“Are you all right?” she asked. “You look terrible.”
“I’ll be fine if you stop squeezing me so hard.”
She stepped aside, and he came face-to-face with his father. Wearing his emotions, the old man looked as if he wanted to follow suit after Caroline. But Lucky knew Sally Donatelli was not a man who handled rejection easily, and so his father stood spine straight where he was.
“What the hell happened?” Sally demanded, tearing his gaze from Lucky to the women, who were almost dry but definitely bedraggled.
“A rat almost drowned,” JoJo said.
Paula gave her a filthy look, JoJo’s reward for saving her hide. Lucky wasn’t so certain he would have been as generous.
“The rescue chopper is at the canyon,” Lucky said. “We got word that Rocky’s still alive. He and this lady were hand in hand in trying to kill JoJo.” He pushed her toward the deputies. “She’s all yours, guys.”
One of the cops read Paula her rights. Seeming resigned to her fate, she temporarily waived her right to an attorney, admitted that she’d been the one to shoot Adair the evening before, that her last name was Carbury rather than Gibson and that she’d hired Rocky to help her eliminate JoJo before leaving the East coast. They’d taken turns following JoJo around Las Vegas. And from day one, Paula had planned on leaving poor Lester with the blame for JoJo’s death.
While she was giving one man details, the other deputy suggested they go inside. After Lucky and JoJo gave statements, the deputies left with a handcuffed Paula.
“Well, all’s well that ends well,” JoJo said.
His father locked gazes with Lucky. “You need anything at all, you ask.”
Lucky knew Sally was leaving a door open with the statement. Part of him wanted to throw the offer back into his father’s face. Part of him wanted to thank the old man. He nodded and said, “I’ll keep that in mind.” He needed time to sort out his feelings. Somewhere, he’d lost’the rage that used to fuel him.
Sally rose. “Caroline, you ready to leave?”
“Yes, Papa. My bags are in the car.”
“Your sister’s coming with me. Vito’s gonna drive her car back to Vegas.”
Lucky was amazed that his sister didn’t insist on staying with him, fussing over him. He figured his father had something to do with that. A reason to be grateful, whether he wanted to be or not.
“Caroline.” Lucky gave her a quick hug. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you.”
“Damn straight,” she muttered.
His father first looked expectant, then disappointed when Lucky extended him no like offer. “We’d better go.” He stared at Lucky. “Unless there’s some reason for us to stay…”
“No, we’ll be fine.”
Only after they’d climbed in the chopper did Lucky feel regret and a renewed sense of loss.
But JoJo was there, her arm wrapped around his waist, her head on his shoulder, and Lucky told himself she was all he needed.
“I DON’T WANT you to leave.”
With a happy smile, JoJo sprawled in the passenger seat of Lucky’s Bronco as they drove along the bumpy ridge above the canyon to recover her Cherokee. “Say it again.”
“You’ve already made me say it at least a dozen times since yesterday,” Lucky complained.
Several times during the night, while they’d held each other, too tired and sore to do anything more physical.
“Well…I might actually be starting to believe it.”
He lifted her hand and kissed the fingers tenderly. “I love you and I don’t want you to leave.”
“What do you want?”
“Are you deaf?”
“I mean if I stay—” her pulse thrummed “—where do we go from here?”
“Anywhere you want.”
What JoJo wanted was a more definite idea of how he saw their future together. What she said was, “You mean you’d leave the ranch?” She couldn’t help teasing him just a bit.
“JoJo, you know my plans for the place.” He glanced at her, brow furrowing. “Surely, you can’t be asking me to go back to Las Vegas.”
“I think you should.”
“Does it mean that much to you?” he asked, clearly torn between pleasing her and his own demons.
“I don’t mean permanently,” JoJo assured him. “A visit. To heal the breach between you and your father. You both wanted to. I could tell.”
Silent, Lucky seemed to be thinking about it.
And JoJo thought about his heroic rescue of her the day before. She’d been so relieved to find him unhurt but for some cuts and bruises…and his limp was a bit more pronounced than normal. Truth to tell, she was having trouble moving normally herself. But they were both well-off compared to Rocky. Two broken legs, a broken arm and shoulder, several broken ribs and some internal damage.
“You were right about my running away from the situation,” Lucky finally admitted. “You’ve been right about a lot of things.”
“And don’t forget it,” she warned him smartly. “How did you feel when you saw Sally?”
“Mixed. Part of me wanted to punch him out. Part of me wanted to throw my arms around him.”
“But you didn’t do either.”
“Sometimes I have problems expressing how I feel.”
“Really?” she asked in an exaggerated tone.
Though he’d had no problem convincing JoJo he loved her. Now, what to do about it. She didn’t care if she never returned to Las Vegas—at least not permanently.
“If I stay,” she said, “I want to be partners with you in every sense of the word.”
“Are you saying you’ll marry me?”
“You haven’t asked.”
Lucky stomped on the brakes, making the Bronco buck. He cut the engine and threw open his door. Before she could react, he’d raced around to her side and was pulling her out of the passenger seat.
“I guess I have a hell of a time making myself clear,” Lucky said with the devilish grin she’d grown to love. “I wouldn’t have asked you to stay if I didn’t intend to make an honest woman of you.”
Heart soaring, JoJo feigned indignation. “Honest?”
“Don’t go getting your dander up. Will you marry me?”
What an unforgettable spot for a proposal! Blue sky, red rock, green juniper. What more could a woman ask for? A lot, JoJo thought, wondering how he was going to take her proposal.
She took a big breath. “And we’ll be partners, right?”
Lucky gazed at her suspiciously. “Define your terms.”
“The business. You have the land, but you need capital. I have money, and I need a good investment.”
“That’s sweet of you, JoJo, but a nest egg isn’t going to go far in the scheme of things.”
“What about an inheritance?”
“How big an inheritance?”
“I don’t quite know yet, but I’d guess it’d be substantial enough to get started on those plans of yours.” She bit the inside of her mouth waiting for his response.
“Oliver Phipps?” he asked.
She nodded.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Another man’s money—”
“Oliver wanted me to be happy. He’d be thrilled to know I found someone I really and truly loved.”
“A man has his pride.”
“Pride can make a man lonely.” She touched Lucky’s face. “Haven’t you been lonely long enough, Lucky? I have. The money doesn’t mean anything to me if I don’t have you.”
He caved in right before her eyes. “I really am a lucky devil. Partner.” And kissed her to seal the bargain.
Epilogue
“I thought this was supposed to be a family gathering,” Sasha griped as Lucky climbed on top of the new bucking chute.
“I told you my husband wanted to show off a little,” JoJo said, unable to hide her pride. “Now that things around here are on a roll.”
New guest quarters were in progress, and a new barn was up, as was
this corral for the Friday-night rodeos. Lucky had been teaching the wranglers a trick or two. So far, the family had watched some bareback-riding and calf-roping demonstrations. Lucky was going to give them the big finish.
“I’m hungry,” Sasha complained.
“My wife isn’t known for her patience,” Nick said, hugging Sasha’s growing body to him.
The honeymoon had been quite successful, JoJo thought, in that Nick and Sasha were expecting. She grinned at her best friend and received a warm, happy smile in return.
Wearing baggy pants and a fright wig, his face painted like a clown’s, Eli took his place in the center of the new corral with another of the similarly groomed wranglers. And a Brahma bull was released from a holding pen into the bucking chute.
“I think Lucky’s going to try to get himself killed,” announced Caroline, the voice of doom.
JoJo gave her a wicked look. “My husband is not suicidal.”
While she and Caroline shared no love for one another, they had come to terms. Peace reigned among all three Donatelli women, thank goodness. Caroline hadn’t even objected at Lucky’s plans for the ranch, not even when she learned JoJo was financing the expansion. JoJo also planned on using her show-business experience to produce and star in a Saturday-night show.
“Couldn’t prove it by me,” Sally grumbled, though he watched with interest as Lucky gingerly straddled the bull’s back. “Any man who purposely crosses a bull has a death wish.”
Remembering her own encounter with him, JoJo said, “Old Bushwhacker isn’t all that deadly.”
But the moment the chute opened, her heart was in her throat. Nearly two thousand pounds of angry bull did his best to unseat Lucky. His gloved hand wrapped in a flat, plaited rope, he hung on, his body moving with the bull. Bushwhacker dodged one way, then the other, bucking like crazy, after which he turned in a tight circle. All the while Eli and the other wranglercum-rodeo-clown danced around the livid animal, waiting for their chance at the action.
Time was up, and Lucky jumped off the bull’s back, somehow managing to stay on his feet. The breath caught in JoJo’s throat as Bushwhacker went after him, but the clowns created a diversion and drove the animal through another gate as Lucky hopped up on the split-rail fence and threw his legs over.
His grin devilish, he jumped down and asked, “So what do you think?”
The Donatellis all circled him.
“I think you’re insane!” Caroline said, protective as always.
Nick held out his hand for Lucky to shake. “Good show,” he said, pulling Lucky into his arms for a brotherly hug.
“I’m proud of you, son.”
Lucky and Sally stared at each other for a moment. And JoJo’s eyes filled with tears when the two men wrapped their arms around each other. Lucky drew back, pulled her to his side, his other arm still around his father. JoJo smiled up at Lucky, knowing he was finally free of the past.
eISBN 978-14592-7562-1
LUCKY DEVIL
Copyright© 1996 by Patricia Pinianski
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work In whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter Invented, Including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters In this book have no existence outside the Imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure Invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Printed In U.S.A.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Excerpt
Dear Reader
Dedication
Cast of Characters
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
Copyright
Lucky Devil Page 20
