Untraceable (4 page)

“
Yeah—I was lost, but I
ended up in the most beautiful place.”

I smiled, “Tell me about
it.”

“
I went up I-95 and cut
over on highway 192 and somewhere in the middle of nowhere, I
turned down a dirt road and ended up at a huge lake. It has
massive, old oaks, and the lake is lined with cypress trees—I swear
it was like I had driven all the way home to Louisiana.”

“
Sounds
beautiful.”

“
It is—I want to take you
there tomorrow. How about a picnic?”

I kissed the inside of his arm and
then tipped my face up to him, “Romantic. But, do you know what
sounds even better?”

“
What?” he
whispered.

“
Your voice right now. You
sound genuinely happy, Micah—and I love that sound more than
anything else. I take it your prayer time really helped?” He wasn’t
answering me, but I could hear the sound of tiny bubbles being
caught in his throat. I knew it well because I’d experienced it
many times as emotions would tangle midway in my neck and block my
ability to speak. I reached up and put my fingers against his
struggling lips. “You don’t need to talk, baby. It’s coming through
loud and clear from your heart.”

We spent a long time holding each
other, and I was about to drift to sleep when he finally spoke. “I
want to go home this week. I’ve got business to take care of—and
I’d like you with me.”

That was a surprise. Those two parts
of a sentence never came out of his mouth together. He never wanted
me involved where his ‘business’ was concerned.

“
Of course I will. What
are we going to be doing?”

“
How about we call it a
mortgage burning party?”

My eyelids were heavy, but I still
managed to lift my sleepy head toward him and give him a very
puzzled look.

“
Go to sleep, Leese,” he
whispered, “I’ll explain everything tomorrow.”

I blinked long and slow, my eyelids
feeling as if it took every muscle in my face to pull them back
open. But the effort was in vain as his lips came softly to my
eyes, forcing them closed as he tenderly kissed each lid and
stroked my cheek. Sleep would be deep and relaxing
tonight.

When morning came with unusual
brightness, I woke with a little confusion as to where I was, but
then I looked out at the light reflecting off the pool and
remembered we were in the apartment. Micah’s eyes were open and he
was giving me that unnerving solid stare.

“
What?”

“
Are you ready to marry me
again?”

“
I’d tell you I’d race you
upstairs to see who can get ready the fastest, but I’m afraid,
given my—pregnancy, I wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“
If I carried you, it
would be a tie.”

“
No carrying me—but to
answer your question, yes I’m ready.”

An hour later, with sunglasses and
baseball caps, we stood at the counter of the clerk of the courts
office and completed another marriage license. I brought our
counseling certificate that Pastor Anderson had given us the first
time we got married and, although the lady seemed to think it was
odd that the certificate was nine months old, it was still valid so
our marriage license was immediately effective. Once again, I was a
Gavarreen.

We stopped at a local gourmet food
shop that specialized in all kinds of gift baskets, as well as
picnic baskets, and had a terrific lunch packed for our trip to
Micah’s little Louisiana. He was right about the property. When we
pulled down the dirt road and wound back through the growth of old
Florida, I began to see the similarities. But the real show stopper
was when the woods gave way and we were in a large area under a
canopy of giant oaks in an area free from undergrowth that led to
the lakeshore.

“
Oh, Micah, I see what you
mean—it’s gorgeous.”

He pulled the car within a dozen yards
or so from what appeared to be an area for launching boats. There
was no concrete ramp, but I knew (especially being back in the
woods this far) that southern boys didn’t need a ramp; they would
just back their trucks into the water.

The first place I wanted to go when I
got out of the vehicle was down to the water. It was a sand bottom
lake and the water was clear with a very light brown, tannic acid
tinge. I slipped my foot out of my black flat and dipped my toes to
feel the temperature. It was sufficiently cool enough that I was
sure the lake was spring-fed. I felt Micah’s hands grip my arms and
pull me back slightly.

“
Don’t go sampling the
water without me, baby. I want to be sure there aren’t any
alligators around.”

“
Oh. Yeah, I didn’t think
about them. That could spoil a picnic pretty quick, huh?” I gave a
little laugh as I began scanning the water’s edge for hungry
eyes.

Micah had already popped the trunk and
had the blanket and basket sitting behind the car. He took my hand
and walked me away from the water and grabbed up our picnic
supplies and headed toward one of the largest trees. We weren’t
speaking at this point, but that was fine with me because my mind
was racing a million miles an hour as I decided that, if for sale
(and everything can be, if the price is right) I would buy this for
him. We’d started looking for houses in Palm Beach, again, because
the house we had our sights on back when we married had long ago
been sold, but I had never thought about building—until now. I was
getting excited as I considered that we could make the house
anything we wanted it to be. Every aspect would be designed by us
and for us. I could almost picture a southern style, grand house
with a full length veranda facing the lake. Our children playing in
the yard, swinging from swings suspended under the oak
branches—

“
Baby?”

I had slipped so far into my daydream
that evidently Micah had been speaking to me and I was not paying
him a bit of attention.

“
Huh?”

“
Sit down. What are you
thinking about? You’ve got a huge smile on your face?”

“
I’m just taking it all
in—it’s—it’s so perfect. How big do you think that lake is?” I was
still standing, but he had already seated himself on the
blanket.

“
I don’t know, pretty big
though, maybe a hundred acres. Sit down, Annalisa. I know you’re
hungry.”

I sighed and lowered myself to the
blanket. “So tell me about the ‘business’ you want to do when you
go home. I know you don’t have any mortgages—not after Remake
anyway,” I laughed.

“
You realize I’m worth
more money than you now, right?”

I laughed harder.

“
What?”

“
Does that mean I can say
I married you for your money?”

He smiled. “As long as we’re together,
I don’t care what reason you give.”

“
Good, because I think
I’ll just say it was for the sex.”
His eyebrows went up as his smile grew larger, “And all along I
thought it was love.”

“
Nah, sex and money, in
that order should do a really good job of finishing off my rep,” I
teased.

His smile flat-lined. “We’re fixing
that. You don’t deserve any black marks on your beautiful record.
Eat. It’s past your normal lunchtime,” he bossed me, handing me a
paper plate of goodies.

I wasn’t going to argue; I was
starving. I placed a cube of cheese in my mouth, slipped off my
shoes, and then laid down on my side with my head propped up by my
right arm. “So tell me about this mortgage we’re going to
burn.”

Micah followed my lead and stretched
out as well, laying his plate next to mine as he faced me. He
pulled a grape from the bunch and held it for me to eat. “It’s a
lot of mortgages actually—I’d like you to be with me when I burn my
files—my target files.”

I stopped chewing the grape. I wasn’t
sure if I swallowed that the grape would make it past the forming
lump in my throat.

“
Pastor Anderson was right
about making an effort to leave my old life in the past. I don’t
want to look back years from now and know that with just the tug of
a drawer, I can see what my life used to be—those reminders need to
go up in smoke. I also called my boss yesterday.”

“
What did you tell him?” I
asked, the grape still hadn’t gone down.

“
The truth. I said I have
to make a change and that means that the best I can offer him is to
be an advisor on how to fix D’Angelo’s nightmare.”

“
Did he agree?”

“
I never thought he would,
but it was what I felt God was leading me to do, so I did it. I had
no confidence that he would agree—he doesn’t even seem to like me
all that well, but to my surprise, he was willing to listen and
consider what I wanted. He said we would give it a try.”

I felt like a chipmunk with my horded
grape tucked into my cheek, but I was on the edge of crying and I
really didn’t want to choke on it. I sat up and, as lady like as
possible, spit it out.

“
That wasn’t very nice,”
he teased as his hand came to rest on my back. “The first woman
I’ve ever wanted to feed grapes to and you spit them
out.”

I wanted to laugh, but it was more of
a strangled sob as the tears came flowing down. He sat up beside me
and wrapped me in his arms kissing my temple and telling me how
much he loved me.

“
Promise me, Micah,” I
cried out. “Never again—unless it’s self-defense—please tell me
this is the beginning, and that you won’t ever kill anyone again.
Promise me, please.”

“
That’s a tall order for
me, but I want the same thing. This is a new beginning for both of
us and I don’t plan on screwing it up by doing something
stupid.”

I looked at him with my watery eyes
and asked for the definitive answer, “Promise me, Micah. I want to
hear you say it, baby.”

“
It’s over, Annalisa. I
promise you, I won’t kill anyone else.”

I wanted to talk. I wanted to tell him
how much I loved him, how happy I was with his commitment to change
his life, how beautiful he was to me, but I could only cling to him
and weep.

He rocked me gently as my crying
subsided and then wiped away my tears, “If I try feeding you grapes
again, do you think you could actually eat one this
time?”

I gave a small laugh and then turned
my face up to his for a tender kiss, “If you don’t make me cry, the
grapes will go down.”

“
Other than happy tears,
Annalisa, I never want to be the reason that makes you
cry.”

I was still cradled in his arms when
he pulled off another grape, but this time it went to his mouth. He
held it with his teeth and lowered his face to mine. I wasn’t sure
exactly what to do, but I was finding it extremely sexy as our
mouths met. I gently took the exposed half and bit the grape in two
as he finished placing the soft kiss on my mouth.

“
I want to do everything
together from now on,” he whispered as we finished our small piece
of fruit.

I picked up a grape and made the same
offer to him as he lowered his mouth to mine. I was smiling as he
pulled away.

“
What?” he asked as he
studied my expression.

“
This is going to make
eating a very long experience,” I quipped.

He rolled me onto my back as he
cradled my head in the crook of his arm and allowed his free hand
to slide down to places that caused my heart to race.

“
Here’s to a lifetime of
long experiences,” he said as he nuzzled against my cheek. “I
wonder just how private this place really is?” he breathed hot
against my skin as he popped the snap loose on my shorts and began
sliding down the zipper.

As much as I wanted him to make love
to me at the moment, I wasn’t sure I cared for the idea of doing
this outside, in the open, on the ground, and under a
tree.

“
I don’t feel safe doing
this,” I whispered.

Before he could open his mouth to
rebut my fears, we both heard an approaching truck. He smiled as he
returned my zipper to its proper placement. “Not private enough,
I’m afraid.”

I fixed the snap as we sat up, trying
to look innocent. An older, banana-cream colored pickup truck
pulling a small boat, with a long-tongued dog in the bed, backed
around the Vet and down to the water. Micah rose and offered me his
hand to help me up. The driver appeared to be in his early twenties
as was the young woman in his passenger’s seat. The dog jumped from
the bed before the truck got too far down into the water and
bounded toward Micah and me. Micah closed up the picnic basket
before the dog came close enough to stick its nose into it. At
least the dog was friendly as it approached with its tail tucked
and its head ducked low. It came to me first.

“
Shelia! Leave them folks
alone and get over here.”

I scratched the indention between her
eyes and then progressed to behind her ears. We’d never had pets
growing up simply because Mom kept us so busy that we wouldn’t have
had time for them, but I was starting to think, once we had a
permanent place, our children would live a slower lifestyle, and
pets could definitely be a part of the family.