When he was gone, Jorja was still wrestling over what to do. She stood in silence and gazed up into the darkness between the tall trees. Something was niggling at her but she just couldn't put her finger on it. Why would Sokolov offer a double bounty for her capture? Why not just let Züber do the dirty work, kill her, and take the fall for it? Surely it would save Sokolov from getting blood on his hands and running the risk of ruining his political reputation if he was caught?
As she tried to unravel the myriad questions that now flooded her mind, a twig snapped from somewhere behind her. She spun round in alarm, instantly annoyed with herself for once again dropping her guard. With her gun pointed at the bush the noise had come from, she waited, searching the dark space between the branches. Another noise came from behind the thick shrubs next to it. Her body tensed as she tried to steady her heartbeat that now pulsed uncontrollably in her chest. Expecting Sokolov's men to pounce on her at any moment she flexed her now sweaty palms around her gun's grip. She knew firsthand how dangerous Sokolov was. She had heard the screams that echoed from his house when she was there once. To this day, they were all too vividly etched in her mind. She shoved the memory aside and focused on the bushes once more.
When her body was ready to take action, ready to shoot at anyone who came out of those bushes, when she thought she would explode with tension, a fox crawled out from the undergrowth and scuttled away into the dark woodland.
"Ugh, you little rascal!" she shouted after it.
Although relieved that it was only a fox, the sobering experience quickly prompted her to get out of there before she did land up getting caught.
Turning toward the leaf-covered ground that led her back into the woodland, she managed to find her way back across the open grassed park and onto the footpath between the dwellings. Her car was parked in the street on the other end of where the path would eventually end back at the commune. To get to it, she would need to cross through the courtyard and out the other side, and, unlike earlier, every money-grabbing hoodlum would've by now heard what she was worth. She would be like a sheep thrown to a pack of wolves. She paused briefly to gather her thoughts. Moving around by stealth was what she’d once done for a living. She used to be the best. There was no reason why she couldn't do it again.
Aided by the dark shadows of the crisp night, Jorja didn't waste any time and she quickly moved between the first blocks of buildings. Her senses were on full alert, detecting every sight, smell, or sound around her. It was like riding a bicycle, she thought when she successfully moved toward the second block. In a dark corner beneath a set of stairs, low voices drifted on the icy breeze. She paused, planned her next move, then swiftly glided past them along the outside of the building.
It took no time at all to successfully navigate the final block of flats and she soon found herself nearing the street where she had parked her car. It was well past midnight and, much to her relief—and aid—the streets were dark and quiet. When she was certain she wasn't followed, she turned the corner and hurried toward her car.
She was tired as she neared Heathrow Airport. By now Andre would have already worked his magic online and secured a seat for her on the 7:40 a.m. flight to Geneva. She would use the few hours before daybreak to take a catnap in her car once she parked it at the airport, then sleep more on the plane, she decided. When she was almost at the airport turnoff, her cell phone rang. She tried getting her phone but couldn’t reach her satchel that was in the passenger side footwell. She unclipped her seatbelt then leaned over to pick it up, placing her bag on the seat next to her. With one hand on the wheel, she buried her other hand inside her satchel. As she blindly searched and found her phone, she wondered who would be phoning her at this time of night, not liking the uneasy feeling that had already made it into her chest.
"Hello?"
"Jorja, it's me." Charles's voice sounded numb on the other end of the line. "Sorry to call you this late, but... it's Ewan. I didn't want to wait until morning. I thought you should know. He didn't make it." His voice dropped toward the end and Jorja found herself unable to respond.
"Hello? Jorja, you there?"
"Yes, I'm here." Her voice sounded strange even to her.
"Did you hear what I said? Ewan's gone, Jorja, he died."
A lump formed in her throat when she tried to answer him and it took everything in her to force it down.
"I... I don't understand. They said he was going to be fine. How did he... how could this be?"
The road blurred in front of her as the tears pooled in her eyes.
"I know, I know, I'm so sorry. We all thought he was in the clear but the doctor said several bone fragments had made it into his arteries. He removed as many as he could but one had already ruptured one of his blood vessels. They didn't catch it in time. Ewan had begun hemorrhaging while in recovery, after the second surgery. By the time they got to him, it was too late."
Jorja could hardly breathe as the news of Ewan's death sank in.
"I'm sorry, Jorja. I know how close you two were, but if it helps at all, he's at home with the Lord now."
Charlie's words angered her.
"You say that but how do you know, huh, Charlie? How do you even know Heaven exists, or God for that matter?"
The suppressed anger in her voice took Charlie by surprise but he answered her the only way he knew how.
"Do you believe he loved you, Jorja?"
His question stung and she sat up in defense, wiping her runny nose with the back of her hand.
"What's that got to do with him dying?"
"Just answer me. Do you believe he loved you?"
"Yes, of course. I know he loved me!"
She was shouting.
"How do you know? Did he ever tell you?"
"Once."
"Once, then how do you know that was true?"
"Because he expressed himself. I felt it when I was with him. What are you getting at?"
"Exactly, he showed you how much he cared about you. Every time you were together you could feel it, sense it, heck we all could, every time the two of you were together in the same room."
She started crying again, as she recalled several moments they had shared over the years.
"God's love for us is the same way. We feel it, sense it, see it, if we allow ourselves to. Ewan was a child of God, Jorja. He's in Heaven."
Her shoulders threatened to shake with the weight of her sadness but she reined herself in, desperate to keep her car on the road.
"Then why did God take him? Why let him be shot in the first place? Ewan was the kindest person I knew. He didn't deserve to die, not like this."
She was sobbing now, unable to hold it back any longer.
"God's ways aren't always known to us, Jorja, but we have to trust that he does know what he's doing. Sometimes he reveals it to us and his reasons become clear to us at some stage, sometimes not. I know it won't take the pain away but I am going to do everything in my power to catch the guy who did this. I give you my word. And when that day comes, I will make sure he goes to jail for what he's done."
Charlie's oath weighed heavily on her heart. She knew exactly who’d killed Ewan and she was going to make him pay for it.
When they ended the call Jorja was no longer crying. Tears had made way for blind rage, hatred even. Charlie's words about God rang in her head and she pushed them aside. It meant nothing. God could have prevented Ewan from getting shot, stopped him from dying, saved him. But he hadn't. He’d let him die a horrible death all alone in the hospital without her even getting the chance to say goodbye. So strong were the emotions that now flooded her body that she had lost all sense of her surroundings. Overtaken by rage, regret, and plans to take revenge for her dear friend, her foot stepped down harder on the accelerator. She sped toward the airport, determined to give his murderer exactly what he deserved.
Blinded by her goal to take revenge for everything Gustav Züber and Artem Sokolov had taken from her, Jorja didn't see the vehicle speeding toward her car until the headlights were on top of her, and it smashed into the driver’s door next to her.