Bucking The Odds (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 9)

by Patricia Watters

  Now, it was almost impossible to be natural and spontaneous with people she met, and the friends she'd been close to all her life no longer existed to her. With Jeremy, she could imagine pouring out her soul to him. It was almost too hard to hold back because more than anything, she wanted his love and his trust. She already had his love. She could feel it, almost as if it were tangible, but he was loving her in spite of not trusting her, and now she wanted it all.

  She also realized she'd have to change her appearance if she continued taking Wild Card or any of the bulls to rodeos where she could be recorded by cell phone or video camera or other means that could put her on the internet and make known the presence of Billy Jean Fuller. Cutting and dying her hair would be a start. She was getting used to playacting now. Except when it came to Jeremy. He loved her the way she was, in her worn clothes and scuffed boots and weathered chaps, though he could get used to the new appearance if he knew her motivation. But she'd never be able to explain it to his family because it would be like violating the oath of omerta, the mafia code of silence inductees were required to take which was punishable by death. She was only now beginning to understand the extent of it.

  She glanced at the clock and wondered when Jeremy would be back from Nevada. It was about a five-hour drive, but she had no idea what time he left there, but now her life seemed empty when he wasn't around.

  In the distance she saw a vehicle coming up the driveway and wondered if it was Jeremy, or maybe her father returning from town. But as the vehicle approached, she saw that it was a silver-blue, late model Lexus, with a woman at the wheel. Going to the front door, she opened it, and when a woman in her late twenties, with dishwater blond hair lightened by a bottle, got out of the car, Billy stared first in stunned disbelief, then in anger when she saw her sister, Rachael, marching toward her.

  "I finally found the place," Rachael said.

  Billy glanced up the road and saw that it was vacant, so Rachael had apparently not been followed. "You know the rules," she said. "Why are you here and where is Molly?"

  "She's sleeping in the car and I'm here because I need to talk to someone." Rachael swept past Billy and went inside.

  Billy turned into the house and closed the door. "How did you find us?" she asked, not inclined to hear Rachel's sob story because it was always all about Rachael.

  "Sal found you," Rachael replied. "We get that sports channel, and sometimes we watch rodeos, and I'd been talking about you and your bulls and wondering if you'd ever put that big red bull in a rodeo, and Sal started surfing the internet because he doesn't have a damn thing to do, and he found a Youtube video and clicked on it and there you were. I played it a few times and it wasn't hard to find you once I got to Pine Grove. At least you're doing what you want. I'm stuck in some backwater suburb, and I just found out Sal has a girlfriend. It's some married broad who lives around the corner from us. She got to know Sal over the back fence, and when I saw him screwing her in the backyard of her house, which backs up to our backyard, Sal said he was bored and needed some excitement in his life. He didn't even try to cover it up."

  "Why are you telling me this?" Billy asked.

  "Because I haven't got anyone else to talk to and I had to tell someone," Rachael replied. "Things were fine before Sal decided to snitch on his underworld buddies. We not only had the house paid off and the new addition finished, but we had a limo with a driver and a staff of servants. Then Sal's approached by the Feds and it's all over."

  "You could not possibly have liked the life you were leading, with Sal paying kickbacks to the mob," Billy said.

  "What's there not to like?" Rachael replied. "They were sending Sal a steady stream of contracts and they really liked him. He was like one of them, and that means something."

  "Sure, it means something unless they suddenly take a dislike to him and he ends up with concrete feet," Billy said. "But since Sal's in the process of testifying against them you need to consider the real possibility that if you break the rules and start running all over the country, including here, Sal's mafia buddies will find us and put two bullets in the backs of our heads."

  "That's not the way the mob works," Rachael explained. "There's a code of honor among them that they don't shoot women."

  "A code of honor?" Billy said, incredulous. "A code of honor among Sal's wiseguys amounts to them getting together and bumping off the Godfather for not going to church on Sunday."

  "They're not as bad as the movies and everyone make them out to be," Rachael said. "Several of them have been to the house and they're all very nice and polite. I can tell you right now they're a lot nicer than when the Feds came barging in. Those guys shoved Sal up against the wall and told him they had enough on him to send him away for twenty years unless he wanted to cut a deal—he snitches on everyone, and all charges will be dropped."

  "You can stay in denial as long as you want, Rachael, but I know exactly how bad they are. I heard it firsthand the night I was babysitting Molly at your house and overheard Sal and those two men discussing a contract on a guy who later turned up dead."

  Until that night, Billy knew nothing about Sal's involvement with the mafia, but she had wondered how Sal managed to go from small construction company to getting a steady stream of lucrative contracts for building nightclubs and civic buildings. But the evening she babysat her niece while Rachael went to pick up a pizza for them, Sal arrived home with a couple of men, and thinking she was with Rachael, gave Billy an earful of how the mafia worked. It seemed that shortly after Sal got a contract for a large nightclub, two men representing the mafia don, Joseph DeLuca, showed up at Sal's place of business claiming he owed kickbacks for throwing business his way. When Sal said he'd never heard of Joseph DeLuca, the men took him to meet DeLuca's underboss, who informed Sal that if he didn't pay kickbacks he'd be crawling out on smashed legs and just might find a few family members dead when he got home.

  Sal paid the kickbacks, and before long contracts began flowing in, and Sal and Rachael started living high. Billy realized later that the mob hadn't corrupted Sal. He was already corrupted when Rachael married him, but hadn't acted on his instincts yet. Making his way up the ranks of the DeLuca crime family had been a game with him after that. But the voices of the men, the night she was babysitting, also awakened Molly, who started crying, and when Sal went to Molly's bedroom, followed by the two hit men, and found her there, Sal said to her in a voice that was an outright threat, "You didn't hear anything, capise?"

  Capise was a word she'd never heard before, but understood clearly within the context of Sal's statement. Keep your mouth shut or you're dead. She looked at him then, and shrugged and said, "I don't know what you're talking about, Sal. I've been trying to get Molly to sleep and she's agitated because Rachael's gone after pizza and she wanted to go too."

  If Sal believed her, Billy knew the men standing behind him didn't, which they verified after Sal pulled the door shut behind them and she heard one of the men say, "She has to go. She knows too much." Nothing came of it because two days later the Feds caught up with Sal and offered him a better deal…

  "Sal wasn't the one who carried out the contract on that man," Rachael replied.

  "No, but he was in on the plan. But since you still won't divorce him in spite of who and what he is, you should be thankful he's not in the federal pen," Billy said in disgust, mainly because Rachael had no problem aligning herself with rats like Sal Bianca, who'd aligned himself with rats like Joseph DeLuca and everyone on down the mob family tree, because it enabled her to live a high lifestyle as long as she didn't ask questions.

  "Sal wouldn't have been in the pen for twenty years," Rachel replied. "The Feds were just trying to intimidate him. He would have probably gotten five years, and we'd still be in our house instead of living in a three-bedroom tract home in a neighborhood with snoops and busybodies and three kids and a dog in every backyard."

  "At least living the way you are, you and Sal have a fresh start. The slate wi
ll be wiped clean," Billy said. "Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

  "Sure," Rachael replied. "It means a fresh start with Sal managing the produce department at a grocery, and me stuck at home watching Sesame Street on TV with Molly because I don't want to leave her with anyone. Sal would start another construction company but the Feds won't let him because it might draw attention to who he is."

  "Who Sal is, is a crook who's been paying kickbacks to the mob in return for them sending business his way," Billy said.

  "Sal didn't do anything wrong," Rachael replied. "Those were all business deals. Joseph DeLuca's men secured the contracts and Sal built the buildings. It's all legal. We paid taxes."

  "It's called extortion and racketeering," Billy pointed out. "Joseph DeLuca got the contracts by having his underlings bribe city officials with the threat of broken legs and dead family members if they didn't approve them, and Sal was right in there with them. What I don't understand is why this doesn't bother you."

  "I never got into any of that with Sal. He gave me everything I wanted so I never asked questions." Rachel drew in a long breath, and said, with exasperation, "What bothers me is that he's sleeping with some suburban housewife while I'm sitting at home nights twiddling my thumbs. Sal used to be fun. We had a good time together. He took me out to the best places, and we had close friends."

  Billy let out an ironic laugh. "You know as well as I that close friends in the mafia are the ones given the contracts to whack other close friends because they're in the circle of the guy in the cross hairs and are able to carry it out efficiently. Go to a Mafioso's funeral and more than likely the pallbearers will be the ones who whacked the guy in the casket."

  "Well, Sal's not with them now so it doesn't matter," Rachael said. "It's just that we're so damn bored where we are that we both need outlets. Sal will get tired of the woman soon."

  Billy had nothing more to say to Rachael because, as far as she was concerned, Rachael was corrupted beyond redemption and deserved the scumbag she was married to. But she did worry that if Rachael found it easy to track her down from a short Youtbe video, others would be able to do the same. "Does Sal know where you are right now?" she asked.

  Rachel shook her head. "All he knows is that I'm furious with him over the woman and I won't be back for a while," Rachael replied. "Where's Dad? I want to see him."

  "He's not here, and if he was, he wouldn't want to see you," Billy said. "You and Sal have ruined his life. He can't return to the job he loves, and all the years he's put in to get where he is will go down the drain. You're breaking the rules now being here and you need to leave."

  "I just drove all the way from Boise, Idaho," Rachael replied.

  "I'm not supposed to know that," Billy said. "I wish you hadn't told me."

  "That's been your problem all your life," Rachael replied. "You stick to the straight and narrow and never venture anywhere. You need to live a little."

  "Thanks for the big-sisterly advice," Billy said. "Now, I'm serious. You need to leave. Now."

  "Okay, okay, I'll go," Rachael replied. "Incidentally, this place is a dump. As soon as Sal and I get our banking account in order I'll send you some money to fix it up."

  "I don't want your dirty money," Billy said. She opened the door for Rachel to leave, and to her shock, saw Jeremy's truck pulling up beside Rachael's car. When he got out, Rachael stood in the doorway looking at him for a moment, before saying to Billy, "That's the guy who was on the video with you. He's your boyfriend."

  "We're friends," Billy corrected.

  For a few moments Jeremy's eyes darted between the two of them, then eyeing Billy with uncertainty, he said, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

  "You're not," Billy said. "Rachael was just leaving."

  Rachel shrugged, and saying nothing to Jeremy, got into her car and drove off, leaving Jeremy looking back for a moment before turning to Billy and saying, "She's your sister."

  When Billy neither confirmed nor denied, Jeremy said, "Honey, I love you and you need to trust me. I know your name is Billy Jean Fuller and I know you lived in Nevada because when we were there, Josh and I talked to the breeder you bought Wild Card from, and we went to the place where you lived and talked to your neighbor, and you need tell me what you're running from."

  In an instant, tears filled Billy's eyes and began running down her cheeks, and her chest felt so tight she could barely breathe, and when Jeremy took her in his arms and held her, she buried her face against his chest and started sobbing.

  Tightening his arms around her, Jeremy said, "Just cry it out, whatever you've been holding inside." Which Billy did, and Jeremy continued to hold her until finally it all played out, ending in snorts and gulps, and Billy swiping her fingers beneath her eyes, and Jeremy shoving his hand into his pocket and dragging out a couple of tissues and handing them to Billy to mop her eyes and blow her nose.

  When she could finally speak, she said, "Let's go inside. I don't want to stand out here."

  Jeremy walked with her into the house, and when Billy sat on the couch, he sat beside her. Before she could start, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly, and when the kiss was over, he said, "I needed that. I've been away from you three days and you've been on my mind the whole time, and whatever's going on that has you running and hiding, we'll work through it together, and that's the way it's going to be from now on."

  Billy looked at Jeremy through a blur of tears that came from being overwhelmed by the fact that she could finally tell him what she'd wanted to from the moment she realized she was in love with him. "I've thought about you too," she said, "but before I start in on what's going on with me, I want to know how you did at the rodeo."

  "Not bad," Jeremy replied, with a twitch to his mouth. "I got a rank bull and a score of 92 and first place." The grin that followed told Billy he was more than just a little excited about it.

  "That's wonderful!" she exclaimed, already feeling better because Jeremy was there, and he was smiling his wonderful smile, and the world seemed brighter because of it, even with the dark cloud over her head.

  "Yeah, it was a pretty good ride," Jeremy said, "so maybe you could give me another kiss because you're proud of me."

  "I am proud of you," Billy said. "I'm the bunny who can thumb my nose at the other bunnies while they eat their hearts out." She curved her arms around him and kissed him long and hard, but when the kiss came to an end, Jeremy said, "Okay, you need to tell be what's going on so we can put it behind us. Start with your sister and why she was here."

  Billy was surprised he wasn't upset that she'd lied to him from the start and led him to believe fabricated things that weren't so. Instead, he was giving her unconditional love.

  Holding that thought, she started by saying, "Do you know anything about the witness protection program?"

  "Some," Jeremy replied. "Is that what this is all about?"

  Billy nodded. "You have no idea what it's like when the government decides to make you disappear. It's like having backwards amnesia. Instead of having no memory of your past, you have a past you have to forget, but you're also cut off from friends and family who share your memories, and you're afraid if you don't keep the memories alive, you'll lose them altogether, because as the days pass and the lies continue, your fabricated background begins to become the real one. It's like you're trapped in two worlds. You share a past with only those in the program with you, like my father…"

  "Bill?" Jeremy asked.

  Billy nodded.

  "What happened that put you in the program?" Jeremy asked.

  "My sister's husband, Sal," Billy replied. She briefly summed up Sal's involvement with the mafia, ending with, "So while Rachael was reaping the rewards of Sal's ill-gotten gains in a mansion with servants, Sal was making his way up the ranks of the mafia, until the Feds caught up with him and offered him a better deal—he becomes a mafia informant, and in return, he and his family get government protection for the rest of their lives. Racha
el had no idea where I lived until she saw the Youtbe video. She and Sal are in Boise, but I'm not supposed to know that since we're not to have any contact."

  "Okay then, give me a rundown on how this program works," Jeremy said. "You don't need to handle it alone, so start from the beginning."

  Billy drew in a long nerve-calming breath, and said, "It started one day when I was on the internet checking rodeo schedules with the idea of bucking Wild Card for the first time, when there was a knock on the door. When I opened it, two U.S. marshal flashed badges and said I had to leave at once. Rachael had already told me that Sal was thinking about cooperating with the Feds because if he didn't, Sal would be looking at twenty years for extortion and racketeering and conspiracy to murder, and that they might have to go into a program where they'd have to change their names, and their pasts would be wiped out, and they'd have to start over, but she never told me I might have to do it too. I didn't know until the day the marshals showed up."

  "Why didn't the marshals tell you in advance?" Jeremy asked.

  "Because they said they found my name in the address book of a known hit man who'd been hired by one of the men Sal would be naming, and my father had to go too for the same reason. They rushed me out of the house while I was trying to explain that my animals needed to be fed, and there was no one to look after Diesel, so when they saw that Diesel was a Rottweiler they said I could take him and they'd send stock haulers for my animals. They shoved me into a van that was already running, and the next thing I knew I was in a federal building being questioned for hours. I found myself signing documents and talking to deputies, and after that they took me to a motel somewhere out of the city, and my father and sister were there, but Sal wasn't because he was being held someplace else."

  "Why is your father posing as a ranch hand?" Jeremy asked.

  "Because the marshals thought a father and daughter would be a lead. They also suggested my father grow out his hair and beard since he's a well-known professor of entomology at the University of Nevada. He's actually Dr. William Fuller, and he was one of ten people named a Fellow this year by the Entomological Society of America."