01 Untouchable - Untouchable (47 page)

“
Your step father,” he
stated simply.

It took me a few seconds to let it sink
in and when it did, my tears began flowing even before my emotions
could catch up to them.

“
It’s going to be the top
story for the twelve o’clock news. I just thought you’d like to
hear it before you see it.”

I motioned to him to turn on the
television. The newscast was just beginning. There was video of
Robert being taken into custody as they played a clip from a taped
request he’d made to have me killed.

“…
the last guy screwed this
up, but I can get in there to her, if you still want her dead?” The
voice was so familiar to me, but I couldn’t think where I’d heard
it before.

“
You can have the million
dollar pay off if you get rid of her. Can you make it look like a
hospital error, too much morphine, maybe?” That voice I knew was
Robert’s.

“
Don’t worry. I can handle
the little wildcat…” That was when I knew whose voice I was
hearing. He’d called me that once before after attempting to shoot
me; it was David Gavarreen.

I could still hear Gwen’s words that
night in the bar, “He’s your best ally when he’s sober and when the
chips are down. You never know, he might find a way to help you
straighten out this mess for Leese.” I’d never thought those words
would have ever rung true, but he did it. He must have gone to the
police and worn a wire for them, getting Robert to admit that he
was behind this all along.

“
David contacted you,” I
stated.

Both officers gave me an odd look,
“Who?”

“
The man who recorded him,
wasn’t he…” I had a feeling I’d better stop right there. They both
had tuned in very sharply when I tried to identify the voice.
“Didn’t I hear that name just now on the news? David, Donald,
Daniel, wasn’t it something like that?” I wasn’t sure they believed
my attempt to cover what I knew.

“
No, they never said his
name. His first name is Nick, but we have to protect his
identity.”

“
Oh, no, that’s okay. I
understand. I’m just glad this might finally be over. I had a
feeling he wasn’t going to be happy until I was dead.”

“
Well that won’t be a
concern for you anymore; he’s staying in jail. The judge denied him
bail.”

A nurse entered the room, “Miss
Winslett you have more visitors, if you’re feeling up to
it.”

“
We’ll leave you alone. We
just wanted to share the good news.”

We shook hands and they
left.

I wondered who was visiting me. There
had been so many of the old Palm Beach crowd stop by and I guessed
this was more of the same, but when the door opened the first
person through was tall with extremely black hair—Ryan, followed by
Jewels, Carlie, and Kevin.

“
Ah, I don’t believe it,” I
said, a smile filling my face. “What are you guys doing down here
during a weekday?”

“
Spring break, Leese,” came
Jewels’ reply as she bounded to my bedside. “Wow, you like almost
bit the big one, girlfriend,” she continued.

“
Yeah, that’s what they keep
telling me. I’m a medical miracle. I keep telling them God is still
in the miracle business and He wasn’t ready for me yet. So the four
of you came down here, just for the day or what?”

“
Their staying at my house,”
Ryan finally spoke, after staring at me for a moment.

I looked at Jewels, “Your dad was cool
with that?”

“
No, of course not. Not
until Ryan’s mother agreed to play chaperone.”

“
Oh,” I smiled.

“
So, OMG, you’ve been like
hanging with big time gangsters,” Jewels began. “They’re saying
Evan, Micah or whatever his name is, is like some big time hit
man…”

She was prattling on not noticing that
her words were hitting me pretty hard. Ryan picked up on it
though.

“
Jewels, she might not want
to talk about him right now,” he interrupted her, trying to bring
her feet back to the planet earth.

“
Oh, yeah, right. Was he the
one who…” She let her sentence trail off.

I knew most of the stories on the news
were keeping everyone in suspense as to ‘who shot the
heiress.’

“
No,” I said, swallowing to
keep my emotions down. “He got shot when I did.”

“
How?” Kevin asked. Somehow
it didn’t surprise me that his analytical mind would be immediately
drawn to that puzzling statement.

“
Oh my God, I didn’t know he
got shot, too!” Jewels exclaimed. I could tell she had some concern
for him in her voice, but it was mostly the excitement of a
deepening story that she wanted to know more about.

Ryan seemed ready to stop the group
discussion about Micah, when I reached out and touched his
arm.

“
It’s okay,” I simply
stated. I proceeded to tell them about Sharon, Jack and Ricky. How
she’d hired them, and that Micah was trying to protect me. How I
had been grabbed by Jack at the hospital. My tale about what
happened between me and Ricky was greatly abbreviated. I told them
that Micah showed up and ended up killing them both. “But when it
was over, and he was kissing me…” I watched Ryan’s face go dark
with anger, but I continued. “Sharon walked in on us and put a
bullet through my back; a bullet which traveled completely through
me and buried itself into his chest.”

“
It’s amazing you both
aren’t dead,” Kevin said with surprise. I could tell he was running
anatomy through that mental marvel that he called his brain.
“You’re lucky she didn’t use hollow points.”

I rolled my eyes and gave a small
laugh. My chest didn’t hurt quite as bad, and laughter was becoming
possible, when I could find reasons for it. I almost told them that
was what Micah used, but I didn’t think that would be appropriate.
“Yeah, you’re absolutely right.”

We talked a little more and then Ryan
asked if he could have a few minutes alone with me. There was a
small pang of something that crossed Jewels’ face, and I knew she
was starting to consider Ryan differently from her other male
friends. But, they agreed and left us alone.

I had to tell him as soon as the door
closed. “Jewels is starting to think of you as more than just a
friend, you know that right?”

“
We’re working through
that,” he sighed. “Neither one of us is really ready for a
relationship, together anyway.” He pulled up a nearby chair and
lowered my bedrail so that he could be closer to me. He reached out
and put my hand between both of his.

It felt so good, because they kept the
hospital freezing cold and warmth was a rare commodity in
here.

“
So when do you get to go
home?”

“
My doctors are arguing over
that, but it looks like it could be this week if I agree to a live
in nurse for a few weeks. I hate being in here…”

“
I missed you,” he added,
quietly stopping me from speaking. He must have decided a different
subject would be better. “What happened to my car?”

“
Ah, crap!” I had forgotten
about his car, and the last place it had been at was the Inlet
Motel. “We—I left it at the motel we were staying at so probably on
a wrecker lot somewhere. I’m sorry.”

He gave a little laugh, “Leese, I’m not
worried about my car, I was just curious.” Then his face became
serious again. “You didn’t forget about your promise did
you?”

“
Well I might not be up for
a date for a…”

“
Not that one.”

“
Oh.” That was when I
remembered what he’d asked me not to do. My skin flushed pink with
just the memory of how very close I’d come to breaking that one
just before the call came in shortening my life span to twelve
hours. “No.”

He gave me a hard look. He evidently
took the pink flush to my skin a different way.

“
Honestly, no—we didn’t.”
But I couldn’t help feeling like he needed to know that Micah was
the only man in my heart and on my mind. “Ryan, I don’t know what’s
going to happen to him, but you’ve got to understand that I’m
really and truly in love with him. I don’t want you to think I’m
available when I get out of here.”

Disappointment was written all over his
face, but he attempted to smile. “You still owe me at least one
date. Then you can tell me if you’re really off the
market.”

“
I’m off the market,” I
confirmed. “But I do owe you that date. I just don’t know how much
longer this healing process is going to take.”

“
You can move around okay,
right? She didn’t damage your spine or…”

“
No. There isn’t much room
between the shoulder blade and the spine, but she managed to miss
them both—it’s my lung and chest that are slow healing.” I lower my
gown slightly and pulled away the gauze from the place where the
bullet exited. I watched him wince. “Yeah, it’s pretty gross. I’ve
got a good plastic surgeon who says after the lung is completely
healed and they take out the chest tube, he’ll make it look almost
like it never happened.”

“
Don’t think I’m gonna let
you forget about our date. As soon as the doctor says you can do
some ground flying, we’re going for that drive.”

I laughed and then cringed in
pain.

He instantly looked worried.

“
It’s okay. It just really
hurts to laugh.”

He stood up and leaned over me,
planting a very slow kiss on my forehead. “You rest and get better.
I met your mom downstairs in the lobby and gave her my number and
my parent’s number so you can get a hold of me when you’re
ready.”

My eyes had begun to tear. He was so
sweet and so sincere. “Sounds good,” I said, swallowing and trying
to keep myself from letting them spill down my cheeks.

CHAPTER TWENTY

I was out of the hospital three days
later, but home became my new hospital—infinitely more preferable,
but still similar. Four weeks later, I was cleared to resume normal
activities. I still had plastic surgeries to face, but they would
wait.

Mom, Kimmy, and I were happy together.
Life was almost normal. It had been difficult to explain what
happened with Robert to Kimmy, but Mom was incredibly sensitive.
Kimmy came to understand that he had done some things against the
law, and when that happens you have to pay for what you did by
staying with the police.

I had been trying my best to contact
anyone in Louisiana to find out what was happening with Micah. I’d
called his father’s restaurant, but no one from his family would
return my calls. I hired a new attorney who was trying to get
information for me, but had been running into the proverbial stone
wall when it came to the Louisiana officials. The only thing we
were both pretty certain about was that he was not being held in
any jail or federal facility. I tried contacting Gwen through law
enforcement, but she wouldn’t respond.

Two and a half months after the last
moment I had seen his face, I hired a private jet to take me to New
Orleans. I rented a car and drove to Giorgio’s Italian Bar and
Grill, but no one from his family was there and the employees were
absolutely no help.

I drove the familiar road out of town
down I-10 to the exit that would eventually lead me to his house. I
was so afraid; afraid I wouldn’t find him there, afraid I would
find him there but he would tell me to go away, afraid of my own
emotions, but I was becoming so desperate.

When his house came into view, my heart
soared. Memories hit me so hard I could feel physical pain in my
chest; swimming with Micah, jumping out a window with David in
pursuit, shooting lessons and quiet dinners shared between the two
of us, a night of learning that Micah could keep his promises no
matter how difficult they were.

I pulled into the circle drive,
noticing that there was a Lexus parked around the side by the
garage door. Someone was here and I was going to get some
answers.

I was a bundle of nerves and
anticipation. If he opened that door, I had no clue what I would
do. I rang the door bell and simply held my breath. I heard a
distant male voice, but it was muffled and hard to hear; my
heartbeat jumped higher. Then I heard a female voice laughing and
getting closer to the front door. That scared me—Dear God, don’t
let him be here with another woman. Now my heart was beating so
rapidly my scar was hurting.

The door opened and a beautiful young
woman, older than me but still in her twenties, stood there looking
surprised. She was red haired and fair skinned, wearing a bikini
top and a pair of shorts. “Hi,” she finally said. “Can I help you?”
But something told me she recognized me. “You’re Annalisa Winslett,
aren’t you?”

My picture had been on television so
much over the last several months that it wasn’t unusual for people
to recognize me—but she was in Micah’s house! Without a whole lot
of clothing on!

“
Yes—I’m—I’m trying to find
Micah…”

“
Oh, Mr. Gavarreen.” she
stated.

The way she said it gave me a moment of
relief. She evidently wasn’t here as his—guest.