Texas Proud

by Diana Palmer

  “Poor Bernie.”

  “Poor Mikey, when he finally realizes he’s been had,” Paul said flatly. “I’m checking out an acquaintance of Jessie’s in Upstate New York. I have a suspicion that she didn’t just happen down here with her friend Billie.”

  “What about the cook from New Jersey who’s working in Barbara’s Café?”

  He laughed. “I’ll tell you about that,” he said. “It’s a hoot.” And he did tell her.

  * * *

  “Now, this is my kind of place,” Jessie said as they were seated in the five-star restaurant.

  “Mine, too,” Mikey said, but without any real enthusiasm. He studied the gorgeous woman across from him with only vague interest. She was wearing a couture cocktail dress with diamond earrings, necklace, bracelet and several rings. All diamonds. The best quality and set in 18 karat gold. He knew, because he’d spent a fortune on them for various women over the years. He was curious about how she afforded that kind of jewelry on a receptionist’s salary.

  Even as he had the thought, he felt cold chills inside. He was carrying. He had a snub .38 in a pancake holster behind his back, and a hidden gun in an ankle holster. He never went anywhere without being armed. Would he need to be? Santi was at the next table, apparently oblivious, but watching.

  Odd, how he suddenly remembered that if the family ordered a hit on you, they sent your best friend to do it. He was warned that if he didn’t, somebody else would, and he’d end up as dead as the intended victim. His blood ran cold as he stared at Santi.

  But his bodyguard just grinned at him and went to work on a huge plate of spaghetti. He was getting paranoid, Mikey considered, just like his old man.

  He remembered his father with loathing. The man had been a dirty jobs soldier for the underboss in New Jersey, the one who’d preceded Tony Garza. Mikey’s dad had killed men over and over again, never felt the least remorse, and spent his life at a local bar where the outfit hung out. Mikey rarely saw him, and if he ever did, his father treated him like a disease. He hated Mikey and made no secret of the fact that he thought the kid was some other man’s son. Mikey’s mother, long dead, had an affair, he’d told the boy one day, and Mikey was the result. It was to get even with him for something he’d done to her. So Mikey had no real family at all until his maternal grandmother, Paulie’s grandmother, too, took both boys in and raised them. The old lady was Greek. She still spoke the old language. Mikey and Paulie had been schooled in Italian by the other kids and the families they associated with, but their grandmother taught them Greek, as well. Mikey could even read in it. Not a lot of people knew that. He kept his intelligence hidden; it gave him an advantage if his colleagues thought he was stupid.

  “How was it you heard what Bernie said in the office?” he asked out of the blue.

  Jessie’s hand, which was holding her wineglass, jerked, but she recovered quickly. “Oh, she and Olivia didn’t know I was there,” she replied. “I’d just come out of Mr. Kemp’s office and they were in the hallway.”

  “I see.” He didn’t know Bernie well, but it seemed unlike her to confide something so personal to an office worker, even one she was close to. She was, like him, a very private person.

  “This place is nice,” she said, changing the subject. She smiled at him alluringly. “You know, I have the use of a friend’s apartment here in town,” Her voice changed to a throaty purr. “We could be all alone there.”

  Mikey just stared at her. His dark eyes were cold, as cold as they’d ever been when he had another man at gunpoint. “Really?”

  His glare disconcerted her. “You know, Bernie won’t change her mind, and she’ll never tell you what she really thinks of you,” she said.

  He cocked his head. “You’re trying too hard.”

  “Excuse me?”

  He just laughed, but it had a hollow sound. He was just beginning to believe he’d been had. And he was out with this jeweled barracuda, who would go back to the office Monday and tell Bernie all about this date, probably with some embroidering. He took a big sip of his Chianti and cursed himself silently through the rest of the meal.

  * * *

  “Oh, it was the most wonderful date!” Jessie enthused to the other women, including Bernie, the following Monday. “Mikey made me feel like a princess! And we went to this apartment a friend loans me...” She stopped when Bernie’s face went white. “I’m so sorry, that was cruel,” she added in a conciliatory tone. “But you know how he feels about you, honey.”

  “She knows what you told her,” Olivia replied, her eyes narrow and suspicious.

  “Odd, how you knew something so personal,” Sari added her own comment to the discussion. “I mean, Mikey isn’t the sort to discuss personal things with Paul, even in private, and Paul’s the only person he’s really close to.”

  Jessie looked uncomfortable. “It was just a comment he made—he didn’t seem to think it was very personal.”

  Mr. Kemp’s door flew open and he looked livid. “Miss Tennison!”

  Jessie actually jumped. “Yes, sir?”

  “Come into my office, please,” he said icily.

  Jessie collected herself quickly and forced a smile. “Yes, sir, at once.” She jumped up and headed toward him without looking back.

  “Don’t you believe her,” Sari told Bernie firmly. “Mikey never told Paul anything about you, not ever, in private. He would never blurt out something like that in a public place.”

  Bernie wasn’t comforted. She forced a smile. “I could never keep up with him, don’t you see?” she asked softly. “He lives in the fast lane. Some days, I can’t even get out of bed. He’d get tired of it. I don’t like bars and flashy places. I’ve never even owned an evening gown.” She cocked her head and smiled at Sari. “The people in his circle would think he’d lost his mind if they ever got a look at me, and you know it.”

  Sari wasn’t convinced. “Bernie, if somebody loves you, things like disabilities and things they’ve done in the past—none of it matters at all.”

  Bernie’s green eyes were sad. “I believed that, once. But he took her out on the town,” she added, indicating the door behind which Jessie was closeted with Mr. Kemp. “And he slept with her. It’s over. I’m going to get on with my life. It’s obvious that he’s gotten on with his.”

  And she went back to work.

  * * *

  Jessie came out of Mr. Kemp’s office with an absolute snarl on her face. “I’m fired,” she said icily. “Just because I told that old man on the phone that Mr. Kemp didn’t want to talk to him and not to go to court because I thought it was canceled that day!”

  “What old man?” Olivia asked.

  “Oh, some rancher named Regan.”

  Olivia’s eyebrows arched. “Ted Regan?”

  “Yes, I think that was it,” Jessie muttered. She started pulling things out of desk drawers.

  “Old man Regan,” Sari told her, “is worth millions. He owns the second biggest ranch in Jacobs County, and properties all over the country. He’s also a prime witness in a case we’re prosecuting.” She pursed her lips. “Or he was. I’m assuming Mr. Kemp lost the case, if you told Ted not to show up. Judge Drew was presiding and he didn’t want to try the case to begin with.”

  Jessie just ground her teeth. “Well, it doesn’t matter now, I’m fired,” she muttered. She looked up and noted the pleased expressions on all the faces except Bernie’s. Bernie wouldn’t even look at her. “It’s just as well,” she commented. “I’ve done what I came to do. Aren’t you the gullible bunch? I put on an act and all of you bought it. You pitiful little small-town people, you’ll never know what life is all about.”

  “It’s about family,” Glory Ramirez said.

  “It’s all about family,” Sari agreed. “Something you’ll never understand.”

  “The only family I care about is the one I take orders
from,” Jessie muttered absently, and then looked up and flushed as she realized what she’d said. “My dad, I mean,” she corrected, “and he’s not from some little Texas town!”

  But Sari picked up on what she’d said at once and hid her suspicions. She went back to work, ignoring Jessie.

  “Well, so long,” Jessie said as she carried the cardboard box with her things in it to the door. She turned and stared at Bernie. “I’ll tell Mikey you said hello, Bernie,” she purred. “After all, we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other. I know his world and I love it. Unlike you, I don’t mind being seen with him and his criminal friends,” she drawled sarcastically.

  Bernie felt shocked. “What do you mean?”

  Jessie had slipped again. She shrugged. “Nothing at all. Goodbye.”

  She went out the door and closed it behind her.

  * * *

  Bernie didn’t say a word. She brooded, though. Mikey was already involved with that vicious woman, but perhaps he liked that sort of person. Maybe he was frustrated because he’d wanted Bernie and she wasn’t the sort to sleep around. But it still hurt to think of him in bed with Jessie. It hurt terribly.

  “She was lying,” Sari said gently.

  Bernie looked up. Her eyes were sad and wise. “No, she wasn’t,” she said quietly. “And like I said, it doesn’t matter. We were mismatched from the start. Opposites attract, don’t they say, but the divorce rate for marriages like that is pretty dismal. I’d better get back to work.”

  Sari didn’t say any more, but she was livid.

  * * *

  “Mikey did what?” Paul Fiore asked at supper, his fork poised in midair.

  “He slept with Jessie,” Sari said angrily.

  He whistled, aware of Mandy’s curious stare. “Well, damn, that’s the end of it all.”

  “I know.” Sari picked at her food. “Jessie was poison. I’m glad Mr. Kemp fired her. It was all an act, that sweetness and light attitude.”

  “No surprise, there.”

  “She let something slip when we were talking about families and how they mattered,” Sari continued. “She said the only family she cared about was the one she took orders from.”

  Paul dropped the fork. “Families. Like Cotillo’s.”

  “Maybe,” Sari replied, watching him retrieve the utensil from the floor and carry it to the sink before he got another and returned to the table. “Don’t you have somebody checking her out?”

  “I do. I’ll call him after we finish eating. Damn the luck! If she’s involved with Cotillo, then her friend Billie may be, too. It’s been right under our noses.”

  “What about that cook at Barbara’s?” Mandy asked as she refilled coffee cups. She made a face at Sari. “And you should be drinking milk, not caffeine!”

  Sari flushed. “Mandy...”

  Mandy was grinning.

  Paul, caught unaware, looked at Mandy’s twinkling eyes and his own darted to his wife, looking flushed and guilty.

  “Okay, spit it out,” he told Sari. “What’s going on that I don’t know about?”

  She cleared her throat and glared at Mandy. “I was going to tell you later.”

  “Tell me now,” he persisted.

  She drew in a breath. “I’m pregnant.”

  Paul sat very still for just a minute, then he rose, picked her up in his arms, and kissed her and kissed her, whooping in between at the top of his lungs.

  Mandy pursed her lips. “Well,” she said to nobody in particular, “I guess it’s no secret that he’s happy about it.”

  * * *

  Bernie went home to a lonely apartment, her heart down in her shoes. Mikey was sleeping with that rat, Jessie. Mikey was a rat, too, she told herself. He’d taken her in, pretended to care about her, then backed off because she had an incurable disease.

  If he’d been that concerned about her illness, why hadn’t he stopped seeing her in the beginning? Why had he spent almost every day with her? Why had he bought her a ring and then asked her to marry him?

  None of it made sense, unless he’d truly thought he could make it work and then decided he couldn’t live with her limitations. She felt miserable. She couldn’t help what was wrong with her. She couldn’t cure it. Maybe she could have adjusted to travel, to his friends, to flashy places, if she’d been given the chance. But what did it matter now? She would never get over the fact that he’d promised to marry her and then cheated on her with another woman. She had too much pride.

  * * *

  “Are you out of your mind?” Paul demanded of Mikey the next day when they were having a quick lunch at the house.

  Mikey blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “Sleeping with Jessie. My God!”

  Mikey’s lips fell open. “Sleeping... Good Lord, do I look crazy to you? I wouldn’t touch her with a pole!”

  “You took her out on the town, didn’t you?” he persisted.

  Mikey grimaced. “I was feeling pretty low. I needed to feel like a man again.”

  “Great job.”

  “Bernie didn’t want me!” he burst out. “She said she couldn’t live with a man who’d been a criminal most of his life!”

  “She told you this, huh?” Paul asked.

  Mikey sighed. “No. She’d never want to hurt my feelings like that. She told somebody else and she was overheard.”

  “Let me guess—by Jessie.”

  Mikey scowled. “What?”

  “Jessie told Bernie that you went with her to an apartment in San Antonio.”

  Mikey grimaced. He could only imagine how much that had hurt Bernie. He was hurting from her rejection, but it wounded him to think he’d caused her even more pain.

  “She let something else slip. She has a ‘family’ that she takes orders from.”

  Mikey lost color. “Hell!”

  “I’ve got a man digging hard into her past. He’s hit a couple of dead ends, but he thinks he’s onto something. I should have an answer today,” Paul told him.

  “You think she’s on Cotillo’s payroll.”

  “I think she might be,” Paul replied. “Think about it. She and Billie are as out of place here as roaches in a ritzy hotel. So why are they here? Maybe to watch you and report on your movements to a third party.”

  “Like a cleaner,” Mikey said, referring to a contract killer.

  “Maybe. It depends on which family she has ties to. Cotillo’s not the only man in the game. He has enemies. She’s from New York. Cotillo’s moving on Tony Garza in Jersey. Suppose another boss has Cotillo in his sights and wants to know if you’re protected before he orders a hit.”

  Mikey toyed with his coffee cup. “That’s a possibility.”

  “Cotillo’s drawn a lot of attention to himself and to the outfit in general with this takeover thing. He’s harking back to the mob wars in the past, which were bloody and public and ended in the congressional hearings that tore the Five Families apart. They can’t really afford to make themselves too visible even today. Cotillo’s a threat to them as well as to you and Tony. They might decide to act.”

  “If Jessie was lining up a hit, she had a perfect opportunity while we were at the restaurant,” Mikey said. “Santi was at another table. Of course, I was watching the door. I know how hits go down.”

  “Which is why I don’t think her boss is Cotillo.”

  Mikey drew in a long breath. “That might be.” He looked into the coffee cup at the thick black liquid. “Bernie will never forgive me. I don’t guess it matters. She didn’t want me to begin with.”

  “Or so Jessie told you. She likes rich men. Kemp already called her down about it at least once. Of course, he fired her this morning.”

  “What?”

  “She mouthed off to Ted Regan, of all people, and told him court had been canceled. Since she was calling from the DA’s office,
he believed her. He didn’t show up and the case was thrown out of court. Kemp was livid.”

  “I guess so. She’ll get another job, I guess.”

  “She and Billie left town late this afternoon,” Paul replied. “I got that from Mandy. She knows everything that goes on in this town. But I’m sure Jessie will keep in touch with you,” he added sarcastically. “I mean, since you’re dating her and all.”

  “You don’t understand,” he burst out. “I lost everything! Bernie couldn’t live with what I am, and I don’t know how I’m going to live without her! Jessie kept asking if we could get a meal somewhere and I said yes. I know I shouldn’t have done it. I was so damned low I didn’t care about how it would look.”

  “Jessie is poison,” Paul said. “I’d bet real money that she told Bernie some tale about you, as well, to the tune of your not being able to live with a woman who might be an invalid later on.”

  Mikey was very still. He just stared at his cousin.

  “Think about it. She told you that Bernie hated your past. Maybe she told Bernie that you hated her disease.”

  “Dear God,” Mikey said huskily, and buried his face in his hands. “Oh, God, what am I going to do?”

  “Talk to Bernie.”

  Mikey removed his hands from his face and drank the coffee. “Sure. I’m going to walk into the office, and she’s going to throw me out headfirst, or the verbal equivalent. She thinks I slept with damned Jessie. She’ll hate me.”

  “Sari hated me, too, when I first came back here.” Paul grinned. “Remember what I did when she wouldn’t speak to me?”

  “Everybody in Jacobsville remembers,” Mikey chuckled. “They even talked about it at the boardinghouse and it was three years ago.”

  “Whatever works,” he commented pointedly.

  Mikey drew in a breath. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Meanwhile, I have news.”

  “About Cotillo?”

  Paul chuckled. “Not yet. About Sari.”