Heavenly Virtues

Part 51

"Excuse me, sir. Please." Murphy placed his hand over the recorder on the table before sitting back in his chair. Smecker and Ashley locked eyes as the boys leaned back to face each other behind Ashley's back and spoke to each other in what she could only guess was Latin. "Okay. We're ready." Connor stated as they sat properly back in their seats.

She heard the click of the recorder as Murphy pushed a donut in front of her. "Ye should eat lass." Connor whispered to her. She ignored them, even with no food in her stomach she was feeling nauseous, and the smell of coffee wasn't doing anything to help. Instead, she focused on the officers planted outside the window as she blocked out the recanting of last night's events.

"And what's your role here?" Smecker asked, bringing her back to the conversation. Ashley, realizing she hadn't spoken yet, hesitantly shrugged. "Wrong place, wrong time?" Smecker shook his head as he snuffed out his cigarette. "Now that, I don't believe." Ashley's eyebrows furrowed together in a flutter before one of the officers came into the room.

"The press is outside. They're going crazy for these guys." The officer said with a slight smirk on his face. "What do you want us to do?" Smecker turned back to the three. "Well, you're not being charged. Do you want to talk to them?" Smecker had barely finished his sentence when Connor chimed in. "Absolutely not." "No pictures. Either." Murphy added in. "Well, how are we supposed to leave?" Ashley asked with furrowed brows, just wanting to get home and forget about this day.

The officer became excited, seemingly having a solution for the trios predicament. "We have an open holding cell, you could stay here and.....can they stay here?" The officer asked Smecker hesitantly as if it wasn't his to offer. Smecker chuckled and turned to the officer. "Well, I'll have to ask your mother, but it's okay with me if your friends sleep over." Ashley, who was now contemplating the donut, looked up at smecker through her lashes and smirked. He met her eyes and gave her a wink. "Time to feed the dogs." He stated before grabbing his jacket and leaving the room.

"This way." The officer gestured, leading them to the cell. After a little while, Connor wandered off to find a phone, and Ashley found herself curled up next to Murphy, who was sitting on a cot. "I wanna go home. I just wanna go home and forget that today happened." Ashley said, staring at the ground. Murphy wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, kissing her head. "I know, love. Soon." When Connor came back, he let the two know he had called Rocco to bring them their things and sat near Ashley's feet, pulling them up onto his lap.

They sat like that for a while, Murphy petting her head and Connor rubbing her leg. "You know what I still don't understand?" Ashley spoke with her eyes closed, soaking up the comfort the two were giving her. "What's that lass?" Connor said. "Why did they come to the apartment? Like Murphy said this morning, it was just a bar fight. Why hunt us down and try to kill us?" The boys looked at each other with worried looks.

"Love,-" Murphy started but was cut off sternly by Connor. "Murphy." Ashley furrowed her eyebrows at him. "What?" Murphy sighed and tried again. "Love, those men. They were part o' tha Russian mob. They were tryin ta shut down ye Granda's pub. We were just tryin ta hold em off." Ashley sat up as she felt her stomach twist again. "Are they?... will they?... no photos, no press." She could feel her throat tighten as the anxiety felt crushing. "Are we in danger?" She asked as she held her stomach lightly.

Connor scooted off the cot and kneeled in front of her, meeting her worried eyes. "Sweetheart, no. Even if ye were," he held his hand over her stomach, "me an Murph, we'd keep ya safe, both of ye." "Aye m'girl. We promise." She nodded unsurely as a guard came in, letting the three know Rocco had arrived with their belongings. Ashley was thankful she had actual clothes on, not just Murphy's bloodied robe.

It didn't take long after Rocco left for the three to settle in for the night, in separate cots as none were big enough to even fit two. Ashley tossed and turned as she heard the rain start outside the station. When she did fall asleep her thoughts were plagued with horrific images of blood pooling on a carpet, screams and crys, pain and heart ache, and ended with the vivid image of her holding a disformed and mangled body of what seemed like her child before she woke.