Author's Note: I wish to thank the everyone that helped me with this story. Special thanks to my volunteer editor Angel Love. This chapter has some violence and no sex.
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Michelle thought that she must be imagining things, Ryan couldn't have just said what she thought he did.
"Dead?" she heard herself repeat distantly.
"Yeah, the idiots went for a joy ride, drunk off their asses, and wound up wrapped around a tree about 100' down a ravine. Now what the hell do I do? Do you have any idea how hard it is to set up these meetings? I can't just put an ad in the paper. If you want to get out of this anytime soon, you better come up with a way to help fix this."
Michelle was at a loss, was Ryan really asking for her help in finding ways to degrade her? It was insane. He must be really desperate.
Unfortunately for Ryan, the news just kept getting worse. Keith still hadn't come back to work and when his superiors went through his files, they found a very questionable deal with Ryan without any reasonable explanation. They cancelled it, making things even tougher on Ryan's department.
After leaving, Michelle met Stacy in her office where they talked about her wildly successful date with Alan. The fact that Ryan's secretary was his Godmother was an unbelievable stroke of luck. Alan had insisted on talking to her by himself, promising that he would come by as soon as he had something to tell them.
Before she went back to work, Stacy told Michelle some of the details of her wild night with him, smiling broadly. Michelle noticed the look in her friend's eye, indicating her liaison had become far more than the recruiting mission it started out as. Michelle envied her friend's newfound happiness, hoping it lasted longer than her usual relationships.
"Just think about how much fun you missed out on because you wouldn't listen to me about what a great guy he was. You've always been too stubborn."
"Yeah, yeah," Stacy mumbled, "this from the queen of wise choices." She stopped cold as she realized the way that sounded. "Michelle, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that..."
"It's Ok," Michelle interrupted. "I know what you meant." She turned away to let Stacy know she wanted to be alone. She didn't want her friend to see how much the inadvertent remark hurt.
As she walked slowly from the room, Stacy wondered if she'd ever be able to have a conversation with her friend without worrying about saying the wrong thing.
They made it through the rest of the day without saying much to each other. Stacy tried apologizing again, but Michelle assured her it wasn't necessary. Tuesday brought better news when Alan stopped by to see them. Once they were in Michelle's office, he excitedly filled them in on his progress.
"Well, I have good news and better news," he stopped, suddenly feeling a little awkward about talking to Michelle for the first time since he found out the truth.
Michelle could tell he was nervous and tried to put him at ease. "It's okay Alan," she said, touching his hand, "what going on?"
He relaxed a little, "First, I talked to Sarah. It took a while to convince her, but she is willing to help. Her only condition is that she wants to talk to Michelle first. I can promise you that she won't say anything to Ryan. She saw you coming out of his office a couple of those times," he paused, looking sadly at Michelle, "She believes you. She was so angry, I asked her to take a day off of work so that she wouldn't give anything away."
"Next," he continued, with a proud smile, "We now have a little friend helping us." He paused, enjoying the girls' confused looks. "I went into Ryan's office while he was at lunch to install some software and I made a few special upgrades. From now on, there's a file only I know about that is backing up everything he does. I'll be able to check out anything he reads or sends. I will even be able to track what sites he visits and if he does any online chats."
"Finally, I went to my friend Karen, who knows more about tech gadgets than I ever will. She gave me one of the best surveillance cameras out there. It's a fake smoke detector and will show the whole office and it records sound as well. It's wired to a recorder I set up in the empty office next door. I ran that cable and an extension chord through the ceiling. It's scary, but the whole thing only took 20 minutes to set up. I've already checked it out and you can see and hear everything he says and does in the entire room. Karen even came up with a bug I could put into Ryan's phone. It's not as reliable as the camera, but should do the job if he talks with anyone."
Stacy and Michelle sat stunned at how much he had done in such a short time. Michelle put her head in her hands and began to cry. Alan looked in alarm at Stacy, wondering if he had done something wrong.
"Michelle, this is a good thing," Stacy said softly. "We can finally get the bastard and you'll be safe."
"I know," Michelle replied. "I didn't know we could do something like this. All the things I did with them..." her voice trailed off as her sobs became uncontrollable.
Stacy was about to move from her chair, but Alan beat her to it. He took Michelle's hand, "A lot of people don't know about all these things. You didn't have access to his office and the one being rehabbed next door. If you had tried this and been caught, something really bad might have happened. This isn't the time to blame yourself, you need to focus on keeping it together until we get something solid on him, Ok?"
Stacy flushed with pride as she watched him comfort her friend. Michelle raised her head, "But you don't understand, I've let them do such horrible things." Alan interrupted her by gently wiping a tear away with his thumb.
"Now you get a chance to pay him back," he said firmly, staring into her eyes. "When you tell your husband, you'll be able to prove you didn't have a choice." He noticed an alarmed look in Stacy's eyes and he quickly changed the subject. "I'll keep an eye on things and let you know if I find out anything, all right?"
Michelle nodded gratefully and hugged him before he left. Stacy walked him out of the office. When they were out of earshot, he turned and asked, "What was that about, why did you give me that look."
"Well, I didn't want her to worry about Mike right now," she stammered.
Alan looked at her very hard, "Stacy, you promised me no more lies. If you're not telling me something, we're going to have a big problem. I'm sticking my neck way out for you on nothing but your word."
