Saint or Sinner

by Jolie Day

  And it was a man.

  Mira screamed.

  “Mira. Calm down. It’s me, Luke… Mira, calm down!” He seemed to repeat these words a few times on an endless loop and it took a while until Mira finally realized, who it was. Luke. It was Luke. She took a deep breath and wiped away her tears.

  “Did you not hear me? Why didn’t you answer?”

  “Come this way into my office. Everything is okay,” he repeated without answering any questions and leading her slowly in the right direction.

  Mira blinked away the last of her tears. Her heart was still racing, but she was at least able to calm her breathing down somewhat. “I am so sorry,” she said quietly, and she was so thankful for his warm hand on her upper arm. He obviously knew exactly, where they were going, because there was no hesitation in his movements. Now, he stood very closely next to her and she could make out his silhouette in the darkness, but suddenly his appearance… what was that? Suddenly, standing so close to Luke Bishop in the darkness didn’t feel right at all anymore. Her stomach cramped together in a tight knot, as if her gut felt something was wrong. She slowed down. Luke’s grip on her upper arm became immediately somewhat tighter and he pulled her with him to wherever he was going.

  They had long passed his office.

  Mira cleared her throat.

  “What is it?” Luke asked, without stopping.

  His voice suddenly seemed disembodied and it hit her like a slap in the face. She had heard this exact voice before — in this very hallway, when she had been attacked in the darkness.

  Luke had been the man who had attacked her — who had threatened and humiliated her. Mira was absolutely certain about this and it scared her. “Come on, we are almost there,” he said.

  “I still need to get something from my office,” she said, which was the first thing that came to her mind.

  “That can wait until later,” he replied and then he stopped for a moment. “First, let me make you a cup of tea to help you calm down a little and then you can tell me what happened.”

  “Sure, I’d love to,” she lied badly. “But first,” she stopped and literally stemmed her feet into the ground, “I need to let Connor know.” To her it felt as if his name was like a good luck charm — even though she could only say it, its power reached so far that it should scare Luke into running away, thereby protecting her.

  Luke stopped again. For one very short moment, Mira had the absolutely insane idea that her thoughts would actually come true and everything would be okay. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Luke tightened his grip on her arm so much that she was unable to suppress a small whimper.

  “What gave it away?”

  “What?” she asked perplexed. Time. She needed time. If she managed to gain his trust again, then maybe Connor would show up just in time.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Her voice sounded unnaturally high pitched and shaky.

  “Do not lie to me.”

  He spoke extremely calmly. “You and I will now leave this building together, as if nothing has happened and you will remain calm.” Something very pointy was pressed against her neck. It was a knife. “We will take the lift all the way down into the garage. Should you see anybody, don’t even think about calling for help.” The sharp edge left her throat and the knife was now held against her side instead. “One word and I will perforate your liver. You will bleed out in less than a minute. So, think very carefully about what you do.”

  “What about my jacket and my handbag?” The shaking had subsided slightly. Her senses suddenly took in her surroundings with almost supernatural precision.

  “You won’t need it,” he scoffed. How had she ever felt that he was genuinely a nice and warm-hearted guy?

  “What if someone sees that I am leaving with you, without my things? Is that not suspicious? The concierge will definitely see it.” At least she was hoping that he would.

  “Ben is very busy at the moment.” Did that mean, that the concierge was also one of the Mafia’s paid people? “Keep going.” She blinked as they left the hallway of Dumont Ltd. The light was too bright, but Luke didn’t seem to care about that. He stood behind her, one hand possessively grabbing her shoulder, the other one seemingly casually pressed into her side. Any neutral person observing this scene would have guessed that he was just holding her caringly. He pressed the button for the lift, which had just stopped on the ground floor.

  “It was you who murdered my father,” Mira then said. She noticed that her pulse was surprisingly calm. It was laughable, but she almost felt free. She finally knew who had killed her dad and she was able to give that bastard who had attacked her, a face. However, she had never anticipated that that face would be that of a man whom she had trusted, which really didn’t make this whole thing any easier, but at this point it didn’t even matter. Not anymore.

  She heard him laugh. “Nope, that wasn’t me, even though I would have gladly done it. Your father was like a flag in the wind and he had no backbone. Every time his wife badgered him about stopping with the criminal business, he came crawling back to her crying like a baby. But as soon as someone waved a fat bundle of bank notes in his face, he changed his mind again and did exactly what they told him to do.”

  That hurt. But he was talking, which was exactly what Mira wanted him to do. “If it wasn’t you, then who else could it have been? One of your killer friends?”

  “You should look closer to home,” he sneered. His words surprised her so much that she wanted to turn to look at him, but the knife in her ribs prevented that. What was Luke trying to tell her — that it had been Suzanne after all? Suddenly, she felt an electric shock tighten her body, when she remembered George’s email. He had also suspected Suzanne! No way, that was impossible! Her own sister…

  The lift came back up to them. It was only one floor below them. Mira’s eyes wandered to the door that led to the staircase. Maybe when the lift doors opened would be her only chance to escape. Once she sat in his car, there was no way she would be able to get away from him.

  Only three seconds left, maximum. She had to make a decision. Immediately, her whole body tensed up, which was possibly what gave her plan away. “Don’t even think about it,” he whispered into her ear. He had leaned into her from behind — way too close for comfort — and Mira almost felt like she was going to puke.

  Pling. The lift doors opened slowly to either side. Mira looked inside and hoped that someone would be inside the cabin, who could possibly recognize her fearful look and understand her situation. It was empty. She could feel how her immense disappointment made her knees buckle beneath her. This had been her last chance before Luke would stuff her into his car. She remembered Russell’s words about the concrete shoes and immediately her fear returned. If no miracle saved her right now, then she would be gone forever.

  That was the very second when she heard the door to the staircase close behind them. She had focused so much on the lift that she hadn’t even realized that someone had opened it. “Do not move,” Luke whispered.

  She looked to her left. Her heart skipped a beat.

  It was Connor, who stood there with his hand in his jacket. “One step closer and you can hold her in your arms while she bleeds to death.” This warning was aimed at Connor. Mira held her breath and stiffened her entire body. “Hand over the gun.”

  “Stay calm,” her lover said as he pulled out the weapon from underneath his jacket. He held it by the barrel, so Luke could see that he wouldn’t be able to fire it quick enough in order to shoot him. Luke now turned himself and Mira, so that they could both see Connor directly. The cowardly bastard was using her as his shield!

  “Put the gun on the floor,” Luke demanded. Connor moved extremely slowly, as he bent down onto his knee. He put the gun on the floor in front of him.

  “Push it towards me with your foot.”

  No. No. If Connor gave up the only weapon that could stop Luke, then they would both be in trouble! Mira looked str
aight into Connor’s eyes, but he didn’t give anything away and she couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. If he could at least give her a small hint, so she would know how to react in time — but nothing like that happened. He took half a step backwards and then moved his foot carefully towards the gun, before kicking it just enough so that it would slide right in front of Luke’s leather shoes.

  She felt Luke lower his head to look at it.

  That was when Connor jumped towards them. He seemed to kick himself off the ground like a cat, reached out his hand, and hit Luke with such force that his opponent lost his footing and fell backwards. Mira realized that the knife was no longer poking into her side and she wanted to move out of the way, but it was already too late for that. One push with his open hand immediately sent her flying to the ground. Connor then literally jumped over her and landed behind her on top of Luke, who held up the knife to defend himself.

  Mira saw how Connor’s body stiffened.

  She saw the gun lying on the floor near her, so she grabbed it with both hands. Connor was still on top of Luke, who now tried to wiggle his way out from underneath him. Mira could see the trail of blood. It was bright red blood that immediately made her turn cold and hard on the inside.

  Luke wanted to get to his feet, but she pressed the gun into his back.

  “Do not move,” she said and was unable to form any logical thought in her brain, because the man she loved was dying right beside her.

  Luke groaned annoyed and acted as if he wanted to stand up.

  That was all it took. Mira pulled the trigger.

  Chapter 25

  She functioned without thinking, as if someone had put her on autopilot.

  She turned Connor over and searched with shaking fingers for his pulse. It was weak, but it was there, and she took a deep breath. She needed to act quickly and rationally. Luke had collapsed next to him, but she didn’t dare pull Connor away from him, because she feared that any movement of his body would cause him to lose too much blood. She took the knife and then she had a look at the wound. She silently prayed that it was just a flesh wound. Connor opened his eyes when she pulled her shirt over her head and began to bandage his arm. There was a lot of blood, but Mira didn’t think that any artery had been injured.

  “Call Peter,” Connor said. He tried to sit up, but she pushed him gently back onto the floor.

  “I will,” she replied. She didn’t trust her own voice to say more than these words. Don’t cry, she forced herself. Connor turned his head to the side and saw Luke’s collapsed body.

  “Did you…” he started, but Mira interrupted him as she pulled the shirt around his arm into a tight knot.

  “Be quiet.”

  It was unbelievable, but he smiled at her. “It is not as bad as it looks,” he said with a surprisingly strong voice. Despite his protestation, however, he was still very pale and sweaty. “I can walk, if you help me.”

  Okay then. He was right. The faster they could make it to a doctor, the better. Mira had shot without thinking and did not know if Luke had been critically wounded, but she couldn’t risk it.

  They managed to get to the hallway that was still shrouded in darkness. Mira helped Connor to sit down on the floor. “Give me the gun,” he croaked. “If he…”

  “Shh,” Mira said sharply and handed him the weapon. Then she ran. The darkness didn’t bother her that much anymore. She found a door and opened it. It was Sarah’s office. Mira wasted no time trying the landline and instead walked through the room. Apart from the fact that she didn’t actually know Peter’s number by heart, all the connections in the company were probably dead without power. Finally, she found Russell’s old office. There was her handbag. She didn’t rummage through it, but instead emptied the entire contents onto the floor until she found her mobile phone. She swiped across the screen. She had saved Peter’s number. It seemed to take forever, before he finally picked up. When she heard the voice of a woman, she remembered what he had told her. This was some kind of operator, who would relay her message to him. Dammit. She almost wanted to hang up, when the woman spoke to her. “I can see from your number that you are Miss Dumont. Mr. van den Burgh has informed me.” For a split-second, Mira couldn’t understand the connection between the strange sounding name and Peter. “Please stay calm, Miss Dumont. My name is Jessica Hopkins and I am Mr. van den Burgh’s secretary. Where are you and how can I help you?”

  Mira finally came back to reality. She hurriedly told the lady as quickly as possible what had happened and then started to run back to the hallway. She could just as well talk on the phone while sitting next to Connor. She reached him, still answering the calmly asked questions of this woman. Mira thought she could hear the clacking sound of fingers typing on a keyboard in the background.

  “Mr. van den Burgh has all the information,” she then said. “I can see that he is only around 12 minutes away from you. You said that you have eliminated the perpetrator. Is there a possibility that other suspects could be in the building?”

  Mira forced herself not to scream at the lady. A part of her understood that the woman had to collect as much information as possible, at the same time trying to calm her down, but she was close to losing her patience.

  She sank next to Connor on her knees and felt his hand. It was cold and clammy. Without thinking, Mira just laid her phone to one side and leaned over to Connor.

  His pulse was very weak at this point. “If you die on me right now, I will never forgive you,” she whispered.

  There was no answer.

  Mira threw her arms around the man, who had given his own life to save hers, and she did the only thing she could do at this point: wait.

  ****

  One week later, Mira, Connor, Peter, and Suzanne all sat at the kitchen table in her parents’ house. Peter had come by to tell them what had happened with Luke Bishop after his team had shown up, and also, what would happen next. When he reached the point where he explained why he had been so close by, Mira almost didn’t want to believe him. Sarah Philips, her father’s former secretary, had called Peter and told him that Luke Bishop had been extremely nervous all day, which was uncharacteristic of him. The revelation that Ms. Philips had been the secret informant who had infiltrated the company all those years ago, was shocking to Mira. Seventeen years ago, it had been her mission to spy on Jack Dumont. When Mira had taken over the lead in the company, she was supposed to keep an eye on the new boss.

  “I can’t believe that she stayed there for all those years,” Mira mumbled.

  “Why not? We do have a lot of stamina,” Peter’s we obviously referred to the secret organization, “ and the case was still very much ongoing and unsolved.” Mira looked at him speechlessly. What else was there to it?

  Once Peter was done with his report, he seemed completely relaxed, as he always did, and apart from his arm in a sling, even Connor didn’t really seem to be perturbed by any of these scary events. However, Suzanne and Mira felt like two veterans after some long war, who couldn’t believe that the fight was finally over.

  “I still cannot believe it,” Suzanne said, and it hadn’t been the first time she had mentioned it. She looked at Connor, who gave her a small smile. “I…”

  “If you say it one more time, I will lose it and scream,” Mira warned her sister and it was meant to sound like half a joke, but it didn’t really come across like that. After having been without any medication for almost two weeks, Suzanne was now in a phase that made her feel invincible and strong. Even though it was obviously better than having a constantly dazed sister, which she had been before, Mira found this new-found bravado a little tiring. Connor, who had now moved in with them, felt the same way. Surprisingly, his former client had returned to L.A. and Mira had demanded that he stay close to her. She wanted to keep an eye on him and make sure that he would actually take things a little slower so that he could recover fully, but the truth was that she literally felt safer when he was around. Since she also didn’t want
to leave Suzanne alone, she had simply moved Connor into their home.

  Peter’s lips twitched. He obviously got a kick out this new living situation and the newly-created patchwork family, as he called it. “If I am honest, I can hardly believe it myself,” he repeated Suzanne’s sentence. “Almost all of the loose ends have now come to a conclusion. Forbes has testified and given a complete confession. With his help, we should be able to not only link Luke Bishop with the murder of your father and that of Lacroix, but this might also result in a real blow to the operations within the Mafia.”

  “So, the raid last night was successful,” Connor assumed. He might come out of this with another scar, but at least he was finally able to clear his name. Not that he cared much about either of these things. From the beginning, he had only really been interested in the truth about what had really happened that fateful night.

  He couldn’t care less about the opinions of people and as for the scar, he would wear it with pride and look at it as if it was an honorable award. Those had been his words and Mira understood what he had meant by that. She felt similarly. For her, his wound was a visible sign of his love for her, which would remind her until the end of her days, how much he had risked for her. Without hesitation, and without reservation.

  “He said that he didn’t kill my dad, though.” Mira said into the silence.

  For everyone involved, the raid had different consequences. For Peter, it was the conclusion of a case. Now he was finally able to leave everything to the prosecution to handle the case and state the truth, using all of the legal measures that they had to use to bring down the heads of the organization. Mira realized that Peter van den Burgh sometimes had to get his hands dirty to get a job done, particularly when a case would have him balance precariously on the fine line between legality and criminality — just to keep others clean. For Connor, the raid had also led to some kind of conclusion. He was able to close this book and finally start to plan his future. Suzanne had been hit the hardest, Mira thought. Even though she held her head high and pretended to be strong, there was a lot that wasn’t clear just yet. When Mira had carefully asked her if she loved Russell — since the mysterious connection between them had never really been obvious to her — Suzanne hadn’t really given her a clear answer to confirm or deny it. Russell Forbes had told his story, as they said he would, and he would be taken into the witness protection program. There had been moments when Mira didn’t believe that he deserved the safety of a brand new life, but in the end, Connor had summed it all up quite perfectly.