01 Untouchable - Untouchable (39 page)

“
You’re father
will…”

“
Robert isn’t my father and
after all he’s done he certainly isn’t my ‘dad’ anymore either. You
don’t have to tell him; just make the medical decision yourself to
let your patient surface from under all the drugs. You’re going to
ruin her mind if you don’t. Give her a chance and see if I’m right.
If she is just as crazy without all the meds, then you can do what
you have to, but give her a chance.”

He patted my shoulder as he stood
there, deep concentration etched across his face. “I’ll call the
hospital right now and I’ll start reducing everything this morning.
We’ll see what happens. Within three days I should have her off
most of it. But,” he paused, looking very serious, “if Robert
notices the reduction and doesn’t like it, he’ll just fire me and
get someone else to do what he wants.”

“
I know that’s a risk, but I
promise you, after everything is cleared up, you’ll still be our
family doctor.”

“
If you’re right, then I
won’t hold you to that promise; I never meant to hurt your
mother.”

“
I think I know that now.
Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me,” I
choked.

“
I know you love your
mother, Annalisa. I’ll do what I can.” He opened the office door
and we began the short trek to the reception area. “Is there some
where I can reach you to keep you updated on her
progress?”

This posed a problem. I
didn’t actually know Micah’s phone number, but I desperately wanted
to be able to be kept abreast on mom’s condition. “How seriously do
you take your patient confidentiality?” I asked, watching the
surprised look on his face. “What I mean is that no
one—
no one
—can
know where I’m staying. “

“
I can assure you, Annalisa,
the only person who will see your information will be
me.”

I had serious reservations, and I knew
Micah would be furious, but should Robert pull something stupid, I
wanted the doctor to tell me. He handed me a small slip of paper
and I wrote down the name of our motel and bungalow unit eight.
“Just call the motel office and they’ll let me know to get in touch
with you. I’m using a different last name, Gavarreen. Do you have a
business card?”

He returned with a business card. “I’ve
written my number on the back. Feel free to call me at home if you
have any questions.” He reached out and gave me a firm hug. “I
didn’t know the two of them were having problems or I’d have
never…”

I laughed remorsefully, “Don’t feel
bad, I didn’t realize how terrible things were myself until about a
week ago. Thank you, again.”

I walked out into the lobby and started
for the door, but came quickly to a stop. There were two television
news crews sitting out in the parking lot. I grabbed my key and
steeled myself for the onslaught.

“
Miss Winslett, where have
you been since August last year?”

“
Were you involved in the
shooting in Pensacola?”

“
Did your mother ask you to
come home?” On, and on they came.

Questions pelted me like rocks as I
pushed my way through the crowd. I could hardly pull the door to my
car open for the press of reporters pushing their microphones and
cameras in my face. I turned the key and edged my way passed the
bodies and hit the street. I looked in the rearview and noticed one
of the news vans was in pursuit. I could see a black Trans Am
closing to cut between us and run interference for me, but (as much
as I loved him) I really didn’t need him for this
adventure.

I dropped the gears and made a right
turn, hit the gas and took the next left. By the time I was out of
the city limits, I lost the news van and Micah. The big problem now
was my car. There were plenty of Porsches in Palm Beach, but seldom
did you find one with my unique paint job—I called it gun metal
gray, but it was such a superior high glossed paint that it was
closer to chrome. I was going to stick out like a sore thumb and,
once Sharon’s ‘boys’ watched the news, I might as well be driving a
bulls-eye.

I made it to the bungalow, glad that
the unit was far enough in the back that my car wouldn’t be noticed
from the road. I closed the drapes and waited for Micah. An hour
later, I heard the deep rumble of a familiar engine.

I peeped through the curtains when he
didn’t come through the door after a couple minutes; it was
immediately apparent what he’d bought in his extra hour. He was
stretching a car cover over my Porsche; another was still wrapped
and waiting on the hood of the Trans Am. As he worked to cover our
vehicles, I warmed last night’s left over spaghetti and set the
table for lunch. When he stepped through the front door, the first
thing he said was, “I don’t think you needed me today, even I
couldn’t keep up with you!”

I wanted a humble
expression, but the smile had more muscle. I went over to him and
wrapped my arms around his waist. “I
do
need you; I can just out drive
you.”

His mouth opened, but then he paused.
“I’ve got nothing, you’re right.”

After lunch, we relaxed on the loveseat
waiting for the twelve o’clock news. “You realize driving your car
now is probably not the best idea? I need to pick up a rental for
you, but I really don’t want you going anywhere else.”

I snuggled into him, curling my legs
onto the seat. “The doctor said he’s going to start dropping Mom
off her meds this morning.”

He kissed the top of my head, “So he
listened to you. Did you tell him your suspicions about
Robert?”

I nodded. “He said he didn’t realize
they’d been having trouble.” I wondered if I should tell him about
giving Doctor Figarrio our motel information and his last name, but
that was an angry argument that I would rather not have today or
ever, if possible. Robert wasn’t stupid and, if he was stopping by
to observe her state of mind, he would notice that she was becoming
lucid. I would be hearing from the good doctor, and then Micah
would have reason to question how he knew how to get in touch with
me.

The twelve o’clock news began and I was
the top story. It was odd watching as I came out of the doctor’s
office, dodging reporters and driving away in my car. The news van
had footage as they tried, unsuccessfully, to follow me. I felt
Micah stiffen when a good picture of him appeared as he cut in
front of them in the Trans Am. To anyone else watching the
broadcast, it would just appear as if a car in traffic managed to
get in the middle, but to Sharon and her hired killers, that shot
would be very significant, not to mention how very significant it
would be to a group of individuals in Louisiana.

I looked up at his face and I could see
how much it bothered him; his jaw line was tight and the muscles on
his neck were showing. There was nothing I could say because what
was done was done. I slipped my arms around his waist and squeezed
gently. I put my head against his chest as the news continued
discussing my family’s recent troubles.

“
I’m sorry that I’m turning
out to be such a problem for you.” I didn’t say it very loud, but I
could tell that it stirred him from his state of aggravation. I
felt his chin come to rest on the top of my head.

“
I’m never careless, and
that was a stupid mistake. I can’t believe I…”

I could hear his heart rate increasing
and felt his body becoming hard like stone as the muscles tensed,
and he left his sentence unfinished. Then I felt his arm circle
around me and he began to relax, the breathing slowed and the
muscles softened.

“
It’s not your fault, none
of this is. Leese, you realize, now that I know where Jack and
Ricky are staying, I need to take care of them as soon as possible
and I’ll have to leave you for a while when I do.”

“
I want to go with you,” I
said, pulling back and looking at him.

“
NO!”

“
But what if you need
me?”

No, Leese, this is what I do. I just
have to make sure I get them when Sharon isn’t around. I can’t take
a chance of her getting in the cross-fire. That would be a serious
mistake to take out someone in another family.”

I pushed myself upright, “Then why can
this D’Angelo guy put a hit on you?”

He gave a long slow sigh and began
explaining that he would be considered as being insubordinate. He
accepted a job and was obligated to complete it. “You don’t go back
to the mob and say you changed your mind. But, they guard everyone
under their umbrella of protection. We aren’t allowed to simply
pickoff someone in the family because we want to—it’s got to be
ordered from higher up.”

“
So you’re saying that even
though you’re criminals, you still have a code or rules that you go
by.”

“
Right. Every organization
has to have rules and consequences for not following those
rules.”

“
Can you ever get
out?”

“
Sure, it’s easy; just get
killed.” He was being sarcastic and yet I could tell there was an
underlying serious note.

“
Without getting killed, can
you get out?” I was hoping he would say yes, because, besides
helping my family, I wanted to know I had helped him change his
life.

“
It’s not easy and they make
it so lucrative that most people stay to keep up their
lifestyle.”

“
But it isn’t
impossible.”

“
Why are you grilling me on
this, Leese?” He was starting to get that annoyed tone.

“
I was just hoping, I mean
after everything is finished, you could start over.”

“
When this is over, for
once, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“
If you didn’t have to do
this… If you could choose a new life, would you stay here—with
me?”

“
It’s like you said, I’m too
old for you. We’re two different worlds.”

I wasn’t prepared for him to use what I
said to his parents against me. “I didn’t mean that, I just didn’t
want you to know what I was feeling for you. You’re not too old for
me and you can choose, if you want to.”

“
You don’t want someone like
me, Leese.”

I started to rebut his statement, when
he asked me to let him finish.

“
You and I have been acting
like a pair of kids playing house. This isn’t me, Leese. I’m not
this way. The things I’ve done would make you sick.”

“
But you want to change. You
said you wouldn’t let me give up on forever; you wanted to
prove…”

His hand clamped over my mouth. “Stop
it. I would like you to get a chance at forever, but I can’t be the
guy. I’ve figured that much out.”

I couldn’t hold back when he said that,
and the tears began to silently slip down my cheeks onto his hand.
He took it away from my mouth to wipe my tears.

“
You,” I choked, “are the
one. I really am in love with you. Can’t you believe that? Can’t
you understand that what I feel for you is the truth?”

“
I should have never let us
get this far,” he said just above a whisper. “I just keep making
the wrong choices with you.”

I wondered where those choices began
and I had to know the answer, but I couldn’t look at him when I
asked. I placed my head back against his chest.

“
If I hadn’t run away that
first night,” I asked, remembering the expression on his face the
night that he stood in the living room buttoning his shirt over his
freshly bandaged wound. “What would have happened?”

“
It didn’t happen, that’s
all that matters.”

I could hear the pain in his response
and I knew he didn’t want to continue, but I had to know. “We
wouldn’t be here right now, would we Micah? You wouldn’t have all
these problems if I hadn’t left that night.”

“
I don’t think of you as a
problem.”

“
But I am. Would you have
killed me if I hadn’t gotten away?”

“
Are you sure you want to
know this?”

I nodded and slowly looked up into the
beautiful, disturbing face. He pushed me back against the arm of
the love seat, his hand gripping at the base of my throat with the
slightest pressure. The eyes were getting that empty stare as he
held me there. I suddenly felt so small and frail as his mass
dwarfed me.

“
If I had gotten my hands
back around your slender neck, I decided to choke you until you
passed out, again. I would have raped you and then put a gun to
your temple and killed you. You would have died that night if you
hadn’t stolen my car. Now do you understand the kind of person you
keep saying you’re in love with?”

“
Yes,” came my whispered
reply.

“
Good,” he answered with a
blank expression.

“
But, I still love you,
Micah.”

His whole body slumped. “You’re
crazy…”

“
I know that, but I can’t
change the way I feel;
you are the
one
. If we, by some miracle of God, make it
out of this, I want you to be my forever.”

He laughed bitterly and shook his head
as if there was no way that could ever, under any circumstances,
happen. “If something changes, you’d be better off to completely
forget about me and find someone else.”