[C h a p t e r 5 8]

They neared the door of the warehouse, Henry helping Amber walk along carefully as she clutched her injured leg, trying not to let her face show how much pain she was feeling. Henry glanced down at her as he noticed her steps becoming weaker and weaker, a growing concern for her health entering his heart. He paused just outside the warehouse and Amber placed most of her weight onto him, despite trying her best not to.

“Do you want me to carry you, Josephine? I don’t think you should put anymore pressure on your leg…” Henry’s sentence trailed off as he saw Amber shake her head.

“It’s alright, Xian Hua,” she said, gritting her teeth as she stood up fully. “I’ve been injured far worse than this and survived.”

A half-smile spread its way across Henry’s face as he nodded at her reply, but he was still worried for her nonetheless. As they prepared to continue walking off however, they both came to an abrupt stop when several dozen men came to cut off their escape.

“Well, well… Look who’s managed to walk away from Lee Soo Man. Does this mean the bastard is dead?” sneered Luhan, spitting on the ground in disgust and hatred.

Amber remained unfazed by the action, instead, studying the men before her closely. She came to the conclusion that there were too many of them for both her and Henry to fight their way through, and that only left them the option of negotiation. Amber knew that Luhan must have known about her conflict with Lee Soo Man, hence the reason he was here before her. She also realised that he would have found out who it was that killed Rainie and there would be almost no chance of him letting her go. However, that did not mean she could not ask him to leave Henry alone in exchange for letting him do whatever he wished with her.

It took Henry several minutes to recognise who Luhan was, and a shocked look of recognition and confusion spread its way across his face. ' luhan What are you doing here?”

Luhan’s gaze transferred over to Henry, as if only just noticing him. He gave a little huff when he saw how tightly Henry was holding onto Amber. “Detective Xian Hua, I believe… Fancy seeing you here, helping the one who killed my girlfriend.”

Henry glanced down at Amber’s downcast eyes beside him as he recalled finding Krystal’s body in her mother’s apartment several weeks ago. He remembered how silently devastated Luhan had been then, and her sister who had been enraged and was now standing only a few steps behind Luhan. A sharp stab of guilt and fear suddenly pierced his heart as he realised the situation they were in.

“Lee Soo Man is dead. I killed him myself,” said Amber suddenly, looking up at Luhan’s face.

Turning his eyes back onto Amber, Luhan took several steps over to where she was standing, gazing at her with a cold smile. “What a fitting end to Lee Soo Man’s life. Killed, by someone he raised himself, his own trusted assassin. However… he is not the only one I want dead.”

Henry suddenly pulled Amber behind his back, as if to shield her from any sort of attack. Amber peered up at him surprised, trying to push her way out from behind but unable to, due to his strength and her own injured leg.

“I won’t let you lay a finger on Josephine. Have you forgotten that I am an officer and I have the right to place you under arrest if anything happens to her?” snapped Henry, meeting Luhan’s eyes with an angry glare.

They stared at one another for some time, before Luhan suddenly let out a burst of laughter. “My, my, my…! I never thought I’d see the day when a cop falls in love with an assassin! Detective, are you truly willing to protect this murderer even though you are the one who is supposed to be hunting her? This is turning out to be far more interesting than I ever imagined!”

Henry made to lunge out at Luhan but he was held back by Amber. She continued to restrain him, finally stepping around him so that she was fully facing Luhan. “You want me, correct?” she asked as Henry finally stopped struggling to lunge at Luhan.

Luhan now turned his gaze back to Amber, the smile slowly fading from his face. “Of course the one I want is you. But I don’t think you are exactly in a position to try and bargain anything with me,” he said. Amber knew he would have been able to guess what she was thinking and continued to stare at him coldly as he transferred his gaze to Henry once again. “I suppose this detective here is precious to you? I wonder… how would you feel to have something you love so dearly taken away from you so abruptly?”

A cruel smile touched Luhan’s lips as he raised his hand, motioning for several of his men to step forward. At his call, they approached Henry and Amber, three of them wrenching Henry away from Amber while another two held Amber down in place on her knees. They both struggled valiantly against their captors, Henry in particular, and he was rewarded with several punches to the abdomen, Amber yelling at them to stop.

“Leave him alone! It’s me you want, not him! Don’t hurt him!” cried Amber, panicking now as she watched them beat her love, powerless to do anything. Never had she felt as afraid as she was at this moment, even when her step-father had abused her. Even when her mother was beaten by her step-father, Amber had been able to at least try and stop the man, but here she could not even get up. She began thrashing wildly against her captors, completely disregarding the pain she felt in her leg. As the two men fought to keep a hold of her, one of them finally decided to slap Amber until she became still.

Henry saw this and he began struggling anew. “Josephine! Let go of me, you ing bastards! Don’t hurt her!” he spat at his captors despite his split and swollen lip, kicking wildly at the one who had been delivering the punches. The man dodged out of the way, waiting until the other two tightened their grip on him before giving him a hard kick to the stomach. Winded, Henry stopped his struggling, doubling over in pain as he tried to fight back the urge to fall to the ground.

Luhan watched the scene before him with a cold indifference, before raising his hand once more as he figured they both had been beaten enough. Slowly, he took several steps over to where Amber lay on the ground, bleeding profusely from her wound to the leg. He knelt down before her, removing a gun from his back which he then used to turn her face up to face him.

Amber met his cold eyes with anger burning in hers and a faint sneer spread its way across his face, marring his normally handsome features. Luhan slowly slid the gun from under Amber’s chin, slowly up the side of her face as he began caressing her cheek with the cold barrel.

“It hurts, doesn’t it? To see someone you love get hurt because of you. It hurts, doesn’t it? To think that if only you didn’t have to live your life this way, the one you love wouldn’t get hurt. But you know what hurts the most?” Luhan paused, staring deep into Amber’s eyes, before pulling back his hand and slamming the gun across Amber’s face. “To see the dead body of someone you love and realise that it is all, your fault.”

Luhan suddenly stood and raised his gun, turning to aim it directly at Henry. At the instant Amber realised what Luhan intended to do, it was as if time had painfully slowed down. Amber watched as Luhan’s finger slowly slid comfortably into position on the trigger, his thumb proceeding to back the safety with an abnormally loud click. She turned to glance at Henry as she began to trash wildly against her captors and their eyes met; a desperate desire to not be apart flashing through their minds.

Seconds before Luhan finally pulled the trigger; Amber suddenly drew enough strength out of nowhere as she broke free of her captor’s hold. She lunged at Luhan as the bullet fired, crashing to the ground with him under her. Fearing that she may have been too late, she turned to glance over at Henry and saw that his arm was bleeding profusely. She realised that she had only managed to divert the bullet’s path to his arm, but at least he was still alive.

Luhan finally recovered from the sudden blow and he shoved Amber off him, once again levelling his gun at Henry. “I will make you feel the same pain I felt when you killed Krystal, Amber!” he shouted in a rage as Henry turned to look back up at him with a pained expression on his face.

This time, however, Amber did not try to knock Luhan down again but instead, she hobbled over as best she could towards Henry, just as Luhan fired several shots in a blind rage. Amber paused as she stood before Henry, a mildly surprised look on her face as she stopped breathing. Henry stared back at her in shock, not wanting to believe what he was seeing.

“No… Josephine…” he breathed in disbelief, as Amber slowly fell to her knees before him. A rage like none other suddenly filled his soul as he wrenched his arms from his captors with an inhuman strength, completely forgetting about his wounded arm. “Josephine!!” he shouted as he ran to catch her before she fell to the ground face first, resting her head on his shoulder. He peered at her back and a chill swept through his body at the sight of her bloodstained clothes, several dark red patches slowly absorbing the blood that oozed from the wounds. Gently, he pulled Amber off his shoulder, turning her face to look at him as he cradled her head in his arms. A faint flicker of a smile spread its way across Amber’s lips as she fought to peer up at Henry, her eyes seeming distant as she found it harder and harder to focus.

“Hen …ry..” she whispered, slowly raising a bloodied hand to his face weakly. “It looks like… this time… I really am… leaving you…” She suddenly stopped as she took in a deep shuddering breath, coughing slightly.

Henry held onto her even tighter, unrestrained tears flowing freely down his cheeks. As her coughing subsided, he felt her thumb gently rub several of his tears away.

“Don’t cry… Xian Hua… or I might… start crying…” Amber attempted to joke, trying to smile brightly but ending up wincing as she felt a sharp stab of pain from her back.

“Josephine… Josephine…” said Henry urgently, as if repeating her name could perhaps keep her here with him longer. “Josephine… you will be alright. I won’t let you ever die, not knowing how much I love you. And you can’t die from me, not after I just found you alive again. We are going to live together peacefully, living a quiet life in the countryside where it is just only me and you… no gangs, no assassins, no killing… just you and me, two people who love each other dearly…” The tears continued their relentless fall from his eyes and his free hand went to hold hers against his cheek as he nuzzled it tenderly.

“Xian Hua…” whispered Amber, nearing her limit. “I… I’m sorry… I… I’ve always… loved… you…”

Her eyes slowly slid closed and her breathing gradually grew still, and with that Henry’s heart as well. Panic flew into his eyes as he began glancing up and down at Amber’s body in disbelief, gently shaking her body as if to try and wake her.

“Josephine… Josephine, don’t die on me…don’t do this to me again… Josephine… Josephine!” he cried, sobbing loudly as he moaned painfully, rocking back and forth as he cradled Amber’s still body. “Josephine… Josephine…” he continued to cry, not wanting to let go so easily.

Luhan and the others all watched on, Jessica suddenly feeling a stab of pity for the man who sat with his dead lover in his arms. For some reason, killing Amber off didn’t seem to make her feel any better and she realised now what a pointless act of revenge it had been. She turned to glance at Luhan and saw him glaring down at the pair coldly, his grip on the gun tight as he watched the scene unfold before him. Henry leant down to plant a kiss on Amber’s soft lips, his sobs becoming muffled as he rested his head on her forehead. Luhan suddenly tossed his gun away, placing his hands into his pockets as he turned to walk away, unable to stand how hauntingly similar the image was to when he had found Krystal in her mother’s apartment before the police arrived.

Henry heard the clatter of the gun on the concrete and glanced out the corner of his eye at Luhan’s retreating back, his men now slowly turning to follow their leader. Once again placing a kiss on Amber’s dead lips, he gently lowered her to the ground before slowly getting up on his feet.

“Are you just… going to walk away?” growled Henry, allowing the rage, anger and pain to mingle into one blazing emotion that helped to block the hurt he felt at his loss. “Do you honestly think that I will let you walk away from this without any repercussions?” He paused for a minute as Luhan came to a stop, before continuing on with his rant as he began taking slow steps towards Luhan. “I know Josephine has killed many people. But I also know that she never wanted to hurt anyone, especially innocent victims like your woman. She may have seemed cruel and heartless to everyone, but in fact, she is the most caring and frail woman you could ever find. Because the world was cruel to her, she chose the wrong path to walk in life. And when she wanted to make amends for the misdeeds of her past, you… you…”

Henry’s voice began cracking and he came to a stop, unable to calm down the tumult of emotions raging within. He turned away as his eyes began tearing up and he noticed the gun Luhan had discarded minutes before lying on the ground next to his feet. Slowly, he bent down to pick up the weapon and he sensed Luhan’s men promptly pulling out their guns to point them at him. A satisfied smile spread it’s way across Henry’s face as he stood, holding the gun limply in his hand as he raised it to point at Luhan, still looking down at the ground with his head hung low.

“I don’t see what the point of playing these underworld games is. All you gangs just do is cause more pain and hardship for others… and yourselves.” Slowly, he tilted his head to peer at Luhan sideways, a dead look in his eyes. “Why don’t I eliminate another of the Five’s leaders? After all… there is no point in me being a detective when I have no power to protect the one I love.”

A gunshot suddenly sounded and Luhan’s eyes widened in shock, staring straight back at Henry. He then turned to look at his right and found Jessica standing there with an even more shocked expression on her face, small wisps of smoke still curling from the tip of the barrel. It was the gun she had given  at the last minute, as a way to defend herself should he become caught up in a battle. However, he had never expected that the jessica would use the gun to protect him, much less fire it willingly at a police officer.

Henry collapsed onto his knees, clutching his stomach as bright red blood began to flow freely from the wound. He glanced up at the men before him, breathing heavily as a sad smile touched his lips. “I suppose you knew… that the magazine only had a few bullets loaded into it… and is now empty…” said Henry, his smile widening slightly further when he saw the look of disbelief on Jessica’s face. He turned to face Amber, throwing his gun away. “I knew it was empty when I picked it up… but I wanted one of your men to shoot me anyway.”

He began crawling over towards where Amber lay, struggling as his body became weaker and weaker from the massive blood loss. Growing faint, he suddenly lost his balance and fell to the ground, pausing slightly as he tried to chase the dizziness away. Looking back up again, he began dragging himself along the ground towards her body, wincing with the effort but nevertheless determined to be next to her again. Finally, he reached her and quickly he grasped her hand, his head resting on the ground next to hers with their faces facing one another.

“This time… I’m not going to let you leave me again… I will… go with you… Josephine… my… love…” The last of his words faded into the still night air as his eyes slowly closed, allowing the darkness that hovered at the edge of his consciousness to finally engulf him, his last thoughts that of Amber standing before him, the rare smile she always reserved for only him shining brightly on her face in welcome.