“Yeah, that would be great.”
He held the cup and straw for me to sip the cool water. After I’d had enough, I lay back on the bed. “What happened to Emil?”
“We don’t need to talk about him, sweetheart.” He stroked my forehead until I was nearly asleep again. “You should rest until Dr. Newsome gets here.”
I squinted an eye shut and glared at him. “Nice try, but I’m not playing your little game. Emil kidnapped me and held me hostage on the same boat where he killed his brother. I shot him, Mattie,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “Oh God, I just remembered! I shot him! Are they going to arrest me for murder?”
He held up his hand to calm me, letting it come to rest on my chest. “No, baby. You didn’t kill him, just relax. They took him into surgery and removed the bullet, but you missed his heart by a few inches.”
I shook my head until the motion made me moan. “Mattie, I didn’t mean to shoot him. He was trying to take the gun. It just went off!”
“I know; it’s okay. It doesn’t matter. You were within your rights to protect yourself. If you had killed him, you still wouldn’t be charged. As it is, he will be fine in a couple of days, and he’ll be booked into the Duluth jail. It will take some time to figure out the situation regarding what agency in what state or country will charge him and for what. It turns out the island he killed Milas on was actually in Canada. It’s a mess. The police will have to finish the translation of the paperwork and hope it leads them to the hiding spot of the rest of the goods. I will never remember what Milas told me, and the doctor said not to bother trying. It’s wiped out and gone; that’s the purpose of the drug he gave me. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it is what it is.”
I squeezed his hand and held it to my chest. “You’re a good man, Mattie. Don’t let anyone make you think otherwise.”
He tipped his head as though to agree, but I could see in his eyes it was going to take a long time before he did.
Epilogue
Three Months Later
The Honeybee Tree had attended its first event as a business this weekend at the Bayfield Apple Festival, and we’d sold literally every pie, crisp, cookie, and Brown Betty we had. As much as I wanted to go back for the final day tomorrow, without any product to sell, it would be pointless. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I was blown away.
The FFA and Family and Consumer Education students had worked for a straight week at the Apple Orchard harvesting, prepping, peeling, and baking all the desserts. We’d collaborated with the special education classes to put the logo stickers on the bottles of honey, and the woods and carpentry class was able to outfit our new cargo van with shelving just in time for the festival. The local Business Leaders of Tomorrow were the ones to sell the product and collect the money, while Mathias and I oversaw the whole thing. Having Mor and Far there to celebrate with us was a bonus. Mor had recovered well from her surgery and was back to volunteering in the community.
Mathias and I work together in harmony, and it was wonderful to be back in the saddle with him again. Not that we hadn’t been in the saddle for the last three months. Trust me, we had been. We’d also been through hell and back with Milas and Emil’s smuggling operation. I had no lasting effects from my short hostage situation, though I can say, I’m still not keen on boats.
In the end, the location of the cigars had been there all along. I had plotted the location on the map without even knowing it. The cops were speechless when they found an entire condo in Key West filled with cigars and rum. It was being looked after by an older woman. She thought she was following the orders for heating and cooling to a T because he had priceless artwork inside. Milas hid the humidors and boxes of rum behind rooms full of fake paintings. She told the police Milas would stop in once a month, spend the night, and take off again for another month. I guess with a boat the size ofThe Survivor, you could move a lot of rum and cigars.
It was mind-boggling what people will do for money. If I hadn’t learned that with the pesticide fiasco at Butterfly Junction, Milas’s greed finished the lesson. Money was the reason Emil killed his brother at the first sign of dissension in the ranks. It was why we’d decided to do what we’re doing with the Honeybee Tree. By giving all the money to better the lives of farmers, we were helping the whole of humanity. There has to be a balance for the evil in the world. That was all I wanted to be. I would be the balance until I couldn’t take another breath.
Mathias had been right that night when he said Emil would be fine. He recovered from the bullet I put in him while being housed in the Duluth jail. Since he was in the United States when he kidnapped me, the FBI had taken over the investigation and was working with all the agencies involved to make sure he was tried to the fullest extent. To say it was a mess was an understatement. At some point, I would have to testify, but I didn’t worry about it or follow the case closely. I was too busy getting on with my life.
That was easier said than done some days. After Dr. Newsome saw me three months ago in the ER, he added another medication for the seizures. The CT scan showed the lesion on my brain had enlarged, and while it was still focalized, it was the reason for the change in my neurological condition. The good news is, the combination of the two drugs has kept the seizures at bay as long as I pay attention to my triggers and try not to let myself get stressed, which hasn’t been easy through all of this.
The bad news is, my hand had bigger problems than I realized. The tightening of the muscles and tendons in my hand was due to the spasticity I’d always had, but when I didn’t seek treatment for it, that was the setup for the perfect storm. When the seizures started pulling the fingers into unnatural positions, it caused the tendons to tear and the finger to pop out of joint. I saw a specialist, who made a special brace for the finger, which I wear at all times to prevent more damage to the joint. Ultimately, surgery on the hand will be required with a tendon transfer to repair the damage. I promised Mattie I would do it, but it could wait until the dead of winter when apples weren’t ready to be harvested and baked into delicious desserts.
Mattie squeezed my good hand when we stepped onto the beach and walked toward the water, staying far away from the waves now that it was October, and the water was cooling fast. “You’re lost in thought.” He kissed my temple and wrapped his arms around me to shield me from the cold.
“I was thinking about the evil in the world, and those of us who balance it out with good.”
He walked me to a piece of driftwood and sat us down. “There will always be an abundance of evil in the world. We’ll never wipe it out.” He tossed a rock toward the water in anger.
“No, but we can offer an abundance of good in the world. That hour staring into Emil’s eyes was enough to tell me the only contributions I want to make to this world are to improve it.”
“By?”
“By running the foundation that we started for honeybees. By remembering that I can always do good with simple deeds as well as grand gestures. To focus my career on helping the community rather than myself. Instead of dwelling on not being able to carry a child of my own, I’ll focus on helping children out there who need a home. Children like I used to be. I remind myself every morning when I wake up that I have an opportunity to do good in the world.”
He turned and took my face, kissing my lips in a tender acceptance of my ideals. “Sweetheart, you are and always have been inherently good. You’ve always been kind, loving, and good to everyone, even people who didn’t deserve it. I’m proud of you every day for what you’ve made of yourself. I know you’ll achieve every goal you set. Take this weekend, for example. In less than four months, you took an idea from conception to success practically single-handedly.”
I held up a finger. “No, I had a ton of help once the paperwork was done. I didn’t do the picking, peeling, and pie baking.”
He grasped my finger and lowered it to my lap. “Maybe not, but it wouldn’t have happened without your constant supervision every step of the way.”
“And your constant influx of cash,” I teased, laughing with him. “It was awesome to see such a warm reception for the idea, and the multiple offers of supplies to continue the mission will take us through the entire next year without buying packaging, flour, or eggs.”
“And all from local donations, which keeps it in the community. See what you’ve started?” He stroked my cheek lovingly but lowered his brow. “As for not carrying a child of your own, we don’t know that for sure.”
