Starting Point (36 page)

He turned to face me. “Take me somewhere? Like where?” he asked, looking at his watch. “We have to be at the church soon. We told Michael we’d be there first thing.”

“I know. But it’s still early and we have plenty of time,” I said. “It won’t take too long, and we really need to do this.”

“Okay,” he agreed cautiously. “Is it a surprise I’ll like?”

I didn’t answer him, and when we headed towards the airport, he was getting excited. “Did you plan a honeymoon or a holiday or something, and not tell me?”

I shook my head. “No.” And I think he could tell from my serious mood, that it wasn’t anything of the sort. I drove into LAX, then turned into the service access area and pulled up at a gate. I gave an access code I was given to a security guy and drove through the service gates.

Matt had gone from curious to concerned. “Kira? Where are you going?” he asked, though I’m pretty sure he knew. The row of old abandoned hangars came into view. “Why are you doing this?” His voice was calm and quiet.

“Because you need to see something.”

“There’s nothing here to see,” he said, almost defiantly.

“Yes, there is.”

I pulled up at the front and got out of the car. I waited for him to decide he would get out and I walked to the side entrance door. The same door Matt had come through the night of my abduction.

“It’ll be locked,” he said, looking around. There wasn’t a car in sight, and the only sound was the coo of pigeons roosting in the ceiling.

I turned the handle and let the door swing open. “I called Ross. He organised clearance for me to bring you here. He said it would be left unlocked for us.”

I had spoken to Ross after our impromptu wedding and asked him for one last favour. I told him Matt needed to do this. That we needed to do this, and Ross had smiled, like he understood.

“Not a problem. Leave it up to me and call me if you need anything. Look after him,” was all he’d said, before clapping me on the arm then walking away.

And so we were about to come face to face with some demons.

Matt shook his head. “Why are you doing this?” he asked again. He almost looked scared. “Why today? We had such a great day yesterday, why do you want to come here now?”

And that was the reason I was doing this.

“I’m doing this to show you that there’s nothing to be scared about. That what happened twelve months ago is over.”

“I know it’s over,” he said quietly.

I smiled at him then pushed the door open, into the old empty warehouse. “Then you won’t have any worries about coming inside.”

A thousand memories hit me as I walked in to the vast open space. The smell immediately taking me back to when Tomic had brought me here. The smell…a mix of dust, engine oil and damp induced a flood of memories.

Matt was still at the door, waging an internal debate whether or not to come in.

A cold shiver ran through me, and it seemed to propel him into motion. “Are you okay?” he whispered beside me, his hand on my arm.

I looked around the old hangar, taking in the sights, the smell, the memories. Then I looked at him. “Yes.” I nodded. “I am.”

Matt tried to smile, but then looked around behind us, like he was expecting someone to be there. “It looks different in the daylight. It was dark back then,” he whispered. “And you were over there.” He pointed his chin to the spot where Tomic had snapped my arm.

The table was gone, the boxes were gone, and in its place was…nothing.

There was some police tape with the faded words do not cross in the far corner, but there was only filtered sunshine and a whole lot of dust.

“There’s nothing here,” I told him. “Just memories, Matt.”

He nodded and frowned. He pulled me against him and buried his face into my neck, just like he had yesterday. But this was different. After a long, quiet moment, he said, “Why today? How come you wanted to do this today?”

“Because I wanted you to see that we are ready to move on. Our life together starts today, when we lodge those papers at the courts to officially be married, I wanted us to begin our lives together with no demons.”

“Demons?”

I sighed and touched his face. “Your eyes would always give you away—the battles, the demons you fought, always showed in your eyes.” I found myself smiling, despite the conversation. “Your eyes are back to beautiful. Clear. Full of fire.”

Matt shook his head, like he didn’t understand.

“There are no demons,” I told him. “Not here, in this old hangar. Not in our lives. The demons are gone.”

Matt finally smiled. “They’re gone because of you.”

“No, Matt,” I replied quietly. “Because of you.”

He stayed quiet for a while, and took a few steps back, looking around the abandoned hangar. “You know, I think I get it now,” he said. “What this whole thing was for—losing my mom, becoming a cop. Meeting you, going through all that undercover stuff and opening the FC for kids. It’s like everything had to happen to get me to this point,” I said. “To find Claude, to help her, to save her. We couldn’t save Ruby, but we saved her. That’s what this was all for.”

I smiled at him. “You’re a remarkable man, Matt.”

“No I’m not. I’m just doing what’s right.”

“You’re remarkable.”

“It’s remarkable how much my life has changed in the last two years.”

“You thought you were going to be a cop forever.”

“I did. And now, now I can see it’s not what I wanted at all. What I’m doing now is what I’m supposed to be doing. And I owe it all to you.”

“Me?”

“You were the turning point of my life, Kira. If the course of my life were to be drawn on a map, there would be a very distinct point where I change direction.”

A soft smile played at my lips. “And that’s a good thing?”

He smiled back at me. “It’s a very good thing.” He looked around the empty hangar and with a loud sigh, he turned back to me. “You’re right though. There are no demons here.”

I grinned at him. “Life starts today, yes?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah, it sure does.” He nodded towards the door. “Come on. Let’s go see Father Michael and get this husband thing sorted out.”

“Husband thing?”

He laughed again, walked over and kissed me. “Yes, husband.” He took my hand and we walked out of the old hangar into the warm LA sun. The door closed behind us and we never looked back.

Epilogue

Six years later

Matt, Mom, Dad and me stood at the side of the stage, when Claude walked out up to the microphone with a piece of paper in her hands. Her once-wiry hair now tamed and styled, she really looked more and more like the young lady she’d become. She was even wearing a dress.

For the first few years, she’d only do this if Matt went with her and did the talking, but now she’d do it on her own. She held her head high and smiled at the gym full of people, announcing the recipient of the Reuben Vaughn Memorial Scholarship.

It hadn’t exactly been an easy road with Claude. There had been adjustment issues in the beginning, but as she’d settled into school, things had got easier.

I smiled as I remembered being called into the school to meet with her teacher. Claude had only been there for a month when the school—a private school—had requested her guardians be there, so the four of us had turned up—Mom, Dad, Matt and me.

We’d sat across from the teacher, who had been surprised to say the least. I guess having one Spanish man, a Japanese woman, a genetic mix of both and an all American white man there as ‘parents’ of a little black girl might have been odd to some. But not to us.

When the teacher had made a comment on our family, my mother had taken offence to her tone. Me and Dad had leant back in our chairs and sighed collectively. Matt had leant forward in his chair and grinned, and Mom had proceeded to rip the poor teacher a new one, lecturing her on what a family really was.

Claude, dressed in her uniform, who had been sitting quietly up until this point, had got the giggles. Dad and Claude had exchanged a few words in sign language, then Matt had joined in. Claude had only known a few words at that stage, so it was a mixed-up conversation, all the while Mom was still ranting on at the poor woman across from us.

We must have looked like a circus act.

Anyway, as it turned out, Claude wasn’t in trouble like we’d assumed. The teacher wanted to see us because apparently Claude was bright.

Like, really, really smart.

She couldn’t read and write very well, but her aptitude tests were off the charts.

None of us were surprised. Proud, but not surprised.

Six years later, the young lady on the stage in front of us could speak fluent ASL, Japanese, some Spanish and was almost top of her class.

Between us and my parents, we just about shared custody of Claude. She’d spend equal amounts of time at either house, though Matt and I never really defined whether she was more of a little sister or a daughter—she was just family.

Matt and my fur-family, as we called it, had grown from just Oscar to include Elvis. Elvis was another rescue dog—he had the body of Labrador but the legs of Corgi. He looked like he’d been put together wrong, but with our mix-matched family, he fit right in.

Matt and my human-family were a work in progress. We’d applied to adopt a child of our own two years ago, had many appointments, even came close once, but were still waiting to hear.

Our adoption support agent, a lovely lady by the name of Tann, was very sympathetic to us and we kept in constant contact.

Matt tried not to act too bothered, but every time the answer was no, he was deflated. He was incredibly busy with work, and at first he thought we might be too busy to afford the time a child needs, but after his workload simmered down, he confessed to me that he really wanted a child.

He wanted to give me a child.

Matt’s work had taken on a whole life of its own. When he’d been at the FC for eighteen months, Berkman had approached him to take on another community gym, running classes for at-risk kids and getting the business up and running.

And then another gym.

He spent the majority of his time at the FC, but with three gyms to run, he had a team of people under him. By the fourth year, he was basically managing people. He had meetings in the city with head honchos and business executives, and theoretically worked as a liaison officer between the Police, the City and the Community while still in daily contact with kids and keeping fit.

It was perfect for him.

I’d left my work and joined him as a head trainer, teaching the new teams how to run classes and get them qualified in health and fitness. I ran some classes at the FC and at the other gyms as well. It was still physical but a little more academic and it suited us both perfectly.

It also gave us more time, and more suitable hours so that bringing a child into our family seemed more doable.

Matt had really come into his own. He told me once that meeting me and eventually ending up at the FC was the starting point of his life, and I really think he was right.

He had a light that shone out of him now, a real sense of purpose and a happiness that came from within. He would still smile when he saw me, he tells me all the time I still take his breath away, that he’s grateful for me, every single day.

I’d never loved him more.

Matt smiled at me as Claude gave a small speech on her brother, the scholarship and the kid that earned it this year. Pauly had been one of Arizona’s students for two years and he really deserved this break. Claude called him up to the stage, shook his hand, congratulated him and handed him the certificate.

Matt walked up onto the stage and shook Pauly’s hand too, then despite the watching crowd, he hugged Claude. It was always an emotional day for her—the day her brother’s memorial scholarship was awarded. She missed him terribly and this day in particular, was difficult.

For the last six years, every day afterwards, we’d go out to dinner as a family. And tonight was no different.

It was Claude’s choice so the five of us, Dad, Mom, Matt, me and Claude, headed to a pizzeria. It was just like any other dinner—we squeezed into a booth, we ordered dinner, we argued, we laughed and we laughed some more.

Then Matt’s phone rang. It rang a hundred times a day, and even Claude said, “God, Matt, turn it off for one night.”

He laughed her off, pulled out his cell and when he read the name on the screen, his eyes shot to mine.

He put the phone to his left ear. “Tann,” he said, letting us know it was our adoption agent. “No, we’re out for dinner. We’re all here, actually.”

Matt was quiet while Tann spoke, and everyone was quiet, watching him, waiting for a sign. My heart was hammering, even though we’d been close before and were horribly disappointed, it was hard not to be excited.

Matt put the phone on the table. “She wants to be put on speaker phone,” he whispered. He pressed the speaker button like it could bite him.

Tann’s voice came through the phone, “Hello, Kira, are you there?”

“Yes,” I answered. “My whole family’s here. We can all hear you.”

“Good,” she replied. “I have news.”

“Yes?” I was almost afraid to ask. Matt grabbed my hand, holding on so tight I could feel him shake. He was as nervous and excited as me.

“It’s good news,” Tann said. “Actually, it’s wonderful news.”

My mom put both her hands over her mouth and her eyes welled with tears.

“Your application has been assessed,” Tann said. “And we have a perfect candidate.”

A buzz went around the table, but Matt shook his head. “We’ve heard this before. Please Tann, are we…” He shook his head again and looked at me. His blue eyes looked hopeful, but said. “Are we even close this time?”

I couldn’t blame him for asking. When we’d been this close before only to be told no, Matt had cried for two days.

“I have the file in my hand,” Tann said. “And I have your name on it, if you want.”

Matt squeezed my hand to the point of pain and he stared at me. I’m sure my expression matched his.

“You should know,” Tann said, “this candidate is fifteen months old. Which is a little older than the norm. The reasons for this are medical reasons, but I didn’t think you guys would mind.”