Imperfect Magic (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 11)

by Patricia Watters

  Saying nothing more, Moretti turned and headed toward Jack and Grace Hansen's house, leaving Dimitri feeling as if he'd just had a fist shoved in his gut...

  She's the kind of woman who can take a man away from his dreams…

  That was the confusing part. He didn't have a tight handle on his dreams anymore. But he did have a life-altering decision to make, very soon.

  ***

  In the family room where they gathered—Jack and Grace sitting on the couch, Maddy in an overstuffed chair adjacent to her parents, and Mario Moretti standing across from them—Mario, having just given an update on the status of Jeremy, Billy, 3-year-old Amy, and little Willy, who'd just turned one, continued by saying, "In a couple of weeks the trial will start for a half-dozen dangerous criminal defendants charged with everything from extortion, money laundering and murder, to arms and narcotics dealing and conspiracy to commit murder. Billy's brother-in-law is a key cooperating witness for the prosecution. If his testimony is credible and the defense doesn't shred him on cross examination, a major crime boss will be convicted, along with everyone down his line of command, and Jeremy and his family will be free to return home. But if Billy's brother-in-law blows it with the jury, Billy will have to be brought in to bolster his testimony, which means, she and Jeremy will have to remain under protection indefinitely."

  "You can't mean that," Grace said in a frantic voice.

  "I'm afraid so," Mario replied. "Mob families have a penchant for revenge."

  Grace grabbed Jack's hand, while saying to Mario, "What is the chance of this happening?"

  "I'm not a handicapper, especially in criminal trials where the odds can change from minute to minute," Mario said. "Trouble is, the witness isn't the most likable kind of guy, and the jury might not believe him. If the prosecution team senses he's in trouble with the jury, then Billy's testimony would likely convince them he's telling the truth."

  Jack pulled his hand from Grace's and put his arm around her in reassurance, and said to Mario, "We'd still be able to stay in contact with Jeremy and his family, wouldn't we?"

  Mario nodded. "That won't change. I also brought a photo album and some letters from them to show the rest of the family when I'm done here, which I'm not." He flicked an index finger at Maddy, and said, while holding her captive with a pair of steel-gray eyes that never wavered, "You listen up this time so you'll understand why rules are set in place. You and your family were told to stay clear of Las Vegas, and not only did you thumb your nose at the rules, but you were part of a nightclub act. I know. I was there."

  Maddy stared at Mario, stunned. "Then you were following me?" she asked.

  Mario shook his head. "We've been keeping an eye on Sebastian and Dimitri Matthias. They're connected by marriage to your family, and you're working with Dimitri now, and we can't have you turning up in Las Vegas again without jeopardizing your sister-in-law. You didn't understand that the first time and I want to make damn sure you understand it now."

  "Is there a law against my going to Las Vegas?" Maddy asked, hoping it hadn't come across as a challenge. But she was all but certain she'd be accompanying Dimitri when he returned.

  "There's no law," Moretti said, "but I see you still don't get it. To give you a heads up about the inner workings of the mob in Sin City, nightclubs are prime targets for wiseguys because they're a cash business, easy for hiding assets. Someone owns a club, and one night a guy comes in and hangs around the bar and strikes up a conversation and he does it for a couple of nights in a row. About the third night, he takes the manager aside and suggests it might be smart to take out insurance against patrons getting out of hand and damaging the place, and the manager says he's doing fine without it. A few nights later two new guys come in and get into an argument and start pounding on each other. Tables and chairs go flying, bottles get broken, and by the time they're done the place is trashed. After it's over, the original guy takes the manager aside again and brings up insurance. By now the manager knows he's dealing with the mob so he settles on a weekly fee for protection. And the mob has a new stream of cash flowing in."

  Maddy glanced at her parents, who were staring at her as if expecting her to state unequivocally that she would never go back to Las Vegas, which she couldn't do without lying, so to get around it, she said to Mario, "Dimitri's father is always cautious about where he works, if that's what you're implying."

  "Sebastian Matthias has the mob's respect in a twisted way," Mario said. "He makes a living by deceiving people so they leave him alone and enjoy the show. We know because we keep tabs on him because of his indirect connection with this family. But you can be sure the mob will be watching his son when he starts up. Get in a financial bind and a wiseguy's there to help. He'll appear to be a regular guy, a friend, and he'll make the offer graciously and ask nothing in return, at least not right away. One, maybe two years down the line he'll call in the favor. This time he's not so polite. He'll want payback that afternoon with interest compounding hourly. When the victim can't do it, the wiseguy settles for a piece of the business. If the victim refuses, he'll face the kind of wrath he couldn't imagine in his darkest nightmares. That's when he realizes he signed over his soul to the mob and it's a trap he'll never get out of."

  When Maddy still didn't answer because she was trying to digest it all, Mario said, "You want to start some kind of horse therapy program."

  "How did you know that?" Maddy asked.

  Mario eyed her with irritation, like he was reaching the limit of his patience with her, and said, "Every piece of correspondence between this family and your brother and sister-in-law goes through me. My point is, start your program in Nevada and you're likely to have a brothel for a neighbor. Under state law, any county with a population under 700,000 can license brothels."

  "I have property here for my horse program," Maddy said. "Why should I go to Las Vegas?"

  Mario again leveled those steely-gray eyes on her. "You know exactly why," he replied.

  "Maddy," Grace interjected, "Dad needs to know what's going on with you and Dimitri."

  Jack looked at Maddy in alarm. "What's your mother talking about?"

  "Nothing!" Looking askance at her mother, Maddy said, "Really, Mom, I told you things were undecided."

  "What's undecided?" Jack asked.

  Maddy drew in a long, ragged breath to settled the heavy thumping of her heart, and said, "I don't want to talk about it here, now."

  "I want one answer from you," Jack said.

  "Okay, I like Dimitri. We work well together."

  "Honey," Grace said, "You were talking about marrying him. I hope by now that's out of the question. You absolutely cannot return to Las Vegas under any circumstances."

  "And I can't let everyone around here make all my decisions for me." Maddy rushed out of the house and headed for Dimitri's cabin, only to stop short when she saw Sebastian Matthias's black bus in the parking lot in front of the winery, and Dimitri standing and talking to him.

  Not wanting to return to the house and face her parents and Mario Moretti, and uncertain about what was transpiring with Dimitri and his father, she turned toward the place where she'd gone in the past to speak to the one person on the ranch whose advice and wisdom she respected. She also noticed that Howard's truck was gone, so her grandmother would be alone.

  As she stepped onto the porch, her grandmother glanced out the window and smiled on seeing Maddy, and a few moments later, the front door opened, and the smile faded.

  "Honey, is something wrong?" Grandma asked.

  Maddy found her eyes tearing unexpectedly, and she knew if she talked, her words would be filled with sobs, so she nodded and walked inside.

  "Come here." In an instant, Grandma's arms were around Maddy, and she was stroking her head the way she had when Maddy was a little girl and was upset, and had come to the one place where she'd be heard, not judged.

  After a few moments Grandma took Maddy's hand and pulled her over to sit on the couch, and sat beside
her, and said, "Whatever's troubling you, I'm here to listen."

  Maddy sucked in several breaths to settle her nerves, then swiped a finger beneath each teary eye, and said, "Remember a few years back when you told me that when you find the right person you'll be willing to do anything and go anywhere to be with him?"

  Grandma nodded. "So now you've found him, but you're very upset, so I have to believe something's preventing you from being with him."

  "It's Dimitri," Maddy said. "He's everything I want, and he wants me to return to Las Vegas and be his assistant, and we've been talking about getting married, but I can't go to Las Vegas with him because of Jeremy and Billy, and there's nothing for Dimitri here."

  "Except you," Grandma pointed out.

  "Dimitri's an illusionist, a magician. He can't make a living here," Maddy replied. "He has to be in Las Vegas."

  "What I told you also applies to him," Grandma said. "If he truly loves you he'll be willing do whatever it takes to be with you, and if he's not willing to do that, he's not the right man, and there's still someone out there for you. Maybe you just need more time. Maybe the answer is for Dimitri to return to Las Vegas without you and come to the realization that what he thought was important there no longer exists because what's truly important is the exceptional young woman who's looking at me now."

  "You're just saying that because I'm your granddaughter, but Dimitri's ready to get married, and if he leaves without me he'll find someone else," Maddy said. "I might find someone else too, but it would never be right because there's no one like Dimitri. He's unique in every way. He's like the sunshine in my day. I wake up and think about him and my whole world brightens, and when I'm with him there's no place I want to be except wherever he is."

  "If it's right he'll feel the same way," Grandma said, "so give him some time. If you're his one true love, he'll find a way to make it work."

  "The only way he could make it work is to give up his dreams, and if he did that he'd be miserable," Maddy said.

  "But if he loves you, he'll be more miserable if he gives you up. Jeremy's dream was making the Nation Finals Rodeo and he was almost there, but then a woman came along who was more important to him than his dream and he gave up everything, even the family he loved, because he loved Billy more. That's the kind of love you wait a lifetime to have. That's the kind that will never falter. With some people it takes longer to come to that realization, although when it's right you know from the start. I did with Grandpa Adam. I would have gone to the ends of the earth with him three weeks after we met because I was so sure. With Howard, we know our true loves are waiting for us up on that hill. I love Howard too, but in a different way. We're devoted friends and secondary lovers, but I would not have gone to the ends of the earth for him, and he feels the same about me. We laugh about it, but that's the way true love works."

  Maddy knew exactly what Grandma was saying. She also knew the length to which Jeremy went to be with Billy and that Billy never asked him to give up his dream for her. It was something Jeremy felt driven to do. But she couldn't imagine Dimitri turning his back on what he'd worked all his life to achieve, just to be with her on a ranch. That wasn't logical thinking, and it wasn't fair to him.

  Grandma reached out and patted Maddy's hand and said, "Honey, give Dimitri the time and distance to test his love for you. If he cuts off the relationship, then you never really had him, but if you put pressure on him to follow a different dream, he would always be restless."

  Maddy knew Grandma was right, but she still couldn't set aside other options that had been turning over in her head from the moment Mario Moretti impressed on her that she could not return to Las Vegas. She could legally change her name then marry Dimitri, and when she'd arrive in Las Vegas she wouldn't be Maddy Hansen, the sister of Jeremy Hansen who was in witness protection, she'd be just a woman Dimitri married. Or they could marry and move somewhere else, maybe to Atlantic City, which was a mecca for nightclubs and casinos, and Dimitri could build a name there, and she could start Helping Hooves there as well.

  But the bottom line was, how far would Dimitri go to be with her?

  ***

  Dimitri eyed his father with uncertainty. He'd barely gotten over the reality that Maddy could never go to Las Vegas, when his father arrived and dangled something in front of him that would be hard to refuse. "I just want to make sure I understand exactly what you're offering me," he said to his dad. "You're saying that I'd take over the remaining three months of your contract at the Nine Lives, and they'd let me build my own show, any way I want."

  Sebastian nodded. "They were impressed with you during your week there, and in addition to your usual routines, they'd be open to new illusions. You've been anxious to develop your invisible man illusion. I'm giving you the chance to introduce it in Las Vegas, in a top club, and if they give you a contract when mine runs out, there would be no end in sight as to how far you could go. The sky's the limit."

  Still a little stunned by his father's announcement that he was ready to give up his long-running show for acting in a TV series, Dimitri said, "You've never once talked about getting into acting. What brought this on?"

  There was a slight hesitation before his father replied, "Lana. You don't know her. She's a producer and she's been after me for some time about doing a TV series that would incorporate an illusionist, and this past weekend she convinced me to give it a try."

  "What was different about this past weekend?" Dimitri asked.

  Sebastian gave Dimitri a kind of hangdog smile. "We had some time together. Actually the entire week. Lana drove up from San Francisco and…well, your mother's been gone four years, and I decided I liked having a woman in my life again. But since Lana can't give up her work in San Francisco, and she wants me to join her there and be part of a new TV series, I decided it was a perfect blend for me on many levels. You'd have the house and the shop all to yourself, and if things work out with Lana and me, I'd turn the house over to you."

  "This is a pretty drastic move, Dad, giving up your show and going into acting without any experience," Dimitri said.

  "I've been acting most of my life," Sebastian replied. "Throughout my career I've always included story in my illusions. I've already done a run-through of the character I'd be playing and Lana was impressed."

  "Then you'd be the lead in this TV series?" Dimitri asked.

  Sebastian shook his head. "I'd be a supporting character, a low-level CIA operative who's great at illusions, but not so good at following orders. But in addition to acting, I'd also be consulting and collaborating in the episodes. For me it's an opening into a new world, and it is for you too, to have your own show on the strip. I'm handing you your dream on a platter."

  When Dimitri didn't respond, because he was at a loss what to do about Maddy, his father said, "What's the problem? I'm offering what you've been working towards all your adult life. You seem undecided."

  Dimitri glanced over at Maddy's grandmother's house, where Maddy and her grandmother were standing on the porch talking. His father followed the direction of his gaze, and said, "Okay, I get it. You're involved with Maddy Hansen and you're operating on emotions, letting a woman take you away from your dreams."

  Dimitri gave a kind of ironic snort. "That's kind of like the pot calling the kettle black isn't it, Dad? You're walking away from your dreams for a woman."

  "I'm not walking away from anything. I'm making a career change," Sebastian said, in defense. "Right now I'm doing fifteen shows a week with no days off, and there are a string of upstarts close on my tail ready to take over, except I'm passing the scepter to you, and if you plan your career right and not let Maddy Hansen lead you away from your goal, in a few years you could have Las Vegas in the palm of your hand."

  His father was right, Dimitri silently conceded. This was exactly the start he needed, and he'd be under no obligation to make a horse disappear, and all the hassle that involved, although having a horse in itself was something he knew he'd enjoy, bu
t not while riding around the desert, unless Maddy was with him...

  "Lana could use your designs in the show, maybe even your invisible man," Sebastian said, during the stretch of silence while Dimitri was deliberating. "You've always been passionate about designing and building your own illusions. This would give you a chance to work them into a TV series for a nationwide audience, and you'd be listed in the credits as 'Dimitri Matthias, Master of Theatrical Magic,' which would help build your name for wherever you want to go with that. I already talked to Marissa and she has no problem working as your assistant. She's very good, she's familiar with your illusions, and I'd turn over my devices to you as well."

  Dimitri held his father's unwavering gaze. It seemed every stepping stone had been laid out for him in a path that would take him where he'd always dreamed of going, except that the path was leading away from Maddy, unless he could take her with him…

  If one day her dismembered body turns up encased in concrete, you'd have to ask yourself if that would have happened if she'd remained on this ranch…

  Which was no longer an option.

  "Well?" his father asked.

  After another long pause, Dimitri shrugged his resolve, and said, "Okay, I'll take over your contract."

  Sebastian patted him on the back. "Good. I'm glad you finally came to your senses. So, I'll expect to see you in Las Vegas next week."

  And Dimitri knew his stay on the Dancing Moon Ranch was over, except for one thing…

  If you don't make a clean cut, she'll follow you there…

  The man was right. The break had to be final.

  CHAPTER 19

  While seated on a couch in the lodge, Maddy glanced out the window to see Sebastian's big black bus pulling out of the winery parking lot. The meeting with Mario Moretti and her parents had broken up shortly after she walked out, then resumed in the lodge with the rest of the family. She hadn't wanted to talk to her parents yet, and the distraction of Mario bringing a photo album and letters from Jeremy and Billy was welcome because the attention was turned away from her and Dimitri, at least for the moment.