couldn’t believe I’d found her.
She looked the same, yet somehow older and more mature. Or was it that she looked a bit broken down? That might be it. She looked so tired and world weary. She was so strong, but I knew that at some point she would find herself breaking and being alone what else would she do? I’d gotten to her just in the nick of time. I was so glad to find her safe and sound.
It had been months of exhaustive searching with roads leading to nowhere. She knew how to disappear and not be found. I was impressed with this ability. But I wanted her to know how safe she was now. She was going to be ok.
But the only way we could ensure this was to do something about Saul.
“What do you mean? What can we do to the guy? He is almost untouchable.”
I looked up at her and tried to keep my voice calm and steady. She was probably not going to want to hear this, but I had a plan I knew would work well. She just had to settle into it and be ok with it.
“I’ve got something planned,” I said. “This is no way for you to live. I found you and Saul will too eventually. But I have a mansion in Alaska that is safe. You can stay there and recuperate. You can work remotely if you want to work or you can just relax and get your head back on straight. I can only imagine how much the past few months have taken out of you.”
She sighed. “Yeah, they’ve been rough. The hardest part has been being away from you.”
I felt my heart flutter a bit. She had that warm, sweet look in her eyes that I’d missed so much. God, I loved this woman so much.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t say it back that night, but I do love you. I love you so much. I never realized it fully until I was gone, but it’s been torture being without you.”
She was sobbing now. I reached up and dried a sweet tear from her eyes. Then I leaned in and kissed her sweetly on the mouth. “It’s ok, baby. I love you. I will always love you no matter what. I’ve thought of nothing else but finding you. And I’m glad I did. Now we can begin the healing and we can begin taking care of this problem.”
“Ok. What are we going to do?”
“Well, we will hide you out there at the mansion for a while and then we can focus all of our efforts on tracking Saul. I’ve got several people that I trust working on this as we speak, including some cops from up there. They are a bit out of Saul’s reach as far as greasing their palms. Besides if he can grease their palms, I can pay them far more.”
I could tell she was feeling better already. She seemed so much less tense now than when we’d first sat down on the couch. I rubbed her back gently as I spoke to her and she leaned into it, moaning ever so often very softly. My poor angel was exhausted. She had been so scared, so worried, and so stressed out for several months. And now that was gone. I was here. I would take care of everything. I knew she hated being taken care of, but it was not beneath anyone to ask for some help sometimes. I saw she was beginning to learn that.
“Ok, what happens after that?” Julie asked.
“Well, if Saul finds you somehow, then we will spring the trap on him. I’m even toying with the idea of leading him to you just so we can trap him. Then he will be dealt with. But that is a bit dangerous and your safety is my number one concern. So that is the last resort. Right now, we want to keep you safe and we want to find him. That’s where we will start. So, let’s get you packed up and we can get out of here. I have my jet waiting at the Tucson airport. We can send for the bulk of your stuff later. Tonight, you can rest on the plane and then in the new comfortable bed in the mansion. How does that sound?”
She swallowed hard and put her head on my shoulder. “It sounds wonderful. I can’t thank you more.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” I replied.
I pulled