Redemption (21 page)

Michelle’s nervousness wasn’t entirely unwarranted. Not tonight. Tonight we had company. I’d noticed him as soon as we entered the park. He didn’t even try to be subtle these days. Superintendent Winston had been following us through the park for the last ten minutes.  

“Let’s sit down for a bit,” I said, as we finally found an empty bench to sit on. I pulled out my phone and pretended to send a message while using the camera to zoom in and see if Winston was still following. The image quality was pretty bad, but I could make him out a hundred yards back. He’d stopped walking when we sat down and was now just hanging around looking conspicuous. “Shit,” I muttered under my breath.

“Everything okay?” Michelle asked.  

Right now I wanted nothing more than to hang out with Michelle, but I couldn’t even do that without Winston getting in the way.  

“Winston’s over there,” I said, pointing in his direction. “He’s following us tonight.”

“Why would he be following us? Have you done something wrong?”

“No, nothing like that.” At least, not this time. “He’s had it in for me for a while, but he hasn’t followed me for some time. I guess he’s decided to take a more personal interest in me again. Or maybe he just likes staring at that perfect little arse of yours. Can’t say I blame him.”

“Ew, I really hope not. That guy creeps me out.”

“So he should. Winston can’t be trusted.”

“I’m sure he thinks he’s doing the right thing.”

“No,” I said firmly. “He doesn’t. I can’t prove this, but I’m fairly certain he’s corrupt. Bought and paid for. Listen, if he ever approaches you or Maisie, you must not speak to him. Don’t say a thing.”

“Oliver, you’re kind of scaring me now. What’s going on? If you’ve done something, you can tell me about it.”

“It’s not like that. If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell Maisie? I don’t want it getting back to Shaun.”

“As long as it doesn’t put her in any danger, sure.”

“I think Superintendent Winston was involved in the death of Shaun’s dad.”

“Holy shit,” Michelle exclaimed, just as an old couple walked past, causing them to glare at us. “That would explain why Shaun told us he was a bad man the other day at the police station. I thought that was weird.”

“I haven’t told Shaun about Winston, but he might have picked up on some of the details. I’ve been trying to keep it a secret from him, but he’s a bright kid.”

“So what happened?”

“Shaun’s dad was involved in something illegal. I won’t say what, but it wasn’t his fault. Anyway, he decided to go to the police. He told his story to Winston and immediately after he died in a car accident.”

“Oh,” Michelle said, as she looked over towards Winston. “That’s awful, but it could just be a coincidence. If Shaun’s dad had just made a big confession, then it would make sense that he might be a little agitated. That could have caused the accident.”

I shook my head. “It just doesn’t feel right.” I couldn’t tell her why I was so certain the car ‘accident’ wasn’t an accident.
Do you know how easy it is sabotage a car so that it breaks down at high speed? Scary stuff.

“Just promise me you won’t talk to him. If he follows you or tries to talk to you, go and speak to Chief Superintendent Hodgson immediately. She’ll look after you.”

Michelle nodded and suggested that maybe it was a good time to go home. I’d probably freaked her out with the talk of Winston, but I had to warn her. Winston disappeared as we walked back towards him the way we had come and I didn’t see him again. He wouldn’t dare come onto my land, but that didn’t entirely calm my nerves.  

Why was he back on my case again now? I could understand it when he was following me before. I was involved in the same gambling ring as Gary had been, so it made sense that he would have picked up my trail back then. But what about now?  

I still thought Winston was involved with Carl. Maybe Carl had paid him to keep the police off his back. Not that it did Carl much good; he was locked up now and would be for some time. The accident that killed Shaun’s dad happened just hours after Gary confessed to Winston. What if Winston had called Carl to tell him what Gary did? I knew I sounded paranoid, but that explanation made as much sense as any other.

We made a suitable amount of noise as we walked in so as not to sneak up on the young couple. The two of them were sat apart on the couch when we walked in, but they had the guilty look of two young people who had just moved apart because their parents had come home.

Michelle went and plonked herself straight between the middle of them and asked what they were up to.  

“Just streaming some shows on Netflix,” Maisie replied casually.  

We sat there and watched television with them, but the show was mind numbingly tedious and I soon started yawning. Michelle did little better at hiding her disinterest, so after half an hour she told Maisie it was time to leave and I called my driver.

I hated this part of the evening. I understood why Michelle didn’t think it appropriate to stay over and leave Maisie alone in a hotel, but it was frustrating as hell. The whole point of telling Maisie and Shaun about our relationship had been to avoid the need to sneak around, but we still had to disappear during the day while Maisie and Shaun were training.

My house was huge, but I’d never seen the need for more than two bedrooms. As a result, all the rooms had been converted into recreation rooms and places to hang out. Maisie could sleep on the sofa a few nights, but she couldn’t do that all summer. Not when she needed all her energy for rugby training.

“Isn’t it silly to go back to the hotel?” Maisie asked. “You clearly would rather stay here and I can crash on the couch.”

“You need a good night’s sleep on a proper bed,” Michelle explained. “Anyway, you shouldn’t be staying over with someone you’re dating at your age.”

Maisie rolled her eyes. “You were both gone for over an hour. We could have done so much sex in that time.”

“Come on,” Michelle said. “Let’s get a move on.”

Shaun and Maisie walked to the door, not quite holding hands, but certainly standing closer than they usually did. I tugged Michelle back gently to give the two young lovebirds a chance to say goodbye.  

“Don’t watch them,” I said. “Why don’t you say a proper goodbye to me instead?”

“Well, I wouldn’t want you to feel neglected.” Michelle wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me softly on the lips. I briefly forgot how close we were to the kids when my hand reached down and firmly squeezed her ass. She must have forgotten as well, because she didn’t bat my hand away.  

This couldn’t go on all summer. Hooking up for a few hours of sex each afternoon was nowhere near enough for me. It always felt like we’d barely gotten started when we had to stop again.  

Suddenly Shaun came running past me saying, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” before flying up the stairs. Michelle frowned and we both looked round the corner to see Maisie standing there in tears, before she fled outside to the waiting car.

Maisie wouldn’t speak to me in the car on the way back to the hotel. She did her best to stop crying, but the tears were still falling when she got to her room. I’d had my share of nights where I cried myself to sleep over boys, and the temptation was to let Maisie do the same, but she left the door open for me to follow her in.

“Do you want to tell me what all that was about back there?” I asked.  

All I’d seen was Shaun running up to his bedroom saying he was sorry about something. My first thought was that he’d tried to kiss her and she’d blown him off, but she looked even more upset than he did.

“Not really,” Maisie responded through tears. I kicked off my shoes and sat up cross-legged on her bad and patted the space next to me so that she would join me.  

“I’ll be honest,” I said softly. “Oliver is a convincing guy, so Shaun is bound to talk to him. Between what he finds out and what I find out, we’ll soon know the whole story anyway, so you might as well tell me.”

“He’s not interested in me,” Maisie said. “He made that pretty clear.”

“You two looked close when Oliver and I came in. I saw he had his arm around you on the sofa before the two of you darted apart when we walked in.”

Maisie smiled, although she was still crying. “You saw that?”

“Why do you think I sat in between you?”  

“Yeah, you kind of cramped my style there.”

“That was exactly the intent. So what went wrong?”

“I really don’t want to talk about this with my sister.”

“You’d rather talk about it with Mom?” I asked. “Despite what you sometimes say, I do not have a heart of stone. I’ve had boy troubles in the past too.”

“Yeah, but now you’ve got the perfect man.”

“Oliver’s not perfect,” I replied.

“Name one thing that’s not perfect about Oliver,” Maisie said. “Oh, does he have a really small—”

“No,” I replied immediately. “Definitely not. In fact, maybe his flaw is that it’s… you know what, never mind. How about the fact that he lives in another country? That’s going to be a problem at some point. Plus, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re technically related.”

“Oh man, I can’t wait until you have that conversation with Dad. You have to let me be there.”

“Only if you tell me what happened tonight,” I replied. I wanted Maisie there when I told Dad anyway. He might not get so mad if she was there. It’s not like we were close anyway. I still hadn’t seen him once on this trip and there was a good chance I’d go home without seeing him. That was just fine with me.

“I kissed him,” Maisie said, looking down at her lap as she spoke. “Or at least I tried to. It was just going to be a little kiss goodbye. It’s not like we were going to start making out with you and Oliver just around the corner. That would be weird.”

“Uh, yeah, that wouldn’t be right,” I said, relieved that at least Maisie had no idea what Oliver and I had been doing at that exact moment. We’d only kissed for a few moments, but it never took long for me to get excited, and I’d felt a few signs of Oliver’s eagerness pressing against me.

“He ran away when I got close,” Maisie said. “I’m sure you saw that part.”

“Shaun’s a nice kid, Maisie, but he’s also shy and quiet. He’s not as forward as you. He was probably just scared. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s never kissed a girl before.”

“That wasn’t it. I saw the look on his face as I moved closer to him. He cringed.” Maisie’s voice was shaking and the tears were coming faster now than they had done all night.  

I’d never seen her this upset before. Not since she first saw her face after the attack. I put my arm around her, but it felt woefully inadequate.

“He saw my scars,” Maisie sobbed, “and then he ran.”  

“I’m sure that’s not what—”

“That’s exactly what happened,” Maisie yelled. “Don’t you think I’ve seen that look a hundred times before? I know what it looks like when people are disgusted by my face. I know I pretend that I don’t care, but I do. I hate how ugly I am. I hate it.”

I couldn’t bear to look at Maisie right now. I couldn’t handle seeing her cry like this, but the last thing she’d want is for me to look away from her.  

My own tears started falling down my cheeks. I don’t know if it was guilt or seeing her upset, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to be strong for her, but once again I had failed miserably.

“Anyone who thinks you’re ugly doesn’t deserve you,” I said softly in her ear. “I think this is all a misunderstanding, but if it isn’t then you can just move on and forget about Shaun.”

“I can’t forget about him,” Maisie said. “I’m his aunt.” She laughed and pulled away from me to wipe the tears from her eyes.

“Do you want me to stay with you tonight?” I asked. “I can crash on the sofa. These rooms are far too big for one person anyway.”

“No, I’m fine. Honestly, I am. I just need some time to myself. Can you do me a favor though?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

“When you tell Oliver about this, can you leave out all the crying? Pretend I was just angry, and not upset.”

“Will do.” I stood up and slipped my shoes back on. Maisie did look a bit better now. I knew from experience that sometimes a decent crying session did a world of good, but I also knew that sometimes it wasn’t enough. It never had been for me when Oliver had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with me.