01 Untouchable - Untouchable (31 page)

David scoffed and leaned back in his
chair.

This must have been the type of thing
that his knew his father would enjoy learning.

“
That I would like to see,”
his father remarked.

“
I’ve got the Corvette out
front, Dad. Would you like to take a ride with her—she’s already
had it over one-hundred and forty on the interstate.”

“
Micah Gavarreen, you’re an
idiot!” his sister began a tirade. “You’ve got a billionaire’s
daughter that half the nation is looking for right now, doing over
a hundred miles an hour down the interstate! Just how deep of a
pile of crap do you plan on putting yourself into? I might not be
able to pull you out of this one!”

“
Gwen!” Giorgio snapped,
“You will learn to hold your tongue when you are around me, do you
understand?”

She grumbled something unintelligible
and then responded with a, “Yes, Sir.”

“
I have to admit, Micah,
that doesn’t sound like a smart thing to be doing,” Giorgio said,
turning back to look at the two of us.

“
I—I used a radar detector
and made sure no one was behind us—and it was only for a few
seconds and then I backed off. I’m not trying to get Micah
caught.”

His sister rolled her eyes, and David
laughed.

“
You’ve got to tell me
something, Annalisa,” Giorgio began.

“
Call me Leese, please,” I
said, putting my hand on his (which generated a big smile on his
face).

“
I’ve never seen someone,
rich or poor, be comfortable with what you know is going to
happen.”

“
That’s because she’s
banking on him not pulling the trigger,” David
interjected.

Giorgio shot David a look that made the
smile drop immediately from David’s face.

“
Micah isn’t the bad guy
here,” I said slowly. “If it hadn’t been him, then someone else
would have taken the job, and I probably wouldn’t be here right
now.”

“
You got that right,” David
sneered.

“
Son, if you open that mouth
of yours again, I am personally going to close it for you! Do you
understand?”

David nodded. Evidently the family was
ruled by Giorgio and no one dared cross him.

“
Go on,” he
urged.

“
When I figured out what
Micah was, he nearly killed me right then.” I was still able to
feel the Glock pressed to my temple. “I only asked him, since he
was given six weeks, if he’d let me pay him for the other five
weeks so that I could live long enough to figure out who’s doing
this to my family.”

Giorgio nodded as if in deep thought.
“You are a very unusual girl,” he said softly.

“
You don’t know the half of
it,” Evan remarked.

Giorgio waited for the
explanation.

“
When she figured it out,
she got to my gun first.” Everyone in the room suddenly seemed very
interested in what he was about to say. “She had the perfect shot,
but, instead, she handed me the gun and asked me to make it
painless. And, after she said she’d like to hire me, she helped me
finish setting all this up.”

“
Kinky,” David uttered with
a smile.

I rolled my eyes, “It’s not his fault,
but I’ve got to help my mom and my sister.”

“
And now you’re in love with
him.” Giorgio wasn’t asking; he was stating it.

Evan jumped back slightly as if someone
had shocked him. Evidently, Celeste had told her husband what she
discovered when she had been at the house. I told him that I
thought he was someone I could fall in love with back when we had
our first dinner at the restaurant in Pensacola, but I’d never
looked him in the eye and uttered those words. There was no way I
could reveal how strongly I felt about him. I couldn’t let him know
he’d have to kill the one person that truly loved him.

“
No! Absolutely not,” I gave
a nervous laugh. “I felt like I was falling for him when I thought
he was eighteen, and Ev… Micah is really sweet, but he’s too old
for me. We’re two different people, two different worlds,” I lied
harder than I’ve ever lied in my life. Now if my eyes didn’t tear
up and give me away, I could make it through this moment. Celeste
knew the truth, but I was hoping she would understand why I was
denying what I felt for him.

“
Micah,” his father looked
at him. “How do you feel about this girl?”

“
She’s my mark, just a
target, Dad. You know I’ve never screwed up a job.”

Giorgio’s hand reached up and gently
patted Micah’s face. “Good. So you’re telling me I’m not getting
ready to lose a son and start a war.”

“
What do you mean?” I asked
before Evan could answer.

“
Stupid little twit,” David
growled. “If someone whacks off Giorgio Gavarreen’s son, there will
be retaliation and then…”

“
And then,” Gwen
interrupted. “All hell breaks loose.”

Evan glared at them all, “If I walk out
of this place right now and get blown away, I don’t want anyone
to…”

“
Boy!” Giorgio snapped.
“Don’t tell me what to do if someone shoots you. An eye-for-an-eye
just as the Bible says…”

“
Forgiveness is what it
really says,” I spoke up, knowing that was not something that was
done in this family; you do not interrupt the father. Giorgio
turned to me, his face flushed with anger. I figured I’d better
clarify before he opened his mouth to chastise me. “I’ve already
forgiven Micah for what he has to do.” That seemed to calm his
father, but I had to continue. “But I couldn’t have done that if
God hadn’t already shown forgiveness to me.”

“
You don’t understand these
matters,” he stated, gripping my hand. “But you are a strong young
woman and I truly believe you have forgiven him. I don’t think I
would have your type of strength.”

The wait staff began filing into the
room, bringing in the appetizers for the first round.

“
We can talk later, right
now we’re going to eat” Giorgio stated as the dishes filled the
table.

“
What do you suggest I start
with?” It wasn’t hard to read whose ego at the table liked being
stroked the best.

Giorgio smiled and I didn’t have to ask
after that. As each course came out, he told me what I should
try—absolutely fascinated that I could handle the spicier dishes.
We continued on this way all the way through to dessert. I felt bad
for ignoring Evan most of the time, but he kept squeezing my hand
under the table to let me know I was doing well by impressing his
father.

David kept giving me nasty glances
across the table, but when his father would look at him, the face
would return to serene, until his father looked away.

Gwen, who I found out was the oldest
sibling, was very interesting. Evan had told me she was as corrupt
as the rest of them, but I got the distinct feeling that she wanted
to see her baby brother get out of the family business before it
killed him.

The table was cleared and I thanked my
host for all the delicious food. Evan was rising, pulling the keys
from his pocket, when Giorgio asked us to stay for a few drinks and
enjoy some karaoke in the bar.

“
Dad, if I drink then she
has to drive home. I don’t think Gwen has enough officers to catch
us if Leese is behind the wheel.”

“
Who said you can’t have a
coke?” His father laughed. “I’m enjoying your—your friend’s
company.”

It was nice to hear him refer to me as
his son’s friend and not his target.

“
Would you like to sing?”
Evan said turning to me.

“
Oh, no, that’s
okay—I…”

“
Does she sing well?”
Giorgio asked.

“
She could be a star, if she
wanted to, Dad,” he replied with an enormous smile.

“
Then it’s settled. You’re
singing for me, Leese.” He was leaving no room for
rebuttal.

“
I don’t know what to sing
for him,” I hissed at Evan as he was moving me up to the karaoke
stage.

“
I know exactly what you are
going to sing. Get out your iPod. Benny,” Evan yelled to the man in
the karaoke booth. “Can you use music from one of these if you
don’t have it in your collection? You’ll need to dub out the
singers voice.”

“
Yeah, sure, I can handle
that. Just show me which song.”

He scrolled through my iPod and finally
turned it toward me so I could see what he’d picked out. I had more
than just Christian rock on it so I knew he could find something,
but when I saw what he chose, I was stunned.

“
You want me to sing
Perfect People
—
in a bar
?” I
figured he had lost his mind. “And besides that—I—I thought this
song was a little on the painful side for you last
time?”

“
I know my dad, Leese. He
needs this song just as much as I did. Maybe someday there will be
hope for my family, but it’s got to start somewhere.”

His encouragement filled me with the
desire to illuminate some minds tonight. “Okay,” I whispered, but
before he walked away, I grabbed his arm and motioned him to lean
his ear toward me. “The gun won’t fall out of the holster if I’m
dancing around with the mic will it?” I knew I couldn’t be
perfectly still when I was singing; I had to dance.

He kissed my cheek and laughed. “No,
you’re safe.”

I took the stage as the music was ready
to start and had a moment to intro my song. “This song is just to
remind us that we’ve all made mistakes in our lives that scar us,
but God accepts us as we are because there’s no such thing as
perfect people.” I nodded and the music began. It wasn’t hard to
forget where I was. It might as well have been Wednesday night
youth group for all I cared. I put my all into the song, hoping and
praying that he was right; someday there would be hope for his
family. As the song finished I was surprised that the crowd was
just as responsive as if they had been in church. They were
clapping and cheering and I could see Giorgio was nodding his head
and Celeste was drying her eyes.

“
That was wonderful,” Gwen
was saying as I came down from the small stage. I noticed that she
had my iPod in hand and was going through all the songs that I had
saved. “Do you know all these songs?”

“
Yes, I do.”

“
I mean the words; can you
sing anything that’s on here?”

By this point Evan was standing beside
me smiling. “Pick one Gwen; she can sing it.”

“
Sing this one then,” she
said turning the iPod toward me.

I knew the words, but there was no way
I was singing that song with him in the room. “I—I can’t sing
that…”

He grabbed the iPod,
“
Stupid Boy
?
That’s one I haven’t heard.”

“
You said you could sing any
song on here,” Gwen continued. “Do you know the words or are you
simply refusing to sing it?”

“
Can you sing it, Leese?” He
was giving me an intent stare.

“
You—you won’t like it,” I
mumbled, knowing it would break my heart to have him hear
it.

“
Sing it for me,” he said,
suddenly understanding that there was something in it that his
sister wanted him to hear, and that I didn’t.

Gwen took my arm and walked with me to
the stage, but I wanted to know why. “Because,” she began, “I’ve
never seen my brother in a bigger mess than this. I’m hoping when
this is all over, he’ll get out of Daddy’s business, and the only
way that’s gonna happen is if you keep that little bit of a
conscience inside him from going back to feeling
nothing.”

“
This will break his heart,”
I whimpered, knowing I’d give the performance the same command as
the last one. “I can’t hold back when I sing.”

“
Yeah, well guess what? That
will mean
he has a heart to
break
.”

I gave no intro, most of the audience
knew the song, but it wasn’t his kind of music.

“
She was precious like a
flower, she grew wild, wild but innocent, the perfect prayer in a
desperate hour. She was everything beautiful and different…” I
couldn’t look at him as the haunting words filled every fiber of my
body. I had to continue.

If Gwen was right maybe he’d decide
after I was gone that he simply couldn’t do this anymore. Maybe his
heart would never go back to the void where it used to hide. “She
laid her heart and soul right in your hands, and then you stole her
every dream and crushed her plans…you stupid boy…now you’ve lost
the only thing that ever made you feel alive…she loved me, she
loved me. God please, just let her know I’m sorry…” When the song
ended, it felt as if I had wielded a scalpel and slashed a wound
right across his chest.

The applause and cheers were wild and I
could hear people shouting out requests, but I couldn’t go another
step. I found the closest empty table and crumpled.

Gwen came and sat beside me, her hand
rubbing my back. “You’re even better than I thought,” she said
lightly.