Page 102 of This Moment

He blanched but then quickly recovered. “If it were up to me, I’d let you go.”

“Would you?”

“I know you don’t believe me, but I do care about you.”

“Then don’t do this, Michael.”

He let out a bitter laugh. “What else can I do? I told you I don’t have a choice. I’m in too deep now.”

I sat down on the sofa. “Why don’t you just go to the FBI?”

“And do what? Tell them I killed someone? They’ll put me in jail and my father will still get away with everything he’s done.”

“You could testify against your father. You probably have so much on him they could put him away for life.”

He stared at me. “You want me to turn against my father? He’d have me killed.”

“Listen to what you just said, Michael. You can’t even entertain turning your dad in, but he wouldn’t think twice about killing you. That isn’t normal.”

Michael’s shoulders slumped, and he stared at the floor. “He has people everywhere, Katy. You have no idea. He’d be able to get to me in jail.”

“What if you didn’t go to jail? What if you worked out a deal to testify against him but were put in some kind of protection program?”

When he looked at me, I swore something in his eyes changed. Was that…hope? Did Michael want out from under his father’s thumb?

“You don’t have to do this.”

He closed his eyes. “I don’t have a choice.”

“Everyone has a choice. You’re scared, and I get that. I was terrified after I saw you shoot that man. So scared, I ran away from the only life I’ve ever known. From my family. If I can do it, you can do it.”

Michael stood and started to pace. He was thinking about it, and that was all I needed—a little bit of hope. I could work with that.

“Nothing is tying you to Boston. You could go anywhere, start a new life and put the past behind you.”

He stopped and looked at me. “What about my sister? My mother? Melanie? I wouldn’t be able to ever see them again, and God knows what he would do to Melanie.”

“Maybe she could come with you. You’d be free, Michael. You wouldn’t be forced to do your father’s dirty work.”

Shaking his head, he closed his eyes. “I don’t know, Katy. I’m so fucking scared for you…for me…for my sister. Melanie. If my father pulled me into this, how do I know he won’t do the same to her?”

“Then stop him, Michael. You have the power to do that.”

He turned and looked at the door, then frowned. “Do you hear that?”

The sound of a helicopter flew overhead. “Yes.”

“Is that a helicopter?”

I followed him as he walked outside and looked up.

“Michael, I don’t know how to tell you this, but this cabin…the FBI has been watching it, and there is a silent alarm.”

He spun around and looked at me. “What? How in the world would you know that?”

I let out a humorless laugh. “Funny thing…I rented this cabin. It’s owned by the guy I’m dating. I was staying with him at his family home because the FBI thought it would be safer than here.”

Blinking at me, Michael opened his mouth to say something then shut it. Then he laughed. “Safer? Holy shit, Katy. I managed to get you out of that mansion without them knowing and I didn’t even know what in the hell I was doing.”

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