Page 61 of Merrick

“How did you know I would be there?”

“I studied your movements,” she took a step forward when he staggered.

“You studied me.”

“Merrick…”

“Don’t!” He snapped it out. “Everything was a lie.”

“Not everything,” she whispered.

He laughed harshly. “Oh, I know the climaxes were not faked, that much I realize, but everything else was. How far did you intend to take it?”

“We are wrapping things up. Look, several people are dead, and I had to do something.”

“And you believe my company is involved.”

“All evidence points to that.”

He was suffocating, his throat tightening and his bowels felt loose. He wanted to lie down, wanted to die, or just drink himself into oblivion. “Well, Detective Sullivan, I suppose I will be seeing you in your official capacity. You may go.”

“Merrick…”

“Get the hell out of my office and if you ever come near me again, I will alert my lawyers. Good job detective, you have gone above and beyond the call of duty. I hope the squad appreciates your sacrifice. Get the hell out of my sight.”

She was surprised she was able to walk to the doors. Tears blinded her eyes and her knees were knocking. She felt sick and weak. She had broken his heart and ended up breaking hers. Pushing the doors open, she stepped out and stumbled towards the elevator.

He drank. An entire bottle of scotch and opened another one. But it was not enough to make him feel better. He was destroyed. He had opened his heart twice and they had both ended in disaster and tragedy. This was the worse, because of the level of emotions, the intensity of the passion he had experienced with her.

He felt as if he was falling over a cliff with no hope of surviving. He wasn’t going to survive this one. Losing Laura and his unborn son had been devastating. But this was even worse. He did not want to live. He just wanted to die.

*****

She considered it a miracle that she made it home in one piece. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she navigated traffic and thank God that she knew her way home by heart. It was as if the vehicle drove itself.

She drove into her driveway and just sat there.

The look on his face was going to haunt her for the rest of her life. She had broken him. In her arrogant quest to get to the bottom of the case, she had broken him. The last words he had said to her that night sprang to mind.

He had told her that he adored her, that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. And he had been through a lot, losing his fiancée and unborn son. He would never forgive her, and she accepted that.

Gripping the steering wheel, she looked out and to her surprise, discovered it had started raining. Rubbing the tears from her cheeks, she gathered her bag and hustled out of the vehicle.

*****

“She is a bloody cop?” Maurice turned to look at his brother in disbelief. “She’s a cop?”

“Yes.” Merrick was recovered enough to be able to study the warrant thoroughly. “It appears to be in order.”

“We should call our lawyers…”

“I’m a lawyer, remember?” He looked over at Margo and she flinched at the contempt in his gaze. “You may proceed.”

“We decided to do the raid after business hours…”

“Get on with it, will you?” He cut her off curtly and turned towards his brother, shaking his head as he opened his mouth. “Let them do their job.”

Margo had to command herself to appear professional.

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