Authors Note: Thanks for all your patience and reviews. I have been battling some illnesses and I had multiple surgeries so I am so sorry it's taken me so long to be able to update but I seem to be getting my writing mojo back and I am hoping that at the moment this is the beginning of being able to keep up with the updates and keep posting new chapters. Thanks for reading and thanks for sticking with me.
Kris
Chapter 8
Alexa could see that Don was nervous about something. It had been a few weeks since the night she had told him about her friend, Ashlyn, and since then they had seemed to get a long a lot better and it almost seemed like they were even closer than before. Alexa didn't have much of a personal life before going on the run, and when you were on the run and trying not to get close to people so that they wouldn't be killed, it means you have no personal life at all, not even to make some friends or go to party here or there, you just didn't slow down and take time to really talk to people or get to know them. Alexa knew that she had uprooted Don's whole life and put a bulls eye on his back that she wasn't sure she could ever get taken off, unless she solved the whole case and got everyone arrested. Alexa was aware that Don wanted her to agree to go in and spend some time with his team, but she wasn't sure if she could actually do that, she wasn't sure if it would be a good idea or not. She wanted to be able to trust other people, to believe that there might be a chance to allow someone to help get the evidence needed to make sure that everyone is arrested, and that there is no chance that they could hurt another person.
"Why do you truly believe that us going to your friends or meeting them somewhere, allowing them a face to face meeting won't go wrong for us? Why do you think they can help keep us safe and alive?" Alexa asked as she walked over and sat across from the man she had realized she had started trusting and believing in more than she realized.
"I know how good and how smart these people are. Mac was in the military before, he is extremely good at his job and I know that him and his team of investigators can get closer and closer to getting what they need, and then they will get what they need. Mac doesn't like to lose, when he knows someone is guilty he looks at angles that other people don't usually think about." Don said, seeing that Alexa was trying to do what she thought would work, and she was giving him a chance to convince her that bringing in those he trusted within the NYPD would be the best bet.
"I don't want to be the reason so many more people, so many more good cops, would be killed. I don't know who the dirty one within the NYPD is that is connected to them, and I don't know how far he would be willing to go to make sure he got away with everything and got what he wanted." Alexa said as she paced back and forth.
"Well, we can't just keep on the run, it's not going to solve anything and it's not going to make sure that the case is made and evidence is found." Don said softly.
"You're right, I know you are." Alexa said as she nodded her head softly. "We'll start making plans with the messages back and forth about what to do."
Mac couldn't believe what he was reading as she saw what Don had written. Alexa had finally seen reason and knew that she needed to come in and she needed to allow them the chance to help protect her and to help be there for her. Mac had a feeling that Alexa knew more than even realized. There was a chance she was blocking out information, information she didn't want to admit she knew and that could be useful. Mac was wondering if there was something that had happened to Alexa when it came to this case, something that had hurt her, scared her or just plain damaged her to the point that her mind was protecting her from the information, and it was most likely the information that was being blocked, that would help them make this case. Mac started making plans on how to work out the meeting and where the whole protection thing would start going down. He needed Alexa to know that this time, this time she would be safe and this time, Mac Taylor wasn't going to let her die or get badly hurt, he was going to make sure she had a chance to laugh and smile again, all without wondering when she was going to end up dead for being a good cop, a clean cop.
He knew right away that his new plan was ready to be put into motion, and he was glad to hear it. He needed to have his people back off a little, let Alexa relax a little and that would allow everything he wanted to move into position. Alexa had always wanted to have family around, and he remembered hearing about how badly she wanted a chance to be a mother and how she would always be there for her child, do anything to protect her child and raise their child in a loving and safe home. He smirked at his image in the mirror, knowing that this was something really low, even for him. He had been trying to figure out the best way, but he had a feeling that the detective that Alexa had run off with, well, he might not be able to resist once he has a chance to be alone with her and they aren't getting shot at. If they had someone else backing them up, someone else watching things at night so they don't have to, and if they don't have to worry about something really horrible happening, they would have a real chance to get together and if there was a chance that Alexa could have a child, he would have completed and total control.
He was aware that there was only a slim chance that Alexa's genius brain and genetics would be fully passed down to the child, although he could sweeten the pot by finding a way to either grab her up or by getting someone else to get in there and forcing someone with her intelligence to help with the baby plan, but that would still take too long for the child to be able to help him, so he would need Alexa and the best way to get her, would be to have complete control over her child and anything she could do for him. He would just either grab her as she got near a due date or she would wait till she gave birth and take care of things in the hospital where she and the child would be vulnerable, either way he still had plenty of time to decide, now he would just need Alexa and her little nobody detective to put things in motion.
"Soon you will be doing everything I tell you to and no one will be the wiser. I will make sure that every piece of evidence you ever had on me gets destroyed and I will be untouchable, and you will make sure of it." He said as he glanced at the picture of Alexa he had on the wall, the picture that had knives in it since he threw knives at her picture when he was annoyed, bored or angry. He laughed as he realized he was finally going to get what he needed to get done, and there was no way anyone would be able to stop him this time.
Alexa didn't know what it was, but she knew something was bothering her. She felt a shiver work down her spine and she wasn't sure if it was a sign telling her this was a bad idea. She felt Don squeeze her hand under the table and knew he was trying to encourage her, but it was only making it worse. Before she could make any decisions, Mac showed up and it was clear he brought everyone with him that he had said he would. Alexa could see the people that were heavily armed, and most of them weren't cops, they were ex military. Alexa was glad to know that she wouldn't have to worry about a dirty cop taking the bait to kill her and anyone she had become close to, but the fact that these were former military still put a little bit of a scare in her. Alexa wasn't sure why, but she had a feeling that her fight to finally be free and to take down these people, was barely beginning and that scared her because she had already done so much work, it just meant there was so much more there to see and know, and if that was true, she was in for a very long and tiring battle, a battle that she wasn't even sure she had any chance at winning.
Mac saw the guy that he was worried had been following them and Mac kept a hand on the gun holstered at his hip. It seemed like he had gotten himself made on purpose and Mac was concerned that this guy might have been ordered to be seen. Mac wasn't sure what was going on, but one second the guy was glaring at their table and the next he had an automatic rifle in his hand and Mac yelled out as he returned fire. Mac wasn't sure who was hurt and who wasn't, but it seemed that Alexa had been right to be worried about coming in, and now he wasn't sure how he could convince her to stay and he wasn't sure who might have been wounded in the gun battle in the diner.
