"Mrs. Santos," he replied formally. "Danny wanted me to give you this box," he said as he placed the florist box in her arms.

Michelle opened the box to find a dozen pale pink roses and a handwritten note. A smile crossed her face as she read the note to herself.

Dietz cleared his throat and asked, "Mrs. Santos, do you need me to take care of anything for you?"

"Yes, I do. According to Danny's note, he thinks he can slip over here to see me late tonight. Let me get a shopping list together. There are several things I'm going to need."

Michelle walked over to the table and began jotting down a list of shops and items she would need from each place. Michelle knew that she needed to make a long, complicated list of places for Dietz to go. Danny was planning on her keeping Dietz busy all afternoon while he met with Theresa and Ray to put the final pieces of his plan into place.

"Dietz, this is a rather long and complicated list. Are you sure you can handle going all of these places?"

"Yes, ma'am. Danny told me to do whatever you asked. Where exactly do you need me go?"

Michelle took a great deal of time describing each of the dozen shops she wanted Dietz to visit and where to find what she needed when he got to each one. She thought to herself, I wonder what would be funnier - watching Dietz in Yankee Candle Company or observing him select vegetables at the Farmer's Market. She just couldn't picture Dietz fitting in among the customers at either place.

As soon as Dietz went out the door, the cell phone Danny had given her the previous night began to ring. "Perfect timing," she said as she answered.

"Of course, I always do things perfectly," Danny replied.

"No problems in the ego department today, huh, Mr. Santos. Dietz just left. I gave him a list of a dozen places to go. He should be occupied all afternoon."

"Good, Theresa and Ray are on their way in through the tunnel right now. When Dietz gets back, I want you to call me as soon as he pulls into the driveway. I need to be sure I have enough time to get them out of here."

"By the way, Danny, the roses are beautiful. I can't wait to try out the things you suggested in that note. It's a wonder I didn't turn ten shades of red reading it while Dietz was here."

"I just wish I could have been there to whisper those suggestions into your ear. Listen, Ray and Theresa are here. We'll continue this conversation tonight. Love you baby."

"I love you. Be careful."

***

After her meeting with Danny and Ray ended, Theresa drove to the parking garage at the Springfield Towers. She got out of her car and slipped into a black BMW parked nearby. After the car pulled out of the garage, Theresa immediately spoke, "Do you know how risky it is for us to meet right now? If Danny finds out about Carmen's plan, she'll see to it that we're both out of the picture."

"Listen, Carmen is going to be transferred to county jail late tomorrow. Maintaining contact with her regarding the plan is going to become much more difficult."

"Okay, let me think." Theresa leaned her head back against the seat. "I could try to get one of my father's people into the county jail as a prisoner with Carmen? Then we could get information in and out using visitors."

"A possibility, but I believe they'll be keeping Carmen isolated from most of the other prisoners. That idea is a long-shot at best," Edmund replied. "Keep thinking. Tell me, what exactly is Danny up to."

"Well," Theresa began, "Danny has no idea that Carmen is behind everything that has happened so far. Her plan has almost worked perfectly. I still can't believe that Danny fell for that story about her turning state's evidence and a hit being placed on him. I knew that Michelle and Ray would be gullible. Manipulating those two was way too easy."

"True, but when Carmen finds out that Danny and Michelle haven't really separated..."

Theresa interrupted Edmund, " I think I have a plan to fix that. Carmen would eliminate us both if she found out this failed to break up their marriage. That was the most important part of the plan to her."

"What do you have in mind?" asked Edmund.

"I'm going to set it up so that Michelle will overhear Danny and Bernard planning a deal that is definitely outside her concept of legitimate. She's sworn that she can't live with Danny if he's involved in any illegal activities. My father mentioned something about a deal he and Bernard want to involve Danny with."

"Excellent idea. I'd wager she would be on a plane to her father in Europe before Danny could do anything about it. Now, back to Danny's plans."

Theresa began, "Danny believes that Dietz has been spying for the Riveria's. He's planning to set Nino and Dietz up."

"Interesting. Exactly what is he going to do?"

"I'm going to meet with Nino and make him believe that Danny is planning to muscle his way into the Riveria's territory. Nino should be so angry, that he would contact Dietz to try and get something to hold over Danny's head. Danny's sure that Dietz will reveal that Michelle hasn't really left and is secretly staying at the lighthouse. As soon has he knows the meeting has gone down, Danny is going to have Ray move Michelle to the Santos house. I guess he's hoping to catch Nino and Dietz trying to kidnap Michelle. Danny didn't reveal any more than that to me."

Edmund inquired, "When do you think you can find out more?"

"Danny's keeping a tight lip about his plan. I don't think he's even revealed everything he has in mind to Michelle. He's only told Ray and I our parts. He told me to leave town as soon as I've met with Nino. I don't believe I'll be able to get him to reveal much more. Danny doesn't seem to trust anyone completely."

"If you're supposed to leave, how are you going to make sure Michelle overhears Danny and Bernard's deal?"

Theresa answered, "I not sure, but I'll find a way."

"I'm sure you will," he smugly remarked.

Edmund dropped Theresa off at the Towers and drove to beach. He watched the lighthouse as Danny arrived. He muttered to himself, "I'd wager that Danny is about to let Michelle in on all his plans. Now I've just got to get her to reveal everything to me."

***

Danny pulled out his keys and found the one to the lighthouse door. As he entered, the aroma of lit candles brought a smile to his face. That was usually a sure sign that she was waiting for him in bed. After closing the door, his eyes scanned the room. He couldn't stop himself from laughing when he spotted her.

"Hey! You're early. I thought I had at least another hour!" Michelle exclaimed.

"I wouldn't have missed this sight for anything," Danny remarked as he continued laughing. Michelle was sitting on the floor by the sink, hot rollers in her hair and a myriad of tools scattered around her. A large black grease mark ran down her right cheek. Pots and pans were scattered all over the countertop. The charred remains of whatever Michelle had been cooking sat on top of the stove. "What exactly happened here?"

"Well, I'm not sure where to begin. I had the roast beef in the oven while I was getting ready. The potatoes boiled over. While I was cleaning up that mess, I smelled the smoke. I went to pull the roast out of the oven and I ended up burning my finger."

Danny interrupted, "Let me see. Are you okay?" He reached out and took her hand and looked at the small blister on her index finger.

"I'm fine. It's not a big deal."

"Why do you have these tools all over the floor?"

"When I went to run some cold water over my finger, I knocked the earrings I had laid on the counter down the drain. They're the ones Rick gave me for Christmas. I figured it couldn't be too hard to take apart the trap and get them, but I was definitely wrong about that. Plumbing is definitely not my calling."

Danny took off his leather jacket and hung on back of a chair. "Let me take care of this. You go get cleaned up." He held out his hand and helped her get up off the floor.

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and turned to get started.

"Michelle, are there any channel lock pliers around here?"

"What do channel lock pliers look like?" she asked from the bathroom.

"Never mind, I found them," Danny replied as he rummaged through the toolbox.

Michelle emerged from the bathroom fifteen minutes later, dressed in her short pink robe. She walked into the kitchen and found her husband picking up the tools she had spread all over the floor. "I put your earrings on the table."

"My hero," she replied as she walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Michelle looked at the stove. She had managed to salvage the potatoes before the roast burned. "I hope potatoes and tossed salad suit you for dinner. I believe the roast is a little too tough to eat."

"A little tough - I don't think a chainsaw could cut through that piece of charcoal."

"Ha-ha! You know that when your criticize the cook, you prepare the next meal," Michelle shot back.

"Hey! That left you wide open," Danny remarked as he gestured towards the stovetop. "Besides, dinner can wait."

Michelle pulled a rose from the vase in the center of the table. "I believe it's time I thanked you properly for these. Besides, I recall being preoccupied thinking about that note you sent with these while I was cooking."

"Oh! Trying to make it my fault that you burned dinner," he remarked as he came up behind Michelle and began kissing her neck.

"Well, I was busy counting the minutes until we could try out your plans for the whipped cream and dessert."

"Hmm! I hope that was on that marathon grocery list. Dietz grumbled about all those places he went for an hour when he got back to the house."

"I'll bet so, if he'd only known what he was buying whipped cream for," Michelle laughed as Danny picked her up and carried her towards the bed.

"I think it's time to put my plans for dessert into action," whispered Danny.

His cell phone began ringing. "Damn! Who could that be?" he asked as he laid Michelle on the bed.

"Typical, just when things are getting interesting, your phone rings. I'm definitely throwing that thing off the observation deck when you get finished. Go ahead and answer it, I know you can't stand not to," Michelle responded.

Danny smiled at her as he answered, "Hello."

The conversation went on for several minutes. Michelle finally figured out that he was talking to Kevin and realized that Danny still had a tail on Theresa. She also realized that there was a lot more to Danny's plans than he had let her know about. Before he could even put the phone down, Michelle was on her feet pacing back and forth. She looked at him and starting firing off the first of many questions, "What have you conveniently neglected to tell me? I could tell from your conversation with Kevin that there's more going on than you've let me know about."

Danny knew that he couldn't put off telling Michelle all his plans any longer, but he wasn't quite sure how he was going to proceed after speaking with Kevin. He needed to find out exactly how Edmund fit into the picture before putting any more of his plan into action. Danny looked at Michelle and began filling her in on his plan and tonight's events.

Parts 17-20

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