Promises

Parts 31-32

By Candy

Michelle woke up for the second time that day with a splitting headache. It took her a minute to focus her eyes and remember where she was. Slowly, it started coming back to her. Danny! She sat up quickly…a little too quickly actually as the room started spinning. After steadying herself, she tried to reach for the gun in her pocket, but found her hands tied together.
"Looking for this?" she heard someone say.
She turned around and found a man standing in the shadows, pointing Danny's gun right at her.
"Who are you?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm.
He slowly stepped out of the shadows keeping the gun trained on her. "I guess you could call me the backup man. You see, the first guy screwed up when he didn't take you out and hit your husband instead. But I don't miss."
"What do you want?" she glared. "Why do you want to kill me?"
"I could care less whether you live or die. But it's my job," he laughed. A laugh that sent chills up her spine. "I was paid to kill you. But if it makes you feel any better, it was a rather large sum of money. Someone cares enough about you to pay me a pretty penny to get you out of the way."
"Danny's not here," she said more to herself than to the thug in front of her.
"What a brilliant observation, Mrs. Santos," he laughed again. "You are a pretty smart one, aren't you?"
"You know nothing about me," she snapped.
"I know more about you than you think," he snapped back. "Just like I knew you wouldn't be able to resist that phone call."
"But I heard Danny's voice," she said, trying to fit the pieces together.
"Ah, the wonders of modern technology," he smiled, pulling out a tape recorder.
Michelle cringed when she heard an edited tape of Danny's voice. "How could I have been so stupid?" she mumbled to herself.
"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself," he said. "It's the first rule of beating your enemy…know their weakness and exploit it."
"But whose enemy am I?" she asked. "Who hates me enough to do this to me?"
The man snapped his head up as he heard the door open. "Well, it looks like you're about to find out. Hello boss."
Michelle turned around and saw a woman in the shadows. She squinted her eyes, trying to see who it was. Then she walked forward into the light.
"You," Michelle gasped. "You're the one."
---------------------------------
Danny and Bernard slowly walked around the side of the warehouse. There were lights on inside and they could hear voices on the inside, but they couldn't make out what was being said. Danny strained his ears, trying to pick up something.
"I can't make out anything," Danny whispered.
"Me either," Bernard said.
"We should go in," he said.
"Let me go first," Bernard said. "You cover me."
"No!" Danny demanded. "YOU follow me."
"Danny," Bernard demanded.
"I don't have time to argue with you about this," Danny whispered. "Cover me."
And with that Danny headed toward the warehouse door. He looked back at Bernard and counted to three and then they burst through the door with guns drawn. They were stunned to find a room full of Christmas presents. A couple of women walked around the corner oblivious to their presence until they looked up and saw their guns. The clipboards in their hands came crashing to the floor as they quickly raised their hands in surrender.
"It's okay," Danny shouted, as he and Bernard dropped their guns down to their sides. "We're not going to hurt you."
"What do you want?" one of the ladies managed to say, her voice shaking. "Please don't take these presents. They're for the children's home."
"We're not going to take anything from you. I'm sorry," he frowned. "I was supposed to meet someone here. Have you been here all night?"
"Since noon," she said, her voice slowly returning to normal as she lowered her arms back to her side. "Who were you looking for?"
"I'm not sure," he sighed.
"Wait," the other woman spoke up, walking back toward a table behind them. "Are you Daniel Santos?"
"Yes," he frowned, confused. "How did you…?"
"Someone left this for you," she said, handing him a sealed envelope.
Danny ripped open the envelope and asked, "Did you see who delivered this?"
"No, it was here when I got here," she explained. "I didn't know who it was for so I just left it here."
"Thank you," he said, turning back to Bernard.
Danny slowly read the note and Bernard watched the blood drain from his face. "What is it?"
"Damn it!" he exclaimed and bolted out the door.
Bernard caught up with him and barely closed the car door before Danny sped off. He picked up and read the note that had caused so much fear in Danny's eyes.
"Merry Christmas Danny! Glad you could make it. Unfortunately the party has moved. But don't worry, I'll make sure your wife has a good time."
Danny was already on his cell phone. "Carlos, please tell me Michelle is with you."
"I'm sorry," Carlos sighed. "She told me she heard something in the backyard, so I went to check it out. I told her to stay low inside, but she gave me the slip. As soon as I heard her car start, I ran around front. I'm in my car now looking for her, but she got a pretty good jump on me."
"I don't believe this!" he hit his hand against the steering wheel. "Listen, we have trouble. I was set up. There was no one at the warehouse. Do you have any idea why Michelle left the house?"
"No," he said. "After she woke up she went looking for you, but I told her you were at the office. She seemed to accept it and said she was going upstairs to lie down."
"Michelle doesn't accept anything that easily," Danny groaned. "Listen, keep looking and call me as soon as you find her."
Danny ended the call and slammed the phone down. "I can't believe after all these months and doing everything I can to protect her, I allowed this to happen."
"This is not your fault, Danny," Bernard comforted. "You were only going on the lead I gave you. I trust my contact, so someone planned to have you out of the house. But I don't understand how they got Michelle to leave."
"You can quit saying someone," Danny snapped. "We know who did this. We've known for months. But I had to handle things my own way. I should have taken care of this problem when we first found out she was behind this."
"Daniel," Bernard began in the fatherly tone Danny had come to know over the years. "You did everything you could do. There was no way you could confront her until we had more information. If you had confronted her too early, you would have put Michelle's life into even more danger. You did what you had to do to protect your wife."
"What good did it do?" he exclaimed. "My wife is out there somewhere. I don't know if she's hurt or if she's…"
"Don't do that," Bernard said. "Don't think that way. We're going to find her."
"I just hope we find her soon," Danny sighed.

_______________________________________________________

"Pilar," Michelle whispered. "You've been the one behind this all along?"
"Didn't think I had it in me, did you, Michelle?" she laughed, walking toward Miguel. "What can I say, I am my mother's daughter."
"No you're not," Michelle demanded. "You're different. Ever since I've known you, you've wanted to be different from her."
"My mother taught me when there was a problem in your way, you get rid of it," she smiled. "And that's exactly what I plan to do."
"Why?" Michelle glared. "Why do you hate me so much?"
"You have to ask," Pilar gasped. "Where do you want me to start Michelle?"
"I don't understand any of this," Michelle tried to stand, but her throbbing head wouldn't allow it.
"You just sit right there," Pilar demanded. "You want to know why I hate you. Okay, let's start first with my mother. She never would have gone to jail if it weren't for you."
"She tried to kill me!" Michelle screamed, her voice echoing in her head.
"And I wish she had!" Pilar screamed back. "Danny, at least the Danny I grew up with, would never have testified against his own mother. I knew you were the one who convinced him to do it. But you know as much as you did to our mother and as much as you took away from her, she forgave you. You took Mick and Danny away from both of us and every time I visited her in jail, all she could talk about was how she couldn't wait to get out and make amends with you. And then when I told her you were pregnant, she was practically floating. All she wanted to know about was you and Danny and this brat you are carrying. My own mother was slipping away from me. Just like Mick and just like Danny. And let's not forget your best friend Bill. He is supposed to be in love with me! But it's always been you…you are the one he would rather be with. I wasn't going to stand by and let you take anyone else away from me. I figured the only way was to get rid of the problem…to get rid of you."
"So you're going to kill me along with your only niece or nephew?" Michelle questioned. "If you really love Danny you wouldn't do that to him."
"Don't ever question my love for my brother," Pilar seethed. "You never deserved him. He will find someone else. You know how much Teresa loves him. I'm sure she'll be more than happy to comfort him in his time of grief."
"How dare you!" Michelle glared.
"I think it's time to finish what my mother started," Pilar smirked. "Miguel, go ahead as planned. Wish I could say it's been nice knowing you, Michelle, but it will be even nicer never seeing your face again."
"Pilar," Michelle screamed as Miguel grabbed her arm and drug her off the bed. "Please, you don't want to do this."
"Oh yes I do," she laughed. "My life will be so much better once you are out of the way."
Miguel wrapped his arm around a struggling Michelle and dug the gun deep against her head. He jumped back when suddenly the door burst open and Danny entered, gun drawn, followed by Bernard. "Put the gun down Miguel."
"Danny," Michelle cried, trying to loosen Miguel's arm lock around her throat, which was difficult with her hands still tied together.
"I said put it down," Danny demanded, aiming his gun right at him.
"Danny, I'm so glad you're here," Pilar faked sincerity. "I didn't know what to do. He pulled a gun on Michelle and he wouldn't let me…"
"Save it Pilar," Danny snapped. "I've known for months you were behind this."
"I…I can explain," she stuttered.
"I don't want to hear it," he yelled. "Just tell Miguel to let Michelle go."
"Miguel," Pilar began half-heartedly.
"No," Miguel shouted. "Because she's my ticket out of here. I am not going back to prison."
"There is no way out of here," Danny said.
"Oh yes there is," he smiled. "You and your comrade there better put your guns down or I will kill your precious little wife right here and now." Danny didn't budge, so Miguel tightened his arm around Michelle's throat causing her to start choking, gasping for air. He dug the gun deeper against her temple.
"Okay," Danny relented, laying his gun down. "Bernard, put your gun down. Just don't hurt her."
Bernard reluctantly followed suit and dropped his gun beside Danny's and Miguel loosened his grip on Michelle as she gasped for breath.
Danny held his hands up, "Okay, we're not armed. Now if you let her go, we won't try to stop you from leaving."
"Do you think I'm that stupid?" Miguel laughed. "Don't forget I've worked for your family for years Danny. I know you. And Bernard, don't get me started on him. He would shoot me and not think twice about it. No, I think I'll just take your pretty little wife with me. She might come in handy…in more ways than one, if you know what I mean."
Danny gritted his teeth and started to lunge for Miguel, when Bernard grabbed him and pulled him back. In response, Miguel starting choking Michelle once again. "I advise you to back off."
"Okay, you want to leave, go ahead, but Michelle is not going with you," Danny demanded.
"I think you forget Danny that I'm the one with the gun," he said. "I am in control of this situation."
Suddenly, Michelle looked up into the eyes of her savior and knew what she had to do. With all the strength she had, she turned her head away from her captor as far as his grip would allow as a gunshot rang in her ears.

Parts 33-34

Home