Lost Girl

by Melinda Colt

  “I’m sorry. Despite all odds, you’ve overcome your condition, got out of the shithole village you grew up in, and made something of yourself. My God! Whenever I look at you, I marvel at the person you are, at your kindness, your optimism, your selflessness. Your beauty, damn it,” she added, enjoying his faint blush. “Where did all those things come from? It wasn’t from your dear ol’ mam and dad’s genes—that’s for damn sure.”

  He gave her a lopsided smile. “You should take the credit for that.”

  Finn smiled back. “I’ll take credit for some of it, but not all. You were like this when we met—it’s why I fell in love with you. You’re the best person I know. Which is why I hope you’ll welcome and support my decision. I want you to stay with Maddie and me. At least, I hope you’ll stay.” She moistened her lips. “I’ll understand perfectly if you aren’t able to accept the situation.”

  Bryan gazed into her eyes for a long moment, then squeezed her hands between his. “What kind of a man would I be if I deserted you and Maddie?”

  Finn’s heart thudded painfully against her ribs. “Don’t do anything out of a sense of duty. If you do this, do it with your heart open, and know that you can walk out anytime. Maddie will be my responsibility.”

  “No. She’ll be our responsibility,” Bryan said, his jaw tight. “Our daughter.”

  The words sounded strange but so sweet they brought tears to Finn’s eyes. God, why was she so blubbery these days?

  “Finn…” Bryan rubbed the back of his neck. “Are you… are you doing this… Do you want Maddie to replace the baby we lost?” His eyes were charged with emotion and wet with unshed tears.

  “God, no.” She swallowed shakily, despair lodged in her throat. “No one can ever replace our baby. It’s impossible. I’ll always remember him or her… our little angel, but I have a lot of love to give, Bryan. I can love more than one child.”

  He laughed softly. “That’s good to know. Phil was saying the other day that since they had their first baby, his wife doesn’t even notice him anymore,” he said, referring to one of his friends.

  Finn grinned. “That will never happen to us, and you know it. Maddie can be our rainbow child. That’s the name given to a child who arrives after a lost pregnancy.”

  “I know,” he said, surprising her. “I read about it after… After we lost ours. Do you think… I mean, would you want to have more children?”

  Finn’s chest constricted with love, excitement, and growing optimism for the future. “Yeah, I do. I would love a big family.”

  “Me, too. We’d better get married though. It would be embarrassing for you to be a single mum to all those kids, right?”

  Finn started laughing, tears running down her cheeks. “The last time you proposed, you knelt on the carpet in front of our fake fireplace and said you’d worship me forever. You’re getting less romantic with each proposal.”

  Bryan laughed too. “Yeah, no matter how much I plan, each time seems to be spontaneous. But I didn’t have a ring that night.”

  He reached for his coat, fished in its pocket, and took out a small, black box.

  Finn’s heart stopped for a beat. She looked at him, confused. Her eyes widened when he opened the box, revealing a slim, classy engagement ring nestled in the soft, white satin. He offered it to her.

  “I’ve been carrying this around for a few months, waiting for the right moment. It seems there’s no such thing as perfect timing, so… Will you marry me, Finola McGregor?” His voice was low and husky.

  She stared at the ring, then up into his eyes. Considering the way her day had started, this was a dramatic U-turn. Wonderful things happened when you least expected them.

  “Yes,” she whispered hoarsely.

  Bryan slid the ring onto her finger.

  The fit was perfect as was the simple, discreet design—a plain white gold band with a square-cut diamond. He knew her so well. He knew everything about her. Why the hell weren’t they married already? They belonged together—it had never been clearer to her.

  She stood and moved onto the seat beside him, cuddling into him. “I love you so much.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “I know. I really do.”

  They sat like that for a while, locked in a warm, tender embrace. Finally, she lifted her head off his shoulder and swiped at her eyes.

  “We’d better finish eating. We need to get back to work.”

  She returned to her seat and grabbed her fork. It was one thing to act like a sap when it was just the two of them, another to do so in public, but she didn’t regret a second of their interlude. Her hands shook with emotion, and she dropped a large chunk of potato drenched in cheese onto her white shirt.

  “Bollocks!”

  Bryan started to laugh. “Here I was worrying about babies getting food all over themselves, and you do the same. You’ll have to stop at home and change.”

  “I will,” Finn muttered. She tried to clean away the stain, managing only to spread it. “Fecking hell.”

  “You’ll have to watch that mouth once we have a child in the house, young lady. When do I get to meet Maddie?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe this evening.”

  Finn looked at her watch. She didn’t know whether the social workers had already taken the children away from the Garda, but she couldn’t do anything about that until she went home to change. Barging in with that huge stain on her shirt and asking to be a foster mother was slightly uninspired. She would need a subtler approach. On the bright side, she could pull all the strings she had in order to achieve her goal, and she knew Bryan would help, too. While the process of becoming foster parents could take months, she hoped they could manage it sooner. Unlike the poor Roma boys, who would need more specialized care, Maddie seemed well-adjusted and, in her own words, was ready and eager for a new family. Finn would show her letter to Santa to the social workers asap.

  She and Bryan finished their lunch, then headed in opposite directions. Bryan returned to work, Finn went home to change, promising she’d keep Bryan posted about Maddie.

  As she drove, the windshield wipers swiped at the stubborn snowflakes. This was one hell of a winter. After parking in her usual spot, she muttered about the distance she had to trudge on foot. Climbing the stairs, she wondered if there were any news about Fraser, but dismissed the thought. If there had been, someone would have let her know.

  She opened the door to her flat and stepped inside. Fresh snowy footprints marked the carpet, while the stench of sweat poisoned the air. She whirled around when the door slammed closed. Seamus Fraser stood there, glaring at her.

  “Hiya, bitch. It’s about time we meet officially, eh?”

  The gun in his hand glinted darkly as he tightened his grip on it and moved toward her.

  Chapter Nine

  Finn stepped back, her hand going instinctively to her service weapon, but Fraser shook his head.

  “Ye’ll be dead before you touch it,” he hissed. “I’ll blow your brains out if you make a move or a fecking sound.”

  “What are you doing here? How did you know who I was?”

  “As soon as he learned Cathal had been busted, Danny called his boys, and Paul called me. Danny described the guards who took Cathal away. I noticed you the other day when you bought food for that bloody brat. Ye’re not inconspicuous, are ye? Not with that red hair, even if ye did have most of it shoved under a hat. I thought you might be bad news, but it didn’t occur to me ye were a cop.”

  Finn’s mind raced. Keep him talking, and find a way to disarm him. He wasn’t a large man, but he did have a big gun. She had to be smart about this.

  “So Maguire’s sons are involved in your human trafficking operation, are they?”

  Fraser grinned. “It comes in handy to have… associates who work in transportation, especially when you have sensitive merchandise to transport.”

  Finn felt her cheeks burn. “Merchandise? Is that how you see those children? Commodities to be bough
t and sold? Procured and transported?”

  Fraser gesticulated with the gun. “Ye women are always so dramatic. Do you think they were better off at home, where their mams and dads had no idea where they were? What they were doing? Here, they serve a purpose, and I had my eyes on them all the time. They were safe, had enough food to eat, heat, and a roof over their heads. What more do they need?”

  “Certainly not the beatings that you rained down on them.”

  “The Bible says, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: But he who loves him chasteneth him betimes. All I was doing was following the Good Book.”

  “And interpreting it to suit yourself. Those kids deserve the chance to make the lives they want.”

  Fraser barked out a laugh. “Being so poor they don’t have a pot to piss in? Wake up, woman! Jaysus, you may be a guard, but ye’re as innocent as that rabbit in the stupid movie.” His eyes narrowed. “Officer Hops, ye’ve ruined my well-thought out operation.”

  It took her a moment to realize his mocking words related to Zootopia, a popular animated film featuring a bunny police officer who thought she could make the world a better place. So much for fiction.

  If the situation wasn’t so dismal, Finn would’ve laughed, but this wasn’t remotely funny. Would she ever get the chance to watch the movie with Maddie? How ironic to be killed in the line of duty when she and Bryan finally had their future mapped out, one that had Maddie by her side.

  She couldn’t die now. She had to keep Fraser talking, try to get him to lower his guard, so that she could disarm him and grab her own weapon.

  “Officer Hops. That’s clever,” she said, relaxing her stance in the hope that he would do the same. “So how did you discover where I lived?”

  “I have my connections.”

  Finn arched an eyebrow. “I see. It looks like we have more corrupt cops in the Garda than I’d thought.”

  “Ye have no idea. Everyone’s got a price.”

  She shrugged philosophically. “So what do you want from me?”

  Wrong question. Fraser glared and aimed the gun at her once more.

  “I want to make you pay. I would have made a fortune with those boyos if it weren’t for you, ye nosy slag.”

  Finn held up her hands, trying to calm him.

  “I was just part of the team. As much as I’d like to, I can’t take credit for uncovering your operation. Dozens of detectives worked this case, but I’ll tell you something. If you play your cards right, you may have a chance to strike a deal with us. If you kill me, you condemn yourself to hell. A cop killer is fair game to every member of law enforcement. Every cop in this town, in this country, on this continent, will hunt you down like a dog. I guarantee you won’t have a fair trial—of course, that is if you even make it to trial. God knows what ‘accidents’ can happen to you during capture. You may even beg them to kill you before they’ll be done with you.”

  Her words got to him. He was tired, hungry, and scared. Added to that was the considerable weight of the Glock he held. Finn could see a number of opportunities opening to her. The time to act was approaching quickly. It would take only one movement, one involuntary flick of his finger on the trigger, and she would be history, but if she managed to kick the gun out of his hand, and duck to the floor to draw out her own gun, she might stand a chance.

  This was bloody hard, unlike in the movies, when martial arts stunt doubles stepped in, but she’d practiced the technique at the academy. It was one of those cases where they prepared you for a situation that hopefully would never happen. She’d mastered the move in school, but would she be able to duplicate it now? Fraser wasn’t an inanimate dummy, and his gun fired real bullets. But then again, if she didn’t try, she was dead anyway.

  “You mentioned something interesting earlier.” She tried to get him to relax enough to loosen his grip on the trigger. “You said everyone has a price. I think you’re right.” She gestured around. “As you probably see, I don’t make much as a cop. Perhaps you and I can strike a deal. I’ll pretend I never saw you, and you can just walk away. We both stay alive and happy.”

  Fraser scoffed. “You really expect me to believe that?”

  “Why not? If I don’t keep my word, you know who I am, where I live. You can kill me at any time if I don’t hold up my end of the bargain.”

  He seemed to think this through. The muzzle of the gun lowered another inch. Finn realized she was holding her breath and forced herself to return to her controlled breathing.

  “How much do you want?” Fraser asked.

  Finn frowned, as though thinking. “I don’t know. It’s the first time I do this.” She smiled, trying to look innocent and naughty at the same time. God, did these cheap tricks actually work on people?

  Apparently so. Fraser grinned back. Finn expected to smell sulfur and see the wicked glint of fangs.

  “I haven’t made much money with the brats,” Fraser said, waving the gun a little away from her. “I was only starting.”

  “Where did you get the idea?” Finn asked quickly, distracting him from backtracking to the realization that she’d ruined his operation.

  “Actually, it wasn’t mine. Paul came up with it.”

  “Maguire’s son who lives in Poland? The truck driver?”

  “Yeah. He travels a lot and sees stuff, you know? He suggested we bring some girls here and pimp them out, but his dad said it was too dangerous, that we should start with kids because they’re easier to control.”

  Finn couldn’t believe her ears. The way he talked about human lives was despicable. The man and his accomplices didn’t belong in jail. These people never got rehabilitated. There had to be a whole new level of hell for animals like them.

  Suddenly, Fraser’s phone rang, distracting him for a moment. Deciding this was the best chance she would get, Finn said a quick prayer and took the plunge. In one fluid motion she kicked the gun out of Fraser’s hand, dropped to the ground, pulled out her gun, and fired. There was no time to aim, but she knew she’d hit him—just as his bullet had found her.

  Chapter Ten

  Later that night, Finn sat quietly in her hospital bed. She was amazed by how cold her mind had stayed, how calm she had remained, even while she’d realized she could be taking her last breath. She’d managed to call the emergency number and had waited for the police and ambulance to arrive. Fraser had been unconscious, bleeding on the floor, and she’d lain there in agony, in a pool of her own blood, trying not to pass out from the pain.

  She smiled and listened to Bryan’s breathing. He was asleep on a chair next to her bed, exhausted after the kind of day nightmares were made of. Finn recalled every single minute of that day, up until the doctors had administered an anesthetic to prepare her for surgery. Afterward, she had been told they had extracted the bullet from her left shoulder. Thankfully, it hadn’t touched any major blood vessels or nerves, but the projectile had traversed and cracked her humerus. She had a long and painful recovery ahead of her.

  Finn’s bullet had caught Fraser in the neck. He was in Intensive Care after his surgery, and the doctors expected him to make it. She’d wanted to immobilize and disarm him, not kill him. However, she hadn’t had time to aim for a non-lethal shot. She had fired to save her life. Truth be told, she wasn’t sorry, but she didn’t want him to die. She wanted him to live a long life behind bars, paying for what he’d done.

  The chief inspector, John O’Sullivan, and several of her fellow officers had visited her earlier. She’d told them everything and had received the news that Maguire’s sons were already in custody in their respective countries. They would be extradited to Ireland, charged, and tried here, along with their father and Fraser.

  As well, John had informed her that Nóirín had the DNA results from the thermos and had identified Maddie’s parents. Geoffrey and Leslie Braden were currently in the custody of the Essex police and an investigation was pending. The process would be long and tedious, but it was certain their parental rights to Maddie
would be revoked.

  Finn had told the chief and John that she and Bryan would like to foster and adopt the child. After his initial surprise, the chief had promised to do everything he could to speed up the process. She’d given him Maddie’s letter to place into evidence, knowing this might weigh strongly with a judge, as would Maddie’s testimony. Finn’s biggest wish right now was to spend Christmas with Maddie. Realistically though, she knew it was impossible to pull this together in less than a month. Still, it was Christmas, and miracles did happen.

  She reached out her right hand and brushed Bryan’s hair with her fingers. Despite the painkillers dripping into her vein, her left shoulder was painful.

  Bryan opened his eyes, alert. “What is it, baby? Are you okay?”

  She forced a smile. “I’m fine, everything is okay.” She stroked his cheek, willing him to relax, willing him to know she was going to be alright. “You need to go home, or better yet to a hotel,” she added, remembering the bloody hallway. Their flat was now a crime scene, and it could be a few days before anyone could go in with a cleaning crew. In fact, they should move to a bigger flat. She’d never be able to come home and feel safe stepping into that hallway.

  “No, I’m not leaving you.” He rubbed a hand over his face. He looked knackered. Exhaustion and worry clouded his handsome features, making him look older than his thirty-two years. “How do you feel?”

  “Good,” she lied. “Like I’ve been shot, and it’s nothing serious.”

  He tried to smile, failing miserably. Dragging his chair closer to her bed, he picked up her hand and kissed it, squeezing his eyes shut.

  “Finn, you scared the living daylights out of me,” he said, raising his troubled gaze to hers. “Why did you have to play the hero? None of this would have happened if you’d followed the rules.”

  Finn narrowed her eyes. “Seriously? You’re blaming me for getting shot?”

  “Well, you were the one who approached Maddie in the first place, then took it upon yourself to play James Bond.”