The Perfect Storm_A Thrilling Romantic Suspense

by Madyson Grey

  Rafael and Victoria were glad to have a diversion, so they pulled off the freeway and parked. Inside they discovered a great little gift shop where they each added to their growing collection of souvenirs. And they were introduced to date milkshakes. One taste of that cold, sweet treat and they were hooked for life. After topping off the fuel tank, they were on the road again.

  There were a couple more little settlements along the way, but they stayed on the freeway, not getting off until they were at the far west end and saw the signs directing them to the Yuma Territorial Prison. That was their destination for this town.

  They took each other’s pictures with a convict’s shirt and a prisoner number sign, and did the same in a jail cell that was accessible. They both posted these pictures to their social media accounts, eliciting many teasing remarks from the few friends they each had. Victoria’s mind wandered to thoughts of her mother having to be in a jail cell, and again was glad that she was spared that shame.

  Being in jail worked up their appetites, so they went in search of food. Their supply of food in the RV had been seriously depleted, so they found a restaurant that tickled their fancy and had a nice dinner. After their hunger was satisfied, they explored the rest of the area before calling it a day.

  “You know, day after tomorrow our month will be up,” Rafael reminded Victoria that evening.

  “I know,” she said, making a pouty face. “I wish we could just keep going and going and going. Although, as awful as I know this sounds, with Mother dead, I don’t dread going home quite as much as I did before. Everything that had faced us before is moot now. Even the police investigation into Daddy’s death is pretty much irrelevant now. I know that Mother killed him, and I guess that’s all that really matters. At least we don’t have to endure a court trial to prove it now. I was so dreading that.

  “The worst thing now that we have to face is Mateo’s situation. I am sorry that you will have to deal with that now. First it was my mother committing crimes, and now it’s your brother. I think we both need a new family.”

  She tried to laugh at her own crack, but it fell short and sounded more like a sob than a laugh.

  “At least we still have my mama,” Rafael said soberly. “She will be your mama, too.”

  “And we have Lena,” Victoria added. “She’s like a mama to me.”

  “Yes, she is. She’s a good woman,” Rafael declared. “And we have each other, and someday we will have a family, and we will be good parents to them, won’t we?”

  “Yes, we will,” Victoria agreed. “And we will take them with us on our trips across the country. We may have to get a bigger motorhome, though.”

  She snuggled up closer to Rafael where they were sitting up on the bed.

  “How many kids do you want?” she asked him.

  “I think two are plenty,” he responded. “What do you think? How many do you want?”

  “Just one or two. A boy and a girl would be nice, but I think you kinda have to take what you get,” she said with a little giggle.

  “That’s the way it works,” he said, “unless you want to adopt.”

  Victoria was silent for a moment, pondering his suggestion made in jest.

  “That is a thought, you know. There are a lot of unwanted babies out there. Maybe we should take this into serious consideration. Why bring more babies into this world when there are those out there who desperately need a loving home?”

  “I never thought of it,” Rafael said, “but you’re right. Let’s think about that for a while. I don’t think we should even consider kids just yet anyway.”

  “No, I agree,” Victoria said. “I would like to wait at least a year or two. I want you all to myself for a while yet. But when we’re ready, I think we should consider adoption.”

  “OK, we will,” he said. “But we can still practice making babies in the meantime.”

  With that, he bent his head to claim her lips, while his hands explored her body. She eagerly responded in kind, reveling in his lovemaking. When their passion was spent, Victoria got up and went to the front of the motorhome to get the atlas she had relied on for their trip. She used the GPS, too, but liked the big picture that a real paper map gives.

  She put the atlas between them on the bed and opened it to the California pages.

  “Here’s where we are,” she said, pointing to Yuma right on the Arizona/California border. And here’s LA. There are a couple of ways to get there. What’s your pleasure?”

  Rafael propped himself up on one elbow and studied the map. Victoria traced the various routes with her finger so he could see the choices.

  “We can go over to San Diego and drive up the coast and kill another day that way, or we can go straight north from here to I-10 and go through Palm Springs and into LA that way,” she said.

  “I’m for going through San Diego,” Rafael said. “What’s your preference?”

  “San Diego,” she said. “I want to see the ocean after all this desert. Maybe we can go to the San Diego Zoo on our way through, and then stop and play on the beach somewhere before we get home.”

  “Sure, that sounds good to me,” he agreed. “Let’s get some sleep now, and then we can get an early start in the morning. If we can get out of here by six, we can be in San Diego by nine, giving us plenty of time for the zoo and whatever else we want to do.”

  “Works for me,” Victoria said. “I’m sleepy.”

  She closed the atlas and put it back up front where it would be handy in the morning. They were up by five the next morning, got dressed, and after cups of coffee and doughnuts they’d purchased the evening prior, they were back on the road.

  “I have gotten real used to this life,” Victoria said as they cruised down the freeway. “I hate to go home, but I know we need to. I’m gonna have to see Mr. Hall now about Mother’s will and find out how all this is gonna play out. And I have to go see Lieutenant Mobry and tell him that there is no point in pursuing the murder investigation.”

  “Yeah, and I’ve got to check in at the office and see how things are going there,” Rafael added. “You know, I’ve been thinking about this business of ours. The majority of our business revolves around our real estate holdings and the rental income from them. Primarily, all I’ve ever seen is the paperwork, or actually the computer files, on each of these properties. I think it would be a good idea for us to personally visit each and every property that we now own, look over each building and make certain that each one is up to snuff. We should meet with each building tenant and introduce ourselves and ask if there are any issues with the building or any of the tenants in the buildings. I’d like to be a hands-on owner. What do you think?”

  “I think you’re a very smart man,” Victoria said, smiling at Rafael. “I think it’s a marvelous plan. It will also give us an excuse to do some more traveling and be able to write off our travel expenses. We should set up a schedule and visit each property once every year. At the same time, we can look into acquiring more properties if you want to.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” he said. “And there may be one now and then that we should unload. We will have to learn to handle this business all by ourselves now. Your dad taught me a lot, but I still have a lot to learn.”

  “Yeah, well, he didn’t teach me much of anything as far as business goes,” Victoria said. “Mother was too busy trying to suck me into her lifestyle for him to have a chance, I guess.

  “So, do you remember where all the buildings are that we own? I saw the list once, but I don’t remember them all,” Victoria said.

  “I think I have them all memorized,” Rafael said. “That was one thing your dad expected me to know—where all his holdings were.

  “Let’s see. There are twelve buildings in the LA area, including the Thornton Building. Also a shopping mall in Pasadena, one in Redlands, and one in Long Beach. There are three buildings in San Diego, which we could drive by and look at if you want to. I think I know where they all are. If not, I can look them up
on my iPad. There are three more in San Francisco, one in Albuquerque, which we could have gone by when we were there, but I didn’t think about it. Same with the one in Houston. We were right near Houston. There are a couple in Dallas and Memphis, four in Portland, I think, and one in Denver, Des Moines, and in New Orleans. Is that all? Oh, yeah, there are three in Nashville. I think that’s all.”

  “Wow, that’s a lot,” Victoria exclaimed. “I didn’t know we had that many. I’ve been to a few of them with Daddy. Some of the ones in LA, one in San Francisco I remember, and he took me to Portland with him one time. I think that’s what influenced me to choose an art school in Seattle. I liked the Pacific Northwest. Of course, the day or two we were up there, it was sunny. I had no idea how much it rains up there until I moved there.”

  “I’ve been to some of them, too,” Rafael said. “All of the ones here in California, plus the one in Des Moines and the one in New Orleans, he took me to. I’ve also been to all the shopping malls around LA that he, we, own. I’m having a hard time thinking of this business in terms of ‘I’ and ‘we’ instead of ‘he,’” Rafael said.

  “I know, me, too,” Victoria agreed, nodding her head.

  While Rafael was rattling off the locations of their properties, Victoria was writing them down on a piece of paper. Then she put them in sequential order from west to east. The Portland properties were the only ones that were kinda off by themselves.

  “You know, if we looked into purchasing a property or two up Seattle way, the ones in Portland wouldn’t be off all by themselves,” Victoria suggested. “Maybe Vancouver, or Salem, or even Medford. Medford is growing like crazy. They don’t all have to be in huge cities. Some of the mid-sized cities could be just as profitable.”

  “That’s a thought,” Rafael said. “You should start making notes of our ideas so that we don’t forget about them. Start an idea file.”

  “Good idea,” Victoria said with a chuckle. “I think I’ll do that when we get home. You know how to link computers, don’t you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I know that somehow, two different computers can access the same files. So if you can figure out how to do that, we could make a document that we can both access and add our ideas to it as we think of them.”

  “I think I can come up with some way to do that,” he said.

  Upon arriving in San Diego, Victoria guided Rafael to the zoo, using the GPS on her smartphone. It was good to get out of the rig and stretch and move around a bit. Since they had skimped on breakfast that morning, they were hungry. So before going into the zoo, Victoria fixed them some sandwiches, which they ate with potato chips.

  Victoria had been to the San Diego Zoo a couple of times, but Rafael had never been there. They both loved it and covered the entire zoo at least twice. They did and saw everything that was possible to see and do, and were as thrilled with the adventure as if they were two little kids. But after six hours in the place they decided it was time to leave it all behind.

  They made their way slowly up the coast highway, stopping wherever they could to walk on the sandy beaches. Just before suppertime, they pulled into an RV park that was within walking distance of the beach. There was a restaurant close by also, so after supper, they walked down to the beach, chased waves, and looked for treasures in the sand.

  As the sun slid beneath the waves, the air got cool, but they were loath to leave the spectacular scene. Like so many lovers before them have done, they stood with arms around each other gazing out to sea. Just before it got too dark to see, they walked back to the motorhome, certain that this was the most perfect way to end their honeymoon trip that ever could be. And they hadn’t even planned it. It was just one of those blessings that one accepts with a grateful heart.

  They made the most of the last night of their honeymoon. Their love knew no bounds as they gloried in one another’s body and pleasured each other until they could do no more but sleep. They slept the sleep of babes and awakened with the sunrise, refreshed and ready to face a new day.

  They went out for breakfast and dallied over coffee and sweet rolls, reluctant to end this special time that they had spent together, just the two of them. But even their honeymoon hadn’t been without its moments. Mateo’s robbery of their home and Marian’s suicide had certainly tried to put a damper on their happiness. But they were stronger than the trouble that came their way, and they chose to rise above it, rather than let it drag them down in despair.

  “I think I’d better call Lena and find out where she is and let her know that we’ll be home tonight,” Victoria said. “I’ve been so wrapped up in just enjoying our trip, that I kinda forgot about calling her.”

  “Yeah, you should,” Rafael agreed.

  So while Rafael looked under the hood of the motorhome, and checked the oil and other fluids, Victoria called Lena. She had just gotten home from the Redwoods, she told Victoria.

  “After I left Yosemite, I went on up north and cut over to the coast at Redding, and then drove up through the Redwoods to Crescent City. It’s beautiful up there,” Lena said.

  “I’m so glad you had a good time,” Victoria said. “By the way, do we need to stop at the store for milk or bread or anything before we get home tonight?”

  “No, I’ll go out and do the shopping sometime today,” Lena told her.

  It had always been Lena’s job to do the grocery shopping since she was the one who did all the cooking. David provided her with a credit card that she used when making household purchases. Then he paid the balance in full each month. It was the simplest way to do things, then neither one of them had to worry about her having enough cash on hand to do her shopping.

  But since Victoria had been mistress of the house, she had done some of the shopping, too. Just something that she had become accustomed to from living on her own. She was going to have to establish a routine that worked for both of them. Trouble was, Victoria wasn’t much of a routine-type person. Organized in many ways, she was more of a spur-of-the-moment type of person. Her mother had been a very routine person and had run a very smooth household, Victoria had to give her credit for that. It was something that Victoria would have to work on.

  “Is Lena home?” Rafael asked when he came back inside the RV.

  “Yeah, just got home yesterday,” Victoria said. “She’s been up north to the Redwoods.”

  “Good for her. It’s about time she had some time off.”

  They finally bit the bullet and unhooked the motorhome, rolled in the slides, and headed north for Los Angeles and home. They lollygagged along the way just as much as possible, stopping at turnouts and every other place that caught their attention. They stopped for lunch at a sub shop and ordered sandwiches to go. Then they walked to the beach to sit and eat. At the sub shop Victoria had picked up a brochure for an amusement park nearby.

  “Do you want to go here?” she asked Rafael, holding up the brochure for him to see.

  “Sure, that looks like fun,” he said. “Where is it?”

  “Not very far. See that island over there? It’s over in that area. It says it’s on an island, but that there is ferry service across. And parking.”

  “OK, let’s do it. We’re not that far out from home, maybe an hour or less. Might as well stay out all day,” he said.

  After they finished eating, they found their way to where they could park and get on the ferry that would take them out to the island and the amusement park. They rode all the rides and did everything they could, and filled every single minute to the brim with fun and love.

  “I thank Daddy every day that he had the insight to know that we would be a good couple,” Victoria said as they were walking hand in hand back to the ferry.

  “It is amazing that he could figure it out, I think,” Rafael said. “But I’m sure glad that he did.”

  All too soon, they made the last turn from the street into their driveway. Victoria reached out the window and buzzed the house. Lena greeted them through
the intercom, and opened the gate. Rafael parked the motorhome in front of the house and shut off the engine. Victoria sighed and they looked at each other. Even though it was dark, there was enough light from the security yard light to see each other’s face. They smiled smiles of resignation and opened their doors to get out.

  Victoria opened the rear side door and picked up all the bags of souvenirs they had bought to take inside. She especially wanted to give Lena the things she had picked up for her along the way. Rafael took a couple of the bags because there were more than Victoria could carry. She had also purchased several paintings along the way that were representative of local art and artists. Those could stay in the motorhome until morning.

  Lena was at the front door to let them in, excited to see them after being apart for a whole month. She reached for a bag to help Victoria get in the door. Victoria handed her the one that had things in it just for her.

  “This one’s for you, Lena,” she said. “Just a few little souvenirs we picked up along the way.”

  “Oh, thank you, honey,” Lena said. “I didn’t expect this, but thank you! I brought you something, too from up north.”

  They walked into the family room where Victoria and Rafael set down all the bags they had carried in. One bag was for Rafael’s mom and Mateo. Rafael had bought him a couple of things before they learned of the robbery. The rest was mostly their stuff.

  Lena sat down and eagerly examined the contents of her bag. She was tickled with everything and so appreciative. There were several refrigerator magnets for her collection, and a delicate transparent blue glass vase that they had purchased from a glass blower after watching him make it. There was a glass globe that was made to look as if the Milky Way were inside of it. Made with ash from the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption, it was a beautiful display piece. There was also a dainty pair of silver and turquoise earrings from the Grand Canyon, and a few other little souvenirs from the various places they had been.