Maxine by SUE FINEMAN Page B

a little sweet talk wouldn’t hurt. He’d been talking himself around women for years, and Cara was the most gullible of them all. So she heard him on the phone with Sally. So what? He’d tell her he was practicing his lines for a play. She loved him so much she’d believe anything he told her. He admired himself in the mirror. What’s not to love?
    He wondered why she was sending a limo for him instead of meeting here at the house, but it didn’t matter where they met. Her note said she missed him and wanted to surprise him, and Cara’s surprises always involved expensive gifts. It might be awkward at first, but she’d come around. She always did. By tonight, they’d be back home together, talking about building a ‘family.’ He laughed, a harsh sound that echoed in the tiled bathroom. As if he intended to build a ‘family’ with anyone. He’d taken care of that little problem before he got involved with the woman in San Diego. Kids would cramp his style.
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    Cara directed Tony to the house, and Nick was on the phone again. He said, “Don’t get too close, Tony. Paul says the limo just arrived.”
    Tony pulled up to the curb across the street and two houses down, close enough for them to see Lance get into the limo. It was close enough to suit Cara. Her stomach turned at the sight of the man who threatened to take away her freedom. “I can’t believe he’s going along with this secret rendezvous, Nick. By now, he must know I’m onto him.”
    “He thinks you still love him and want to get back together. And we kinda hinted you’d have something to give him.”
    “Something, as in money or an expensive gift?”
    Nick shrugged. “A surprise.”
    “Oh, he’ll be surprised all right.” And he’d be livid.
    The limo pulled away, with Paul’s car right behind it. Cara took a deep breath to bolster her courage. The men pulled gloves on before they left the car and they all started walking toward the house. And then the cell phone rang. Nick answered it and slammed it closed. “Aw, shit! Back in the car, guys. Hurry.”
    Tony fumbled with the lock and Cara ducked into the backseat as the limo returned to the house. Her heart pounded with fear. Nick sat beside her, his arm around her, while Tony and Angelo stood on the sidewalk, engrossed in an animated conversation about nothing. Did Italians know how to talk without using their hands?
    Cara watched Lance run in the house and return seconds later carrying a florist box. “Flowers?” she whispered. “He bought me flowers?”
    “Looks that way,” said Nick. “There they go.”
    Cara hung back, apprehension eating at her. Should they go through with this or forget it and go home? What if Lance came back? “Where’s the limo taking him?”
    “To a hotel near the airport,” said Nick. “I figure a half-hour to get there. We should have plenty of time.”
    “If he doesn’t catch on first.” Lance was money-hungry, not stupid.
    After Paul called to say they were on the freeway, Cara relaxed a little and walked up to the house with Nick and his cousins. “I hope he hasn’t changed the alarm code.” She unlocked the door and punched in the numbers. The alarm turned off and she breathed an audible sigh of relief.
    Cara yanked her clothes out of the closets and drawers and stuffed them in suitcases and grocery bags from the kitchen. Tony and Angelo carried them out to Tony’s car while she and Nick grabbed her jewelry, two priceless paintings she’d brought from the estate in California, and a few other little things. She and Nick took them to her car.
    The cell phone rang. Cara exchanged a wide-eyed look with Nick before he answered it and groaned. “Damn! He’s on his way back. We have five minutes tops.”
    She put the paintings she’d wrapped in a blanket in the trunk of her Jag while Nick signaled Tony and Angelo to leave. As she backed out of the garage, the limo pulled up to the house. Cara turned so cold her fingers felt