Love at First flight

by Marie Force

  “It worked.”

  The doorbell rang.

  Michael went to answer it. “Tom? What are you doing here?” He stepped aside to let his boss in.

  “Hi there.” Tom extended his hand to Juliana. “Tom Houlihan. Nice to meet you.”

  “Juliana Gregorio.”

  Tom cast an admiring eye around the room. “Nice place.”

  “You have time for social calls today, Tom?”

  Tom put his hands in his pockets, his shoulders stooping as he turned to Michael. “I want to get you out of here for a while.”

  “I’m in the middle of a trial. I’m not going anywhere until those bastards are convicted.”

  “I’m not asking you.”

  Michael stared at his boss. “You’re ordering me out of town?”

  “Either you leave for a week, maybe two, or you’re off the case.”

  “You can’t do this!”

  “Yes, I can. Maybe you don’t care about your own safety, but what about hers?” He nodded at Juliana. “They have her name, Michael. Are you really willing to risk her just to prove a point?”

  Michael sagged as the fight went out of him. “Of course not.”

  Tom put a hand on Michael’s shoulder. “The trial is in recess for now while we sort all this out and until Rachelle gets out of the hospital. Your detail will be taking you both to my house at Dewey Beach tonight.”

  “I want to go to the hospital,” Michael said. “I need to see her… And her mother.”

  “I’ll get you over there this afternoon.”

  “They followed us to Newport. What’s to stop them from following us to Delaware?”

  “That’s why you’re going in the middle of the night.”

  “And when the trial resumes?”

  “I’ll bring you back. This is nonnegotiable, Michael.”

  Juliana watched them lock eyes in a ferocious battle of wills.

  Michael finally looked away. “Fine. We’ll go. But I’m coming back the minute the trial starts up again. No one else is arguing this case, Tom. It’s my case. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you’ll keep me informed of every development?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Michael glanced at Juliana. “I guess we’re going to the beach,” he said, but she could tell he was still fuming at being exiled.

  After Tom left, Juliana told Michael she needed to get a few things from the Collington Street house. The weather had taken a chilly turn in the last week, and she needed a winter coat and some warmer clothes if they were going to the beach. He insisted on accompanying her and her detail for the short ride around the block.

  Michael followed her as she unlocked the door and deactivated the alarm. She tossed the mail, including Jeremy’s letters, into her purse.

  “Have a seat. I’ll be just a minute.” She dashed upstairs and tried to be quick, knowing the last thing Michael needed today was to be in the home she had shared with Jeremy any longer than he had to be.

  A few minutes later she went downstairs and found him holding a framed photo of her and Jeremy taken on a cruise several years earlier. Michael studied the picture with such intensity he didn’t hear her approach him.

  “Michael?”

  He seemed almost surprised to see her as he returned the photo to the shelf next to the TV. “Ready?”

  She dropped her bag and went over to put her arms around him.

  He went rigid with resistance.

  “Please don’t check out on me, Michael. I need you.”

  His arms encircled her, but his embrace lacked its usual warmth. “I don’t have a lot to give right now.”

  “We’re going to get through this together.”

  “How much more do you think we can go through before there’s nothing left of us?”

  Startled, she pulled back to look at him. “What do you mean?”

  “It just seems like the deck’s been stacked against us from the very beginning.” Gesturing to the photo, he said, “Look at you with him. Anyone could see how much you love him. Paige might be pregnant, Rachelle’s sick… Maybe we just weren’t meant to be.”

  Juliana crossed her arms. “So you’re giving up? Five days ago you asked me to marry you. Now you’re saying we weren’t meant to be? Which is it?”

  He fixated on the photo. “I don’t know how to compete with that, Juliana. I have two months. He’s had ten years.”

  Juliana knew his despondency over what happened to Rachelle was fueling his despair over their relationship. Placing both hands on his face, she drew him down to her and kissed him with all the love and dismay she shared with him.

  He whimpered and tried to pull away, but she wouldn’t let him.

  When he gave up resisting, he hauled her tight against him and poured himself into the kiss.

  “I’m right here with you, Michael,” she said, kissing his face and then his lips again. “We’re going to get through this together. I promise.”

  Later that afternoon an unmarked police car took them to the hospital where Rachelle’s extended family had gathered. Apparently, the media had figured out where she was being treated so Michael and Juliana kept their sunglasses on to hide their red eyes from the cameras.

  In the parking lot, several TV reporters went into standup mode in front of cameras when they realized who was paying the family a visit.

  Rachelle’s cousin greeted them in the waiting room. “I’ll let Monique and Curtis know you’re here.”

  When Rachelle’s parents came into the room a few minutes later, Juliana was surprised to discover that Rachelle’s father was white.

  Monique’s pretty face was ravaged with fear and rage, which was directed at Michael.

  “You gave me your word,” Monique said in a barely audible whisper. “You gave me your word that she’d be safe.”

  Michael’s shoulders drooped. “I’m so terribly sorry. I don’t know what to say…” He shook his head when words failed him.

  Juliana introduced herself to Curtis. “How’s Rachelle?”

  “She’s been horribly sick, but thankfully they don’t think any organs were damaged,” he said. “They’re keeping her for a few days to monitor her. And she’s freaking out that they actually tried to kill her.”

  “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure whoever did this doesn’t get away with it,” Michael said.

  “So you catch them, what difference will that make to us, Michael?” Monique asked, swiping furiously at tears. “Can you tell me that? They’re in jail, and they still managed to do this. She’s always going to be afraid now.”

  “It might matter to her to know they can’t do this to anyone else.”

  “Whatever,” Monique snorted. With one last frosty glance at Michael, she turned and left the room.

  “I’m sorry,” Curtis said. “She doesn’t really blame you, Michael. You know that.”

  “She has every right to blame me. I promised her that her daughter would be safe, and she ended up poisoned.”

  “Do you think we could see her?” Juliana asked, contending with the huge knot of anxiety that had settled in her chest. “Just for a minute?”

  “Of course,” Curtis said, gesturing for them to follow him.

  Clutching Michael’s hand, Juliana forced her legs forward down a long corridor lined with cops in the intensive care unit.

  In the room, she gasped at the sight of Rachelle’s petite body hooked to beeping machines.

  As they approached the bed, Rachelle opened her eyes. “Hey,” she said softly.

  “How’re you feeling?” Juliana asked.

  “Like I’ve puked my guts up.”

  “I’m so sorry, Rachelle,” Michael said.

  “I can’t testify, Michael.” Her eyes flooded with tears. “I won’t.”

  “Let’s see how you feel about it when you get out of here,” he said.

  Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I can’t.”

  From behind them
, Monique said, “We’re taking her to St. Louis as soon as the doctors give the okay.”

  “I understand,” Michael said. “I’ll make the arrangements to get you out of here when you’re released.”

  “I’m so sorry, Michael,” Rachelle said between sobs. “I know I’m letting you down, but I can’t take any more of this. They tried to kill me.”

  Michael reached for the girl’s hand. “You did great. I’m so proud of you, and don’t worry, I’ll find a way to get them without you. You need to focus on getting better. That’s all that matters.”

  Michael and Juliana visited with Rachelle until her eyes fluttered closed. They took turns kissing her forehead before stepping into the hallway.

  “Thank you for coming.” Curtis shook Michael’s hand and hugged Juliana. “We appreciate all the time you’ve spent with her. She thinks the world of you both.”

  “We’ll pray for you all,” Juliana said.

  “Thank you.”

  Michael held Juliana’s hand as they emerged from the hospital to a burst of flashbulbs and shouted questions from reporters. They kept their heads down and followed the cops back to the car.

  Michael stared out the window all the way home.

  At two o’clock the next morning, again in an unmarked police car, Michael and Juliana were driven to Tom Houlihan’s oceanfront house at Dewey Beach. They arrived just after four, and though they went right to bed in the large master bedroom, neither of them could sleep after the emotional day. Under any other circumstances, Juliana would have been delighted to be staying in a house like the one Tom had made available to them, but her heart was heavy after seeing Rachelle.

  She had called Mrs. Romanello to tell her they were leaving town for a week or so, and the older woman was relieved to hear that. Juliana had been almost startled to realize that other than her brother, who agreed to take care of their mother, there was no one else she needed to tell. No one else knew about her relationship with Michael.

  That changed the next morning when a photo of them holding hands as they left the hospital appeared with a picture of the injured police officer on the front page of the Baltimore Sun. Unfortunately, video of them was also broadcast on CNN.

  Before ten o’clock, Juliana fielded phone calls from her mother, her sister Serena in California, her brother Vincent, her co-worker Carol, and her high school friend Pam Newman. Everyone, except for Pam, who had seen her once before with Michael, had the same questions—what was she doing with the prosecutor in the Benedetti trial, where was she now, and what the hell was going on? While Michael dealt with his frantic parents on his cell phone, she evaded the questions from her family and friends, except to tell them she was safely out of town for the time being.

  She had just hung up with Pam when the phone rang again. Juliana’s gut twisted with nerves when she saw it was Jeremy.

  Ending the call with his parents, Michael walked over to her. “Who is it?”

  “Jeremy.”

  “You should talk to him. He’s probably freaking out.”

  “Probably.” The phone beeped to indicate a message, which Juliana listened to.

  “Juliana, it’s me.” He sounded frantic. “Jesus, babe, what’s going on up there? What are you doing with that guy? Where have I seen him before? Somewhere. I want you to call me. Right away. I’m going to call you every fifteen minutes until I talk to you.”

  She turned off the phone and wandered over to the window to look out at the beach. Her stomach churned as it set in that Jeremy now knew there was someone else in her life, or he at least had strong reason to suspect it. He hadn’t figured out, though, that he’d seen Michael getting off the plane with her in Jacksonville.

  Michael came up behind her and rested his chin on the top of her head. “What are you thinking about? Or do I not want to know?”

  “I was deluding myself when I thought no one was going to get hurt, wasn’t I?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When I came up with the idea for this break from Jeremy, I thought we could lead separate lives for a few months and no one would get hurt.”

  He wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “You couldn’t have known what would happen between us. Who could’ve predicted all this?”

  “I need to call him.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m going to have to tell him you’re just a friend.” She turned to him. “You’re so much more to me. You know that, right?”

  “Of course I do.” He leaned in to kiss her. “Maybe you could tell him the truth? Would that be so awful, Juliana?”

  “Not on the phone. I’ll talk to him in three weeks when I’m due to see him.”

  “You’ll tell him about us?”

  “I’m not sure yet what I’m going to tell him.”

  Michael’s face fell with disappointment. “That means you still haven’t decided.”

  “I’m not really thinking about it right now. There’ve been so many other things to think about.”

  He nodded in agreement.

  “I’ll be back in a minute.” Juliana went upstairs to the bedroom and closed the door. She dialed Jeremy’s cell phone, and he answered right away, as if he had been praying she would call.

  “Jule?”

  “Yes, it’s me.”

  “Oh my God, what’s going on? I almost choked on my coffee when I saw the news this morning. Who’s that Maguire guy?”

  “A friend of mine.”

  “How do you know him?”

  Juliana took a deep breath. “The prosecution hired me to cut the hair of the witness who was poisoned. She and I became friends. Needless to say, I’m terribly upset about what happened to her.”

  “But you were holding hands with him. You looked like a couple.”

  “We’re friends, Jer. It was a terrible day, and the media was all over us when we went to see her parents. He was just pulling me through the crowd. You don’t have to worry about anything right now. I’ll see you in three weeks, and we can talk then, okay?”

  “Where have I seen him before? I know him from somewhere.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Are you in danger?”

  “No.”

  “Jule?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Read my letters, will you?”

  “I will.”

  “I love you.”

  “Bye, Jer.”

  Juliana went back downstairs a few minutes later to find Michael engaged in a heated exchange with Paige.

  “They’re not going to kill me. No, I’m not coming there.” He paused. “She’s my roommate. You know that. I don’t care what it looks like. I’ve told you, if there’s a baby, we’ll talk about it after the trial. Don’t you think I’ve got enough to think about right now? Fine. I’ll talk to you then.” He slapped the phone closed and shut it off. “That’s enough for now. How’d it go with Jeremy?”

  “A lot like that, actually. But I think he’s pacified for now.”

  “Paige saw the news, too. Her concerns about my safety gave her another opportunity to remind me she’s pregnant.”

  “Did you check on Rachelle?”

  He nodded. “They expect to release her in the next day or two.”

  Juliana sat down next to him on the sofa and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Will you be able to secure a conviction without her testimony?”

  He put his arm around her. “We’ve got her sworn testimony on videotape, and hopefully we can get it admitted. That’s going to have to be good enough. The case is strong without her testimony, but I’m less certain of a conviction without her.”

  “Could you force her to testify?”

  “Yes,” he said with a sigh, “but I’m not going to.”

  “Maybe she’ll change her mind when she’s had a little time to recover.”

  “I’m not counting on that.”

  Sensing he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, she said, “Are you hungry?” The cops had been to the grocery store f
or them.

  “No. I’m tired, though. Suddenly, I’m really tired.”

  “Why don’t we lie down for a while?”

  “Okay.”

  They walked upstairs together, and Juliana closed the blinds in the big bedroom while he turned down the bed.

  When they lay down, she snuggled into his embrace, her head resting on his chest. “Tom must be loaded to own a house like this.”

  “He was a very successful corporate lawyer before he ran for state’s attorney,” Michael said.

  “Must be nice to have a spare house at the beach. I wish I was in the mood to enjoy being stuck here.”

  “I know,” he yawned.

  “Want me to rub your back?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

  “Sure. Turn over.”

  He did as she asked and sighed when she kneaded the tension from his shoulders. “God, you’re good at that,” he groaned.

  “Remember the other time I gave you a backrub? That was the first night we slept together.”

  “Platonically, as I recall,” he said with a small smile that quickly faded. “That was the night before opening arguments. I’d give anything to go back to that night.” His eyes moistened and then closed. “I would’ve called Rachelle first, and none of this would’ve happened.”

  Juliana kissed his cheek and rubbed his back until he finally drifted into restless sleep.

  Chapter 24

  They fell into a routine at the beach. Juliana cooked for them, they took long walks—with cops trailing close behind—they played board games, and watched movies. On the third day they tuned in to a TV news special about the Benedetti trial.

  “There’s Tom and his wife, Jane,” Michael said when the cameras followed them into the hospital to visit the family of Officer Brown, who was still in a coma.

  “They look like Ken and Barbie.”

  Michael smiled at her description. “They’re the perfect political couple. I hear he’s going to run for Maryland attorney general next year, and I have no doubt he’ll win unless we somehow fail to convict the Benedettis.”

  “What would that mean for you?”

  Michael shrugged. “He could take me with him to Annapolis, or I could work for the new state’s attorney if he or she wanted me. But I’ve been thinking about hanging up my prosecutor’s hat when this trial’s over.”