AFTERMATH: By Lori Titus
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010The Marradith Ryder Series, Part 65
“Can I speak with you? Privately?” Fiona said.
Will pretended not to notice Fiona standing in front of his desk with her arms crossed over her chest. He got up and closed the door before he spoke.
“What’s this about?”
She bit her lip. “Business.”
They had not spoken since the incident in the pantry, the night of Marradith and Justin’s party. Will tried for his most immobile expression, but she saw the anger in his eyes.
“Make this quick,” he replied coldly.
“My guess is you know Syd better than anyone,” she said. “Can you think of where he would go if he were holding a prisoner?”
He leaned back in his chair, considering. “That could be a lot of places. Syd owns property everywhere. And then there’s all of Bruce’s old haunts. Why do you ask?”
Fiona filled him in on her afternoon with Marradith at the Winslow’s house, and her theory that Syd was holding Jenny Winslow as a prisoner.
“That sounds like Syd’s style. He doesn’t like to kill his prey too quickly, if he can help it.”
“That’s sick.”
“Yeah, well, you asked.”
“Will, are you going to get over being angry, or am I going to have to walk on eggshells every time I’m around you?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “You know what, I am going to work on a list of all the properties that are owned by Bruce or Syd. Should I include foreign and domestic?”
“Yes, everything. We don’t know just how far he’s running. If he’s smart he’s not anywhere in at least a few thousand miles of here.”
“He didn’t get as old as he is by being stupid,” Will replied. “Marradith probably shook him up pretty good.”
“Okay, well I’d appreciate it if you can expedite that list.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact. Do some research on Shannon Vega. I’m wondering what it is with her that she won’t let this whole thing drop.”
“You want the results?”
“No, give them to Marradith. Vega seems to be mostly her problem, so lets give her the authority to decide how she wants to handle it.”
“Alright,” Will said.
He was waiting for her to turn and leave. Instead, she leaned over his desk. They were inches away from each other.
“Here’s the deal. I am not your woman. But you should know better than to think I’d watch you do something stupid and not say anything. You can say whatever you want, do whatever you want. But you don’t get to stop talking to me.”
Will stared at her. She was deadly serious.
Here it was he always thought how stupid Rafael was for ignoring Fiona. And now he was doing the same thing to prove a point.
He kissed her mouth, and when they parted, he smiled.
“Maybe,” he whispered, “we can go somewhere tonight.”
***
Shannon Vega lived on the third floor of a three story walk up. Her apartment was huge; two thousand square feet with it’s own loft overhead.
Ryan had never been inside her apartment, but he knew it was a source of pride with her. Over the time he spent recovering from his injuries she’d spent a lot of time at his apartment, watching cable news and arguing with him about politics. When she didn’t come over, she called and checked in with him, sometimes two or three times in a day.
In the past few days he’d noticed that she was distracted. But it wasn’t until he had a look at the calendar that he knew why.
By the time he got up to her floor he was a little breathless. He paused for a moment to catch his breath, and then rang the doorbell.
The door flew open. Shannon stood there in her old gym pants and a white tank top. She stared at him through her reading glasses (which she never wore in public) in disbelief.
She hugged him. “I didn’t know you were coming! How are you? Are you even supposed to be walking around? How are you feeling?”
“I feel great.”
She kissed him, and took the flowers. “Come on, sit down. I have to find a vase, these are lovely. Please be comfortable. Oh, everything is a mess.”
That comment worried him a little, because the place was spotless, like one of those model homes you see in magazines. It certainly was perfect in comparison to his place.
“If you’d called, I would have come over. “You didn’t have to come here and go up all those stairs.”
“Well, I’m going to have to do more than that if I expect to go back to work soon. And I didn’t want you to have to go anywhere today. I knew you would not feel like it.”
She came back to the couch and sat down beside him. He pulled her into his arms without a word.
For the third time that day she was on the verge of tears. When he put his hand on her back she started crying.
“You’ve been feeling like this all day?” he asked.
“Yeah. I thought I was past this. As of today, it’s been a year since Dad was gone.”
“I don’t know about getting over,” Ryan told her. “You just manage to get through.”
***
Later, Shannon took a moment to log onto her email. There was a message from her stepmother.
Dear Shannon,
I wanted you to know how I share your sorrow today. I’m so sorry that you had to lose your father. Know that he loved you, your sister and the boys above anything else. His children were the pride and the joy of his life.
If it is of any consolation, we finally killed the thing that got him.
Their kind will regret the day they ever heard of Pablo Vega.
Love,
Miranda
________________
©2009 Lori Titus
