01 Untouchable - Untouchable (34 page)

He was carrying both cell phones, his
and the one that I knew he would use to let someone know my life
was over. He opened his personal phone and began
dialing.

“
Mom, yeah, we saw it on the
news, too. We’re on our way to Palm Beach. Yes, I know, I know, but
she has to get to her mother. Of course I understand. I need to
talk to Dad. Please, just put him on the phone.”

I could hear his breathing becoming
controlled, as I realized he was preparing himself to speak to his
father.

“
Dad, I need a favor. I need
you to pool all your contacts and resources and see if anyone knows
who the rogue is. I just need to find out his M.O., anything that
will give me an edge. Yes, Sir, I know that.” There was another
pause. “Yes, Sir, I will. And Dad, would you do me a favor and tell
Gwen the stupid boy said thanks.”

My heart panged against my chest at the
memory of singing that song for him. I reached over as he snapped
the cell phone shut and softly touched the back of his hand. “Thank
you, for this I mean. I know it isn’t going to be easy, but—well,
thank you.”

“
How’s the head
feeling?”

“
Still pretty bad. I think
the adrenaline rush when I heard the news, cancelled out my
aspirin.”

“
Well, it’s an
eight-hundred-mile ride, give or take fifty, so hopefully you’ll
feel better when we get there.”

“
How long do you think it’s
gonna take?”

“
I’m doing the speed limit
the whole way because I’ve got so much fire power in the trunk that
we’d end up in jail for sure, maybe twelve to thirteen hours. We
should get in town about two in the morning. But I know when you go
to the hospital to see your mom, you’re gonna get swarmed by
police. You’re still seventeen; Robert could make you come home
with him, and that would be bad.”

“
Can I use your phone? If I
can get a good lawyer to help me with an emergency emancipation,
then he can’t do that to me.”

“
Don’t you have a lawyer?”
he asked, seeming surprised.

“
Sure, my family has lots of
lawyers and they all work for Robert. Mom didn’t have much use for
them.”

He just shook his head and reopened his
phone, pressing a speed-dial key and putting it to his ear. “Hey
Teri, this is Micah. Is Bill there? Bill, I’ve got a problem and
I’m going to need your help.”

I listened as he spoke with who I
assumed was his lawyer. I thought it was a little scary that he
keeps the guy’s home number on speed dial, but I guess, in his line
of work, an on-call attorney is essential. When he told this man
that he had Annalisa Winslett in the car with him, I heard
something very loud through the phone that sounded like obscenity.
He never flinched as he continued telling his attorney that he
needed an emergency emancipation and he wanted it before tomorrow
morning. “Yes, that’s what I said. Tell the judge it is a matter of
her physical safety from her step-father.”

When he finally closed the phone, he
told me that his attorney was calling a close friend in Florida who
would get it before a judge today. All we had to do was wait for
the call letting us know if the judge would approve it.

By five thirty we were passing
Pensacola on I-10, and a wave of melancholy swept over me as I
wondered what everyone was doing on a Saturday afternoon. I could
see their faces so vividly in my mind; Jewels, Kevin, Carlie, Nate,
Natasha, they were all there, and of course there was no way to
forget, Ryan. I could see him right now, driving the Z all over the
place, having a good time, but yet wondering how I was
doing.

He gave me a little smile, apparently
noticing that I had drifted into a daydream. “Can you believe,” he
began. “It was a week ago today that you hired me?”

I smiled. That was one of those
bitter-sweet memories. It was the day I went back to see someone
that I knew was dangerous; the day I realized I was going to have a
very short life span; the day that forever linked me to the person
beside me. I simply squeezed his hand. Life was certainly turning
out much different than I ever expected.

His attorney called and said they had
taken care of the emancipation order, and as soon as we let him
know where we would be staying, they would fax a copy to
us.

His estimate had been correct. It was
two in the morning when we reached the northern edge of Palm Beach
county. I was back here under the worst possible circumstances, yet
I couldn’t deny that there was an innate feeling in coming home. He
turned off I-95 and headed toward the beaches.

“
Where are we going?” I
asked. The idea of where we could stay for the night hadn’t
occurred to me until now.

“
I reserved us a cottage on
the beach before we left,” he said with a slow smile. “We’ll be
about twenty minutes from the hospital, but I didn’t want us to be
too close, just in case.”

We pulled into the small motel and he
went to the office to pick up the key. He returned and drove into
the interior courtyard all the way to the back against the inlet.
He grabbed our duffels and locked up the car. The sky was overcast
and the stars and moon remained hidden leaving the path to the door
dark.

“
I can’t see a thing,” I
whispered, holding on to the back of his shirt.

“
Hang on, we’re almost in.”
With that the door to the cottage gave way and we stepped into the
void that smelled like beach sand, sunscreen and fresh linens. He
found a small table lamp and turned it on. We were standing in the
living room, but it was also combined with a dining and kitchen
area. It was one of those shabby chic type of arrangements, but
tastefully done.

I walked toward the large,
sliding glass doors to the rear of the unit and turned to a doorway
on the left, found a light switch, and discovered a large
bedroom—with
one
large bed. I sat down my duffel and went back to the other
room and looked at the furniture. It was an intimate type of
setting with a loveseat and two wing chairs with ottomans. He had
dropped his bag and was in the kitchen putting the drinks we had
purchased from our last fuel stop into the refrigerator.

“
What’s wrong?” He asked
after studying my face.

“
I call the wing chairs,” I
answered trying to sound enthused.

He gave me an odd look. “It’s a two
bedroom unit, Leese.”

I shrugged my shoulders and gestured to
the single doorway leading off from the main room.

The eyebrows went up as he caught my
unspoken meaning, “There are at least two beds then, right?” But he
was already in motion toward the room to see for
himself.

He was only gone for a few seconds, but
in that tiny space of time, I had turned one chair to face the
other and was pushing them to close the gaps between the ottomans.
It was slightly longer than the loveseat, yet (with bent knees) I
would make it work. Besides, as tired as I was, I could sleep on
the floor and it wouldn’t matter.

“
It was supposed to be a two
bedroom unit.” He didn’t sound angry, just exhausted. “You take the
bed I’ve got the—the chairs.”

“
No,” I replied firmly. “You
drove the whole way here, you take the…” He had maneuvered around
to the other side of the chairs and was climbing on top of my
makeshift bed.

“
I’ll fix this in the
morning,” he said, plopping himself awkwardly onto my arrangement;
the ottomans trying to part beneath him.

“
Your butt will be on the
floor the first time you wiggle. You’re too big for
this.”

He was closing his eyes and trying to
look comfortable as he ignored me.

I walked away, too exhausted to argue.
I went back to the bedroom, reassessing the problem. The bed was a
king. He had been able to sleep with me last night under far worse
conditions, and I’d just leave my clothes on tonight. I heard the
sound of moving furniture. I peeked from the doorway and noticed he
had put an ottoman on one end of the loveseat and was trying to lay
down with his legs draped over the small couch’s arm, resting his
feet on the ottoman.

“
That looks really
comfortable,” I said with unmasked sarcasm.

He was lying on his back at this point.
“Well at least, as you put it, my butt won’t be hitting the floor
in a few minutes.”

“
No, now both your legs are
going to fall asleep.

“
We only have four or five
hours until dawn, I can take it.”

“
It’s really gallant of you
to sacrifice yourself this way, but after last night…”

His eyes popped open at the mention of
our very long night.

“
I think we could share the
bed—it’s plenty big enough—and I promise to stay
dressed.”

“
You’re probably thinking I
did this on purpose, aren’t you?” he stated, clearly just as
uncomfortable on the loveseat as he had been in the
chairs.

I went over to him and knelt beside the
loveseat, leaned over and slowly kissed his cheek. I let my hand
brush gently across the red marks I had put on his neck in the
darkness last night, and then I looked into those eyes. “Last night
was on purpose…” I watched his lips part to rebut, but I put my
fingers against them to let him know I wanted to finish what I had
to say. “It wasn’t my fault or yours, but someone did it purposely
to us. Everything happens for a reason. If you can be a gentleman
when I’m undressed, then I think I can trust you to be one when
I’ve got my clothes on. Come on to bed; we’ll fix this in the
morning.” I got up and went back to the bedroom; he’d have to make
the decision if he could handle another night with me.

I turned on the bathroom light and
turned off the bedroom light, crawled between the sheets and closed
my eyes. It didn’t take long for my mind to start to drift, I was
so tired and still feeling a few crappy leftover effects from my
near overdose, but as I started to let my mind slip into the deep
fog that was filling it, I felt the bed sink slightly.

“
Good night, Annalisa.” Were
the last words I heard before falling off into
nothingness.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I had given no thought to drawing the
drapery over the sliding glass doors or the bedroom windows in the
wee hours last night and now the sun was rising over the Atlantic
and, judging from the brightness, seemed to be sitting inches away
from the back of the cottage. I rolled over to turn away from the
blinding light and met his gaze as he lay less than a foot
away.

“
Hi,” I said, trying to stay
still enough not to disturb the remnants of sleep still inside my
brain. He didn’t answer; he just brushed his palm across my cheek,
letting his index finger trail my jaw line as he withdrew his hand.
He rolled out of bed and went to the window and blocked out the
offending light. The room wasn’t dark of course, but it was
mercifully darker than it had been seconds earlier. He came back to
bed, yawning and stretching as he landed amongst the cool
sheets.

“
What time is it?” I
questioned, since I couldn’t see the clock on his side of the
bed.

“
Seven.”

“
I’ve gotta get ready to go
see Mom,” I mumbled, sitting up in the bed. I felt a strong hand on
my shoulder pulling me back down to the mattress.

“
I checked the visiting
hours when I was on the computer making our reservations. You can’t
see her before three p.m.”

I shivered and pulled the comforter
back over myself. The ceiling fan was blowing at top speed and
evidently the air conditioner had been on a low setting when we
went to sleep. Without all the sunshine heating the room, it was
beginning to cool once again. I inched my body backward to steal a
little of the warmth that I knew was behind me.

He guessed my intentions and his arm
wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer to himself.

Now I was warm and comfortable, the
problem was that there was no way I could be drowsy with that firm
body softly pressed against my own. My arm lay across his arm and I
let my fingers lace between his. I could tell by his breathing that
he also wasn’t going back to sleep in this position.

“
This cottage is okay,” I
whispered, wondering if he heard me. “I don’t think we need to get
a different one.”

He withdrew his arm from my waist and
moved my hair, exposing my neck. Then his mouth found its way to
the bared area, tenderly nuzzling and kissing at my
skin.

I should have known better, but it felt
absolutely wonderful as it sent tingles and tremors through me.
Unthinkingly, I arched my neck to give him easier access. That was
a serious error in judgment.

His arm pulled and held me hard against
his body as his breath immediately became quick and shallow. His
warm nuzzle became hot, full kisses using his teeth to bite gently
into my exposed skin. Suddenly everything became a full blown ‘I
just forgot where the brakes are’ kind of passionate.

“
Whoa! Sorry,” I said as I
struggled away from him. I rolled off on to the floor with a light
thud and then scrambled up on my feet.