by David, Kori
“How could you?” Lily whispered.
All the hurt. All the terror. It was there in that final question. And it was something she had to hear for herself. It was the reason she hadn’t been honest with Jesse. But it didn’t stop there. The years of rejection welled up from deep inside and tears threatened but she held them at bay.
“Why couldn’t you love me?”
Her mother sighed. An annoyed sound that conveyed her disdain of such an emotional question. But Lily couldn’t help it. It was a soul deep wound that she’d tried to reason away. And her driving force in becoming an internationally recognized photographer. She wanted to prove that she was worthy of her mother’s love. Prove it in a very public way. Something she would have to hear about from her social circle.
Oh, did you see Lily’s photos made National Geographic? You must be so proud of her. She used to imagine her mother having to show some pride, even if just to appear the loving parent.
“I never wanted a child, Liliana. But an abortion would not have been able to be kept quiet. Some reporter would have dug deep enough to find that little scandal.” She stacked the photos in front of her neatly, almost compulsively unable to leave them in disarray on her tidy desk. “And giving you up for adoption would have been tacky.”
There it was. Bald and painful, but finally, the truth. “So you suffered your child because of your agenda?”
She nodded. “Yes. I did my duty as a mother. I provided a decent education and home to live in. I only required you to be a good child. An obedient child.”
“The perfect child that was seen but never heard.”
“I tire of this, Liliana. What is it that you want? Blackmail?”
What did she want? She’d heard what she needed to. Virginia Richardson-Tate was incapable of loving anyone but herself and her power. Maybe she hoped that she would see something in her mother’s eyes that looked remotely like remorse. But there was nothing.
“I don’t want anything else from you. I will be turning these photos over to the police and telling them my story.”
“I don’t think so.” Lily was puzzled as her mother turned her chair toward the door that led to a small living room area off the den. “Ramon,” she called.
Lily froze at the name and at the sight of the tall Hispanic man that entered the room followed by another, shorter man. She jumped from her chair and backed away, fear crawling into her stomach.
“Jesus, Mother. What is he doing here?”
“He is my business partner and here to make sure all my little problems disappear.”
“Why is he working with you?”
“His employer needs guns, and I need a problem solver. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
Ramon smiled as he took up post behind her mother’s leather chair. He wore an expensive gray suit and gaudy gold jewelry. He looked even scarier in person. The man behind him stepped slowly to the side. As he did this, Lily could see the gun hanging in the holster under his jacket. She thought it was a deliberate move to terrify her. It worked.
“Those aren’t the only copies of those photos,” Lily said.
“And that is why we need to have the negatives,” Ramon replied. His words were lightly accented. “And any copies you have made.”
It was eerie the way he managed to sound menacing but polite at the same time. Lily continued to back toward the door. She was about to turn and run when she was grabbed from behind. She instinctively struggled to get loose but the iron-hard arms around her waist stopped her.
“Stop.”
One word. Even though the tone was gruff, the voice was achingly familiar and so very welcome. “I’m sorry.” She knew it wasn’t enough but it was all she could manage as she watched Ramon’s hired thug pull his gun out of the holster.
“We are going to talk about this problem you have with jumping into danger.”
“Okay.” And it was.
Jesse had come for her. When it mattered, he’d come and she knew she’d be able to depend on him in a way that she’d never depended on anyone in her life.
Chapter 13
“Well, well. Jesse James Calhoun. What an interesting twist to this little drama. You know, your mother was the best maid I ever had.”
Her tone and smirk was designed to put him in his place. Or so she thought. But Jesse was proud of his mother and her hard work. She’d raised seven children by herself once his father had passed. That was more of an accomplishment in his eyes than anything Virginia Tate had ever done.
“And you were the biggest pain in the ass she ever worked for, Virginia.” He had the satisfaction of seeing her face flush. His tone was deliberately snide as he watched the three adversaries in front of him.
Lily was snug in his arms, her perfect ass pressed against his groin. It made him relax, which was what he needed. He’d been on the edge of going nuclear, not knowing if she’d been hurt or not. But now he could focus on getting them both out alive.
“Darlin’,” he whispered in her ear, “I need you to move behind me.”
Jesse never took his eyes from Ramon’s as he felt her nod and slide around his side. Once he was fully shielding her, he focused on the people in front of him. Virginia wasn’t the kind of woman who armed herself, so he ignored her. The man with Ramon was just another street punk in the cartel and even holding a gun, wouldn’t dare make a move without being told to.
So he focused on Ramon.
“Who are you?”
Jesse smiled. “I’m the man who’s going to beat you to death.”
“A man with courage. I respect that.”
“I don’t want a crime scene in my home, gentlemen. Ramon, dispose of them far from here, please.”
“God, you are such a bitch, Mother.”
Jesse felt his smile widen. “Such language.”
His fiery flower was finally growing out from her mother’s shadow. She was peeking around him and shooting a glare at the woman who gave birth to her. He was proud of her and he would tell her that just as soon as he was done shaking some sense into her. But even that had to wait until they were safely away from this place.
“You’d better do something because the police already found your husband. And Ramon here just couldn’t help but carve his signature into his chest. It’s only a matter of time before they come here asking questions. And then there’s the dead guy on the front porch.”
Virginia took the news calmly. She looked up at her hired assassin and frowned, but Ramon only shrugged. “There was no time for finesse and Rico can be replaced”
She shook her head. “You should have made time. William’s death was supposed to look like an accident.”
As they began to argue, the focus shifted away from Jesse and Lily. He backed them up a step.
“Why aren’t you armed? And is there really a dead guy on the porch?” Lily whispered.
He just shook his head. There wasn’t time to explain to her about the guard he’d found outside or what was about to happen. He just wanted to be in a place where he could push them both out of the way, fast, if he needed to. He moved them both a step farther away while Ramon’s attention was turned.
“You didn’t have the stomach to take care of her,” Ramon snarled. “And I don’t take orders from you.”
“Until this deal is finished, you will continue to take orders from me,” Virginia hissed back.
Without warning, Ramon Garcia slapped the righteous look right off Virginia Richardson-Tate’s face. Her head snapped back from the force of the hit and they heard her teeth clack together. It was a back-handed hit and the look on his face said he enjoyed inflicting the pain.
“Shut up, stupid woman. Let me handle it.” His voice was calm, flat.
Jesse didn’t feel bad as Lily’s mother let out a pained moan and immediately brought her hand up to cover her swelling face. Ramon and his henchman advanced forward as Jesse backed up another step. Lily moved with him, step for step, holding on to the waist of his jeans.
Come on, fellas, just a little farther, he thought.
He held his hand up to show they were empty. “Where’s that knife you like to use, Ramon? Think you can get close enough to use it on me?”
He ignored Lily’s indrawn breath. Taunting Ramon was the only way he could get him to come after him. He never even glanced at the smaller man with the gun, he didn’t matter. Only Ramon did and he was arrogant. Jesse could work with arrogance.
He moved out from behind Virginia’s desk. “Maybe I will just have Enriquez shoot you and use the knife on the puta behind you.”
“But then you won’t know who the better man is, Ramon. And I’ve already beaten you a couple of times. Took her right out of your warehouse, didn’t I? I got away from you in Flagstaff and also found and disabled your bug. Doesn’t seem like you are very good at what you do, Ramon.”
The smile faded from Ramon’s face as he unsheathed a wicked-looking stiletto. The blade was twisted and serrated at the edges. It was a blade that would inspire fear and cause the maximum amount of pain.
“If he runs, shoot him, Enriquez.”
“Si, Jefe.”
But they both moved closer and that was what Jesse wanted. He dropped into a crouch as he pushed Lily back. “Come and get me, Ramon.”
“I am going to enjoy killing you.”
Jesse motioned him forward with a hand. “What are you waiting for, then?”
Ramon shifted the knife from one hand to the other in a tactic used to distract, but Jesse’s only goal was to get him in front of the big windows.
“You going to actually do something or just play with your little knife?”
An ugly grin stretched across the face of his adversary as Ramon stopped what he was doing and got serious. Dropping into a similar crouch, he moved the knife to his right hand and lunged. It happened quickly, but it’s what Jesse had been waiting for.
Suddenly, the glass from the bay window shattered with a loud pop. Jesse turned and grabbed Lily, throwing them both sideways and into the corner away from danger as the front of Ramon’s head exploded in a puff of red mist.
Enriquez began firing at the window and running toward his fallen commander. He made it two steps before his head jerked sideways, the force of the bullet throwing his body to the side. He landed less than a foot away from Ramon.
“Are you all right?” Jesse asked.
Lily looked up at him. He expected tears but she once again proved that she was tougher than she looked. “I’m okay. What just happened?”
“You’re safe and this is over. That’s what just happened.”
Jesse hugged her to him but turned when Virginia’s voice reached them. “What have you done?” It was more of a whisper and had none of her previous snobbery in the tone.
“I saved the woman I love from the woman who should have loved her first.”
Lily’s mother sat slumped over her desk, her hair was lightly disheveled and her cheek was already turning darker from the bruise forming. Her eyes were glazed and staring, as if she couldn’t believe there were two dead men bleeding on her oriental rug.
“No one has ever understood the sacrifices I’ve made—”
“Oh shut up, Virginia,” Lily interrupted. “You’re a criminal and deserve to be treated as one. Not only that, but you’re a bad person.”
“No one understands…”
She trailed off, running her hands through her hair. Jesse went to the big bay window and made a few quick hand signals. He and Lily would handle the police. Damon would be out of the area before they arrived. Jesse was the only one who would know the truth about what happened.
He aimed to keep it that way.
“Call the police, Lil. They need to respond to yet another homicide.” Then he pulled some tissues from the desk and went about securing the weapons without leaving any of his fingerprints on them. When Lily didn’t answer he looked up at her. She hadn’t moved.
“Did you say you loved me?”
Women. He grinned. Even after surviving six sisters he’d never understand how they could laser focus on one thing at the worst time. They were standing over two dead bodies, the police were going to interrogate them both for hours when they arrived and she’d been through so many traumas in the last couple of days that anyone else would have had a lovely fainting spell by now.
But not his woman.
No, she wanted the words. And she wasn’t going to move until she got them. “If I tell you, then will you call the police?”
There was a frown, a toss of thick chestnut hair, and both hands went on her hips. “Jesse James Calhoun! Did you just confess your love for me or not?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
And that’s when the waterworks started. Virginia Tate muttered something about maintaining one’s composure and both Jesse and Lily yelled, “Shut up.” And she finally did.
Jesse moved both women out of the room and into the front entry, and made the call to the police. Then he put Lily’s mother on a velvet bench on the opposite side of the room and led Lily to the set of padded chairs where they could have a bit of privacy. He pulled her into his lap and handed her a tissue.
“Are you going to cry at our wedding too?”
“I never cry.”
“It’s okay, I can take it. I’ll even let you cry all over my shirt if we don’t have tissues handy.”
Lily hiccupped and looked up at him with her liquid emerald eyes. “Did you just ask me to marry you?”
“Yes, I did.” Using his thumb, he brushed the tears away. She was so beautiful, inside and out. Strong, compassionate, and equally fearless. They would have the rest of their lives to be adventurous together.
“I think I fell in love with you when you hot-wired that damn Camaro and dared me to go joy riding with you back in high school, but I wasn’t ready for it. So I ran that night. Because if I had stayed, we would have done a helluva lot more than dance. And I wasn’t good enough for you back then.”
Her hands came up and cupped his jaw. “That is the dumbest, sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s the truth. And it wasn’t about my lack of money or your overabundance of it back then. Or even our different social standings. It was about not being man enough to be all the things I knew you needed me to be.”
He kissed her because he couldn’t stop himself. “I love you, Liliana Richardson. Marry me.” It was bare and without finesse but it was too real to fancy up. He thought she understood that.
She threw her arms around his neck and whispered, “Yes.”
He hugged her to him, feeling their heartbeats begin to match rhythm. “Now give me the words before I start to worry that you’re marrying me for my body.”
He could feel her laugh well up from inside and spill over. “I love you. Of course I love you. I always have. I always will.”
Jesse stood up and spun her around. When he stopped he faced the wilted woman staring at them helplessly. “I’m marrying your daughter.”
Virginia waved her hand in dismissal. “You deserve one another.”
He grinned. “Yes we do.”
And with sirens getting louder in the distance, he got down on one knee and did it right.
Epilogue
“Well, the scandal finally broke. It’s front page news,” Jesse said coming into the bedroom.
Lily yawned and stretched and then admired the view in the door. Jesse shirtless, jeans pulled up but not buttoned—yum. He had the paper in one hand and two coffee cups in the other. She pulled herself up, wrapped the sheet around her body and reached eagerly for the coffee.
With the cup in her hands, she sipped the warm brew and closed her eyes. She felt the paper being laid in her lap and the bed dipped from Jesse’s delicious body.
“Hmmm. This is so good.”
He laughed. “It beats all the hotels we’ve been staying in.”
“And the cave.”
“Hey, I liked that cave.”
Lily shivered b
ut smiled. Only a Marine would be content in a smuggler’s cave. As for her, she was happy being sequestered away in the mountains of Arizona at Jesse’s cabin. And it turned out, Elizabeth was right, that shower was perfect for two people.
“So what’s the paper say?” She didn’t bother to look at it, she’d much rather look into Jesse’s eyes and listen to his deep voice telling her the story. Seemed less sad that way and she felt less alone.
“Well, the ATF and the FBI are both involved now since this officially became an international gun smuggling ring. Your mother is being held without bond and has managed to look good in an orange jumpsuit. And there is speculation that the deaths of one Ramon Garcia and Enriquez Saldano were the work of one or more members of a rival drug cartel.”
Lily raised her eyebrow at him over the rim of her mug. “A rival drug cartel?”
Jesse nodded solemnly. “Apparently, being a drug runner is a very dangerous line of work, with a low life expectancy.”
“And it just so happened that this ‘rival cartel’ picked that time and that place for an assassination?”
“I try not to speculate. These things are best left to the professionals. And that is their prevailing theory.”
Lily could only shake her head. She knew that wasn’t the case, but she wasn’t about to begin pointing fingers elsewhere. Damon Dupree had taken the law into his own hands and no one would ever be able to prove it. Jesse had told her who the shooter had been, but only because he didn’t want secrets between them. And while she didn’t necessarily approve she’d decided that investigative journalism was not for her and she was grateful to be alive. Lily planned to stick to what she was good at, taking great pictures.
“You’re right. I’m sure they will solve the mystery to everyone’s satisfaction.”
“In the meantime, you and I have one last glorious week off before we have to go back to Texas for the engagement party to end all engagement parties.”
“Your entire family is coming, aren’t they?” Lily sighed and tried to sound dramatic. She eyed the square cut emerald that graced her ring finger, the one that matched her eyes, and held in a smile. The truth was that she loved every single member of Jesse’s family.
