Chapter 25

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© Carey MacLean, 2012

Chapter 25

It was going to be a long day – one where two sleepless men would require liters upon liters of strong coffee, let alone antacids to counteract the less than desirable effects of said countless numbers of cups of java.

Nothing eventful had happened for the remainder of the first day.  The boys observed from three strategically placed cameras only to have seen one altercation which they could have only presumed to be a disagreement to how Mika took it upon herself to make herself at home in her own room.  After that, she wrote a quick note in a pad she had always kept in her purse and put it up to the camera.

I love you Xav.  I’m fine.

“You two will be laughed at if this footage ever makes it out to the courts or the precinct,” Connor had chuckled.

Regardless of how much Connor would poke fun at Mika’s and his relationship and the lovey dovey things they said and did for one another, it only reinforced his feelings for the woman they were tasked with guarding at too far of a distance for his own liking.

“This lack of sleep isn’t going to be good after today,” Connor pointed out.

Xavier felt bad mainly because his best friend was due to be a father any day now.

“Why don’t we take turns?”  Xavier yawned and tilted his head back on the headrest of the couch he sat on.  “It’s basic monitoring.  If one of us is awake and something big comes up, we wake the other up.”

“Sounds good to me,” his best friend agreed.

“I’ll take the first shift.”

“Sounds even better.”

“Take the spare room.  Mika freshened up the sheets not too long ago.”

With a nod of thanks, the detective watched his friend head upstairs for some much needed rest.  Xavier felt relieved to have a few hours to himself.  He thought about what Suzie would say if Connor were dead on his feet if she were to call to let them know that she was in labor.

That wouldn’t be good.  She’d kill him and move on to me next.

Her shift at the hospital now over, she was thrilled that she was able to speak to someone in their administrative department about getting a new phone.  They had wanted to know what happened to her other one and she gave them the old excuse about her accidentally leaving it on the roof of her car that morning and by the time she turned around to find it, someone had already driven over it.  The woman took it all in, no skepticism at all in the exchange.

With her new phone in tow, she had to remember to make sure all of her settings were set to silent and to keep it on vibrate, let alone, on her person.  There’s no way she could risk being found out by Peter.  It was a risky move to make on her part but one she needed to make nonetheless.  She knew that Xavier and Connor were aware to what she’d been up to but she felt so alone and in the dark without knowing what they were seeing when she wasn’t in the room; what new plans may have been formulated on their end.  The phone was a lifeline for her.

Sticking to Peter’s demand to meet at his office, she was glad she had remembered to grab one of those tiny cameras.  Perhaps his office would be a perfect place to stash one.

Who knows what goes on in there, she thought to herself.

Readied in her civilian clothes, she headed to her car.

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