Untraceable (27 page)

She smiled, “I’m kinda pruned or I’d
accept your offer.”

He wrapped her in the towel and
lowered his lips to hers, “Is your headache really bad?”

“
It wasn’t an
honest-to-God migraine—I’d just been…”

“
What?” he
whispered.

“
I’d been crying so much,
I gave myself a headache.”

“
Ah, Candace, I’m so
sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“
It’s not that. I’ve
always known how you feel about Leese; you’ve never tried to hide
it from me, but I was worried about you. Micah is a good person,
but I know he has another side that isn’t. I know
he
wouldn’t hurt you,
but I was afraid he’d drag you into a situation where you could get
hurt.”

Ryan swallowed. “No,” he whispered,
moving her wet hair away from her shoulders. “He wouldn’t let me
get close at all. He let me run some of his computer equipment,
like freaking James Bond shit, but he wouldn’t let me get anywhere
near the woman he’s dealing with.”

“
Woman?” she said, clearly
surprised.

“
Yeah, the same woman who
shot Leese a year ago. He says she’s worse than a venomous snake. I
honestly feel bad for him because as long as she has Leese, he has
to do whatever she wants.” A strange expression crossed Candace’s
face, so he knew he needed to be more specific. “She wants him to
kill her mob-boss father so she can take his place.”

She openly shuddered, “I don’t know
how people like that can exist. And, to be honest, I can’t figure
out how Leese was able to stay in love with Micah when she realized
what he was.”

“
She didn’t have a
choice.” Candace looked ready to argue the point, but he continued,
“She fell; she couldn’t turn back—it was a no return policy,” he
said with a tiny amount of mirth. “She tried to explain to me once
how much she really loved Micah—I just didn’t understand at the
time how deep real love could go—until now.”

He pulled her to his chest and began
to sob, “Candace, I love you. I know you’ve felt like you don’t
mean as much to me as Leese, but you do. What I feel for her isn’t
the same. I was crazy about her for a long time, but it’s a deep
friendship like nothing I’ve ever experienced. She is my very best
friend, but you—Candace, I want to spend my whole life with
you.

”
I know this isn’t the
romantic way I planned this, but when I was ready to do this we got
the word about the accident and everything went to hell from there,
but…” He dropped down on one knee. The bathroom was so dim from the
small amount of candlelight he could barely see her face, “I can’t
wait any longer to ask you this: will you marry me? Will you be my
wife?”

Her expression became serious as she
knelt with him, “I can’t answer that right now. I need to talk with
you for a little while because there are a few things I’ve got to
know before I tell you yes or no.”

He swallowed hard as he thought about
the fact that a ‘no’ was an option for her. They rose and went to
the bed and lay down. Ryan was scared to death about these
questions, but he was ready to tell her whatever she wanted to
know.

She asked him questions about his
feelings for her and Leese that were deeper and more emotional than
he expected. At one point, and he couldn’t help himself, he broke
down crying because he honestly didn’t think Leese was going to
come out of this mess alive. He’d almost made it to her funeral
once and he didn’t think he could handle doing it again. He didn’t
know how Candace felt about his responses, but he wanted them to be
truthful.

“
Tell me exactly what you
were thinking when you came home tonight because breaking down
doors isn’t normally something I expect out of you.”

“
When I walked in and the
house was quiet, I thought you were gone. I kept thinking all the
way home, ‘she’s packed up and left you, buddy.’ I saw the car
outside, but I had a feeling you weren’t here. Then, when I got to
the bathroom door and you wouldn’t answer me—I was afraid, Candace.
All I could think was if I’d given you some reason to hurt
yourself…” his voice choked off and he couldn’t continue. He took a
couple deep breaths and finished what he had to tell her. “You’re
my everything. I want you to know I’m scared-to-death to marry you
because if anything ever happens to you, I’ll go freaking out of my
mind—just like when I lost my dad. I’d never felt so utterly insane
in my life than when I lost him. I really loved him, and I’m
freaked out because I—I love you more.”

She sat up on the bed, her towel
slipping off as she grabbed the bottom of his tee-shirt and started
pulling it over his head. He didn’t resist, but he didn’t try to
grab onto her. She undid his belt, then his jeans and boxers went
off the end of the bed. Her skin was cool against his as she made
him recline and straddled him, laying her body chest to chest with
him, her cheek resting in the hollow of his neck.

He wrapped his arms around
her.

“
For a long time,” she
began, “I thought this was all there was to loving someone. I
thought if I gave my physical self then that was enough. You asked
me to sleep with Micah, but then you sat there and watched over me
all night and my heart literally ached. It hurt because I realized
how deeply the man holding me loved the woman he imagined I was,
and then I realized how deeply the man watching me loved me. I know
I get a little crazy in this bedroom, but I thought if I didn’t
make this exciting enough for you then you’d go somewhere
else.”

He started to speak, but she put her
hand over his mouth, “I’m starting to believe this isn’t the reason
you love me—and that blows me away. You really do love me, don’t
you? This bed isn’t part of the reason, is it?”

Ryan rolled her onto her
back as he looked into her eyes, “If you closed your legs and told
me we couldn’t do this anymore—damn it, man that would hurt, but it
wouldn’t stop me from loving you—because I love
you
, Candace, not just the act of
loving you. I would like to have kids someday, so if you’re gonna
cut me off from this tell me now so we can blow my trust fund and
not worry about paying for everything that comes with
babies.”

She laughed and then locked her legs
around him, “That’s one thing I know I couldn’t do like Leese; I
could never sleep in the same bed with you without sex.”

He finally laughed; God, it felt good
to laugh, “So answer my question; will you marry me?”

“
No.”

He wasn’t sure he heard her correctly,
“No?”

“
I want a little more time
to make sure,” she said cupping his face in her hands. “You’ve got
to understand something; your parents loved each other, my parents
hated each other. Dad told me it felt like love in the beginning,
but then everything changed. She stayed until I was seven, but it
felt like war every night. I don’t want it to be like that with
us.”

“
Candace,” he said, his
voice choked, “it won’t be.”

“
Please, Ryan, please
understand. I’ve got to
know
I’m
not going to become
my mom; I don’t want to hurt you.”

“
Can’t you just say yes
and we’ll make it a long engagement?”

She shook her head.

“
What’s going to be so
different from living together like we are now, to living together
with a ring on your finger?”

“
The difference is when I
came home, I thought about leaving.”

He swallowed so hard it was
audible.

“
I only thought about it
for a second, but in that one second it scared me to death; I felt
like her.”

“
But you
didn’t.”

“
It took her eight years
to leave my dad, and I have to wonder how many times she thought
about it.”

“
Candace, I’m already
committed to you, ring or not. If you’re only worried about hurting
me then you need to know whether you leave me in a few minutes or
if you leave me eight years from now, either way you’ll break my
heart—and I’m going to give you the perfect reason to get
out.”

“
What?”

“
I’m getting ready to get
in the middle of this mess in a bad way. Micah told me he’s going
to need my help in a week or so, and that it’s going to be crazy
dangerous.”

“
No!” she spouted off,
“You’ve done enough, you—”

“
It’s not enough until
she’s safe.”

“
No! I don’t want you
getting involved in his world. I can’t...” she began to sob,
“…can’t lose you. I’ll say yes, just don’t do it.”

He wrapped his arms around her, half
expecting she’d fight him, or at least slug him, but instead she
melted against him like a weak child. “Shhh, baby, shhh. You keep
that yes and tuck it away for me. I want you to give us some deep
thought. I don’t like waiting, but I understand why you want to be
sure, just know that I love you, Candace. No matter what happens,
baby, I love you.”

Heartfelt tears and tender moments of
accepting the fact that the road before them wouldn’t be easy made
for a special reunion.

CHAPTER seventeen

With Ryan gone and the hotel room
quiet, Micah felt how deeply he needed sleep. He’d only had one
actual full night of rest. Mentally and physically he was
collapsing, but his need to save Annalisa was keeping him going. He
carefully set his equipment and placed the headphones over his
ears. He would lie on the bed and close his eyes, and hopefully get
some rest, but if Sharon made any calls from her phone, he’d be
listening to every word.

He dozed until about 9:30 when the
computer signaled a call being made. He listened as the call
connected. It was her father. She was as sweet as honey as she
explained that she’d taken a couple days to relax at Hilton Head
and that she would be tied up for a week with some personal
business. Her father sounded as if he wanted to believe her, yet
Micah could detect suspicion. Then the actual reason for her call
became apparent as she asked if he was still planning to go to
Norfolk in a few days.

“
I don’t know,” he stated,
“With you taking some time off, perhaps I’d better—”

“
Oh, Daddy,” she crooned,
“you know I’m always on my game even if I’m not there. Go ahead; I
know Darlene said she’s been dying to get away for a while
now.”

“
I thought you didn’t like
Darlene?”

“
Daddy, you know I can’t
lie worth a shit—I can’t stand her, but she makes you happy so I’m
not complaining. God knows you need something that will lower your
blood pressure. Take her down to the house and let me handle things
while you’re away. You know Aldo isn’t going to let me do anything
important without your consent anyway—that old asshole.”

“
Respect,” the older man
snapped, “my daughter, is something you need to learn. Aldo has
been helping me run this family since—”

“
I was in diapers,” she
finished for her father. “Yes, I know, Daddy. I actually do respect
him; I just don’t like his lack of trust in me.”

“
Trust is earned. You’ve
made some unwise choices over the last couple years and that makes
him uncomfortable.”

“
I’ll come back if you
aren’t going to take a vacation without—”

“
Never mind. I’m going to
Norfolk on Sunday. I’ll be back in a week or two.”

“
If you don’t take an army
with you then the two of you can actually relax—it’s not like
someone is going to be stupid enough to go after you
anyway.”

He gave an insincere chuckle, “Filip
hasn’t been in the grave four months; no one thought anyone would
be stupid enough to go after him either.”

“
I still say he was
causing trouble with Botachelli’s clan or else he wouldn’t have
been down in Gulf Shores—and you say
I’m
reckless.”

“
Aldo thinks he was lured
down there.”

“
Aldo sees conspiracies
and plots everywhere—the man is practically senile,
Daddy.”

“
Sharon!” he snapped, his
voice rising to the authoritative level.

“
I’m sorry,” she stated
with a bit of an obvious pout, “Enjoy Norfolk. I’ll see you in a
couple weeks when you get back.”

The call abruptly ended.

Within seconds, she was placing
another call. A man with a heavy Hispanic accent
answered.

Her temperament was completely
different. “Let me speak to Jaime,” she growled.

Moments later, another Hispanic voice
came on the line, “Senorita Moretti?”

“
How far out is the
shipment?” she demanded.

“
The boat is less than
1,500 kilometers from New Orleans. They should make port Wednesday
night.”

“
Good. I’ll have my men
ready to unload at one a.m. Thursday morning. What did they mark
the crates this time?”

“
Coffee—they said you were
angry when they crated the last load as sugar.”

“
Sugar is just a little
too cute. Besides 5,000 kilos of sugar is small enough to be
suspicious and when we’re talking a street value of ninety million
dollars, one cute screw up could cripple my operation. Give me the
name of the ship.”