Rollie Tyler lay with his eyes closed, letting the warmth of the sun soak into his skin.  He could feel Angie sitting beside him.  It had been a beautiful day at the park.  They’d rented bicycles that morning, then shared a picnic lunch at noon.  Since then, they had just been enjoying their time together.  Rollie had never known that he could feel this content and relaxed.

In the nine days since Syman’s capture, he and Angie had gone on three more evening dates, and they had all been terrific.  Five great dates in a row with the same person was something Rollie had never experienced before, and he knew that the same thing was true with Angie, even when she was in college.  Too bad they hadn’t woken up to the truth about their feelings for each other back then.  Their lives would have been a lot different, and in many ways, a lot more satisfying.

Rollie suddenly sensed that Angie was watching him.  He smiled faintly.  “Yes?” he inquired.

There was a moment’s pause.  “How do you do that?” Angie finally asked.

“Do what?” the Aussie responded, his eyes still closed.

“How do you always know when I’m looking at you?”

Rollie’s eyes opened a crack.  “I can see through my eyelids and out of the back of my head,” he explained, straight-faced.

Playing along, Angie said, “You don’t have x-ray vision, do you?”

Rollie smiled as he slowly and deliberately ran his eyes down the length of her body and back up again.  “Well, if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.  You’d probably start wearing lead-lined clothing.”

Angie slapped his arm, laughing.  “And here I thought you were a gentleman.”

“Whatever gave you that silly idea?” Rollie asked as he pulled Angie down to him and took her mouth with his in a deep kiss.  His hands explored her body with the familiarity of a lover.  Though they had not yet made love, they had been quickly extending the boundaries of their intimacy.  Things were progressing far faster than what Rollie had intended, but he was powerless to slow down, and he suspected that Angie was, too.  He had a feeling that it would not be much longer before they consummated their relationship.

Finally, their lips separated.  Angie glanced about the park to see if anyone had been watching them, but most of the other people there were busy with what they were doing, especially the couples who were engaging in similar activities.

“What’s the matter, Ange?  You still shy about letting everyone see that we’re a couple?” Rollie asked with a smile.

“I was raised a Catholic, Rol,” Angie said, her eyes twinkling.  “Well, sort of.  Dad didn’t attend church much.”

“You know, you’re right,” Rollie said, fighting to keep his face serious.  “I think I’d better stop all this passionate kissing and caressing.  It isn’t proper.”

“Don’t you dare!” Angie growled.

Rollie chuckled and pulled her back down to him, thrusting his tongue into her mouth to taste her familiar flavor.  Angie moaned softly and did the same to him.  Several minutes passed before they separated again.

“Still shy?” Rollie asked while trying to catch his breath.

Angie shook her head, unable to find her voice.  She gazed at the man within whose arms she lay.  She had known Rollie the better part of her life and had seen just about every side of his personality that there was to see.  She'd seen in him as everything from a genius to a stubborn idiot, from a cool, calm professional to a silly clown, from a courageous hero to a frightened, vulnerable human being.  And now, she was seeing him as a lover.  Angie had to admit that if she had known Rollie could be such an attentive, romantic, and passionate lover, she might have entertained thoughts of changing their relationship a long time ago.  And they hadn’t even gone to bed together yet.  She couldn’t help but shiver in eager anticipation for the day that would happen, which would be in the very near future if things kept progressing as they had been.

They had always spent a lot of time together because of work, but, now, they were almost never out of each other’s company.  They ate nearly all their meals together and spent almost every evening with each other either at the loft or in Angie’s apartment.  In fact, Angie spent so much time at the loft, that she might as well be living there.  A couple of her friends had claimed that she and Rollie would get tired of each other’s company soon if they kept spending all their time together, but Angie told them that they didn’t know what they were talking about.  She loved every minute she spent with Rollie, even the times when they did nothing but sit together in silence.  Whenever she wasn’t with him, she found herself thinking about him, wondering where he was, what he was doing.  Angie knew that this obsession about wanting to be together all the time would eventually lessen into something more reasonable, but, for now, it was what they both needed.  She needed to be with him, and she knew that he needed to be with her.

Rollie looked at Angie, who now lay beside him with her eyes closed.  He was glad that she had not pursued her question about how he knew that she was looking at him.  He was not yet ready to talk to her about that and the other strange things that had been growing progressively stronger since he woke up in the hospital.  He still possessed the sixth sense that not only told him whenever Angie was nearby, but also almost exactly where she was.  That was unsettling enough, but now he was discovering other things as well, like the fact that he always knew when Angie was looking at him and sometimes knew what she was thinking when there was no way that he should be able to.  Angie and he had always been ‘tuned in’ to each other because of their long friendship and working relationship.  But this was far more than that.  He tried to think about these things as little as possible, but the questions of how and why this was happening came into his mind often.

Shoving the disturbing thought aside yet again, Rollie turned to Angie fully.  “So, we still on for tonight?” he asked.

“Of course.  It’s my turn to cook dinner for you.  You’ll be there at 6:30, right?”

“Yep.” A half-smile came to Rollie’s face.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Angie asked suspiciously.

“Smiling like what?”

“Like you’ve got something up your sleeve.  You’re not planning on doing anything stupid or embarrassing, are you, like having a mariachi band come to my apartment or putting an ad on TV telling the entire planet that you love me?”

Rollie chuckled.  “I swear that I don’t have anything stupid or embarrassing planned for tonight.”  He paused.  “The TV ad doesn’t air until tomorrow.”

Angie jabbed him in the ribs.  “You had better be joking, Tyler, or you’re dead meat.”

The Aussie laughed outright.  “Relax, Ange.  I’m just kidding.  I’d like to stay healthy for as long as possible.”  He looked at his watch.  “I guess we’d better get a move on if we’re going to get any shopping done.”

They packed up their picnic stuff and took the bikes back to the rental booth.  Rollie dropped Angie off at her apartment, then went off to do his shopping.  They were both planning to spend the rest of the afternoon shopping for stuff for their vacation in Saudi Arabia, which they would be leaving for in less than four weeks.

The young Sheik Alafa was presently dealing with the fact that someone had hired an assassin to kill him.  He was now attempting to find out if any of his servants or business associates had been involved.  But he had been delighted when Rollie contacted him to ask if the invitation to come to his estate was still open.

But getting things for the trip was not the only shopping Rollie had been doing lately.  Yesterday, he had purchased something that had nothing to do with their trip.  He would be picking it up today.  Smiling, Rollie headed for his first destination.

Rollie stepped into Angie’s apartment, not bothering to knock.  They’d gotten well past the point where he knocked before entering.  The moment he walked into the apartment, he smelled the cooking food.  Heading straight for the kitchen, the Aussie stood in the doorway and watched Angie as she prepared their dinner.  She glanced up and saw him.

“Could you set the table?  I’m running a little late.  My shopping took longer than I thought.”

Nodding, Rollie got the plates and silverware and set the table.  He fetched two candles and put them on the table as well, then went back to the kitchen to help Angie.

“So, did you find lots of pretty new things for our vacation?” he asked.

“Uh huh.  They frown on certain types of clothing in Saudi Arabia, especially in regards to women, so I’m going to be wearing things that I don’t usually wear.  What about you?  Did you find some stuff?”

“I’ve gotten a few things,” Rollie replied, trying to keep his face neutral.  He must have succeeded because Angie showed no sign of suspecting anything.

“I wish we could go now,” Angie said with a sigh.

“Me too, but we’ve still got a lot of work left to do on White Light.  Besides, Sheik Alafa’s pretty busy right now.”

“Yeah, I can imagine he is.”

“Um, Ange, I’m going to be gone for a while tomorrow afternoon.”

“Oh?  Where are you going?”

Rollie stopped what he was doing and focused his full attention on Angie.  “The last time I talked to Stacey, my physical therapist, I promised her that when I was back on my feet, I’d have coffee with her.  What with all the stuff that went on with Syman and . . . and you, I forgot all about it.  Anyway, I called her shortly before I came over and asked if she’d like to go have coffee tomorrow.”  He studied Angie’s expression.  “Are you okay with that?  I’ll cancel if you aren’t.”

“No, Rol.  You go meet her.  I’m fine with it,” Angie told him.

Rollie put his arms around her and stroked her cheek.  “Are you sure?”

Angie smiled up at him.  “Yes, I’m sure.  I do trust you, you know.”

Rollie returned the smile.  “Well, that’s nice to know.”  He kissed her gently.  “I love you,” he murmured against her lips.

“And I love you,” Angie responded.  They kissed again, then took the food into the dining room.

They enjoyed their dinner by candlelight, then went to the living room to watch a movie.  Throughout the movie, Rollie kept glancing at Angie, who was comfortably snuggled under his arm, her legs curled up on the cushions.  Ever since the business with Luther Syman was wrapped up, he had been thinking about how he was going to get ‘revenge’ for what Angie did that night in the safe house.  Tonight was the night he was going to put his plan into action.

The Aussie started slowly, almost casually running his fingers up and down her arm.  Gradually, his hand migrated down her body, stroking under her arm, the outer curve of her breast, then down to her waist and hip.  It didn’t take long before the pitch of Angie’s breathing had changed.  His hand wandered down across the top of her thigh, then slid up the back of it to her bottom.  A faint moan escaped Angie’s throat.  The movie was now over, but neither one of them had noticed.  Rollie’s hand moved up the front of Angie’s body to her breast.  He brushed it with his fingertips and was rewarded with a tremor that passed through her body.

Rollie leaned over and murmured in her ear, “It’s getting late, so I guess I’d better go.”

Two seconds after he spoke the words, he abruptly pushed her down onto the couch.  Straddling her thighs, his hands on either side of her head, he lowered his face to within a few inches of hers.  Angie was staring up at him, her pupils dilated with desire.  Her respiration was fast and uneven.

“But, one of these days, Angela Ramirez, I won’t be leaving.  Then I’ll have my way with you,” Rollie whispered huskily.  He then abruptly got up and grabbed his coat.  “G’night, Ange,” he said cheerily, slipping out the front door.

Angie lay unmoving on the couch, trying to calm her body.  For several seconds, she had thought that tonight was going to be the night they finally made love.  But Rollie had tricked her, getting his revenge for what she did in the safe house.  For a moment, she toyed with the idea of getting back at him, but then a smile curved her lips.  Rollie may have done this solely for revenge, but it had been pretty obvious that he was affected by it as much as she had been.

Laughing softly, Angie got up and headed to her bedroom.

As Rollie drove home, he wondered what Angie was going to do or say when he saw her tomorrow.  His revenge had worked perfectly--except for one thing.  His own body had betrayed him, growing aroused over what he was doing.  When he was kneeling over Angie, he’d come very close to pulling her into his arms and ending their courtship phase right then and there.  If he hadn’t left as quickly as he did, that’s what he would have done.

So, why didn’t he?  Why didn’t he turn this car right around, go back to Angie’s apartment, carry her into the bedroom, and make wild love to her throughout the night?  What was he waiting for? He didn’t know.  Something was holding him back.  They had progressed to the point where their kissing and caressing was growing very bold and intimate.  Yet he still felt as if it wasn’t the time to take the final step.  Rollie suspected that it had something to do with Manny.  Though Angie’s father was long dead, Rollie still respected him and what he would have wanted for his daughter.  Rollie had made promises to him, had sworn to look after Angie if anything happened to Manny, and he would keep those promises for as long as he lived.

But what did Angie want?  Rollie already knew the answer to that question.  She wanted him as much as he wanted her.  He could feel that every time they kissed.  So maybe he should just ignore the part of him that was telling him it wasn’t the right time and simply give into what they both wanted.

Their next real date was going to be on Monday.  Angie didn’t know it, but he had something special planned for that date.  If things went as he hoped they would, perhaps that would be the night they took that final step.

Filming on White Light had wrapped a week ago, well ahead of schedule for a change.  They were now working on the post production stuff.  Their next project was already lined up, a science fiction flick called Star Fury.  Filming was scheduled to start on July twentieth, which would give them two weeks for their vacation.

Rollie yawned hugely.  He was tired.  He’d had a nightmare last night, one of the really bad ones.  It was the first time he’d had a nightmare since the ones he suffered after Loubar raped Angie.  Long after the nightmare had awakened him, he’d felt a terrible sensation of dread, like something was very wrong.  It was so bad that he’d been tempted to call Angie and ask if she was all right.  But it had been 4:30 in the morning, and he hadn’t wanted to disturb her.  Instead, he’d gotten up and got some work done.

Rollie knew that the nightmare could have nothing to do with Luther Syman.  The assassin was safely in prison, where he would remain for the rest of his life.  There had been a bit of a battle over jurisdiction in the man’s case, with several other countries and states trying to claim the right to prosecute him.  But New York had won out in the end.

The D.A. had agreed on life in prison over the death sentence after Syman chose to give them the names of the people who hired him, not only for the hit on Hashim Alafa, but also every other hit he had committed in his twenty-five years as a hired killer.  His willingness to cooperate so fully had surprised everyone.  Rollie did have a theory on why the man did it, though.  Syman had always been a very meticulous person in his profession, never killing anyone he didn’t have to and always using only as much violence as was necessary to get the job done.  Rollie suspected that Syman was now simply tidying things up in his life so that, when he died, there would be no dirt left behind by him.

Along with all of the other information he’d given, Syman also told the police how he and his protégé, Lionel Udell, had identified Angie as being the person who witnessed the murder in the alley.  It turned out that Udell had been at the scene, too.  He had been investigating a loud noise he’d heard around the block.  When Angie’s car squealed away from the scene and went streaking past him, he’d managed to get the license plate number.

No, the situation with Syman was definitely over.  So why did he have this feeling that something dark and dangerous was looming over their heads?  Not having an answer, Rollie completed the journey home and went to bed, hoping that the feeling was just in his imagination.

Rollie rubbed his eyes and face with his hands, then took another sip of coffee.  He’d had the nightmare again, twice.  The first time woke him up, screaming, at around 1 a.m.  He finally got back to sleep a couple hours later only to be ripped out of sleep a second time by a repeat performance.  He hadn’t even bothered trying to go back to sleep after that.  Instead, he put in a strenuous workout on the new exercise equipment he’d purchased, trying to chase the demons of the nightmare out of his mind.

Since his therapy, he’d continued an almost daily exercise regime, and the results were very much evident in his body.  Though he didn’t look like one of those perfectly sculpted men you saw in the advertisements for exercise equipment, he was pleased with how he did look--and he knew that Angie was, too.  He’d caught her staring at him a few times when he was shirtless.  But more than the way he looked, Rollie liked the fact that his strength and stamina were much higher than before.  He’d always told himself that he needed to get in shape.  Little did he know that getting shot in the heart would be what finally made him do it.

Rollie closed his eyes and rested his head on his hand.  He heard the door open and close, but didn’t bother looking up since he knew it was Angie.

“Hey, Ange,” he said, his eyes still closed.

“Hey, yourself.”  Angie came up behind him and wrapped her arms around Rollie’s shoulders.  She planted a kiss on his neck.

The touch of her lips succeeded in rousing Rollie from his drowsiness.  He spun the stool around and grabbed her round the waist, pulling her close.  Their lips came together in a deep kiss.

“Mmm.  That’s better than breakfast,” murmured Rollie.  He pulled Angie down onto his lap and kissed her again.  “Speaking of breakfast, what did you bring?”

“Two of those bacon and egg wraps that you like so much,” Angie replied.  She studied Rollie’s features, running a finger under his eyes.  “You look tired, Rol.  Aren’t you sleeping?”

“Oh, I had a nightmare, that’s all.  It kept me up part of the night.”

Angie searched his face.  “Anything you want to talk about?”

“No, no.  It was just a bad dream, nothing to worry about.”

Angie slid off Rollie’s lap and looked at what was on the computer monitor.  “You’re working?  In case you didn’t notice, it’s Sunday.”

“Yeah, I know.  It’s not like this is the first Sunday that I’ve done work on a movie project.  Besides, I want to make sure that we get everything done well before our trip.”

Angie studied the image on the screen.  “You double checked the tunnel CGI’s?”

“Yep.  They should blend in with the live action perfectly.  I guess we need to get started on the auras next.”  In the movie, the main character, William Graham, after nearly dying, discovers that he has developed several strange paranormal abilities, one of which is that he can actually ‘see’ the kind of person someone is, whether they are good or evil.  Brian Adderly, the movie’s creator, wanted what William saw to be shown in the movie as halos or auras around people, the color being an indicator of good or evil or something in between.  Since there were a lot of characters in the movie, there were a lot of auras to be done.

Angie looked at her watch.  “All right.  We’ll work till eleven, but no longer than that,” she said firmly.

Rollie grinned.  “Since when did you become boss?” he asked jokingly.  Technically, Angie was still an employee since she had not yet given him an answer on his offer to make her a partner.

“Since I decided that I like to do a lot of other things with you besides working,” she replied, “and that I like to spend my weekends doing those things.”

The Aussie chuckled.  “Then I will by all means follow your orders, sir . . . um, ma’am.”

“Good.  I like it when people do what I tell them to.  I rarely have that pleasure with you.”  Angie’s eyes were sparkling even though her expression was serious.

“Ha ha.  That’s just so funny, Ange,” Rollie responded sarcastically.  He then smiled and kissed her.

They both turned their attention to the project.  They’d been working only an hour when Rollie began getting sleepy again.  Angie looked over at him.

“Rol, why don’t you go and lay down for a while.  It isn’t doing you any good to fight it.  The work can wait.  Besides, I want you conscious for the rest of the day.”

Rollie looked up at her, knowing she was right.  His mind was so foggy he just kept making mistakes, and he didn’t want to be sleepy throughout the day.

“Okay.  I’ll catch a couple of hours.”  He got up and gave Angie a quick kiss.  “Don’t get into trouble while I’m gone,” he said with a grin.

Upstairs, he lay down on the bed.  Two minutes later he was fast asleep.

Rollie’s footsteps echoed hollowly as he walked across the cement floor.  There was a slick, oily substance on the floor, like oil and gasoline mixed together.  Rollie knew that he was in a building, but, for some reason, he could see only one wall.  His eyes traveled up the wall.  Down its full length was a row of large glass bubbles, six in all.

Rollie looked behind him, but could see nothing but endless grey.  In the distance, he heard a sound, like a large truck approaching.  The sound grew quickly louder, and he heard the blowing of an air horn, but he could see no truck approaching.  The noise moved past him, then faded away to nothing.

Just then, he heard a chuckle.  Turning around, Rollie was confronted by a duplicate of himself.

“Well, well.  Two Tylers face to face.  Double your pleasure, double your fun.”  The man said, laughing coldly.  His voice was identical to Rollie’s.  “Too bad for you that you’re not dead.  You’re going to wish that you were.”

The man reached up and ripped his face off, blood pouring across his hands.  He continued to rip at the skin, moving on down his body, until all the flesh lay in a pile at his feet.  Rollie stared in horror at the hideous monster that was now revealed.  The creature gave a laugh that was no longer human.

Suddenly, Angie was there, standing just a few feet from the monster.

“Rollie!  Kill him!  You have to kill him!”

Rollie cried out to her, warning her to get away from the monster, but she didn’t move.  She appeared to be frozen in place.

The monster reached out and grabbed her.  The moment it touched her, Angie’s body burst into flames.  She began to scream in utter torment.

“No!  Angie!  No, no, noooo!!!” Rollie screamed.  He tried to reach her, but he couldn’t.  All he could do was watch her die as the monster’s laughter filled his mind with its taunting cruelty.

Walking toward the kitchen, Angie heard a slight sound from upstairs, like a faint moan.  Rollie must be dreaming.  A gentle smile came to her lips.  She was tempted go up there and just watch him sleep.

Angie did not question why Rollie had not yet chosen to make love with her, even though there were times when she wanted him so badly that it was all she could do not to pull his clothes off and push him down onto the bed--or couch, or floor, or whatever else was handy.  She had known too many men who were only interested in getting her into bed.  As far as she was concerned, the fact that Rollie didn’t want to rush to the bedroom proved that he truly loved her, and she wasn’t about to push him into doing something he wasn’t ready for.

There had been times, though, when the heat of passion had pushed them very close to going all the way.  Rollie was an incredible lover, even though they had not yet had sex.  He could drive her wild just with a touch or a kiss.  When they finally did sleep together, she wondered if they’d be able to survive it.  Was it possible to overdose on ecstasy?  She was looking forward to finding out.

Angie fixed herself some iced tea and carried it back to the workstation.  Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the air.  The glass of tea fell to the floor, shattering.  Ignoring it, Angie ran upstairs.  Rollie was lying in bed, his body unnaturally stiff.  Horrible, tormented screams and choked sobs were coming from him.  Tears were pouring down his face.

Angie reached the bed and began to shake him.  “Rollie!  Rollie, wake up!  Wake up!”

Rollie’s eyes snapped open.  For a moment, Angie saw in the brown depths a look of such absolute anguish that it made her breath catch painfully in her throat.  Then the look changed to one of confusion.  His eyes turned to her and it was like a drowning man suddenly spying a life preserver within arms’ reach.  Rollie abruptly sat up and grabbed hold of her, crushing her to him.

“Oh, God!  Oh, God!  You’re alive!”  He continued holding her tightly, his body shaking violently.

Angie just held onto him, stroking his hair comfortingly.  Gradually, the shaking lessened.  Finally, Rollie pulled slightly away from her.  He reached up and wiped the moisture from his face.

“I’m . . . I’m sorry, Ange,” he said shakily.

“What for?  I’m just glad I was here.”  She looked into Rollie’s eyes.  “Was it the same dream as last night?”

Rollie nodded his head, running his hand through his hair.  “This is the fourth time I’ve had it, and I don’t know why.  I’ve never had a dream more than once, not that I know of.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I. . . .  Not now.  Maybe later.”

“Okay.”  Angie didn’t push.  When Rollie was ready to tell her about the dream, he would.

The Aussie was looking at her searchingly.  He abruptly got up and went over to his dresser.  He rummaged around in the top drawer for a moment, then returned to her.  Instead of sitting back down on the bed, he knelt in front of her and took her hands.

“Angie, I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my life.  You are my life.  I can’t imagine existing without you.  I don’t even want to try.”  He drew closer and cupped her face in his hands.  In a voice barely above a whisper, he continued.  “I want to spend to rest of my life with you, Angela.  I want to marry you.”

Angie’s breath stilled.  Her heart skipped a beat, then did an odd little flip flop in her chest.  “M-marry me?” she stammered.  She couldn’t believe it.  The one thing she wanted more than anything in the world was actually happening.

Rollie reached into his shirt pocket and pulled something out.

Angie stared at the ring, her head spinning. A single large oval cut opal adorned the center of the ring, mounted horizontally on the band.  The center of the opal had been hollowed out.  Placed within that hollow was a one carat oval cut blue diamond.  The color of the diamond was an incredible blue-violet, unlike any diamond she’d ever seen in her life.  Surrounding the opal was a single row of tiny pink diamonds.  The opal had a strong blue and pink factor, perfectly matching the other stones.  The entire length of the platinum band was covered with impossibly fine engraving, some of which looked like runes.  It was, quite simply, the most beautiful ring Angie had ever seen, and Rollie was giving it to her.  Angie’s eyes returned to Rollie’s face.

“Angela Kathleen Ramirez, will you marry me?” Rollie asked solemnly.

“Yes,” she whispered.  “Yes.”

Rollie’s arms wrapped around her and pulled her close.  Their lips came together in a kiss that seemed to go on forever.  When they finally drew apart, they were both dazed and breathless.  Rollie picked up her left hand and slid the ring on her finger.  He then turned her hand over and placed a lingering kiss on the palm.  The Aussie gazed into Angie’s shining eyes.

“I was going to ask you tomorrow night, but I couldn’t wait any longer.”

“So, do you have a date all picked out?”

“I’d marry you tomorrow, if I could, but I can think of quite a few people who would never forgive us if we went off and eloped.  So, I was thinking that the weekend before our trip would be perfect.”

“Three weeks?  That isn’t much time to get things ready.  There’s so much to do.”

Rollie sat on the bed.  “Well, we could postpone our trip.  You can have as much time as you need, Ange.  I want this to be just the way you want it.”

Angie looked at Rollie, amazed at the thought that he was going to be her husband.  If someone had told her a year ago that this was going to happen she wouldn’t have believed them.  Even now, she was having a hard time believing it.  They were getting married!  Just the mere thought of it made her feel giddy with happiness.

“No,” she murmured.  “Three weeks is perfect.  I don’t want to wait a second longer.”

Rollie smiled and gathered her into his arms.  His mouth returned to hers in a kiss that quickly grew deep and passionate.  His hands caressed her shoulders and back, wandering down to cup the curve of her bottom.  His lips traveled down her neck to the upper curve of her breast.  A little shiver passed through Angie, and she moaned softly.

Rollie raised his head and looked into her eyes--and, suddenly, he knew what he had been waiting for.  His hand came up and stroked her cheek.  “Angie, I want our first time to be on our wedding night.  I know that’s what he would have wanted, and I know it’s how it should be with us.”  He searched her face intently.

Angie gazed at Rollie, suddenly understanding why he had not yet made love to her.  It had to do with her father.  Down deep inside, he was still thinking about the fact that she was Manny’s daughter.

All at once, Angie decided that she really liked the idea of waiting for their wedding night.  She wanted their wedding to be perfect, and what could make it more perfect than for them to share their first night of love on the eve of the day they were joined together forever?

She smiled and touched Rollie’s cheek.  “I want that, too.”

“You do?”  A smile was growing on the Aussie’s face.

Angie nodded.

Rollie’s smile became full-blown.  He drew her close again and kissed her.  “So, when do we tell everyone the news?”

“I’d say we’re going to have to do it right away.  As it is, we’re not going to be giving everyone much notice.”

“Yeah.  So, shall we make the first call to Lucinda?  You do know what her reaction’s going to be.”

Angie laughed.  “I’ve got a pretty good idea.”  She got up and took her fiancé hand.  “Come on.  Let’s go make Luce deliriously happy.”
 

CHAPTER TWO -- ENGAGEMENT

Rollie and Angie ate a quick lunch, then called Lucinda.  “Hey, Luce,” Angie said when the actress picked up the phone.

“Hi, Angie.  How are you?  How many more dates have you and Rollie gone on since your last call?”

The couple smiled at the question.  Their love life had become Lucinda’s number one interest.

“A few,” Angie told her.  “You’ve wrapped on your movie, haven’t you?”

“Uh huh, last Friday.”

“Would you be able to take a trip over here the week of the twenty-first?” Rollie asked.

“Um, yeah, I can do that.  Why?  Do you have a part for me?” the actress asked, a touch of excitement in her voice.

“Yeah, we do,” Angie told her.  “I want you to play the part of my bridesmaid.”

There was dead silence for about three seconds.  “Your . . . your bridesmaid?”

“That’s right,” Angie said.  She and Rollie smiled, waiting for what was coming.  They didn’t have to wait long.

“Yippee!” Lucinda shouted, the volume and pitch of which no doubt caused a few glasses in her apartment to shatter.  That ear-piercing cry was followed by a whole collection of other exclamations of delight.  Just like with a previous call, they heard the actress dancing around the room.

“This is so wonderful!  I can’t believe you’re getting married.  I mean, I can believe it, but I . . . I can’t believe it!  Wow, you guys move fast,” Lucinda babbled.

“Well, yeah, I guess you could say that in a way,” Rollie said.  “But considering that we’ve known each other for over fourteen years, I don’t think that a long courtship and engagement are necessary.”

“Oh, I agree,” Lucinda said wholeheartedly.  “Wow.  Rollie Tyler and Angie Ramirez are getting married.  It’s kind of mind-blowing.”

The couple laughed.  “You got that right,” they both said.

“So, you want me there on the week of the twenty-first.  Does that mean that you’re getting married on the twenty-seventh?  That sure doesn’t give you much time to get everything ready,” Lucinda remarked.

“Yeah, we know,” Rollie said.  “But there’s a reason for having it then.  We’ll tell you all about it when you get here.”

“We may have to cut some corners with the arrangements, but some of our friends here might be able to pitch in and help,” Angie said.

“Hey, I can help, too,” Lucinda told them.  “I don’t have anything important going on here right now.  I could be there on the eleventh or twelfth.”

“Thanks, Luce.  That would be great,” Angie said.

They talked for a while longer about the arrangements, then Rollie glanced at his watch.  “I’ve got to go, Ange.  I’ll be back in an hour or so.”  He gave her a kiss and said goodbye to Lucinda, then headed out the door.

“So, Angie, you think that you’re ready for married life?” Lucinda asked.  “It seems to me that I recall you saying that you never intended to get married.”

“Things change, Luce.  Back then, marriage was not something I wanted.  But, back then, I also wasn’t having a romance with Rollie.  Marriage is right for us, and I think I’m ready for it.  I’m already practically living here with him.”  The second she spoke the words, Angie wanted to take them back, realizing how they sounded and knowing what Lucinda was going to think.

“Oh, really,” the actress said.  “So, does this mean that you and Rollie have finally . . . you know?”

Angie sighed, knowing that it was no use telling Lucinda this was a private thing.  “No, Luce, we haven’t.  We’re going to wait for our wedding night.”

“Oh, wow, Angie.  That is just so romantic.  Almost no guy nowadays wants to wait for the wedding night.”

“Yeah, I know, but this is what we both want.”

“You think you’ll make it?  I’ve gathered from what you don’t say in our conversations that things get pretty hot between you two.”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to try,” Angie replied.

“So, Rollie is a really great kisser, huh?  I always thought he might be from that time we kissed.  I mean, I had the mask on, and it was just a short kiss, but I could tell--” Lucinda abruptly broke off.  “Oh, Angie, I’m so sorry!  Here I am going on about kissing your fiancé.”

Angie felt a tiny twinge of jealousy, but quickly squashed it.  She had never known for sure if Rollie and Lucinda had kissed.  Now she did.  “That’s all right, Luce.  Rollie and I weren’t involved then.”

“Well, I’m still sorry.  No woman wants to hear about the women that her fiancé or husband was with before.  It never went anywhere.  That little kiss was it.  After that whole thing with the jewelry auction was over, Rollie and I both agreed to be just friends.  I think it was Jennifer he was attracted to, not the real me.”

“Thanks, Luce.  I know that I’m not the first woman in Rollie’s life.  He’s not the first man in mine.  But I know that we will both be the last.”

“Yes, I know you will, too.  Rollie told me so in the hospital.”

“What exactly did he say?” Angie asked, curious.

“He said that there would never be anyone else for him but you, and I could tell that he meant it.  It was just about killing him thinking that you were interested in that medical student.”

“Rollie told me about that.”

“Were you jealous of Stacey?”

“Insanely,” Angie admitted.  “By the way, that’s who Rollie left to go meet.”

“He’s meeting Stacey?  Why?”

“Just before he got out of the hospital, he promised her that they’d have coffee together after he was back on his feet.  What with everything that went on, he forgot about it.”

“I see.  Are you jealous that he’s meeting her?” Lucinda asked.

“No.  I know that there’s nothing between them, and Stacey knows it, too.  She won’t try anything.”

“Is he going to tell her about the engagement?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t envy him telling her,” Lucinda said.  “It’s not easy doing things like that.  I remember when I had to tell a boy that I wanted to break things off with him.  I cried buckets afterwards because he looked so hurt.”

“And how old were you?”

“Fifteen, but that makes no difference.  The feelings were still there.”

“Well, from what Rollie said about when he told Stacey that he had no romantic feelings toward her, I think everything will be all right.”

“He certainly does collect hearts, doesn’t he.  He’s going to leave quite a trail of broken ones when you get married.  I can understand it, though.  There’s just something about him that . . . draws you to him.  I have to admit that I felt it too for a while.  Frankly, I don’t understand why you didn’t lose your heart to him years ago.”

“I did, Luce, ” Angie confessed.  “I fell for him the instant I first laid eyes on him.  Of course, I was only eleven at the time, but boy did I fall hard.  Later, things changed for me.  He was a grown man, after all, and I was just a kid.”

“So, what about when you grew up?”

“By then, Rollie and I were a lot like brother and sister.  I never seriously thought about it being any other way.”

“I sense a ‘but’ in there somewhere,” Lucinda said.

“Yeah.  I’d always been jealous whenever Rollie got involved with someone.  But stupid as I am, I didn’t even realize it was jealousy.  All I knew is that I didn’t like it when some woman came into his life.  When Taya came back two years ago, I hated it.  I wanted her gone.  I thought it was only because of the way she hurt Rollie before, but it was more than that.  I know that now.  I saw them kissing in the van one day, and I was livid.  I swear that, for a second, I wanted to go in there and throw her out.  Instead, I stormed off and went someplace alone to stew.”

Lucinda chuckled.  “Yeah, you’re right.  You were stupid not to recognize what you were feeling.”

“You have to understand that I never thought I could feel that way about him,” Angie explained.  “He was Rollie, the guy I’d grown up with.  Well, not with, but he was there when I did the growing up.  It wasn’t until Loubar--” Angie broke off, suddenly afraid that she’d said too much.  Lucinda didn’t know about Loubar, and Angie didn’t want her to know.  The actress also didn’t know about Lambert’s attempted rape.  Only Rollie, the police, Joyce, and Linda knew about them both.

But, as Angie knew would happen, Lucinda’s curiosity lifted its head.  “Who’s Loubar?”

“An . . . enemy of Rollie’s.  He’s an arms dealer and assassin.  Rollie tangled with him a few times.”  ‘Please don’t ask any more questions, Luce,’ Angie begging silently, knowing that it was a futile plea.

“What does he have to do with you realizing that you’re in love with Rollie?” the actress asked.

Angie didn’t answer.  She knew how deeply it would upset Lucinda to know what happened, and she didn’t want her friend to go through that.

“Angie, what’s wrong?” Lucinda asked, somehow sensing something in Angie’s silence.

“It’s better if you don’t ask, Luce.  Please, just drop it.  Please.”  There was a desperate note of pleading in Angie’s voice when she spoke the last word.

There was a very long silence on the other end.  “All right, Angie.  I won’t push you on this,” Lucinda finally said.  “But I hope that, someday, you will feel that you can tell me about it.”

Sighing in relief, Angie gratefully changed the subject.  A short time later, they said goodbye, Lucinda telling her that she’d e-mail her flight info to the loft when she got it.  Angie smiled faintly when the woman told her that.  Back when they first became friends with the actress, she had no experience with computers at all.  But after she moved to California, Angie talked her into buying one so that they could stay in touch more easily.  Lucinda got totally hooked on the Internet and now e-mailed everyone.

Turning back to the computer, Angie decided to get some more work done while she waited for Rollie to return.

Rollie spotted Stacey at almost the same time she saw him.

“Rollie!  Wow, it’s great to see you standing all on your own,” the physical therapist said.

“Not as great as it feels to be doing it,” Rollie responded, sitting across the table from her.

“I can imagine.”  Stacey’s eyes moved over him.  “You look really good, Rollie.  How are you feeling?”

“I feel great.  Life is good.”

“Well, that’s wonderful.  How’s Angie?”

“Angie’s great, too.”  Rollie studied Stacey’s face, wondering if he should tell her about the engagement.  She was bound to find out about it eventually, either that or she’d learn the news after they’d gotten married.  It would probably hurt her feelings if she found out from another source rather than from him.

The waitress came over just then.  Rollie ordered some tea, deciding that he’d wait until near the end of their visit before telling Stacey the news.

“I think it’s amazing that you’re completely well again so soon,” the physical therapist said.  “Recovering so quickly from such a devastating injury and the brain damage is remarkable.”

“Well, I worked really hard at it.  Even after I stopped using the cane, I wasn’t a hundred percent, but I think I am now.”

“I’m glad.  The patients I work with don’t always have as positive an outcome.  It’s always very satisfying to me when someone I work with recovers fully.”

“So, how have you been?” Rollie asked.

“I’ve been good.  I’m seeing someone, a new doctor at the hospital.  He’s a nice guy.”

“That’s great.”  Rollie felt a sense of relief that Stacey was exploring relationships with other men.

The physical therapist smiled, as if guessing Rollie’s thoughts.  “What about you?”

Oops.  So much for waiting till the end of the conversation.  “Um . . . well, I’ve kind of got some news on that front,” Rollie said rather hesitantly.

“Oh?”

“Yeah.  Angie and I, we’ve . . . well, we’re no longer just friends and coworkers.”

Stacey nodded, her expression unreadable.  “It doesn’t surprise me.  I could see how much you cared about each other.”

“Yeah.  Uh . . . the truth is that we’re getting married.”

Stacey’s eyes widened, and, for an instant, Rollie saw a flicker of regret in her eyes.  “Married?  This happened kind of suddenly, didn’t it?  It’s only been a month and a half since you got out of the hospital.”

“It’s happened even more suddenly than you think.  Angie and I have been dating for only a little over two weeks.  But we’ve known each other for a very long time.  We just finally realized that there was a lot more than friendship there.”

“Well, congratulations, Rollie.  I know that you’ll be very happy together.  Have you set a date yet?”

“The twenty-seventh.”

“Of this month?  You certainly aren’t wasting any time.”

“No, we’re not.  We’ve already wasted too much time as it is.  I almost died before I got the chance to tell her that I loved her.”

Stacey nodded again.  “I’m glad that things have worked out for you.”

The rest of their visit was spent talking about other things.  At the end of it, Rollie walked Stacey out to her car.

“Give Angie my best wishes,” the physical therapist said.  She kissed Rollie lightly on the cheek.  “Take care of yourself, Rollie.  You’re a very special person.”  She then got in her car and drove away.  Rollie watched her leave with a touch of sadness, having a feeling that it was the last time he’d ever see her.  He then turned and went back to his car.  Angie was still at the loft when he got back.

“How did it go?” she asked.

“Good.  She wasn’t surprised when I told her that we’d gotten romantically involved, but it did surprise her when I told her about the engagement.  She’s dating a doctor now.”

“That’s good.”

“So, what have you been up to while I was gone?” Rollie asked, putting his arms around her waist.

“Working.”

“Hmm.  Well, I’d say we did enough of that for a Sunday.  We’ve got a few more people to tell the good news to.”

“Yes, we do,” Angie agreed.  A grin grew on her face.  “Joyce is due back from her vacation tonight.  I can’t wait to see the look on her face when we tell her that not only did we confess that we love each other, but that we’re already engaged.”

Rollie smiled.  “That’ll be a sight.  I was thinking that we could see if Charlotte and Lee would like us to come to dinner tonight.  We could give them the good news then.”

“Good idea.”

Rollie made the call.

“Hello, Rollie.  So, when are you coming over for dinner?” Charlotte immediately asked him.  She had been bugging them to come to dinner again for the past week.

The Aussie chuckled.  “Well, tonight would work for us.  I know it’s short notice--”

“Nonsense!  We’d love to have you over tonight.  We’ll expect you here at seven.”

Rollie laughed.  “Seven it is.”  He smiled as he hung up the phone.  His and Angie’s friendship with Charlotte and her husband had continued to deepen.  They’d visited with her and her family several times, and almost every time they saw her, Charlotte kept hinting that, considering all the years they’d known each other, there was no need for Rollie and Angie to delay getting married.  Charlotte was going to be one very happy woman when they gave her the news tonight.

The couple headed over to Midtown South, knowing that Francis and Mira were working today.

“Hey, guys.  What’s up?” asked Frank when he saw them walk in the station.

“Well, we have some news,” Rollie told him.  “Where’s Mira?”

“She just stepped out for a moment.  She should be back any. . . .  Ah, there she is now.”

Mira spied them and came over.  “Rollie!  Good news.  We got word of some more arrests of Syman’s former clients.  There are a lot of happy cops out there.”

“That’s great, Mira.  We have some good news, too.”

“What’s that?”

Rollie put his arm around Angie’s waist.  “We’re going to be married.”

The two detectives went through the expected moment of surprise, then beamed at them.  Rollie and Angie were both hugged enthusiastically.

“I knew that you two wouldn’t make it through a long courtship,” Frank said, grinning from ear to ear.  “So, when do you two say ‘I do’.”

“The twenty-seventh,” Rollie replied.

“Of this month?!” Mira cried.  “How are you ever going to do it?”

“We’ll manage.”

Mira focused her attention on Angie.  “You and I have a lot of work ahead of us.  I’m off on Tuesday.  First thing Tuesday morning, we’re going to get started.”

“Thanks, Mira, but I know how busy you are and that you don’t get many days off.  I don’t want to take up all your free time with my wedding arrangements.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.  This is going to be fun.  Besides, you’ll need someone who’s gone through this before to help you.  Don’t you dare try doing this all on your own.”

Angie hugged Mira tightly.  “Thank you.”

The women moved off to the side in animated conversation.

“So, let me see the ring,” said Mira.

Angie showed it to her.

“Whoa!  Angie, this is gorgeous, and it must have cost the earth!”

“You know Rollie.  There are no half measures.”

“Especially not where you’re concerned.”

Rollie smiled as he watched the two women.

“So, Rollie Tyler’s getting married.”

The Aussie turned to Francis.  The detective was looking at him fondly.

“Yeah.  Amazing, isn’t it?  So many things have happened in the last six months.  Sometimes, it doesn’t seem real.”

“Leo would be ecstatic.  He’d take us all out and get us roaring drunk.”

A moment of sadness touched Rollie.  “I wish he was here.”

“Yeah, me too.  It just doesn’t seem right for him to miss this.”

“Francis, I’d like you to be my best man.”

Deeply touched, Frank replied, “I would be honored, Rollie.”

“I was also wondering if you’d be able to help me with the wedding arrangements.”  Rollie gave a brief laugh.  “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Sure.  I’ll tell you what.  Sarah and I will make up a list tonight with some names of people to contact about flower arrangements, catering, invitations, banquet facilities for the reception, tuxedo rentals. . . .  What’s wrong?”

“I think I’m getting a headache already,” the Aussie muttered.

Frank laughed and clapped him on the back.  “Welcome to the wonderful nightmare world of planning a wedding, my friend.”

“Thanks,” Rollie said sarcastically.

“Don’t worry, you’ll survive.  Most grooms do.”

“Most?”

“Well, once in a while, some poor, hapless guy will get buried under the pile of things to do, never to be seen again, but that doesn’t happen often.”

“Oh, thank you so much for the reassurance, Francis.  I really appreciate it.”

Frank laughed again.  “You’ll be fine, Rollie.  Compared to what you’ve been through lately, planning a wedding will be a piece of cake.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right when you look at it that way.”  The Aussie paused.  “But I have to say that the idea of eloping is starting to look really good right now.”

“Until you come back and have to face all your unhappy friends.”

“Yes, there is that.”

Rollie took Angie to her apartment, then headed back to the loft, smiling at the thought of how Charlotte was going to react when they told her the news.

Charlotte greeted them with a warm smile as the couple walked in the door.  “Well, it’s about time you two graced us with your presence for dinner again,” she said.

At that moment, a little whirlwind came streaking up to Rollie.

“Rorrie!  Rorrie!” Anthony cried happily.

The Aussie scooped the little boy up into his arms.  “Hey there, Anthony.  How’s my little mate?”

“You pway today?”

“Yes, we can play later.”

“Dinner’s all ready,” Charlotte told them.  “Lee is running late at work, but he should be here soon.”

“We can wait for him.  We’re not in a big hurry,” Angie said.

“No, we’d better not.  Lee always tells me not to put dinner on hold for him if he’s unexpectedly late.”

“Well, if you’re sure.”

They all went into the dining room and were sitting down when they heard someone come in.

“Ah, there he is now,” Charlotte said.

Lee walked into the dining room.  “Hello, everyone,” he said.  He walked over and gave his wife a kiss.  “I see that I made it home just in the nick of time.  I’ll go wash up.”

When Lee got back, he said grace, then everyone began to eat.

“Did you go on your picnic yesterday?” Charlotte asked.

“Uh huh,” Rollie replied.  “It was a nice day.”

Charlotte nodded, smiling.  “We love to take the kids there.  We always have fun.  I’m sure it will be the same for you two.”

Both Rollie and Angie hastily hid their smiles at the comment.  Charlotte was at it again.  Well, tonight, they wouldn’t be ignoring her remarks.

Once dinner was over, they all went into the living room.  Rollie and Angie settled on the couch.  Anthony immediately sat beside the Aussie.

“When are you leaving for your vacation?” Lee asked.

“The second,” Angie told him.

“That must be an exciting thought, going to Saudi Arabia.  There’s so much incredible history there.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be quite an experience,” Rollie agreed.  He looked at Angie, who nodded imperceptibly.  Understanding what that meant, he turned back to Charlotte and her husband.  “Do you have any plans for the twenty-seventh?”

“Um, no,” Charlotte said.  “Why?”

Rollie grinned.  “We wanted to invite you to the wedding.”

The brightest smile the Aussie had ever seen beamed across Charlotte’s face.  Without a word, she held her arms out to them.  They went to her and received a hug.

“You have made me so happy,” the woman said.  “Right from the start I’ve been waiting for this day.”

“Well, at least you didn’t have to wait long,” Rollie said with a laugh.

Lee held out his hand to Rollie, who took it in a hearty handshake.

“Congratulations,” Lee said.  “At least now I won’t have to listen to my wife going on and on about wanting you two to get married.”

His wife slapped his arm.  “I did not go on and on.”

“Oh, yes, you did,” Lee told her with a fond smile.  “I was just about ready to tell you to propose for them.”

“Well, all right.  I do admit that I mentioned it a few times.”

“A few times, huh,” Lee said.  He chuckled.  “Whatever you say, dear.”

Choosing to ignore him, Charlotte looked down at Angie’s hand.  “So, where’s the ring?  Don’t tell me he hasn’t gotten you one yet.”

“Oh, no.  He most definitely got me one.”  Angie pulled the ring out of her pocket and slipped it on.

“Oh my word!  Look at that ring!” Charlotte exclaimed.  She examined it closely, then looked up at Rollie.  “My father was a jewelry salesman, so I know a little about the subject.  That is a remarkable piece of jewelry.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Where did you find it?”

“I had it custom made.  Well, partly.  The original ring was just the opal with the pink diamonds.  I had the blue diamond and the engraving added.  The store owner is an acquaintance of mine who owed me a favor, so he got started on it right away.  But he still got it done faster than I had expected.  I didn’t think I was going to get it until Monday.”

“Well, he did a marvelous job.  I’m not even going to ask how much it cost because I’ve already got a pretty good idea.”

“It was worth every penny,” Rollie told her as he put an arm around Angie’s waist.  His fiancée reached up and gave him a kiss.  When they turned back to Charlotte, she was smiling happily again.

“How about dessert now?” she asked.  “Rollie, maybe you could come into the kitchen and help me.”

Smiling, the Aussie went with her.  He watched as she began dishing out portions of strawberry shortcake.  He helped by putting the whipped cream on.

“So, are you getting scared yet?” Charlotte asked.

“No, not yet.  Right now, I’m at the elated and in shock stage, but I have a feeling that the nervous stage is right around the corner, which will be followed by the scared out of my mind stage.”

Charlotte laughed softly.  “It is a big step, but I see how much you and Angie love each other, so I know that you’ll never regret taking it.”

“I know that, too,” Rollie said softly.

Just then, Anthony toddled in carrying Bot.  “We pway now?” he asked.

“After dessert, Anthony,” the Aussie told him.  “Maybe Angie can play with you for a few minutes.  I believe she’s in the backyard.”

Anthony scampered off to go get Angie.  The Aussie turned back to Charlotte and found her staring at him strangely.

“How do you know that, Rollie?” she asked, an odd note in her voice.

“How do I know wha. . . .  Oh.”  It wasn’t until then that Rollie realized what he’d just told Anthony.

“How could you possibly know that Angie was in the backyard?”

Rollie shifted uncomfortably.  “I . . . um. . . .”   His eyes dropped to the floor and stayed there.  “I don’t know,” he said in a low voice.

“How long have you sensed things like that?”

The Aussie could feel Charlotte’s eyes upon him.  “Since I woke up from the coma,” he replied.  He turned to her.  “It’s only with Angie, no one else.”

“You can feel where she is all the time?”

“No, not all the time.  Only when she’s nearby.”  He paused.  “Uh . . . sort of nearby.”

“Sort of?”

The Aussie shrugged.  “Yeah, I can usually tell when she’s on her way over to the loft four or five minutes before she arrives.  It used to be that I couldn’t tell until she pulled onto Brewery Lane, but it’s gotten . . . stronger.”

“Does she know about this?”

“No.  I don’t like thinking about it or talking about it.”

“Why not?  This is an amazing gift, Rollie.  You shouldn’t hide from it.”

“Gift?  I’m not so sure about that, not after what hap--”  The Aussie broke off.  He straightened and turned to the shortcake on the table.  “We’d better get this dessert into the others before they begin to think that we ate it all ourselves.”  He picked up two of the bowls, ignoring the look that Charlotte was giving him.

As they ate the shortcake, Rollie knew that Angie could tell that something was wrong.  He finally fought off the mood that he’d fallen into and played with Anthony after they’d finished dessert.  By then, he was getting sleepy again.  He was lying on the floor, drawing with Anthony when the boy put down his crayon and snuggled up next to him.  A couple of minutes later, the child was asleep.  As Rollie looked down at him, smiling softly, his eyes started to close against his will.

Charlotte looked over at the Aussie and her son and smiled.  “Angie, look.”

Angie followed the woman’s gaze.  Rollie and Anthony were sound asleep, the Aussie’s arm lying protectively over the boy’s body, Anthony’s head tucked in under his chin.  She felt her heart warm at the sight, imagining Rollie like that with their children.

“Rollie must have had a very good childhood for him to be so wonderful with children,” Charlotte commented.

Angie turned back to her.  “Actually, he didn’t.  Just the opposite.  From what little he’s told me, his mother was great, but Dingo, his father, was hardly ever around, going off for days and weeks at a time.  There was an Aboriginal man named Mangela who was more of a father to Rollie than Dingo was.  Rollie’s mom died when he was only eleven, but I don’t know much about her death.  He never talks about it.  After her death, Dingo left him with the Aborigines for a while.  Then . . . something happened.  A boy named Luther Cale tried to kill him, pushed him off a mountain.”

Charlotte gasped, her eyes widening in horror.  “Oh my Lord!  How horrible!”

“Rollie was lying there for three days with a broken leg before he was found,” Angie continued.  “I don’t know much about what happened after that except that Dingo and Rollie traveled around Australia for a few years.  They came to the States when Rollie was fifteen, and they ended up wandering from place to place in a travel trailer until, finally, they came here.  Rollie was seventeen by then and got a job as a stuntman.  Dingo kept right on wandering all over the country.  He’s only visited Rollie around four times since then.”

Charlotte looked over at Rollie, understanding more the kind of man that he was.  “He looked tired tonight.”

“Yeah.  He’s been having this recurring nightmare that’s kept him awake.  He won’t talk about it, but by his reaction to it, I’d say that it’s a really bad one.  He took a nap earlier today, and I had to wake him up because he was screaming and crying.”

“Does he have a lot of nightmares?” Lee asked.

“Not normally, not that I know of.  I know that he had nightmares after . . . after an enemy of his came back seeking revenge and went after me as part of his plan, but there’s no reason I can think of for him to be having them now.”

“Well, I think you need to take him home and get him to bed,” Charlotte said.

“Yeah,” Angie agreed.  “I just hope that he doesn’t have the nightmare again tonight.”  She got up and went over to her fiancé.  Kneeling beside him, she gently shook his shoulder.  “Rollie?  Rollie, wake up.”

The Aussie moaned faintly, then his eyes slowly opened.

“It’s time to go home, Rol,” Angie told him softly.

Rollie sat up, careful not to disturb Anthony.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to fall asleep like that,” he said apologetically to Charlotte and Lee.

“That’s perfectly all right,” Charlotte said.  “You need to go home and get some sleep.”

Rollie nodded, hoping that he’d be able to get more than a few hours’ sleep tonight.

As Lee put Anthony to bed, Charlotte followed Rollie and Angie to the door.  “You know, three weeks isn’t much time to plan a wedding,” she said.  “I’d be glad to help however I can.”

“Thanks, Charlotte,” Angie said.  “We’d appreciate that.  We’re both amateurs when it comes to this.”

“Well, this old married woman has been through it all.  You just tell me how I can help, and I’ll do it.”

Angie told her that she’d call her tomorrow.  Rollie then drove Angie back to her apartment.  As they pulled up to it, she turned and studied the Aussie’s face.

“Rol, are you going to be all right tonight?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?  What if you have the nightmare again?”

Rollie smiled.  “I’ll be all right, Ange.  It’s only a nightmare.  It can’t hurt me.”

“All the same, maybe . . . maybe you wouldn’t have it if you slept here tonight.”

The Aussie’s eyes widened slightly.  “Here?  As in with you?”

Angie blushed faintly.  “I meant on the couch, Rol.”

“What a disappointment,” Rollie remarked, his eyes sparkling with laughter.

His fiancée punched him in the arm.  “I’m serious, Rollie.  You need to get some sleep, and I just thought that, maybe, you wouldn’t have the nightmare if you were here.”

Rollie pondered the suggestion.  It was true that the thought of having that terrible nightmare again was making him reluctant to go to bed in the lonely loft.  Perhaps, he would sleep better knowing that he was close to Angie.

“Okay, you’ve convinced me,” he said.

Angie smiled, happy that he’d taken her up on her offer.  Rollie parked his car and went with his fiancée into her apartment.  Angie got blankets and a pillow out of the linen closest.

“I should imagine that you’re pretty tired, so I’ll go ahead and say goodnight,” she said.

“Actually, I’d like to stay up a little longer, if that’s all right,” Rollie told her.

Smiling again, Angie settled on the couch with him.  She looked down at her engagement ring, thinking about what it meant, that, soon, she would be Rollie’s wife.  She studied the engraving on the band.

“Are these runes of some kind?”

Rollie nodded.  “They’re ancient Celtic runes used by the druids.”

“Like what your grandmother taught you?  Did you remember some of them?”

“No, not really.  I had to do some searching for the symbols I wanted.”

“What do they say?”

Rollie looked into her eyes.  “One soul for eternity.”

“One soul for eternity,” Angie repeated in a whisper.  She lifted her head to Rollie’s and they met in a long, deep kiss.  Rollie’s hands wandering across her body, touching her in places that made her shudder with desire and pleasure.

At last, Rollie broke the kiss and looked into her eyes.  His hand came up and stroked her cheek.  “I want everything to be perfect, Angie.  Everything.  That’s one of the reasons why I want our wedding night to be our first time.”

Angie kissed him tenderly.  “I want that, too.”  She smiled mischievously.  “But, as Lucinda asked, do you think we’ll make it another three weeks?”  She leaned forward and began kissing his chest, tasting him with her tongue.  Rollie drew in a sharp breath.  She saw desire flare in his eyes.  Then he smiled wickedly.  His hand found its way inside her top and up to her breast.  The fingers brushed across her nipple through the thin fabric of her bra.  This time, it was Angie whose breath hissed inward.

Rollie chuckled.  “We can try,” he replied.  His expression grew intense.  “Though just looking at you is enough to make me want to make love to you.”

“Same here,” Angie confessed.

They kissed again, then snuggled more closely together.  Rollie closed his eyes and rested his head on Angie’s.  After a few minutes, the sleepiness returned, and he began to nod off.

Angie felt her fiancé’s body begin to relax and realized that he was falling asleep again.  “Okay, Rol.  I think it’s time for you to go to bed.”

Nodding, Rollie laid out the blanket and pillow on the couch.  He took off his shoes and stretched out on the too short sofa as best as he could.

“You’re just too tall, Rol,” Angie said, grinning.

“Don’t blame me.  Blame my genes.”

“Your genes?  How’s that?  Your dad isn’t all that much taller than me.  Or was your mom the tall one?”

“No, Mum was average height.  It’s from my dad’s side of the family.  He was the ‘runt of the litter’, as he once said.  His sister and brother were both quite tall, as was his father.”

“I didn’t know that your dad had siblings.”

“Well, his brother died years ago, before I was even born.  As for his sister, he has no idea what became of her.  She ran off and married a pom when she was eighteen.”

“Ooh, I bet that didn’t go over well.”

Rollie laughed.  “Dad said that his mother and father were furious over it.”  He became serious.  “They never saw her again.  I wonder if they ever regretted forcing her to take the step that she did.”

“If I was English, would it have made a difference to you?” Angie asked softly.

“Not one bit, Ange.  You could be from Mars and I’d still love you.”

Angie bent over, bring her lips to within a couple of inches of his.  “Haven’t you heard, Rol?  Women are from Venus,” she whispered.  Then she kissed him.  He abruptly grabbed hold of her and pulled her down on top of him, deepening the kiss.  Their tongues dueled wildly, seeking out the depths of each other’s mouths as their hands went roaming.  A long time later, they drew apart.

“So, is Venus where they taught you how to kiss like that?” Rollie asked, his voice husky.

“No, I think I must have learned that at the same school you did,” Angie replied.  She was extremely happy to be right where she was, Rollie’s warm body beneath hers.  But she knew that he needed to get some sleep.  Besides, if they stayed like this much longer, their plans for the wedding night might get changed.

Reluctantly, Angie got up, ignoring Rollie’s expression of complaint.  “Goodnight, Rol.  I hope you sleep well.”

“G’night, Ange.  If I wake up before you do in the morning, I’ll go on back to the loft.”

Angie nodded and went off to her bedroom.  Rollie closed his eyes and silently waited for sleep to come.  Several minutes later, he was out.

Angie woke from a sound sleep with a vague feeling that something was wrong.  She’d been dreaming of Rollie again.  But, unlike the dreams she’d been having lately of them making love or doing other things together, this one had been a nightmare with Rollie being threatened by a horrid monster.  Though she knew it had just been a dream, Angie felt compelled to check on him.  She got up and went into the living room.  Rollie was lying on the couch, as she had expected him to be.  She silently walked up to him and looked down at his sleeping form.  She frowned when she noticed his breathing.  It was very slow and shallow, not what you usually saw while someone was asleep.  Suddenly concerned, Angie knelt and touched his shoulder.  At her touch, he stopped breathing completely for several seconds, then he drew in a long, deep breath.  His respiration then settled into the usual pattern for a sleeping person.

Puzzled, Angie stayed where she was for a few minutes, watching him closely.  Finally satisfied that he was all right, she stood and went back to bed.
 

CHAPTER THREE -- THINGS OF THE PAST

Rollie awoke when dawn was just brightening the sky.  For a moment, he lay in confusion as to where he was, then he remembered.  He’d spent the night on Angie’s couch.  Opening his eyes, he sat up.  There was no sound from the bedroom, so the Aussie figured that Angie was still asleep.  He toyed with the idea of going in there and waking her up by kissing her all over her face, but decided that wouldn’t be a good idea.  Seeing Angie lying there in her bed in her nightclothes might be too much of a temptation for him to resist.  Besides, why wake her up so early?  They would be taking a trip to the studio today to pick up the equipment that they’d left there, but that would not be until later.

As quietly as possible, Rollie left the apartment, leaving a brief note for Angie on the fridge.  He drove home without any sleepiness, having gotten a lot more sleep than he had the previous two nights.  The nightmare had come again that night, but something strange had happened this time, something that both relieved and frightened him.  The dream had been at the part where Angie appeared and told him to kill the monster when, suddenly, the image shattered, like a mirror being smashed into a million pieces.  For a few seconds he had hung in a kind of limbo in which he had a strong feeling of Angie’s presence.  Then, that, too, faded away.  He didn’t remember anything more--except for one thing, something that terrified him, something that, even now, he tried to shove out of his mind.  For an instant after the image of the monster and Angie disappeared, he had seen Australia, not the real Australia, but a surreal landscape that, at one time, he’d known quite well, a landscape that he had hoped never to see again.

Rollie didn’t want to accept what this meant.  It couldn’t be that.  He’d left all that behind him a long, long time ago.  It had just been part of the dream, an ordinary dream.  That was all.

The Aussie’s thoughts about the dream led him to others.  When he’d told Charlotte that it was only Angie whose presence he sensed, he hadn’t been completely truthful.  There was one other person: Mangela.  Even though he’d long ago separated himself from his connection with the People, whenever Mangela came to New York, he always felt something.  It had been that way the last time Mangela came, when he told Rollie that Luther Cale had stolen the Soul Stones and insisted that it was time for Rollie to fulfill the Dreaming he’d had as he lay dying at the foot of Kata Tjuta.  With Mangela, however, the ability to sense his presence was not so clearly defined as it was with Angie.  It was more tenuous, though it hadn’t always been that way, not when he was a child.  At one time. . . .

Rollie hastily steered his thoughts away from the direction they had been traveling.  He didn’t want to be a part of that world again.  Though he had helped Mangela retrieve the Soul Stones and had completed what his Dreaming had said he would do, he had still been unwilling to let things go any farther.  He had said goodbye to Mangela when the Aborigine left and put the whole incident behind him.  Not once since then had he let himself think about the fact that his Dreaming had been a prediction, a prophecy that came true, that he had seen into the future.

Rollie pulled up to the loft and parked the car.  He got out and walked toward the door.  As he did, he got a strange and very unsettling feeling, a feeling that sent goose bumps down his arms.  He froze and slowly turned around, looking about him.  Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, the Aussie shrugged and went inside.  He took a shower, then fixed himself some coffee.  He was about halfway through it when he sensed that Angie was on her way there.  Looking at the pot, he put some more grounds in the coffeemaker and fixed more of the beverage, enough for another cup.  He’d fixed only enough coffee for himself this morning, knowing that they’d be going off to the studio a little later.  But, somehow, the Aussie knew that Angie hadn’t had any coffee at home and would want some.  He refused to think about how he knew that.

The coffee was finished by the time Angie came in the door.

“Hey there.  Kind of early, aren’t you?” Rollie asked with a smile.

“I couldn’t bear to be out of your presence,” Angie replied teasingly.  She then kissed him.  Rollie pulled her to him and kissed her back passionately.

“Have you eaten yet?” Angie asked once she could talk again.

“Who needs breakfast after a kiss like that?” the Aussie responded.  “You taste so much better.”

Angie smiled.  “Well, my kisses may taste better to you, but they won’t fill your stomach.”

Rollie released her and stood.  “There’s coffee in the pot,” he said as he turned toward the tiny refrigerator.

“Wonderful!  I didn’t realize that I was out at home.  I thought I had another jar in the cupboard.”

Rollie paused a moment at hearing the confirmation of what he’d sensed, then he looked into the fridge.  “Did you eat?” he asked, already knowing she hadn’t.

“No, I decided to come on over here.”

Rollie fixed breakfast for both of them.  After they’d finished eating, they began discussing the wedding arrangements.  Last night, Frank had faxed over the To Do list that he and Sarah had worked on, along with a note saying that they’d both be happy to help in any way they could.  The couple slowly went through the list.

“When is Mira picking you up tomorrow?” Rollie asked.

“Nine.  We’re going to hit some of the formal wear places and bridal shops, then, if we have time, we’ll go to a few of the florists.  What about you?”

“Well, there’s still quite a bit of work to do on White Light.  I’ll get some stuff done on it in the morning, then start making calls about places for the wedding.”  The Aussie looked at his fiancée.  “I guess we should decide about the ceremony.  You were raised Catholic, and my mum was a Protestant.  Do you, um, want to be married in a Catholic church?”

Angie shook her head.  “No, not really.  Besides, if I remember correctly, there are all kinds of things that have to be done before you can get married if you go with a Catholic ceremony.  A minister will be fine.  You know what I’d really like?”

“What?”

“An outdoor wedding.”

Rollie smiled.  “That would be great, perfect.”

“Well, perfect is what we want, right?”

“Right.” Rollie leaned over and kissed her.

They discussed the arrangement a while longer, then went over to the studio.  Not long after they arrived, someone saw the ring on Angie’s finger, and the news of the engagement was out.  Within five minutes, people began coming over to congratulate them.

“At this rate, the entire studio will know before the end of the day,” Rollie commented after shaking the fourteenth or fifteenth hand.

“And the entire industry in New York will know by the end of the week,” Angie added.

“Only New York?”

They both laughed.  “Well, I suppose that we should expect the reporters to start calling to get all the details for the wedding section of the papers soon,” Angie remarked.

“I’d say so.”

They resumed loading the van, continuing to be interrupted by well-wishers.  It was during a lull in the well-wishing when Angie heard a familiar voice call Rollie’s name.  She looked out of the van to see Danielle Vandenglas sashaying toward Rollie.

“Dani!  What a surprise.  What are you doing here?” Rollie exclaimed.

“I was discussing a possible movie project with a producer.  I heard that you were here and just had to come visit you.”  She went to kiss Rollie on the lips, but he turned his cheek to her instead.  The movement was not lost on the actress, who pouted slightly.  She moved a bit closer to the Aussie and touched his arm.  Rollie, in turn, moved a little away from her, covering the action by reaching down and picking something up off the floor.

Angie stared at the tall blond, amazed at the emotions that were coursing through her.  She’d thought about Dani several times since she and Rollie began dating, wondering what she would feel when she actually saw Rollie’s old flame again.  Angie had thought that she would be jealous, and, for a moment, she had been.  But the jealousy had quickly faded away to a feeling of confidence.  She had complete trust in Rollie’s feelings toward her.  Now, watching the actress’s overtures toward her fiancé and his subtle rebuffs, Angie was beginning to experience a great feeling of satisfaction.

Choosing to ignore the signals Rollie was sending, Dani purred, “If you’re free tonight, I was thinking that we could try out that new French restaurant, then perhaps go back to your place and take up where we left off.”

Rollie turned and looked the actress straight in the eyes.  “I’m sorry, Dani.  Some things have changed since we saw each other last.  I’ve become very involved with someone.”

A look of surprise and disappointment crossed the woman’s features, perhaps a touch of jealousy, too.  “Oh.  I see.”  Then the look changed.  “But then, there are all levels of involvement, Rollie.  Surely, it can’t be that serious.”

“It’s very serious, Dani.  I’m getting married.”

The actress’s eyes widened in shock.  “Married?  Whomever to?”

Rollie’s gaze traveled to the van.  His and Angie’s eyes met.  A smile of warmth and love spread across the Aussie’s face.  Immediately, Angie left the van and came to him.  He held out his hand to her, and she took it.  They both turned to Dani.  The woman’s eyes looked as if they were about ready to pop out.  Her mouth was hanging open.  She looked from one to the other of them.

“I. . . .  Well, this is a, uh, surprise.  When did this start happening?”

“That depends on what you mean,” Rollie said.  “Things started changing between us a few months ago, shortly before I was shot.”

“Yes, I heard about your injury.  I would have come to see you, but I was filming in Europe.  You did get my card, didn’t you?”

Rollie nodded, remembering the card.  It had been very suggestive.  Long before then he had realized that he would never again have any interest in Dani and had virtually ignored the message.

“So, I guess I should ask when the big day is.”

“In less than three weeks.”

Again, the woman looked shocked.  “How long have you been engaged?  I can’t believe I didn’t hear about this.”

“Actually, we’ve only been engaged since yesterday,” Angie told her.

“And you’re already getting married?”

“We’ve been invited to stay at the oasis estate of a sheik in Saudi Arabia the following week, and we decided that it would be the perfect honeymoon.”  Angie couldn’t prevent the tinge of gloating that entered her voice.  It was taking every ounce of will power she had not to grin from ear to ear in satisfaction.  ‘He was yours for a while, Dani, but now he’s mine--forever,’ she thought to herself.

Again, a flash of jealousy could be seen in the eyes of the actress.  “Well, this all sounds so perfectly delightful.”  She looked at Rollie.  “I certainly hope you got her a suitable ring.”

Angie raised her hand and showed the ring to Dani.  A sharp gasp came from the woman, and her eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets again.  “It’s . . . exquisite.”  She turned to Rollie.  “Well, you’re certainly sparing no expense, are you.”

“Angie deserves only the best.”  He put his arm around his fiancée’s waist and drew her close, looking down at her lovingly.

Dani looked at them, and something in her manner changed.  “So, are you going to let me have a little heart to heart with your fiancée, Rollie, or are you going to monopolize all her time?”

The Aussie looked at Angie, who nodded.  He kissed her tenderly, then released her.  Angie walked over to the other side of the van with Dani following behind.  As soon as they were far enough away, Angie turned to face the woman.  She wondered what the actress had to say to her.

“You know, when Rollie and I were together, we had a lot of fun, but it was never really serious,” Dani began.  “There was always something missing.  When I saw you looking at each other just now, I realized what it was.  You are truly in love with each other, aren’t you.”

“Yes, we are.”

“Well, then all I can say is congratulations.  An actress who is a true professional knows when a role is beyond her ability to play.  I could never have given him what you clearly can.  Take good care of him, Angie.  He, too, deserves only the best.”  Without another word, Dani turned and walked away.  Stunned, Angie watched her go.

Rollie came up to her.  “So, what did she have to say?”

“Well, believe it or not, I think she just gave us her blessing.”

“Really?  Well, I guess there’s more depth to her than I gave her credit for.”

Angie stared at him.  “That’s an odd thing to say about someone you were involved with.”

“What can I say?  I had a crush on her when I was a kid, and I was too stupid to realize that I was just fulfilling one of my adolescent fantasies.  Even when we were going together, I knew that she wasn’t the kind of woman that I could really get serious with.”

“And there I was, all that time, every day, right where you could see me.”  Angie shook her head.  “You really were an idiot, weren’t you.”

Rollie wrapped his arms around her waist.  “The biggest,” he murmured just before covering her mouth with his.

After loading up the van, they went around and invited a few people at the studio to the wedding.  Though they knew that the guest list could easily swell to four hundred or more with all the people they knew in the movie industry and in law enforcement, they had decided to limited it to one hundred fifty.  Jack Traber and Elizabeth Wright were two of the people they wanted to invite, but the producer and director were both out on location.

Once they’d finished at the studio, they headed back to the loft and got busy unloading.

“I forgot to ask you this morning if you slept okay,” Angie said.  “Did you have the nightmare again?”

“Um . . . well, I started to, but it stopped for some reason.”  Rollie glanced at Angie, then continued unloading, hoping that would be the end of the subject.

“Really?  That’s interesting.”  Angie wondered if her touch had been what interrupted the dream.

“Yeah,” the Aussie mumbled, still pulling stuff out of the van.

There was a knock on the door, and Bluey began to bark.  Rollie put down the case in his hands and went to the monitor, telling the robot to show them the outside camera feed.  “Uh oh,” he said when he saw the image on the screen.

“What is it?”

“Trouble, I’d say.”  Sighing, he told Blue to open the door.  The two people outside came in, and the Aussie heard a faint groan come from Angie.

“Hi, Elena, David.  The answer is no,” Rollie said.

The two feds paused.  An amused smile appeared on David Rain’s face.

“No about what?” Elena Serrano asked.

“No, we can’t help you with whatever case it is that you’re here about,” the Aussie replied.

The smile on David’s face grew in size.  “Don’t worry, Rollie.  We don’t want to drag you into the middle of a case.  All we need is to see if you can restore some footage on a video tape.  Elena wants it for evidence in a case that she just wrapped up, and the lab is too backed up to take care of it now.”

Rollie’s gaze went to the Hispanic woman, who was looking at him closely.  Elena had not come to see him while he was in the hospital, which had surprised him.  “How have you been doing, Elena?  It’s been quite a while.”

“Busy as usual.”  She paused.  “I’m sorry that I didn’t come to see you after you were shot.  I’ve been in on this case under deep cover for seven months, no outside contact except for giving my reports.  I was in Mexico part of the time.  I didn’t even find out what happened to you until three months ago.”

“That’s all right, Elena,” Rollie told her.

“How are you doing?  You look well.”

“I’m doing great, better than great, actually.”

“Good.  I’m glad, Rollie,” Elena said.  Her cell phone rang, and she walked away a few paces to answer it.

Angie came up to stand beside Rollie, her arms crossed over her chest.  She was a bit peeved that the feds would come in, automatically assuming that Rollie would be happy to help them.  But she liked David Rain, and if all they wanted was for Rollie to restore some video footage, then she wasn’t going to object.

David glanced over at the FBI woman.  “It was a tough case,” he said, “the kind that can break weaker or less experienced agents.  The A.D. has ordered Elena to go on a long vacation, so she needs to get things tied up before she leaves.  The tape isn’t vital to the case, but it will make things easier.”

“I’ll be happy to see what I can do with it,” Rollie told him.

“Thanks.”  The agent smiled again.  “So, what kind of mischief have you two been up--  Hey, is that what I think it is?”

Rollie and Angie followed the fed’s gaze to the ring on Angie’s finger.  “It sure is,” the Aussie responded with a grin.

“Well, congratulations!”  David came forward and shook Rollie’s hand enthusiastically.  Just then, Elena rejoined them, a look of bewilderment on her face.

“What are the congratulations for?” she asked.

Grinning broadly, David gestured at Rollie and Angie.  “They’re getting married.”

Elena’s face paled and her eyes widened.  Her gaze went to Angie’s hand, then up to Rollie’s face.  Her eyes were full of shock.

“Married?  But I didn’t even know that you two were . . . involved.”

“You didn’t?” David asked, surprised.  “They didn’t make any secret of it when I met them.”

Feeling a bit uncomfortable, Rollie glanced at Angie, whom he could tell was feeling the same way.  “She didn’t know because when we saw Elena last, Angie and I were just friends,” he explained to David.  “Things didn’t start changing until six months ago.”

“Really?  I didn’t realize that.  I assumed that you had been together like this for quite some time.  Your dossier said that you’ve known each other since Angie was a child.”

“Yeah, it’s a long story,” the Aussie said.  He looked at Elena.  The woman was now wearing a poker face.  He was unable to tell what she was thinking or feeling.

“Congratulations,” she said calmly.  “When is the wedding?”

“On the twenty-seventh of this month,” Angie said, studying the FBI agent’s face.  The woman’s reaction to the announcement made Angie realize that Elena had strong feelings for Rollie.  She’d guessed some time ago that the federal agent was physically attracted to him, but she hadn’t realized that it was a lot more serious than that.  And Rollie apparently had no idea that the FBI woman felt that way.

“You’re both invited to the wedding,” Rollie said, pushing aside his puzzlement over Elena’s behavior.

“Thanks, Rollie.  I’d love to go,” David said.

“I don’t know if I can make it.  I’ll be on vacation during that time, and I have plans to visit my family,” Elena told him.

“Oh.  Well, if you can make it, we’ll be happy to have you there,” Rollie said, a little upset that she appeared not to want to go.

Elena nodded.  “So, can you work on the tape for us?”

“Sure.  I’ll see what I can do.  Just leave it with us, and I’ll work on it later today, if that’s all right.”

“That will be fine.  We can pick it up tomorrow,” David said.  He handed the tape to the Aussie.

After the feds had left, Rollie and Angie finished unloading the van.  Once that was done, Rollie turned his attention to the damaged video tape.  Two hours later, with the help of Angie, he’d managed to recover the images from about two-thirds of the footage.

“Well, that’s as good as it’s going to get,” Angie said after a final cleanup of the video.

Rollie nodded.  His mind had wandered back to Elena and how she had acted.  “Elena was acting kind of odd.  I guess it’s because of this case she was on for all these months.”

Angie looked at him closely.  “You really don’t see it, do you.”

“See what?”

“That she’s in love with you.”

The Aussie’s eyes widened.  “What?  Elena?  Where did you get that idea?”

“Well, it was pretty obvious to me, Rol.”

Rollie shook his head.  “You’re wrong, Ange.  You have to be.  Elena has never done or said anything about a relationship.”

“Need I remind you about Stacey?  You didn’t see that either.”

Rollie looked away.  He thought about Elena and the times they’d spent together.  They’d gone to dinner that one time after their first entanglement with Loubar.  It had been nice, and they’d both enjoyed themselves.  After that, she’d called the loft several times, but he’d always been gone.  He had attempted to call her back, but he, too, was never able to get her home.  Then they’d met again in London.  Rollie thought about the way Elena had been acting then.  He’d been able to tell that something was wrong, but he had not understood what it was.  Could Angie be right?  Was Elena in love with him?  If she was, what was he going to do about it?  What would he say when she came back tomorrow?  Suddenly feeling very uncomfortable and a little guilty, Rollie stared down at his hands.

Angie watched Rollie, realizing that she’d made a mistake by telling him how Elena felt.  She didn’t know why she had told him.  She should have known that it would upset him.  Slipping her hand inside one of Rollie’s she gave it a little squeeze.

“I’m sorry, Rol.  I shouldn’t have told you.”

“It’s all right.  I’m glad you did.”  He stood up and went into the kitchen to fix some tea.  “I guess that’s why she didn’t seem to want to go to the wedding.”

Angie stood and went to Rollie.  She put her arms around his waist.  “You know what the problem is, don’t you?”

“No, what?”

“You’re just too darn cute, that’s what.  What woman couldn’t help but fall for you?”

Angie was pleased when a small smile lifted the corners of her fiancé’s lips.  He turned to her.  “Cute, huh?  I’d prefer devastatingly handsome.”

“Well, there’s that, too,” Angie said, pulling Rollie’s mouth down to hers.  A long while later, they separated.  Rollie resumed fixing the tea.

“When are you going to call Joyce?” he asked.

Angie looked at her watch.  “I guess I could call her now at work, but I’d like to spring the news on her in person.  I want to see the expression on her face.”

“Yeah, me too.  How about if you ask if it would be okay to go over to her place after she gets home from work?”

“Good idea.”  Angie got the number for Joyce’s office and placed the call.

“Angie!  How are you?  How’s Rollie?” her friend asked.

“We’re both doing great,” Angie told her.  “Are you going to be busy after work?”

“No, just going home to a solitary dinner, that’s all.  Why?”

“Well, I’d like to come over for a while and talk about something.”

“Sure.  How about if we have dinner?” Joyce suggested.

Angie looked at Rollie, who nodded.  “That would be good.”

“Great.  Will 6:30 be a good time?”

“That’ll be fine.  See you then.”  Angie hung up.

“Why didn’t you tell her that it would be both of us coming over?” Rollie asked.

“I didn’t want her to suspect something.  If I said that we were both coming over, you can bet that she’d know something was going on with us.”

Rollie grinned.  “You’re a sneaky little thing, aren’t you.”

“Just keeping up with you, Rol.”

They called Charlotte, asking if she could take care of a few things for them, then they contacted Sarah.  Frank’s wife, happy to be helping with the wedding, told them that she had a friend who might be able to do the catering.

“What about the music,” Angie asked after they got off the phone.

“I’m going to talk to Phil Carter and see if he has anyone available.”  Phil was a talent agent who handled singers, musicians, and a few actors.  Rollie had met him a few years ago when the man came to the studio about a part for one of his clients.  It turned out that Phil was a big fan of special effects.  The two men became casual friends.

“I guess we should work on what songs we want played,” Angie said.

The couple sat down and decided on the songs and in what order they should be played.  Finishing the list, Angie went to the bathroom.  While she was gone, Rollie added one more song to the list, the song he wanted to be sung during their first dance together as husband and wife.

He and Angie took care of a few more things, then headed over to Joyce’s.  As the woman opened the door, a look of surprise came to her face.

“Rollie!  I didn’t know you were coming.  Angie only mentioned that she was coming over.”

“Well, I decided to tag along.  I hope that’s okay,” the Aussie responded.

“Of course it is.  It’s a good thing I fixed enough food for three.”  Joyce moved aside to let them in.  “Well, I must say that you two have been busy.  I heard about that stuff with the assassin and the sheik.  It’s amazing how things go, isn’t it?  If Angie hadn’t seen that murder, then you guys wouldn’t have gotten involved in the whole thing, and the assassination would have been successful.”

“Yeah.  Of course, I also wouldn’t have gotten shot, but, in the end, everything turned out for the best,” Rollie said.

“I have a feeling, though, that what the papers said wasn’t true.  They said that you were just used as bait to catch the assassin and find out who his target was, but knowing what I do about you, I’d bet money that your part in the whole thing was a whole lot bigger than that.  So, am I right?”

Rollie smiled and nodded.  “Yeah, you’re right.  We didn’t want our part in the whole thing to become public knowledge.  I don’t need to be pestered by a bunch of reporters.  As it was, we had a few wanting to get our story.”

“I can understand that.”  Joyce looked back and forth between the two of them.  “Okay, so what’s going on.  You both have the look of cats that ate the canary.”

Rollie and Angie grinned.  “Well, you don’t have to try talking me into telling Rollie that I love him anymore,” Angie said.

A delighted smile lit Joyce’s face.  “It’s about time.  So, which of you was the first to break down and tell the other how you felt?”

“Um, well, things didn’t quite happen that way,” Rollie said.  “I was getting all set to tell Angie, but something happened the day before I was going to and, uh . . . let’s just say that it was kind of a spontaneous revelation.”  He looked at Angie.

“Really.  That sounds like an interesting story, but I bet I’m never going to hear the details, am I.”  Joyce was smiling knowingly.

“No, not all the details, but I may tell you about it someday,” Angie said.

“I’m so glad that you’ve finally gotten together.  Nothing could make me happier.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Angie lifted her left hand, which she had been hiding behind her back.

Joyce saw the ring, and her eyes grew huge.  “You’re engaged?!”

“We sure are,” Rollie told her.

Joyce threw her arms around Angie, then Rollie.  “I can’t believe this.  When I left on vacation, you guys hadn’t even kissed, and now you’re getting married!  I sure have lousy timing for my vacations.  I missed everything.”

The couple laughed.  “Don’t feel so bad, Joyce.  This all happened rather suddenly,” Angie said.

“This calls for a big celebration.  Now I wish that we’d made reservations to go out and eat.  What I fixed isn’t good enough.”

“What you fixed will be fine, Joyce,” Rollie told her.  “We don’t need a big celebration dinner.”

They all went into the dining room and sat down.  “So, when’s the big day?”

“I’m afraid that’s going to be another shocker for you,” Angie said.  “It’s in three weeks, on the twenty-seventh.”

“You’re kidding.  But you’ll never get everything done in time.”

“Some friends are helping with the arrangements,” Rollie explained.  “It’ll be tough, but we’ll make it.”

“Well, I’ll help in whatever way I can, too.  Just let me know how.”

“I’d very much like you to be one of my bridesmaids, Joyce,” Angie murmured.

Her friend’s eyes brightened with tears.  “Angie, that would make me so happy.  Thank you.”

They all turned their attention to eating, talking about the wedding in between bites.  Around halfway through the meal, Rollie started getting an odd feeling, like something tugging at his consciousness.  He didn’t even realize that he’d lost track of what was going on around him until Angie touched his arm.

“Rollie, are you all right?”

The Aussie blinked and looked at her.  “What?  Oh.  Um, I’m sorry.  I guess I spaced off there for a minute.”

Throughout the rest of the meal, Rollie tried to concentrate on it and the conversation, but the strange feeling kept growing stronger.  When the meal ended, Joyce asked if they wanted a drink or some coffee.

“Thanks, Joyce, but we need to go.  There’s something I have to do,” Rollie told her.

Angie looked at him in surprise, but didn’t say anything.  The Aussie had grown very quiet and distracted.  She didn’t know what was bothering him, but something definitely was.

Saying goodbye to Joyce and telling her that they’d call her within the next couple of days, the couple left.

“Rol, what’s going on?” Angie asked after a few minutes of watching her fiancé stare almost unblinkingly at the road before them.  “You’re acting kind of weird.”

The Aussie didn’t reply.  Instead, he turned down a road that would not take them back to the loft.

“Where are we going?”  Angie was getting more than a little concerned.

“I don’t know,” Rollie replied.

“You don’t know?  I’m getting worried here, Rollie.  I think you’d better stop and let me drive.”

The Aussie shook his head.  “We’re almost there,” he murmured.

“How do you know we’re almost there if you don’t know where we’re going?”

Again the Aussie didn’t answer.  Not knowing what to do, Angie fell silent.  A while later, they pulled over and parked.  Rollie looked across the street at Central Park.

“Here,” he said simply.

“Here what?”

Rollie got out of the car.  “I need to go into the park, Ange.  You can stay in the car, if you want to.”

“Not a chance.  You’d probably get mugged if I wasn’t with you.  I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m coming with you.”

Rollie smiled faintly and waited for her to get out of the car.  They crossed the street and entered the park.  The approach of darkness had sent most people home.  They saw only a scattered handful, most of whom were homeless.  Ignoring them all, Rollie headed straight across the park to a section where there were more trees and no people at all, at least not that they could see.  He abruptly stopped, his gaze focused on a clump of bushes.

“Rollie, what--” Angie’s voice broke off as a figure stepped out from behind the brush.

“Couldn’t play hide-and-seek with you, could I,” the man commented.

“Mangela,” Rollie murmured, not the slightest bit of surprise in his voice.

“Hello, Sonny Boy,” the Aborigine said, smiling fondly.

“Why are you here?  Why have you come?” Rollie asked.

“To warn you,” Mangela told him gravely.  “There are troubles, Rollie.  An old evil has returned, and it will destroy you if you do not heed the dreams and stop hiding from yourself.”
 

CHAPTER FOUR -- WARNING

Rollie stared at Mangela, his body tensing at the mention of dreams.  “What are you talking about?”

The Aborigine looked long and hard at him.  “You already know, if you’d just let yourself see.  You still don’t want to hear the songs.  Until you do, you won’t have the power to stop what is going to happen.”

The Aussie turned and walked away a couple of paces.  Mangela came up behind him.  “It’s time for you to stop running away, Rollie.  It’s time for you to remember what I taught you.”

Rollie looked at him.  “I can’t go back to that, Mangela.  It was bad enough when you wanted me to fulfill what happened in my Dreaming of the eagle and the blackbird, but what you’re asking now is something that I just can’t do.”

“You have no choice.  If you don’t, then this evil that stalks you will kill you--and Angie.  You know that.  Your dream has already told you so.”

“What evil?” Angie asked, totally confused by the conversation.  “What dream?  Are you talking about this dream that Rollie keeps having?”

Mangela turned to her.  “It’s more than a dream.  It is a warning of the future, just as was the Dreaming that Rollie had as a child.”

Angie stared at Rollie, who had turned away again.  When she’d found out about the vision Rollie experienced as a child and realized that it had been prophetic, it had amazed her, though not as much as it might others.  She had always believed in the paranormal, never doubting that such things existed.  But it surprised her that Rollie had displayed such an ability.  And, now, Mangela was saying that Rollie was once again seeing into the future.

“Rol, what did you dream?” she asked.

He didn’t respond for a moment, then he slowly turned around.  Taking a deep breath, he recounted the dream to her.  When he got to the part where she died, his voice cracked slightly.

“And you’re saying that this is going to happen?  I’m going to die?” Angie asked, fear coloring her voice.

“No!  You’re not going to die,” Rollie said forcefully.  “I won’t let that happen.”

“You can stop it only if you heed the warning and let go of your fear, Rollie,” Mangela told him.  “You have to accept what’s been happening to you and allow it to take its course.  You know what’s been happening since you returned from death.”  He pulled back Rollie’s shirt to reveal the scar over his heart.  The Aborigine ran his finger across the scar.  “I felt it when you crossed over into death and when you returned.  You wandered a long time in the between place, the place between life and death.  But your spirit is strong and you returned from that place, too.  When you did, I knew that something had changed in you.  You are stronger now than you have ever been.”

Rollie stared at Mangela.  “You felt it when I died and when I was in the coma?”

“Of course.  What did I tell you the last time we met?  You’re still a part of my heart, Rollie.  We still walk the same songline.”  The Aborigine looked at Angie.  “But not as completely as you and Angie.”

“What do you mean by that?” Angie asked.

“He hasn’t told you?”

“Told me what?”  Angie looked at her fiancé.  “What is he talking about?”

Rollie searched her face.  He hadn’t wanted to tell her what was happening, unsure of how she would react.  But now he had no choice.  “Ever since I woke up from the coma, I’ve . . . felt things.”

“What kind of things?”

“Things that have to do with you.  I always know when you’re near, and I always know exactly where you are when we’re in the same building, like in the loft or your apartment.  I can even tell when you’re on your way to the loft several minutes before you get there.”

Angie stared at Rollie, not knowing what to say or do.  She was stunned by what the Aussie had just told her.  “How is that possible?  It hasn’t always been like that.”

“I don’t know how or why.  Ever since I woke from the coma, it’s been like that.  And it’s been getting stronger.”

“What else?  You said ‘things’, plural.  You’re not going to tell me that you really do have x-ray vision, are you?”

Rollie smiled faintly.  “No . . . unfortunately.”  He grew serious.  “On our picnic, you asked me how I always know when you’re looking at me.  I don’t know how I know, but I do.”

“Every time?  How can you be sure?”

“I guess I can’t, but I’m pretty sure of it.”

“Turn around,” Angie commanded.

“Huh?”

“I want to see if you’re right.”

With a sigh, Rollie turned his back to her.

“Okay, tell me when I’m looking at you,” she said.

Rollie waited for the now familiar sensation he got when Angie was watching him.  A few seconds passed, then, “You’re looking at me now.  Now you’ve turned away.”  A few more seconds went by.  “You’re looking at me again.”  He waited a moment.  “You’re still. . . .  Now you’re not.”  More seconds passed.  “You’re. . . .  Open your eyes, Angie.”  He turned around to see his fiancée gaping at him.

“You knew my eyes were closed?” she asked.

“Yeah.  You turned in my direction, but you had your eyes closed.”  He smiled again faintly.  “That doesn’t count as looking at me.”

Angie just stared at Rollie for several seconds, which made the Aussie feel extremely self-conscious.  He turned to Mangela, not wanting Angie to ask any more questions.  “You said that an old evil has returned.  Who is it?”

“I don’t know.  I only know that something evil has come back into your lives, and that it will try to destroy you.”

Rollie’s eyes dropped to the ground.  Mangela studied the man he thought of as a son.  “I can’t help you with this, Rollie.  You must find your own way to what will save you and Angie.  No one else can do it for you.”

The Aussie looked back up at him.  “You know that I don’t want to go back to that, Mangela.  After Mum died, I didn’t want it anymore, and after those three days, after--”  Rollie took a deep breath.  “I couldn’t go back to it after that.”

“Within your spirit, you are still one of the People,” Mangela said softly.  “That was so even before your mother brought you to us.”

“I thought it was Dingo who left Rollie with you,” Angie said.  “That’s what Rollie told me once.”

“His father left him with us after Rollie’s mother died, coming to get him every now and then for a few days at a time.  But Rollie came to us long before then.  He grew up with the People.  He was like one of us until his father took him away for good.”

Angie looked at her fiancé, wondering why he had never told her this.  She wondered how many other things he’d kept a secret from her all these years.  Rollie did not return her gaze.  He was looking off into the trees, his eyes hidden from her.

“Rol. . . .” she began, but stopped when he turned to her.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Ange.  Please don’t ask,” he said with a note of pleading.

Angie looked into the Aussie’s eyes, seeing an old pain there.  “Okay, Rol.  I won’t.”  She turned her attention back to Mangela.  “Why are you here in the park?  Why didn’t you go to the loft like the last time?”

“He wanted to see if I could find him,” Rollie said.  “It was a test,” he focused a penetrating look on the Aboriginal man, “wasn’t it.”

“When did you begin to sense that I was here?” Mangela asked, not answering his question.

“It started about forty minutes ago.”

“Which was not long after my plane landed.  I was right.  You are stronger.”

“Let’s go back to the loft,” Rollie said abruptly, turning around and heading back across the park before Mangela had time to answer.  Angie and the Aborigine quickly caught up to him, following in silence.  The drive was also made in silence.  Angie was puzzled by Rollie’s behavior.  It made her realize how very little she knew about his childhood in Australia and about what happened to his mother.  Something about that time had left a deep scar in Rollie’s heart.  She wished that she could get him to talk about it, but she could tell that wasn’t going to happen.

“You can sleep on the couch, if you want, Mangela,” Rollie said as they walked into the loft.  “Or would you prefer the roof?”

“The couch will be fine for tonight,” the Aborigine told him.

Rollie nodded.  He looked at Angie, then returned his gaze to Mangela.  He put a smile on his face, though it appeared slightly strained.  “We have some news, something that will probably make you happy.  Angie and I are going to be married.”

The Aborigine smiled.  He did not look surprised.  “I’m pleased, Rollie.  You and Angie have walked the same songline for a long time.  You have been like two halves of the same person.  When you are together as one, you will be whole, and you will both be stronger.”

Rollie’s smile grew warmer.  “The wedding is going to be on the twenty-seventh.  I hope you’ll be able to stay for it.”

“I’ll be here.”

They talked about the wedding and other things, Rollie deliberately keeping the conversation away from the reason why Mangela had come.  He knew that, tomorrow, he would no longer be able to ignore what Mangela had told him, but he just couldn’t talk about it now.  After a while, he asked how things were going back home.

“Things change.  Things remain the same,” Mangela replied.  “Your father has been there for several months now.”

“He has?”  Rollie had been wondering about his father.  All during the time that he was recovering from being shot, he’d wondered why his father hadn’t come to visit.  He’d told himself that Dingo probably didn’t even know what happened, but he had also wondered how that could be possible since the story was in the papers all across the country. It hadn’t even occurred to him that his father might have gone back to Australia.  “Do you know why he’s there?”

Mangela shrugged.  “You know him as well as I do.  Better.”

“Yeah, I’m afraid I do.  He’s probably involved in some kind of scheme.”

“He may be coming here soon, though.”

“Oh?  What makes you say that?”

“Because I told him that you needed my help.”

“Well, knowing Dingo, that might not be enough to bring him here.  It depends on what he’s gotten into.”  Rollie hadn’t meant to sound bitter, but he’d accepted the fact a long time ago that his father had no real interest in being involved in his son’s life, unless it coincided with his own.

“Your father loves you, Rollie.  His life has just taken a different course than yours.”

Rollie sighed.  “I know, Mangela.  I just wish that he would start showing some sense and change his life like I did.”

“You’re stronger than he is.  You always have been.  But, someday, he will change.”

“If he doesn’t get himself killed first.”

Angie left for home, saying that she’d be back early in the morning to help Rollie for a while before Mira came to pick her up.  After she was gone, Mangela looked at Rollie.

“Why do you keep from her these things that you know she should be told?  She is your lifemate.  You can’t keep them from her forever.”

“I don’t talk about the past, Mangela, not about my time with the People or about Mum or Cale.  When I left the People, I left all of that behind me.”

“Did you?  Then why do you still carry it in your heart?”

Rollie didn’t answer.  He got a blanket and pillow for Mangela and made up a bed on the couch.  As he laid the pillow down, he felt a hand on his shoulder, stilling him.

“There are things that you know, Rollie,” Mangela said quietly, “things that no other whitefella knows.  Knowledge is a powerful thing.  You need that now more than ever.”  He turned and walked toward the door.  “I’m going up onto the roof for a while.”

Rollie stared at the door for several seconds after the Aborigine had gone through it.  He then turned away and went up the stairs to his bedroom.

The next morning, Angie arrived an hour and a half before Mira was due to pick her up.  Mangela was gone.  He’d left sometime before Rollie got up.  The Aussie figured that the Aborigine has headed off back to the park shortly before dawn.  Angie did not bring up the subject of why Mangela had showed up.  Instead, she and Rollie put in some work on White Light.  When Mira came and picked Angie up, she told Rollie not to expect them back before six o’clock.  The Aussie watched them leave, smiling softly.  Angie was going to ask Mira to be her maid of honor.  Actually, since Mira was a married woman, or had been married, the proper term was matron of honor, but the detective would throw a fit if she heard that term being used for her.  Rollie wished that he could see the look on Mira’s face when Angie asked her.

Rollie got back to work.  As a precaution, he’d told Bluey to lock the place down and maintain surveillance.  When the robot started barking like crazy at around 10:30, the Aussie couldn’t help but tense up.  He relaxed when he saw that it was David Rain.  He let the agent in.

“Where’s Elena?” he asked.

“She said that she had some business to take care of and asked me to fetch the tape.”

Rollie nodded.  He had a feeling that Elena’s real reason for sending David alone was that she didn’t want to face him.  It saddened him that she didn’t feel comfortable seeing him, but maybe it was for the best.  It would have been uncomfortable for him too, knowing what he did.

The Aussie got the tape for David.  “We couldn’t recover it all, but we managed to restore the better part of it.”

“Thanks, Rollie.  This will make things a lot easier.”

Rollie studied the young agent.  He liked David quite a lot.  They’d gone out for beers one evening shortly after the case with Syman was wrapped up, and David had told Rollie a little about himself.  They had forged an easy camaraderie, learning that they shared several things in common, their taste in movies, for one.  David had seen some of the pictures Rollie had worked on.

The Aussie wondered if he should tell the agent about what was going on.  He decided against it as soon as the thought entered his mind.  Right now, there was no proof that someone was out to get him.  The only things they had to go on were his dreams and Mangela’s warning.

“Elena is leaving on her vacation tomorrow.  I’m going to be taking the next week off starting tomorrow, too,” David told him.  “I’ve been accruing too much vacation time, and my boss isn’t happy about it.  I was thinking that maybe we could catch a game or something.”  He grinned.  “Or are you too busy with the wedding plans?”

“I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Rollie told him.  “I don’t know what the next week will bring.”

“Sure.  You’ve got my number, so just give me a call.”

Rollie said goodbye to the agent, then got back to work.  It was just after noon when he finished.  He fixed himself a quick lunch, in a hurry to get busy with the things he planned to do today for the wedding.  He was just sitting down to eat, when Blue started barking again.  A moment later, there was a knock on the door.  Rollie checked the closed circuit camera and saw that it was a delivery man.  He signed for the package and set it on a workbench, then just stared at it for several seconds.  He didn’t know why, but he had a bad feeling in his gut.  He took the package over to a portable x-ray machine, a smaller version of the same kind of machine used in airports.  The scan showed nothing resembling a bomb, but the feeling persisted.  After staring at it for a long time, Rollie finally cut the string and pulled back the wrapping.  The feeling of danger increased as he moved to open the box.  Heeding the warning of his instincts, the Aussie put the package inside a unit resembling a medical incubator.  The unit was specially designed to protect against viral agents and airborne toxins.  Of course, if there was a bomb in the package, the protection it afforded would be of absolutely no help.

Rollie slid his hands into the gloves that went into the unit.  Holding his breath, he slowly opened the box.  There was a faint puff of white mist.  Rollie quickly pulled his hands out of the gloves.

“Blue, analyze the air inside the incubator.  Are there any contaminants?”

Using data from the sensors inside the box, Bluey ran a scan.  A couple of minutes later, the electronic dog started barking excitedly.  Rollie went over to the computer monitor and studied the readout.  The air inside the incubator was filled with a very nasty, but nonlethal bacterial agent.  If Rollie had been exposed to it, he would have been violently ill for several days.  Whoever sent the package had a vicious sense of humor.

Rollie returned to the incubator and put his hands back in the gloves.  He reached inside the box and pulled out the contents.  The first thing he pulled out was an empty container that he assumed held the bacteria.  There was only one other thing in the box: a newspaper clipping.  The article was of Rollie and Angie’s engagement.  Somehow, the gossip columnist for the paper had found out and had managed to get the article in the morning edition.  But it wasn’t the article itself that caught and held Rollie’s attention.  Someone had circled the photo above the article in red ink and had written a message beside it.  The message read, “I’m watching you, Tyler--both of you.”

Rollie felt a chill pass through him.  He had a sudden, overwhelming fear that Angie was in terrible danger.  Hastily, he reached for the phone and dialed her cell phone number.  After the first ring, he was feeling anxious.  After the second ring, he was nearly jumping out of his skin.  After the third ring, he was ready to call the national guard to help him look for her.  Finally, on the fourth ring, the call connected and he heard Angie’s voice on the other end.

“Are you okay, Angie?”  He couldn’t keep the anxiety out of his voice.

There was a pause, then, “Yeah, I’m fine, Rol.  Why?  What’s wrong?  Something’s happened, hasn’t it.”

He didn’t answer her question.  Instead, he asked one of his own.  “Have you eaten lunch yet?”

“No.  We were just about to go get something.”

“I’ll meet you.”  He found out where they were going and headed straight over there.

The moment he saw Angie he strode over to her and pulled her close.  As they drew apart, Angie studied the expression on his face.

“Something has happened.  What is it?”

Rollie sat down and told them about the delivery.  Both women were instantly alarmed.

“I don’t like this, Rollie,” Mira said.  “You’ve made some pretty dangerous enemies in your work with the police.  It sounds like one of them is back to get some revenge.  I hate to say this, but you may have to postpone the wedding until this is cleared up.”

“Absolutely not,” Rollie declared firmly.

“But Rollie, this could be serious.  It’s going to be a lot harder to protect you if you’re running around making wedding arrangements.”

“Mira, if this person wanted me dead, I probably already would be.  There could just as easily have been something fatal in that package.  No, whoever this is, they’re after something else.  They want to make me suffer, scare me, make me hide in a hole somewhere.  Well, that’s not going to happen.  This wedding is going on as planned.”  He took Angie’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

Mira shook her head.  “I really hope you’re right about this, Rollie.”

“That makes three of us,” Angie said.

“I’ll call Frank and have him begin compiling a list of the people who would have a grudge against you and find out what the status is on all of them,” Mira told them.

“That’s going to take a while,” Rollie remarked.

“Yes, I know.  You have as many enemies behind bars as a lot of cops do, and I know that you’ve probably got a few who aren’t in prison yet.”

Pretending that nothing had happened, Rollie stayed for lunch.  He asked what the women had done so far.  At first, they seemed reluctant to get back on the subject of the wedding, but, with some encouragement from him, they briefly told him about their morning.

“So, have you asked her yet?” the Aussie asked Angie.

“No, not yet.”

“Asked me what?” Mira inquired.

Angie smiled at her.  “I’d like you to be my maid of honor.”

Mira’s eyes widened, then a bright smile filled her face.  “I would love to, Angie.  But don’t you have someone else whom you’ve known longer?  What about your friend, Joyce?”

“I could have asked her to be my maid of honor, but I didn’t.  I want you to be it.  You’ve been a good friend, especially after the stuff with Loubar and when Rollie was shot.”

“Thank you, Angie.  I would be very happy to be your maid of honor.”

“Great.”  Angie turned her attention back to Rollie.  “So, what did you get done?”

“I finished most of the work we wanted to get done on White Light today.  I can do the rest tonight.  That’ll give me the rest of the afternoon to see about the other things.”

“I called Charlotte,” Angie told him.  “She’s going to call some places for the reception.  It might be hard to find a place.  June is a popular month for weddings.  Most of the places are probably already booked.”

Rollie smiled.  “Well, we could always have the reception at the studio.  I bet the props department could find some nice things to decorate a set with.”

“Not a chance, Rol.  I’m not having my wedding reception on a movie set.”  She saw the twinkle in her fiancée’s eyes and realized that he was teasing her.  A smile turned up the corners of her mouth.  “On second thought, it would be convenient since most of the guests are going to be industry people.  Why, we could even have the wedding on Lot Three.  You know, the one with the fake lake and the roll-up grass.”

“Whatever you desire, Love,” the Aussie said, knowing that she wasn’t being serious.

They finished their lunch mostly in silence.  After the bill was paid, Rollie made no move to get up.  He looked at Angie for a long time.  He was afraid to leave her, knowing that someone was out there who might try to hurt her.

Angie must have guessed what he was thinking because she reached for his hand and said, “I’ll be fine, Rol.  Don’t worry.  After all, I am in the company of one of New York’s finest, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, and that’s the only reason why I’m letting you out of my sight.”  He turned to Mira.  “You watch out for her, okay?”

“With my life, Rollie,” Mira replied, her voice utterly serious.

The Aussie moved to rise, but something made him pause.  The note had said that both he and Angie were being watched.  Had the person said that just as a scare tactic or was it true?  If only one person was involved, he or she could not keep track of both of them.  This meant that there was either more than one person involved or the person had a way of keeping tabs on both of them at the same time.  He explained his concerns to the women.

“Where exactly did you go today,” he asked.

Mira and Angie gave a rundown of all the places they’d went.

“Did anything unusual happen, anything at all?”

“No, nothing,” replied Angie.

Rollie reran their morning’s activities through his mind.  “Did you try anything on at the bridal shop?”

“A couple of wedding gowns.”

“Then you would have taken off your clothes and jewelry.”

“Sure.”

“Was your stuff ever out of your sight?”

“Yeah, I handed it all to the attendant.”

A bright red flag instantly started waving in front of Rollie.

Angie saw the expression on his face.  “You think I may have been bugged?”

“Maybe not a bug, but perhaps a tracking device of some kind.”

The three of them started checking for electronic devices.  The two women went to the ladies room to search Angie’s clothes while Rollie checked her purse and jewelry.  None of them found anything.  Mira and Angie were ready to agree that there was no tracking device, but Rollie wasn’t satisfied.

“Okay, if he wanted to keep track of you for more than one day, he’d want to put the thing on or in something that you would always have with you.”  Rollie picked up the watch again and examined it more closely.  At first he didn’t see anything, then he noticed something odd.  The watch seemed thicker than it should be.  He studied the back of it.  That’s when he noticed that the plate on the back of the watch was not engraved with the maker’s name like they usually were.  He pulled out his pocket knife.  Using the tip, he pried off part of the watch’s back.

They all stared at the metal disk on the table.  It was less than an eighth of an inch thick and could easily have been overlooked.

Rollie’s and Angie’s eyes met.  “Who else was in the shop besides you and the employees?” the Aussie asked.

“Well, a man and a woman came in shortly after we did.  I heard the man mention that he was the woman’s brother.  She tried on a gown.”

“And the man?”

“I think he stayed out in the lobby, but I’m not sure.  The woman modeled the dress for him.  You know, now that I think about it, they didn’t look anything alike.  Of course, that really doesn’t mean anything.”

“I bet they didn’t buy anything, did they.”

“No.  The man said he had to get back to work and that they might stop by later.”

“I assume that neither one of them looked familiar to you.”

Angie shook her head.  “So, there are at least two people involved in this thing.”

“Maybe not.  The woman might have been hired to play the role.  There are dozens of starving actresses out there who’d jump at the chance of making a little extra money.”

“But there wouldn’t have been enough time for him to get someone this morning.”

“No, he would have had to start setting this up yesterday or the day before, which means that he’s probably known about the wedding almost from the start.”

“Are you saying that he was listening in on us when you proposed?”  The thought of this person eavesdropping on that wonderful and private moment made Angie so mad that she wanted to do something violent.  She could tell that her fiancé was upset by the thought as well.

Rollie thought back on their conversations over the past two days.  They had talked about the wedding a lot.  If this person had started listening in on them at any time during those two days, he would have found out about the engagement.  The Aussie told Angie his thoughts.  As he did, he remembered something, the feeling he’d gotten when he came home Monday morning from Angie’s apartment.  “I think I know when he started listening in on us, Ange.  I think it was yesterday morning.”

“How do you know?” Angie asked.

“It’s a feeling I have.”  Rollie looked at her meaningfully.

“Oh.”

“I should have kept the sensors on the roof across the way,” Rollie said.  “I’ll bet you that’s where he set up the listening device.  Either that or in the building.”

“You had no way of knowing that someone else would start spying on you,” Mira said.

“With our track record?  I should have the entire block wired for video and audio.”

“What do we do now?” Angie asked.

The Aussie handed her the tracking device.  “Put it in your purse or pocket for now.  Mira, I think it’s time to ask for some help from your fellow cops.”

“What kind of help?”

“See if you can get a plainclothes policewoman down here to act as a decoy.  She doesn’t really have to look like Angie.  She just has to go around to the places that you were planning on going today.  We’ll give her the tracking device.”

“What then?”

“Meet me back at the loft at . . .” he glanced at his watch, “2:30.  Go in through the secret entrance.  I’m going to assume that this guy doesn’t know about it.  We need to figure out what we’re going to do next.”

“But, if he’s listening in at the loft, he’ll know the moment we get there,” Mira pointed out.

“I’ll take care of that.”

Rollie headed to an electronics store to buy some things, then returned to the loft.  When he got there, he noticed that the door was slightly ajar.  Warning bells went off in his head.  Deciding that he wasn’t going to take anything for granted, he started searching around the area.  Finally, he found what he was looking for.  Rollie scooped up the brick.  Standing about twenty-five feet away, he threw it at the door with all his strength and dove to the ground.  The brick hit the door with a loud bang, causing it to slowly swing open.  Rollie uncovered his head and looked up.  No explosion had rocked the building.  No hail of bullets had flown through the air.

Rollie got up and approached the door.  Cautiously, he opened it further.  He stuck his head in and looked around for anything suspicious.  That’s when he noticed that everything was off.

“Blue?  Lights, Bluey.”  There was no answer, and the loft stayed dark.  He carefully reached for the light switch and turned it on.  Nothing.  Rollie went back out and checked the power box to discover that the lines had been cut.  But why hadn’t the power backup kicked in?  Rollie had set up a small solar powered generator on the roof that automatically kicked in if there was an interruption of electrical power.  The generator was there to keep power flowing to the most important systems in the loft that couldn’t be protected by normal power backups, like the security system, and to act as a secondary backup for the computers just in case the power was off for longer than what the regular power backups could keep them going.  But, for some reason, it had failed to do so.  He got a flashlight out of the car and went back inside.

“Bluey?  Where are you, boy?”  There was still no answer.  Starting to get worried, Rollie shone the flashlight around on the floor.  He finally found the little robot over in a corner.

“Oh no,” Rollie whispered.  Blue’s body had been smashed, as if someone had stomped on him.  With tears coming to his eyes, Rollie gently carried the little broken body over to a worktable.

“Damn you!  Damn you, whoever you are!  I’m going to get you for this.  I swear I will.”

Rollie went over to an emergency gasoline generator and started it up.  The loft was filled with light.  Still feeling stunned and enraged, he thoroughly checked the rest of the first floor of the loft for signs of damage or tampering, but found nothing.  He then headed upstairs.  Rollie stepped though the doorway of his bedroom.

“Oh my God!”  He stumbled backward, staring in horror at what lay on the bed.  The woman’s eyes stared lifelessly up at him.  Dried blood covered her neck.  She had been garotted.  Hurrying away downstairs, Rollie called Mira on his cell phone.

“Mira, get over here now.  And you’d better call the coroner and get a forensics team down here, too.”

“What happened?”

“Our friend left us a message.”
 

CHAPTER FIVE -- THE MONSTER REVEALED

Angie and Mira came rushing in.  Both women headed straight over to where Rollie sat in a chair.  Seeing the expression on Rollie’s face, Angie immediately put her arms around him.  He held onto her tightly.  When they drew apart, he turned to Mira.

“She’s on the bed.”

Angie tightened her grip on Rollie’s arm.

“Do you know who she is?” asked the detective.

“Not for sure, but I’d guess that she’s the woman you saw in the bridal shop.  It makes a sick sort of sense.  He wouldn’t want someone around who might cause him trouble.”

Just then, a small army of cops and a forensics team arrived, including Francis.  Mira and Frank headed for the stairs.

“Wait a sec,” Rollie called.  “I think you’d better have someone check out the neighboring buildings and the roof of this one.  We wouldn’t want to make the same mistake as last time.  Oh, and while they’re up on the roof, have them check the generator up there and find out why it didn’t kick in.”

Mira assigned several officers to scour the area for signs of the perpetrator, then headed up the stairs.  Angie thought about following her, but decided that she didn’t really need to see what was up there.

“Angie?”

She turned to Rollie.

“Angie, there’s something else.”  He took her hand.  “It’s Bluey.”

“Oh no.”

Angie followed the direction of Rollie’s gaze.  She gasped when she saw what lay upon the table.  Going over to it, she touched the broken remains of the little robot.

“Oh, Rollie.  Why is he doing these things?  Who would want to hurt us so much?”

“Loubar would.”

Angie felt a coldness pass through her.

“But it’s been so long since. . . .”

“Since the last time we saw him.  I know.  I thought that he was dead too, especially since they found the mask.  But it all makes sense, Angie.  Think about the dream--a monster who hides himself behind my face.”

“What dream?”

Rollie and Angie turned to Mira who had come back down.

“Is it her?” asked Angie.

“Yeah, I’m afraid so.”  Mira turned back to Rollie.  “What dream?”

“I’ve been having a recurring nightmare.  Mangela told me that it isn’t just a dream, that it’s a warning of something that’s going to happen.”

“Mangela?  Is he here again?”

“Yeah.”  Rollie’s gaze moved toward the door.  “In fact, he’s here right now.  You’d better let the cops outside know that he can come in.”

Mira looked in the direction of the open door, not seeing the Aborigine.  “How do you know he’s out there?”

Rollie made a face.  “Don’t ask.”

Mira went outside.  A few seconds later, she came back in followed by Mangela.

“Things are getting very bad, Rollie.  Have you learned how to read the Dreaming yet?”

“Part of it.  I think I know who’s behind all this.”

“Good.  Then you can stop him.”

“That’s a lot easier said than done, Mangela.  We’ve been trying to catch Victor Loubar for a long time, and he just keeps slipping away.”  Rollie’s jaw set.  “But there’s an old proverb that says the enemy you know is less dangerous than the enemy you don’t know.  Now that we know it’s Loubar we’re dealing with, we’ve got a better chance of beating him.”

“Have you checked the rest of this place out?” asked Mira.  “If it is Loubar who’s doing this, he could have planted just about anything in here.”

“I swept it for bugs while I was waiting for you.  It’s clean.  He wouldn’t bother doing something like that, anyway.  He’d know that one of the first things I’d do would be to check for listening devices.”

“What about bombs?”

“If there was a bomb, it would have been set off by now.  It’s like I said before.  He doesn’t want us dead, not yet.  He wants to play with us first, like a cat with a mouse.  He’s showing us how easily he could get to us.”

“So he just came here to leave his calling card?”  Mira shook her head.  “He must have known that, as soon as Angie and I saw the body, we’d realize that it was him in the bridal shop and would figure out the reason he was there.  Loubar’s smart.  He wouldn’t tip his hand just to show you that you’re at his mercy.”

“Maybe he knew that his hand had already been tipped.  If he followed me into the restaurant, he would have seen me discover the tracking device.”

“All the same, I’m going to get a bomb squad in here to check the place out.”  She made a call on her cell phone.  As she did, Francis came back downstairs, his expression very serious.  His expression changed to surprise when he saw Mangela.

“Hello, Francis,” the Aborigine greeted.  They’d met the last time Mangela came to New York.

“Um, hi,” the detective said.

A while later, the team outside reported that everything was clean.  There was no sign of Loubar or any electronic monitoring devices.  They told the Aussie that the generator on the roof had been turned off, obviously by Loubar.  Rollie asked one of them to turn it back on.  A couple of minutes later, the other lights in the loft came on, and the computers started booting up.  Rollie turned off the gas generator.  Just then, the bomb squad arrived.  They thoroughly checked the loft and found that it, too, was clean.

“I guess the real question now is what are we going to do?” said Angie.

“We go on with things as usual.  There’s no way of knowing where Loubar is.  For now, the ball’s in his court.  We’ll have to wait for his next move.  But we can make it as hard as possible for him to get at us again.  I’m going to put sensors back up on all of the roofs and more around this building, and I’m going to do the same inside the buildings across the street.  They’re empty right now, so Loubar could have set up there.  I’ll place a few more cameras around the loft as well.  If he tries getting anywhere near this place, we’ll know about it.  I’m also going to put together a couple of portable jamming devices that we can carry around with us.  They’ll make it impossible for him to track us using bugs.  I might be able to come up with a way to keep him from listening in on our conversations, too.”

“I’d better check the security system to make sure that he didn’t patch into our audio and video feed and is spying on us that way,” Angie said.

“You should do that now, Ange.  I don’t want to take the chance that Loubar is listening in.”

Angie quickly checked the systems and determined that everything was fine.

“I’m going to station a couple of officers at the front door,” Mira told them, “and you’ll have to have officers along wherever you go.  It looks as if you’re going to have to get used to the company of cops again.”

“What about the wedding, Rollie?” asked Angie.

“I’m afraid we may have to change our plans, Angie.”

Trying not to show her disappointment, Angie said, “Yeah, I guess we have no choice.  We’ll have to postpone it.”

“No, not postpone it, Ange, have it sooner.”

“What?”

“Loubar knows that the wedding is scheduled for the twenty-seventh.  I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s got something nasty planned for it.”

“All the more reason to postpone it, Rollie,” commented Mira.

“No,” Rollie said firmly.  “I am not going to give him the satisfaction of making us postpone it.”  He turned to Angie.  “One way or another, I am going to marry you by the twenty-seventh, Angela Ramirez.”

Angie was warmed by the look of rock-hard determination on Rollie’s face.  She smiled brightly at him.  “You just tell me when, Rol, and I’ll be ready.”

“How about the twentieth?”

“Eleven days?  Plenty of time.”

“But Rollie, as soon as you announce the new date, Loubar’s just going to move his timetable forward.  You won’t have gained anything,” Francis pointed out.

“We won’t announce it.”  He looked at Angie.  “I hope you won’t mind if the wedding isn’t as big and grand as we intended.”

“Right now, I wouldn’t care if we held it in a barn.”

Rollie grinned.  “Well, we won’t have to go that far.  Perhaps a stable yard.  There is that big one over on--” He broke off laughing when Angie punched his arm.

Rollie turned to the old Aborigine, who had remained silent up until now.  “I’m going to need your help with some stuff, Mangela.”

“Of course, Rollie.  You know I’m here for you.”

The coroner and the forensics team were gone, as was the body of the woman who had been unfortunate enough to get involved with Victor Loubar.  Rollie, Angie, Mira, Frank, and Mangela had all worked together to place sensors, cameras, motion detectors, and other devices all around the loft and the neighboring buildings.  By the time they were finished, nothing bigger than a cat was going to get anywhere near the loft without setting off an alarm.  The sensors were designed with a failsafe feature that would trigger a warning if, for any reason, they stopped working.  Short of an electromagnetic pulse, which would disable everything electronic, there was no way that Loubar would be able to get past the sensors.  Considering that an E.M.P. would instantly alert them to Loubar’s presence, there wasn’t much chance that the man would use such a tactic.

As Mira had promised, there were two uniformed cops posted outside the front door.  To avoid having the cops set off the alarms, Rollie had set up specialized sensors directly in front of the building.  These sensors would allow the presence of two individuals within their zone, but would set off an alarm if more than that were present.  If, for any reason, the officers had to go beyond the area covered by these sensors, they would need to warn someone ahead of time.

Rollie, Angie, Mangela, and the two detectives all sat down to discuss what they would do next.

“There is one more thing that we need to do.  As most of us are too well aware of, Loubar is a master of disguise.  He could make himself look like almost anyone.”  Rollie glanced at Angie and Mira.  “Well, with certain obvious exceptions.  Anyway, we need to come up with a way of identifying everyone whose going to be involved in this.  Electronic markers of some kind would work, but it would take too long to put them together.”

“How about the old standby, Rollie?” suggested Francis.  “A password would to be the quickest and easiest method of identification.”

Rollie smiled.  “A password it is, then.  Any suggestions?”

“Well, it should be changed at least once a day,” said Angie.

“How about twelve different passwords rotated every twelve hours?” suggested Mira.  “That would be the safest route.”

“Perfect,” commented Rollie.

They all came up with the twelve passwords, each one having some connection to the hour it would be used in to make them easier to remember.  For one o’clock the password was Lonely, for two o’clock it was Snake Eyes, for three o’clock the password was Tripod, and so on.

“What about the FBI?” Angie asked.  “Since this is Loubar, they’ll want to be in charge of things.”

Mira made a face.  “That’s what I’m afraid of.  If they get involved, we’ll have little to say in how we run this thing, unless we’re lucky enough to have David Rain or that woman agent you were telling me about put in charge.”

“Elena is leaving on vacation tomorrow,” Rollie said.  “David’s going to be on vacation starting tomorrow, too.  And Marty Pruitt isn’t with the New York bureau anymore.  He transferred to Chicago.”

“In that case, I say let’s not tell the feds,” Mira said.  “We managed to stop Loubar the last time without them.  We don’t need them this time either.”  She smiled.  “After we catch the bastard, we can call them and let them know that we cleaned things up for them.”

The other three people smiled at the comment.  The conversation then turned to the upcoming wedding.

“Everybody we want there is going to have to be notified in person,” said Rollie.  “We can’t trust the phones, not even cell phones, and it’s going to take too much explaining to do it in a letter.  I’m afraid we’ll have to limit the guest list to people in the area.”

“What about the official announcement?  Are you going to announce that the wedding’s been postponed?” asked Mira.

“The problem with doing that is that it would make it impossible to do the things we need to without rousing suspicion in Loubar.  No, we have to let everyone else believe that the wedding is going on as originally planned.”

“But what about the invitations, Rol?” asked Angie.  “We can’t send all those people invitations only to tell them later that it was just a ruse and that we’ve already been married.  That wouldn’t be fair.”

“We won’t send any out.  There are a lot of people who will feel left out when they don’t get an invitation, but after we’re married, we can send everybody a note explaining what we had to do.  They’ll understand.”

“Where are you going to have the wedding?” asked Francis.

“That’s a tough one.  It has to be someplace that we don’t have to reserve ahead of time.  We’ll figure something out.”

A while later, Mira and Francis left to write their reports.  Rollie temporarily deactivated the sensors so that they could leave without triggering the alarm.

“Mangela, I’d appreciate it if you could stay here tonight.  If something happens, we could use your skills,” he told his spiritual father.

“No problem.”  The Aborigine studied Rollie.  “Have you found your way yet?”

The Aussie shifted uncomfortably.  He was being forced to return to something that he’d never wanted to be a part of again.  But if it would rid them of Loubar once and for all, then he would do what was necessary.  “I guess I’m beginning to.  You’ll have to give me time, Mangela.”

“I can give you all the time you need, Rollie, but I don’t think this Victor Loubar will.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Rollie walked over to the worktable where Blue lay.  Anger again arose in him over what Loubar had done.  He sat down and got to work on the robot, with Angie helping him.  Most of the damage had been to the motor areas of Bluey’s body and legs.  A lot of the computer circuitry was still intact.

As if performing delicate surgery on a loved one, Rollie and Angie worked on the little electronic dog, trying desperately to save it.  It was well into the night before they were finally finished.

“What about the memory chip and the data storage units, Rollie?”

“I don’t know.  They don’t look damaged, but there’s no way to tell for sure until we activate him.  If they’re gone, then the old Bluey is gone, too.  I’d have to completely reprogram him.”  Rollie reached for the control that would turn on the robot.  “Keep your fingers crossed.”  He pushed the switch.

At first, nothing happened, then one of Blue’s legs moved.  A faint whine came from him.

“Bluey?  Is that you, Boy?”  The robot whined again and gave a weak bark.  Rollie beamed.  “Good boy, Blue!  Very good boy!”

Blue barked again more strongly and wagged his tail.  He tried to walk.

“Hold on, Blue.  Just take it easy.  You’ve been through a lot, little buddy.  You just stay there and let your energy cells recharge.”  He petted the robot like a living dog.  The tail started wagging again, and a happy little whine issued forth.  If Blue had been equipped with a tongue, he would have licked Rollie’s hand.  “You’re such a good boy, Blue.  Can you show us what you saw?  Can you show us the man who hurt you?”

The robot’s head turned toward a monitor.  A picture came up.  It was the empty loft.  Rollie, Angie, and Mangela watched the playback as all the lights on the equipment abruptly winked off except for the computers.  They heard the sound of the computers’ power backups beeping a warning.  A minute later, a figure came in through the door carrying a flashlight.  They could hear Blue’s furious barking on the playback.  The figure drew closer.  In the light of the flashlight, they all saw the man’s face.  The features of Victor Loubar sneered into the camera.  The Bluey of the present growled at the sight of the man.  On the playback, Loubar raised his foot and brought it down violently.  There was the sound of something breaking and a terrible little yelp.  Rollie’s hands tightened into fists.  White-knuckled, he watched as the foot again came down.  A third time the foot descended, and the picture went black.

Rollie was breathing hard.  He turned to Angie.  There were tears of anguish and rage in her eyes.

“We’re going to get him this time, Ange.  He’s not going to get away again.”

Mangela made his bed on the couch and said goodnight.  Rollie and Angie went up to the Aussie’s bedroom to talk.

“Angie, I’d like Mangela to be in the wedding ceremony,” the Aussie said.  “Frank is going to be my best man, but since you’re going to have two bridesmaids, I was thinking that Mangela could walk with one of them down the aisle.  I know that’s not necessary, but we could do it that way.”

Angie looked at the expression on her fiancée’s face.  “What?  Is there something else you’d rather do?”

Rollie looked at her in surprise.  “Are you sure you can’t read my mind?”

Angie smiled.  “I just know you too well.  I can tell when there’s something you want to ask me.  Well, most of the time I can, when you’re not hiding it well.”

“I was just thinking that, um, you should have someone to walk with you down the aisle, like a. . . .”

“Like a father would,” Angie finished.

“I’m sorry, Ange.  I shouldn’t even have mentioned it.”

“No, it’s all right, Rol.”  Angie got up and went to Rollie’s dresser.  Several pictures sat on it.  One was of her and her father.  Manny had met Mangela only once, many years ago, but he had liked the Aborigine, recognizing that the man cared deeply for Rollie.  She knew that her father would be all right with Mangela standing in his place at her wedding.

Angie turned back to Rollie.  “I think it’s a good idea.  I would love to have him walk me down the aisle.”

The Aussie smiled.  “Thanks, Ange.”  He looked at his watch.  “It’s really late.  You need to go home and get some sleep.  One of the officers outside is there to follow you home and stay outside your apartment.”

“I wish I could stay here.”

“So do I, but the couch is already occupied.  I could sleep on the floor, I suppose.”

“No, I don’t want you to do that.”  She kissed him.  “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Rollie smiled.  “I’ll see you in my dreams.”

Angie returned the smile.  “Ditto.”  She kissed him again.

The Aussie walked downstairs with her and deactivated the sensors.  He watched as Angie drove away with a police car following closely behind her.  Then he turned the sensors back on and went up to bed.

The following morning, shortly after Angie arrived, she and Rollie approached Mangela about what they had discussed the previous night.

“Angie and I have talked about this, and we’d like it if you would give her away at the wedding,” Rollie said.

Mangela smiled warmly.  He took Angie’s hands.  “Ah, Angie.  I would be proud to stand in your father’s place.  You’ll be a daughter to the People soon, just like Rollie is a son.”

Completely serious, Angie said, “Thank you, Mangela.  It will be an honor.”

The phone rang.  It was Francis.  He was getting close to the loft and was calling in to let them know.  This had been among the things they’d discussed the previous day.  Whenever one of them was approaching the loft, they were to call in ahead of time.  Another thing they’d decided on was that at no time was the loft to be left unattended.  Francis was coming to pick Rollie up to go take care of some things for the wedding.  Angie and Mangela would remain there.  After they got back, Mira was scheduled to pick Angie up to do the same thing.  They could have both gone out at the same time and left Mangela in charge, but, since the Aborigine was not familiar with the security systems, they decided that it would be best if one of them remained behind.

Rollie temporarily turned off the sensors to let Francis by.  They watched as the detective approached the officers stationed outside.  The two cops, having been told about Loubar’s ability with disguises, had their hands lightly resting on their guns.  It was obvious to Rollie, though, that this was the real Frank.  He was too short to be Loubar.

“Password?” demanded one of the cops.

“Figure,” replied Francis, clearly fighting to keep a straight face.

Rollie glanced at his watch and saw that it was eight forty-five.  The password was correct.

As soon as Francis was inside, Rollie reactivated the sensors.

The detective came up to them, finally losing his battle with the grin.  “I feel like James Bond or something.  So, Rollie, are you ready to hit the town?  I know just where to go for the tux.”

“Lead on, Francis.  You’re the expert.”

The phone rang again, and Angie answered it.  It was Charlotte.  She had been unable to find a place available for the reception so far, but promised that she’d keep looking.  Angie thanked her and hung up.

“We need to tell her about the change of dates,” she said.

“Yeah.  There’s no point in her wasting time trying to find a place for the twenty-seventh,” Rollie agreed.

“I’ll call her once the scrambler gets set up.  How far did you get with it?”

“It’s almost done.  There’s not much left to do.  I got started on it pretty early.”  He hadn’t slept well and had gotten up before sunrise.

“I can probably take it from here, then,” Angie said with a smile.  She didn’t have the skill with electronics that Rollie had, but she had a lot more knowledge than the average person.

Rollie gave her a lingering kiss goodbye.  She deactivated the sensors and watched as he got into Frank’s car and the two drove away.  She would not rest easy until he got back.  Hating Loubar for forcing them to do this, she turned back to Mangela.  The Aborigine was looking at her closely.

“There’s a scar on your spirit, Angie.  This man that you and Rollie hate so much, he did something to you that destroyed a part of you deep inside.”

Shocked, Angie stared at Mangela.  “How did you know?”

“It’s in your eyes whenever he’s spoken of.  I can feel the dark hole he put in your soul.  That hole is in Rollie’s spirit as well.”

Angie’s eyes dropped away from his.  She sat down, her hands clasped tightly together.  Though she didn’t know why, she had a sudden need to talk about what happened.  Maybe it was the compassion in Mangela’s eyes or maybe it was because the Aborigine had a deeper understanding of things than most other people.

Haltingly, she told him about what Loubar had done, leaving out nothing.  By the time she was finished, she was trembling and fighting back the tears.

Without a word, Mangela sat beside her and gathered her into his arms.  Angie’s control broke completely, and she wept, clinging to the man like a brokenhearted child.  Many minutes later, she drew away from him.  Wiping the wetness from her face, she looked away, feeling embarrassed.

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to do that,” she said.  “I swore that I wouldn’t let what he did get to me like this.  I thought that I’d put it behind me, but his return has brought it all back.”

“Why do you apologize for something that is completely natural?” Mangela asked.  “Crying over what this man did is not a sign of weakness.”  He wiped away a tear she had missed.  “Have you ever talked to Rollie about this, really talked to him?”

“Not, um, while he was conscious.  When he was in a coma, and I was afraid he was going to die, I told him about what I felt when I thought Loubar was him and some of what I felt after I found out the truth.  But we’ve never talked about it.”

Mangela shook his head.  “You and he are so much alike.  You both hide the things that hurt you most deep inside where no one can see them.  Has Rollie ever talked about his mother and her death?”

“No.  He only told me that she died suddenly and unexpectedly, some kind of embolism.” 

“She was alone in the outback when it happened.  We don’t know why.  It was three days before we found her.  When she died, Rollie never talked about it, never shared his grief with anyone.  After she was found, he went out alone for a day and a night.  When he came back, I saw the hole in his spirit, but he would not talk to me or his father.  He withdrew from everyone into his pain.  Dingo stayed around for a week after the funeral, but then he went off again.  Part of it was because he needed money, but I also think that his own grief drove him away.  He left Rollie with us, coming back from time to time to visit and take Rollie home for a while.

“Then, less than four months later, Luther Cale used Rollie’s grief to trick him onto Kata Tjuta and tried to kill him.  In a way, he did kill him.  Something inside Rollie died that day, his willingness to accept and embrace things that are beyond what most people think exist.  He shut his ears to the songs and ran away with his father, eventually to this country.  He’s never been back to the People since then.”

“He never told me any of this.  I had no idea that he’d gone through so much.”

“He doesn’t talk about it because that would make it more real, and he’s afraid of that, afraid of the grief it would bring back--just as there are things that you haven’t told him because you, too, are afraid.”

Angie stared down at her hands in her lap, knowing that Mangela was right.  In only a few days, Rollie was going to be her husband.  It was time that she told him the things she had kept from him.

Rollie and Francis entered the tuxedo shop.  They took a look at the different styles of tuxes, Rollie deciding on which one he liked best.  It turned out that they had a size in stock on the pants and shirt that fit him almost perfectly, but the jacket would need some alterations.  Rollie went into a back room for the fitting.  As they came back out, the employee asked when the tuxedo had to be finished by.

“The wedding is on the twenty-seventh, so we’ll need it by the twenty-fourth to give time for any last minute alterations,” replied Francis.  Later, after he dropped Rollie off at the loft, he would return to the shop and give them the real date.  They would be instructed not to reveal any of this over the phone or to anyone outside the shop.  This was how they were going to handle all of the arrangements.  Explaining things to the wedding guests was going to be a bit more difficult.  They had to assume that Loubar was listening in at all times, except at the loft and when they were in a moving vehicle that had been swept for bugs.  Rollie and Angie had come up with several different ways to prevent Loubar from overhearing something he shouldn’t.  One of those ways was hidden in Rollie’s pocket.

Rollie and Frank’s next stop was a printer where Rollie ordered the invitations that would never be used.  After that, they visited Phil Carter, the talent agent that Rollie knew.  The Aussie went into the man’s office while Francis stayed out in the lobby.

“Hey, Rollie.  It’s been a long time.”  Phil shook Rollie’s hand.

“Hey, Phil.  How’s Catherine?”

“Oh, she’s doing pretty well, considering that she’s in her third trimester.”

Rollie grinned.  “Another one?  What’s this one, the fourth?”

“Fifth.  But, hey, I hear that you may be starting a family of your own soon.  Congratulations, Rollie.”

“Thanks.  Actually, that’s why I’m here.  I’d like to arrange for a singer or singing group for the wedding reception.  I know that you handle some pretty good talent.”

“Hmm.  Let me think.  I understand that the wedding is scheduled for the twenty-seventh, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”  He handed a note to the man.

The note read, “The wedding will be on the twentieth, not the twenty-seventh.  Do not say anything about this note.  This is a police matter.  There is a possibility that this conversation is being monitored.”

Phil looked at Rollie in surprise.  Rollie shook his head, making a shushing motion with his finger.

The talent agent cleared his throat.  “Well, uh, let’s see.  I’ll check the bookings.”  He went over to a file cabinet and pulled out several books, which he went through one by one.  “Okay, I’ve got one group that’s free for that weekend.  A male and female duet.  They’re really quite good.  Do you have a list of requests?”

Rollie handed another piece of paper to him.  Phil scanned the song titles and nodded.  “Most of these should be no problem, they are or were all popular songs.”  He pointed to one that Rollie had penciled.  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this one.”

“I don’t think it was ever a big hit.  The album from the original artist is out of print now, and I don’t have a copy, but I think another artist came out with the song a few years later.”  Rollie had added the song late last night just before going to bed.  It was one he’d heard years ago, but had forgotten about it.  Telling Angie that he’d see her in his dreams had reminded him of it.  The moment he remembered the song, he had known that it was one that had to be included, a song that echoed his feelings for Angie.

“Well, I know a few people who can help.  I’ll make some phone calls.  We’ll get it done, Rollie.  Don’t worry.”

“Oh, I won’t.  That’s one of the reasons I came to you first.  We don’t have a location for the reception yet, but I’ll give you a call as soon as we have one.”

“Good enough.”  The men shook hands again, and Rollie joined Frank in the lobby.

“All taken care of?” asked the detective.

“Yep, no problems at all.”

Their last stop was Golden Age Studios.  After all the help that Jack Traber and Elizabeth Wright had given them when Rollie and Angie were setting up the trap for Luther Syman, they had decided that the two deserved to be among the few whom they would invite to the real wedding.

Rollie and Frank were directed to one of the back lots where the producer and director of White Light were filming some outside shots for their new movie project.  As the men approached the film crew, Rollie casually slipped out the item he had in his pocket and held it hidden in his hand.

“Rollie!” Jack called, grinning.  “What are you doing here?  Do you have something new that you’re working on?”

“This is pleasure, not business, Jack,” Rollie replied.

Beth Wright, overhearing the conversation, came over to them.

“I wanted to personally invite you and Beth to the wedding,” Rollie continued.

The two smiled broadly.  “That’s really nice of you, Rollie,” said Beth.  “Of course I’ll be there.”

“And you know that I wouldn’t miss this for all the big-budget films in Hollywood,” added Jack.  “So, the big day’s on the twenty-seventh, right?”

Rollie pressed the button on the thing he had in his hand.  A high-pitched whistle shrieked through the air.  To the people on the lot, the sound was loud, but not enough to greatly hurt the ears.  However, if Loubar was listening in on their conversation with a parabolic mic, the sound would have been agonizing.  The man will have been rendered effectively deaf for the next minute or so.  Rollie stifled the smile that came to his lips.

“Jeez!  What was that?!” cried Jack.

“Listen to me, you two,” Rollie whispered.  “I don’t have more than a few seconds.  Try to keep your faces straight.  There’s new trouble.  The wedding has been changed to the twentieth, but nobody knows.  It must remain a secret.  Francis here is with the NYPD.  He’ll get in touch with you on the details of this thing later today.”  Rollie slipped a note into Jack’s hand.  “That’s a list of some other people we want to invite.  You know all of them.  I’d like you to contact them and explain things.  It is absolutely vital that none of this gets out.  Mine and Angie’s lives could depend on it.”  Rollie raised his voice to a normal speaking tone.  “I’d check that equipment if I were you.  That feedback could cause some trouble.”

The producer and director managed to keep their face’s neutral.  “Uh, right.  We’ll get someone to look at it right away,” said Beth.

Back in the car and on the road, Rollie finally let the smile out.  He chuckled.  “I really hope Loubar was listening in on that.”

Francis shared the laugh.  “Cruel, Rollie.  You’re really going to make him suffer this time, aren’t you.”

“Oh, I haven’t even gotten started yet, Francis.  You just wait and see.”

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