Part 35 -

The family gathering had been a little too much for Elizabeth and she'd asked for a little bit of privacy. Her cousins were disappointed, but one in particular seemed to understand the sudden request. Antonia had waved off the round of complaints from the others and then escorted Elizabeth into a quiet room on the second floor. She gave Elizabeth a quick kiss on her forehead and told her, "Rest... you've had a long trip," before she exited, closing the door behind her.

Taking a few steadying breaths, Elizabeth felt the tension in her shoulders release. She gently examined the cushions on the large sofa, using her fingers to trace the large brocade patterns on the accent pillows. And still, her heart thumped loudly in her chest.

A soft knock on the door could barely be heard over the rush of blood in her ears. "Elizabeth?"

She sat up and drew the backs of her hands over her eyes and was shocked that she'd been crying. "Francis?"

"Can I come in?"

"Sure... sure..." she trailed her fingers over her eyes again to erase any sign of tears and struggled to tug her lips into a smile, "please."

The door opened at the guard walked in. Even in the half-light of the room his sharp eyes took one look at her and then he frowned.

"I'm fine." She brightened her expression and her voice and knew by the deepening of his frown that he didn't believe her one bit. "Really."

He shook it off for the moment and moved toward her, his phone in his hand. "You have a call."

She reached out and then drew her hand back. "Who is it?"

Francis knew right then that Elizabeth would never be much of a poker player. Her heart was in her eyes and right now they were so filled with tender hope that his own heart twisted in his chest. "Take it."

Elizabeth tucked her legs underneath her and rose up to take the phone from Francis' hands.

Luke banged on Lucky's door, furtively glancing around to see if there were other people in the vicinity. "Lucky, dammit! Open the door!"

A few aggravating moments later the door was wrenched open and Luke nearly fell inside. "What the hell took you so long?"

Glaring at the older man, Lucky stepped back, opening the door wide to get Luke in before anyone saw him or called security. "I was sleeping. I just had surgery... remember?"

"Yeah, yeah," Luke waved off the explanation and looked around for Lucky's duffel bag. "You better get packed."

"Packed?" Lucky yawned and shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere until we find Elizabeth. You said she was in the hospital. I have to see her and tell her I'm sorry."

"Sorry for nearly killing the girl? Hardly." Luke scoffed at the idea. "We need her to turn over to Santini. He's got me stuck in a hard place son. And Sonny hasn't been a lick of help. I'm pretty sure Jason's got her stashed somewhere, although I don't know why. He's supposed to be Sonny's lapdog." He picked up a shirt from the floor and then a pair of pants by the dresser. "So let's get going-"

Lucky snatched the pants from his father's hand. "We can stay here while we look. Jason's in town... Liz has to be too."

Luke's frustration was so easy to trigger. So very easy. "Well, we can stay in town... better off if we're nearby... but something happened tonight and we have to get out of here."

There it was... that squirrely look that Luke could never manage to hide when he'd done something wrong. "Look... there was this woman. She came onto me... and she said she was going to come to my room tonight... for company."

Lucky scrubbed his hand over his face and sighed. "And what... she stood you up?"

The color drained from Luke's face as he stood in the center of Lucky's room. "She's dead."

Carefully schooling his features, Lucky asked his father point blank. "Did you kill her?"

Luke opened his mouth to argue, but Lucky held up his hand. "Never mind, you don't have to say anything." Walking around the room he threw this things into the duffle. "Let's get out of this dump."

"Hello?" Elizabeth clutched the phone tightly in her hands.

"Elizabeth?"

Relief flooded her body and she relaxed into the plump cushions on the sofa. "Jason!"

He could hear the excitement in her voice and he smiled in return. "Francis said you met the Giambetti family."

"Family?" She laughed. "More like the population of a town!" She told him a little about the gathering that had greeted her at the airport. "I'll never remember all of their names. But I have a good chance if I guess Mary if they're a girl or Tony if they're a boy. Other than that I'm going to make a lot of mistakes."

"Don't worry about it. They know you're new... and they're happy they found you." Like I am. Jason shook off the thought. He wasn't going to complicate this for them... for her. "I just wanted you to know that we're working around the clock to find... you know."

"To find the man that wants me. I know." She sobered a bit, her easy smile faltering. "I don't like knowing that you're in danger because of me, Jason."

"Don't worry," he assured her, "I'm used to this. It's pretty much all I know." He could almost see her skeptical look in his head. "And in this life, I'm in danger all the time. You shouldn't worry about it."

"In your life... you mean in the mo- in the organization, right?"

"Yeah." He shook his head and struggled to continue.

"Well... it's my life too, isn't it? Now that I'm a part of Maximus' family, doesn't that make me part of the organization?"

"No." Jason's denial was immediate and emphatic. "You may have been born into a family that controls this... you're not going to live in this kind of danger. You're not."

The frustration that tied him up in knots was something he'd never felt before. He wasn't upset with her. It was a visceral reaction to the idea of her... in danger. "No one is going to hurt you... not while I can prevent it."

His breaths pushed in and out of his lungs as he struggled to contain his frustrations. It was only when the rush of emotion subsided slightly in his body that he was able to hear the soft sounds coming through the phone.

"Elizabeth?" She didn't answer at first so he asked again. "Elizabeth, are you crying?"

"Why do I get the feeling that when I left the mansion... that you were saying goodbye... forever?" He didn't have an answer for her. And when she continued, he could only listen. "It's like you think that because you married me to keep me safe... that you have to sacrifice everything else for me... that you don't count in this situation." She waited for a moment. "Jason? Are you still there?"

"I'm here." I just don't know what to say... you're so close and you hardly know me.

"I want you to know... that when this is over," she began, her breaths coming in shallow, nervous gasps, "that I want to see you again. I want to be... close to you."

Jason leaned his forehead against the wall and fought back a groan. The words in his head were as foreign to him as the emotions Elizabeth stirred up within him. "Elizabeth, I-"

Someone pounded on the door to his office. "Jason? We've got a lead!"

"Elizabeth, I have to go. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay." He knew by the small sound of her voice that it was anything but.

"Bye."

And then he ended the call. One heartbeat later he was at the door, pulling it open. "What?"

Ritchie was strapping on a shoulder holster. "Just got word from one of our informants. Looks like Luke and maybe Lucky are staying at a local motel. You want me to bring 'em in?"

Jason shook his head and grabbed his jacket. "I'm coming with you."