Trigger The Years Past - 13. Chapter 13: Shoots And Ladders

"So, this is where you will work, the front Secretary usually takes the phone calls, does all the basic business, sends the clients in order and typical stuff like that." Cheston explained.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to promote her and put me out there?" Miracle grinned. "I'd kind of love to get the chance to consult them myself while they wait."

"Well, you would get the opportunity to to be present on consultations and discussions, this is more like an Assistant than a Secretary."

"And I don't need credentials for that?" Miracle asked.

"I partly own this place, besides, so long as I'm not letting you put your stamp on anything and do any actual damage.." Cheston paused. "I say that in slang terms."

Miracle looked at Cheston. "I know what you mean." He grinned.

"Actually you would get to deal with the clients more so than me, I mostly deal with them at the actual hearings and court appearances. You just report to me what goes on, their concerns, that sort of thing, though as I know your inexperience, I'll make myself more available to you if you need me." Cheston nodded.

Miracle laughed. "I hope I don't lose you clients for not dressing up."

"Just keep your extra cute clothes at home for...other times. Like Mickey Mouse and smilie faces." Cheston smiled. "So my office is down the hall, just come get me if you need me."

"Okay, easy enough." Miracle nodded.

Cheston smiled and headed out of Miracle's new office, just wondering how this was going to work, he hoped he would not have to fire his new fiance.

Miracle smiled and walked behind his desk and sat down. "At least this time, I know it's not a joke." Though, little did Miracle or Cheston know, there were a few people there that thought the idea was a disaster, at least as soon as they saw Miracle. Who hired a twenty two year old Assistant?

He grabbed a pen and started chewing at the top of it and sat back in the office chair and started humming and then the phone rang. "Oh! My first call!" Miracle laughed quietly and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, my names Donnie, I am one of Mr. King's clients, you must be the new assistant."

"That I am." Miracle smiled. "So, how can I help you? What is your case about? Sorry, I'll need to catch up to speed on everything."

"Well, my sister Donna and my family evicted me from the house and I was charged with assault because she fell down the steps and they accused me of pushing her. Thing is, I have schizophrenia and I really believe I would never do that and that I didn't, but they are claiming that I have no memory of it."

Miracle's eyes widened. "Wow, that's messed up." He chewed on the top of his pen. "Have you had a psyche evaluation done?"

"Yes, Mr. King ordered it, plus my psychiatrist has my files, and I'm on my medication, but they claimed I stopped taking it, and I wonder if they stole it and got rid of it because it disappeared, they are saying I threw it away and I don't think I would, but they have my mind all twisted."

"That is all screwed up. First of all, you should of had cameras hidden in that house, in every single room, it probably wouldn't hurt to go ahead and do it now in case they start pulling more stunts." Miracle suggested.

"I don't have any money, my social security goes to them and since they kicked me out, I don't have access." Donnie sighed.

"Oh, well, then you know, do you know where Mr. King lives?" Miracle asked.

"No. Why would I? He's my lawyer." Donnie said.

"Well, if you come by the office tomorrow, I will have a check for you, it will be enough money to buy the cameras and to get a place to stay and survive on for a while." Miracle nodded.

"Will I be in debt?" Donnie asked.

"No, consider it a personal gift from me." Miracle smiled. "Your situation sounds awful. So you need to hide those cameras good, I mean be really sneaky about it and put them on record so if they pull any sneaky stuff, you will have physical evidence that they are lying. Buy a digital recorder to, keep it on you so if you have any exchanges with them, you can get it recorded. These kind of people, you got to be on your toes to catch them."

"Okay, is there anything else I should do?" Donnie asked.

"Get your medicine refills with the money I'm going to give you and keep your medicine with you and hide it well, buy a camera to keep with you and film yourself taking your medicine every day, and film the inside of your mouth, under your tongue and everything to prove you swallowed it, and do a pill count every day on film until the end of the month. I have to go, I need to report these updates, but come to the office tomorrow after noon, I'm going to give you about five thousand dollars."

"Five thousand dollars?!" Donnie yelled in surprise.

"I splurge, what can I say? And you deserve it for all your hell. Now be here tomorrow afternoon, okay?"

"Okay." Donnie said, bewildered. "Bye."

"Have a nice day." Miracle hung up and then walked out of his office and down the hall. "Cheston! I got an update." He rushed into Chester's office.

Cheston looked up. "Miracle, a little less excitement?"

"No, you wouldn't believe what this family is doing to this Donnie guy that called. Look, he's coming tomorrow, they kicked him out and they are withholding his social security checks, make sure you really use that against them, anyway I'm giving him five thousand dollars to buy cameras to plant in the house. Apparently, they have been stealing his medicine, use that too, and they have been throwing it away and making him think he stopped taking his medicine."

Miracle took a breath. "Okay, so I told him to get a hotel and buy a camera to keep with him and get his refills and film himself taking his medicine and the inside of his mouth, and to film a pill count every day, he's also supposed to get a digital recorder so if his family says anything incriminating, he'll get it."

Cheston's mouth fell open. "And he's suppose to do all this with our money? Miracle, you can't just give him our money and instruct him to dig up evidence. Thank you for telling me what he told you, it's good to know, but if they find out that the attorney assisted him financially in incriminating the plaintiffs? First of all, if they have been keeping his social security checks, they will want to know where he got the money for all the stuff you told him to buy, how he got the hotel, you'd sink the case! Not to mention, you just told him to break into the house, film people without their knowledge, which could turn into many things."

"Well, I'm not the attorney." Miracle crossed his arms. "I can be charitable if I want. I'll just film myself giving him the money."

"Then the judge is likely to lack sympathy for what he's been going through if you set him up in the Hilton." Cheston took a deep breath. "I know you want to help beyond your reach, but you gather the information, vocally, in the office, and that's it."

"Fine, you call him back and..." Miracle trailed off. "He's homeless, he probably called from a pay phone. Well when he comes tomorrow, you can personally explain to him why he's not getting a nice check."

"Fine, I will." Cheston shook his head.

Miracle sighed. "Is it time for lunch break yet?"

Cheston laughed. "We just came in."

Miracle leaned back against the door. "I'm going to go play solitaire." He walked off down the hall.

"Oh, please God, don't let me have to fire him." Cheston mumbled and looked up at the ceiling. "I'm already getting the eyes for this..."

Nikolai walked up when he saw Miracle sitting at a table outside of a sandwich shop along the street and grinned. "What are you doing?"

"Getting in trouble at my job." Miracle said as he stirred his straw through the ice in his soda.

"At the sandwich shop?" Nikolai asked.

"No, being Cheston's Assistant." Miracle said.

"Woah.." Nikolai kicked out a chair and sat across from Miracle. "You work at the law firm?" His eyes then shifted to the ring. "And don't tell me..." He grinned.

"Yep, engaged and working at my fiance's law firm as his Assistant." Miracle looked up at Nikolai. "At twenty two years old, how lucky am I? Now if only I had my diamond Mercedes Benz to go with it, though everyone made me sell it."

"You're lying, you didn't have a diamond Mercedes Benz." Nikolai shook his head.

"Oh, I did. I got pictures." Miracle looked up at Nikolai. "And if you want to accuse me of Photoshop, go ahead. People wondered if I was a con artist, why not a fraud? Oh, and I got called a porn star too."

Nikolai shook his head. "I could ask so many questions right now. I just want to know, why did you care? You didn't want me to go to jail, why? I mean I wanted to kidnap you, make you my bitch..."

"I don't think you would of went through with it." Miracle said. "You might of left with me...but for some reason, I don't think you would of used me or hurt me. You could of done that when you came over the first time, I was there, alone, no way to defend myself."

"True." Nikolai nodded. "But why did you care?"

"Certain people, I just end up caring about them, I end up feeling some sort of...magnetic pull, a need to keep them in my life. I knew, if you went back to jail, you would be gone forever, I just couldn't let that happen." Miracle let go of his straw. "The old me, I would explore what I feel without question, but I can't do that anymore, I can't wreck the life that I've made for myself."

"Wait, you mean you feel something? Just like that? Especially after what I did?" Nikolai slightly grinned and shook his head, confused.

"I'm a twisted person." Miracle grinned and lightly kicked his foot. "Despite what I feel, I can't explore it, I have to honor the life that I have."

Nikolai stared at Miracle. "What one doesn't know...won't hurt them. If you're twisted..."

Miracle shook his head. "I can't do that, I don't want to be a bad person. I mean there's nothing wrong with being bad and dangerous, that's what draws me, but he trusts me so much, despite knowing that I get so easily tempted."

"That's to bad, for me, that is." Nikolai grinned. "I really like you, but I appreciate you doing what you did for me, so I guess I got to respect how you feel and what you want."

Miracle laughed and leaned forward, his hands clasping beneath his chin. "I just wonder how long that will last."

"Might not be long, if I keep seeing you." Nikolai looked down and quietly laughed. "That was a pretty good act, tie him to a chair and fuck right in front of him."

"Hey, you went crazy, I was surviving." Miracle looked down. "If it took that...to keep us alive..."

Nikolai looked up. "I wouldn't of done that to you, I know I went to get the rope, I would of tied him up, I didn't know where I was going from there, but I knew I wouldn't of done that."

"Why? What did I do...before caring, that made you care about me?" Miracle asked.

"So many things, just who you are. And...I had this feeling, your wrists, whatever you had to do, I had this feeling, you didn't want to do it." Nikolai looked up. "Well, I should probably go."

"Yeah, I think so." Miracle nodded and watched Nikolai as he got up and walked off, a sigh escaped. "So close...and so far." Miracle looked down and looked at his ring. "But I have to remember why, I love Cheston, and our life is going to be perfect."

"Thanks for coming." Andy shut the door behind Miracle.

"Sure, what's up with the for sale sign?" Miracle turned around and looked at him.

"Uh...I have to go back to Colorado, my old boss is giving my old job back to me." He sighed and scratched his head. "Truth is, my grandmother is sick and she needs someone to take care of her, my parents have to keep up the farm and..she doesn't want to give up her own house, so it only made sense for me to go back."

Miracle frowned. "Is that the only reason? Not that it isn't enough. What about Gavin?"

"Uh...well with Wayne gone, Gavin really doesn't mind living at home, actually I think they are just selling the house and getting a new one. Really, I guess, aside from my grandmother needing me, it just makes sense because...there's not much left for me here. I came for you and...well, you have other people in your life now, and I think you're starting on a good path. I just miss home and...it's really calling to me." Andy nodded.

Miracle looked down. "I understand." He looked up. "Well, it's been...four years, thanks for everything you've done, all you've done, so much, you had to put up with a lot, I know I didn't always make it easy."

Andy smiled. "I was happy to do it, even if it didn't turn out the way that I had hoped, I know you're going to have a beautiful life, that home is amazing and...it's going to be great. Just...don't screw it up." He quietly laughed.

Miracle smiled and looked down. "I'll try not to." He looked up and took a deep breath. "I guess I didn't think the day would come..."

"You'll be okay, you don't need me." Andy stepped forward and hugged Miracle. "You just remember me bitching if ever you know something wrong is going on." He closed his eyes, tears falling down his face. "And I love you, I'm glad I got to be the one to...help you for all this time."

Miracle hugged Andy and nodded. "I'll do that." He pulled back and took a deep breath. "You're already crying, I should go before I start."

"I don't want to see you cry." Andy shook his head. "Saw way to many tears in our time."

Miracle nodded. "I love you too." Miracle stood there, as if he wanted to say more, but he couldn't quite think of what else to say. Finally he walked around Andy and headed to the door, opening it and walking out.

Andy walked up to the storm door and watched Miracle as he headed out to his car and drove off. He took a deep breath. "I hope nothing but the best for you." He whispered.

Miracle drove down the road and by this point, tears spilled down his face and he ended up pulling over beside the road, he put the car into park and his arms stretched around the steering wheel as he leaned forward and shut his eyes and started crying.

Miracle sat at his desk when he heard a knock and looked up to see a tall and skinny guy with long hair and a goatee, he looked dirty and a mess. "Donnie?"

"That's me." He said as he walked in and sat down. "You told me to come."

"Yeah, unfortunately I can't give you that money, the lawyer said doing all that I told you to do would hurt the case, he said the information you gave would help." Miracle frowned.

Donnie slowly nodded and then shook his head. "Figured it was to good to be true."

Miracle sighed and pulled out a hundred dollars worth of twenties and handed them over. "This should at least cover for the new medicine, just make sure you're taking it, I don't see how making sure you're taking your medicine could hurt anything."

Donnie took the money and fiddled with it, silent for a moment. "Thanks."

"Don't spend it in the wrong place." Miracle sat back.

"I won't." Donnie started to get up.

Miracle hesitated. "Hey, do you think you could give me the address?" Miracle laid a sticky pad and a pen on the desk in front of him.

"Sure." Donnie nodded and picked up the pad and pen and jotted down an address and then sat the pad down and dropped the pen on the desk. "I gotta go." He then walked out of the office.

Miracle grabbed the pad and looked at it. "One hundred dinosaur lane?" His eyebrows lifted. "Either he is wacky...or..." He slowly shook his head and then got up and walked out of his office and down the hall. "Cheston, can I go home? I'm not feeling well."

Cheston looked up. "What's wrong?"

Miracle looked down. "I'm just not...emotionally up today...Andy left and...I just...I feel down and...I can't cry here." His voice started to break up.

Cheston quickly nodded. "Yeah, in fact, do you want me to drive you?"

"Sure, if you want, I just...can't do anything, it's like a fog." Miracle shook his head.

Cheston got up and grabbed his keys and wrapped an arm around Miracle and lead him off down the hall. "Going to take lunch!" He called out and lead Miracle out of a side door and to his car. He got into the driver seat and when Miracle climbed in, he drove on.

Miracle sighed and looked down. "I just can't believe that Andy is gone..."

"I'm really sorry, I know it must be hard." Cheston said. "It'll be okay though, once it passes, with time."

"Yeah." He nodded. "And when you get off, I'm still doing my appointment, I want to do these treatments as quick as I can." Miracle nodded. "I won't miss a single one."

"Okay, well, I'll take you home and...you can sleep or...do whatever and...then we'll go to your appointment and...then, how would you feel about going to California? I did tell you I would take you running through the waves."

Miracle looked up at him. "That might be nice."

"Okay, it's set, I'll make the reservations, find the perfect place." Cheston smiled and reached over, taking Miracle's hand.

"Thank you." Miracle sighed and looked out at everything they drove by.

Miracle sat on the bed, scrolling his finger over the screen on his phone as he looked through Facebook. "An event?" He tapped the screen and his eyebrows lifted. "The Dark Party..." He started laughing. "Okay, what a way to stir my undeniable curiousity, then again, this is Conner, I don't know why I haven't removed him. It's probably something weird..." Miracle looked. "Then again, I'm talking to myself, guess it's better than talking to an alarm clock...or maybe not?"

"I bet I'll regret this." Miracle tapped attend and then looked up the location before going back to his newsfeed and typing in an update. "Curiousity is going to kill the cat one day." He hit send and then tossed his phone to the side.

He climbed off the bed and walked over to the French doors and looked outside. "A big house to myself..." He looked around thoughtfully and then walked over and climbed onto the bed again and grabbed his phone. "Okay, I guess there is nothing else here." He tossed his phone away again and fell flat against the bed. "Hmm, I'll have to go to my appointment early."

Miracle got up and climbed off the bed, grabbing his cell phone and headed downstairs. "George?! When Cheston gets home, tell him I had to go to my appointment early. Just...tell him I'll be back later!" Miracle called out to the door man as he headed out to the garage and then he climbed into his car. He grabbed the remote and hit the button, once the garage door opened, he backed out and then hit the button to close the garage door and tossed the remote to the passenger seat. He put the car into drive and then headed off down the road.

"Hi, this is Miracle Jaisyn, I need to change my appointment, I actually need to make it a lot earlier. Um, I'm on the road right now, and I made some other plans, so I'm on a different schedule and I'll need to be seen when I arrive." He paused and slowly nodded. "Right, well I understand, I also know that the doctor likes my money, aka Cheston King's money, which you might as well consider mine too, if not now, very soon, because...you can let him know that I've upgraded to fiance status. So...just tell him that I need my appointment rearranged and..." Miracle's eyes widened and he suddenly slammed on the breaks.

Nikolai stared at Miracle as he nearly ran him over and his head tilted to the side and then he walked over to the passenger side, opened the door and climbed in. "And they say texting and driving is bad, I sure hope you never text..." He stared at him with wide eyes.

Miracle watched Nikolai get in the car. "Just uh...tell the doctor what I said!" He hung up and dropped the phone on the console. "Oh my god! I am so sorry! I was just uh...having my appointment rescheduled so I could go to a party from Facebook."

Nikolai's eyebrows lifted. "A party, huh?"

"Yeah, something called the dark party." Miracle looked up when someone blew their horn at him and then he sighed and started driving again.

Nikolai looked off to the side and grinned. "Miracle, uh...why would you go to a party like that?"

"Uh...because I want to see what it is?" Miracle shook his head.

"It's one of those master slave things, except they make parties out of it and spread the word as far and wide as they can to connect masters seeking slaves and vice versa. If you go in there..." Nikolai looked at Miracle. "Well, you'd probably be presumed a slave looking a master and a guy will just grab you and start playing the role. I've never been to one of them...but I've heard of people who have."

Miracle stomped the break hard at a stop light. "What?! And I almost went to it?! Thank God I almost ran into you!"

"Damn!" Nikolai flew forward and then the seat belt yanked him back. "Into me? Or over me?" He shook his head. "For saving your ass, and you thanking God for my near demise just to cross paths by fate in order to do it, you owe me the hang out time, not counting while I wait in the waiting room of your doctors office."

"Well, my plans are crashed now, the awful plans they would of turned out to be." Miracle shook his head. "Might aswell."

Nikolai grinned.

Miracle parked in an old parking lot of an abandoned building, out in the distance of the city strip but close enough to see it. He sat in the back seat with Nikolai, his legs kicked out between the front seats, over the center console.

"So, are you still being a good boy?" Nikolai asked.

"Trying to be." Miracle said, looking at the new bandage on his chest. "You know, between appointments, most of the day, I can almost forget it." He started to lower his shirt.

"You should of let me watch it get done." Nikolai said, and then stopped Miracle from lowering his shirt. His fingers trailed over the bandage and then down his stomach. "So that..what? Knocks it down to five treatments?"

"What? No, it still looks bad." Miracle shook his head. "It looks a little better, I guess the results will show more towards the end." He looked down at Nikolai's hand and then nodded. "Yeah, five more."

Nikolai rubbed Miracle's stomach and then looked up at him. "Know what's odd? Being in Cheston's life has almost got you killed, twice."

Miracle looked over at Nikolai and then grinned, yanking his shirt down, but it only fell over Nikolai's hand. "One of those times was by you, and I wouldn't say it was close enough to call it almost."

"I don't think you can handle the straight and narrow, I think it'll drive you crazy. Tell me, what is life like?" Nikolai asked, his hand moved out from beneath Miracle's shirt and he ran his hand gently up his chest and around the side of his neck.

Miracle looked down and shrugged. "Well, I work, just started anyway, and then...well I hang out at home and..."

"See, with me...you wouldn't be waiting in a house all day for me to come home. And that job, is it really satisfying?" Nikolai asked.

"I thought it would be." Miracle leaned closer and rested his head against Nikolai's chest. "And you're kind of right about the house, but it's not really Cheston's fault if I don't do anything."

Nikolai grinned and wrapped an arm around Miracle. "Yeah, but he could do better to try to create a happier atmosphere for you."

"He was going to take me to California and..." Miracle's eyes widened and he sat up. "Oh crap, I totally forgot about our plans, he was going to take me to California tonight..."

Nikolai's grin faded and he sat upright. "Now he's probably going to be pissed, really want to rush to face that? Plans ruined anyway."

Miracle leaned forward and grabbed his phone. "You turned my phone off." He looked at Nikolai. "That's a dirty trick." He frowned and pushed the button to turn his phone on. "What am I supposed to tell him?"

"Sorry, I just didn't want to be interrupted, if I had known you had plans..." Nikolai shrugged. "You're good at improvising."

"You mean good at lying." Miracle shook his head and leaned back. "I don't have a single voicemail...or a text."

"That's creepy." Nikolai's eyebrows lifted. "Waiting for you at the mansion." He couldn't help but to laugh. "It'll be all dark, candles lit everywhere, you'll go in, knowing he's there and then he'll just come out of the shadows somewhere, super calm at first. Or better yet, slash the candles, maybe he just leaves a small lamp on, make you think he went to bed."

Miracle looked over at Nikolai. "If that's your strategy to keep me here longer, it's failing..."

"I don't see you in any hurry to get up." Nikolai grinned.

"Well, it's not because of you." Miracle looked away, crossing his arms.

Nikolai grinned. "Well, I'm going to get out here then, you should go home, next time I see you, I'll want to know if I was right."

Miracle looked over at Nikolai, surprised. "I don't get you."

"No, I didn't get you...yet." Nikolai climbed out of the car and then shut the door.

"Hey, that was kind of lame." Miracle grinned and shook his head before climbing over into the drivers seat.

Nikolai laughed and shook his head, waving Miracle off as he started to drive away.

Miracle walked through the garage door and looked around. "Okay...dark house, check." He said as he walked further, every low light that could be used in the house was on. He headed into the living room and his eyebrows lifted when he saw his parents picture hanging out and his safe left revealed.

He knew Cheston was home, his car was in the garage. Miracle headed over to the safe and quickly turned the dial to put in his code and then he opened it and looked through it, noticing that everything was there and appeared normal, except his diary was missing.

"Cheston?!" Miracle called out, closing his safe.

"Miracle." Cheston walked into the living room from the kitchen, taking a bite of an apple. "George gave me your message. Kind of a long doctors appointment, ruined all our plans."

"Yeah...I'm sorry." Miracle turned around. "Why...was my safe and everything left like this? And why is my diary gone?"

"Well, given the whole Martin and Wayne thing, I thought it would be better to keep it in my safe, seeing as my personal office is more secure, as is my safe in it, I mean it has a code lock, key lock, and one of my trusty pad locks." The hint of a smile appeared. "I wouldn't want our lives to fall apart over those creeps from West Virginia."

"And...you just left my parents picture hanging open and...my safe exposed? Like you wanted me to find it like this and ask?" Miracle shook his head. "That's weird, and I'm pretty sure my diary was just fine in my safe, though given how you left it, sure, I am pretty sure the cops might find it interesting."

"Trust me, it's better in my safe." Cheston nodded. "So what happened? All our plans were ruined."

"Well, someone posted about a dark party, I was curious, so I made them do my appointment early, nearly ran Nik over on the way, he came with me, I got my appointment done, and then we hung out. You should be happy that I did run into him."

Miracle paused. "Well, not that I nearly ran into him with my car, but that I saw him, because he told me those dark parties were for slave and master people and...kept me from going, not that he knew that from experience, but he knew people that went to them before." Miracle nodded.

Cheston nodded. "I see." He sat down on the couch and looked up at Miracle. "So all of our plans were destroyed because you were curious because someone labeled a party name? Really? Is that the kind of marriage we are going to have? Am I going to marry a teenager?"

Miracle's eyes slightly narrowed. "Well that's a bit judgmental." He crossed his arms. "And you knew all of my flaws well before you popped the question, I tried to get you not to, but you had to anyway, so do you really have the right to toss questions like that around, daddy?"

Cheston grinned and silently laughed. "Cute, very you. So what did you and Nikolai do, exactly? What beat California and the beach?"

Miracle stared at Cheston and then walked over and sat down, one leg tucked under him as he faced Cheston directly. "We pulled into an alley...and had hot, sleazy sex, in the back seat. I think the condom is still in the floor board, want to go get it?" He grinned and then started to laugh.

Cheston smiled and looked down, nodding. "Funny, I think I'll let it rot there." He said, humoring Miracle. "Well, we can always go on another trip, maybe go to West Virginia instead. Since you're so keen on sleeping around, you really should show that investigator your gratitude."

Miracle's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?" He then stood up from the couch. "Oh my god, you're going to really do it, aren't you? Hold Kyler and Jordan over my head, you just got the diary before I could get rid of it."

"I got the diary to keep it safe, Miracle...we are engaged, we're going to be married soon. We're going to have a good life, if that is what you want, but being defiant like this, it's just going to make things really uncomfortable."

"And you think you're different from Eric?" Miracle turned around and walked across the room. "Oh my god..." His hand moved to his mouth.

"I am different from Eric, who I am, well that depends on who you are, what you do." Cheston leaned forward and clasped his fingers together. "I want life to be really good, kind...and nice."

"So...what are you saying?" Miracle turned around, a sarcastic grin on his face. "Rule one, I can't ever see Nik? You know, Cheston...how do you know that you might not just become a..."

"Ah." Cheston held up a finger. "What? Number? Statistic? Another bloody secret to put in that book? Because, you see, the code to the safe, the whole story, it's in a letter, with copies of the keys to the safe and the pad lock on it, as well as copies of the keys and information to even gain access to my personal study, they are all in an envelope in a letter, it's protected by my lawyer who is instructed to deliver it to my mother should...I become a number."

"So you got it all figured out." Miracle nodded. "So about rule one?"

"Well, seeing as you told a kind of hilarious, yet really hurtful, and maybe infuriating lie, it was like getting stabbed in the heart, and getting my foot tickled at the same time, I doubt anything happened. So...now that we are more eye to eye, lets see how that friendship goes."

"You're a bastard." Miracle shook his head and fell down to sit on the love seat.

"Don't say that..." Cheston sighed. "Oh...and don't think about telling your parents about this, I kinda think that your dad might of flashed through your mind, when we start telling the truth, well more truth can come out than we want."

"I mess up plans, one time...and you aren't even telling me to never see Nik..." Miracle looked at Cheston. "So this doesn't make sense, why do this? It's like you pulled a split personality or something."

Cheston sighed and looked down. "I'm sorry, I'm a little angry and upset about tonight, yes, but this is about our future, I just want to know that it's secure, and well, and safe, I mean it when I say that your diary and that awful written confession is beyond safe with me, in my office, in my safe. It'll never see the light of day...it's not just about making sure that you get better and make a good spouse."

Miracle looked up at Cheston. "You might as well put a gun to my head." He stood up and looked at the kitchen. "Get my medicine, I want my pills, I need some, I just want to go to sleep."

Cheston sighed and stood up and walked to the kitchen and pulled his keys out and searched through them and unlocked the cabinet and got two klonopin and two xanax. He locked the cabinet back and walked over to Miracle and stretched his hand out. "I know you're really upset."

"You'd be missing a screw if you didn't." Miracle snatched the tablets from him and walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. He tossed the tablets in his mouth and took a sip of water as he headed for the stairs and went up to their room.

Miracle headed down the hall and stopped at Cheston's study and looked at the door, knowing he hadn't paid much attention until now and as he looked at the door, he noticed that it had a dead bolt lock, required a number code and needed a key card.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Miracle's eyes widened, thinking about how crazy this guy was starting to seem as the bigger picture was starting to present it's self, first he took away his ability to self harm or commit suicide, which many might consider a good thing, now he was blackmailing him and had so much security that it wasn't even funny, it was mad.

Miracle walked down the hall and to the top of the stairs, hearing the garage door shut and the faint sound of a car driving away as Cheston left for work. "George?!"

"Yes?" The door man walked into the foyer and looked up from the bottom of the stairs.

Miracle looked down at him. "I order you to go out for brunch, and don't come back for several hours, in fact take half the day off, paid. And keep it secret, Cheston won't pay you for a full day if he knows, just make sure you are back before he gets off."

George's eyebrow lifted and then he nodded, the push over of a guy took the orders and headed around the stairs to a door near the garage, but at the back which granted the access to the back parking and exit.

Miracle waited until he heard the door shut and then he walked back into the bed room and grabbed his phone, yanking it free from the charger and flipped through his contacts, his finger tapped Nikolai and he brought the phone to his ear.

"Yo, how did it go last night?" Nikolai grinned.

"It was worse than any nightmare you could cook up. You still got that gun?" Miracle asked.

"Yeah, I wouldn't get rid of it unless I murdered with it." Nikolai paused. "But, in this context that we're talking..."

"Funny you should mention murder..." Miracle frowned.

"What the hell happened?" Nikolai asked.

"It's not murder...I just want to play a little shoots and ladders. You game?"

"Shoots and ladders?" Nikolai asked, confused.

"Come and find out." Miracle pulled his phone away and hung up, shoving it into his pocket and then he headed downstairs and walked through the house and out the back to the pool area where the storage room was. He opened the door and stepped inside, seeing the ladder propped in the back. "Where the hell is a handy man when you need one?"

Miracle grabbed the ladder and dragged it out of the storage room and then kicked the door shut and pulled it around the pool and up into the dining room. He reached out and shoving the sliding glass door shut. Miracle soon reached the front of the house and dragged the ladder out into the yard and dropped it.

He looked up and then down at the ladder. "I don't know how to work a ladder, how stupid am I?" He shook his head and walked over to shut the front door and then sat on the steps to wait for Nikolai.

Nikolai walked up to the steps, seeing Miracle entertaining himself with his phone and he looked over at the ladder and his eyebrows lifted. "A gun and a ladder? Shoots and ladders?"

Miracle looked up and exited the game he was playing on his phone and sat it aside. "I need to get into his study, but he's psycho security on the door, so...shoot the window out and put the ladder up and climb in so you can open the door for me."

Nikolai's eyes widened. "Are you kidding? We'll look like we're breaking in, someone will call the cops on us the minute I fire the gun, technically we are breaking in, if he keeps that room locked off from us."

"Seriously? I live here." Miracle stood up. "Look, I'm desperate, so if you don't want to risk it, give me the gun and I will, I'll try my luck."

"What happened?" Nikolai asked.

"Remember that fight that we had in front of you, and he talked about a diary? And I told him I'd destroy it and I made the stupid Desperate Housewives reference?"

"Yeah, that was crazy funny, at the time. Should it not be funny now?" Nikolai asked.

"Lets just say, that reference bit me in the ass, and he got the diary, just like he said, and I wrote something in it that he can blackmail me with and he has mega security over it." Miracle frowned.

"Wow, all that over me?"

"No, he had it on his mind for a while, otherwise that argument wouldn't of happened like that." Miracle stood up and walked into the yard. "So are you going to shoot that window?" Miracle pointed it out.

"Okay." Nikolai walked into the yard and took aim on the window and closed one eye, he took a second to concentrate and focus and then he fired a bullet and it hit the glass.

Miracle watched, expecting the glass to shatter, but the window didn't break. "What? He has a bullet proof window too?!" His eyes widened. "I bet all the other windows would break."

"I could test that theory...but then he would be pissed." Nikolai lowered the gun. "He's likely to find out anyway, neighbors are going to call the cops."

Miracle looked around. "Uh...everything's okay people! I just...locked myself out of a room! Now...I can't get into it..." He looked at the ground. "This is insane."

"Have you tried telling him that you just want to read it?" Nikolai asked. "I mean if he wants to be this good fiance guy, he would have to act nice about it so long as you're acting nice and innocent."

Miracle thought about it. "He would probably rip out the page that he's using over me and then just give me the rest of it."

"Ripping out the page from the diary kinda ruins the evidence a little, actually isn't that considered tampering with it?" Nikolai looked around and then shoved the gun into his pocket.

"Then he'd probably come up with some crazy idea, like making me a manuscript of it with the copy machine and stapling it together." Miracle frowned.

"That's pathetic." Nikolai couldn't help the beginnings of laughter that escaped, then he quickly choked it back.

"And I can't even..." Miracle trailed off. "Hell you might as well just know. In the diary, I wrote about a couple of guys I killed because they were after me, actually hired by his psycho step brother, which I didn't even know about Cheston when I met him. Then I staged it as a self defense."

Nikolai's eyebrows lifted. "And you wrote it down? Damn...you don't do that."

"Thanks, now I know." Miracle forced a brief smile. "And I can't kill him because if he dies, his mother gets mailed an all access pass to that room from his lawyer, with a letter telling all about everything, and telling her to get the diary out of the safe, to which she'd most definitely use to get revenge on me."

"Kill her first?"

"Then the lawyer opens it." Miracle looked up. "He didn't say that, but it just seems like common sense, if the letter has no where to go."

"Unless you marry him, then everything automatically goes to the spouse, if it has no where else to go, I would think." Nikolai said.

"I don't think so, not with a letter, I mean if the lawyer thinks it was personally meant for the mother, why give it to me? But he has it to just open and snoop if he wants."

"Yeah, but if the house becomes yours and everything else does, he can't get to that study without having to deal with you." Nikolai said. "Then that letter is just word..."

"Unless they got a search warrant, and the envelope supplies everything they need to get into that office, which we don't have right now." Miracle crossed his arms. "Hell, I don't know how it would work. There are to many what if scenarios."

"How much security is on that door, exactly?" Nikolai asked.

Miracle laughed. "You need a key for the dead bolt, and then a key card...and then you need the number code for the number pad."

Nikolai stared at Miracle. "You need a grenade."

Miracle kept laughing. "To bad Sterling isn't in the army anymore, maybe I could of asked him to smuggle one to me."

"Ooo..." Nikolai looked at Miracle. "Call the cops right before he gets home, tell him you confessed to them and that they are on their way, and tell him that he needs to get the diary out to hand it over to them when they get there, then just hope like hell that he gets it out and you can get it from him before they actually get there."

"That's a hit or miss, he might not even believe that until he sees the cops or hears sirens, that is, if I can give the cops good enough reason to turn the sirens on." Miracle sighed. "Can you put the ladder up? I had to drag the thing all the way through the house from out the back, if he sees it, he'll know what I was trying to do."

"Play shoots and ladders." Nikolai picked up the ladder and headed towards the front door, Miracle followed after him.