"Get me there!" Rollie said in a coarse, strained voice, "Get me out there right now, damn it!"

Two of the men in the room went for the door, one in communication with the agents on the site. Rollie walked out with them, his mind not believing what he had witnessed. It didn’t happen! He was quiet in the unmarked car as they speed off for the canyon road. The agents, speaking in Spanish over their transmitters did not display any emotion. They would on occasion look to the back seat at Rollie and then back to the road ahead.

It was the longest drive that Rollie had ever taken and yet the distance was less than ten miles outside of Toledo. The scenery was a blur as his mind went over the events on the monitor only minutes before. Apparently, Angie had gotten out of the car, a surprise to Loubar. She had struggled with him and then, fallen over the cliff. He could not fathom that. What she had been through in these past days! What kind of God would make her suffer so much pain?

"Angie…" he whispered, and then over and over he said her name, shaking his head and putting his hands over his eyes that starting filling with tears. The image of her face, her eyes shut with the culmination of passion that they had shared that first time after the cave explosion, was flooding his memory. He had waited but for a few seconds beyond her so that he could see her there in his arms, feel their oneness in climax. He had kissed her eyelids before they opened and only then, had he shuddered in finality as she had met his opened lips with her own. He had tasted her release of tears in that embrace and that taste was on his tongue now as he looked up seeing that they had arrived at the site.

He scrambled from the car, his eyes scanning the horizon of cliff where several agents were standing and looking over to the canyon below. The morning hours were gone and the sun was sitting in the middle of the sky at high noon. As he approached at a run, he was stopped by an agent who called for Guillarmo. He almost knocked the agent down as Guillarmo greeted him then, stepping from the area of where the car had been tied to the tree. He was holding what appeared to be what was left of the trigger device in his hands.

Guillarmo grabbed Rollie by the shoulders, hugging him as Rollie stood there stunned, not wanting to believe this whole event. "My God," he cried out, still in disbelief and grief. His world was over. His legs buckled on him as Guillarmo firmly held on to him.

"Tyler! Get a grip!" Guillarmo told him then, Rollie not able to see his eyes through the thick sunglasses that Guillarmo was wearing.

"What?" Rollie was stunned. This man was Angie’s uncle and he was so unaffected…

An agent walked over to the two men and said something in Spanish to Guillarmo in his ear. Guillarmo shook his head in agreement and looked at Rollie with his dark glasses mirroring Rollie’s face, haggard and drawn.

"Agent Ruiz will take you to see Angela now…" he said, grasping Rollie’s arm tightly and then releasing it.

"What? Oh God, I dunno…I can’t believe- you already have her back here?" His mind was so bruised with the thought of seeing her body, his Angie…

"Come on, don’t take all day," Agent Ruiz told him them in English in a bothered tone.

"What!" Rollie frowned and slapped the Agent’s guiding hand from his arm.

"You unfeeling son-of-a …" Rollie started to curse but stopped as two other agents parted in front of him and there standing before him, with very bruised hands on her hips, was Angie. Not dead, not looking extremely hurt but a look of almost anger on her face.

"It’s about time! What took you so long to get here and the next time you try to rescue me, how about making a deal with the Devil instead of Loubar because it would have been easier…"

Rollie interrupted her with a huge, feet off the ground embrace as he held on to her for dear life. She was squirming in his arms, her protests unheard.

"God, Angie- I thought you fell over that cliff! I thought Loubar and you had gone over. I saw you fall on the monitor. What happened?" Rollie had put her down as she had stopped struggling, realizing that he was extremely genuine and upset by what he thought had happened. The color drained from his face and his red-rimmed eyes met hers and made her heart melt.

"Oh Jeez, Rol!" Angie exclaimed, grabbing his face and kissed him with wild abandonment. His face lit up as she broke away from him, gasping for air and laughing. He matched her emotions as she led him over to the edge of the cliff. Below, down at the bottom of the sheer drop rested the remains of the car she had been in as a captive.

Rollie looked for Loubar’s body. "Where is Loubar?" he demanded, his voice suddenly demanding.

"He’s dead. Really, truly, certifiably dead…" Angie replied, pointing to a copse of trees over to the right of them. Rollie could see several agents with cameras taking pictures of a body that was lying on the ground.

"We went over, Rol but I grabbed the first root of a tree that had grown out from the cliff about four feet below. All I can say is, that I am so thankful for my rock-climbing experience. It saved my life," Angie said, her voice becoming emotional as her eyes welled with tears, "but Loubar, he wasn’t so lucky. All those disguises didn’t help him. I heard him hit something as he went past me. I climbed back up and was helped by Tio Guillarmo over the top. How’s that for being scrappy?"

"Ange, you are the number one scrapper of all! How did you get out of the car though? Loubar told me he left you in the trunk, bound and gagged." Rollie had sat down on a large boulder with Angie standing, facing him. His arms were around her waist as she rested her hands on his shoulders. He could see they were cut and bruised from climbing back up the cliff wall.

"Thank God Loubar used rope on me in the car. He had handcuffs on me in that silo he had me stashed away in before that. Who knows why he changed them, maybe so there would be no signs of binding. But I did my Houdini rope escape- you know! I told you I had been working with some friends over the Internet on these escapes. I kicked my way up from the trunk into the back seat, and what a view!"

"Yeah, I remember that I scoffed at you about that magic stuff!" Rollie said, remembering how he had made fun of her and her friends, "Guess that stuff comes in handy, eh?"

"Hmmm, yeah- when you want to escape," Angie replied, one eyebrow up with a devilish wink.

"Angela Ramirez! You keep surprising me," Rollie said, his face reddening slightly.

"I plan to keep it that way," she answered him, running her hand through his wavy, unkempt hair.

Guillarmo broke their intense preoccupation with each other, pointing to Loubar’s body, "Tyler- want to give us a final I.D. on the body?"

"You better believe it, mate!" Rollie told him and stood up. Angie shook her head, without saying a word, she was through with Loubar. She needed no further confirmation.

Rollie walked over with Guillarmo, telling himself that this could be another Loubar trick. The real Loubar was probably sitting somewhere nice and cozy watching the whole scene. But reality proved otherwise as he looked at the remains. Victor Loubar’s body, although battered and bloodied revealed all that Rollie needed. The face of Loubar, no mask to hide it was barely marred, although the skull had been badly fractured. Loubar’s extremely, light gray eyes starred up at the sky.

"It’s him. No doubt about it," Rollie told Guillarmo, "it’s finally over. There will be a lot of happy cops and international law enforcement that will be celebrating today once the news is out."

"I agree," Guillarmo told him, "but now, you and Angela- go and get a room in Toledo. Relax, get some rest and I’ll see you tonight. Angela and I have some unfinished business here in Toledo this evening. Here, it’s on me."

The old Cuban handed Rollie some money, smiling. Rollie shook his head, "Come on, I don’t need to take your money, Guillarmo. I can get us a room…"

"I insist," Guillarmo Montgreviejo told him, pushing the money in the F/X man’s hand, "after all, you have the future of the Ramirez family in your keep. You have done our family a service that we can never repay."

Guillarmo was looking over to where Angie sat on the boulder. Her slight figure was looking out over the vast canyon in front of her. Her strong, beautiful profile made his heart skip a beat as he gave a silent prayer to his maker for her safety and the man who would protect her from all odds in their lives.

Rollie did not protest further. He took Guillarmo’s hand firmly in his own and then left him to return to Angie. Her face hid nothing as he took her hand and led her back to a car that Guillarmo had provided for their return to Toledo.

Later, Angie would whisper in his ear that she had never known such love as they laid in bed in a quiet little hotel overlooking the river that surrounded Toledo. She thought Rollie was asleep as she moved slightly away then, not able to believe her fate and what was still to come this evening. Rollie was not asleep however, and he opened his eyes, and looked at her, shaking his head from side to side;

"Angie, this incredible week…you here, us! I can’t believe that we were ever apart. I love you, Ange- don’t you ever forget that…" he told her and she put her fingers to his lips and then kissed him softly. He said nothing further then as she moved her soft body over his and he felt her amazing hips touching his, her soft breasts against his chest.

Rollie called Syd from Toledo that evening. He called Mira and Frank and let them know the details of Loubar’s death. He even called Michael Sanchez to thank him for his help and gave him some advice about getting back with Mira. He told him to stop using excuses and get her back, that Mira would crumble and that they needed each other. Angie sat on the bed, applying some antiseptic to her cuts listening in amazement to Rollie on the phone. Where she and Rollie went from here, she didn’t know. They were together, they loved and they would go home with the knowledge that Victor Loubar could not hurt them any longer and that Angie still had a piece of her family in Spain.

Angie dressed, having had the concierge at the hotel get her a simple, blue dress from a local shop. She didn’t wear dresses much but seeing her mother tonight, she felt that she wanted her to see her this way. Rollie had his clothes laundered and returned by evening. They had a simple meal in a local restaurante but Angie hardly ate a thing. Her apprehension was growing and when Guillarmo greeted them at the rest villa, she could hardly contain herself.

Angie’s hands trembled as Rollie took them firmly in his. She walked along the ceramic tiled floor to a cluster of rooms in a long hallway off the main building. It was a beautiful little villa, lots of open air and a wonderful view of the city. A nurse walked out of the room where her mother had been brought earlier that day and Angie took a deep breath as they entered slowly, Guillarmo leading the way. He knelt beside a rocking chair where a woman with long, thick, hair sat. The hair had once been very dark and beautiful, Angie recalled but now, it was heavily mixed with gray. The profile of the woman was remarkably the same as Angie’s as Rollie took his first look at Marta Ramirez. He could see where Angie had gotten her beauty. The crystal blue eyes of Marta Ramirez were a startling contrast to her coloring. This lady had been a stunning looking woman at one time.

Marta Ramirez was staring at Guillarmo. She smiled as her hand came out from her side and he took it in his own, smiling back at her. She said nothing. She began to rock back and forth slightly in the rocker as Angie neared, standing behind Guillarmo. Rollie stood off to the side, releasing Angie’s hand as she took a deep breath again and faced her mother, a mother she had not seen since she was eleven years old. Her eyes, the blue of her mother’s eyes, were clouded with tears as Guillarmo stepped back and brought her in front of him.

Marta looked at the lovely, young woman in front of her. This young woman with her light, blue eyes and her full, trembling lips was troubling her feeble mind. There was a spark of some memories from a distant past that bounced back and forth and then, they were gone. She smiled at the woman, holding out her hand for the child-woman who was crying and saying something to her.

Angie leaned forward and hugged her, stroking her mother’s hair. She was struck with a memory of a childhood lullaby that her mother used to sing to her and she half-whispered in song in the woman’s ear, "las brazos amor…"

"a mija dulce…" her mother finished the recognized song softly and took Angie’s hand and held it tightly, frowning for a second. Then she repeated, "mija dulce." Her eyes returned to a blank expression then and she let Angie’s hand go as she rocked back and forth slowly.

"Oh…" Angie exclaimed, softly as she wiped her eyes and looked from her mother up to Rollie. Rollie’s heart was aching as he watched her defeat and her hope for recognition. Guillarmo pulled Angie back, hugging her softly and then Rollie took her hand, and then held her gently in his arms.

He was thinking that Mannie was watching this somehow, seeing his family together again. He was thinking how Mannie use to tell him to watch Angie every now and then-he had thought, like a father to a son to mind his sister. But then again, maybe Mannie knew something that he hadn’t been able to recognize at the time…

**************

Rollie Tyler and Angela Ramirez arrived in New York three days later. Mira Sanchez meet them at the airport. She saw the couple that came through the ramp from the plane, looking very comfortable and she saw the looks they exchanged with each other. She smiled, relieved. They saw her and waved.

"Hey Tyler," she said as she hugged him and then Angie, "just to let you know- I don’t know what you and Michael Sanchez are cooking up, but it ain’t going to work, you hear?"

FINE