02 Unforgivable - Untouchable (15 page)

As I started to push my way through them, I recognized, to my alarm, they were converging around me. I opened my mouth to scream as several pairs of hands took hold of me, one of them reaching around, covering my face with a rag. A sweet odor assaulted my senses and blackness hit me.

When I came to my head was still groggy. I wondered if this was just another strange bad dream, but, as soon as my focus returned, I knew this was reality. I was leaned back in a chair with a man on each side holding me upright and another man seated in front of me, studying me intently.

Clarity was returning as I tried to pull myself free. My battle was short lived, and they pushed me roughly back down into the chair.

“
Don’t be so upset Annalisa, not yet anyway, I just need to talk with you,” the man across from me murmured in a condescending tone.

“
Let go of me!” I growled, still trying to jerk myself free from the men around me. “This isn’t how you tell someone you need to speak with them!”

“
If you promise to sit still, I’ll have them turn you loose. I honestly don’t think you’ll want to leave before you hear what I have to say, if you love your husband, that is.”

That hit me harder than the rag that knocked me out. I stopped struggling immediately and the hands released. I think I’d have rather been plummeting to my death in the elevator than for this to have anything to do with Micah.

“
What’s this about?” I asked, calmness trying to replace my angered fear.

“
My name is D’Angelo,” he began.

I knew the name; this was deadly serious. In Micah’s former mafia life, he obeyed this man’s every command and the command was always to kill someone. As far as I knew, I was the only person to ever survive those orders.

“
Do you know who I am?” he asked, low and even.

I could only nod.

“
Good. I trust I can ask my assistants to leave and you won’t cause me any problems, correct? We do need to speak in private.”

“
Yes,” I tried to say confidently, but it came out as a whisper.

He looked up at the men and they left immediately. He was as unanimated as stone until the door clicked shut, and then he began, “It wasn’t supposed to go quite this far.” An odd smile spread on his leathered face. He was very much Italian. His hair was deep brown and graying along the sides, his eyes were a penetrating black/brown and they had that vacant quality that Micah’s used to get when he had to kill someone. “You weren’t supposed to get married until next month and when I found out it had been moved up, I couldn’t get to you quick enough.”

I was mute, not by choice, but by fright.

“
You didn’t move things up due to a pregnancy, did you? That would only complicate matters for Micah.”

“
N—no, we just…” I couldn’t explain and he evidently didn’t want to hear an explanation anyway, he just wanted to be certain I wasn’t pregnant. My heart thudded against my chest. It was possible I could be, but I would only be days along and there was no way I was telling him that bit of information.

“
Good, then maybe we can salvage this whole thing after all. Micah would never stop looking for you if there was a baby involved.”

The heat in my body felt as if it had been drained and I was now aware of how very cold my hands had become as I unconsciously wrung them together, “What do you mean? Do you have plans to kill me?”

D’Angelo laughed softly, “Of course not, my dear, that simply wouldn’t work to help my cause. I did consider that, but I want him angry, not heartbroken. You’re going to leave your husband, and he’s coming back to the family by his own free will.”

“
There is nothing you can do to make me leave him,” I said through a quivering voice. In a matter of moments, I was going to discover how wrong I was about my statement.

“
Of course there’s nothing I can do, but I won’t need to when you know what’s at stake.” He reached behind him and picked up a folder and pulled a handful of papers from it and laid one on the table in front of me, “Do you know what this is?”

I could see at a glance that it was a contract on David Gavarreen. I looked up at D’Angelo; there was no need to say the vile words when it was obvious the piece of paper represented the end of David’s life.

“
Yes, you know what it is,” he replied when he saw the look in my eyes and took note of the fact that I was refusing to state it. “He should have died months ago, but the family recognized the serious flaw in removing him for his disregard of policy. Giorgio Gavarreen lost one son to you and he couldn’t take losing the other for insubordination. He knows the rules, but he openly threatened the family should any harm come to his remaining son. Giorgio used his family’s position to get them to release Micah, but he won’t let go of David.”

“
What does this have to do with my leaving Micah?” I asked, wondering if I was about to become some kind of trade for David’s life.

His hand went back to the folder and removed more papers and spread them on the table. “This is where you come in,” he stated.

To my horror it was plain to see he was showing me contracts on Giorgio, Celeste and Gwen. I felt faint, every ounce of bravery and stubbornness washed out of me. It was a sick relief to me that Micah’s name wasn’t among the contracts. I reached out and separated them to make certain I was seeing it correctly.

“
No, his name isn’t there,” D’Angelo answered what hadn’t been asked.

“
Would you have shown me if it were?”

“
Our family gave the blessing for him to leave, and they don’t go back on their word.” He sounded angry for me asking that question. Evidently, he wasn’t used to someone questioning his integrity.

“
Why all of them?” My eyes were beginning to sting with the need to release the pain slamming my senses.

“
His entire family knows too much about everyone in our organization. Giorgio has financial dealings with every person, the money they have, what they did to earn it, how they have invested it, where they have invested it; if he goes ballistic he could take us all down.

“
And then there is the issue of his lovely wife, Celeste. She’s created new lives for so many of our people, documents and records, complete histories. She helps create identities for those that do complicated hits so things can’t be traced back to the family. If she loses her husband and son, she could wreak havoc.”

He pulled Gwen’s contract away from the others and tapped his finger on it for emphasis. “Gwen is truly the worst of them all. She is our inside connection to law enforcement. We have nearly free reign in Louisiana because of her knowledge about what is happening and where. She keeps heads turned the proper direction when we have a mess to clean up or records and evidence that needs to be, well, let’s just say adjusted. She almost blew that trying to cover for Micah’s escapade with you.

“
The FBI is still curious and she’s had to become more legalistic since then so she doesn’t end up in the federal pen. She has a whole rank of officers that are loyal to her. She’s played them like fools, but should she decide to change her ways, we’d be all but shut down in that state.”

“
Why are you showing me this?” My voice beginning to crack under the emotional strain.

“
I’m going to give you the chance to change it. You see these contracts haven’t been assigned to anyone,
yet
,” he stated, without leaving any doubt he could issue them within minutes if needed. “If I can get Micah to return, on his own to the family, I can present the argument that he can keep his family together. I don’t think you’ve grasped even a fraction of the kind of man you’ve married. Losing him was quite a blow to the organization. And, I must say, shook the confidence people had in the Gavarreen name.”

“
Why do I have to leave him? Can’t I just convince him to return to the—the mob?”

He laughed and leaned back easily in his chair, as he seemed to size me up, “Do you really think you can convince him that you, of all people, want him back in a life of crime? A life where he is expected to go out and kill and then come back to a happy little home while you wait to ask him how his day went? Please, don’t even try to insult my intelligence with that ignorant question. And besides, there are plenty of people in our organization that would be too leery to have you that close to what we do.”

“
He’ll never believe that I’ve changed my mind,” I stated honestly.

“
Oh, I don’t know about that, I mean you must be a pretty good actress to have stopped him from killing you. And, I know Micah well enough to understand he doesn’t feel like he deserves you in the first place.”

He was right about that. Micah plainly stated he didn’t feel he deserved this shot at happiness. The pain inside was crushing me. I didn’t want to let go. I stubbornly wanted forever with the man I loved, but what was the cost going to be? “And if I refuse to leave him?”

“
You can do that; selfishness means you can keep him to yourself and the mob won’t touch him. But I wonder when his entire family is dead in a few days, and he discovers you had the chance to stop all this, how will he feel about you at that point? Has he told you about his life before you met him?”

“
I—I didn’t want to know too much about—”

“
The first person he ever killed was a woman,” he hissed, cutting me off. “A woman he’d slept with.”

Fear cut into me like a knife and I didn’t want to hear more, “I don’t want to—”

“
Whether or not you want to hear this, you are going to understand something about him; when he snaps, and he will snap when this happens, you won’t be able to control him no more than the first woman who tried to control him. Have you felt him on the edge of losing control, Annalisa?” He leaned toward me and the eyes narrowed, “He has a particular problem with women.”

I wanted to call him a liar. I wanted to tell him how incredibly good Micah truly was inside. Yes, I’d felt his control erode, but that was in moments of passion. He’d always been able to reign in his actions. I believed my husband when he told me he could never hurt me, no matter what D’Angelo said about him.

“
I personally know women who’ve slept with him and they are all afraid of him.”

“
Shut up, you son-of-a-bitch! Micah isn’t—” I tried to stand when I uttered my angry words, but the back of his hand slapped hard against my mouth, knocking me down into the chair.

He snatched the papers from the table and shoved them in my face, “Tell me right now! Do I make these effective or are you going to be reasonable?!
Your husband is an animal
,
a lethal animal, and I need him back
.”

It was suddenly very clear;
he needed Micah
. The lives of the Gavarreen family members were incidental.

My face was stinging, but I refused to cower in pain, “What if I tell Micah what you’re planning?” I grabbed my cell phone and flipped it open.

He looked at me and laughed, “Go ahead. I’ve got enough snipers in this building that he won’t get far. His name doesn’t have to be on these papers for him to lose his life, Annalisa. How about if I call him? Huh? Would that make you happy? I’ll bet he’d be here in minutes and I would kill you both. But this I promise you, you’ll watch him die first.”

My heart shuttered to a stop and then took off as if I’d just run a marathon. I couldn’t allow his family to suffer this fate, even if it meant letting go of the one thing I wanted more than life itself. D’Angelo was right, unarmed, Micah would charge up here to try to save me and I would be responsible for his death. My own life after that would mean nothing to me.

“
I’ll let you live long enough,” he continued, “to know the rest of his family is dead—then I’ll kill you, personally.” He reseated himself and straightened his jacket, “It’s a shame really. I’ve known Giorgio and Celeste before they were even married. I was at the Christening of each of his children and I’ve helped train them to be what they are. I would hate to see so much waste. Tell me right now; can you leave him and make it convincing or am I wasting my breath on you?”

“
I can do it,” I said, my voice quivering, but completely confident, “but I want one thing in exchange for preventing what would have to be a huge loss for your sick, demented family.” I rose from the chair and put my purse under my arm.

He leaned forward in is chair, his elbows on the arm rests, his lips were pressed against his index fingers as he clasped his hands, “Do you really think you are in any position to ask something of me?”

“
Yes, actually I do—if you want this to work.”

“
Name it.”

“
David doesn’t die,” I uttered.

“
That might be difficult, I—”

“
Not for you. I know in this ‘family’ a lot of weight is put on a man’s word, I want your word that David won’t be harmed. I think you can find a way to convince the others that he should live.”