True Meaning Of Sacrifice Ch. 04

"Well, let's start with any photos or videos you have of my wife."

"Sure," he said, trying to sound helpful. "I already had them out. I was going to give them back and we were going to be done with this whole mess."

Mike snarled, "I'm sure."

"No really, I know the whole thing was wrong. It just got out of control. Bill was the one in charge. The other guys..."

"Oh, you mean like Keith?"

Mike then pulled a small camcorder from his pocket. He hit play and held it up so Ryan could see the view screen. On it was an emaciated Keith. He was pale, thin and begging for his life. It appeared he was locked in some sort of cellar with a metal grate keeping him from escaping. The light of the camera showed his surroundings to be something out of a nightmare. No windows, stone floor, one blanket, a bucket of water and little else except some papers on the floor. They were too far away to make out.

He was pleading, "I didn't know, I swear I would have never done it if I had known. When he showed me the picture, I thought she was beautiful and I just wanted to meet her. Please..."

Michelle was sick to her stomach. She hated violence and this was far beyond that. She couldn't believe Mike was capable of this kind of abject cruelty. The image of Mike torturing then killing him, it was too terrible to think about. Moreover, her worst fear had been realized. Mike had thrown his life away because of what she had done. The guilt was too much to bear.

Ryan had gone far beyond fear for his life. If this crazy fucker had done that to Keith, what would he do to the man who set it up? He was willing to do anything to be spared.

"Please, anything you want. I'll give you everything I have. I'll go away anywhere you want. Don't kill me!"

Michelle hadn't had time to absorb everything she had seen and heard but she didn't want Mike to go any further than he already had. Maybe there was still some way he could walk away from this.

"Mike please. You can't do this!" Michelle begged.

"It's too late, it's already done," he replied without any apparent emotion.

"But if you go through with it, you won't be the man I married. I'll never be able to look at you the same again."

"It doesn't matter," he dead panned, "This is what I have to do. Your feelings don't have anything to do with it."

She looked at him with such pain, he wondered if he could keep this up.

"This was my decision to make and I'm willing to live with the consequences. I guess you could say it's my turn to sacrifice," he said ruefully.

She barely acknowledged his words as she thought about how much she had lost already. He watched sadly as the only woman he had ever loved, turned and slowly walked out the door, to wait for the police.

Mike wished there was another way but the plan had worked until now, so he couldn't risk altering it. He turned his attention back to Ryan.

"OK scumbag, you're the type of guy who likes deals, so I've got one for you. You go get every ounce of evidence you have about what the nine of you did to my wife, bring it here and if I think it's convincing enough, I'll let you call the cops back and confess. You can turn yourself in and take your chances with them. If they arrive before I'm convinced, I'm going to make what I did to Tony look like a fairy tale."

Ryan felt a spark of hope. Yes! He could get a good lawyer and fight this. He might be able to win this in court. Plus he could take this cocky son of a bitch down.

He rushed to his computer and printed out the files he had been ready to delete. When he came back, he handed the info to Mike.

Mike quickly looked it over and decided to play the last card. He picked up the phone and dialed 911. It picked up on the second ring.

"911 operator, please state the nature of your emergency."

"Yes Ma'am, I have someone here who wants to say something to you." He held the phone by Ryan's head and made a threatening gesture. Ryan knew he had no other choice.

"This is Ryan Stilling, I want to make a confession..."

The police held Mike for three days. He could have gotten a lawyer and forced them to file charges or let him go but it wasn't part of the plan. He had to let them hit him with everything and not falter so they had no choice but to look elsewhere. All he could do was to wait for his 'surprise' for them and hope it would be enough.

He hadn't heard anything about Michelle while being held, which he took as a good sign. He was afraid she might tell the cops what she knew, but she had maintained he didn't know anything about her ordeal until they went to Ryan's. She had told them she left the room before his confrontation with Ryan, so didn't know what they talked about. His biggest regret was the look she gave him before leaving the living room. He wished he had been able to warn her about Keith.

~~~~~

"Dad, can you come pick me up? I'm at the police station." Michelle was exhausted. The police had questioned her for hours. She thought that Mike was going to kill Ryan too and was glad that he had at least let the police take him. Although it made her sick beyond reason to see the direction this had taken, she wouldn't betray him.

It wasn't that she was angry for what he had done. She was grateful it was over. There was no way she would shed a tear for those monsters. Even though they got what they deserved, this was a side of Mike she had never seen or even imagined. To be capable of that kind of hatred and violence, it frightened her.

Especially when she thought about Keith. Mike had every right to be angry with them and her, but Keith hadn't known what was going on and had even been kind to her. It seemed that he was treated far more severely than anyone else, even Tony.

"Tony," just thinking his name made her shudder. How is it possible that Mike could have taken him down with his bare hands? Just as she had been afraid she having to cooperate with this madness was destroying everything good about her, she feared Mike's actions had done the same to him. He plotted, planned and carried out a crime beyond her wildest imagination. What was left of the man she fell in love with?

When her father arrived to pick her up, she ran to his arms, where she stayed for several minutes. He finally ushered her into the car. She told him a small part of what was going on but begged him not to press her further for now. Jim didn't tell her what he knew because he was concerned with putting her under even more stress.

The next day, they drove to her house. She wanted to pick up some things to take back to her parents house, where she was staying until she decided what to do. As they were packing, she broke down often thinking about her life and what she had done to it.

When they arrived back at Jim and Mary's house, Michelle went straight to her room. She was staring sadly out the window when she heard the front doorbell ring.

Her dad's voice carried up the stairs, "Michelle, there's someone here to see you."

She figured it was Stacy and walked down the stairs. She wondered how to possibly say thank you for all that her friend had done to help her throughout this mess.

Michelle reached the bottom of the stairs and saw Stacy talking with a man. Michelle couldn't tell who it was because his back was to her. Stacy looked up at her with a curious expression. The man got to his feet and turned.

"Keith?" was the last thought Michelle had as the shock overcame her and everything went black.

"...Michelle, can you hear me?" Stacy's voice cut through the fog.

Michelle realized she somehow had wound up on the couch. She slowly opened her eyes to see her father and Stacy looking at her with concern on their faces. There was a cold rag on her forehead and she could feel the drops of water falling down the side of her face.

"What happened?" she asked.

Stacy moved closer and took her hand. "You scared the hell out of us, that's what happened. I'm sorry, I should have come upstairs and warned you."

Michelle sat up suddenly, remembering the last image before she passed out. "Did I see Keith?"

The answer came from the other side of the room. "Yes Michelle, I'm here."

She turned toward the voice and saw the man she thought her husband had killed in cold blood. Words failed her as she tried to ask a dozen questions at once.

He looked infinitely better than he had on the video Mike had shown to Ryan. His tan was back and he looked fit. The only difference she noticed in him from their 'meeting' was the circles under his eyes. She thought he looked much older than before and appeared sad.

Michelle finally found her voice. "How is this possible? I thought you were dead?"

Keith smiled and replied, "Evidently Ryan thought so too. That was the whole point."

Stacy softly spoke. "Keith wanted to come here to see you. He wants to apologize and to help explain the things Mike did. Do you want to talk to him?"

Michelle nodded affirmatively but still found it difficult to focus. She had been in shock since the confrontation at Ryan's house.

Keith came to the couch and knelt beside her. "Michelle, first I need to ask you to please forgive me. When Ryan proposed the meeting with you..." he paused as he realized the confession was being made right next to her father.

With some difficulty, he resumed. "I agreed because I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. He told me you were unhappy with your marriage and liked to fool around with clients. I wanted to meet you so badly, I told him I'd consider their lousy proposal. I thought of it as a date, I never assumed we would..." Again he faltered, unable to say it in front of Jim.

He indicated Keith should continue. "I never had any idea that they were making you do that. I swear to you that if I had known, I would not have gone along with it and I would have contacted the police immediately."

Michelle seemed to come out of her haze a little. "I never thought you were like the others. I told Stacy that I didn't think you knew."

Keith seemed relieved. "I'm glad you feel that way. It's important to me that you know the truth."

"When Mike grabbed me, I was scared out of my mind. He was so angry I really thought he was going to kill me. Instead, he took me to a park where he talked to me for over an hour. Once he told me everything I was so appalled with what I'd been involved in, I said I'd do anything to help. Anyway, he told me if I didn't cooperate I'd be facing charges along with the others."

"He took me to his friend's place in the woods for a couple of weeks. I hid out there, I skipped a lot of meals and stayed in out of the sun. It made my 'video appearance' more convincing. After we made the tape, I went to a resort I stayed at once. I took the last two weeks to get myself back to normal. Stacy called me a couple of times to keep me up to date on what was going on. She used a pay phone so that there wouldn't be anything connecting me with any of you. That plan of your husband's was good. He's really quite a guy."

Michelle smiled, nodding her agreement. "I guess he's full of surprises, although I still don't understand why he let me believe he didn't know."

"Because he was protecting you," Stacy added. "He knew how dangerous things were going to get and couldn't take the chance that you would make any mistakes around Ryan or the others. If you didn't know, you were safer. Plus, you're reaction helped convince Ryan that it was either confess or face something really terrible."

Michelle still wasn't sure. "OK but why was it so important for him to think Keith died so horribly? What about the others?"

"None of us knew what it would take to make Ryan confess." Jim chimed in. "Mike felt from the beginning that he needed an ace in the hole to make sure he could scare that bastard badly enough. More importantly, Keith was the insurance to get you both out of this mess, no matter what happened."

"Why?" Michelle asked perplexed.

Keith spoke up. "Because I could protect both of you depending on how things worked out. The only way to get Ryan to confess, was for Mike to reveal everything and then he'd be looking at jail. We both are hoping that when I turn myself in today for my part in your assault that it will destroy Ryan's credibility. If his account of the confession doesn't hold up and the police can't find any corroborating evidence, they'll have to let your husband go."

"If Mike had failed," he paused to let Michelle absorb his implication, "I would have gone to the police to demand they take you into protective custody. I promised Mike that if something happened to him, I would make sure you were safe."

Michelle looked at him with amazement. "Mike thought he might die?"

Jim brushed the hair from her face lovingly. "He knew there were no guarantees he could pull this all off. You didn't know for sure who ran him off the road. There were no guarantees that someone wouldn't come after him. He needed Keith to be ready to step forward if something bad happened. It was the only way he could be sure you'd be safe. Mike promised Keith on video that you and Stacy would back him that he didn't know about the blackmail. Keith was going to lose his job but that was already a forgone conclusion when Stacy tipped his company off about the suspicious deal he made with Ryan."

Keith tentatively took her hand. "Michelle, you need to know that Mike didn't kill the three men in the accident either." Noting her surprised look, he continued. "He was planning to blackmail them. Stacy tricked them into being together where he could get to them at the same time. One of the men recognized him from a picture in your office. They panicked and drove away. Mike had to chase them or risk everything being ruined. They were speeding and just drove off the road. He let Ryan assume he was responsible but it wasn't his fault."

Michelle couldn't say anything as she realized that for the second time in three days, everything she believed had been turned upside down.

~~~~~

The police thought they had Mike dead to rights based on the circumstantial evidence plus Ryan's statement, until Keith showed up at the station alive and well. They were shocked when he told them he was just back from a vacation he took to make his decision about turning himself in for his part in the blackmailing of Michelle. The video camera Ryan claimed to have seen had disappeared before the police arrived, so they had to assume Ryan had been lying.

Keith brought the pictures that Ryan had sent him of Michelle. He claimed that he was told she was willing, but after meeting with her had figured out the truth. He told the police he called her office yesterday to offer to help, but her secretary told him about the developments and he decided to turn himself in. With Ryan's confession and the evidence Mike got at the house, Ryan didn't have a prayer. He was looking at life for conspiracy, assault, rape, facilitating rape, etc...

Because Mike hadn't left any evidence at Tony's, there was nothing to tie him to the death. His alibi was rock-solid, his wife and her parents said they were together at his house all night. Besides, Mike sure didn't look like he could be the one responsible for the pummeling the brute had sustained. Tony was a complete lowlife and there could have been dozens of people who would want to see him dead.

There was absolutely nothing tying Mike to the accident and he was out of town at the time. What they didn't know was that he had flown to his friend Dave's house where Keith had been. He and Dave had taken turns driving sixteen hours to reach the managers. Even though it didn't go as planned, there was no way to for the police to link him to the deaths.

All in all, the cops knew there was a good chance that he was involved somehow but there was no way to prove any of it. When he had the chance to take out the person who started everything, he did exactly what he should have, called the police and let them handle it. Mike had pulled it off, they had to let him go.

He sadly headed out of the police station, exhausted and depressed. Now that this was over, he had to deal with the reality of the pain that was inflicted on his wife and how her decision hurt him too. He didn't know what he would do if their marriage was over but he kept his promise to protect her and that's all he could do.

He saw Stacy waving to him from her car across the street. There was a man with her he assumed was Alan. Mike thought about how strange it was that they had taken so many chances, but never had the chance to meet.

As she gave him a giant hug and cried on his shoulder, he whispered, "I owe you everything. If you ever need anything, you call me and I promise I'll be there."

She smiled, "I'll remember that." She introduced Alan and the two men shook hands vigorously. Mike looked over the younger man and smiled.

"So you're the one trying to keep Stacy busy. All I can say is good luck." Alan looked mildly embarrassed, but Stacy pinched Mike hard on the arm. They got in the car and drove off.

Mike suddenly got serious again, "Alan, did you get all that stuff out of Ryan's office? If anyone finds it, you are going to be in serious trouble."

Alan tried to reassure him, "I took out everything before anyone knew about Ryan being arrested. I kept the tapes in case you need them for anything."

Mike shook his head, "We've got enough on him, I'm sure. The tapes wouldn't be admissible anyway, it would just tip the cops off. You're safer if they never know that you were involved at all. If they ever find a way to nail me, they'll be looking for accomplices and I couldn't stand either of you getting in trouble over this." The car got quiet again as all three realized that this would never be completely over.

Mike felt like he was in slow motion as they rounded the corner to his street. He saw Jim's car in front of the house and wondered if her parents were picking up Mikki's stuff. They pulled into the driveway and he got out.

As he got to the door, Jim stepped out and gave him a huge hug picking him off of the ground. "You gave my little girl her life back. Thank you."

Mike was about to tell him that he was afraid he had lost her, when he heard a noise and looked over Jim's shoulder.

There she was, just like the first time he saw her. The beautiful woman he couldn't hope to win, so far out of his league. She looked just like that first night when she entered his room. She was even wearing his shirt and had her hair in a pony tail like he loved so much.

Mike felt his stomach in knots like when they first met. What was going on? Was she waiting for him or did he just arrive at the wrong time?

"Michelle?" he tentatively began.

She ran to him and hugged him as hard as she could. "Mike, I'm so sorry baby, I love you."

He looked around in shock, not knowing how this was possible.

"Dad, Stacy and Keith told me everything. You were willing to sacrifice everything, to save me. I don't know what to say."

Mike spoke up, "I thought I'd lost you. The way you looked at me that night at Ryan's..."

Michelle felt herself flush. The one thing that kept her going through this was him. She knew he had been hurt terribly by her not having faith in him to protect them and by the things she had been forced to do. She couldn't say anything to make it up to him but she would do anything to try.

They kissed urgently, trying to drive the recent horrors from their memories. He heard someone clear their throat and broke the kiss, realizing that everyone was standing around waiting for them. They went into the house to celebrate the homecoming a little more privately. Two hours later, the others went home, leaving the couple to deal with what remained.

Michelle was anxious to make love to him like the week before. She tried to pull him up the stairs, but he ushered her to the couch instead. He sat and pulled her next to him. "Mikki, I know how terrible this has been for you, but we can't just pick up where we left off. I did the things I had to in order to protect you. I couldn't let you suffer, especially when you chose this to protect me. But you have to see that this changes everything."