The Pledge - Chapter 5

As soon as the boat docked, Dara jumped and ran to the limo. Seeing her run towards him, Rinaldo opened the back door and firmly shut it once she was inside. She huddled next to the door and stared out the tinted window. Dara paid no heed to Sonny when he entered the limo a few minutes later.

He studied her covertly as Rinaldo pulled away from the docks and drove them onto the desolate streets. To the average person, Dara would appear to be calm and collected. But to those who knew her intimately, the rhythmic tapping of her foot was a sign that her emotions and feelings were struggling to reach the surface and she was battling to keep them hidden.

Lying his head against the back of the seat, the smoothness of the ride and the luxurious feel of the leather beseeched him to rest his weary eyes. Massaging his temples, Sonny let the heater warm him. It had been a stressful night, the most difficult one since his first hit. He easily recalled the rush of emotions that coursed through his body- -

"Necesito ver Marcus."

"Si." He wanted to say more, but upon opening his eyes her back was still to him and her mind was still reeling from the night’s events, so he kept quiet for the rest of their destination.

Before the limo came to a complete stop, Dara was out of the car, running towards her husband’s final resting place.

"Oh my gosh," Dara said to herself. What have I done? Upon feeling the first drop, she felt as if the heavens opened up and poured down their judgement on her.

"Marcus! Marcus! Why did you leave me? Why were you in that alley that night? Why couldn’t it have been someone else? Someone else’s best friend, lover, husband, why mine. Why didn’t you fight harder? Said, ’I love you,’ one more time. I hate you for leaving me, for leaving us."

She pounded her fists against the new cement that covered the dirt that covered the coffin that enclosed her husband.

A screeching moan erupted from her, coming out of nowhere. Tears fell from her face, mixing and swirling with the drops of water from the sky. Her hair that once was full of curls was plastered to her head, as her clothes clung to her body. Sonny’s jacket once meant to shield her from the elements now laid on her back like a heavy weight.

He deserted her like her father before him like the other men in her life. Why was she left all alone? She hated him. She hated him. He promised he wouldn’t.

Dara’s pain was so absolute. She never felt the blood leaking from her hand, staining the gray concrete covering, and the rain washing it away. Sonny wrapped his arms around her. She fought against him with all of her quickly dissipating strength. Using brute force, he overpowered her and put her in a fireman’s hold.

"Leave me alone! Leave me alone!" She screamed as she pounded his back with her palms.

"I can’t do that," he shouted back at her over the storming rains.

Rinaldo held the door open, allowing Sonny to gently slide the still fighting Dara into the limo. The hot air was a slight shock to his system, but he knew soon it would warm his chilly body and Dara’s, too. He pulled the now quietly sobbing Dara against him and rubbed her arms. He crooned a song to her, the one he sang to his mother after their rounds with Deke. The same song she had once sang to him as a baby.

Rocking Dara as he sang, he brushed the hair from her face. He took the napkins from the bar and patted her face dry. He tended to her wounds by ripping his wet shirt and wrapping and tying it around her hands.

He knew she wasn’t asleep, but he kept rubbing, nuzzling, and singing. Tonight took a lot out of her. She had shocked him to the core though he hoped he hadn’t let it show. He chuckled softly, Dara Jensen Taggert had astonished him, Michael Sonny Corinthos, Jr. Who knew all those years ago, when he had forced her to learn how to shoot a gun, that she would remember so well. He also was surprised that she would remember where he kept his second gun.

But the things that came out of her mouth had both disappointed and excited him. Stroking her cheek, he was saddened that she was pulled into the darkness. He had tried so hard to protect her from the mob life. His involvement with the mob had brought their relationship to a fiery end. It was ironic Taggert’s death would be the thing to draw her in. To ask him for something that under normal circumstances she never would have dreamed of.

Dara’s actions showed him a side of her he hadn’t seen in a while. They reminded him of their numerous courtroom battles. She was concise, focused, and didn’t stop until the job was complete. She gave a 100% from start to finish. She handled Sal’s situation exactly the way he would have.

To be perfectly honest, she handled it better than he would have. If he had found the person he loved in the condition she saw Taggert, he might have instantly shot Sal in the head. Well, after Max and the boys had worked him over. She had handled herself like a pro, but soon reality would set in and that, he knew, she was remarkably unprepared for.

The limo slowly came to a stop; seconds later the door opened. Sonny entered the sparsely decorated ranch style house with a trembling Dara in his arms. Pushing the bedroom door open with his foot, he headed directly to the master suite’s bathroom.

Sonny bent slightly and closed the toilet lid and gently placed her on top of it. He turned the shower on full blast, then he turned back to Dara, as she quietly sat shivering. As the steam of the water filled the bathroom, he quickly divested her of her clothes. He lifted Dara into the shower and held on until he was sure she was steady on her feet. As he moved away, Dara grabbed his arm and shook her head.

"Dara," he said softly, closing his eyes.

But instead of her grip loosening, it tightened. He slowly reopened his brown eyes and stared directly into her red, sorrow-filled eyes.

"Please," she croaked, speaking coherently for the first time since the cemetery.

Sonny took off his torn shirt, t-shirt, and the rest of his clothes and stepped into the shower.

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