“Well, don’t stress over whatever it is because you aren’t on a budget.” Then she shook her head and laughed, “Matter of fact, if I were you, I wouldn’t pack a thing. I’d just buy whatever I needed when I got to Maui.”

“Mom, I can think of a lot better things we can be doing when we get their other than shopping.” My original thought was hiking, snorkeling, and luaus.

She looked at us and flushed with color. “I can understand that,” she laughed with a faraway look in her eyes.

I had a feeling it was a ‘David’ memory causing the look.

We finished dinner, then said our goodbyes and headed up to our room. We were both yawning by the time we closed the door to the rest of the world. Even though we’d slept six or seven hours after the sun came up this morning, it didn’t take place of missing the entire night before. We crawled into the bed exhausted and knowing tomorrow wouldn’t offer too many opportunities for rest either. Tonight was our chance to behave ourselves and get some actual sleep. We snuggled into our favorite position, which was me facing away and Micah pressed behind me with his arm around my waist, when I sat up quickly.

“That’s it.”

“What’s it?”

“What I couldn’t think of at dinner,” I stated. “I never got the house key from Mom.”

“You won’t need it until we get back, baby,” he said trying to pull me down into the covers.

“No-to the house in Maui-I forgot to get the key and I don’t want to travel 5000 miles only to have to wait hours for a locksmith to open up the house.”

“It’s too late tonight. You can call your mom in the morning, baby. Come back to bed; we need some sleep.”

I landed back amongst the pillows and sheets, but I didn’t roll my back to him, I rolled toward him as I twined my leg over his and let my hand trail down his hot body, “You know we’ll sleep better if we…”

He ran his fingers through my hair, sweeping it back away from my face, and then dove growling and snapping for my neck. I squealed far too loudly, and the new experience was on as we began to literally play with each other, until need overwhelmed us. We did get some sleep, and I was right about it being a better kind of sleep as we curled around each other and drifted off.

When morning came through the windows, I knew I’d have to get up and dress to catch Mom before they left, but I couldn’t resist just a little teasing before climbing out of the bed. I rolled over and met his gaze, kissing him and then letting my hand travel down his perfect abdomen to rest just below his belly button and just above his inability to control himself.

“You can’t be serious,” he laughed, “Baby, you’re gonna kill me.”

I kissed him once more, but quickly this time and rose from the bed before he could get me in his grasp. He was up and after me as I laughed and ran for the bathroom. “I don’t want to kill you,” I said teasingly through the closed door.

“I can’t think of a better way to go. Come back out here or I’m coming in there.”

“Sorry, baby, but the door is locked. I’ve got to go see Mom today and then when I get back I’ll see if I can put you out of your misery and-” To my utter surprise the door opened and he was right beside me. “Ah, I locked that! How did you get in?”

“I know how to do a lot more than aim straight under pressure,” he chuckled as he came around behind me and moved my hair to gain access to my neck.

I could feel my resolve melting into a warm puddle. “I really do need to see Mom, and I’ve got to catch her before she checks out with Kimmy and heads home. Oh, Micah, don’t stop,” I said as he began to pull away.

“You’re confused, baby,” he whispered, “first it’s stop and then don’t stop. What’s it gonna be?”

“Ah-stop, Micah,” I chose reluctantly. “I really want to catch them, but as soon as I come back through that door, don’t stop, and I really don’t care what my argument is.”

He gave a slow smile, “I’ll be waiting and I don’t care how long it takes.”

I dressed, picked up my purse and left, wishing the whole time that I’d stayed. I was starting to wonder how we were ever going to go back to functioning normally in life when we simply couldn’t keep our hands off each other. I pushed the elevator button and began my descent to the lobby. Would this whole fascination with each other eventually burn out or at least mellow? I couldn’t see it happening; he was simply too mesmerizing. I could only hope he felt the same about me.

The elevator jerked hard causing my pulse to quicken. The lights dimmed and I could hear breaks being applied. It stopped between the third and second floor and panic gripped me. I wasn’t claustrophobic, but my air felt as if it had been cut off. I’d never been trapped in one of these things. What do I do? I grabbed for the panel marked with a telephone symbol and opened it, but just as I put my hand on the receiver the elevator took off. This time I was going up instead of down.

Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but the idea of falling from the second story wasn’t as terrifying as the idea of dropping from somewhere higher. I was steadily climbing, passing our floor and still rising. I grabbed the phone and pressed the single button, but it was dead. My hand went for my cell phone, though I didn’t know exactly who I was going to call, when the elevator stopped on the seventeenth floor. The bell dinged and the doors opened. A group of men stood waiting to get on, but I didn’t care; I was getting off this mechanical menace!

As I started to push my way through them, I recognized, to my alarm, they were converging around me. I opened my mouth to scream as several pairs of hands took hold of me, one of them reaching around, covering my face with a rag. A sweet odor assaulted my senses and blackness hit me.

When I came to my head was still groggy. I wondered if this was just another strange bad dream, but, as soon as my focus returned, I knew this was reality. I was leaned back in a chair with a man on each side holding me upright and another man seated in front of me, studying me intently.

Clarity was returning as I tried to pull myself free. My battle was short lived, and they pushed me roughly back down into the chair.

“Don’t be so upset Annalisa, not yet anyway, I just need to talk with you,” the man across from me murmured in a condescending tone.

“Let go of me!” I growled, still trying to jerk myself free from the men around me. “This isn’t how you tell someone you need to speak with them!”

“If you promise to sit still, I’ll have them turn you loose. I honestly don’t think you’ll want to leave before you hear what I have to say, if you love your husband, that is.”

That hit me harder than the rag that knocked me out. I stopped struggling immediately and the hands released. I think I’d have rather been plummeting to my death in the elevator than for this to have anything to do with Micah.

“What’s this about?” I asked, calmness trying to replace my angered fear.

“My name is D’Angelo,” he began.

I knew the name; this was deadly serious. In Micah’s former mafia life, he obeyed this man’s every command and the command was always to kill someone. As far as I knew, I was the only person to ever survive those orders.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked, low and even.

I could only nod.

“Good. I trust I can ask my assistants to leave and you won’t cause me any problems, correct? We do need to speak in private.”

“Yes,” I tried to say confidently, but it came out as a whisper.

He looked up at the men and they left immediately. He was as unanimated as stone until the door clicked shut, and then he began, “It wasn’t supposed to go quite this far.” An odd smile spread on his leathered face. He was very much Italian. His hair was deep brown and graying along the sides, his eyes were a penetrating black/brown and they had that vacant quality that Micah’s used to get when he had to kill someone. “You weren’t supposed to get married until next month and when I found out it had been moved up, I couldn’t get to you quick enough.”

I was mute, not by choice, but by fright.

“You didn’t move things up due to a pregnancy, did you? That would only complicate matters for Micah.”

“N-no, we just…” I couldn’t explain and he evidently didn’t want to hear an explanation anyway, he just wanted to be certain I wasn’t pregnant. My heart thudded against my chest. It was possible I could be, but I would only be days along and there was no way I was telling him that bit of information.

“Good, then maybe we can salvage this whole thing after all. Micah would never stop looking for you if there was a baby involved.”

The heat in my body felt as if it had been drained and I was now aware of how very cold my hands had become as I unconsciously wrung them together, “What do you mean? Do you have plans to kill me?”

D’Angelo laughed softly, “Of course not, my dear, that simply wouldn’t work to help my cause. I did consider that, but I want him angry, not heartbroken. You’re going to leave your husband, and he’s coming back to the family by his own free will.”

“There is nothing you can do to make me leave him,” I said through a quivering voice. In a matter of moments, I was going to discover how wrong I was about my statement.

“Of course there’s nothing I can do, but I won’t need to when you know what’s at stake.” He reached behind him and picked up a folder and pulled a handful of papers from it and laid one on the table in front of me, “Do you know what this is?”

I could see at a glance that it was a contract on David Gavarreen. I looked up at D’Angelo; there was no need to say the vile words when it was obvious the piece of paper represented the end of David’s life.

“Yes, you know what it is,” he replied when he saw the look in my eyes and took note of the fact that I was refusing to state it. “He should have died months ago, but the family recognized the serious flaw in removing him for his disregard of policy. Giorgio Gavarreen lost one son to you and he couldn’t take losing the other for insubordination. He knows the rules, but he openly threatened the family should any harm come to his remaining son. Giorgio used his family’s position to get them to release Micah, but he won’t let go of David.”