Chapter 77: Chapter 77

The next few minutes were a whirlwind of activities that Sebastian could barely remember as he clung to Jessica's body. She couldn't be dead...no, she couldn't. He had just been talking to her only a few minutes ago. How on earth could she be dead? He could hear noise around him as people rushed over to where he was still crouching beside an unmoving Jessica, but he could not make out what they were saying, and neither did he bother himself about it. What he did bother about doing was praying to a God he hadn't prayed to in forever, to spare Jessica's life.

He was vaguely aware of the floodlights of the hotel coming on suddenly, blinding him with the intensity of their brightness. Where were the lights when he had needed them? All of a sudden, someone shoved him off Jessica's body as people gathered around and before he knew it, someone had picked her up and they were taking her away. Frank picked Sebastian off the ground and said,

"Boss, get yourself together. They are taking her to the hospital. We have to go along with her."

"Did they find them? Did they find the people who shot at us?" Sebastian asked desperately, gripping the sleeve of Frank's shirt tightly in his hands he demanded an answer. Frank nodded solemnly. "I shot the son of a bitch. I'm afraid I messed up though, and he's dead. I should just have disabled him or something, but I shot him fatally, and now, he's dead. There's nobody to question about what happened to her. Was she able to tell you anything before...?" Frank trailed off, and Sebastian could see that what had happened to Jessica hurt him too.

"She said a lot of things, Frank. We'll get to that later. You did well. Let's go with her to the hospital." He said, afraid to ask the question that he wanted to ask. There had been so much blood that he was wondering if she would be able to make it or not, but he could not bring himself to answer as he dreaded the answer to that question, not that Frank would know.

"I pray she makes it," Frank said, crossing himself.

"Me too. I just hope that she does."

***

Carol tossed and turned in her bed, unable to sleep no matter how hard she tried. First of all, she had found it difficult to go to bed after they had returned from the party, partly because she kept wondering who that woman she had seen with Sebastian was, and partly because of his troubled pacing. As soon as they got to the room, he had begun pacing, not stopping for thirty minutes straight. Carol had tried to find out what was wrong with him, and how she could be of assistance, but he had ignored her questions as though he was not even aware of her presence.

When she had persisted in asking what the matter was, he had yelled at her, after which he immediately apologized and went out to the balcony of their suite to continue with his aggressive pacing. Carol watched him helplessly, knowing that it was because of the woman from earlier that he was so agitated. After all, he had been laughing gaily before that annoying Melissa had come to take her away to meet her 'friends', who somehow mysteriously disappeared so that they had to spend time looking for them.

In the end, Melissa had claimed that she was so tired and had insisted that they sit down for a bit so that she could 'recover' and they could wait to see if her friends would show up. Carol was really pissed at this move, as all she wanted was to go back to dancing with Sebastian, but she sat anyway, sipping a glass of a drink she could not identify. She did not miss the fact that Melissa seemed to be on edge and seemed dodgy as hell, but she dismissed the thought. In the end, the so-called friends did not show up, which was a relief to Carol anyway. Only for her to get back and see that woman with Sebastian, and then when she had gone to meet him, his mood was totally different from the one he had been in when she had left with Melissa. What was the deal between Sebastian and that woman anyway, and why did she seem to affect him so much? She did not have an answer to that question.

She was still awake when he came back to bed to lay down, but closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep and she was still awake when he had stood up from the bed, wore his clothes, and headed out of the suite. Where the hell was he going? She had no idea, but if she had to take a wild guess, she would have said that he was going to meet up with the woman from earlier, and that thought caused her heart to beat fast as she wondered what it meant and what his business with this strange woman was. Once he had left, Carol got up to begin her own pacing, and as the hours rolled by, she had to go back to bed to try to catch some sleep, except that sleep did not come and she lay there awake tossing and turning in bed as she waited for him to come back.

Sebastian came through the door of the suite over four hours after he left, by which time, Carol had almost driven herself mad with worry. She did not want to call him though so that he would not peg her for a nag. It was clear that he did not want to let her know about what was going on, at least not yet. The condition in which he came in through the door did not help either, and she sprang up immediately to her feet, a loud gasp escaping her mouth when she got a good look at him. He was looking a hot mess, with his hair scattered every which way, the top buttons of his shirt missing and showing the smattering of fine hair on his wide chest. But what caused her to gasp were his bloodstained clothes. His shirt was literally covered in dry blood, and Carol was sure that if his trousers were not black, she would have seen bloodstains on them too. Irrationally thinking that the blood was his, Carol uttered a little scream, flew off the bed and rushed over to where he stood, looking so weary, tired, and sad.

"Sebastian! Oh my God! What the hell happened to you?" She asked immediately trying to take off his shirt to ascertain the level of his injury. Already, tears were flowing down her cheeks, and it was only when he spoke that she realized how scared she was and how all rational thought had fled from her head.

"Calm down, Carol. It's not my blood." He said, taking her in his arms and hugging her so tightly that she felt that her bones would break without allowing her to say anything else. She did not mind though, but reveled in the hug, hugging him back as tightly as she could. She could hear him sobbing, and did her best to comfort him until it seemed that his tears were spent, at which point he pulled back from her and looked into her face.

"I'm sorry Carol." He said, looking away and going to sit on the bed. Carol moved to sit on the bed with him and took his hand in hers. He squeezed her hand gratefully and let out a long, loud sigh.

"What are you sorry for, Sebastian? Whose blood is that, and why is it all over you? Were you involved in an accident? Oh my God! Are you hurt anywhere?" She asked, beginning to work herself up again and placed a tentative hand against his chest, where the blood was thickest from where he had cradled Jessica against his chest. Sebastian laughed a little, feeling glad that someone cared about him this much.

"I'm sorry for staining your clothes." He said ruefully. It was only then that Carol looked down and saw that her clothes were already a mess, although not as much of a mess as his were.

"It's okay. I'll just change it. So what the hell happened? You scared me half to death."

"I know, and I'm sorry. Let me get out of these ruined clothes and take a much-needed shower first, then I'll tell you everything, but don't worry. I'm not hurt anywhere. Would you care to join me in the shower?" He asked.

"There is nothing that I would like better," Carol replied happily. Now, he was acting like the Sebastian that she had come to know and love. Yes, she could admit that she loved him now, although she was not about to let him know that until she could ascertain the way he felt about her, as she did not want to scare him away.

They took off and discarded their soiled clothes, after which they entered the bathroom, took their baths, and made sweet love while at it. It was only when they had changed clothes and were snuggled comfortably in each other's arms, with the only illumination in the room being the dim bedside lamp beside the bed, that Sebastian delivered his bombshell in a calm, solemn voice.

"I found Jessica today, or rather, she found me."