LLOYD, PAUL R. (22 page)

“We haven’t made any plans yet,
dear.”

“Yes, I know. I’ll leave the
details in your capable hands.” Micah stood up.

“I bet one detail will require us
to wait.”

“Which is?”

“You’ll want a prenuptial
agreement, won’t you? A girl doesn’t marry a billionaire without having to sign
her marital rights away first.”

“Yeah. I… yeah… yeah… you’ll have
to sign something. You are now a wealthy woman, but we have to work out some
mutual understanding of what happens to the money in the event the marriage fails.”

“We haven’t had the wedding yet and
already it’s ending.”

Micah pulled Barbara off the couch
and into a hug. “How about I sign everything over to you? You’ll have financial
security, and I’ll have you?”

“Sounds almost fair, but keep your
darned old money. I want you.” Barbara returned the hug, placing her hands
behind his head.

“I’ll have Ashford Thornby draft it
tomorrow.”

“Who’s he?” Barbara reached up to rub
noses with Micah.

“He handles our legal matters. He’s
more than an attorney. He was a trusted friend and counselor to my father. He
represents my interests on the board.”

“Board?” Barbara asked.

“Solaratac.”

“Never heard of it.”

“You will, dear.”

“I’m sleepy.” Barbara pulled away
from Micah and covered a yawn.

“Me, too.”

“Let’s go to bed.” Barbara pulled
Micah towards the stairs.

Micah followed. “We can call
Ashford and Pastor Fromritz in the morning.”

“Want Fromritz to perform the
wedding?”

“Works for me.” Micah stopped
several steps behind Barbara to admire her beauty as she continued up the
stairs.

At the top of stairs, Barbara
turned around. “Why isn’t Bob here to be best man?”

The Molotov cocktail broke the
living room window before it smacked into the wall and dripped burning gasoline
on the couch, side pieces and carpet. Smoke and the smell of burning fuel
filled Micah’s nostrils.

The spinning red lights of the fire
trucks and ambulance served as a counterpoint to the yellow and blue lights
whirling on top of the police cars. The lights brightened a dark night sky and
suburban landscape.

“… and we’ll keep in touch.” The
Oak Brook police officer snapped his notepad shut.

“Huh, sorry. What did you say?”
Micah scratched his head as the officer made his way into the crowd of onlookers.

“He said he’ll keep us informed
about the investigation.” Barbara leaned against Micah and yawned.

“What inves… oh, yeah. Sorry, I was
thinking about you.”

“As well you should. What say we
leave this mess to the police and firefighters and skedaddle?”

“We’re exhausted. I better call a
cab.” Micah fumbled in his pocket for a cell phone.

“Weren’t you the chap who asked me
to call a cab twenty minutes ago?”

Micah pulled his hand from his
pocket long enough to scratch his chin. “Did I? Sorry. Did it come yet?”

“Waiting for us over there with her
meter running.” Barbara pointed.

“Let’s go.”

Inside the cab, Micah tapped
Barbara’s leg. “Call the Algonquin. We can stay in the Solaratac suite if it’s
available.”

“Separate rooms?” Barbara batted
her eyes at Micah.

“We may be there for a while. Would
you prefer to have your own space?”

Barbara kissed Micah on the lips. “When
the bombs drop and the bullets fly, I want to be with you.”

“Maybe I should book you across
town.”

“Do you always make your big, dumb
mistakes late at night?”

Micah grabbed Barbara’s hand. “With
you around, I can’t go wrong. Driver, the Algonquin.”

Barbara reached into her purse with
her free hand and pulled out her cell phone. “I’ll call for our room, dear.”

“If the Solaratac suite isn’t
available, book something special. I don’t want you to have any of those cheap
budget rooms.” Micah released Barbara’s hand.

“Shh! I’ve got the desk clerk. And
there are no cheap budget rooms along the Magnificent Mile.”

“You know what I mean. Book the
biggest room they have. Tell them we’re with Solaratac.”

“Let’s not waste money, dear. No,
I’m not speaking to you, sir. Give me a moment with my partner.”

Micah patted Barbara’s knee. “Sorry,
but you’ll have to get used to living in the penthouse.”

“But you never lived in the
penthouse.”

“You never visited my place in
Phoenix.”

“Biggie, huh? Uh, sir, the best
room you have. Oh, sorry. Best and biggest you have. We’re with Solaratac. Yes,
a suite will be fine.”

“It was my father’s home. I
inherited it.”

Barbara placed her hand on Micah’s
knee. “So why did you live poor in Naperville?”

“A million five for a house wasn’t
living poor, even if it was a fixer upper.”

“It’s a tad less than a fixer upper
now, dear.”

“I know. I’ve been driven out of my
Naperville house and my Oak Brook rental. Somebody’s trying to tell me
something.”

Barbara leaned
in close to Micah. “Lionel Langdon is trying to kill us, darling.”

***

Micah enjoyed the sunshine on his
face. He opened his eyes. “Oh.”

“Hello, Micah. You didn’t expect
me, did you?” Denise Appleby smiled from about six inches above Micah’s face.
She brushed his hair away from his face.

Micah was in the pasture where he
visited Glory and her friends in his sleep. He didn’t see the girls. “Why are you
here?”

“Visiting. Aren’t we still
friends?”

“Did you miss the part where you
kidnapped my fiancée?”

“Was she your fiancée? I thought
she was just someone to play with while you made up your mind about me? You do
remember we love each other, don’t you?”

Micah pushed Denise off and rolled
over to move away from her. “As I recall, you were the one who called it off.”

“You needed more time, Micah.”
Denise rolled onto her side. She rested her head on her hand.

“I need you to get you out of my
life forever.”

“I will in due time, darling.”

“Don’t call me ‘darling.’” Micah
sat up.

“But darling, we belong together.”
Denise put her arms out towards Micah.

“You belong in hell.” Micah stood
up.

Denise turned into a demon. “And
I’m the one to take you there.” She then turned into Ahlman. “Like my little
trick, old boy?”

The warm noise of the shovel when
it smacked against the side of Ahlman’s head made Micah jump. Ahlman fizzled,
faded and disappeared. Micah followed the handle up to the other end of the
shovel where he found Bob using a baseball bat grip on the shovel handle.

“Wanted to do that for some time.”
Bob’s eyes met Micah’s.

“What are you doing here?”

“Smacking Ahlman up the side of the
head.”

“Is this heaven?”

“Not hardly.”

“Then where are we?” Micah looked
around.

Bob gestured to the nearby woods. “Looks
like a pasture surrounded by woods in the mountains. Quite scenic.”

“But where are we?”

“If you look with eyes that see,
Micah, you’ll learn we are inside your head. Here come the girls.”

“Hi, Micah.” Ginny smiled and waved
at Micah. The other girls waved also.

“What’s up?” Micah asked.

“We heard you and Barbara are engaged,”
said Ginny.

“Word travels fast inside my head.”

Glory stepped closer to Micah. “Word
travels fast in the spirit realm.”

Bob looked at the girls. “Let me
explain this to Micah, man to man.”

“Okay,” said Ginny. The girls faded
away.

Bob flopped onto the grass. “Micah,
you have to stay pure. You’re on a quest.”

“You mean no sex before marriage?”

“Yes. And no marriage before the
quest is finished.”

“When does the quest end?”

“When you know your purpose in
life.”

“My purpose is to love Barbara.”

“You have a calling. You have
blessings in abundance that the Lord wants you to use. You have an enemy who
wants to kill you. You have a secret adversary in the form of a high priestess
or warlock or whatever the person is. She is mighty powerful to mask herself so
well. She is not visible in this level of the spirit realm. You’ll need patience,
Micah. No marriage or sex until after the quest. Then you will know your true
heart’s desire.”

“Priestess? You used the feminine.”

“I did, didn’t I? But I also said
warlock. There’s at least a fifty percent chance it’s a woman.”

“You sound like a cheap romance
novel, but I’ll try to be patient and keep my eye out for the secret hag or
warlock.”

“You have to
succeed. Trying is good. Doing is better.”

***

“Doing
is
better, darling.”
Barbara snuggled against Micah.

Micah struggled to open his eyes. “Huh?”

“I was agreeing with you, darling.
You were talking in your sleep.”

Micah rolled onto his back and
wrapped his arm around Barbara. “Ummm…. You’re naked under this sheet, aren’t
you?”

“Is that a problem?” Barbara
stroked Micah’s cheek.

“Dear heart, I love you so much.”

Barbara pulled the sheet back on
Micah. “So why aren’t you naked yet?”

“Bob said I have to wait until we
are married.”

Barbara stared at Micah with
question marks in her eyes. “Bob? Our Bob?”

“Yes. He said we have to wait.”

“Isn’t he dead?”

“Not in the spirit realm.”

Barbara grabbed a pillow, plopped
it on Micah’s chest and flopped on top of it. “Okay. You’re going too fast.
Either you believe in God or you don’t.”

“I do now.”

Barbara counted off on her fingers.
“And you’re either a Christian or Moslem or Jew or Hindu or whatever.”

“At the moment I’m whatever, but
culturally a Christian. Or not a Christian. You know, I’m an American. Aren’t
we all Christians or supposed to be?”

Barbara kissed Micah on the cheek. “My
great grandmother was Jewish. My grandfather was a Syrian, but he never attended
mosque. Let’s see, Mom is some kind of Buddhist-Catholic thingy. Dad is new age
when he’s not busy being atheist or Unitarian. He goes back and forth. No, you
don’t have to be Christian to be American. That’s a Christian conceit. They
think all those Deists who founded our nation were Christians.”

Micah kissed Barbara on top of the
head. “I don’t know what I am yet, but I do believe in God. So much is coming
from the spirit world or demon world that’s way beyond my understanding. Despite
not having a clue, it adds up to a reality beyond our five senses, and that
supports the idea that God exists.”

Barbara twisted a finger through
Micah’s hair. “Only one god?”

“I hope so. Otherwise Ahlman might
be a god, too.” Micah kissed Barbara.

“What a scary proposition. Even so,
one God should be enough for anybody except a Hindu or New Ager or a Druid. Some
people believe Satan is as big a god as the Bible God. Like they’re two sides
of the same coin. Anyway, we can go somewhere and get married today, right?”

Micah took Barbara’s hand out of
his hair. “Bob also said we have to wait to get married until after I complete
my quest.”

Barbara rolled onto her back,
allowing Micah to pin her hands to the bed. “What quest? To kill Ahlman?”

“To discover my purpose in life.”
Micah kissed her.

“Your job is to love me.”

“That’s what I said.” He kissed her
again.

“See. Now, let’s get married. Can
we eat breakfast first? And I am bare ass naked so you might as well ravage me
while there’s time. I’m not sure sex will be as much fun once we’re legal.”

“Please, can we wait this once?” He
kissed her again.

“You are a perv. Never heard of a
man who’d turn down a bare butt redhead, especially one as good looking as me.”

“Please.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll head for the
shower.” Barbara pulled the covers off and sauntered into the bathroom,
revealing her full figure.

Micah threw his pillow at her. “Arghhhh!”

“We have a problem.” Micah sipped a
glass of iced tea on the outdoor patio of the French restaurant.

Barbara put down her copy of the
Tribune
.
“I knew it. Your religion doesn’t allow you to marry a redhead.”

“I can get a special dispensation. The
problem has to do with money.”

Barbara placed a well-manicured
finger on the check. “Not what I wanted to hear after the waiter brought you
the tab. I told you we could eat at a hamburger joint over on State Street, but
no, you had to select the most expensive bistro on the Magnificent Mile, right
across the street from Water Tower Place.”

“Not exactly the money problem we
need to worry about any time soon.”

“You have too much money?”

“No such thing but we still have to
do the pre-nup. I’ll call Ashford. He can do it in a hurry if I ask nicely.”

“I don’t want your money, Micah.
And if you think that’s what I’m after, you can forget the whole thing.”

“Darling, I love you. I’ll give you
all the money. I never wanted it in the first place. It’s a weird thing. Dad
never had gobs of money when I was kid. He made a nice executive salary, the
kind you need when you live in an upper middleclass town like Naperville, but
he made most of his wealth while I was in prison. He invested in technology
start-ups and hit a streak of winners. He rolled them into a single conglomerate.”

“Okay, if I have to marry a
gazillionaire, I will. Go call your friend Ashford.”

Micah shuffled through his cell
phone address book and clicked Ashford’s number. They spoke for a moment, and
then Micah turned to Barbara. “Ashford wants to know how much you want in case
we ever get a divorce. What do you think, fifty million?”

“How about a hundred million as
long as we’re throwing meaningless numbers around?”