He hugs me tight, “I can while I’ve got you, Jessica,” and he puts a kiss on top of my head.
Tandi arrives at the apartment with the turkey all ready for Christmas lunch, Mimi beaming and running with her arms stretched out wide to find Christian.
In the time that she was away, Tandi grew in some surprising ways. Not that there’s anything about it that’s a good experience, but she has taken positive things from it. She takes her life more seriously now. She’s more in charge. I know she wouldn’t fall for a man like Jake now. She would see through him in a moment. She still has dreams and some stars in her eyes, but she’s more aware now. More careful, I guess.
“Nothing would ever make me risk being parted from Mimi again. You know it, Sis.”
That night when she phoned from the precinct, I had no idea what was going on. Turns out she didn’t have much of a clue, either.
“I was hauled out of my cell in the middle of the night. Told to gather my shit together. Taken down to a holding pen. Nobody told me what was going on. Crack of dawn, about 4:30 in the morning, I was chained and put on the prison bus. I sat there in the bus, driven around the state, all day long. Nobody spoke a word to me, nobody told me anything about what was going on. It was nearly 7 that evening when they dropped me at the precinct. All I knew there was what the desk sergeant told me; ‘You were due here for a court hearing this morning, but you’re too late, now. We’ll hold you in the tank overnight, see if we can get you listed tomorrow.’ No phone, no call, no attorney, no nothing.
“Next morning, they took me in a cruiser to the court. I was still in a basement cell all day, though. When my listing came up, I was walked into the court, no idea what was going on. Heard a man from the DAs office stand up, tell the judge, ‘We’re applying for Ms Fincher’s conviction to be voided. We have compelling evidence that she had no involvement in the crime and that it was entirely the fault and responsibility of another individual who is now in custody. We have a full, signed confession.’ Sis, I almost fainted. I had spent all day thinking, wondering, imagining what the hell was going on. Nothing I thought of was anywhere near that. You could have knocked me down with a finger.
“And that was it. But I had no money, no phone, no nothing. I didn’t have a dime. The cops did me a favor, taking me back to the precinct. At least that way I got something to eat. But it was pretty late before I was able to get hold of a phone and call you.”
Crane is coming to join us for Christmas lunch, too. Crane is always courteous and considerate with me, he’s delightful around Mimi, and he’s a kind of a guardian angel for Christian. A tiny bit of what Christian is for me.
I can never decide for sure whether Crane is a good guy who does some bad things, or a bad guy who does a lot of good things. Either way, is a man you’d always be glad to have in your corner.
When the baby comes, we’re thinking of asking him to be godfather.
Watching Christian around the house, fixing things, seeing him with little Mimi, I can’t wait to see him as a father.
The End
~~ I hope you enjoyed Logan and Greta’s story ~~
Here’s another hot read for you:
A line of men in black suits and dark shades rush, stamping on high gangways. One man stops. I freeze when he looks in my direction. Over his shades his eyes lock on mine and I’m rooted to the spot.
It’s like one of those moments in a movie where time slows to a stop. Way down inside me, I get a feeling so bad it’s good. This is not what I’m here for.
Then he jumps off the walkway. I judder inside, thinking he’s coming for me, but he lands up ahead, on the back of a skinhead. Puts him straight down. No second thought. He’s an expert. I’m terrified and fascinated at the same time.
I should not be feeling that way that I do. Not about a man who’s so threatening. So dangerous. And so so much older. I’m not sure I should be having these feelings at all. Much less about a total stranger, and a dangerous one at that.
Get
Rescue for the Student
