Chapter Fourteen

Steve jerked out of bed again. It was the same dream, Sarah looking happy one minute and the next minute she was bleeding from a gunshot wound. Only this time she looked at him and said, "You did this to me" before she died in his arms.

It had been a week since she had left and not one night had he had a peaceful sleep. He had gone out last night, somehow landing up in the same place where he had first met Sarah. There he proceeded to get himself drunk, he'd had to call Danny to pick him since he was in no fit state to drive. As a result he had a monster hangover and his guilty conscience was still in place.

Initially all he had wanted was to tell her to take a leave of absence from her school, it could be arranged that she still had her job when she came back. They would be given an explanation as to why she needed to be away. In fact he had gone to work that fateful day thinking that the first thing he needed to do was contact the governor for this favour. So when Jenna Kaye had hit him with news of Moretti he had been completely unprepared.

She had shown him the file and immediately he had recognised Sal. At first Steve wanted to think of it as mistake. He couldn't believe it. He had met the man and he had liked him. The love this man had for his family was amazing and he had recognised it. But now everything was different. Salvatore Moretti or Morrissey was a killer; an assassin for the mob and his daughter was right under his nose and sleeping in his bed.

He could still remember Danny saying, "Steven you need to be really sure before you accuse her of anything".

He had looked at him, "How can I not be sure. The truth is staring me right in the face Danno".

"So you think the shooting at the school was all planned? You've lost your ever-loving mind. Have you considered the fact that she may have not known who her father was?" Danny tried his best to drill some sense into him, but he already knew he could not bring himself to believe it.

The sense of betrayal that came over him was something he had never felt in his life. He knew that from now he would have to be careful. Which now in hind sight he hadn't, he had completely lost control when he had gone home and seen her sweet face smiling at him, cooking in his kitchen looking like a domestic goddess in her sexy shorts and apron.

Sarah had blinded him with lust and passion. He thought he was in love with her but it was nothing but a trap for him and he like an idiot had walked straight into it. During the past week, he would all of a sudden have pangs of guilt, the way he had completely cut her out of his life. But then he would think back to the file he had found on her. For god's sake she had gone to the same school as Gaucci's daughter Nicolette. How could he believe that she was innocent?

And then as soon as that thought entered his head, he would see her as she was in the kitchen after he had so coldly thrown accusations at her. At first she had looked shocked, even slapped him in anger. But then that anger had faded into something he had only seen once. His father had looked like that when his mother had died. Broken; he couldn't use any other word to describe it.

"What if you were wrong?" the conscience in his head whispered.

No he had to be strong and get through this. Every day they were coming closer to getting Wo Fat and he couldn't afford any distractions. Just yesterday Sang Men had surrendered because he feared Wo Fat. He had warned them that he was coming. So now Steve had to strategise in order to get his man.

He got up from the bed, it was only three forty, and so he decided to go for a run. He had never thought he would get used to having someone sleeping next to him. And now that that someone had gone away, so had his sleep and peace of mind. He jogged for over an hour, torturing himself with thoughts of Sarah, her sad eyes, when she had left. He had been standing on the beach as she had packed, and when he had come back in, she had been gone.

It was as if she had never been there. His room was empty of her clutter, the bathroom counter held none of her toiletries and make – up. Her clothes had disappeared from his closet and Mary's room. There was no trace of her. He felt ashamed of the way he had scoured his house after she had left, looking for bugs she may have planted.

He came back and had a shower, then got dressed. He would drive himself to work early; he couldn't sit in the house. As he opened one of his dresser draws to take out a t – shirt, he pulled out a piece of paper sticking out.

His breath hitched, because it wasn't a piece of paper, but a Polaroid photograph of Sarah and him, sitting on the beach. He was looking toward the camera with a goofy smile on her face while she sat in his lap, her arms around his neck. But it was her expression that got to him. She had her eyes closed as she rested her forehead against the side of his face, as if nuzzling him, a small sweet smile on her lips. One of her hands very delicately curved around his jaw as if she were reverently touching him.

He closed his eyes and thought about that day. It was the night when Alisha and Jack had been attacked. Danny, Rachel and Grace had been with them while they had dinner on the beach. Apart from the obvious tragedy, it had been one of the best days he could remember in a long time.

He quickly put the picture back in the drawer and pulled out a grey Polo t – shirt and dark cargo pants. What was done was done; it was time to move on. Work needed to be done and he couldn't do it if he was moping around, feeling sorry for himself.

-X-

Danny walked into the office dreading the day. Ever since Steve had cut Sarah out of his life, he had been a nightmare to work with. He took chances and was more reckless than usual, like he had nothing to live for and he didn't care what happened to him. He was worse than how he was before. And Danny made sure he reminded Steve of that every chance he got.

He personally felt that Steve had wronged Sarah and had been shot down many a time by him, when he tried to defend her. Danny trusted his instincts about people and he knew that she was not involved. In fact she most probably had no knowledge of what her father had been involved in.

But who was to tell the big idiot. He refused to listen to anyone. He knew even Mary had called and asked about what had happened, and when she had mentioned how much she had liked Sarah, Steve had told her in a cold voice to never mention that name again. They had all been told that.

Danny thought of calling Sarah and speaking to her, but he knew that if Steve ever found out, he would never hear the end of it and it would damage their working relationship. So he did the sneaky thing, he asked Rachel to call her.

"She doesn't want to talk about him" She had told him in her sexy English accent. "Instead all she did was ask about Grace and how things were going between us".

"He's a fucking moron. He never even gave her a chance to defend herself" Danny looked at Rachel and thanked his lucky stars that things had worked out between them. She had still to tell Stan, but he knew that whatever happened from here on out, at least he had his family back.

He had been genuinely happy for Steve when things between him and Sarah had gotten serious. Although he had worried that they had moved too fast, but everyone was different. Rachel and him had moved faster than them when they had first met.

Steve had changed when he was with her. His demeanour toward her was loving and he listened to what she said to him. Danny would catch him sometimes texting on his phone with a goofy smile on his face. And the funniest thing was that Steve carried a brown paper bag with his lunch in it. In fact the first time that had happened Danny had teased Steve mercilessly, so had Kono and Chin.

He missed that Steve. Even with all the problems he was still care free and enjoyed life. But in the last week, his always laser precision focus had become even more intense. All he talked about was Wo Fat and what needed to be done to get the guy.

Danny couldn't help but be worried about him.

-X-

Sarah felt her life unravel around her. Not only had she lost the first man she had dared to love, she learnt about her father's secret past.

The first thing she did after she left Steve's place was to go to her brother's house. Apparently Jay had known all along, he had discovered it when he was in college and had been approached by one of Gaucci's men to start something out with the college gambling circuit. He had refused and confronted their father.

Sarah had noticed their relationship was strained but she had never paid any attention to that. Their father had insisted that he was legit now, but Jay had refused to believe it. He refused to believe that anyone who worked for the Gaucci's got out of the family business without losing a limb. In fact the only reason Jay had been spared after refusing was because of the connection with their father.

Sarah then went to New York. She had already resigned from her job. When they had asked why, she had said it was because of the shooting and that she could not cope with being here.

She had not told her parents she was coming, and surprised them. Her father had given her a bear hug and when he noticed she had not hugged him back his big smiled faded.

"What's the matter my baby?" he asked her while her mother came and hugged her as well. "Where is your luggage?"

She didn't answer and moved to sit on the kitchen counter, "I am staying at a hotel for the time being".

"Why would you want to do that?" this time it was her mother.

"Because I cannot spend one more minute in a house filled with liars" she was surprisingly calm while she scanned her parents' expressions. They both looked guilty.

Then her mother spoke, "What are you talking about darling?" she got busy in the kitchen as if nothing was wrong.

Her father on the other hand had a defeated look on his face, "Honey, who are we kidding? Jay found out and it was only a matter of time she would too".

"Actually interestingly enough it wasn't Jay who told me. It was Steven" she couldn't believe she was saying this even as the words were coming out of her mouth, "After he accused me of being a pawn in trapping him for a gangster named Wo Fat".

The expression on Salvatore Morrissey's face darkened, "Wo Fat?"

"Do you know who he is?"

"Yes I know who he is and why is your boyfriend involved with him?"

"My ex boyfriend. And he isn't involved with him. Wo Fat murdered his parents" she looked at her father, "So you're not denying anything, which means its true?"

He came to her and held her by the shoulders; "Baby, that was a long time ago and I left that side of my life after I married your mother".

"But you did kill people, papa" she choked up as she said the words. "How can I look at you the same way?"

She got off the stool and looked at her parents, "Ma and Papa, my life recently has been a big mess. But I am not coming back home. In fact I am not sure where I am going at the moment, but I need to get away".

"Will you call us to let us know you're okay?" her mother had tears in her eyes, but Sarah did not hug her or approach her. In her eyes she was also a guilty party.

"I am not sure yet. But I will let Jay know. But please whatever you do, don't try and contact me for a while".

Sarah turned away and headed for the door, heading for her hotel, nothing fancy but a small clean one. She had applied to teach in Italy last year, and had not heard from them in spite of going through two interviews.

But as a God send she had received a call from the agency the day she was leaving Hawaii, still not sure what she was going to do. Once she had heard the deal, teach English at a language school in a small village near Rome, and the money was good, she had said yes without any hesitation.

After all what did she have left here in America? Her family was based on a lie; her relationship with Steve had been based on a lie. So the best course of action was to leave America all together. She had a EU passport because her father was of Italian decent, so she didn't have to worry about her visa running out. The world was her playground and she would make the most of it. It had always been a dream of hers to live a bohemian life in Europe, so here was the perfect chance.

A little voice said in her head, "Then why do you feel like shit?"