Chapter 35

Here's another installment. I hope you like it. Thanks for the comments!

Matt watched as C.J. approached the edge of the drop off.

"I'm here to help you," he said.

"That man…"

"He's not here and he can't hurt you," he said, grabbing for whatever words came to mind first.

She looked up at him, her face and part of her hair caked with drying mud.

"I know," she said, her voice shaking, "I killed him."

"No you didn't," he said, "Antonio came back to the house."

"No, not him."

His eyes narrowed until the realization hit him.

"Semour Piser."

She nodded and ran her hand through her hair.

"I had to get away," she said, "He caught me in his office and was going to kill me."

Matt inched closer, slowly so she wouldn't move closer to the edge.

"I stabbed him with a letter opener and he fell on the floor," she said, "then I ran from the office."

"C.J., you just did what you had to do to survive," Matt said, "And you did. You're not there anymore. You're here with me."

She looked back over the drop off to the rocks below.

"You don't need to escape," Matt said, "You already did that. You told me that you got swept down the river to safety and you got away."

She nodded slowly. He inched forward but she saw him and took one step backward.

"But he found me," she said, "I was running on the beach and all of a sudden, he was there."

"We took care of him, C.J.," Matt said, "He's not going to hurt you. He told me that he was one of the guards who took you to your cell."

She looked around her. Matt inched ever closer, until he was several feet from her.

"And he told me what happened to you when you got there."

Her eyes turned back towards him. Matt 's heart ached at what he saw there.

"I didn't…."

"I know," he said softly.

Her shoulders shook and she sank to the ground. When she lifted her face again, he saw tears streaming down her cheeks. He approached her and wrapped his arms around her and this time, she didn't fight him.

"I'm right here," he said, "and I'm not going anywhere."

She cried into his chest and he stroked her hair. And they stayed that way for a while.

Fran looked over at Chris.

"It definitely looks better on you," she said.

"Where'd you get this device anyway?"

Fran shrugged.

"A friend."

Chris looked up.

"A friend," she said, "What friend?"

Fran smiled.

"Before I met Carlos, I went out with a private investigator who was willing to spare a wire when he heard it was for a good cause."

"Does it work," Chris asked.

"We can try it out," Fran said, "But we need to go through a dry run with Rhonda to make sure she knows what to do."

Chris nodded.

"Are you nervous about this at all?"

Fran folded her arms.

"Hell yes," she said, "But you know we got to try this and who knows we might get lucky and the guy might drop his guard and spill something."

"Maybe…" Chris said but she had her doubts.

C.J. leaned her head against his chest as they sat together in the jungle. He still had his arms wrapped around her.

"I thought you'd hate me for what happened," she said.

"I could never hate you," he said, "Why would you think that?"

She grew silent. He stroked her hair off of her face.

"I did things I thought I'd never do," she said, "Each day there was something to get through, to survive. And some days I didn't want to. The things I saw, the things that happened."

"C.J., you can tell me anything," he said, "I'm not going to judge you."

"Maybe…"

"No maybes," he said, "

"I should have seen it coming," she said, "I should have known something was wrong."

His brow furrowed.

"What could you have seen?"

"Something didn't add up but I didn't pay any attention to that," she said, "And then…Scott."

"What about him?"

"He was the one who gave me the message to contact the person I was going to meet when I got ambushed in the parking lot," she said, "Chris warned me not to trust him."

"Why are you blaming yourself for all this?"

She looked away.

"It's my fault," she said, "You always reminded me yourself to be very cautious when agreeing to meet with people I didn't know. To trust my instincts…"

He put his fingers beneath her chin and steered her face towards his own.

"This isn't your fault, C.J.," Matt said, "If anything it's mine for allowing Scott back into the company."

"You didn't know," C.J. said, "Because I never told you."

Matt looked around and saw that the sky had grown darker as the sun set over the horizon.

"Come on, we'd better head back to the boat," he said, helping her up, "You going to be okay walking?"

"I can make it," she said, "You brought the boat?"

"Not just the boat, but some supplies," he said, "including some of Bertha's fish stew."

She smiled despite herself.

"Sounds good actually," she said, "I haven't eaten since last night."

"Come on," he said.

He wrapped his arm around her and she nestled her head in his shoulder just as she had done many times before and they headed back to the boat.

Dan looked over at Chris who still hadn't come to bed.

"What's keeping you up?"

She looked back at him and he lay there resting his head on his hand watching her.

"Nothing…"

That caught his attention.

"It doesn't sound like nothing to me."

She paused, looking at him.

"How far would you go to get a bad guy," she said, "you know back when you were a cop?"

He sat up in bed.

"As far as the law allows," he said.

"What if the law didn't allow you to do that?"

He looked at her a minute.

"Where is this coming from Chris?"

"No where," she said, "I'm just so frustrated at watching men who do truly evil things walk around as if nothing happened and…"

"Those who are out there doing good pay the consequences of their actions."

She nodded.

Dan smiled, but his eyes didn't.

"That's one reason why I'm no longer a cop," Dan said, "I couldn't handle that part of the job."

"Didn't you just for once want to step outside that line?"

"I don't think I like the sound of that."

Chris sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I just can't believe that we might never see Matt and C.J. again because of the actions of one evil man."

Dan looked up in response to the sadness etched in her voice.

"We'll see them again," he said, "The feds including Jonathon are working hard on this case and Matt and C.J. are working hard on their end wherever they are now."

"It's been so long already," she said, "It's not right that this Andre gets to go around in public, host galas and they have to stay in hiding."

"Life's not always fair, Chris," Dan said, "But I think we're going to get this guy somehow and then they'll come home."

She tried to smile.

He reached over to embrace her and she held onto him tightly.

C.J. sat on the boat eating stew and looking up in the night sky lit up by hundreds of stars.

"You're right," she said, "The sky's so beautiful here from the boat."

He wrapped a light blanket around her shoulders and sat down beside her.

"Yeah, you don't see stars like this back in L.A."

"No you don't," she said, putting her bowl down, "They look so close you can almost touch them."

"I did some of my best thinking out here," he said, "I had a lot to think about, after cancelling the wedding and traveling around. "

She turned her head to look at him.

"That was after you nearly died from stepping on a sting ray?"

His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"How'd you know about that?"

"Bertha told me about it," she said, "It sounds horrible."

"How much did she tell you," he said looking at her carefully.

"Not much, just that you nearly died but some medicine saved your life."

He relaxed and stretched out his legs.

"It definitely was a an experience which made me appreciate life," he said, slowly, "but what got me through it was thinking about all the people I'd left behind when I ran away and wanting so much to see them again. Uncle Roy, Will, my friends. You."

She looked at him then looked down at her hands. He followed her gaze and saw the scars etched in her palms.

"During the worst…times," she said, "I imagined what it would be like if I ever escaped and made it back home but each day, I felt myself being pulled further away from who I was."

He took one of her hands in both of his and held it.

"You're still you," he said, "You're still the woman who means more to me than I could ever say."

"I'm here for the job," C.J. said, laying her briefcase on the desk where Matt sat back in his chair with his cowboy boots resting on top of some papers.

He looked at her standing in front of him for a long minute, from her coiffed hair to her high heels. She knew he still remembered the tomboy of childhood and the quiet, studious woman who had always led her graduating class from high school to law school. But what he saw was that his long-time friend had grown into an attractive woman when he hadn't been looking.

"I can see that," he said, smiling, "Well sit down and we can talk about your qualifications. We're getting ready to set up an office in Los Angeles in a year or so and that would be your main responsibility if you get the job."

She looked around for a chair and found one beneath a stack of files.

"I thought you were working in the Houston Public Defender office," he said.

"I was," she said, "I am…I gave them my notice."

He nodded.

"That confident you would get the position?"

She looked at him and tossed her hair back. He smiled at the gesture that she often did when trying to reestablish her footing in a situation.

"I'm the best candidate for the job," she said, "I know everything about your company and its history. I work very hard and play harder."

He raised a brow.

"This job involves travel," he said, "Can you prepare to leave on short notice?"

"Yes I can," she said, "I can pack a suitcase for overnight or two weeks in less time than most people take to make plane reservations."

He studied her for a moment.

"Hey why don't we go out to lunch for this interview," he said, "Give us some chance to catch up. It's been a while since we've run into each other."

"The job's kept me really busy," she said.

"I've been traveling a lot, trying to take Daddy's company in a whole different direction," he said, "Set up offices in different cities around the world."

"You've done really well with it," she said, then when he raised his brow, "I've been reading about it in the trades."

"I heard on the grapevine that you received several job offers from well-known criminal defense attorneys," he said.

"A few," she said, "But I want to do something different and I want to work with you."

Matt thought back to that day when she had bombarded into his office and after a three hour lunch, he had hired her for the position. Together, they had mapped out the company's future and spent the next several years taking it there.

She put everything into the job and into the company that she said she would. She left town on business trips on the turn of a dime and worked late nights and early mornings as hard as he did. She had packed up and relocated in Los Angeles when it was time to start up the new office and they built that branch of its operations into a success. First she had to study for and pass one of the toughest Bar exams in the country to practice law and she did, despite having spent most of the three days doubled over in pain from what turned out to be appendicitis. The incredulous surgeon had asked her before rushing her into surgery when she had first noticed the pain and she said some time during the property law questions.

But then C.J. always backed up her promises and words with actions and had as long as he had known her. He knew now what she didn't tell him then that she had lost her enthusiasm for criminal defense law after her first encounter with Andre and had never regained it. She had tackled her new career with the enthusiasm and humor that she had brought into every corner of her life and working together had cemented their friendship into something that transcended it.

He looked over and noticed that she had drifted off to sleep beneath the blanket and underneath the stars. He stood up and went to radio Bertha, Brady and the others that he had found her and they would be returning the next day.

Andre picked up the phone in his office.

"This is Duval," he said, "Is this about the Singapore shipment?"

"Yes," the man on the other end said, "It arrived on schedule and they all cleared customs."

"Were the officials provided with incentive packages?"

"Yes, but we have to be more careful than ever," the man said, "These are difficult times."

"I'm heading out of the country tomorrow night or the next day," Andre said, "I have some business to settle here with one of the local foundations."

"You taking this charity gigs of yours to another level?"

"Hardly, these women are friends of the one I told you about, the one who escaped."

"Whatever happened with her?"

"She's still missing," Andre said, "My men have been out looking for her. She's with a friend of hers, the owner of Houston Enterprises. He's very good at staying beneath the radar but it won't matter. We will find them."

"Do you think they've contacted anyone in Houston?"

Andre smiled.

"That's what I plan to find out."

She woke up back in the garden, with crickets chirping and the moon light shining across the path. She sat as she usually did on the back steps waiting for him.

"You're unusually quiet tonight," he said as he sat down beside her.

"Just thinking," she said, looking at him.

"About what?"

She paused.

"How much I've missed you," she said, "I know I haven't been around as much."

"I've noticed," he said, slipping his arm around her shoulder.

"That project has me so busy, Houston," she said.

"Then why don't you get Murray or some of the other accountants like Scott to help you?"

She grew quiet. He looked at her more closely.

"What's wrong," he asked, "Is it Scott? What aren't you telling me?"

She looked at him, her eyes unreadable then shook her head.

"Nothing…I know you're happy that he's back at Houston Enterprises."

"Happy's not exactly the word for it," Matt said, "I feel like he needed the favor. Sometimes I think he's never going to grow up."

"He hasn't really changed, has he?"

"No he hasn't," Matt said, "If you have something that's bothering you about him, I wish you'd tell me…"

She hesitated.

The sky darkened and her surroundings hushed into silence. She stood in another room miles away with Andre who paced around her.

"I know this man helped you," Andre said, "And he will be punished severely. If there are any others, I will get it out of him before I kill him. As for you…"

"No, don't hurt him," C.J. said, "He just stopped by to ask how I was feeling. Nothing else."

He grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to him.

"As I said, I'll find out the truth from him before I kill him."

"There's nothing to find out."

"If you're protecting anyone…"

"There's nothing he can tell you," she said, pulling her arm loose from his grip.

"My best men will find out if that's the case."

C.J.'s eyes darted around the room, her mind working quickly.

"Wait…I'll do whatever you want."

He stroked her arm.

"I know you will."

She nodded, thinking of the young woman who had helped her whose life rested in her hands.

"Okay..."

She reached for him.

"You have ten minutes to convince me to change my mind about killing him," Andre said.

She looked at him and nodded and then she was someplace else watching the both of them.

Matt turned around when he heard her murmuring in her sleep. She had pushed her blanket off of her and she shifted the position of her body. Her brow furrowed, her eyes moved below her lids. He sat down next to her.

C.J. woke up, her heart pounding struggling to breathe. She looked around her and saw him. Matt grabbed her by the shoulders and thought she would pull away but she didn't.

"I can't get away from him," she said.

"Sure you can," he said, pulling her to him, "I'll sit here with you."

She leaned into him and he could feel her heart beating quickly.

"I don't know why I thought he wasn't lying about not killing him."

"Who lied about killing who?"

She grew silent and he wasn't sure she'd answer. She wiped some tears away with her hand and continued.

"One of the guards that Andre thought was helping me but he wasn't," she said, "I tried to stop him from killing him anyway I knew how but Andre still had him brought in the room. He shot him right in front of me. "

Matt closed his eyes for a while, pulling her closer.

"Why were you trying to protect a guard?"

She looked at him.

"He wasn't the one I was protecting."

Elena placed her bags on her bed inside her quarters. She passed her desk and saw some more folders there of documents to look through and process. She sighed, deciding that could wait until tomorrow and thought again about the woman she had talked to in the United States. Was she right in that Andre a man who had never said an unkind word to her was a monster who hurt other women? She still found it difficult to reconcile the two images of him, the one she knew and the other one that two women had told her about. But she knew she didn't really know much about what the senor did outside her presence.

She thought back to how unhappy C.J. had been while staying with her employer. And how she had escaped one night and didn't return. The night she had given her the necklace.

Elena found herself trusting Chris as she had trusted her friend and knew that this woman had been concerned about her. Still she was at a loss of what to do. It had been a close call last time.

She lay back on her bed, fingering the necklace and knew she had to get answers to her questions from some place.

C.J. and Matt rested together on the boat and listened to the water lapping gently against its side.

"Did your nightmares ever stop," she asked.

He nodded.

"They did, but it took time."

She closed her eyes.

"I wish I had it all to do over," she said.

"So do I."

She looked at him in surprise.

"Why, what do you wish you could change?"

"Hiring Scott back…"

"He's your friend," she said.

"He was my friend," Matt said, "But now I realize I never really knew him at all."

"I did and I never told you," she said, "I should have trusted you more than I did."

"I shouldn't have left like I did," he said, "Maybe Andre took advantage of that."

"You don't know that," she said, "It would have happened anyway. And I think leaving was something you really needed to do."

"Is that why you didn't tell me that night?"

She thought about it before responding.

"Maybe," she said, "You're so upset. I hadn't seen you like that in a long time. Anything I had to say could wait. If I really wanted to stop you, I could have done it."

"Only it couldn't wait."

"You're here now and that's what matters," she said.

They spent the rest of the night in the boat, holding on to each other, uncertain of what the next day would bring.