One Tough Love

You Can Run But You Can't Hide

Spring 1995

The winter months went by pretty quick and spring had finally approached. The trees around the house had all their leaves back and the flowers had bloomed. I had went for a little walk around the property admiring nature and enjoying the crisp weather, lost in my own thoughts.

"Kennedy?" I heard Michael call out for me.

"I'm over here!!" I called out from a bench facing a small pond. After about a minute, Michael walked around the bench and sat down next me.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" He asked, looking towards the pond.

"Yeah..." I breathed, following his gaze. "What brings you out here? I thought you had things to take care of."

He continued to stare at the pond awhile before answering my question. Something didn't seem right. Michael will get distant with me sometimes but this was different. There's something he needed to tell me but didn't want to.

"Michael?"

"Well," He turned to me and sighed. "I've been....searching for Martin..."

As soon as he said that, I completely turned myself around to face him.

"I may have found him," He continued. "But there's something else.."

"What?" I asked, leaning into him some more.

"Marissa might be working with him now." He shook his head in disappointment.

I couldn't believe what he said. After all that shit Martin did and the emotional trauma he caused everyone, I didn't think Marissa would ever turn to him. It doesn't matter how upset she was with me or Michael, you don't turn to someone who's comfortable doing foul shit like that.

"How do you know?" I asked quietly.

"Nigel's been doing his homework," He answered. "We had to find her, in order to find him."

I stood up and paced back and forth. I was still confused as to why she would do this. What did he have to offer that we didn't? No one said she had to quit working for Michael, I just didn't want her under the same roof as him. Ever. If she had to be tracked down in order to get to Nigel that means she may have been working with him for a while now and he was closer to us than we thought. Which also meant she knew exactly where he was this whole time. If she wanted to work for him, fine.

"If there's any truth to this, then she can go down with him. Period." I said, before walking off towards the house. Michael called out for me but I didn't feel like talking anymore. I know Michael didn't approve of me coming back to work but this is one thing I refused to sit out on. If Marissa wanted to get down and dirty then so will I. It's like she was insisting on getting on my bad side.

I walked through the house and upstairs to Michael's room. I opened the top drawer to his tall dresser and revealed the money I had put away after I first sealed the deal with Martin. The drawer was completely full of money now and I stared in awe because I didn't earn any of this extra cash. So where did It come from??

"I put a little something back for you." I heard Michael say from the doorway.

"Why?" I asked, still staring at the hefty stash.

"What's mine is yours." He replied.

"You didn't have to..."

"I know, I wanted to." He responded, taking a seat on the corner of the bed. I closed the drawer, rethinking the compulsive decision I was about to make.

"I told you I would bring him to you. So I need you to let me do just that. Do not go trying to run off and do your own little man hunt. Do you understand?" He asked, staring right at me.