Joe slammed the door shut of the penthouse, he saw Craig jump from the sofa, his hand reaching for the gun. "What's wrong Craig? Feeling jumpy?" "I was reading boss, the noise....just a reflex." Joe made a sound in his throat and mumbled 'whatever'. "Where's Maria?" "She's sleeping, or at least she was." Joe raised his eyebrows at Craig's comment, seems that Craig had gotten himself a bit of an attitude, he'd have to keep a closer eye on him. "You can go. Check on security, I don't want any more screw ups." "And Maria?" "Maria is of no concern of yours." "What I meant to say was, are you and she coming downstairs tonight?" "Hmm, I don't think so, I think I'm onto a promise tonight. I'll call down for some food to be brought up later." When Craig didn't move to leave, Joe crossed his arms in front of him. "Is there anything else Craig? Maybe you want to talk about something else, like....I don't know...sleeping pills maybe?" Before Craig could speak the phone rang. Joe gave him a smile. "I think we should change your name from Craig to 'Lucky', cause that's exactly what you are. Now go check on security." Craig nodded and left, he went into the elevator but instead of going to the foyer, he pressed the button for the second floor. When he reached the floor he headed down the corridor with a purpose. *-*-*-*-*-*-* When Max emerged from the bedroom the others were there, Liz went to him. "How are you?" "Better." "Max, what happened? Why were you so tired?" "I helped someone, well healed her to be exact." Michael growled and strode over to him, Max stood his ground. "What the hell have you done? You healed her, what if she tells someone and they trace it back to us?" "Michael calm down, she won't say anything." "God Max you can be so stupid sometimes, you go on about how hot headed I get and you do something like this, I don't believe you." "She helped us Michael, she didn't have to but in the end she did the right thing. Christ you saw what Caldwell did to her. We all saw the picture Alex had of her, she was a shadow of her former self, he's destroyed that poor woman. I wanted to give her back her life. She won't tell, I know she won't." "Yeah well if the FBI come bursting through them doors, we can safely say it's all down to you this time." Michael turned away and sat next to Isabel, Max looked at her waiting for her to have her say too. "I know what he did to that woman, but I didn't see how it affected her. Max I trust your judgement." Max nodded his head, he put his arm around Liz pulling her closer to his side. He kissed the top of her head, he whispered to her. "I couldn't just walk away." Liz rose up and kissed her cheek. "You never can, you have a big heart Max." Michael rolled his eyes. "Okay if you two can stop all the kissing for a minute, how are we going to get Maria away from Caldwell?" Alex who was clicking away on his laptop, cleared his throat. "I've hacked into the computer here at the casino, Caldwell must have a private room somewhere....only I can't seem to find it...damn." "What?" "My laptop's just crashed. I'll have to start all over again." They all jumped when there was a bang on the door. Michael looked over at Max. "FBI??" Max gave him a dirty look. There was another knock louder than the first one. Jim pulled his gun and went to the door. "Hello?" "Mr Valenti, could you open the door please?" "Who is it?" "We met this morning, my name's Craig, remember?"! Jim put his gun behind him and opened the door slightly. Jim looked Craig up and down, Craig knew exactly what Jim was looking for, he put his hands out in front of him palms facing up. Jim pulled open the door wider letting Craig enter, he didn't put his gun away, he wanted Craig to know that he was armed and he was very capable of using it. TBC

Part 19