Every Breath You Take (Second Opportunities 4)

The other thing that mattered was that an unmarked police car appeared to be after them! Kate unconsciously held her breath, watching the car through the plane’s window while the plane made a sharp left turn and gained speed, taxiing toward the runways ahead.

Finally the police car slowed, dropped back, and stopped, its light still revolving. Over the intercom, a voice said, One Two Tango Fox, this is Midway Tower. You are cleared for immediate takeoff, runway thirty-one center.

Tower,” the copilot replied, One Two Tango Fox rolling—runway thirty-one center.” As he spoke, the engines revved higher and the plane raced forward with a surge of power.

Idly stroking Danny’s back, Mitchell studied Kate’s profile, noting that she was not protesting being hijacked, but neither was she looking at him. Her head was bent and her high cheekbones were tinted with pink. She was a little embarrassed for letting him get away with this without at least putting up a token objection, he realized with an inner smile.

He remembered a flight he’d made from St. Maarten to Chicago when he’d thought she was lost to him. —” he said with a smile in his voice.

She looked at him and shook her head in disbelief at his high-handedness.

’m in love with you.”

She swallowed and looked down and unfastened her seat belt because he was unfastening his and standing up. She knew from the look in his eyes that there was a bed on the plane.

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ON THE ROADbelow, near the hangar, Gray and MacNeil stood outside the car, leaning against it, watching the Gulfstream roar down the runway with its landing lights on, then lift off gracefully and begin to climb. The landing lights went off, the landing gear retracted, and the plane began to fade into the night sky.

Gray smiled and said thoughtfully, is a man with style.”

MacNeil glanced sideways and said quietly, are you.”

Chapter Fifty-one

THE DAY AFTERMitchell’s plane took off from Midway Airport, handwritten messages were delivered to a select group of people.

In Chicago, Matt and Meredith Farrell received theirs at 9:30PM . Matt read it and grinned.

is it?” Meredith asked.

wedding invitation from Mitchell,” he said, handing it to her.

Meredith read it and laughed. kidnapped Kate and Danny, got them emergency passports, and flew them to Italy. He’s convinced Kate to marry him, but he’s afraid to give her time to change her mind. The wedding’s in three days. How like Mitchell to ignore all the obstacles and do whatever it takes.”

Meredith reached for the phone and called Julie Benedict, who had just received a similar message. is canceling a shoot right now,” Julie said. you and Matt get away?”

Meredith looked at her husband and held up the invitation with a questioning look. He nodded, and Meredith told Julie, course.”

The third message was delivered to the home of Mrs. Olivia Hebert and brought to her by her elderly butler. Mrs. Hebert opened the envelope, read the message, and burst into a jubilant smile. “Mitchell is marrying Kate Donovan in Italy in three days, Granger! You and I will be flown there in his private plane.”

shall look forward to the trip, Madam,” Granger assured her.

who will be flying with us,” Olivia said dreamily as she pressed the message to her bosom and sighed.

haven’t any idea, Madam.”

Benedict!” she exclaimed.

The fourth message was delivered the following morning to the rectory of St. Michael’s Church in Chicago. Father Mackey, the young assistant pastor, answered the door, accepted the envelope, and carried it down the hall to Father Donovan’s office.

envelope just arrived for you, Father.”

put it on my desk. I’m working on the budget for next month.”

promised the man who delivered it that I would hand it to you personally and at once.”

well,” Father Donovan said, laying down his pencil and reaching for the envelope. you made the changes I suggested to your sermon for Sunday?” he inquired of the young priest who’d been sent to St. Michael’s to work under his tutelage.

of them,” Father Mackey replied as Father Donovan slipped his thumb beneath the flap and opened the envelope.

His reply made Father Donovan sigh. ’re a dedicated priest, Robert, and you write an excellent sermon, but you have a tendency to take a hard line when you should bend a little bit. Conversely, you bend a little too easily when you ought to take a hard line. I particularly notice that tendency when I listen to you trying to counsel parishioners who come to you for advice. As time goes by, I suspect you’ll learn when to be inflexible and stand up for principles and church doctrine, and when you need to relax and respect the realities of a parishioner’s life.”

As he spoke, Father Donovan extracted and unfolded a single sheet of paper bearing the initials MW at the top right-hand corner. He read what it said and half rose out of his chair, his mouth open in indignation.

bad news, I hope?”

has a lot of nerve!” Father Donovan said when he recovered his power of speech. Since the newspapers had already broken the story about the identity of the father of Kate’s child and his sudden arrival in Chicago to pay the ransom, Father Donovan had no compunction about telling Father Mackey about the contents of the letter in his hand. “Mitchell Wyatt apparently took my niece and her son, Danny, to Italy, and now he is summoning me there to perform their wedding in a little village near Florence the day after tomorrow! That man has b— gall,” he corrected himself.

Snatching up the telephone, he dialed the operator. need to place a call to Rome, Italy, immediately,” he said, and then read her the telephone number printed on the bottom of Mitchell Wyatt’s personal letterhead. “Is this going to be an expensive call?” he asked.

,” he replied when the operator quoted him what seemed an exorbitant per-minute rate. sure it’s acollect call. Really? . . . A collect call is even more expensive? Excellent!” he replied vengefully.

’S THAT?” MITCHELLasked Kate as she began unwrapping a package that had just been delivered to her by overnight international mail.

don’t know, but it’s from Gray Elliott,” Kate said.

careful, it’s probably bugged.”

’s a wedding gift,” she said, reading the card.

should call the bomb squad.”

Ignoring him, Kate lifted the lid off the inner box and folded back the tissue. It was a beautiful antique photograph album. Carefully, Kate lifted the album’s cover, then looked up at Mitchell with shining eyes. Inside the album were enlargements of some of the photographs taken by MacNeil and Childress.