“And now?”
“I was wrong. They don’t forget. This trust, this silence you must honour, I have broken it. I stayed in contact with Giuseppe, those telephone conversations in Italian, and he tried to cover my tracks. Then some big drug operation went wrong, busted, and they want to blame somebody. My name came up. I haven’t heard from Giuseppe for three weeks—he lives with his mother, and she doesn’t know where he is. I fear for him. Now I suspect they have found my whereabouts from him.”
“You could be wrong about all this, Rick. What if nobody followed us? The men today, perhaps they were just local hoodlums. Or maybe I’m the target and it is nothing to do with you. I don’t make a deal about it, but I’m worth a lot of money.”
“From your description, they don’t sound local. The clothing, their appearance…”
“What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. I have to keep you safe,” said Rick, reaching out his hand.
Leah took it, returning to the comfort of his embrace.
“Perhaps I should go again,” he said carefully.
Her response was to thump him hard in the chest with her hands. “No!” said Leah. “You’re not leaving me again!”
“I can’t make promises, Leah,” He took her wrists, curling his fingers around their slender circumference, feeling her slightness.
Tears returned to her eyes. “Don’t leave me, Rick,” she said.
Rick kissed the palm of a hand, inhaling her scent. “I’m sorry. I have brought this on you. We’ll have to be extra careful. You will have to do everything I tell you. No messing about.”
“I will. I promise,” she said with sincerity.
At bedtime, Rick checked and rechecked the doors and windows. The gate to the driveway was shut and bolted, something they had never bothered to do in the friendly neighbourhood.
During the commute to work the next day, his eyes darted about, always looking behind to see if anyone was following. He now believed they had been tailed, probably to locate her house, maybe not the exact location, but sufficiently close to catch her at the shops. He told her to sit in the back of the car, not the front, and she obeyed him without question.
While she was at work, trying to distract herself from the worries, he returned home and added extra security measures to the house: extra bolts on the downstairs windows and a brighter porch light overlooking the driveway. When she finished work, instead of Leah walking to the car, Rick came into the foyer and escorted her to the vehicle.
In the evening, they both picked at their food, made small talk, and then Rick would pace about the house, peering out of windows into the dusk. She told him to stop, that it unnerved her to see him so agitated.
Taking her to bed, Rick made intense passionate love to her, making her feel every inch of him inside her and driving out her fears, replacing them with his kisses and tender touches. No spanking or teasing her, he bound his body to hers with nothing more than his limbs and lips.
The heat of his body kept her awake into the night. He refused to let go of her even in his sleep. What distressed her the most were his dreams. The mutterings, the calling out, and the way his lungs wheezed through the night.
Rick was a troubled man.
Chapter Eleven
Could he leave her? Should he? Round and round he batted the idea. He could run, but would they leave her alone if he left her behind? He doubted it. She was a weapon to use against him and without round-the-clock protection, she was vulnerable. The other option was to take him with her. To where?
Leah had suggested going to Malta, to find his mother.
Rick had struggled to hold back his emotions as he finally confessed he hadn’t seen his mother in ten years, and given the infrequency of his visits over the years, he doubted he would recognise her.
“Your dad?”
Again, he had stumbled over his words. “He’s well respected, in a top ministry job. If I turn up,
trying to hide from the mob, it would damage his career terribly.”
“But you’re his son!”
“He brought me up, Leah, but we’re not close. He doesn’t owe me anything, nor I him. It’s just the way it is.”
It hadn’t stopped raining since Sunday. Unseasonable weather and it only added to his woes. Their relationship was starting to show the strain. At the end of next week, her driving ban would be lifted. She had no need of him, yet he felt responsible for her continuing safety. The best solution crept into his mind one evening. She would have to go to her mother in Northern Italy until Rick could decide his own fate. Gregor would protect her. He had wealth and influence in his own region.