"How high profile?" Julia asked.
"A mobster who served as acting boss while his brother was in prison. When he learned his brother ordered a contract on him to be carried out when he'd be released from prison, because he was afraid he'd lose control, the mobster turned rat and agreed to wear a wire in exchange for immunity, and now an entire crime family is about to be convicted on racketeering, loan sharking, extortion, illegal gambling, and the murders of two captains and a high-ranking member of another crime family, and I'm already pegged to handle this one."
"What do you think the chances are of the convictions?" Julia asked.
"High," Mario replied. "The prosecutors have a lot of wiretap evidence to put voices to faces, and wiretap evidence from crime family soldiers are key pieces of evidence for the prosecution. The main problem after the dust settles will be keeping the witness from doing business as usual. We're not talking about the nice new neighbor next door here. We’re talking about a ruthless man who's turning states evidence against an entire crime family."
Julia had no argument. But she did have to face the reality that, every option she'd come up with so far had been a dead end, with no miracles in sight. "Then I don't want us to think beyond next week," she said. "After you leave, you can get your life back to normal."
"Once I leave here, there will be no normal," Mario said. "Ours is a complicated love."
"All love is complicated because people are complicated," Julia said, "so why should our love be less?" It came to her, that they were talking about love, yet Mario had never told her outright that he loved her, and she hadn't expected him to because their love was so new, even though it was twenty years in the making. But the one thing she did know. It would not be an unconsummated love, and during the next week, not only did she want Mario to make love to her, but she wanted him to tell her he loved her, and mean it.
"We'll talk about this some more before we get in too deep," Mario said. "Meanwhile, I'm going to take my horse and check out the trail and see if the snowslide's melted enough for us to get around it. Keep an eye on the kids." He headed for the door.
"Spoken like a true father," Julia called after him.
Hearing her words, Mario paused momentarily, glanced back at her with a curious expression on his face, then continued out the door. It wasn't until she saw him walking past the children and stopped to obviously tell then to stay where they were, that she realized he wasn't being a father, he was being the U.S. Marshal he'd been trained to be, and looking after people, big and little, was just part of his job. But it was also the best basis she could think of for a potential husband and father. And all she needed now was a miracle.
***
As it turned out, the bank of snow from the snowslide had melted enough for the horses to get around it on the trail, so after a meal of canned ravioli and crackers, Julia cleared the table and washed the dishes, while Mario doused the fires in the wood stove and on the hearth. After that Julia folded the table centerpiece over and wrapped the top with a wire to hang it on the front door of the cabin as a Christmas spray, then Mario took photos of Julia and the kids by the Christmas tree, which they left standing where it was, so the next people in the cabin could enjoy it, as Julia pointed out. Mario, with Sergei's help, saddled the horses, and after wrapping the children's Christmas gifts in a sleeping bag, Mario tied the bundle behind his saddle, and they headed back down the trail to the ranch.
Mario had phoned ahead, so by the time they arrived at the stable, Jack was there to help unsaddle the horses, and Grace came to welcome the kids back with a hug, and the words, "I think it's time you both had a nice warm bath, and Santa left gifts for you."
"Cool," Sergei said, "but can we go to Julia's first? Mario has stuff for us too."
Grace looked at Mario with curiosity, then at Julia, who shrugged, and said, "Mario picked up presents for the kids and they're waiting under my Christmas tree."
Grace smiled in understanding. "Baths and gifts from Santa can wait. Enjoy your time with them and send them to us when they're ready."
Julia was surprised when Mario suggested they bring the gifts in the sleeping bag to Julia's cabin instead of turning them over to the Hansens, but she liked that idea. It was a reason for the children to stay around, and Mario too, since he'd be building the model crane with Sergei. They seemed like a family now, and she didn't want it to end.
Once inside her cabin, Julia unwrapped the sleeping bag and set the gifts on the floor in their individual stacks, while Sergei and Irina rushed over to the tree for the presents Mario had given them. Sergei, grabbing his present, immediately ripped off the paper, and seeing what was inside, exclaimed, "An erector set! Can you help me put it together?" he asked Mario.
"We'll look at the directions," Mario said, "but you and Irina have gifts at the Hansen's too, so we won't start laying out parts until tomorrow. Then we'll be a motorized crane team."
Irina, who'd been standing off while holding her gift, went over to Mario and handed it to him. Mario looked at Irina for an explanation, and when she did nothing, he said to Julia, "Is she giving it back?"
"No," Julia replied. "She wants you to help unwrap it, since it's your gift to her."
"Come on then," Mario said to Irina, while patting his legs.
Irina crawled onto his lap, and settling against him, helped him pull the little pieces of tape off the paper, uncovering a molded, plastic castle that opened up to reveal several sectioned-off rooms, with an assortment of tiny figures that included castle people, a dog, and a princess wearing a gown and a tiny tiara. Irina picked up the little princess, and after turning it around in her fingers and studying it, she looked up at Mario, and raising her hand, patted his face then put her arms around his neck.
While hugging her, Mario glanced over at Julia, who saw the slight sheen of tears in his eyes, and she knew Irina had touched that special place in Mario's heart reserved for a little orphan girl who was beginning to look at him as Daddy.
After the kids left, Julia sat on the couch, and when Mario sat beside her, she said, "You do realize Irina's going to be devastated when you go, don't you?"
"It never leaves my mind," Mario replied, "but I'm not in a position to do anything about it, and neither are you, so all we can do is hope for the best."
"I suppose you're right." Feeling morose, Julia took Mario's hand and held it, and said, "Time's passing so fast. In a week you and the kids will be gone, and my life will never be the same, and I meant what I said this morning. I want to finish what you started last night."
Mario pulled his hand from hers and put his arm around her, and said, "Before we start something we can't undo, we need to talk some more. I've slept with a lot of women who meant nothing to me and I meant nothing to them. It was simple male-female physiology, and there was no love lost between us when we went our separate ways. That's not the way it is with us. Ever since the bombing you've been with me, even though you weren't physically with me, and it's been the same for you, which is why things with us are moving fast, so if we end up in bed it won't be simple male-female physiology. There's something more going on. It's hard to explain."
"I know, and I have a theory about why it is that way," Julia said. "It has to do with… well, predestination, for lack of a better word."
Mario looked at her dubiously. "If this is going to be a philosophical discussion, I don't do so well with those. Roberta's tried over the years and I tend to dig in my heels."
"That's not what this is," Julia said. "It's a way to explain what's going on with us because, like you said, things are moving fast. Yet, for the past twenty years it was like whatever there was between us was moving in slow motion. You'd come to me in dreams and I'd try to get to you, but it was like my feet were mired in quicksand. But since you've been here, time has sped up, and there's no way to stop it." She snuggled against him and moved her hand over his chest.
"Then your theory has to do with dreams," Mario said. Taking her hand, he kisse
d it and placed it over his heart and held it there, and Julia could feel the heavy beating.
"No, my theory has to do with coincidences and the belief that finding each other again didn't happen by chance."
Mario kissed the side of her jaw. "What coincidences?"
"Like us being trapped together because we were destined to find each other." Julia paused to settle her quickening breaths. "And twenty years later we're reunited, but there was a string of coincidences leading up to us being here together… umm, you're distracting me, and I'm trying to get my point across," she replied, as Mario's palm covered her breast.
Removing his hand, Mario said, "It's hard to concentrate when I'm with you like this, but I'll try to stay focused. You were saying something about coincidences."
"Yes," Julia replied, returning to the point she was trying to make. "If you hadn't been given Billy to oversee, you wouldn't have met Jeremy, and without him, you wouldn't be here. And if my grandfather hadn't married Maureen, I wouldn't be here, and if my father hadn't gone to Korea, I also wouldn't be here. Then we arrive at the ranch the same week. What do you think the odds of meeting here, after two decades, being a chance encounter?"
Mario kissed the side of her neck. "I don't know. What are the odds?"
"Are you listening?" Julia asked.
"I'm trying," Mario replied. "What are you getting at?"
"I think we're soulmates," Julia said. "A soulmate makes you feel whole, like there's no piece missing from the puzzle, which is the way you make me feel. And soulmates complete each other, the strength of one overcoming the weakness of the other, and I don't have to point out which one of us is the weaker."
"You're getting stronger," Mario replied. He released the top button of her shirt and kissed the hollow of her throat.
"Umm, you're distracting me," Julia said, "and I'm not through. A soulmate makes you feel secure and protected, like you have a guardian angel by your side, and that's the way you've made me feel from the start."
"You know what I feel?" Mario asked. He released the next button.
Julia tipped her head back, giving him access to her chest, and said, in a breathless voice, "No, what do you feel?"
"Like taking a shower. I've been three days in the same underwear."
"Will you come back here afterwards?" Julia asked.
"No, I don't intend to go to my place to shower, and I'll need someone to scrub my back."
CHAPTER 16
In the shower, as Mario was spreading lather over Julia's breasts, while standing behind her, he said, "When I was a kid and all the girls in my class had Barbie dolls, I didn't know what the fuss was all about. Now I do." He soaped his hands again and moved down her body.
"And I wondered what the fuss was all about over Ken, who was missing a part, unlike my live Ken doll who has a very prominent part," Julia replied, her breath coming quickly as Mario's hand moved down, and his fingers began to tease and caress. "And what you're doing right now is making me think it's time to connect it with… umm… oh… oh…"
Julia's climax came so fast, she didn't have time to finish her thought. But after her breathing settled, Mario said. "You're very responsive,"
"That's because you're very attentive to what I like," Julia replied. "I didn't expect that to happen so fast though, and I wanted to be in bed with you when it did, and with us coming together at the same time, like soulmates. And you're still frustrated."
"Not for long," Mario said. He shut off the shower, and grabbing a towel, hurriedly mopped it over Julia, then over himself, and scooping her up in his arms, carried her into the bedroom and lowered her to the bed. Stretching out beside her, he said, "Do we need to take a few minutes to get you ready again?"
When Julia saw the length of Mario's muscular male body, primed and ready for her, the sight of him was like an aphrodisiac. "No, honey, you don't need to get me ready. I've been ready for you for twenty years. All I need is you." Running her hand down his belly, she followed the thin line of dark hair and began caressing and teasing.
Combing his fingers through her wet hair, Mario drew her head back and covered her mouth with his in a kiss so potent, her nerves hummed like hundreds of taut wires, and frissons of sensual awakening radiated from the juncture of her thighs. And when Mario moved on top of her and joined his body with hers, Julia let out a long sigh of satisfaction and began matching the rhythm of his movements until she was aware of nothing but wave upon wave of erotic sensation spiraling through her. When her breathing finally became steady again, and her heart rate settled, she said, in a voice filled with contentment, "Over the years I tried to imagine what it could be like with you, but this didn't come close. Thank you for making me feel alive again."
"It's all about empowerment," Mario said. "Now you've bound my soul to yours for all eternity, so you're stuck with me."
Julia looked at him, curious. "What do you know about lovemaking and binding souls?" she asked.
"Roberta gave me a tutorial when I was a teen, claiming that eternity can be a very long time if your soul's bound to the kind of girls I'd had my eyes on," Mario replied. "Soulmates were also her justification for marrying Bill three weeks after they met. She claimed their souls already knew each other."
"What do you think?" Julia asked.
"That it's the best explanation I know for a fifty-year-old, dyed-in-the-wool, spinster to start acting kittenish around a man," Mario replied.
"Are you serious? Do you really believe in soulmates?"
Mario laughed. "Maybe, but don't tell Roberta."
Julia cuddled against him and gave a little soft sigh. For a while she lay in his arms, neither of them talking, but during that time, Julia couldn't remember feeling such contentment, or such love, even though Mario had not said the words. And when she heard soft burrs in Mario's chest, and knew he was sleeping, she found herself drifting off too, in a quiet, peaceful sleep.
The following morning, when she awakened, Julia turned her head to find Mario looking at her. Tracing a finger along his lips, she said, "I love you. That was the most restful night I've had in twenty years. I slept like a baby."
Mario pulled her to him and kissed her. "I love you too, and that wasn't so hard to say."
"Have you ever said that to a woman before?" Julia asked.
"No," Mario replied. "There's never been a woman in my life who's found me worth loving."
"I don't believe that," Julia said. "I think you've just been saving all your love for your soulmate, and I want every ounce of it I can get."
"That works for me too." Mario covered her mouth with his again, and when the kiss deepened, his hands began moving down Julia's sides, following the curves of her breasts.
Feeling aroused and excited, Julia said in a breathy voice, "You're working your magic on me again. This could become addictive, and I don't want to wear you out."
Mario laughed. "I won't be worn out until there's nothing but a stubby beneath my old dancing tights." He planted a kiss on Julia's neck, and shoving his fingers into her hair, pulled it away from her ear and darted his tongue inside, bringing a short gasp from her, and as his hand moved down her belly and his fingers began teasing, Julia said, "That's enough. I'm ready."
After they'd consummated their love again, while Julia was trapped beneath Mario, with their joined bodies pressed together, and her legs wrapped around him, it came to her that walls weren't closing in around her, nor did she feel a panic attack coming. All she felt was the warm weight of the body of the man she loved, entwined with hers, and she was certain that, after twenty years of living with it, she had at last exorcised the ogre.
***
Mario spent the next two days working on the motorized crane with Sergei, in addition to instructing both kids in marbles, and Julia in boxing when the kids were with Grace and Jack. They also went on horseback outings as a family. But his nights were spent with Julia, who welcomed him into her bed, and into her life, in a way that no woman ever had. She loved him unco
nditionally, and by the third day, Mario knew precisely what he wanted. So, after informing Jack that he needed to talk to him and Grace, Jack ushered him into the family room, where Grace was waiting.
After they were seated, Mario said, "I want to get some information about Sergei and Irina. What does the process entail if someone wants to adopt them?"
"Do you know a couple who might be interested?" Grace asked.
"Maybe," Mario replied.
"It's really not all that complicated," Grace said. "The adoption would go through a non-profit agency committed to helping special needs and hard-to-adopt children find homes. They try to match these kids with families capable of caring for them, and who are committed to keeping them if problems come up. They don't want to place children with families who might turn them back over to the state if the kids are difficult or troubled. They need families who will give them unconditional love, families like ours."
Grace looked at Jack, who shook his head, and said, "Honey, we've been all through this. I'm sixty-two, and you're fifty-six, and we can't take on a couple of kids. As it is, we have nine grandchildren and one on the way. The agency will find good homes for Irina and Sergei."
"But they'll be going back into the foster care system," Grace said. "We're licensed for foster care now, so we could at least keep them here until the agency can place them."
"That's another thing we need to discuss," Jack said. "I let you talk me into this, but I know you and kids. You'll get attached to them, and they'll settle in here on the ranch, and we'll be in our seventies by the time they graduate from high school."
"Back to the adoption agency," Mario cut in. "What's the process?"
"I don't know," Jack replied. "You'd have to contact them."
"I know how it works," Grace said. "They send someone out to walk you through the process, and after that, if the couple still wants to go forward with the adoption, they send a caseworker out to interview the couple and do a study, then the couple is paired with a child or children if there are siblings, or if they have a particular child or children they want, they will go forward with the adoption."
Finding Justice (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 12) Page 19
