They arrived in Miami a little after seven that night. They had taken her car and she hadn't told him where they would be staying until they pulled into the parking lot of one of the most expensive hotels in Miami.

"Wow," Tom said. "I don't know what to say."

"That you will relax." She said "I booked a suite. So there are separate bedrooms, don't worry. There is a spa. So while we're here you are going to have at least one massage to work out the knots in your shoulders. You've been a ball of nerves all the way here. So I am guessing your meeting with Internal affairs didn't go well."

"Yeah…we'll ahm… talk about that once we're settled in the room."

"Okay." She said.

Tom insisted on carrying their luggage in. It was one suitcase each. He managed without it being too much on his right arm. It felt good. It felt really good.

Once they checked in and she put a credit card on file for all charges at the hotel, they handed Tom the key to the room and a bellhop took the suitcases, leading the way up to their suite.

Once inside Tom took the bags from the bellhop and put one in each bedroom. He didn't unpack his. He'd been planning something all the way to Miami. Debating it over and over in his head until he was certain there was only one course of action he could take and still call himself a decent human being.

He joined her back in the main room and tried to smile. "This is amazing." He said.

"I don't stay here often. Usually, when I come to Miami I'm spending all my time working so a place like this would just be a waste of money." She studied him worriedly "Is it too much? I am always screwing that up with guys. I never know if I need to play it all down or splurge on them the way I want to…"

"It's not too much." Tom said "I'm glad you think so much of me that you want to bring me here. Although you may change your mind after we have our talk."

"It went that badly?"

He nodded. "Let's sit down."

"Okay." She said and let him lead her to the sofa.

"Please hear me out completely before you slap me or tell me what a bastard I am."

"Now I'm worried." She said. "Are they sending you back to jail?"

He nodded. "They will when I'm done here. I have no doubt. You see, they found out about you and me." He said, "And they know who your father is." He could see it in her eyes, she was waiting for the shoe to drop. He looked away. "They're putting pressure on me to push you for information about Vittorio Rossi. They said if I don't, they'll not only press charges on the shooting calling it a homicide, but they'll send someone else in to gain your trust and do what I won't." He expected the yelling to start or for her to slap him or any number of things that he felt he deserved. "I came here with you because it's someplace I know they wouldn't have the ability to spy on so that I could tell you… warn you that there will be other people sent to try and get information. I don't know who. I'll take the bus back to Palm Beach in the morning and tell them to get stuffed. I'm sorry." He said staring at the floor.

There went his career, his freedom, and any chance he might have one day had with Maura. But it was the right thing to do. She didn't deserve to have someone she'd known and trusted since grade school do this to her. He just couldn't lie to her anymore.

There was a moment of silence that seemed to Tom to drag out for an eternity.

"You will do no such thing." She said and turned his face toward hers. "My god, Tom…"

"I'm an idiot, sometimes I'm a jerk, but I am not a son of a bitch. You deserved to know the truth." He was surprised when she kissed him.

"Thank you." She said. " For being honest. I don't have any information on Mr. Rossi. I haven't seen him since we were in High School. I'm not even sure what he does for my father. Let them spin their wheels if it keeps you out of jail."

"Are you sure?" He asked. "They'll figure it out eventually."

"I am more than sure. It's not the first time I've let the alphabet suits waste their time on me. I take a perverse sort of pleasure in it. And this time they are trying to hurt someone I care about to get at me. So yeah I am sure. I trust you, Thomas. Thank you for having that same trust in me."

"I've always known you had nothing to do with your father's business. I couldn't imagine that you had changed that much over the years." He said feeling a weight lift off of his shoulders. Now if he could keep the laser sites off his forehead all would be well. He just hoped this wasn't another Virginia situation where he trusted someone too much and it was going to bite him in the ass.

"So are your nerves settled enough that you are going to want dinner?"

"Yeah, I think I do." He said "Room service or restaurant? There are only seven in this hotel."

"And they all deliver to the rooms. So you pick." She said. She had brought him here to spoil him and take some of the pressure off even if for just a weekend. Now she just needed to get him to relax and let it happen.

Cassie knocked on Harry and Frannie's door. She smiled when Frannie answered the door.

"Cassie, come in. Is everything alright?" She asked leading her into the living room where Harry was sitting watching television.

He turned it off and put his recliner into the upright position.

"Can we talk?" Cassie asked.

"Of course," He said, "have a seat."

"I'm worried about Tom. I know you're going to say I should let it go but I can't. I screwed up how I handled things with him and I don't know how to fix that. But what I do know is that he's in trouble whether he realizes it or not."

"How so," Harry asked. This was where Tom was making his mistake. He wanted Cassie left out of it but she'd pick at it until the entire thing unraveled. The only people that didn't realize she was still in love with him were Tom and Cassie.

"Okay, hear me out. When Tom and I started getting serious about each other I did the typical dumb move of asking him about his first love. I thought it was safe enough, His was in Boston, Mine was in Texas, and we were never going to encounter them. Anyway, he told me about this girl that he'd fallen for when he was like 12 and they dated in high school went to mass together, gave each other their virginity… it was all sweet and romantic. So completely Tom. Until he got to the part about her father being the next best thing to the Godfather. And that he hated Tom's guts."

"I have news for you Cassie all fathers hate their daughter's boyfriends. I was positive that Frannie's father was going to murder me on sight when I picked her up for the prom."

"He thought about it," Frannie said. "But he loves you now."

"So what does this trip down Tom's memory lane have to do with Tom now."

"When I was headed to the Harrison crime scene the other night, I saw Tom come out of the movie theatre with his arm around a woman. He introduced us and it is the same girl from Boston. She's here in Palm Beach and they're dating. He's dating a mob boss's daughter, Harry. Tell me how that isn't Tom getting into trouble again."

"Cassie, was your father a cop?" He asked.

"No."

"Frannie's father owned a delicatessen. Mine was a tv repairman. Tom's father was a fireman. Just because her father, who lives in another state, is involved with Organized Crime doesn't mean that she is. We don't put people in jail because of what someone else does."

"Internal affairs doesn't know that. They run on the assumption of guilty by association. He was already neck deep, this is going to drown him in their eyes."

"What do you want me to do, Cassie." He asked gently, "Take away the one comfort he has in all of this because you're afraid you'll lose him forever." He took her hand in his. "Honey, I couldn't do that even if I wanted to." Tom had to keep seeing this girl even if he didn't want to because that was the only thing that would potentially let him off the hook with IAB.

"He's going to take comfort all the way to jail, Harry."

"Craig Alexander would laugh them out of his office for suggesting it. No matter what you may think, the DA is not going to send Tom to jail because of a woman he's dating. You need to let go, Cassandra. All either of us can do is hope and pray that this is settled before Tom loses his mind and maybe, just maybe we get him back."

"That's the problem, Harry, I did let go, I let him go through this alone and he hates me for it."

"Thomas couldn't hate you if he tried," Harry said. "Give him time. He knows that if you're associated with him before he's cleared by IAB that you'll be tarred with the same brush. Give him time. Let him date this girl in peace. This too shall pass, I promise you."

Maura waited until the wee hours of the morning to get out of bed and go down the hall to the parking lot where one of her father's spies sat in his car. He stepped out when she appeared.

"Yes, Miss Palmeri?" He asked.

"I need a secure conversation with my father." She said and waited while the man pulled out his cell phone. "Tomorrow will be fine, preferably around 9 am when Tom is scheduled to get his massage." She started to walk away and turned her head to look over her shoulder "And move your car."

She headed back up the stairs to the 4th floor where her suite was and went inside.

"Is everything alright?" Tom asked, coming out of his room, dressed in pajama bottoms and running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I was just telling the watchdogs to go away. They were sitting there in the parking lot. It … annoyed me." She said. "And there they go." She pointed out the car leaving the parking lot.

"My little bomb shell put you on edge didn't it." He said pulling her close. He kissed her hair and rubbed her back. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault. I didn't mean to wake you up." She said hugging him close.

"I'm a light sleeper." He said. "Have to be in my neighborhood if I want to keep my car from being stolen… again."

"You know I don't remember you looking this good with your shirt off back in high school." She said.

He laughed "Are you trying to change the subject?"

"Stolen cars, unwanted bodyguards, pretty sure there are better things to talk about at 3 am." She said. "We should try and get some sleep though." She said "Because if we don't go to our separate corners I'm going to forget that you asked to take things slow. Usually, it's the woman that asks for things to go slow, you know."

"I don't want to screw things up, that's all." He said

"I know. Good night, Tom." She said,

"Good night Maura." He said and kissed her lightly before going back to his room. He hoped he hadn't made a mistake telling her the truth, it clearly wouldn't be his first mistake where trusting a woman was concerned. He'd watched her from the window when she'd left the room and gone down to the car. She'd turned around almost immediately and come back so there was no reason to believe that her story wasn't true. Was there? He laid back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Yeah, one more thing Virginia had taken from him. His ability to trust even the people he cared about.

March 20

They were up early to have breakfast down in the restaurant before he went for the one massage that she'd insisted he schedule. "So what are you going to be doing for the next hour while I'm gone?" He asked.

"I thought I'd go sit in the sauna for a while. Do you want to go to the museum afterward or later in the day?"

"Afterwards is fine, then we have the rest of the day to play it by ear."

"Sounds good to me." She said. "I'll meet you back in the suite." She went back upstairs and waited. Her cell phone rang just shortly after 9 am. "Hello, Daddy." She said.

"Secure conversation? What kind of trouble are you in?" He asked, and she could hear the concern in his tone. "Is it that used-to-be cop you're in a hotel room with?"

"It's a suite, Dad we have separate bedrooms. I take it from your comment about his employment situation you've had him investigated."

"I have." He said.

"Well, Internal affairs has started pressuring him to pressure me about Vittorio Rossi."

"How did you find this out?"

"Tom told me. If he doesn't do as they say they're threatening to put him in jail."

"He told you this?" he asked "Before or after your trip to Miami."

"His meeting with them was yesterday. He told me last night when we got to the hotel."

"What do you want me to do about it from here?"

"I don't know. I don't but I'm tired of your world always turning mine upside down. Figure it out, Dad. I have never once asked you for a favor, not this kind of favor. I don't want to ask now. But if you can find a way to make Vittorio leave Palm Beach then maybe they'll back off."

"Doesn't mean they won't send Thomas to jail for murder. I warned you there is no future with that man."

"Yeah well, we both know the right lawyer can solve that problem. They have for you often enough." She said, blandly. "The question is Dad, do you want to be right, or do you want me to be happy."

"Maura, if you would listen to me you could still be happy, without Tom Ryan."

"And one day I may be happy without Tom. But right now I want the chance to be happy with him. After everything I've put up with, and overlooked and dodged because of your business don't you think maybe it's time that I got something out of it?"

"Alright. I'll take care of it. And I'll be there to pick up the pieces when that boy breaks your heart. I'll try not to remind you that I told you he would. I love you."

"I love you too, Daddy." She said and ended the call. She got out of her clothes and into the complimentary bathrobe. Then she headed down for some time in the sauna. She hoped her father could deal with Vittorio Rossi and maybe just maybe take some of the stress off of Tom's shoulders. She didn't think she could make the rest of it go away but maybe her father could at least take away that part of it.

Antony Palmeri put the phone down and looked over at Police Chief Joseph Doyle. "This ends now."

"It's not that simple." He said "Five minutes ago you wanted Tom Ryan buried behind bars. That I can make happen in a heartbeat." Doyle had come to Palm Beach by way of Boston. He'd worked his way up through the ranks and had been a straight shooter since his arrival. But his days in Boston were not so straight. He'd grown up with Palmeri. His father had been tight with Palmeri's father. He should have expected that the bill would come due eventually.

" For some reason, my daughter thinks she needs to protect him. So for now I have changed my mind. Now tell me why it isn't that simple." He actually did hate Tom Ryan. Had done since the boy was 12 years old and was chasing his daughter around the playground. It wasn't that he was doing the chasing that made him angry. His daughter was beautiful and always had been. Of course, he was going to chase. It was the fact that she let him catch her that made him see the boy as dangerous.

"There's the district attorney involved as well. He has friends in high places that want Rossi." He said looking at the two goons that flanked him.

"And because of that, he targeted my daughter." He said, "And threw that washed-up jock at her because they went out once upon a time?"

"Please. Leave my family alone, I'll do whatever you want, just let my family go."

"That's not how this works," Tony said. "I don't have your family in my custody that would be kidnapping and against the law." He smiled "I just know where to find them. I will always know where to find them. Or my associates will know where to find them. It's not illegal to know this, is it Joey." He said. "Your parents are doing well by the way. They're in a lovely retirement center. Your mother wishes you would call more."

"N-no." He said. "It's not illegal to know."

"Now, you're going to make this go away. You'll leave Ryan alone unless I tell you otherwise. Give him his job back and keep an eye on him, just like my people will keep an eye on you. Make sure no one else goes anywhere near my daughter. Do those things until I say not to do those things and I won't have to meet the rest of your lovely family. You don't want me to meet them do you, Doyle." He hated that he had to play hardball with someone he'd been brought up with. Doyle should know better than to let anyone near HIS daughter.

"No." He said swallowing hard. "But I don't have control over the district attorney. Craig Alexander isn't controllable." God knew he'd tried time and again.

" An honest man… they are more trouble than they're worth, aren't they. They wriggle on the hook and refuse to be reeled in even when it's in their best interest. Leave him to me. You just take care of what I told you to do and leave everything else to me."

Doyle nodded. "He told her, didn't he? He told her he was there to get info out of her."

"He told her his woes," Tony said. "An honest man set up by a woman, and preyed upon by the vultures that pick cops' bones." He laughed "The leak is in your department, Joey. Figure it out, and stay away from my daughter, if you want me to stay away from yours."

"What do you want me to tell Ryan?"

"That his services as a spy are no longer required. That he's no longer required to seduce my daughter." His anger showed in his eyes, his tone, with the way his hand gripped the walking stick in his hand. "The only reason I don't put a bullet in his head and yours is that he didn't take it all the way to the bedroom." He looked to his driver "Take Mr. Doyle back to his car."

One of his men accompanied the police commissioner and the driver.

"This conversation really shouldn't have been necessary." He grumbled. "There was a time when Joseph Doyle didn't take a leak without a Palmeri giving him permission.

"What now?" The second man asked.

"Now I need to know everything about District Attorney Craig Alexander." He said, "in the meantime get Vittorio on the phone."

"Yes, Mr. Palmeri."

Tom did feel better after that massage. He'd been a little reluctant to make the appointment. He'd only done it to please Maura. Funny how he felt he owed it to her to have HIS back massaged. He couldn't believe how understanding she'd been. It was too good to be true so he kept expecting to find that she'd thought it over and figured he was more trouble than he was worth and that she was sending him packing back to Palm Beach and jail.

He got back to the room before her and changed clothes. He wasn't sure how things were going to work out. If they were going to work out. He'd spent two and a half months with the sword of Damocles hanging over his head. Sure he'd earned that, but it didn't mean he wasn't terrified of what would come.

He looked at his surroundings. He didn't belong in this world. He never had. He'd always imagined he'd be taking her away from her dangerous family and she'd live in his world. Of course, at the time he thought his world would be professional football and he'd be able to support her in a way that she'd be comfortable in. What did he have to offer her at the end of the day?

Maura returned. Even steamed like a bowl of broccoli she was beautiful. The only woman who could truly compare to Cassie in his eyes. She made him laugh when all he wanted to do was curl up in a ball of self-pity. She made him feel whole again. That was why he'd told her the truth. It was why she was so hard to resist.

"You have that look." She said a little sadly.

"What look?"

"That I feel like less of a man because my girlfriend makes more money than I do, look." She said. She had the feeling right, but the reason was completely wrong. "And I just used the G word when I don't know if that applies didn't I…"

Tom got up from the sofa and walked to her side. "These are things we need to talk about." He said.

"Right. I guess we do," She said, looking away. "I'm going to shower and get dressed. We'll talk when I'm not… dripping water and sweat everywhere." When she felt a little less vulnerable.

"Maura-" He said as she walked away. "I'm an idiot." He shook his head and went out onto the balcony to look out at the ocean. How could he do this when he didn't even know what he wanted? He loved the way she made him feel, but he had loved that about Virginia and Cassie too. Look how those relationships had turned out. They needed time. Maybe a little more than time. If he didn't screw that up too.

She showered and changed and slow poked over her makeup trying to psych herself up for what was to come. "I'm not going to cry, no matter what he says I am not going to cry." Cops don't date mob boss's daughters because they want to, they do it because they have to. Hadn't he told her that he had been forced to … he was just too honest to continue to fake his way through it. Which made him the kind of man she wanted in her life while making her the sort of woman he couldn't have in his. "Okay, chin up, Palmeri. You can't hide in here forever."

She left her room and found him on the balcony. "I've always loved the view here. Especially from this floor." She said quietly.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Tom said.

She shrugged "No one ever does." She said "It's alright, Tom. It's been 17 years. I shouldn't have expected that you'd feel the same. Besides you're being forced to do this. " And if her father pulled off the miracle she'd asked for, then she'd have to be careful of every new person she met because they might be the next spy willing or not set to use her against her family.

"I'm still willing to go back and let them do their worst." He said.

"Because that is preferable to … " She stopped herself. "I don't want you to do that. You don't have to pretend with me anymore just pretend with them. We'll figure out the logistics."

"You're the first person since this began that has treated me like I'm still someone worth knowing. That's a hard thing to give up."

"Then don't." She said with a shrug. "All we have done is spend time together. A few kisses that you didn't really want. We can forget those and just be friends if that's what makes you comfortable."

"That's the problem… I did want to kiss you."

"Wanting to kiss me is a problem?" She shook her head and turned to go back inside. "I can't apologize for who I am anymore. I guess it is once a cop always a cop." At least she hoped that was what was standing in their way, not some flaw in herself.

He followed her inside and moved in front of her. He stopped her, with his hands on her shoulders. "I keep saying things wrong. I didn't mean it was a problem, not the way you took it. "

"How am I supposed to take it?" She asked. "I don't want to fight with you. Not about this." She touched his face. "You proved that you are still my friend, no matter what you were made to do. I'm not insulted. Just disappointed But I do not want to know all the reasons you don't want-"

He kissed her then. Not the chaste, sweet kisses he'd been giving her since they'd first reconnected. It was hungry. Full of heat and desperation. "I do want you." He said huskily. "I've always wanted you."

She backed toward the bedroom, pulling him with her. Their clothes fell to the floor as they went.

Vittorio raised an eyebrow and laughed "You're protecting a cop? Did someone hit you in the head?"

"Yeah. Maura." Tony grumbled. They sat in a hotel room in Palm Beach, drinking second-rate Rum because that was what was in the minibar. "She's in love with this schmuck and has been since they were in high school."

"Wait? The football player?" He laughed even harder "I told you how things were gonna go with Maura and that kid. Should have seen that one coming."

"How was I supposed to see it coming? They broke it off to go to college, I didn't have any idea he was in Palm Beach of all places. She ran into him a week and a half ago. A week and a half and she wants me to solve this problem he's got with Internal affairs. More to the point the problem with them using him to make her tell him where you are."

"Gees Tony, I haven't seen Maura in what… almost 20 years now?"

"Yeah I know, Ryan even told them she's never been part of the family business. But they found a chink in her armor and shoved him in it." He said "He told her though and didn't try getting info out of her. I'm of two minds. One- he's still got a thing for my little girl and is loyal to her, which means he's betrayed his badge and can't be trusted. Two, he's told her this to manipulate her and go for the long game and come after me, and can't be trusted."

"If he hurts her I'll do the job for free," Vittorio said with a shrug. "And a cop could protect her, Tony. Especially one that isn't willing to let the force use him against her."

"Yeah, I know. But I still don't like it."

"You don't like it because you know they're gonna do what young people do." He said, laughing. "You can't go around killing every man she wants to sleep with."

"It's not the sleeping that bothers me." He said.

"Let it go, my friend." Vittorio said "so what do you want me to do? Leave town? I have a job to do but I can leave after that."

"What's the job?"

"Patrick Galloway. Some minor league politician that's pissing in someone's Wheaties."

"Now that's curious," Tony said. "The prick that set him after Maura is Sean Galloway."

"How did you find that out?"

"I have contacts in the Palm Beach police department. Have had since Maura moved here. Donnie Dogs introduced me to a cop or two."

"That's going to be interesting. So, I'm going to finish the job, then I'm out of town."

"First we need to find the rat that leaked to a cop that you were in town doing a job." Tony said "I don't believe in coincidence. Galloway has a hard-on for you and that's why he tried to play hardball with my daughter. You may have more work to do."

"Let me know who and when." He said down the last of his drink "And next time we'll meet somewhere with better booze."

" I don't want Maura to know I'm in town. She gets worked up about things. I'm keeping a low profile. I'll head back to Boston once Doyle does what I told him to do."