The Improbable (27 page)

I
t
was as if from the moment I made eye contact with Eva-Marie, everything was moving
in slow motion. Words couldn’t be processed, I couldn’t take my eyes off of
hers, I couldn’t even move! Eva was who I’d been trying to track down this
whole time? But I was in love with her! How could she be involved in such a
dark business? Who was she working with? Nothing made sense at the moment!

           
“Dammit David, if you do not arrest this nigger gal I will blow her goddamn
brains out!” I heard Clayton’s voice yell at me.

           
I broke my gaze from Eva-Marie’s eyes to Clayton. It was as if those words
snapped me back into consciousness. “Put your gun down,” I said in a nearly
inaudible voice.

“What?”
Clayton looked at me, baffled.

“I
said put your gun down!” I shouted and pushed his gun away from her head,
pushing him away from her.

Clayton
put his gun on his belt and shoved me back. “What the hell are you
doin
’, boy?”

“Just
leave her alone! I’ll take care of it!” I hollered. I didn’t have a plan in my
mind but all I knew that my first action was to get her out of the line of
danger. Of course I was furious to know that she had been part of this…but she
was still the love of my life. Was I supposed to let her die? Absolutely not, I
was going to get to the bottom of it.

Clayton
got in my face. “You’d better have a damn good reason ‘cause I
oughta
shoot her brains out right here, right now.”

I
didn’t back down. “I said I’d take care of it.” I had to keep a strong hold on
my temper or else I’d choke Clayton out…I didn’t want Eva seeing that.
Thankfully, two rookies broke us up before anything happened.

I
watched as one of the rookies put the hand cuffs on Eva-Marie and began walking
her to the car. “I’ll see you at the station,” I grumbled to Clayton and caught
up with the rookie. “I’ll take her.” I couldn’t look at her or else I would’ve been
tempted to take the cuffs off of her, sit her down right there and demand to
know what the fuck was going on! But I had to remember I had a job to do,
therefore I just placed her in the back of the car without speaking or looking
at her.

Eva
sat silently in the back as we made our way to the station. Clayton and the
rookies followed in their cars. As everything began to set it in, I grew
angrier with Eva-Marie. How had she been keeping such a big secret from me? I
mean I knew I was keeping certain things from her but this was big! And
illegal! The fury grew as I then realized what Nicholas Brandy had been talking
about when he told me the answer was right under my nose. How many other people
knew and just let me continue to look stupid? Did she want to embarrass me? I
tightened my grip around the steering wheel, enraged.

           
When we arrived in front of the station in the city, I slammed my door and
yanked her out of the back seat. I held on to her chained wrists as she walked,
catching her when she tripped while getting up onto the curb. Clayton and the
rookies followed close behind as we entered the building. It was late and I was
glad, there weren’t many people in the lobby which meant less eyes on us. That
would’ve only made me angrier. I jammed the button on the elevator multiple
times, filing into the space with the other officers and Clayton once the doors
opened.

           
“Would one of you please open the interrogation room?” I asked one of the
rookies and watched as he scrambled to get in front of me to unlock the door.
“I want no one watching and I want no one listening!” I yelled at them without
looking back before entering the interrogation room. I pulled the chair out for
Eva and then slammed the door. I leaned with both of my palms on the door,
looking down at the floor and preparing myself to speak to her. I had to
prepare myself to even look at her.

           
“It’s still me David, I haven’t changed.” She said in a miniscule voice.

           
I shut my eyes and squeezed them at the sound of her voice. The last time I had
spoken to her, she was trying to get away from me and told me she never wanted
me. There were too many emotions flooding through my mind at the moment! But I
knew I had to face the issue sooner or later. I lifted my head and turned to
face her. Her dark eyes were wet but she wasn’t crying. She looked like a
scared little girl in the middle of the dark, cold cement room. How was it that
she was the one I’d been after all along? There had to be more to the story.

           
“Still you? Still
you
? How am I supposed to believe that when I just
found out you’re involved in the case I’ve been trying to end since we
met!
” I shouted, getting closer and shoving my chair out of
the way, making it clatter to the floor. “Please Eva-Marie tell me how the fuck
I’m supposed to trust anything that comes out of your mouth after you’ve been
hiding this from me the whole time!”

           
“Well what the hell was I supposed to do? Hand my family over so you could take
them away from me!” She stood and shouted back at me.

           
And so, everything came into place. It was her family. She’d been protecting
her family the whole time. In that moment, I became a bit more understanding of
her situation. Not to mention, hearing her come back at me with just as much
fire as I’d given her was nostalgic, reminding me of what it was about her that
intrigued me from the beginning. Familiar sparks were returning.

Eva shook
her head. “You don’t know how this has affected everything in my life, making
it so hard to live normal! I couldn’t tell my friends, I couldn’t tell anybody!
I just had to keep it all inside so I could keep my family safe! I was only
going to marry Ray because he threatened to expose my family if he didn’t get
to have me, okay? I didn’t mean what I said that day in the train yard. I would
never choose Ray over you but once he revealed to me who you were that just
made everything so much harder because I’m so in love with you, David. I didn’t
want you to see this side of me.”

Those
words were like a defibrillator shock to the heart! They were enough to bring
me to my senses and realize that this was the woman I loved and like Timmy
said, I would be on her side no matter what and no matter how hard it was…even
in the face of chaos.

           
I stood with one hand on my hip and used the other to pinch the bridge of my
nose. I sighed and picked the chair up, taking a seat and then patting the
table to gesture for her to sit down. Once she saw that I had put my claws
away, she relaxed and sat down as well. “Look Eva-Marie,” I spoke in a low
voice. “I never stopped loving you, okay? Never. I wasn’t lying when I said
everything we had was real. But I have a job to do. Now, I’m going to try to
compromise and help you out as much as possible but I need you to help me out
too. Do you think we can do that?”

           
It took a moment but she nodded.

           
“Good. What is it that you want?” I asked.

           
Her eyebrows came together and she looked around. “What I want? What do you
mean what do I want, David?”

           
“Do you want to go to jail? Do you not want to go to jail? Who do you want to
go to jail? How do you want this to go?” I answered.

           
She stared at me with those deep, dark eyes for a long moment. “I don’t want to
lose you.” Her eyes travelled and she began gazing out the window into the
darkness. “I don’t want to lose my family.” She looked at me.

           
I raised my eyebrows, silently telling her to continue.

           
“This is the hardest position I’ve ever been in…my entire life. Because it’s
you versus my family.” A tear fell down her cheek. “I don’t want to have to
make that decision, David. Because I love both you and my parents so much.” She
wiped her tears. “This whole time after I figured out who you really are, my
biggest fear was losing you because you would think so low of me. You have to
understand that I’ve never had a choice, I didn’t choose this David.”

           
Seeing her in tears tugged at my heart strings. I couldn’t stand to see her so
broken. I reached out and put her hand in mine, squeezing it and giving her a
peck on the hand. “I’m sorry you have to go through this, I want to help you. I
told you I’d never give up on you…I wasn’t lying about that. Do you trust me?”
I asked.

           
She wiped her eyes and nodded.

           
Before I could ask any more questions, there was a bang on the window. I rolled
my eyes, knowing I had demanded no one interrupt the session, but rose from my
seat anyways. I exited the room, closing the door behind me only to be
surprised by who I saw on the other side of the glass.

           
“Me and you need to talk,” Eva’s father, Percy Hutchinson, said to me in a
quick and hushed voice. His wife, Mary, stood behind him.

           
I looked around to see that no one was in earshot. “What’s going on?”

           
“What have you got her in there for?” He demanded to know.

           
I sighed. “She’s fine, we’re just talking and she hasn’t told me anything yet.”

           
He rubbed his hand over his face and shook his head. “You keep her out of this
okay. This is all me. You pin this all on me and you can take me, put me in
jail. Not her. Keep her and my wife out of jail if I give you all the
information, do we have a deal?” Percy eyed me. Mary was looking at me with
hopeful eyes.

           
I had to think about it. Of course I wasn’t going to throw Eva in jail in the
first place, and she said she didn’t want to lose her family. She would still
have her mother and she’d be out of jail. I thought that was a pretty good
deal.

           
“She loves you, I know she does. I’ve never seen my little girl so happy.”
Percy admitted. “You’re good for her, you’ve shown her a happiness I could never
get out of her. For that I thank you.” He grabbed my hand and looked me in the
eye as he shook my hand. “You’ve
gotta
take me and
leave them.”

           
I sighed and nodded my head. “Okay…but she’s not going to like that.”

           
“I know what’s best. Can we speak to her?” He questioned.

           
I opened the door and walked in with her parents.

           
“Mama! Daddy!” She sprang out of her chair and tried to hug them, restrained by
the hand cuffs.

           
“Oh would you please get her out of these, David?” Mary asked, appalled.

           
I did as I was told and stepped back so I wouldn’t interfere in their moment.

           
“Daddy I was so scared! I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t know they would
be there I’m so sorry.” She said into her father’s shoulder.

           
Percy kissed her on the forehead and hugged her tighter. “It’s okay.
Everything’s alright there’s no need to apologize, baby. You’re going to be
fine.”

           
She pulled away and looked at him, her eyes landing on me for a second and then
back to him. “What’s going on?”

           
I averted my eyes to the floor, not wanting to be the one to disappoint her
with the news.

           
“Well, darlin’, we’ve got something we want to talk to
ya
about.” Mary said.

           
“Have a seat, baby.” Percy led her back to the table and took a seat in front
of her. “This is a nice man you’ve got right here.” He nodded his head in my
direction. “I told him I’d never seen you so happy.”

           
She barely cracked a smile.

           
“So we made a deal.” Percy announced.

           
Eva looked at me and back to her father. “What’s the deal daddy?”

           
Percy sighed. “I told him he can take me…and leave you and your mama out of it.
I would never let you two take the fall for anything I’ve brought you into. I
don’t want any of this on you, I want it on me.”

           
Immediately silent tears began falling down her cheek. She didn’t look at
either of us, instead she stared down at the table and silently wiped her
tears. My poor love, I crossed the room and began rubbing her shoulders. Even
though Eva was probably irritated with me having to take her father away, I
still wanted to be there for her.

           
“You both agreed on this?” She looked at Mary.

           
Mary nodded slowly.

           
“David here is
gonna
take good care of you, and
you’ll be able to visit from time to time. It won’t be that bad baby, okay?” He
rubbed her hand.

           
“Okay,” She said in a low voice and nodded. “Can I just spend some time with
them before you take him away?” She looked up at me.

           
“Anything you need,” I leaned down and kissed her on the head, nodding at Percy
on my way out.

           
The first place I went was directly to my office. I was completely overwhelmed.
It didn’t feel like real life! Too much had happened within the last week for
my body to process, it felt like I needed some time for my brain to play catch
up. I plopped down at my desk and threw my head back, clasping my hands over my
eyes. I had never seen Eva-Marie cry so much, I felt so bad for what she had to
go through. Though I was ecstatic that I didn’t have to put her in jail and I
would be able to be with her…freely. It felt good to think about. A knock on my
door brought me back into reality.