© Carey MacLean, 2012
Chapter 29
The look on Connor’s face didn’t bode happy and supportive in her opinion.
“Have a seat,” he motioned to the bed and grabbed the chair in the corner and positioned himself in front of her, effectively blocking any chance of her escaping him.
“What’s going on?” She asked him, her voice lacking confidence as it shook.
“I’ve come across a few things in my closing and I need you to set the record straight with me,” he told her.
“Okay.”
“I want you to be honest with me Mika. No lies, nothing left out. I want the details. Every last ugly one of them,” he finished.
“Y-you’re scaring me Connor,” she tried to shrink away but he grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the mattress on either side of her.
“I know it’s you.”
With that one statement, her world felt as if it were crashing down around her. On what should have been the happiest day of her life, she saw that a life in a concrete and iron cell was more likely than one in the suburbs chasing around her future kids.
He knows.
Despite the panic, a sense of relief had managed to sink in. She let out a long breath and looked down.
“I want to hear all of it,” he said calmly; so much so that she had the courage to look up at him and see why he hadn’t blown up at her and shackled her immediately upon entering the room.
Guilty, was what that look on her face read like.
“But you didn’t kill the last three did you?” He made sure that she knew exactly the list of names that he wanted her to elaborate on.
She shook her head confirming his suspicions were right.
“Peter killed the last of them. W-what’s going to happen to me?” She mustered the courage to ask.
“Nothing… Yet,” he told her.
“Where do I begin-” she said as more of a statement than a question.
Before she could start, there came a knock at her room’s door. Saunders opened up and let himself in.
“Are you distracting the bride when she should be getting ready?” His boss asked him.
“No Sir,” Connor began but was interrupted.
“Good. Now hurry up in here. The groom seems to have come down with a case of jitters. I think he could use his buddy or better yet, a wife,” the man told him.
I bet, he remembered how he’d felt the day of his nuptials; it was a miracle that Xavier had managed to keep him calm at all.
“I’ll be out there trying to keep Ryans out of here and rushing her to the Justice of the Peace,” he said as he let himself out.
When he was sure that Saunders had left, he nodded for her to start her story.
She listed each victim, what she had done and told him that the photos that he and Xavier had seen had been of her either arriving or leaving some of her victims behind. She went into graphic detail as to how she went about to confecting the poison. Not only did she explain how she committed her crimes, she went into great depths as to the reasons why. The more she spoke, the more he was beginning to understand her.
He was slowly feeling like the code of ethics and conduct that an officer of the law swore by with the oath he or she takes on the day of their graduation no longer mattered yet strangely, it did. Without credentials or certifications, Mika had acted as an ambassador of the law in a violent vigilante fashion.
Now, it was his turn to speak after a long moment of reflective silence.
“I had made a decision before I came in here and I’m glad that you haven’t changed my mind,” the woman looked like a deer with her head caught in the headlights. “I will not destroy evidence but I have hidden it in a secure setting that only I can access it. My notes have been shredded and burned.”
“But why?” She asked him.
“Because you did what none of us had been able to do. You put a stop to it all – no one can fault you for that. The system had failed you on more than one occasion. I’m shocked you haven’t lost your mind honestly,” he eyed Mika. “I know a great person when I see one. Mika you’re just that. Do you think I would have allowed for you to remain around my wife and child if I didn’t think so?”
What the hell was going on? Connor had covered for her over the last few weeks when he could have brought her in and let the courts decide her fate. It all felt wrong.
She rose to her feet and stayed where she was until she had Connor’s full attention.
“Take me in,” she said calmly. “Someone’s bound to find out and then what? What if we have kids down the road? I can’t have them being ostracized because Mommy had a vigilante phase and went about killing off men that had nearly killed their wives with their bare hands! I was stupid to think that I could get away with it. Foolish to think and continue on with this charade, thinking a man could love someone like me.”
What if the information got out somehow from a different source? What if the case was re-opened because of new evidence? She was sure to fry then.
She wiped the tear that betrayed her as it slid down her rosy pink cheek. Why should she care about her makeup? It’s not like the wedding was going to happen, right?
“You’re not going anywhere Sweetheart,” Connor told her firmly. “I have a job as the best man to make sure my best friend is the happiest he’s ever been on this momentous day and the Captain has an obligation to get you to the man you’re destined to be with. Whether you see the inside of a cell or not won’t be because you’ve removed scum from this earth; it’ll be because you drove drunk, shoplifted, or got in a bar brawl.”
By the end of his little spiel, she cracked a tiny smile.
“I can deal with the justice system failing me,” she began.
“I can’t,” Connor told her dryly with his arms crossed over his chest.
“What I can’t deal with is it failing all those women,” she finished.
“But it didn’t,” Saunders told her. “For all they know, Peter Makey killed their not-so-wonderful husbands.”
Good point, she had to agree with him on that one.
He could see he wasn’t getting anywhere quick with her.
“Sit down for a minute,” Connor urged her with a soft voice. “Look at me.”
She did as she was asked.
“What do you want?” Connor asked her. “I’ll do anything you want me to do.”
After a long pause, her mouth opened and he saw that she had a lot to say but she couldn’t bring herself to say it and then averted her gaze from him. She was torn between doing what was right and what felt right. He knew that feeling all too well; as he battled it on a daily basis for the last month. Seeing her like that only confirmed that he was doing his version of the right thing by letting her remain free. Oddly enough, he truly believed that her days as a femme fatale were done and over with.
“Mika. Look. At. Me,” he said more sternly this time and her eyes shifted right back to his. “Do you want to go to jail?”
“No.”
“Do you like the life that you have now?”
“Absolutely.”
“Do you value our friendship?”
“Of course!”
“Do you love Xavier?”
“With all of my heart.”
“I love my best friend but I can’t always be there to take care of him. Can you do that?”
“Yes. Every day.”
“Well then,” Connor paused, “as your honorary brother, I think there’s one last thing to ask you little squirt.”
She wrinkled her nose at his endearment which made him chuckle.
“I had to test that one out. I was an only child you know,” he said in his defense.
“What’s your question?” she smirked.
“Can you please marry that man out there today? Promise me that you’ll keep him safe as you’ve been doing, that you’ll keep him happy, give him the family that he deserves, but most of all, I want you to come to me if you don’t get all of that back. I’ll kick his ass,” he finished.
“Then you better let me get to it. I have some touch-ups to deal with,” she told him.
“Is that a yes?”
“You know it is. Now get out of here and bring this to Xavier for me will you?” She handed him a folded piece of paper. “You can read it if you must. Everything about how I feel for him is in there.”
As he opened the door to step out and leave the woman to it, he noticed the envelope on the floor, leaning up against the door-frame.
“You have something here,” he picked it up and turned to bring it to her.
She rushed to open the small envelope as he stood there watching her. He was glad he had too. One minute she had a bright smile and the next, her hands were shaking as she let the small piece of paper fall from her hand.
“What is it?” He asked as he crouched down to pick it up.
“Someone else knows,” she told him and he had to agree with her.
On the piece of paper, there was a photo of a white oleander flower. At the bottom, there was a message.
Your secret’s safe with me. Be free.
Judging by the look on Connor’s face, it wasn’t from him.
Who else could know? She wondered.
Knock, knock, knock.
The door opened and Saunders peeked in.
“Hold on! I just have to-” she began.
“Sweetheart, you’ll kill the poor man if you keep making him wait,” he told her.
“I’ll see you in a few minutes,” Connor moved up to her, gave her the note back and kissed her cheek. “Don’t let that bother you today.”
“I won’t,” she assured him with a smile. “Now go make sure my man won’t run off into the sunset without me, will you?”
“Aye! Aye!” He mimicked a sailor’s salute and left the room.
Time to get the show on the road!
He wasn’t sure what had taken her so long to get ready but he no longer cared. In the end, he had it all and he was happier than he’d ever been.
After everyone had left the cottage, Xavier had made love to his new wife right there on the balcony, where he indulged in a double-feature of great views – his wife’s body and the moonlit wilderness.
With no time off long enough to grant them with a decent honeymoon, the cottage ended up being the best place to be alone for the next couple of days.
If a life of seclusion continued to be that enjoyable though, he might just have to indulge in it that more often. Having everything he could ever have hoped for, lying there in his arms, he knew that he could never grow distant from that woman.
Not in this lifetime, he smiled to himself, kissing her shoulder before settling and allowing for the darkness of slumber to take him.
*************************************
If you've enjoyed what you've read, please vote and comment on every chapter. I enjoy the feedback and support. Thank you!