"Don't take my gun, Casey," Tessa implored weakly.

"I'm not taking it, love. I'm putting it into your holster,"

Casey flipped the safety on and eased the pistol into the holster at the small of Tessa's back. She patted it gently. "Feel it? It's right where you always carry it. Okay?"

Tessa nodded and Casey stroked the long dark hair. She bent down and placed a tender kiss on top of Tessa's head. Tessa slipped her arms around Casey's waist, and they stayed that way for a long while with Casey whispering a litany of words to calm Tessa.

"I'm so tired," Tessa said at last.

"I know, sweetheart." Casey motioned Alex from the shadows 0.

*to help her. "Come on, love. Alex is going to help us, and we'll go to the guesthouse and get you in bed."

Tessa allowed the two to a.s.sist her in standing. As they slowly walked across the lawn, Tessa leaned heavily on both of them for support. Once inside the house, they deposited Tessa on the bed.

Casey removed Tessa's holster and shoes and pulled a quilt up over the woman. Casey walked into the living room and picked up the clothes that Tessa uncharacteristically left strewn about the room, while Alex stood there unsure of what to do.

A crash from the bedroom brought Alex out of his frozen stance. He rushed in to find Tessa trying to get out of bed. Casey rushed to the door, but Alex waved her back.

"I have to get up...I need to talk to Casey," Tessa muttered.

"Hey, Nikki, take it easy, huh? She's already gone, so relax and lay back down, okay?"

Tessa looked past Alex into the darkened living room, unaware that Casey stood just outside the opening to the bedroom. "She's gone?"

"Yeah, so what do you say we call it a night, huh?" Alex coaxed Tessa back into bed. She lay there, one arm flung across her eyes.

"Don't ever fall in love, Alex. People in our business aren't meant to fall in love...at least not with nice girls. Casey's a nice girl." Tessa's voice broke and tears fell from her eyes. "You know what the worst part of it is?" Tessa looked absently at Alex as she cried. "I never told her how much I loved her." Tessa choked on the last few words, and she cried out loud. "I was too scared...now she'll never know that she's everything to me."

Alex looked back and could see Casey's silhouette just outside the bedroom door. He couldn't tell, but he figured it was a sure bet that Casey was crying, too. They must have had one h.e.l.l of a fight to break up a good thing like they had going. Both of them seemed miserable. He'd never seen Tessa act this way.

"Don't worry, Nikki," Alex said. "I bet she knows."

"Do you really think so?" Tessa mumbled sleepily.

Alex looked back at the bedroom door, but Casey was gone.

"Yeah...I'm positive."

0.

*Casey slipped from the guesthouse, unable to listen to Tessa's weeping any longer. Her heart was breaking at the sound. Once behind her bedroom door, she paced the floor, cursing her father.

She realized that the cold demeanor Tessa displayed was a mask to cover up emotions that she thought would make her appear weak.

G.o.dd.a.m.n you to h.e.l.l, father! You've caused all of this. You are responsible for that woman over there. You made her what she is, made her in your own twisted image the day you murdered her father. It's no wonder she's on the verge of a breakdown. All her life, she lived only for revenge. She grew up to be just like you, a cold, heartless killer. Now she knows there might be something out there besides power and control, and she doesn't know whether to follow her head or her heart. I hate you, Andreas Meridio...I hate you!

Casey fell heavily into the cushioned chair, pulled her knees up, and wrapped her arms around her legs. Now that she knew Tessa was so torn between her love for her and what she thought was the keeping of a vow, she knew that Olympia's words were true. Olympia seemed so sure of what her daughter's actions would be.

Things change, little one. Don't give up on Tessa's heart just yet. Casey knew that she had to keep Tessa from going through with her hahre. She had to give her a chance. She had a feeling that when it came time to place the cards on the table, Tessa would do the right thing if Casey were involved. It would be one thing for Tessa to kill Meridio behind closed doors and quite another to do it in front of Casey, but it had to be Tessa's decision. She bit her lip and sourly thought about what she would have to do. If she were to keep Tessa from destroying the rest of their lives, she would have to become involved in the situation. As distasteful as it was to her, she knew there was only one way to do that.

Casey laid her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. The last thing to cross her mind before sleep claimed her was that she had just chosen Tessa over her father, the woman she loved with all her heart over the man who tainted their lives with his need 0.

*for wealth and power. In her mind, it became her own form of hahre.

Casey walked into the travel agency with as much authority as she had when she walked through the doors with Tessa. The same dyed-from-a-bottle redhead sat at the receptionist's desk.

"Would you please tell Jack Armstrong that Ca.s.sandra Meridio would like to speak with him?" Casey asked.

The woman looked over her gla.s.ses at Casey and smiled politely. "I'm sorry, miss, but there's no Mr. Armstrong that works here."

"I only want to talk to him briefly...I'm sure he could spare me a moment," Casey said between clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry, miss, bu-"

"Look," Casey hissed, slamming her hand onto the desk and leaning in to be sure the woman heard her. "I want you to walk through that door right there and into the conference room, tap on that pitiful excuse for a two-way mirror, and tell Mr. Armstrong that if I don't see his sorry a.s.s out here in a matter of minutes, I'm going down onto the street to start telling everyone that the Albanian Mafia has an office here. Then I'm going to stand back and watch them burn this place to the ground. Now what part of that don't you think he'll understand?"

Casey stepped back as the fl.u.s.tered woman rushed through the door of the conference room.

"Well, did you want to see all of me or just my sorry a.s.s?"

Jack Armstrong said from where he stood outside the conference room, his arms folded in a gesture of impatience.

"Mr. Armstrong, we need to talk," Casey said, not budging an inch.

"I think we've done about all the talking we need to, Ms.

Meridio. I can't think of anything you could say at this point that could interest me."

"Oh, I bet you're wrong." Casey grinned devilishly at the man towering over her.

0.

*"I heard you would have quite a headache this morning,"

Olympia said as Tessa held out a shaky hand for a cup of coffee.

"I can't keep any secrets from you anymore, can I?" Tessa said with a weak smile.

"It seems I miss all the interesting happenings around here."

"That will teach you to go play cards at the cafe."

"Oh, Casey left a message for you this morning. She said it couldn't wait, but she had to go to Athens and she asked if you would come by the apartment." Olympia gave Tessa the entire message in one sentence.

"She went alone? Didn't you try to stop her?" Tessa stood quickly.

"Well, dear, it isn't exactly my place-"

"No, it's my place," Tessa said. "How did she go?"

"She said she was taking the ferry."

"I'll be back later. Phone me if Meridio gets in today," Tessa called back to her mother.

Olympia smiled as Tessa rushed out the door after Casey.

Casey had stopped by Olympia's room earlier that morning to thank her and to tell her she wasn't about to give up on Tessa's heart just yet. She said she couldn't give details, but she decided that Tessa belonged to her and she was going to fight for what was hers.

Tessa ran up the wooden steps to the second floor of the apartment building. On the door, Casey had tacked a note; it was in Casey's hurried scrawl.

T.

I had to go see the travel agent about a trip...meet me there.

Casey Is she going back to America? Meet her there...there, where?

What in the-Oh, s.h.i.t.

Tessa flew down the stairs and took off toward the center.

Tessa paced back and forth like a caged animal. Jack's office 0.

*was so small that she only took two strides before she had to turn around again.

"Well, I hear you and your girlfriend had a little rift." Jack chuckled as he came through the door.

Sometimes he regretted opening his smart mouth. This was definitely one of those times. Tessa slammed him back into the door and held him there in a crossover hold. The fire in the blue eyes turned as pale as ice, and Jack regretted his decision more and more. He forgot that Tessa wasn't one of those people you teased...about anything.

"Back off, Jack...back way the f.u.c.k off!" She growled under her breath, releasing her hold. "Where is she?"

Armstrong crossed the room and opened a door, nodding.

"Tessa, meet your new partner," he said as Casey stepped into the small office.

"No!" Tessa shouted. She looked at Jack in amazement. "Are you out of your f.u.c.king mind?" She turned her gaze on Casey.

"Are you?"

"There's nothing you can say that will make me change my mind," Casey said.

"Casey, you know what these people are like."

"I think so...I can trust them to keep their word so long as I'm still standing in the same room...or until I become expendable, " she enunciated the last word carefully, turning toward Armstrong.

"Now that hurt," Jack said with a smirk.

"Casey!" Tessa was at a loss for a good argument, except for the fact that the woman she loved could wind up dead this way.

"Niko." Casey stared hard at Tessa. "There isn't anything else to say. I suggest we take this topic home so we can talk in private."

Casey motioned with her eyes to Jack.

"This is not over, Jack." Tessa growled as the two women left the office.

Since both women had a car, Tessa followed Casey back to the apartment. Casey pulled the BMW around to the back garage and Tessa parked on the narrow street. Just as Tessa was about to get out of the automobile, Casey walked up and leaned her hands on the pa.s.senger side of the red convertible.

*"As much as I'd love to argue with you, I'm dead tired. I didn't sleep a wink last night, and all I'd really like to do is take a nap."

"Oh, sure." Tessa acknowledged that Casey did look wiped out, but she felt like she was being given the brush-off. "Here,"

she scribbled on a piece of paper, "here's my cell phone number.

I'll stay at the estate tonight, and if you feel like...um, talking...

call me."

"Thanks," Casey said. She smiled and turned to go inside.

Tessa still sat there after Casey entered the apartment. She was thrown by Casey's behavior. Casey acted like Tessa was just another friend.

What the h.e.l.l do you think she's going to act like? You just dumped her a few days ago, remember...or did you forget that you chose revenge against Meridio over Casey?

"Ah, h.e.l.l!" she said aloud and sped off up the hill.

The old grandfather clock in the living area struck eleven, and Tessa threw the magazine onto the coffee table. She had been reading the same pa.s.sage in her favorite sailing magazine for the last three hours. She concentrated on little else but Casey that day.

She tried to do a number of little things around the house she'd been putting off, but she would find herself staring into s.p.a.ce, daydreaming about Casey. She felt certain Casey was going to call, but so far, no word. Casey gave her the brush-off; that much was clear.

Tessa was exasperated and walked over to the patio door and turned the outside lights out. She looked down at the two dogs at her feet. "Looks like we've been stood up."

Tessa froze at the faint sound of metal ringing against metal.

Both animals had their ears turned forward and were growling low in their throat. "I know. I heard it, too," Tessa said aloud.

She pulled open the drawer of the china cabinet and removed her Glock pistol. After checking the clip, she silently slid open the patio door and released the Dobermans. She waited for a full minute but heard no sounds that would indicate the dogs had cornered someone. Could have just been the wind, she thought.

*d.a.m.n weird that it happened just when the lights went out, though.

She slipped outside and moved around to the back gate, sure the sound came from that direction. Just as she expected, she saw the silhouette of a figure, small, probably just a kid. Tessa was so focused on sneaking up on the intruder that she lost sight of the dogs. Finally, she was within reach. She lifted the gun and pulled back the hammer, pressing it against the back of the stranger's head."Don't move or I'll blow your f.u.c.king brains out," she hissed.

"Jesus Christ, Niko!" Casey's trembling voice came at Tessa from the darkness.

"Casey?" Tessa finally realized that both dogs were sitting at Casey's feet. Tessa immediately pulled the gun away from Casey's head. "Holy s.h.i.t, Casey. I could have shot you!"

Tessa was breathing hard with the realization of what happened. Without thinking, she pulled Casey to her, and Casey's arms slipped around her waist.

"I thought I'd surprise you," Casey whispered weakly.