Promises
         Chapter 31 
 

Michelle woke up for the second time that day with a splitting headache. It took her a minute to focus her eyes and remember where she was. Slowly, it started coming back to her. Danny! She sat up quickly…a little too quickly actually as the room started spinning. After steadying herself, she tried to reach for the gun in her pocket, but found her hands tied together.
"Looking for this?" she heard someone say.
She turned around and found a man standing in the shadows, pointing Danny's gun right at her.
"Who are you?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm.
He slowly stepped out of the shadows keeping the gun trained on her. "I guess you could call me the backup man. You see, the first guy screwed up when he didn't take you out and hit your husband instead. But I don't miss."
"What do you want?" she glared. "Why do you want to kill me?"
"I could care less whether you live or die. But it's my job," he laughed. A laugh that sent chills up her spine. "I was paid to kill you. But if it makes you feel any better, it was a rather large sum of money. Someone cares enough about you to pay me a pretty penny to get you out of the way."
"Danny's not here," she said more to herself than to the thug in front of her.
"What a brilliant observation, Mrs. Santos," he laughed again. "You are a pretty smart one, aren't you?"
"You know nothing about me," she snapped.
"I know more about you than you think," he snapped back. "Just like I knew you wouldn't be able to resist that phone call."
"But I heard Danny's voice," she said, trying to fit the pieces together.
"Ah, the wonders of modern technology," he smiled, pulling out a tape recorder.
Michelle cringed when she heard an edited tape of Danny's voice. "How could I have been so stupid?" she mumbled to herself.
"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself," he said. "It's the first rule of beating your enemy…know their weakness and exploit it."
"But whose enemy am I?" she asked. "Who hates me enough to do this to me?"
The man snapped his head up as he heard the door open. "Well, it looks like you're about to find out. Hello boss."
Michelle turned around and saw a woman in the shadows. She squinted her eyes, trying to see who it was. Then she walked forward into the light.
"You," Michelle gasped. "You're the one."

Danny and Bernard slowly walked around the side of the warehouse. There were lights on inside and they could hear voices on the inside, but they couldn't make out what was being said. Danny strained his ears, trying to pick up something.
"I can't make out anything," Danny whispered.
"Me either," Bernard said.
"We should go in," he said.
"Let me go first," Bernard said. "You cover me."
"No!" Danny demanded. "YOU follow me."
"Danny," Bernard demanded.
"I don't have time to argue with you about this," Danny whispered. "Cover me."
And with that Danny headed toward the warehouse door. He looked back at Bernard and counted to three and then they burst through the door with guns drawn. They were stunned to find a room full of Christmas presents. A couple of women walked around the corner oblivious to their presence until they looked up and saw their guns. The clipboards in their hands came crashing to the floor as they quickly raised their hands in surrender.
"It's okay," Danny shouted, as he and Bernard dropped their guns down to their sides. "We're not going to hurt you."
"What do you want?" one of the ladies managed to say, her voice shaking. "Please don't take these presents. They're for the children's home."
"We're not going to take anything from you. I'm sorry," he frowned. "I was supposed to meet someone here. Have you been here all night?"
"Since noon," she said, her voice slowly returning to normal as she lowered her arms back to her side. "Who were you looking for?"
"I'm not sure," he sighed.
"Wait," the other woman spoke up, walking back toward a table behind them. "Are you Daniel Santos?"
"Yes," he frowned, confused. "How did you…?"
"Someone left this for you," she said, handing him a sealed envelope.
Danny ripped open the envelope and asked, "Did you see who delivered this?"
"No, it was here when I got here," she explained. "I didn't know who it was for so I just left it here."
"Thank you," he said, turning back to Bernard.
Danny slowly read the note and Bernard watched the blood drain from his face. "What is it?"
"Damn it!" he exclaimed and bolted out the door.
Bernard caught up with him and barely closed the car door before Danny sped off. He picked up and read the note that had caused so much fear in Danny's eyes.
"Merry Christmas Danny! Glad you could make it. Unfortunately the party has moved. But don't worry, I'll make sure your wife has a good time."
Danny was already on his cell phone. "Carlos, please tell me Michelle is with you."
"I'm sorry," Carlos sighed. "She told me she heard something in the backyard, so I went to check it out. I told her to stay low inside, but she gave me the slip. As soon as I heard her car start, I ran around front. I'm in my car now looking for her, but she got a pretty good jump on me."
"I don't believe this!" he hit his hand against the steering wheel. "Listen, we have trouble. I was set up. There was no one at the warehouse. Do you have any idea why Michelle left the house?"
"No," he said. "After she woke up she went looking for you, but I told her you were at the office. She seemed to accept it and said she was going upstairs to lie down."
"Michelle doesn't accept anything that easily," Danny groaned. "Listen, keep looking and call me as soon as you find her."
Danny ended the call and slammed the phone down. "I can't believe after all these months and doing everything I can to protect her, I allowed this to happen."
"This is not your fault, Danny," Bernard comforted. "You were only going on the lead I gave you. I trust my contact, so someone planned to have you out of the house. But I don't understand how they got Michelle to leave."
"You can quit saying someone," Danny snapped. "We know who did this. We've known for months. But I had to handle things my own way. I should have taken care of this problem when we first found out she was behind this."
"Daniel," Bernard began in the fatherly tone Danny had come to know over the years. "You did everything you could do. There was no way you could confront her until we had more information. If you had confronted her too early, you would have put Michelle's life into even more danger. You did what you had to do to protect your wife."
"What good did it do?" he exclaimed. "My wife is out there somewhere. I don't know if she's hurt or if she's…"
"Don't do that," Bernard said. "Don't think that way. We're going to find her."
"I just hope we find her soon," Danny sighed.