Chapter 9:

Lulu stared at Dante for a moment. "You love me?" she repeated.

"I know it seems sudden, but I think you had me since the very moment that we met that night at Jake's." Dante picked up her hand in his. "I do love you, Lulu. You need to believe that."

"I…"

For once in her life Lulu was a loss for words. She knew she felt something for him because she wouldn't have married him if she didn't. She didn't know that she actually loved him yet.

"It's okay." Dante said softly, kissing the back of her hand. "You don't have to tell me that you love me. It's a lot to take in. I mean one minute we are having dinner, and then eating gelato, the next minute we are fighting for our lives. The next thing we were on our way to Las Vegas to get married. That is a lot to wrap your mind around."

"It is."

Dante got up from the sofa. "Let's go to bed. It's been a long day."

The next morning, Lulu woke to the aroma of cooking bacon and cinnamon buns baking in the oven. She padded into the kitchen wearing just Dante's t-shirt. He was sliding an omelet onto a plate. "Hey," he greeted. "I made you some breakfast, bacon is almost done and the cinnamon buns are just about ready."

Lulu took a seat on a stool in the kitchen by the counter, the t-shirt rose barely covering her legs. Dante almost dropped the plate when he handed it to her. "It's ham and cheese; I figured that was a safe choice."

Lulu picked up the fork as he turned off the burner that the bacon was on. "OW!" he exclaimed holding his wrist and jumping up and down in pain. Lulu got up from the stool.

"What happened?" She ushered him to take her place on the stool.

"Grease, ow it hurts!" Dante whined.

"Okay calm down there is something that my grandmother Lesley used to use on me when I burned myself when I was attempting to make bacon." Lulu opened the refrigerator.

"Your grandmother gave you a cold beer?" Dante moaned.

Lulu pulled out a stick of butter. "A stick of butter should help." She unwrapped it, taking Dante's hand in hers and with the other one rubbed it up and down on the red mark on his hand. "I think it has something to do with the fat content."

Dante watched as she used her fingers to rub in the butter. He hated to admit that it felt better. He didn't want to say anything because he didn't want her to stop touching him.

Then he remembered that he had something in the oven. "The cinnamon buns!" He said as he tried to get to his feet.

"I'll get them." Lulu pushed. "You sit down."

Lulu got the oven mitts, out them on and reached inside of the oven, pulling out the sheet of cinnamon buns. They looked perfect. She set the sheet on the stove, turning off the oven then she turned back to Dante; he was staring at her with his mouth agape.

"What?" Lulu asked as she returned to him.

Truth was that he was in awe of her beauty.

"My hand does feel better, thank you."

Lulu pressed a kiss to his forehead. "You are welcome. Why don't you go to the bathroom and wash the butter off and I'll reheat the omelets and bacon. We'll have breakfast like…"

"Like a normal married couple?" Date asked, using his good hand he pulled Lulu to him and kissed her neck.

Lulu giggled as he used his injured hand to pull her closer, causing some butter to rub on her shirt. Dante looked at her. "Now we both need to clean up. We'll heat up breakfast later. Let's go take a shower; I'll wash your back."

Lulu went to work later and Carly was running around the lobby like a crazy woman. Apparently, Jax hired some construction workers to do some upgrades on the building and some rooms without telling her first.

"Hey Lulu, sorry can't talk busy! If you see Jax first tell him I need to speak to him!" Carly said as she breezed by.

"That is not good," Dante noted as he and Lulu got into the elevator. "She looks pissed. Jax better keep out of sight until she cools off."

Lulu laughed as she pressed the button for Crimson's floor. "Then Jax will be gone for a long time."

Just as the elevator doors closed Dante's phone rang. "It's Sonny."

Dante pressed the door open button and held them open until Sonny was done speaking to him on the other line.

"Sonny wants me to see him. Don't worry, with the number of guys Sonny has outside and inside you are perfectly safe." He put his phone in his pocket and gave her a quick kiss. "I'll see you as soon as I can."

Lulu rode up to Crimson alone. She did not see Maxie at her desk but on Lulu's desk was a long gold flower box. Dante had sent her some flowers to surprise her. With a smile on her face she opened the lid.

"Oh my god!"

She slammed the lid back on the box and knocked the box into the waste basket next to her desk. The flowers were dead. A white piece of paper fluttered from the box and on to the fluttered to the floor.

Lulu bent to pick up the envelope and pulled out a car. Her heart froze in her chest as she pulled out a photograph of herself on the docks. There was a note that was single spaced typed: 'You are as brilliant as these flowers, but you might be just as dead soon'.

Dante entered Sonny's office. He was a little concerned about Lulu being alone. He knew that there were guards crawling around all over to protect her. He would feel so much better if he was the person what was keeping an eye on her.

"Hey boss, you wanted to see me?" Dante asked as he came in the office.

"Yeah," Sonny said. "I'm sorry I know that you don't want to tear yourself away from your bride with all things considering with the Santos threat."

"Yeah, I am anxious to get back to her." Dante said. "I really don't like her to be out of my sight for long… that came out wrong. I am just concerned about her safety for now."

"I knew what you meant." Sonny pointed to the sofa. "Have a seat. This is important otherwise I wouldn't have asked you to come here. It'd not going to be too long."

Sony went to his desk, pulling out a file. "I had Spinelli go back as far as he could to see what Santos is capable of and to see what we are up against."

Dante flipped through the file. Spinelli got more information in such a short period of time than he could the legal way. Santos was linked to many grisly deaths over the years, a lot of the victims had been tortured before their deaths, and of course there was no proof that Santos actually ordered the deaths of the many men and women the made the mistake of crossing his path in the wrong fashion.

"You didn't want Lulu to see these, right?" Dante asked, as he closed the file.

Dante has seen enough. He didn't have to see the rest of the pictures. He knew that Santos was a bad ass that had no concern of anyone but himself. There was no need for Lulu to see what Santos was capable of doing to her.

"Like I said before, Lulu is like a daughter to me. I've known since she was still inside of her mother," Sonny said. "Not to mention that Carly will kill me if something happened to her."

Lulu crumpled the letter and picture in her hand, throwing it away with the box of dead flowers. She fought off tears. She was not going to let that sick freak to get to her. Santos would win if he got to her.

The elevator doors opened the guard she met yesterday came off it. "Hello Mrs. Spencer-Perelli. How are you going this morning?"

"Okay," she lied as she sat down behind her desk.

"The reason I dropped by is to say that there might be problems with the lights and the phones for the next few days due to the upgrades that Mr. Jacks has ordered for the entire building," Gavin explained.

As to reiterate what he just said, the lights flickered.

"It's going to be an interesting day," Lulu muttered. "Thank you, Gavin. Oh by the way did you notice a flower delivery guy in the lobby this morning?"

"Why?" Gavin asked.

"The next time he comes up I think I'll owe him a tip," Lulu said thinking quick on her feet.

"Okay then, see you later." Gavin went back into the elevator, pulling out his phone. "It's me. Yeah she got the flowers. Nope, she's not showing any fear. We might have our hands full with this one. She might not be like the others at all."

Dante raced back to Crimson offices right after his meeting with Sonny. He had the crime scene photographs of crimes that Santos had been suspected to have ordered committed. He didn't like it one bit. Dante knew that he would feel better once he laid eyes on her.

Dante went through the chaos down in the lobby; apparently the computers just went down and the front desk were able to process and check-ins or check-outs. Carly and Marty were trying to calm people down as Dante squeezed by them and to the elevator.

Lulu was hunched over her desk. Typing furiously, she didn't hear him come in until he pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck. She let out a yelp and nearly jumped out of her seat.

"Whoa! It's me!" Dante said, dodging her hands. "What happened while I was gone for you to be like this?"

He should have known better than sneaking up behind a Spencer. He's lucky that she didn't use the letter opener on him.

Lulu got up from her desk. "Dominic, I'm sorry. I guess I'm still on edge with everything that is going on."

Dante pulled her into a hug not because it looked like she needed one but more to the effect of that he wanted her to be in his arms. "It's okay, Lulu."

He looked down and saw the box of flowers in her wastebasket. "What did those flowers do to you?" He felt a stab of jealousy of the thought of someone sending his wife some flowers.

He released her to retrieve the box. Dante set it on her desk. He opened the lid. "What the hell?" he demanded when he saw what was inside. "Who would send you these?" He rifled through the dead flowers.

"What are you looking for?" Lulu asked.

"A note or a card. There had to be one. No one sends something like this and not have a note attached to it."

Lulu retrieved the crumbled note and picture and handed it to Dante. "Here this was inside."

Dante opened the note. He saw the picture and drew in a breath. When he read the note he was ready to explode in anger but he didn't want to frighten Lulu on how mad he was. It was his job to protect her and Santos had found away to get to her.

"Did you see the person that delivered these?" he asked, slipping the note into his pocket.

"No." Lulu shook her head. "The box was already on my desk when I got to work. I thought that they might have been from you, to make up for being called into work and leaving me all alone."

Dante wrapped his arms around Lulu. He pressed a kiss to her head. "I'm not going to let you out of my sight until Santos is taken care of."

Jorge entered Santos' office. Santos just got off the phone with some of his men in Miami. "Things are going smoothly back home, Jorge."

"That is as I as suspected," Jorge replied. No one would be as foolish enough to go against Alfonso Santos; everything in Miami should be fine if he even stayed away for years.

"Gavin called me a little bit ago. Mrs. Spencer-Perelli received our little gift, he said that she's stronger than we first thought. We may have to recalculate on how to get to her."