour. They were heading out from the city and into the outskirts of Jersey where grass was tall and houses were scarce. Of course, what a fiting way to deal and dispose of someone. At last, the driver pulled up to a small clearing. Dane glanced around. He realized that they were at some abandoned warehouse factory in a rural area.

The driver pulled out his gun and menacingly lowered it to Dane's head because he had reached for his phone. He whispered in the most low and threatening tone, "Anything suspicious and I'll end your life right here."

"I just need to call my wife...Please, if my life will end then isn't this the least I deserve?"

The man in charge of his life grunted in response but continued pointing the gun at Dane. "Make it quick. The Golden Deer is a patient man so consider yourself lucky."

And so before he headed into the enemy's trap, Dane decided to make a phone call. The lynx deserved to know the situation. He wouldn't hide things from her anymore. They were a team now and she proved that when she healed him from finally letting go. This was the most he could do if he were truly heaidng for ruin without return. Without knowing what lay await.

The phone rang a few times before she answered quietly, her tone almost disoriented, "...Dane? Listen, I know..."

He took a deep breath and interrupted her, "Forgive me, I couldn't fullfill the promise to come see you at your play."

"I-I know," she whispered, still sounding very unlike herself but he assumed she was a little upset at him.

Dane had to grit his teeth so he could bare everything to her all at once without mercy because he was close to his fate that was waiting for him on the other side of that door. "This is sudden but...Lynx, the Golden Deer took Jake...I'm going to save him but when I do, I'm not sure what the outcome will be..."

"I know," came her surprising response.

"Wait," he paused. "How do you know?"

"Giovanni told me everything."

"...Why did that bastard..."

"There's no time to explain...Dane, I'm coming there now. You'll make it back to me. Promise. You better vow it. I'll never forgive you if you think you're being heroic by saving someone and losing your life in the process..."

He laughed like mad after hearing her voice turn to choked sobs, "You're making it hard for me to be brave dearest. Ha, do you want to hear something funny?"

"...A-Are you insane?" he could hear her sniffling already. "At a time like this?"

"I used to face death head on without fear because some part of me was ready for it. But now it's funny because it's coming back to bite me...Now, the circumstances are different. Lynx, for the first time in my life, I am so afraid. I'm afraid of never seeing you again. I'm afraid of forgetting our past, present, and being unable to experience the future with you."

By now, she was shedding the most beautiful of tears. "...I'll be right there. Dane!"

"I love you so goddamn much," were selfish words he had to say.

He patiently waited for her to stop sobbing and regain her composure. "...I do too! B-But listen carefully Dane, the Golden Deer is—"

The man in all black forced him to hang up at the moment of truth and opened the doors. It creaked open and shut, as Dane was thrown inside and what waited for him inside took him aback. There was Jake unconscious in the middle of the large wide open space, tied expertly onto a wooden chair. Light shone on him while the rest of the room was shrouded in eerie darkness.

So dark that it almost spooked him but he remembered he was the beast unafraid of this deer he would catch for lunch.

He cautiously approached Jake and shouted, "Coward. Show yourself! Why continue hiding in the dark?"

The voice from within the shadows spoke back, "...Dane Lennox, you truly look just like your father."

Dane waited on a baited breath as the owner of that voice stepped out from within the shadows. Blond hair entered his vision, along with the ocean blue eyes that rained down on him with a hard edge. Of course it was him all along! How pathetic of Dane not to click all of the evidence together.

Reed Blair.

He was truly standing there across from Dane with a gun pointed toward Jake's head. One smart move and it would all be over. Dane had to tread about this carefully. He surveyed his surroundings. There was one escape route, the very man he needed to rescue unconscious tied to a chair, and a single enemy with a gun.

His chances of survival were slim to none but he wouldn't go down without a fight.

The beast and the deer regarded each other with resolve and determination.