A Touch of Murder

by Donna Raider

  “Oh, no.” Sara blushed. “But I want to. Have you and Amber made love?”

  “No,” Adam said, shaking his head, “but I want to, also. I’m not certain I can be with her daily for three months and not…” His voice trailed off.

  “How would you feel about a double wedding?” Sara blurted out. “We could get married next month, then we could be together. I’m certain it would put Mom and Mika’s mind at ease about having all of us under one roof.”

  “I haven’t even asked her to marry me.” Adam shrugged. “I don’t know if she will agree. I know she loves me, but she is so concerned that I don’t know my own mind.”

  “What do you think?” Sara asked.

  “She’s always on my mind,” Adam declared. “Not an hour goes by that I don’t think of her or envision her beautiful face. I have always loved her, and I always will. You know she loved someone who hurt her very badly. She is slow to trust. If I knew who the bastard was, I would choke him out.”

  “Ask her,” Sara prodded him. “Ask her tonight when you get back to the apartment.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Mika, darling,” Leah spoke softly to her wife. “Who named you?”

  Mika shrugged. “What do you mean?” she asked, confused about Leah’s question.

  “Who gave you the name Mika?” Leah smiled sweetly at her. She was stretched out on their sofa, her head in Leah’s lap. Leah was reading a book written in Hebrew.

  “I don’t know.” Mika frowned, trying to recall if someone had given her the name. “I have just always been Mika. Like God has always been God. I wasn’t born or anything. I have just always existed.”

  “This book says ‘Quis ut Deus?’ is a Latin sentence meaning ‘Who is like God?’ It is a literal translation of the name Mika.” She watched Mika’s blue eyes as she spoke to her.

  Mika smiled knowingly. “Trust me, Leah; there is no one like God. God is indescribable. I am nothing like our Lord. I fall so short of being like God, it is unimaginable. We all strive to be as godly as possible, but none of us are.

  “I wish you could have seen God creating Earth and mankind. He had such dreams for his creations.”

  “Tell me about it,” Leah requested.

  The elevator dinged, signaling the impending arrival of their children.

  “Sometime when we are alone for a long time.” Mika smiled. “Perhaps when we are in the universe and I can point out some things to you.”

  Leah leaned down and kissed Mika’s lips softly, then pulled back to look into her sky-blue eyes. Leah knew heaven was in those eyes.

  Athena and Luke reached them first, squealing and climbing up on Mika’s stomach. Athena scrambled across Mika’s face to get to Leah. “Whoa,” Mika said with a laugh, “don’t trample me to get to your mother. Just let me get out of the way.”

  Mika slid her head out of her wife’s lap and landed on the floor with Luke jumping up and down on her stomach. Mika rolled over, dumping her youngest son onto the carpet. “Bwahaha.” She laughed in her best evil tone.

  Luke squealed and tried to crawl away. “Save me, Bubby.” He lifted his arms up to Matt, who swung him up into the air, just as the tickle monster grabbed at his leg. Luke’s shriek was almost deafening.

  “Bubba has you, little man.” Matt laughed as Luke threw his arms around his older brother’s neck and clung to him as if his life depended on it. Nothing felt as good as the trusting hug of a baby seeking security.

  Mika stood as all twelve of her children filled the room, along with Jennifer and Amber. The older children had taken everyone to the park.

  “What is up?” Mika smiled as Eve and Paul sat down beside their mother. The others followed their lead, sitting in chairs or on the floor.

  “Adam has to go to the embassy in Africa,” Amber answered solemnly. “It has been three days and the news just said the search for him is intensifying. The rest of the team flew to the US this morning.”

  Mika nodded. “I will accompany you invisibly until they notify your mother they have you in a safe place,” Mika told her son.

  Adam moved as if to argue. Amber’s hand on his arm stopped him.

  “Let’s go.” Adam smiled nervously. “The quicker I show up there, the quicker I can get back here.”

  He pulled Amber off to the side and spoke in soft tones. “Please have an answer for me when I return.” He leaned down and kissed her chastely.

  “I will.” She nodded.

  “Shall we, Mika?” He caught Mika’s hand and they disappeared.

  Leah sat speechless. She could not remember a time that Mika had left her without a goodbye kiss. I guess the honeymoon’s over, she thought sarcastically.

  A soft shimmer at her side told her Mika was back. Mika placed her hand behind Leah’s neck and kissed her. “I love your lips.” She smiled, and she was gone.

  ##

  “We might as well make the best of this wait,” Leah said nervously. “Why don’t you children select a video to watch and we’ll pop some popcorn and fix drinks?”

  The younger children scurried to the video case to select their favorite video. They narrowed it down to three. Mark wrote the names of the videos on three strips of paper, carefully folded them, and shook them up between his hands. “Reach in and pick one,” he told Eve. She and Paul had wanted the same video.

  “Which one is it?” Athena asked.

  “The one we selected.” Paul gave his sister a hug.

  Mark slid the video into the player and queued it to start at the beginning of the show. He and Hannah walked into the kitchen. “Do you need some help?” Hannah asked their mother.

  “Thank you, dear.” Leah placed a roll of paper towels into her hands and gave Mark a bowl of popcorn. “I think we can carry everything else.” She smiled at her beautiful children.

  As the children settled down to watch the video, Matt opened his laptop and set it on the news station. He silenced the sound. “We will know if they begin to talk about Adam,” Regina explained to their mother.

  ##

  Mika looked around. “Where are we, Son?” she whispered.

  “Across the street from the American embassy.” Adam nodded toward an austere-looking building surrounded by an eight-foot wall. Huge iron gates blocked their entrance to the compound. Two guards stood on either side of the gate.

  “Here goes nothing.” Adam squeezed Mika’s arm as he started across the street. He was glad Mika was with him. Mika made her son look the same as he had when he appeared to them in their apartment beaten, filthy and half-naked.

  “Adam Cross,” Adam identified himself as he approached the gate. “I need help.” He collapsed to the ground and lay in a huddled mess as the guards approached him and eyed him suspiciously.

  “Get the captain,” one of the guards barked to the others. The men opened the gate.

  The captain immediately instructed his men to get Adam into the embassy. Mika invisibly followed to make certain her son was properly taken care of.

  Adam was taken to the embassy infirmary, where he was cleaned up and his wounds treated. He was dressed in clean clothes and then told to rest.

  “I need to call my parents,” he told the ambassador who had just arrived. “They will be worried sick.”

  “Of course.” The man nodded. “Who are your parents?”

  “Just give me a phone.” Adam smiled cautiously. “I know their number.”

  The man led Adam to a phone. “Mom, it’s Adam. Yes. Yes. I am fine. I’m sure I will be home soon. Hopefully, tomorrow. I love you too.”

  The ambassador called the secretary of state’s office and informed them that he had the last member of the archeological team. “He just wants to go home,” the ambassador concluded.

  “I understand the need to debrief him,” the ambassador argued. “Can’t that be done in the US? It would be faster and safer to send him there.

  “They want you to stay here until they can send a team to debrief you.” The ambassador frowne
d as he hung up the phone and turned to Adam.

  “That doesn’t even make sense.” Adam scowled.

  “I know,” the ambassador agreed. “The state department seems to be in quite a mess nowadays with that woman running around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

  “Sir,” the captain of the guards said as he rushed into the room, “a US helicopter has just landed on the roof. They have papers to pick up this young man.”

  “Let me see the papers.” The ambassador scanned the information. “They are all in order. Come.” He led Adam to the roof where the chopper was waiting, its rotors whirling noisily.

  Adam grinned when he saw the pilot was Mika. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. Mika motioned for her son to take the seat next to her and buckle up.

  Mika saluted the ambassador as she revved the engine on the helicopter. Everyone moved away from the machine as it slowly began to lift from the roof. Mika handed her son a headset.

  “I am not even going to ask how you did this.” Adam laughed into the mouthpiece of his headset.

  The chopper headed out to sea. As the entire radar network of the US Defense Department went offline for thirty seconds, the aircraft silently landed on top of Cross Tower.

  ##

  Leah and Mika watched as the last of their children got into the elevator. “Good night, my darlings,” their mother said, smiling. “I love you.”

  She turned to Mika and threw herself into her arms. After a resounding kiss, she led her to their bedroom.

  “I don’t think I have ever been willed into a helicopter before.” Mika laughed as she followed Leah into the bedroom, admiring the back of her. “You are so ingenious.”

  “Darling, when I found out they weren’t sending our son home immediately, I knew you would stay with him. Which meant I would sleep alone until you returned.” She shook her head, grinning broadly. “I don’t think so.”

  ##

  Adam followed Amber to her apartment. When she closed the door, she slipped into his arms and kissed him with all her heart. “Yes,” she said simply, “the answer is yes.”

  Adam looked into her emerald eyes. “I will love you always. I will never cause you a moment’s anguish.”

  She led him to the sofa. “I have loved you from the first moment your mother placed you into my arms. I can’t even tell you how my heart filled with love when I looked into your blue eyes and you caught hold of my finger. You had quite a grip even then.

  “As I watched you grow, I loved you even more. You have grown into an incredibly wonderful man. One with whom I would be honored to spend eternity.”

  He pulled her into his arms and kissed her slowly, increasing the pressure of their lips as he lost himself in the feel of her kiss. He knew he should move away from her but couldn’t. The intensity of their kiss increased as he moved his tongue along her full lower lip. Soft hands against his chest pushed him away. “We’ve waited this long, dear, we can wait a few more weeks.”

  “May first,” he said huskily. “Let’s get married May first.”

  “Yes,” she whispered against his lips.

  ##

  “How does May first sound?” Adam caught his sister’s hand as they strolled through Central Park. “That gives everyone six weeks to plan.”

  He had called his sister almost as soon as Amber had agreed to a date.

  “What’s to plan?” Sara laughed. “Just put Queen Mommy in charge. It will happen tomorrow.”

  “She does have a propensity for getting things done.” Adam nodded in agreement. “But let’s give our prospective spouses at least the feeling that we are all involved.”

  “Honestly, I don’t think Jennifer cares, just as long as we get married soon. Aunt Amber can do almost anything Mom can do, so we could turn the arrangements over to her.”

  “I think she would like that.” Adam smiled. “Do you think you could drop the ‘aunt’ and just call her Amber? It would help me feel less incestuous.” He laughed.

  “I will work on that, just for you.” She giggled. “I am meeting Jennifer for lunch today. I’ll see if May first is agreeable to her. If so, we can take Mom and Mika to dinner tonight and discuss plans with them.”

  “Do we want Mika to perform the ceremony?” Adam asked. “She might prefer to walk you down the aisle and give you away.”

  “Why don’t we ask her?” Sara suggested as she checked her watch for the time. “Ready to go pick up our engagement rings?”

  “I truly am.” Her brother beamed.

  ##

  Sara entered the quiet restaurant. She had arrived ahead of her fiancée. Jennifer had started surgery at six that morning, doing a triple bypass that had taken her five hours. The bypass had taken longer than she had anticipated due to problems encountered. She had rescheduled two other less-involved operations for the next day. Exhausted, she was taking the rest of the day off. She pushed the button on her phone that would bring Sara into her life.

  “Hello, my love,” Sara said sweetly when she answered the phone.

  “I am on my way, honey.” Jennifer inhaled deeply as she heard Sara’s voice. “I can’t wait to see you. Go ahead and order for us. I want my usual.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Jennifer stood in the entrance of the restaurant. “She is right over there.” The hostess motioned to the table where Sara sat, reading a medical journal.

  “Do you ever read anything for fun?” Jennifer smiled as she leaned down to kiss her fiancée.

  “This is fun.” Sara laughed. “How am I to know what is going on in your world if I don’t keep up with it?”

  “I am sorry I’m late.” Jennifer sat down across from her as the waiter placed their salads on the table. “Looks like my timing is just right.”

  “Um,” Sara hummed. Taking a page from her mother’s book, she ran the toe of her shoe down the back of her fiancée’s calf.

  Jennifer’s eyes widened as she jerked upright. “My, aren’t you frisky today!”

  “I’ve missed you,” Sara said honestly.

  “I hate being away from you too,” Jennifer admitted. “I’m sorry I had to leave so early this morning. It is a good thing I did. It was a tough surgery.

  “It amazes me how a man can eat his way to three hundred pounds and then wonder why his arteries are clogged.”

  “I bet you’re exhausted,” Sara sympathized.

  “I thought I was,” Jennifer replied, “but then I saw your incredible blue eyes. I could lose my soul in those eyes.”

  “Do you have to go back to the hospital?” Sara asked.

  “No, I’m all yours for the rest of the day.” Jennifer chuckled as the other woman’s dimples deepened with her smile.

  ##

  As soon as the door closed behind them, Jennifer pulled Sara into her arms. Their kiss was slow and sensuous, fanning the flame that was burning so close to the surface in both. Breathless, Sara pushed the other woman away. “We need to talk.” She nibbled shyly at her bottom lip.

  “Okay.” Jennifer nodded apprehensively.

  “I know we have discussed getting married next year after I return from my tour, and I really do want to marry you, but…”

  “…but not anytime soon,” Jennifer finished her fiancée’s sentence sadly. “However long it takes for you to decide you want me to spend my life with you, I will wait. Don’t stall too long, though—I’m not getting any younger and I don’t have the same luxury of time as you.”

  Sara held out a beautiful engagement ring. “Marry me May first,” she said softly.

  Jennifer studied her love’s face. Pulling her eyes away from Sara’s sky-blue eyes, she looked at the engagement ring. It was a flawless blue diamond set in white gold. The diamond reminded her of Sara’s eyes; almost clear, but with the beautiful shimmer of blue. She had never seen a piece of jewelry so beautiful.

  “Of this year? Next month?” Jennifer was astounded.

  Sara nodded.

  “Yes, of course. Yes.” Jennifer smiled, gree
n eyes dancing.

  ##

  Amber and Jennifer were delighted to have a double wedding.

  “We’re not going to be doing everything together, are we?” Jennifer teased her future wife. “I mean, like we can honeymoon apart, right?”

  Sara laughed as she hugged the beautiful doctor. “We can honeymoon anywhere you want. You plan it and surprise me.”

  On the floor beneath them, Adam and Amber were discussing honeymoon plans. “Is there any place you would like to go?” Adam asked her as he lay with his head in her lap.

  Amber stroked his hair, absentmindedly. All she wanted was to be alone with this young god. She didn’t care if they were in a hovel if it was private. Very private. “Anywhere will be perfect.” She smiled down at him. “We only have a week. I don’t think we will be doing much sight-seeing.”

  He looked up at her through half-closed lids. “How would you feel about borrowing Mika’s sailboat?”

  “That would be perfect.” She giggled. “Your mother describes the boat as ‘pure heaven.’”

  Adam blushed slightly as he thought about his mother and Mika spending time on the boat. “You know, they never returned on time,” he recalled. “They always phoned begging for a few more days.”

  “Sounds ideal to me.” Amber’s green eyes sparkled mischievously. “We won’t have to worry about anyone hearing us.”

  Adam lay very still, quelling the fire she had started in the pit of his stomach.

  ##

  Mika and Leah were slow dancing when their children arrived at Vincent’s. Leah’s hand rested on Mika’s breast and Mika clutched the other hand in her hand, close to her body. She was talking softly in Leah’s ear, her warm breath tickling Leah’s senses.

  “May we just please go home?” Leah’s rich, warm voice made Mika’s heart ache.

  “I think the children have something important to tell us.” Mika smiled. “We really should listen.”

  “Umm,” Leah purred as she pulled Mika’s lips to hers.

  The song ended and Mika led Leah to the table, her hand on Leah’s lower back. Mika felt a tremor pass through Leah and knew it was in response to her touch. “I love you,” she whispered in Leah’s ear.