So you cared for me all along?
Yes, very much. I have been thinking about you all the time.
Then why didn't you give me some indication. Anything.
Because I wanted to do something for you first.
What?
Wait until Mel get's here.
They sat and held hands as they waited for Mel. Nicki tried to kiss him on the lips, but the pain was too great. She ended up kissing him on the top of the forehead.
When Mel arrived, she was carrying a bag that was almost bigger than her.
Did you find the small black box? he asked. She nodded and held it up.
And your wallet and some clothes. Hi Nicki by the way, she added.
Right listen to me, both of you. I've got a house nobody knows about. It's in Montana. I want you both to go there and wait for me. When I get out of here, I'll come to you. You'll be safe there, and if Nicki does her job properly, we'll soon be safe forever.
Nicki understood the part about going to Montana, not the part about her doing a proper job. “What do you mean? she asked.
Take the black box, open it and listen to the tape inside.
She took the box from Mel and opened the lid. Inside there was a tiny recorder. She pressed the play button and listened.
Andrey, my boy, have you come to apologize?
No I've come to tell you that you are a two-bit piece of shit. You're nothing but a low life, whore fucker. All you've done with your life is threaten and rob people. You've never done half the things attributed to you. Everyone thinks you're a tough guy. You're a pussy.
I've done more with my life than you will ever do. Who do you think you are? I'm gonna kill you. Leave this to me.
You're just a show-off. Leaving everyone to think that you killed Judge Hudson but got away with it. Why don't you ever deny it? Everybody knows the jury was right. You haven't got the balls to kill anybody.
I killed Judge Hudson, just like I'm gonna kill you.
You didn't, you're a liar and a cheat, I've never met anybody so full of bullshit.
I tell you, I killed him with this gun.
Bring him over here. Lift him up. Take him and dump him next to the freeway.
But how? Nicki asked when the tape had stopped.
That wire in my jeans transmitted the signal to the recorder. I knew if I goaded him, he would give us something. I did it for you, Nicki. If you get this story right, your career will take off like you never expected. It's a very hot story. Take it and use it. The world will think you are the best journalists alive. The murder weapon is a Magnum; he keeps it in a drawer in the sitting room.
Nicki had no idea what to say.
Mel give me my wallet. He took out a couple of cards. Here are two credit cards. Use them to pay for the journey. There is a car in the garage in Montana so you can go and get supplies. Here's the address and the number of the housekeeper. He handed Nicki a note.
Nicki and Andrey stood outside the church and applauded as Mel and her new husband, a rancher from Great Falls, Montana came out to cheers and lots of confetti. Nicki bent down to Andrey junior and helped him and his toy elephant onto his father's shoulders.
Well, Journalist of the Year 2015, what do you think to that. Almost as good as our wedding, wasn't it? Andrey senior said.
Nicki nodded and kissed him.
Three weeks later.
Andrey, where do you want me to hang this? Nicki shouted
What is it? he asked.
The article about Sokolov being sentenced to life in prison.
The best place for him is the toilet.”
THE END
The Billionaire’s Secret Love Child – Keke’s Story
A BWWM Billionaire Pregnancy Romance
He was taller than anyone else walking down North Market in Dallas. He was also much leaner. As he looked around, what he saw made him nauseous. Fat blubber America he called it. People with no self-discipline, filling their faces with all sorts of junk. Fat kids munching on fries, and their even fatter parents licking ice cream. It'd do them all good to be sent to a desert island and left to starve for a few months, he thought.
When he reached Wild Bills Western Store, he stopped and looked at his watch. He was a little early. He liked Wild Bill's. It was a throw back to the days when Americans were tough. When they wore cowboy boots and stetsons and ordered people to do things while holding a gun to their head. Not like the politically correct, soft, I know my rights kind of society that had emerged in the last decade.
He looked at his reflection in the window. He'd been looking at the same face for fifty-two years, and nothing much had changed. It was still thin, and his blue eyes had the same steely determination they had always had. Only now he was more careful. When he was younger, he'd been carefree, and the cops had almost caught him a couple of times. He couldn't recall how many people he'd killed, and it didn't matter to him, but he'd learned that eliminating people was a serious business and needed to be done with the utmost care and precision.