“He was so hopped up on anabolic steroids and amphetamines that he barely remembered any of it. I knew I was pregnant several days before I left and I was planning to get away for a while and let you get on with your life, but then a package arrived.”
“What kind of package?”
“It was an iPod with a note that appeared to be from Micah. I thought he was coming after me after what I read and what I heard.”
“What was on it?”
“‘Breath’ by Breaking Benjamin,” I said, watching Ryan’s face as he mentally reviewed the words in his head. It was a band he liked and I knew he would remember the song. I saw the anger flush his skin as he understood why I ran. “He didn’t send it to me—D’Angelo did to make it look like it was from Micah. He was trying to make sure I took off and the two of us never got back together—it almost worked. I nearly shot Micah when he showed up a few days ago.”
His eyebrows went up, “You pulled a gun on him?”
“I wasn’t going to take a chance of him hurting the baby. We eventually talked and I realized he never wanted to kill me—he was still in love with me.”
“But why after all this time of keeping everything secret did you finally tell him the truth about why you left?”
I wasn’t ready to blow all the progress he and I made by telling him Micah drugged me. I sighed deeply, “Can you, at least for now, just trust me that there were reasons beyond my control and the truth finally came out—please, I beg you; don’t push it. Just trust me.”
“You should know I trust you, baby girl—I may not trust him for a very long time, but I trust you.”
“He wants to talk with you. Can you do that for me without an incident?”
He nodded; I called Micah and told him to return. Candace was due to come home and she actually made it before Micah. When she learned who brought me over, she flipped out worse than Ryan.
I met Micah at the car and told him to stay there for a few minutes.
“I actually wanted to speak to Ryan privately. Just ask him to come out and we’ll go for a drive and you can talk with her.”
I was trying to read the expression on Micah’s face; something was wrong. I was starting to think the whole idea of stopping in Colorado Springs wasn’t such a good thing. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked before going back inside to get Ryan. He gave a weak smile and said yes.
Candace didn’t want Ryan going anywhere with Micah, but he finally put his foot down and told her to listen to what I had to say and he’d be back in a little while. She watched him from the window as he opened the passenger’s door, getting her first peek at Micah. When the door closed and my car literally sped away, she broke down crying.
“If he hurts him,” she warned, “I’m gonna kill your husband, ex-husband, or whatever he is!”
“He won’t hurt Ryan, I promise you. Please sit down and let me explain.”
We talked for a long time and the longer we talked the deeper the conversation went. By the time we’d finished, I was all the way back to when I was hiding out in Pensacola and met Micah for the first time. Then I talked about meeting Ryan for the first time. The conversation went from the end to the beginning and then she wanted to go back through it from beginning to end. Man, that girl was thick headed.
“I just want to know what’s taking them so long,” she said, biting her nails and glancing constantly to the street.
“When they do return are you going to be able to handle me introducing you to Micah?”
“Yeah, yeah. I kind of want to meet him now, but I just find this whole mafia thing really creepy and I don’t know if I’d ever completely trust someone who kills people for a living. I understand what you’re saying about him being raised that way, but actually different on the inside, but I don’t know,” she said with a nervous flutter of her hands, “it’s still creepy.”
I had always seen Candace as being a very strong-willed, an almost rock-steady type of person, but when it came to Micah, she was a bundle of nerves. I think deep down she was worried because she knew Ryan had beaten the crap out of Micah and she figured he would be the kind of guy to retaliate in some way.
We both breathed a sigh of relief when my Aero pulled in close to 6 p.m. They had been gone nearly five hours. My cell phone rang and it was Ryan’s number. He wanted to know if she was calm enough to bring Micah inside.
“Yeah, we’re fine. Come on in,” I replied.
Candace looked pale. She watched as Micah got out of the car and started for the front door. “Crap, he’s big!” she stated. “I can’t believe Ryan went after him.”
“Andy and Ty helped, I’m sure,” I added as they came through the door.
Both of them looked haggard, like they had done much more than talk. Candace went quickly to Ryan’s side as I took Micah’s hand and turned to her.
“Candace, I’d like you to meet, Micah—someone that I love very much.” Reminding her I wanted this to go well.
She reached a trembling hand out and accepted his and then invited us to have a seat.
“Actually,” Ryan spoke up, “it’s getting kind of late and I know Leese missed lunch coming here so I was thinking we’d go down to the Bistro for a bite to eat.”
I was pleasantly surprised and agreed immediately. The remainder of our evening was a little strained, but enjoyable. Candace seemed to be warming up to Micah by the time we finally said goodnight.
“So,” Ryan asked, gripping my arm as we walked back to the house, “you’re leaving out in the morning to start the trip home?”
“Yeah, Mom knows I’m coming, but I haven’t told her all the news,” I stated and then stopped walking. “Give me your hand,” I said, pulling Ryan’s palm toward my stomach. He gave a nervous glance to Micah and then allowed me to place it where the baby was pushing against. I watched the slow grin take over his face.
“That’s freaking weird,” he stated, “Candace, feel this.”
She placed her hand where his had been and she looked kind of squeamish, “What does that feel like—I mean on the inside?”
“Pretty much like it does on the outside,” I laughed, “Until he starts pushing on my bladder and then I have to go pee really bad.”
Micah just stood by with a very thoughtful expression on his face. I took his hand and resumed the walk as he pulled me tightly to his side and kissed my temple. “I love you,” he whispered, but I know Ryan and Candace both heard.
When we were ready to get into my car and leave, Ryan got emotional on me. He wrapped his arms around me and told me he loved me and that he’d always be there for me no matter what, “Be careful on the road and enjoy the trip home.”
I kissed his cheek, and told him we would, but then he did something that completely left me speechless. He took my chin in hand and kissed me—on the lips—with Micah and Candace both standing there! Then he raised the car door and held my hand as I slipped mutely into the passenger’s seat, “Bye, baby girl.”
I looked out the window at Candace’s surprised expression and I could tell she was getting ready to slug him as soon as they stepped into the house. Micah didn’t even seem fazed as he started the car and pointed it toward my place. I was waiting for him to say something, anything, but he didn’t so I finally spoke.
“What took you guys so long?”
“Do you realize how hard it is to convince someone that saw, first hand, what I did to you that I will never, ever do anything like that again?”
Okay, I understood his point, but I still felt he was hiding something and he evidently didn’t want to discuss it anymore.
We left my place in Colorado for the last time early the next morning. I hide the key outside and figured, since I had five months left on the lease, I’d tell Ryan where I’d left it and he could offer it to Andy and Ty for the remainder of the time. They were a little wild, but I knew they wouldn’t tear the place up. Naomi would get a little break from her boys as a thank you for all the good food she had prepared fo
r Ryan and me.
I called Mom and told her I was coming home with a couple surprises and I would see her in a week or so. Micah said he wanted the return trip home to be slow. He turned the car south and we headed down into New Mexico. The scenery where we were traveling wasn’t all that spectacular (except for my view as I stared at Micah), but it contained a lot of open road so we could take advantage of a little unchecked speed. Micah didn’t do it much, but I could see the grin working the edges of his lips at one point when he got it up to one-ninety and then backed down.
“How hard have you pushed it?” he asked, the smile getting broader over my responsive little piece of machinery.
“They have a 250 mph club, but I’m not in it,” I laughed, watching the big smile on his face. “I stopped at 242, but I was out of runway.”
That killed the smile.
“You need to sell the car, Leese,” he was suddenly serious.
“I love this car,” I defended, “I can kick anybody’s—”
“Leese—it’s two passenger.”
“So? It’s perfect for us.”
“Where are we going to put the baby seat?”
“My Aston Martin is still sitting in Mom’s garage.”
“You still need to sell this thing. It’s a little too much temptation and you might get hurt or worse.”
I rested my hand on his arm, “Micah, I can handle it.”
“Not pregnant. Even I shouldn’t have done what I just did—not with you in the car. The problem is that it’s just too damn enticing to push the pedal down.”
“I’m keeping the car,” I replied stubbornly, but I didn’t want to totally be hard-headed about it. “Maybe it’ll sit in the garage and all I’ll do is look at it, but I don’t want to sell it.”
He frowned, but the discussion ended.
He found us a beautiful hotel near Carlsbad with awesome views of the grand vista that stretched before us. We enjoyed a good dinner and a fabulous night together, but he told me we needed some sleep because we were going to get up very early the next morning. Before dawn we drove up to a special place and watched as the millions of bats darken the pre-dawn sky to return to the safety of the caves.
We traveled to San Antonio and he pulled into the Fairmount hotel, where, to my surprise, he had already reserved the Presidential suite for us. He was being sneaky, but this was a good kind of sneaky. He also reserved us a private dining area at Biga on The Banks. I told him if he kept up this kind of romance, I was going to expect it all the time. He smiled softly, gave me a breathless kiss and replied, for the time we had together, I should expect this from him.
I liked the idea of constant romance, but I didn’t like the way he stated it. It was almost as if he was telling me there was a limit to our time together. That brought up the subject I’d been wanting to discuss, which was what did his family decide to do over the D’Angelo issue? He refused to discuss it with me, and once again he was putting it off. He said there would be a time when it would come up, but for now he simply wanted us to get a little bit of the honeymoon we had been denied so long ago. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, argue about that.
The next day he said the drive would be a little bit longer, but he had a surprise for me at the end of the day that he thought I would like extremely well. The problem was the closer we came to the destination the more upset I became. He was driving into Louisiana. The chances of someone seeing him and reporting to D’Angelo about who he had with him increased a hundred-fold.
Tearfully, I begged for him not to stop the car anywhere in this state unless it was just to fill the tank, and I didn’t even want to do that. He promised me D’Angelo would never know we were here. I was unconvinced. We were coming in from the west side of the state so I wasn’t familiar with the roads, but eventually he turned down a driveway to the left and I suddenly knew where we were.
“But, you sold it,” I said, fresh tears forming in my eyes.
“I bought it back. Mom’s been getting it ready for us so we could spend a night or two here.” He glanced over at me to watch my reaction as the beautiful plantation style home came into view.
I was hit with so many emotions and absolutely overcome with memories, “Oh, Micah—thank you. I love it, but are you completely sure he won’t know we were here?”
He pulled the car around to the back and parked in the exact place he parked the Trans Am so long ago. He leaned over and took me in his arms and said we were totally safe.
The interior had changed a little. Evidently the previous owners didn’t keep all his furniture. But his bedroom was the same, as was the guest bedroom. The emotional level when he laid me down in his bed was as high as our wedding night. Sensual overflowed and I had never loved him more than holding him against my body in this house. We stayed for two heart-pounding nights and then, when it was time to restart our journey, he backtracked to get to 51 and headed north, taking a long route around to completely avoid New Orleans. He explained that my car would be enough of a red flag. If word got to D’Angelo that a Shelby Ultimate Aero had come through the city, things would change quickly.
We made our next stop in Pensacola at Bev and Matt’s house. I told them they were sworn to secrecy because Mom had no idea about Micah or the baby and that we had to stay out of the press as long as possible. They were ecstatic to see us, but they were concerned over what they heard about our lives since the wedding. I told them we were apart for a little while, but what mattered was we were together again and very happy.
I wasn’t sure if I should call Jewels. With everything that had been in the news about me and Ryan, I didn’t know if she’d even speak to me. I decided to give it a try and to my pleasant surprise she was thrilled to hear from me. We talked for a long time over the phone about all that had happened in both our lives. She wanted to know how Ryan and I were getting along. I explained that he and I had never been more than good friends, but he finally found someone and was living in Colorado. She said she found someone, too. Brent Rushford, whom she had dated off and on since ninth grade, asked her to marry him. They had only been engaged for a week, but she was already planning the wedding.
We were leaving out in the morning, but I told her I would love to see her, even if it was only for a few minutes.
“How about the school parking lot? That was where we spent most of our time anyway,” she giggled.
“All right, but you’ve got to promise me one thing; no loud music. I don’t need Officer Martin to catch us trespassing because I’m trying desperately to stay out of the news.”
“Who’s with you? Is it that guy from Remake?” she asked with a little squeal.
“You’ll see in the morning,” I laughed. “Can you get there early, like 7:15? I want to be out of there before all the students start arriving.”
“I’ll do one better; I’ll be there at seven.”
Seven a.m. I watched a little white Kia turn into the lot. We had parked just inside the gate and she was drawn like a magnet to the sports car. I was leaning against the hood as she parked.
“OMG! I love your hair! I almost didn’t recognize you!”
“That’s the idea,” I laughed.
“That is a freaking awesome car…” She started to say as she ran to embrace me, but as soon as she threw her arms around me, she discovered my secret.
“Holy crap! You’re—you’re pregnant?”
The car was suddenly forgotten.
“Would you like to meet the father?” I said, tapping on the driver’s window to let Micah know it was okay to step out of his dark hiding place.
He raised the door and started to get out, but she practically knocked him over to hug him.
“I guess this means you approve,” Micah laughed, picking her up off the ground as he hugged her back.
“Lord, yes,” she blubbered out. She was crying and saying she hoped all along the two of us would end up back together. “You guys were like perfectly matched. When I heard you’d split up, I was so pis
sed at Ryan.”
“It wasn’t his fault, but the important thing is we’re together and our son is due in September.”
We spent a few more precious minutes together, but I knew the other cars would be filing in and we didn’t need any exposure in Pensacola. We shared a couple more hugs, begged her to keep things quiet, and then we drove away.
Micah wanted to know if I wanted one more hotel stay to break-up the twelve hour drive to Palm Beach, but I was ready to see my family. I called Mom and told her we would see her around eight or nine p.m. The strange thing for me was that Micah’s emotional state as we grew closer seemed to lower, almost to the point of depression. I asked him if he was okay, but he just kept saying that Palm Beach held a lot of good and bad memories for him. I knew he was right, and it broke my heart all over again to think about what he went through when I vanished only days after our wedding.
When he and I came through the door, Mom honestly looked like she could faint. Micah was instantly at her side to keep her from hitting the floor. She simply couldn’t believe it. Kimmy was happy, but I think she was expecting Micah all along anyway.
After Kimmy went to bed, the three of us sat up and the whole story came out from D’Angelo at the Acqualina to our reunion in California (minus the brutality of the attack and the Ecstasy at the cottage). And as for the baby (which, thank God she was sitting down when we dropped that bomb-shell on her), I just told her he’d come to see me a little more than four months ago and when we parted ways I was pregnant. I told her about what D’Angelo did to make me think Micah had slipped a mental cog, causing me to run again. And, how it all worked out when he found me.
“Well, I hope you are out of the mob again because this marriage has had a rough enough start. Things are going to need to calm down by the time September rolls around and my—I can’t believe I’m saying this—my grandson arrives. I don’t feel old enough to be a grandmother,” she said with a little nervous laugh.
I looked at Micah’s face and that same strange expression that had been getting stronger from just before he met with Ryan reappeared. He was starting to worry me, but he insisted he was fine and that I needed to concentrate on the baby and nothing else.
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