Promises
          Chapter 13  
 

"What?" Michelle asked confused. "You know him?" Suddenly she realized what was going on and she didn't give him a chance to respond. "I don't believe this! You hired a bodyguard!"
"Calm down," he said, trying to get her to sit back down.
She pulled away from him and paced across the kitchen. "No! I cannot believe you did this without even discussing it with me!"
"I didn't have a choice, Michelle," he defended. "I knew you wouldn't like it, but I have to protect you and I can't be with you twenty-four hours a day."
"You're damn right I don't like it," she protested. "I am not a child. I know I slipped up and didn't check out the chocolates before I ate them, but I am going to be more alert now. I don't need a babysitter."
"This isn't up for discussion," he replied.
"You can drop the caveman routine," she snapped. "I have never let you treat me like a child and I'm not about to start now."
"Don't you understand I did this for you," he explained, his voice rising. "And for me. I can concentrate a lot better knowing you're safe. The thought of anything else happening to you makes me crazy…even more so now."
"I'm going to be starting school in a few weeks," she laughed sarcastically. "And you expect me to have a bodyguard tag along behind me on campus? There's no way I'm going to go for this."
"How can you think about going to school now?" he asked amazed.
"Why not?" she asked. "Do you expect me to put my life on hold?"
"No," he demanded. "But I expect you to take care of our baby!"
"What?" she was astonished. "How can you even say that? Don't you know I would give my life for this baby?"
"Please don't say that," he groaned. "You're never going to have to do that."
"How do you know that?" she yelled. "Just look at the past few days. Someone is trying to kill me or at lease make me feel like dying. How do you know our baby won't ever be put in that kind of danger?"
She stormed out of the kitchen and marched into the living room. He followed her, "Why do you think I'm doing everything I'm doing now? So neither you or our child will ever be put in danger again. I promised you I would keep you safe and that's what I have to do…whether you like it or not."
He was surprised when she didn't fire back at him. Her back was to him with one hand on her hip and the other holding on to the fireplace mantel. "Michelle?" he asked trying to get her attention. As he drew closer to her, he noticed her knuckles were white from gripping the mantel so tight. Her head was down, but he could see her eyes were closed and she had a pained expression on her face. "Baby, what's wrong?" he reached for her.
"I'm fine," she pulled away from him. But as she let go of the mantel, her knees began to buckle.
He grabbed her by the arms to steady her. "Come over here and sit down." Reluctantly she let him lead her to the sofa. "I didn't mean to upset you," he whispered as he sat down beside her.
She was silent as she leaned her head against the back of the sofa, her eyes closed. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.
"I'm okay," she mumbled.
"I'm sorry," he sighed. "I just don't know what to do anymore. I don't want to fight with you."
"I don't want to fight with you either," she said. "I know your heart is in the right place, but you have to understand this is all new to me. I've always known your life was dangerous. I knew that before I fell in love with you. But I don't want some man following me, watching my every move."
"It won't be forever," he pleaded, brushing her hair away from her face. "And when I'm with you, he won't be around. I just have to do everything I can to make sure you are safe. I was a fool to let my guard down and because of my carelessness, you were hurt. I can't let that happen again."
"This wasn't your fault," she softened, turning to face him.
"Please just go with me on this," he begged. "I know how much you value your independence, but you have someone else to think about right now. You and this baby mean the world to me."
"I understand," she conceded. "I'll agree with this…Carlos…under one condition."
"What's that?" he smiled.
"I really want to go back to school," she explained. "I know you are concerned, but I talked about this with Dr. Sedwick and she said it was okay as long as I didn't exert myself too much and I can take a light load. I can finish this semester before the baby is born and then I will take some time off and go back later."
Danny looked at her, seeing the desire in her eyes for him to be okay with this. He knew how much she wanted to be a doctor, keeping up her family tradition. How could he take that away from her? She had sacrificed so much already to be with him. "Okay, but please just don't overdo it and don't try to outsmart Carlos."
"Who me?" she laughed.
"Yes you," he smiled. "I've warned him about you."
"I'll be a good girl," she promised. "Now, can we make up?"
"By all means," he smiled pulling her closer to him. "You know I hate fighting with you, but the making up part isn't so bad."
"No it isn't," she laughed as he kissed her ears. "But you know, Dr. Sedwick said I needed to rest, so I really think my husband should make sure I stay in bed."
"I think I can handle that," he whispered, moving closer to her lips. "Shall I put you to bed?"
"I thought you'd never ask," she murmured quietly, reaching up to meet his lips.
Without breaking their kiss, he picked her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs to their bedroom. Gently he laid her down on the bed, looking into her eyes.
"I love you so much," he whispered.
She reached up for him and pulled him down with her. "I love you too."

They spent the rest of the day in bed. Danny had gone downstairs to the kitchen to get them something to eat. He was happy to see Michelle finally eating, while she explained that she had worked up an appetite. After finishing the food and making love again, he finally convinced her that she needed to get some sleep. She was resting when he slipped out of the bed to go back downstairs to his office. He was startled when his cell phone rang.
"Hello?" he answered.
"Danny, this is Frank," he began. "I just wanted to let you know what I found out from the alarm company. Their records indicate the alarm was set at 9:30 and then at 10:03 it was deactivated by normal means and then reset at 12:31."
"So it was set," Danny sighed. "Michelle said she set it at 9:30 and I set it at 12:30."
"But what I don't understand is if someone could disarm it, why didn't they arm it back when they left?" Frank asked.
"I don't know," Danny said. "You use the same code to set it as you do to disarm it. Maybe they were scared off by something."
"Or someone," Frank replied. "I may talk to some of your neighbors to see if they saw anything around 10:00."
"Our neighbors are really good about keeping their eyes open," Danny explained. "If they saw someone out of the ordinary around the house, they would have told me or called the police."
"Just the same, it doesn't hurt to ask," Frank explained.
"Okay," he rubbed his tired eyes. "Did you check the visitor records at the prison?"
"Your mother was telling the truth," Frank said. "Ben and Pilar have been her only visitors. But you know I don't trust Ben Warren any further than I can throw him. Your mother could be using him to get her jobs done on the outside."
"I don't think she's behind this," Danny confessed.
"Before you let your guard down with her, I think you should know a bit of interesting news I found out while I was at the jail," Frank said.