Chapter 30

**Alex**
I woke up from a traumatic sleep, I had a nightmare about last night murder but this time it was Petra that was murdered not Emily. I brushed my teeth and started preparing for work that's when it occurred to me that I haven't seen Liam since I woke up this morning, I left the guest room to search for him and I saw him in the kitchen eating cereal straight from the box, his face had grown a stubble overnight and he was looking worse for wear almost as if he hadn't have any sleep at all.
"Good morning pal slept well?" I asked, trying to be cheerful.
"No I didn't..... I kept seeing her......... Emily...... Her dead body..... How could Skyler do such a thing?" Tears rolled down his cheeks as he lamented.
"Don't worry old boy the girl will be avenged" I said patting his back, I checked my watch and saw that I was getting late.
"I need to get to work, I'm going to see Petra at the hospital before I go. Are you not going to work?".
"No........ I'm not going" Liam fetched a bottle of wine and poured himself a glass full.
"I know I'm not supposed to ask but why?".
"isn't it obvious? I'm grieving......i can't do anything productive in this state" Liam gulped his glass down and poured himself another cupful. I saw that my friend wasn't going to leave the house today so I left him alone to drown his sorrow with the bottle.
"Well I'm off, if you need me just call okay? I'll be stopping by the station to see if there's any update about Skyler" I grabbed my briefcase preparing to take my leave.
"Send my regards to Petra" Liam said in between hiccups..... he was drunk already. I got in my car and started the 10 minutes drive to the hospital, the announcer on air rapped out the daily news and one headline caught my attention.
".... Murder in the Montero's home as a young girl was brutally........ The whereabouts of the killer is unknown......some sources say it's Mr Montero's ex lover....." I turned off the radio cause the news was already getting on my nerves with their giveaway of excess information now everybody would have eyes on me and Petra. When I arrived at the hospital I avoided the stares from the doctors and nurses till I got into Petra's room.
"Good morning baby, how are you feeling?" I asked with a huge smile on his face but Petra wasn't in the mood to be cherry.
"I'm not feeling any better until I know what is going on Alex! You've been hiding a secret from me and I'm sure it's because of that secret Emily got killed and Eva went missing" Petra vented her mind out, I've never seen her this angry before.
"Babe calm down, I only did that to protect you and as for Eva if you want to see her so bad I can bring her in right now" Her face brightened up as I mentioned her sister's name but it was quickly replaced by a look of doubt...... aggressive doubt.
"Liar!! you're just trying to change the topic"
I opened the door and let Eva in, she was discharged yesterday before Petra was admitted to the hospital. The two sisters hugged each other in tears, talking so fast their words started stumbling on each other.
"Where have you been-".
"How are you doing?".
When they have finally finished their moment I signaled to Eva to start telling Petra the truth all the way from the hidden cameras to the attempted murder down to last night.
"Emily's death was a bloody one, Skyler is such a brutal enemy that will stop at nothing till she devours what she wants" Eva said with fear in her voice it seems she had grown afraid of Skyler since their last encounter. Petra stayed quiet for a few minutes unmoving as she digested all of this in, I snapped my fingers to bring her back to reality.
"Oh no Alex what are we going to do?" Petra started panicking, the look on her face showed frantic despair.
"The police have been searching all night for Skyler but to no avail, she will be caught eventually but right now the best thing is to lay low for now and let them do their job" I tried to reassure Petra that everything was going to be okay but she wasn't believing it.
"I want to get out of here....... NOW!!!" Petra was overwhelmed with hypertension, her breathing became uneven, she became frantic and uneased. The nurse had heard her shout so she entered the room with a sedative loaded syringe.
"Don't knock me out.... No..... No..... Alex, please stop her!....... She might be working for Skyler or even worse Skyler might come for me when I'm asleep!!" Petra said as she fought with the nurse not allowing herself to be sedated, Petra broke the syringe and the nurse went to fetch another one in annoyance. The doctor entered and whispered some few words in my ear then exited.
"The doctor said you still need some rest and right now we are bothering you so please let them do their job" I pleaded, Petra can be so adamant at times and right now was one of those 'times'.
"No!!" She crossed her arms in defiance, I looked to Eva for help and she understood.
"Petra it's okay, me and Alex will never let any harm come to you so please just let them do their job....... besides it's not yet visiting hours" Eva patted Petra's arm to calm her nerves down and it seemed to be working cause now she had obviously relaxed herself at Eva's reassuring words.
"Fine..... Only because you said so Eva...... I don't trust Alex to be here if anything happens, please stay near me Eva" Petra was begging Eva to protect her instead of me? Now that's weird.
"I'll be two clicks away if you need anything just yell".
"Dearest, we are working tooth and nail to take down Skyler so don't be afraid, okay?" I tried to do some reassurance too but Petra wasn't buying it.
"Oh please don't give me that crap, you weren't there when I needed you yesterday Alex...... What if I was the one stabbed? Do you think you'd be back in time to save me?" Now the nurse entered again with another syringe but this time the nurse wasn't smiling at all, we said our goodbyes as she fell into a sedated sleep.
"You said you'd be near at hand but where?" I was quite puzzled by Eva's previous statement.
"I'll be living in a motel two blocks from here, it's too dangerous to go back to either your house or Skyler's" She had a point.
"Okay but can I at least pay your booking fees? It's the least I can do" I just wanted to help in some way.
"Thanks but Preston already got it covered, he's the one who paid for the motel room. Hey don't look so glum Alex there are other things you need to do aside protecting Petra, in fact you have the most exciting part of the adventure which is working with the police to get Skyler down....... I kinda envy you because I wish to stick a knife through that bitch!!" A nurse walking past jumped back in surprise thinking she was the one Eva was calling a bitch, this made me laugh.
"It's nice to see you laugh again Alex, you've been gloomy for too long" Eva gave me which was contagious cause I was now smiling back at her.
"Thanks Eva you've done so much for me and your sister, I'll be back after work. Bye for now" I gave her a hug and some cash to buy food for Petra.
As I drove to my office I couldn't help the feeling of uselessness that came over me. Last night if Emily hadn't encountered Skyler first Petra would've been dead by now and I wouldn't have made it back in time to save her. Even taking Skyler down is going to be done by another hand and what would I be doing then? Nothing, I wanted to do something but what can I do? Nothing. As I got out of my car Petra's words ringed in my thoughts.
"Oh please don't give me that crap, you weren't there when I needed you yesterday Alex...... What if I was the one stabbed? Do you think you'd be back in time to save me?".
*Unknown Pov*
Skyler was going through the plan over again, this is the third time she was explaining to David the chef.
"Do you understand now?" Skyler asked again exasperated, Alex would close from work in an hour and precious time was being wasted over a plan.
"So you're saying all I have to do is to get into the garage, locate the car and do what?" David was scratching his head in confusion, for being so handsome and hot he lacked brains..... A whole lot of it.
"And cut his brakes you dimwit!!! Ahhhhh" Skyler has had enough now, she grabbed her car keys from the bedside drawer and dragged David out of the room.
The plan wasn't that complicated as David makes it, it was quite simple if you didn't look at it from his point of view. Sneak into the staff's garage, locate Alex's car, go under it and cut the brakes, that doesn't sound so hard does it?.
"What's the color of his car?" David asked to be sure.
"It's a blue Sedan, it's hard to miss because of its classic look. So you know where the brake line is right?" Skyler asked him again, David claims he was a mechanic before following his culinary dreams.
"Don't underestimate me" David squinted his eyes at the tall building as they arrived at their destination, Skyler parked the car some meters away from the building.
"Okay so you go in through there, with your overalls you look more like a mechanic than ever so getting past the security guard won't be a problem and from there you know the rest. Meet me at that Café across the street when you're done" Skyler made out with him in the car before going to the café wearing dark shades and a cap to avoid detection.
David entered the building after explaining to the guard what his business was, he got directions from a hot receptionist.
"Hey there pretty, I'm in a bit of a fix here I can't seem to find the Staff's garage and my client leaves soon" He winked at her making her blush.
"Well just go through that door then make a left till you see a flight of stairs and go downstairs, you'd be at your destination handsome" She said smiling.
"Any destination with you is my destiny" With that he left the receptionist trying to catch her breath.
David was shocked out of his soul by the size of the parking lot and the amount of blue cars there. He went to work anyway scanning from side to side for a blue sedan which was kind of hard because he kept seeing blue Lexuses instead, he finally found a blue sedan and he called Skyler to verify the plate number. The call ended quickly partially because Skyler was impatient and because it was the right car. David brought out his tools and set to work, cutting his brake line was an easy job for a pro mech like him..... even if he was retired.
David walked in the cafe, he had already changed his clothes, Skyler pretended not to have noticed his presence until he was sitting opposite her.
"Have you done it?" She asked in a harsh whisper.
"Yeah I have, now would be a good time to talk about my payment".
"Not right now there's something I need to do first".
"I thought you've gotten what you wanted now give me what I want!" David was getting furious, so he had risked his skin for nothing.
"Hey hey no need to raise your voice at me. What I'm saying is that I need to test if you really cut his brakes, I wanna tail him a bit and see if he runs into a tree or something" Skyler smiled evilly at the thought of that.
"Oh so after you tail him-".
"We head to the nearest gas station to use the ATM there, don't think I've forgotten about you my David" Skyler looked at her watch and saw the time was drawing near for Alex to meet his doom.
"It's almost time, let's go!" They stood up from their seats, paid for the coffee and exited the café all in a hush-hush manner which puzzled the shop owner. They got in the car and waited for Alex to drive out, fifteen minutes passed and still no sign of Alex yet, Skyler was already starting to think he had discovered his brake problem. That's when he drove out and she tailed him closely.
"If you're tailing him shouldn't you be like some meters away to avoid raising suspicion" David said cautiously.
"I wanna spook him" Skyler laughed menacingly as she stepped on the gas closing the gap even more.
Alex recognized the car as soon as he had driven out of the building but he didn't know she was planning on giving him a hot pursuit. Alex increased his speed to 100mph trying to get away from his killer ex girlfriend, he saw a pedestrian crossing and tried to slow down but his brakes weren't responding, he stepped on them harder than before but still no response.
'Skyler what have you done?' he thought as he swerved dangerously to the right dodging the pedestrian, he swerved again to dodge a SUV on the side of the road.
'it's too dangerous to drive out here with no brakes I'll have more space on the freeway' Alex knew what he wanted to do when he was on the freeway and it seemed like his best option but he had only one shot.
"He's heading towards the freeway," David told Skyler, because he could recognize this part of the city.
"I know that idiot! I want to see where he's headed" Skyler maneuvered past different cars at top speed, David's heart pounded like the car's piston.
Alex was looking for a body of water so he could crash into it, at least it's better than running into a tree at this speed. He scanned the sides of the freeway and he saw a lake on his right, he steered his car left and right pretending to be out of control then veered his car off the road and he crashed into the lake causing a big splash. Almost instantly some cars stopped and the drivers were rushing to the lake to help because the car was sinking at a rapid rate.
Skyler saw Alex's car veer off the side of the road and crash into the lake with a big splash, she wanted to go to the lake and confirm if he's dead but passersby were already rushing to the scene of the accident, besides Alex was driving at top speed a crash like that would definitely kill him or incapacitate him at least.
"Let's go to that gas station shall we?" Skyler said as she turned the car around.
"Damn that was cold Skyler, you didn't even look at his face for the last time?" David was surprised at Skyler demeanor, ever since the chase started she had turned into somebody else as if she had been possessed.
"What for? I'm done with him since he chose that stupid slut over me!!" She gripped the steering wheel tightly and David saw her rage.
"I was just airing my opinion sheesh".
"A word of advice Dave if you want to be alive to spend your payment money......... Keep your opinions to yourself".
Alex's car was finally brought back to the surface but his body wasn't found.