“Hey, wait, I’ll come with you,” Theresa began.
“See that!” Bill complained. “Women! They just can’t go to the bathroom alone. It’s pathetic, isn’t it?”
“Pathetic,” Joe agreed.
“All right, I won’t go now!” Theresa said with a dramatic sigh.
“No, no—”
“Hey, I’ll be right back!” Lucia said again. She wasn’t going to the bathroom. She just wanted to be alone for a minute.
Ryan’s eyes caught hers.
He knows, she thought, but she turned around anyway. She walked along the terrace as if she were heading for the ladies’ room, but then she made a sharp turn and started for the beach.
The night was as beautiful as the day had been. The stars were out, a shower of diamond shards against black velvet. The rush of the surf was soft and compelling, and the moon was covered by a slight haze.
They had to talk, really talk, she thought. She had to be honest with him, and she had to pray that he would be honest with her. They had to find out the truth about Lopez. And then they had to find out the truth about themselves.
There was a sudden noise behind her. She started to turn, unalarmed, certain that Ryan had followed her.
Something cracked against her head. The pain was searing, and a new array of stars burst before her eyes. She fell to the ground, dazed, unable to see anything. Hands gripped her ankles and started to pull her.
“Lucia!”
She heard Joe’s voice, and suddenly she was released. Time passed. She fought the dizziness; she tried to call to Joe.
“Lucia!” This time it was Ryan calling her, and she struggled to sit up. The pain began to ease, and she touched the back of her head, where she discovered a huge lump.
“Lucia! Lucia!”
She stumbled to her feet. The ocean waved before her, and then her vision started to clear. Ryan was almost on top of her, and Joe was right behind him.
There was no one on the beach besides the two of them. No one at all. Just Joe and Ryan, two of the men she loved most in the world.
One of them had struck her, doubled back, then pretended to come back again, searching for her.
She was losing her mind. She was absolutely losing her mind. She was also very frightened.
“Lucia!” Ryan stood before her and caught her hands. “Lucia, why didn’t you answer me? You scared everyone, disappearing like that.”
“I, er, I—”
“Lucia!” Joe snapped, panting as he reached her. “I called and called. Boy, when Ryan lit out after you and then didn’t return, we all panicked.”
“I tripped. That’s all.”
“You tripped?” Ryan said suspiciously.
“Yes. In the sand.” She forced herself to smile, even though her head was killing her. She wanted to get back to the condominium, lock herself in her room and call Sergeant Mahoney. She didn’t care anymore if he thought she was crazy. She wanted to tell him everything. And she couldn’t bear sitting beside Ryan any longer, feeling the heat of his thigh next to hers, the burning questions in his eyes….
She had to be careful, though. “I’m sorry I frightened you,” she said sweetly. “Let’s get back to the restaurant, okay?”
She started off across the sand. The two men held back, staring after her in astonishment before they finally followed her.
She sat down and sipped some wine, picked at both her eggplant and calamari, then excused herself again. She stopped at Aunt Faith’s table and whispered to her aunt that she wasn’t feeling well, so she was going to grab a cab and go home.
It was a mistake. She should have known not to say a word about her health.
“Lucia! Poor darling! You are not calling any cab. Uncle Mario will take you home.”
“No, I’ll take you home,” Uncle Paul said, rising.
By then Ryan had heard the commotion, and he was rising, too. “Lucia, what’s wrong? You know I’ll take you.”
She latched on to Uncle Paul’s arm, since he was already standing. “No! Don’t you dare leave, Ryan. You’ll stay if you take me home, and Uncle Paul will come right back.” She offered Ryan a dazzling smile. “I think I just need a little bit of sleep. I’ll see you later, all right?”
“No, Lucia, I brought you—”
“Son, it’s all right. You stay,” Uncle Paul insisted.
Lucia saw a pulse ticking at Ryan’s throat, but without being totally rude to her uncle, he had little choice but to acquiesce. He caught Lucia’s hand. “I’ll check on you later, okay?”
She nodded. “Yes, thanks, Ryan.”
As Uncle Paul led her from the restaurant, she knew Ryan was still watching her.
Uncle Paul chatted as they drove. They talked about the vacation, and how nice it was to all be together. “I think we should do it every year.”
“It’s wonderful,” Lucia agreed.
“The kids love the beach. So do us old folks. And then there’s cocktail hour for your generation and antacids for mine.”
Lucia laughed and patted his leg. “You’ll never be old, Uncle Paul.”
“Well, I’m not exactly a spring chicken, but I enjoy life. Remember that, Lucia. Enjoy life. And share it. Your aunt and I, we’ve shared good times and bad for over forty years now. That’s the way to do it. And if I’m always young, it’s because I’m young in her eyes.” He swung into the parking lot. “You look for that, Lucia. Love. It’s the only really important thing in life.”
Lucia kissed his cheek. “I’ll keep it in mind, Uncle Paul.”
“I’ll walk you up to your room.”
Lucia stepped out of the car and turned to him firmly. “You will not! You’ll drive back to that restaurant.”
“I’ll walk you up.”
She wasn’t going to convince him, so she slipped her key from her bag, and Uncle Paul took it from her and opened the door. He stepped into the hallway and looked around.
For a moment a sizzle of fear shot through Lucia. Uncle Paul hated Lopez. Uncle Paul had done the deed, and now he had brought her back here, alone, in the dark…
He handed her the key. “Get some sleep, princess,” he said. Then he left, closing the door behind him.
A minute later Lucia began to laugh. She hated herself, but she began to laugh. She was going mad, suspecting her uncle, who had always loved her dearly and treated her generously.
Suddenly she heard something, and the hair rose on her nape and goose bumps formed all along her arms. Someone was in her bathroom. No, in her room, going through her drawers.
Lucia started along the hall, hugging the wall. When she reached the door to her darkened room, she glanced in and saw a man carrying a flashlight.
It wasn’t Ryan. That much she knew. Her heart began to thump.
The man swung around suddenly, and the flashlight beam hit her in the face. “I know you’re there, Ms. Lorenzo.”
Lopez! Ron Lopez!
She didn’t know what he had done, or what he wanted. She only knew that he was dangerous. She screamed and plunged past the open doorway, flung open the door to the condo and tore toward the elevator. She slammed her hand against the button, but nothing happened, and she swerved, racing for the stairway.
She heard a strange, whizzing sound, and something crashed into the wood of the stairway. A bullet, she thought, amazed. He was shooting at her!
She ran down the stairs, screaming. She could hear his footsteps as he pounded after her, and she screamed again and again, but she knew it would be to no avail. She was alone. Everyone was at the restaurant.
She headed for her car, but it was locked, and she didn’t have her keys.
Ryan’s car was there! But where the hell was Ryan?
She couldn’t go back. She couldn’t even run for the street. Ron Lopez was back there, chasing her and carrying a gun.
There was only one way to go—toward the beach.
She veered around the pool, gasping for breath. Suddenly a pair of arms shot out and gr
abbed her, and she screamed, loudly and desperately.
“Lucia!” It was Ryan. She met his steady gaze, her own eyes glazed and terrified. “Lucia, what in God’s name—”
Another bullet whizzed by in the darkness. “What the hell?” Ryan demanded.
“It’s Lopez! Ron Lopez!”
“We can’t go toward the street,” Ryan said, shoving her toward the beach. “Run!”
He was right behind her. He practically threw her over the wall, then jumped down beside her. The sand was already soaked. The tide was coming in, and Lucia realized that she would never get anywhere in her high-heeled sandals, so she ripped them off and threw them away. Ryan caught her hand, and they started running again, sloshing through the dark water.
They heard a curious muffled sound as a bullet cut through the water and was buried in the sand. Gasping, Lucia looked at Ryan. “Can’t you do something?”
“I haven’t got a gun on me, sorry.”
“Oh, Ryan! You could get shot—for me!”
“I should have a gun on me,” he admitted, apologizing. “I knew something was going on.”
“Stop!” Lopez called from behind. “Come on, we’ll talk about this.”
“Keep going. His stamina is failing,” Ryan ordered her.
“His stamina?” Lucia whispered.
Her legs hurt, her lungs were on fire, and the soles of her feet felt as if they were in ribbons. The lights from the hotels lent a glow to the beach, but the tide was up, almost covering the sand, and the water brought its own brand of darkness.
Suddenly she tripped on something beneath the surface and screamed, almost going down. Ryan pulled her up and threw her over his shoulder. “You’ll never make it with me!” she whispered to him, trying to right herself as she dangled over his back.
“If I don’t make it with you, I don’t care if I make it without you,” Ryan said.
“Ryan, that was beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Another bullet flew by. “Damn it! Shut up and let me run, will you? I really would like to have a future with you—if we live that long. A married future.”
“A married future? Ryan, would you actually marry me?”
“Would you actually marry me?”
“I asked first.”
“Lucia, I wanted to marry you when you ran away from me.”
“I was afraid that you’d never marry me!”
“You went through that annulment….”
“I just needed to know that this time it would be forever. Oh, Ryan, I do want it all! I want marriage and children and a big church wedding with dozens of flowers—”
She broke off as they heard the loud splashing of water behind them. Ryan moved so suddenly that her chin slammed against his back. “We’re both going to die single if we don’t do something quick.” Ryan said. He was running again, running hard, for their lives.
“The dock!” he cried suddenly.
They had reached the fishing dock, and she could see other people there. Lopez wouldn’t dare shoot them down in front of witnesses.
Ryan set her down on the wooden surface. “Can you walk?”
Lucia nodded, and he hopped up beside her. In the glow of the lights, they could see Lopez behind them. Ryan grabbed her hand and started to run.
“He won’t follow us,” Ryan said confidently.
Lucia looked back. “Ryan.”
“What?”
“He is following us.”
“Damn!”
He jerked her along at a greater pace. People turned and stared at them, and someone screamed at the sight of Lopez, racing after them, his gun held high. Another shot was fired and sank into the wood.
“That’s six, at least!” Lucia cried.
Another shot rang out. “Lucia, you watch too many westerns!” Ryan said. “He could have two dozen shots in that thing!”
They had reached the seaward end of the dock. “Jump,” Ryan said. Then, without giving her time to respond, he picked her up and tossed her over. She felt as if she were falling forever, then suddenly she hit the water. It was cold, and she sank quickly, the frigid darkness enveloping her. As she fought to return to the surface, fingers clutched her hair, grasping and pulling.
“Lucia!” Ryan cried in relief as she broke the surface.
“Ryan!”
He wrapped his arms around her and they treaded water together for a moment. Then he brought them over to the pilings and wrapped his arms around one, anchoring them. His eyes remained locked on hers as they heard footsteps above. Then Ron Lopez called out to them wildly.
“Dandridge! Where are you? Dandridge, so help me, I’ll get you, I’ll find you!”
“I love you,” Ryan said to Lucia. “And I want to spend my life with you.”
“You’ll really marry me?”
“As soon as possible. This chaste act around your family is killing me. We are allowed to sleep together once we’re legally wed, aren’t we?”
She smiled. “Of course. But, Ryan, you said you weren’t the type to fall in love forever and—”
“I wasn’t. But then I fell in love with you, and I knew that it could be forever for us. But I was afraid. I’d never felt that way before. And you were so adamant about not marrying again.”
“But I knew that I loved you, really loved you. And I ran away because I couldn’t stand it if it wasn’t going to be forever.”
“We do have one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“Lopez is still up there.”
But Lopez wasn’t up there anymore. They heard a sudden, huge splash.
“Lopez!” Lucia shouted.
Ryan set her arms around the piling and swam toward the spot where Lopez had landed. In the darkness, Lucia could see nothing. “Ryan!” she screamed. A moment later two heads broke the surface. “Ryan!” she called again as the heads went back under.
She heard the thunder of footsteps above her, and a searchlight was suddenly trained on the ocean. A voice came over a loudspeaker. “This is the police. Show yourselves—”
Just then Ryan’s head broke the surface of the water, and he waved against the spotlight. Lucia saw that he had Lopez by the nape of the neck. “Mahoney?”
“Dandridge?”
“Yeah. Get me some help down here, will you?”
“Help is coming.”
A moment later an officer stripped off his shoes and dived into the water. Someone else lowered a rope, and the officer and Ryan looped it around an unconscious Lopez. Then Ryan returned to Lucia.
“Are you all right?”
She nodded, then grimaced. “Ryan?”
“What?”
“Something bit my toe, and I’m awfully glad I didn’t see what it was.”
Ryan laughed, then wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. All of a sudden he lost his grip, and they plummeted into the sea together. They came up gasping and laughing.
“We’re about to drown each other,” Lucia warned him.
“I’d gladly die for you.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Not on your life. Not until you marry me.”
* * *
Half an hour later they were seated on the dock. Lucia was wrapped in a blanket and holding a cup of coffee. Uncle Mario, Aunt Faith, Dina and Joe were there, and Ryan was trying to explain things to everyone while the police tried to piece together the story.
“He talked for a few minutes,” Sergeant Mahoney said to Ryan. “Ron Lopez, that is. It seems he fought with his father and shoved him. When Gino fell, he struck his head on the fencing around the pool. No one saw it, and Ron panicked. He put the body down on the beach. He was desperate. He had to get rid of it. He hadn’t meant to kill his father, but once Gino was dead, Ron decided to cash in on some of his father’s, er, business deals. Then you started hounding him. He wanted you to be accused of murder. He was trying to set that up, but then you and Ms. Lorenzo suddenly appeared. He had to hide the body again, so he stashed it in her bathroom. No one would believe
she was guilty of the crime, so when she discovered the body, he had to get rid of it again.”
“I still don’t understand!” Aunt Faith moaned. “Lucia, you say that Gino’s body kept appearing—and you didn’t even tell us!”
“Well, it kept disappearing, too, Aunt Faith,” Lucia apologized.
“We didn’t want to upset you, Mom,” Dina explained.
“You knew!”
“Well, I knew what Lucia told me.”
“I, er, I was afraid that—” Lucia began.
“Oh, no!” Aunt Faith wailed. “You thought that one of us—oh, Lucia! How could you?”
Uncle Mario began to laugh when Aunt Faith complained that she might be about to pass out.
“At least Ryan is innocent,” Dina said.
“You suspected Ryan!” Joe protested indignantly.
Ryan was staring at Lucia. “I never really suspected you!” she said. “Well, except that you did have someone go through our room. And tonight, on the beach, I thought that you hit me on the head—”
“Someone hit you on the head?” Ryan and Joe thundered simultaneously.
“I, uh…”
“She thought it was one of us,” Joe told Ryan indignantly.
“I didn’t really….”
“Liar,” Ryan said softly. He ran his hand over her damp hair, pulling her head tenderly against him. “I’m still going to marry you. But it may take a little while to forgive and forget.”
“Marry!” Aunt Faith gasped. “But you barely know one another!”
“Wrong, Ma,” Joe said. “They know each other very well.”
“What?”
“We know each other very, very well,” Ryan said softly, and he kissed Lucia tenderly, for everyone to see.
Aunt Faith sighed. “It’s really okay, Joe?”
“It’s really okay.”
It was just fine with Lucia. Ryan was still kissing her. They probably both smelled like dead fish, and they were covered in seaweed and were soaking wet, but it didn’t matter at all. He was all the warmth she would ever need.
“Oh! A wedding. A wedding in the family! A big, wonderful Italian wedding with music and food—”
“Maybe she just wants a quiet wedding, Mom,” Dina suggested.
“And the tarantella!” Aunt Faith concluded.
Lucia in Love Page 19