Redemption

by Jennifer Bene

“But after all this time? Why?” Shaking her head, Lianna scrubbed at her face, wiping the last tears away. “And Rémi’s right, he doesn’t have anything to gain. It’s not like he gets to take over. The family passes to Rémi, not Marc.”

  “Unless he was keeping secrets from Jean-Luc,” he said, shrugging a shoulder. “Things he didn’t want anyone to know.”

  “About my father,” Lianna finished.

  “I don’t know, angel. I think it’s possible, especially since you saw him yourself.” Blowing out a breath, he groaned. “If I still had all my files we could try and find proof, but—”

  “Michael!” Lianna jumped up from his lap, walking around the coffee table to pace back and forth. “Michael spoke to Jean-Luc about me, us. And if he’s always been a loyal little lackey to the Faure family, then do you really think he’d destroy all the evidence against you? All the information you had against my father? Against them?”

  The mere idea that Michael Turner still had evidence against him made him sick, but he couldn’t deny Lianna’s logic. He only had one question. “If he had that all this time… why wouldn’t he have used it by now?”

  “Because I told him not to,” she answered, nodding as she walked back and forth. “But if Jean-Luc had told him to take you down, I think he would have. I think he’d keep whatever he needed to so that he could continue to serve the family, even from prison.”

  “Oh no. Hell no,” he said, standing up as he realized where Lianna was headed. “I know exactly what you’re thinking, angel, and if you think I’m just going to let you go to Rikers—”

  She stopped pacing and faced him, meeting his gaze with all the fire inside her. “You’ll what? Tie me up? Beat my ass? Etcetera, etcetera?” Lianna was using his own words against him, and he hated it, but he managed to keep his mouth shut as she started pacing again. “I thought we weren’t doing the ultimatum bullshit anymore, David.”

  “I don’t like this,” he forced out through clenched teeth, and Lianna turned to look at him, a victorious little smile ticking up the edge of her mouth.

  “Good thing you don’t have to like it.”

  Eighteen

  Lianna

  Lianna had never been to a prison before, and why would she have? It wasn’t like the life she had before everything fell apart involved criminals... or, at least, not known criminals. Looking at the stark walls, the depressing line of people waiting to register for visitation, she almost felt bad for Michael.

  Almost.

  Whenever the crushing aura of the place started to make her feel guilty over his presence there, she just had to remember that he’d killed her mother and had almost certainly been involved in the death of David’s mother — and probably many others. Michael had chosen his path in life long before she was born, and she had to believe he always knew this was a possibility — ending up in prison because he served the Faure family.

  The guards were gruff and unfriendly when she and David finally made it inside the building. They were ordered to remove their shoes and belongings before they could pass through a metal detector where she had to wait on the other side for the guard to empty out her purse and rifle through the random shit she had in the bottom. After she shoved it all back into her purse, they were allowed to wait in another line to speak to a guard who took her ID, and David’s passport, to document their visit before they got their visitor passes.

  It had already taken forever to get that far, but when she moved to sit down on the chairs against the wall, David caught her elbow. “We’re not at the right building.”

  “Seriously?” Groaning, she followed him out a different door and onto a bus that eventually drove them across the prison grounds, dropping them off at the end of another line. This one seemed to move faster, but the same kind of unfriendly guards were waiting once they were inside. Lianna filled out the form they handed her, but she felt strange filling out Michael’s name, knowing he’d changed it. Knowing he’d lied to her about everything. And when she wrote ‘friend’ into the space asking for their relationship, it was definitely a lie. They’d been as close as family a year ago... now she only felt resentment.

  The next line led to a second metal detector, and she felt her patience wearing thin. What could she have possibly grabbed between one metal detector and the next while inside a fucking prison?

  It was only the silent hope that Michael might have an answer that kept her from commenting as they swabbed her hands for traces of chemicals, and then made them put all their things into a locker. By sheer luck, David still had change in his pocket from grabbing them coffee at the deli that morning, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to pay for the locker at all. When a female guard waved her to the side behind a row of women and children, she wanted to ask what was going on, and why David was in a separate line, but David had made her promise not to draw attention to herself.

  He was already uncomfortable coming to the prison, and she knew he didn’t want to see Michael face to face again... but what choice did they have? Rémi was convinced they had something to do with Jean-Luc’s death, and she didn’t need David’s confirmation to know just how bad that was. If they couldn’t prove otherwise, it wouldn’t matter that she was blood. She’d be in danger for the rest of her life, and she wasn’t sure how long that would be.

  “Shoes and socks off,” the female guard ordered her when it was finally her turn to step behind the sectioned-off area. After a quick review of them, the woman was suddenly in her face. “Open your mouth. Lift your sleeves. Bend forward and pull your bra away from your body. Stand up.”

  Lianna followed every command, even though it felt incredibly awkward, but she wasn’t going to stand out from the others. David had even made her dig through her closet for the most average clothes, the ones that didn’t look designer, which meant she’d ended up in yoga pants and an old sweater with a camisole underneath. When the guard finally waved her through, she picked up her shoes and stopped on the other side of the private area to put them back on. It was hard to imagine Jean-Luc going through that process. He wouldn’t have had a bra to pull away, but she found it difficult to picture him strolling through all the security measures without hesitation.

  The government had to know who he was, and a French passport would definitely draw the attention of the guards here... and yet he’d come to see Michael before he’d sought her out. He’d known everything David had done before he’d even knocked on her door, and she’d never had a clue.

  If that didn’t speak to his acting skills, she didn’t know what would.

  “Come on, angel,” David said, helping her up from the floor as they followed the directions of the guards until they sat down at a table to wait.

  Everything was bolted down, from the tables to the chairs. Permanently fixed in place, spaced out, but she had trouble understanding why it would be necessary when the room was mostly mothers with children or older family members. No one here looked dangerous, even if they were coming to visit dangerous people.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked, and Lianna turned toward him.

  “Nothing.”

  “Really?” David’s voice was heavy with doubt, but she didn’t want to talk about the other visitors or what her thoughts were on the prison industrial complex.

  Taking a deep breath, she picked something else on her mind. “Tell me the truth, was Harry mad about us canceling Sunday lunch today?”

  “I already told you he was fine with it.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want to piss him off, or make a bad impression,” she explained, venting the anxiety over that concern instead of the other crap floating around in her head.

  “Stop focusing on it,” David insisted, reaching over to wrap his hand over hers. “I told him we had something urgent we had to handle, and Harry knows when he shouldn’t ask questions. We’re fine. I need you to focus on why the fuck we’re here.”

  Blowing out a breath, Lianna turned her hand up to squeeze his. “I know he
’s got answers, David. He has to.”

  “We’ll see…” he mumbled, but she knew he didn’t have much hope that Michael would help them out. If he still had David’s files, there was no guarantee he’d admit it to them. Especially since she’d brought David with her, but he’d refused to let her go alone — even if that would have given them a better chance at convincing Michael to turn over anything he might have saved.

  A little girl started crying near the wall, and Lianna turned to watch as her mom pulled her onto her lap, shushing her, but there was no missing the way the girl said ‘daddy’ in a heartbroken voice. Feeling a pang in her chest, Lianna shook her head and faced the table again to give them what privacy she could. “This place is so sad.”

  “Yeah, thanks for not sending me here,” he mumbled, and she rolled her eyes, bending the corner of the little guest pass which was the only thing they’d been allowed to bring into the visiting room. David squeezed her hand tight, tugging at her until she looked at him. “Don’t roll your eyes at me. It’s the truth. I should’ve been sent here for what I did.”

  “I think we’ve had that conversation enough times,” she whispered, refusing to revisit the topic, and he didn’t get the chance to push it because a guard opened the other door and prisoners began to file in. Sitting up straight, she waited for Michael’s face to appear. The minutes stretched as she searched each one, until he finally appeared in the doorway, the second-to-last prisoner.

  He looked older, tired as he scanned the room, but those familiar eyes went wide when he saw her. His lips twitched toward a smile — and then he saw David. His gaze had shifted away from her, and the sudden stiffness of his shoulders told her everything she needed to know about how he felt as he slowly approached them. Jaw tight, Michael took the seat next to hers, across from David, without offering a handshake or a hug even though they’d been told they could touch at the beginning and end of their hour-long visitation.

  “This is a surprise, Lianna,” Michael said, eventually breaking the silence as he raised his eyes from the table to look at her. “I thought you’d decided you were never speaking to me again.”

  “Circumstances have changed.”

  “Apparently not all circumstances,” he replied, narrowing his eyes as he glared at David.

  Sighing, she shook her head a little. “No, that hasn’t changed, and it’s not going to. And, more importantly, it’s not why we’re here today.”

  “And why are you here?” Michael asked, shifting his hands into his lap as he looked at her again, leaning back in the seat.

  Lianna did her best to keep her voice quiet as she leaned forward and whispered, “Jean-Luc is dead.”

  Michael looked stunned for a moment, and she wasn’t even sure he breathed until he braced his elbows on the table and leaned closer to her. “What?”

  “He was killed,” she answered, speaking softly. “Shot.”

  “Where?” Michael asked, a little too loud as he sputtered for a moment, shaking his head. “This isn’t possible.”

  “I felt the same way when Rémi called me. Apparently, it happened on Marc’s estate. Jean-Luc was shot in the chest and Marc took a bullet in the arm.”

  “Rémi told you this?” he asked, locking eyes with her as his brows pulled together, his expression softening. “You’ve met Rémi?”

  “We were just in Provence visiting the family,” she explained, her tone taking on an edge as she continued. “Meeting everyone that you and my father kept me from.”

  “You were there when this happened?” Michael looked confused, and she hated having to recount everything that absolutely wasn’t important at the moment.

  “No, I left a few days before.”

  “I can’t believe this…” he hissed, his hands turning to fists on the table. “Who would dare…”

  “Well, Rémi seems to think Lianna had a hand in it,” David filled in, and Michael’s glare snapped up to him.

  “That’s ridiculous. Lianna would never do something like that.”

  “Nice to know you think so highly of me since you made sure to tell Jean-Luc the absolute worst things about me and David,” she said, leaning back from the table as Michael swiveled toward her with a blaze in his eyes.

  “I told him the fucking truth. This bastard doesn’t deserve you. He deserves to be in here with the rest of the dogs.”

  “I’m the one who took a bullet for her, not you,” David replied, waving a hand at him as rage peppered his voice. “You let her father pull the goddamn trigger.”

  “I’m paying my dues. When are you gonna pay yours?” Michael snarled, and she balled her fist up and banged it on the table as quietly as she could manage.

  “This isn’t why we’re here!”

  “Why exactly are you here then?” he asked, leaning back to look between the two of them, his tone bitter and his expression sour. “Just to tell me the news? To rub it in my face that you’re still with this monster?”

  “No,” she forced out through gritted teeth, trying to take deep, slow breaths to calm down before she looked at him again. “I need to know what information you have about Marc and my father.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What were they doing together?” she asked. “Jean-Luc told me Marc had never worked with my father, or gone to see him, but I saw him myself. In the penthouse a few years ago, in the middle of the day, and he pretended to be someone else. Then, when I saw him again in Provence, he acted like he’d never met me before.”

  “Maybe you’re mistaken,” Michael replied, and she tried to swallow down her anger, grabbing onto David’s arm when he suddenly leaned forward like he was going to talk again.

  “It was only a few years ago, Michael. Joseph. Whatever.” Shaking her head, she pushed away the litany of lies the man had told her throughout her life. “Regardless of what you and my father clearly thought of me, I’m not an idiot, and I know it was him. I told Jean-Luc about it before I left, and just a few days later he dies on Marc’s estate? And Marc just gets a flesh wound? You can’t tell me that doesn’t sound suspicious.”

  “And he avoided Lianna the entire time we were there,” David added, much calmer than before. “Like he didn’t want her to confront him about it in front of the family.”

  Pointing at David, Michael seethed rage. “You don’t get to talk to me. She can talk to me. Not you.”

  Rolling her eyes, Lianna smacked the table in front of her. “Can we get on track? I need answers. Did Marc visit my father a lot?”

  Sighing, Michael wiped a hand over his face before staring at the table. “I wasn’t aware they were in contact… but that just makes me suspicious of it. If I’d known he came to see Robert, Alain, then I probably wouldn’t have thought a thing about it. They were family.” Wiping at his mouth, he shook his head slowly. “But hiding it from me… that means he wanted to keep it from Jean-Luc.”

  “Would you have told Jean-Luc if you saw them together?” she asked.

  “Probably,” Michael admitted, and she was surprised to see how easily he set aside his loyalty to her father. “If Jean-Luc asked about it, absolutely. He leads the family, and even though I worked for your father, we were all ultimately loyal to him.”

  “Except Mercier wasn’t exactly loyal…” David muttered, and Michael gritted his teeth, his hands balling into fists again.

  Men.

  “I think the more important question here is... how loyal is Marc?” Lianna waited for Michael to look at her again, and she did her best to show him how much she needed answers, because as much as she wished it were anyone else on the planet... he was the only one that could give them hope.

  “I don’t know Marc well enough to answer that question, Lianna, but if you’re right that he was meeting with Robert here in the states... and keeping it from me and Jean-Luc…” He lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug. “Then that doesn’t look good.”

  “It’s too bad you went and destroyed all of the evidence my father and I pain
stakingly put together over a decade, because we’d probably be able to prove it,” David said, crossing his arms.

  Michael dropped his head into his hands and propped his elbows on the edge of the table, but he didn’t answer. She couldn’t be sure if that was because David had said it, or if Michael really had destroyed everything like he’d told her, but silence reigned for a long minute.

  When he started shaking his head, Lianna leaned closer, keeping her voice quiet. “What are you thinking about, Michael?”

  “Could you just call me Uncle Mike? Even once?” he asked, looking up at her with pain in his eyes. “I’ve known you since the day you were born.”

  “And you took my mother from me,” she whispered. It hurt to see him in pain, she couldn’t deny that, but he deserved to hurt.

  “Dammit, Lianna…” He groaned, and she could have sworn his voice broke as he stared at the table, dropping his fist onto it. “If you only knew everything I protected you from. I did my fucking best.”

  “You don’t want to have this conversation with me, Michael,” she warned, feeling the rising tide of rage inside her that she’d never had the opportunity to launch at him or her father. “Are you going to help me or not?”

  Michael shook his head, hands pressed to his temples, and she could see the emotion in him. As much as she wanted to erase the memories, seeing him made her remember all the times he’d played with her when she was little, the panic when he’d taught her to drive, and a hundred other memories tainted by the overwhelming one of him admitting that he’d killed her mother.

  There was no coming back from that. Not ever.

  “Fuck it,” she whispered. “Maybe we should just leave.”

  “No!” Michael said, loud enough to draw the attention of the guards. Muttering under his breath, he finally brought his gaze back to hers. “Look, I’m doing this for you, Lianna. Not for him. You are the only person I’d do this for, because... cause I’m hoping it might redeem me a little in your eyes. Hell, I didn’t even tell Jean-Luc what I’d kept.”