“It’s true.” I nod as I smile-I still can’t believe it.
“Can’t be,” Joshua whispers as his eyes flick to me.
I nod as my eyes well up with tears.
“She’s alive?” he whispers.
Cameron laughs. “Very much so. She’s in the hospital for observation but she is unharmed. She was given a blood transfusion and survived.”
Joshua stands. “What!” he whispers.
Cameron grabs his brother in an embrace. “We found her, we found her,” he whispers into his hair. “It’s over, everything is over. You can come home.”
“She’s alive,” Joshua whispers again as his eyes flick between the two of us in disbelief. “She’s ok?” he gasps. He holds out his arm for me to join them and the three of us stand in an embrace as we let our emotions overload together for the first time since this tragedy began.
Natasha
I sit in the back of the car with a huge smile on my face which I can’t control. I’m going to see him. For the first time in seven weeks I’m going to see my love. We are waiting in the car outside the prison exit door located at the side of the prison entrance. There are cars lined up and news reporters telecasting from everywhere and for once I don’t begrudge them being here. I want the world to see the footage of the moment he is set free. Ben and Max are in the front seat and we have brought a limousine at my request. I want to be alone with him on the hour-and-a-half drive home. This is it-I look at my watch again-1. 55 pm. He is being released at 2 pm. I clasp my hands nervously on my lap as I wait. Yesterday after the police came I was transferred by ambulance to hospital but thankfully was released this morning.
My eyes flick out the window as I think of Amelie and what she went through. I feel nothing but deep pity for her. The level of grief she must have felt when Joshua pushed her aside sent her over the edge. She was hell bent on revenge and making him feel the loss that she had felt when he left. But she was good to me and I was essentially looked after. She could have just killed me on that night, but she didn’t. Instead she gave me a blood transfusion and kept me in a luxury house. I wish I could have helped her… instead I killed her. Regret twists my stomach and I close my eyes as I remember firing the three bullets. At that moment I had snapped; I had passed my point of rational thinking. She pushed me past the point of no return but I’m relieved Carl survived.
I’m so grateful for this family that we have. A broad smile covers my face when I remember my mum, Bridget and Abbie’s tears of joy at the hospital. Adrian and Cameron were so proud of themselves for finding me that they kept cuddling each other while the police were questioning me at the house. What a bunch of cry babies we all are… even Margaret. I have never been so glad to see her in my life. I was worried that she may have ended her own life by now. Thank god she hasn’t.
The gates open. “Here he comes,” Ben says. “Just stay in the car.”
My heart jumps through my chest as I see him come through the gates and I can’t stop myself. I fling open the car door and run through the carpark toward him. He sees me, drops his bag and I jump into his waiting arms.
And he holds me, and finally my tears break the dam and I sob into his neck.
I feel like I am having an out-of-body experience as I hear the reporter’s cameras click in the distance from every angle.
“I’m here, baby,” I whisper into his neck and he pulls me tighter into him. “I’m here.”
For some reason the beautiful memory returns to my mind of that very first night when we danced to ‘Diamonds’ and started this journey, and I smile into his strong neck.
We stand still… lost in the moment… A moment I have waited so long for and he’s here, he’s here with me. He feels it too.
He kisses me gently on the lips and pulls out of the embrace and smiles and the reporters all clap and cheer. In a very spontaneous un-Joshua moment he raises our linked hands in the air, much to their delight, and the cameras go wild. I laugh and he smiles warmly at me. We walk hand in hand to the car where Ben and Max are standing. Joshua embraces Ben and then Max and the cameras go wild again as I get into the backseat.
I have him back, my man is here and all is well in the world.
The security screen is up and Joshua gets in behind me and closes the door. He grabs my face between his hands and stares at me as if not believing this is true.
“I’m here, babe,” I whisper.
His eyes fill with tears and he pulls me onto his lap and buries his head in my shoulder with his arms so tightly around me that I can hardly breathe and without a word he breaks into full-blown sobs.
Joshua
My heart hammers in my chest as I hold her. Is this really happening? I pull back to look at her face, unable to hide my emotion.
Natasha smiles at me through her tears. “I’m here, baby. We made it. We made it,” she whispers. “It’s ok. Everything is going to be ok.”
My heart rips open and I sob loudly as I grab her face with both hands and kiss her lips with my eyes closed. I bury my head in her chest again to try and pull myself together enough to speak. She starts to cover my face in gentle kisses and I smile into her breast at the familiarity of the gesture.
“Are you ok?” I whisper.
She nods and smiles as she brings her leg over to straddle me in my seat.
“I am, are you? Oh Joshua, you have been through so much,” she whispers as she wipes her hand tenderly down my face.
I smile broadly through my tears. “I am ok now that you’re here,” I reply.
She bends and kisses me as she holds my face, her tongue gently swipes through my open lips and my hands run up and down her bare thighs under her skirt.
My girl is back. I’m saved.
Unable to help ourselves, we keep kissing… and kissing… and kissing. I can’t believe this is happening-it’s like we have never been apart.
“Oh Joshua, I love you. I love you.” She smiles into my lips and I laugh out loud. “I love you too.” I smile.
As our kisses deepen I try to hold off the raging hard-on in my pants. Fuck, this isn’t the time. Natasha, who is straddled over me, starts to slowly rock herself backwards and forwards over my cock and I close my eyes to hold off my arousal. She starts to really ride me as her kiss continues.
I shake my head. “Tash, you have just been through so much. I’m not taking you like this in the back of a car,” I whisper as I kiss her again.
“This is our car. This is our life. And I need you inside me more than I need air,” she whispers defiantly as she rolls her hips again onto my cock. Her eyes darken as her eyes watch my lips.
“I need this, Josh. I need you,” she whispers into my mouth and my eyes close in reverence. I lean back and undo my fly and release myself and she smiles broadly as her eyes glaze over again. She starts to really kiss me as she rises to her knees. I pull her underpants to the side and swipe the back of my fingers through her flesh. Fuck. Dripping wet. Oh, I’ve missed this woman. My eyes close with need and as I hold her pants to the side, bring her body down onto mine and slide home in one movement, we both groan in pleasure. We don’t move, we stay perfectly still and the only thing that can be heard is the sound of our hearts reconnecting. I love this woman so much and once again my tears start to fall.