Texas Proud

by Diana Palmer

  Mikey held Bernie’s hand tight in his and put his finger on the doorbell.

  Before he could push it, the door opened. Sari and Paul welcomed them in.

  “We have lunch,” Sari announced. “Mandy made a macaroni and ginger and chicken salad, and sliced some fruit to go with it.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Bernie said.

  “It does. Nobody cooks like Mandy,” Mikey said.

  “I heard that,” Mandy called from the kitchen. “Come on in. I’ve almost got everything on the table.”

  She did. The place settings were immaculate, like the white linen napkins. Mikey pulled out a chair for Bernie and then one for himself.

  Mandy came back in with a basket of blueberry muffins and put them on the table. “Who wants coffee?”

  Every hand went up.

  Mandy laughed. “That’s what I figured,” she mused. “Coming right up.”

  * * *

  Bernie was a little self-conscious at first. She wasn’t used to mansions and elaborate dining room place settings, and this was her first real meal with the Fiores. But the conversation and Mikey’s attention thawed her out in no time at all.

  “This is delicious,” Bernie commented as she savored a bite of the chicken dish.

  “We like it as a light meal,” Sari said. “Neither of us likes anything heavy in the middle of the day. Or in the evening, for that matter.”

  “No wonder you’re both so slender,” Bernie teased.

  “People in law enforcement have to be fast,” Paul chuckled. “I had to run down a counterfeiter just last week,” he added. “If I overeat, I lose my edge.”

  Mikey grinned at him. “Not likely,” he commented. “You do okay, cousin.”

  “Sari says Jessie is giving you two a hard time,” Paul noted.

  Mikey’s lip pulled down. “She’s persistent, I’ll give her that. But she has the appeal of a skunk on acid. Know what I mean?”

  Paul laughed. “I do.”

  “Besides,” Mikey said, his eyes on Bernie, “I have other interests.”

  Bernie beamed and almost spilled her coffee. Her heart was going so fast that it shook her blouse. Mikey noticed that and flashed her a wicked smile.

  * * *

  After lunch, Mikey took Bernie’s hand and led her down the wooded path that eventually ended at the stables where the Grayling racehorses lived in luxury.

  “I love it here,” Bernie said, looking around at the leafless trees next to tall fir trees that were still green. “Fir trees are awesome.”

  “Yeah, they are,” he agreed. “Out west, we’ve got Colorado blue spruce that go right up into the sky.”

  “Are they really blue, or is that just a description that stuck?”

  “They’re really blue,” he replied. He stopped walking and turned to her. “Next time I go to Vegas, you can come with me. We’ll go by way of Wyoming and have a look at Yellowstone and Old Faithful. It’s a sight you’ll never forget.”

  She hesitated.

  He noticed that. “I have plans,” he said softly. “First, I have to take the heat off Tony and get him out of the mess he’s in. He’s family, you see?” he asked, scowling. “It’s loyalty. You take a solemn vow. You fulfill it. If you don’t, there are terrible penalties. Nobody ever sells out anybody in his family. If he does, the penalty is unspeakable.” He didn’t add that he’d participated in such retribution. He had to confess as much as he could to her, but there were things he had to keep to himself.

  She looked up at him with her heart in her eyes. “It won’t matter,” she said stubbornly.

  He touched her cheek with the tips of his fingers. “Bernie, I’ve been involved with the mob since I was old enough to carry a piece. I’ve done things...” He hesitated. It had never really bothered him before. Now it was hard to reconcile what he’d done with what he wanted to do now. He drew in a breath. “You’ve watched The Godfather movies, haven’t you?”

  “Oh, yes. They’re great movies,” she said.

  “You remember about the horse’s head being in bed with the producer who wouldn’t give the outfit’s singer a job?”

  She nodded.

  “And the way Michael’s older brother was murdered, a hit organized by a rival family?”

  She felt cold chills down her spine. “Yes,” she said huskily. “I remember that, too.”

  “Well, that was glossed-over stuff,” he said flatly. “Family hits are just plain gore. You don’t know what happened to Paulie, do you?”

  She just shook her head.

  “He had a wife and a little girl, before he came down here to work for old man Grayling as a security expert,” he said. “Paulie was the only person in our whole family who went straight. He worked with the FBI in Jersey, and he shut down one of the minor crime bosses. He felt great about it. But when he went home that night, his wife and his little girl had been done with a shotgun.”

  Bernie put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, the poor man!” she exclaimed, shocked.

  “He took years getting over it,” he said. “Eventually, he fell in love with Sari, but he got cold feet and made some excuse to quit. It was three years before he came back. In the meantime, Sari’s father had beaten the girls to within an inch of their lives. Sari blamed Paul and had nothing to do with him when he worked out of the FBI office in San Antonio. But she was in a hurricane down in the Bahamas. Paul thought she was dead, but he and Mandy went to bring her home. She turned up alive and they were married the same week. Paulie never got over losing his family, though. He blamed himself for pushing the crime boss too hard and going after his whole organization.”

  “What happened to the man who killed his first family?” she asked.

  His face grew hard. “I knew a guy who was inside,” he said shortly. “I took care of it.”

  She felt the blood drain out of her face. “You...?”

  “I took care of it,” he repeated quietly. “Yes. I have that kind of power. I worked my way up through the organization for years, to get to where I am now. I own one of the biggest casinos in Vegas and I’m filthy rich. I was arrested once on a murder charge, but I had witnesses swear I was nowhere near the scene of the crime. They had no real evidence, so they dropped the case.”

  She moved to a big oak tree and leaned back against it. This was news she hadn’t anticipated, and it was shocking. She looked up into cold dark eyes.

  “I’m so sorry, honey. I didn’t want to have to confess how bad a man I am. But you had to know,” he said. Inside, he was churning like storm clouds. He hadn’t wanted to tell her these things, but he couldn’t offer her a future without making her aware of the past. “There’s more,” he told her. “A lot more. But this is enough for now.”

  Her lips parted on a long breath. She looked at him helplessly. She loved him. He was a criminal. He would probably never give up that life. He’d told her graphically what the family he belonged to would do if they were betrayed.

  “Omertà,” she whispered heavily.

  He moved closer. “Yeah. Omertà,” he replied. “It’s the code we live by. Or die by, if we betray anybody in our family. They don’t just kill you. They kill everybody you love. It’s like erasing your whole life.”

  She leaned her head back against the hard bark of the tree and just looked at him. She didn’t understand what he wanted from her, why he was telling her something so personal.

  “So that’s the secret I keep,” he said. “It’s bad. It’s horrible. But it’s a part of my life that you have to understand if we go forward together. So. What secrets are you keeping?” he added in a tender voice.

  She took a deep breath. “My grandfather owned a little store over in Floresville. He and my grandmother ran it. We noticed that Granddaddy was forgetful, and sometimes he had rages, when he just went wild over something he saw on television, or somethi
ng a politician said. We overlooked it because we thought it was just the product of normal aging.”

  He moved closer. “But it wasn’t?”

  “It wasn’t. One day, he was listening to what a politician said about the economy and new regulations that were going to go into effect. Granddaddy started yelling that those people needed to be killed, slaughtered.”

  She hesitated, then plowed ahead without looking at him. “Maybe he would have calmed down, but the mayor was in his store buying some hardware, and he and Granddaddy got into an argument about politics. They were completely opposite in their views. The mayor tried to calm my grandfather down, and he thought he had. My grandmother chided him for being so violent over just stupid politics. She said he needed to lie down for a while. Granddaddy didn’t argue with her. He went out from behind the counter without a word. My grandmother was relieved, she thought he was over his anger. Not five minutes later, he came back into the front of the store with an automatic pistol.” She swallowed hard. “He killed my grandmother and the mayor, and then he turned the gun on three customers and killed them, too. The survivors screamed and ran out of the store. A local policeman heard the screams and went into the store with his pistol drawn. Granddaddy shot him dead the minute he walked into the store. The police called in the SWAT team from San Antonio. Granddaddy was holed up in the store, and he wouldn’t come out and give up his gun.” She sighed. “Long story short, the SWAT team went in and shot my grandfather. He died on the way to the hospital. My mother was so ashamed and sick at what her father had done, so grieved at the loss of her mother and the forthcoming fury of the townspeople, that she locked herself in the bathroom and slashed her own throat with a razor blade. We thought she was taking a bath.” Her eyes closed. “By the time we realized something was wrong and Daddy got the door open, it was much too late. She died.”

  “Oh, God,” he said. “You poor kid!”

  She bit her lower lip. “Daddy sold the house and moved us here. It was horrible, the aftermath. We were hated by so many people who lost loved ones that day. I didn’t blame them, you know, but Daddy and I had nothing to do with what happened. Nothing at all.”

  He moved forward and pulled her into his arms, folding her close, rocking her while she cried. “And I thought I’d had a hard life,” he whispered at her ear. “Baby, I wish I’d known you then. Nobody would ever have hurt you!”

  She pressed close, resting her wet cheek over his heart. “I thought you might not want anything else to do with me when you knew about what happened.”

  “Dopey girl,” he murmured, and laughed softly. “I’m hooked. Haven’t you noticed? Who do I hang around with all the time? Who do I take to movies and into rooms where we do naughty things together?”

  She laughed through her tears. “Me, I guess.”

  “You.” He drew in a long, slow breath. His arms tightened. “I pledged allegiance to Tony. I have to fulfill my vows. I can’t let him die, whatever I have to do to save him.”

  “Family is more important than your own life, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.” His breath was warm at her ear. “I’m mixed up in this in a bad way. I can’t make commitments right now. But when it’s over, when I clear Tony...”

  She didn’t move. Her eyes closed. “I told you,” she whispered. “I meant it. It won’t matter.”

  “God!” His mouth moved over hers and he kissed her with subdued passion, with pure hunger. He hadn’t imagined that she could live with the things he’d done, that she could still want him after she knew them. She was an extraordinary woman. “Bernie,” he said unsteadily, “you’re the very breath in my body!”

  She couldn’t even find words to express what she felt, so she kissed him with her whole heart, her arms stealing up around his neck, her mouth answering his with the same hungry passion that he was showing her.

  He groaned and his hands ran up and down her sides, his thumbs pressing under her breasts.

  “Ahem.”

  Mikey lifted his head and stared at Bernie blankly. “What did you say?”

  “I didn’t say anything,” she began.

  “Ahem.” It came again. Mikey frowned and felt around his lapel. There was a device that had been placed there in San Antonio. He glowered at it.

  “Yes?” Mikey asked abruptly.

  “I have a bead on you and quite frankly if you don’t break that up, I’m going to have to leave you defenseless and go get several drinks of hard liquor.”

  Mikey’s teeth ground together. “Damn it, Billings,” he muttered.

  “A lot of drinks,” Billings continued. “Maybe a whole damned fifth. It’s been a long dry spell and I have to watch you. Get it? Watch you.”

  Mikey drew a long breath and stared at Bernie with amused regret. “Okay. We’ll go look at the horses.”

  “Good idea. Blakely’s in there. You can drive him nuts!” There was a click and the device went silent.

  Bernie was flushed and embarrassed.

  “Hey,” Mikey said, pushing back the unruly long, blond hair from her face. “Billings is right. This isn’t the time or place.”

  “Did he hear all we said?” she worried.

  “Not likely. He doesn’t eavesdrop. I guess we were getting pretty heated, huh?” He laughed. “Okay. Let’s behave.” He caught her fingers and entangled them with his. “Let’s go look at the pretty horses.”

  She laughed. Life was sweet. He didn’t mind her past. She didn’t mind his. This was a relationship with a future. She’d never been so certain of anything.

  * * *

  They wandered through the stables. There was a man in charge of the thoroughbreds. He explained them to Bernie.

  “They’re descended from three stallions imported into England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the beginning of their line. We won the Kentucky Derby with this fellow,” he said, smiling as he approached the big stall where the racehorse lived. “He has his own pasture and he’s at stud. We get fabulous amounts of money from his colts. He’s a grand old fellow.”

  Bernie looked at him with awe. He was grand, elegant and handsome, and he knew it, too. “He’s gorgeous,” she said.

  The stable manager chuckled. “We think so, too. He has a colt that was born just two months ago. It’s down here.”

  He led them down the paved aisle to another stall, where a handsome young thoroughbred was playing with a big ball.

  “Horses play?” Bernie exclaimed.

  The manager laughed. “Of course. They’re like puppies or toddlers at this age. When they hit adolescence, or the horse equivalent, that’s when the problems start. Right now, they’re just children and it’s a whole new world for them.”

  Bernie just watched the colt play, fascinated. “I’ve never been around horses much,” she confessed. “We had a small ranch in Floresville where my people had a few head of beef cattle. There were a few horses for the cowboys, but I never rode one. I was afraid of them.”

  “Never let a horse know that,” the manager told her. “They’ll take advantage.”

  “I’m not likely to be put on a horse anytime soon,” she assured him.

  “If you ever did want to ride, we have a fifteen-year-old gelding, very gentle, who would be perfect for you. If you ever did,” he added.

  Mikey chuckled and pressed her fingers with his. “There may come a day,” he said with a gentle smile at Bernie, who returned it.

  “There may,” she said.

  * * *

  They went back to the house.

  “You’re back soon,” Sari commented.

  “Yeah,” Mikey said with a rueful smile. “Billings is a wet blanket.”

  “Chet Billings? You saw him?” she asked.

  “No. We heard him. He’s got this device on me,” he added, indicating the electronic thing on his lapel.

  “Oh. He ta
lked to you?”

  “He threatened to get drunk is what he did.” Mikey looked at Bernie and sighed. “I guess there’s no real privacy left on earth.”

  “Yes, there is. The conservatory is very nice, very quiet and it has a door. However,” she added mischievously, “not being stupid, I’ll call you when supper is ready and I’ll probably open the door to do it.”

  Mikey sighed. “Speak loudly, okay?” he teased.

  Sari laughed. “Very loudly.” She gave them a knowing look and went back into the kitchen, where she and Mandy were sharing coffee. “Do you want coffee?” she called over her shoulder.

  “Later,” Mikey said. “When supper’s ready. Thanks, Sari,” he added.

  “I wasn’t always married,” Sari replied, and grinned.

  * * *

  Mikey took off the lapel pen, put it on a table in the hall and drew Bernie into the room with him. He closed the door behind him and, as an afterthought, locked it.

  “Just so you know,” he said as he pulled her gently into his arms, “we’re big on innocence. Some people might call us reactionary, but we respect our women and we don’t dishonor them. You get what I mean?”

  He was telling her that he wouldn’t let it go too far. She smiled. “I guess you know all about me.”

  His mouth brushed hers. “I know that you’re an innocent, Bernie,” he whispered. “It excites me and maddens me, all at once.”

  “Maddens you?”

  “Obstacles are frustrating,” he mused. He kissed her with slow, hungry brushes of his mouth, feeling hers follow it helplessly. “But we’ll muddle through. When things get too hot, and they might, all you have to do is remind me that I promised not to let things go too far.”

  She laughed. “Okay.”

  He smiled as he kissed her again. “You make me hungry for things I never wanted before,” he murmured as he maneuvered her onto the cushy sofa and came down beside her. “A home, a family, roots,” he whispered. He had her blouse off and her bra unsnapped in seconds. “Belonging,” he murmured as his mouth opened over her taut nipple and suddenly suckled her, hard.