Celia's Puppies (13 page)

“
They figured that I drew
them, so they isolated me from the rest. I was sure they were going
to kill me. I just knew it. After one particularly bad… evening, I
fell flat on the floor. My arms were out in front of me. I wanted
to die. I wanted to just disappear. That’s how I was when the Fey
team found me.

“
I’m laying there, mostly
crazy, and I hear this: ‘Damn, Michael, I didn’t know you even
WANTED to be a priest.’”

“
What?” the interviewer
asked.

“
Priests lay like that
before the alter when they are ordained. Guess you’re not
Catholic.”

“
No,” she said.

“
Makes it less funny
then.” Mike smiled.

“
What happened
next?”

“
I tried to roll over but
I was in pretty bad shape. Their medic put me out. That’s all I
remember until waking up on the plane home. They knocked me out in
the hospital. I had a couple surgeries. The moment I could move, I
was out of the hospital and caught a plane to LA.”

“
Did you know he was
alive, Val?”

“
No,” Valerie said. “I had
alienated a lot of people with my… insistence on searching for
Mike. I think they wanted to have him… in hand and healthy before
they told me.”

“
I flew to LA and watched
Entertainment tonight. I waited outside the Ivy and…” Mike
shrugged.

“
I fainted when I saw
him,” Valerie said. “We spent a month together. I
tried...”

“
I was insane,” Mike said.
“God, poor Val. I was still in bandages from the surgeries, bruised
up, AWOL and a complete mess.”

“
I wasn’t much better,”
Valerie said. “He left about a month later. Checked himself into
the VA. By the time he came back, I was publically engaged to
Sean.”

“
We have an interview with
Sean where he says that he’s gay,” the interviewer said. “His
mother had terminal cancer.”

“
Sean thought his mother
would die at peace if she knew he was ‘over’ his gayness. He told
her it was a phase and we were getting married. She died a couple
days later,” Valerie said. “It’s not the most politically correct
thing to do, so Sean and I hid it.”

“
That’s what he said,” the
interviewer said. “He also said you did the same thing for his
partner a few years later.”

Valerie nodded.

“
But Mike saw those
engagements as a betrayal...” Valerie said. “Of course.”

“
We had a lot of push,
pull,” Mike said. “I didn’t have a job or a life. I camped out in
the garage of this place.”

“
Your studio,” the
interviewer said.

“
Not then. It was a
garage. No running water, no heat. I camped there, went to therapy.
Delphie, the woman who lived here, in the Castle, had no idea I was
in the garage. Valerie and I saw each other probably twice a month.
Valerie would come see me or I would go there,” Mike said. “Val was
like an obsession. When she was gone, I thought of her constantly.
When she was here, I couldn’t stand myself.”

“
It was the same for me,”
Valerie said.

“
Then Val’s brother, Jake,
moved back to Colorado,” Mike said.

“
Jake’s a spark.” Valerie
beamed. “He gets fires going. He got Mike working on the Castle and
playing hockey again. The studio was covered in these drawings of
me. Jake bought paints and left them for Mike. After a few
missteps, Mike picked up oil painting like he was born to it. The
first completed canvass is the one that’s in the
museum.”

“
I’d drawn the image so
many times, it was like just getting it down,” Mike said. “Once I
started, I didn’t stop.”

“
What about
Wes?”

“
Mike and I fell into a
rhythm of seeing each other a week a month and some weekends,”
Valerie said. “But we struggled. I became enamored with Wes. Wes is
so normal, so slick. Mike and I had a fight about him, then Wes
sent a car for me.”

“
A car?”

“
An Aston Martin,” Valerie
said. “Mike was furious. He threw me out of the house, told me
never ever to come back.”

“
I’m a real asshole,” Mike
said. “You don’t have to wonder why she left.”

“
I deserved it,” Valerie
said. “I walked the edge, never committing to Mike or anyone for a
long time. I couldn’t stand losing him again. It would kill me.
Just kill me. I couldn’t have Mike and I couldn’t be away from him.
I went back to LA and started a relationship with Wes.”

Valerie fell silent. She closed and opened
her eyes then let out a breath.

“
This man lay on the floor
while men kicked him, broke his bones and refused to give up photos
of me. They cut his face with some tribal knife and he wouldn’t
give them up.” Tears streamed down Valerie’s face. “And when he
came back, I was too afraid to love him.

“
Everyone’s said all this
stuff about my lowlife husband. I mean, Wes said that I preferred a
stable animal to a thoroughbred champion. But Mike’s the hero who
fought for me.

“
This time I’m going to
fight for him. For us.”

When Valerie broke down, Mike pulled her
onto his lap. There was not a dry eye in the room. For at least a
minute, the only sound in the room was sniffing.

“
That’s a wrap,” the
producer choked out.

Chapter Thirty-Four
Slaying a Tiger

Mike nodded his good-bye then walked off the
stage. Deeply embarrassed at the standing ovation, he craved the
quiet dark of backstage. He reached behind him for Valerie’s hand
and felt the immediate pulse of her. Spinning in place, he wrapped
himself around her. In each other’s tight embrace, they regained
some sense of balance.

“
I’m sorry,” Alex
Hargreaves said. “We have to keep moving. There’s a crowd outside
and we understand one growing around the Castle. You still want to
go home?”

“
I need to go home,” Mike
said over Valerie’s shoulder. “Can I have…?”

“
We’ll head out. Two
minutes?” Alex asked.

Mike nodded. Alex and her team went down the
hall way to the stage door. Dressed in digital fatigues, dark
glasses, hats and exposed side arms, the team had held Valerie’s
fans at bay when they arrived by limousine. Judging by the sound,
there was a Black Hawk waiting for them somewhere close. When Alex
opened the door to the street, they heard people, a lot of people,
cheer.

“
I love you,” Valerie
said. “I never, ever thought you would do this.”

“
I do anything for you,
Val,” Mike said. “I’m sorry about Wes.”

“
You mean when he told
Oprah I was a selfish bitch? Or the part about how I betrayed him
and stole from him?”

“
The whole thing,” Mike
said. He pulled her even closer.

“
He’s said much worse.
They must have edited,” Valerie said.

“
How did you
know?”

“
Jill’s friend Tanisha
brought me a couple of magazines. She wanted me to know exactly
what a ‘bitch-ass’ he was being. She didn’t want me to go back to
him and destroy my life.”

“
But you’re
Ok...”

“
Mikhail, my love and
hero, has just slayed a tiger for me. Why should I care what the
jester says?”

“
A tiger?” Mike put his
hands around her face then kissed her.

She nodded. He laughed. She kissed him.

“
Time to go,” Captain Mac
Clenaghan, Alex’s second in command, said. “We want you at the
center of a diamond formation. There are a lot of people out here.
Wave to the crowd like the prom king and queen then we’ll surround
you. Got it.”

“
Yes, sir,” Mike
said.

He looked at Valerie and she nodded. They
followed the Captain to the door.

“
Stand here. Go out only
on my say so.”

Mike took Valerie’s hand. They nodded. The
Captain pushed open the door. A call went through the crowd for
Valerie, and Mike.

“
Ok go ahead,” the Captain
said.

Mike stepped through the door first then
laughed. Parting the sea of people, a hundred soldiers, active and
veterans, stood guard in their dress uniform. They created a tight
corridor for Valerie and Mike to walk through. Valerie stepped next
to him.

“
Guess you have some
friends,” Valerie said.

Mike looked down at Valerie then smiled.

“
Prom king and queen,” the
Captain said.

Still holding hands, Mike and Valerie raised
their hands to wave at the crowd. As they walked down the corridor,
the soldiers popped to salute.

“
That’s for you,” Valerie
said into Mike’s ear.

He puzzled at her then smiled. Waving they
went down the corridor to the helicopter. One of Alex’s team bent
down to help Valerie through the doors and into her seat. The team
helped Valerie strap in and Mike sat next to her. Within moments,
they were flying west-southwest over the city of Chicago a straight
line for Denver.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday afternoon

“
What exactly are you
saying?” Aden asked the Social Services investigator.

“
We’ve interviewed the
children, spoken with their therapist, reviewed your employment
files and had a detailed conversation with your ex-wife. At this
point, it’s our belief that it is not in your children’s best
interest to interact with their mother.”

“
And that
means?”

Aden was so freaked out about having any
kind of conversation with Social Services that he couldn’t grasp
what the woman was saying.

“
We are requesting that
you work with a Special Advocate to determine the conditions of
Nuala’s return to your children’s life.”

“
But don’t they need
contact with their mother?” Aden asked. “What about the custody
arrangement?”

“
Sir, we went over this a
moment ago,” the Social Services representative said. “Are you
feeling all right?”

“
I’m sorry. I’m too
anxious to think straight.. Would you mind if I get someone to
help? I mean, I know you didn’t want...”

“
Please,” the woman said.
Her impatient look spoke volumes.

Aden opened the door to the hall where Blane
and Jacob waited for him.

“
She’s saying something
but I...” Aden started.

Jacob smiled at Aden. He and Blane followed
Aden into the office.

“
I apologize for my
friend, ma’am,” Jacob said. “His kids are everything to him. He’s
been upset about this entire situation. I’m Jacob Marlowe and this
is Blane Lipson.”

Jacob and Blane sat on either side of
Aden.

“
We are recommending
Noelle and Nash Norsen no longer have contact with their mother,
Nuala Norsen.”

The woman raised her eyebrows at Jacob and
Blane after she repeated what she had said to Aden.

“
That’s what I don’t
understand,” Aden said. He leaned back against his
chair.

“
I understand that you are
recommending no contact between Noelle, Nash and their mother,”
Jacob said.

“
That’s
correct.”

“
I think what’s confusing
is that after this incident, which includes an attempt to
prostitute her ten year old daughter for drugs, Nuala retains her
parental rights.” Jacob raised his eyebrows with
indignation.

“
Right. That’s exactly
right,” Aden said. “So we’ll go through this again in a year? Two
years?”

“
Sir, Nuala Norsen has
told our investigator that she’s entering rehab to give up drugs.”
The investigator read her report, curled her lip at the
information, and then nodded. “That’s what it says. She’s already
talking to the district attorney to make a plea bargain for her
case.”

“
But she’ll come back. As
soon as she’s out of jail, she’ll come...”

Aden’s pressured voice revealed his panic.
Blane put his hand on Aden’s shoulder to silence his anxious
sputter.

“
Ma’am,” Blane said. “If
Aden wanted to eliminate this threat from his children’s lives,
what would he need to do?”

The woman smiled as if finally they were
getting somewhere.

“
I’m not an attorney, Mr.
Lipson. But I would suggest that Mr. Norsen speak with an attorney.
We will be happy to support the best interest of the
children.”

“
And the best interest of
the children right now is…?” Jacob asked.

“
They have no contact with
their mother at this time,” the woman said.

“
And their father will
become their sole custodian? Is that correct?” Jacob
asked.

“
Yes, sir,” the woman
said. “I cannot speak to the legalities but our recommendations are
that the children live with their father in his home.”

Jacob laughed and clapped Aden on the back.
Aden looked at Jacob then shook his head.

“
That’s not all of it,”
Aden said.

“
It’s our understanding
that the Denver Police are not pursuing a case against Mr. Norsen,”
the woman said. “In order to support his sole custody, Social
Services has a few requirements.”