Jose blinked. “Mom told me not to let anything happen. That it would cause a ruckus.”
Maria grinned. “She was a smart woman.”
“What if she was wrong?” He touched her face.
“She wasn’t. You belong in New York. I’ll never leave Precious. And right now I hate Matt, but what I felt for him…That was what love is supposed to feel like.”
He cupped her chin in his hand. “I hate that bastard. If he doesn’t treat you right, I’ll rip out his heart.”
“It’s over between us,” she assured him.
“Have you two talked?”
She shook her head. “No! And I don’t plan on it.”
Speak of the devil, a knock sounded at the door. Maria’s insides started shaking, and she eyed the living room. Grabbing Jose by the arm she begged, “Answer it, please. If it’s Matt, make him leave.”
Jose walked out. Maria turned back to the stove and refused to listen, afraid that she’d be tempted by his voice if it was Matt. She was afraid she’d be tempted to tell him she didn’t care that he’d lied to her, didn’t care that he was married, because she’d loved him with all her heart and probably always would.
In spite of not listening, she heard the front door close. When Jose moved back into the kitchen she asked, “Was it Matt?”
“Yes.” The voice wasn’t as deep as Jose’s, and it sounded too damn much like the man she loved. Closing her eyes, Maria sent up a prayer that she was wrong—a prayer to God, the Virgin Mary, to every saint she could remember, and just in case, she also added all the spirits Redfoot believed in. There was no reason not to cover all her bases.
“Look,” Matt said, making her prayer futile. “If you’re going to hit me, let’s get it over with, because we need to talk.”
Redfoot walked up to Ramon Cloud’s porch, his heart heavy and whiskey on his breath. Before he’d left the Funky Chicken, he’d doused himself with his last drink, hoping that too would help. Ramon’s zero tolerance for drunks was a little-known fact. Redfoot figured there was a reason for that, and the obvious suspect was the young man’s late father.
Reaching up, he banged on the door. This felt morally wrong, but he had gotten Veronica into this quandary, and he would get her out.
Ramon opened the door, and his gaze was filled with contempt—the contempt of a son who thought no man was good enough for his mother. Redfoot respected that.
“You said for me to come and…we’d go to the council.” Redfoot drew his words out. “And I’m here.” Purposely leaning close, he hoped the smell of whiskey on him was overpowering. Ramon stepped back.
“You damn well know the council has gone home for the day!”
Redfoot gaped at his watch. “Damn. Guess I lost track of the time.”
“We’ll go tomorrow.”
“Sounds like a good plan.” When Ramon tried to shut the door, Redfoot put his hand against it. “You know, at first I was mad. No way was I going to marry your skinnyassed mom!”
Ramon seethed. “Go home before I do something I’ll regret.”
“But you’re not listening,” Redfoot argued. “I’ve changed my mind. While I was at the Funky Chicken, it occurred to me. She put up with your daddy’s ass for a quarter of a century, she can put up with mine for a while. I’m not much worse than your old man.”
“You bastard!” Ramon stormed outside and threw him against the house.
“I’m not a bastard,” Redfoot managed to say. And that was the truth, though the truth would end there. He forced himself to continue. “Yeah, it was probably wrong, all that crap I told her about how I cared, but you know how women are. They don’t give it up until you make ’em believe it.”
Ramon drew back his fist. Redfoot prepared himself for the blow, but the man dropped his arm and shoved him away instead. “Get the hell out of here. And stay the fuck away from my mother. You got that? Because I swear to God, old man, if you come anywhere near her, I’ll beat the life out of you. She put up with one asshole; she’ll not put up with two.”
“What about g-g-going to the council?” Redfoot slurred.
“Not happening.” Ramon stormed back inside the house and slammed the door.
As Redfoot walked away, adding a sway to his step just in case Ramon watched from the window, he muttered, “I fixed it.” Veronica should be happy now. It didn’t matter that he himself had never been more miserable.
“I’m not married.”
Matt’s words bounced around the yellow kitchen and had Maria catching her breath. She picked up the garlic powder and gave the rice mixture another good dousing before turning.
“Can I sit down?” He motioned toward the table. She nodded, and he dropped into a chair. “I was married. We’re divorced. And before you say anything, I know I should have told you.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, puzzled. “But you’re still seeing your ex-wife.”
“No. Not like you think.”
“You called her when you thought you were arrested.”
“Only because I couldn’t get my ex-father-in-law. He’s a lawyer and a nice guy. I thought I’d need him to get me out of jail.”
Maria considered. “She lives in Dallas?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“So all those weekends away, you weren’t seeing her.” She was feeling pretty dubious.
“I was, but—”
“Leave!” She pointed to the door.
Matt pulled something out of his shirt pocket and slid it across the table to her. “This is why I saw her.”
Maria’s gaze shifted. Unable to stop herself, she moved closer and stared at a photograph, at the precious face of a little girl who looked to be about three. She had big green eyes and sandy hair. Without a doubt, the child was Matt’s.
“Brenda, my ex…We met in college. I was crazy about her, but she had a thing about this other guy. I became the person she cried on when the jerk did her wrong. And he did her wrong a lot. He left and ran off to Europe. One night she came over and we got drunk and she got pregnant. I convinced her to marry me, and I thought life was great.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Great until about six weeks after we got hitched and the asshole came back. To make a long story short, we got a divorce and she married the other guy. All this happened before Brandy was born.”
Maria heard the pain in his voice. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“At first I thought I could just walk away, but I took one look at that girl and that’s the day I knew what real love is. There’s nothing like seeing your own child look up at you.”
Maria swallowed the lump in her throat. She was seeing a new side of Matt. No, that wasn’t right. She’d seen this all along. He had goodness in him, the kind of goodness that would make him a perfect family man. He was loyal, dependable, kind.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
“At first it was to protect Brandy.”
“Protect her—from me?”
“Yes…I mean, no. Not just you. I didn’t want to bring people into her life and then have them walk away. Brenda and the asshole got a divorce. I saw how it hurt Brandy, and I didn’t want…” He leaned across the table. “I was going to tell you before things got serious. But it got serious so quick. Then one night you mentioned how glad you were that neither of us had been married. You said it brought a bunch of extra baggage into the relationship. I panicked. I convinced myself that if I let you fall in love with me, you’d understand.”
Maria stood frozen, trying to understand her emotions. Matt hadn’t been cheating on her. He loved her. Why wasn’t her heart rejoicing?
He pressed his hand down on the table. “I was waiting until the right time, but the time never seemed right.” He stood and walked to her on the other side of the table. “The idea of losing you was too much. But I was going to take you to meet Brandy next weekend. Remember I asked if you’d go away with me? I had this whole speech prepared about how I wanted you to marry me and I wanted us to have
kids—to give Brandy a sister or a brother.”
The lump in Maria’s throat grew larger, and everything became clear. She recalled the gynecologist’s words. You lost one of your fallopian tubes. I also found some endometriosis. This could mean that you could have a very difficult time conceiving.
Matt pulled her into his arms. She inhaled his scent at the same time she accepted the truth: he wanted something she couldn’t give. In a crazy way, this was the same situation as with her and Jose—and a mistake. Her love for Matt was real, and deep down she knew him well enough to know he would say it was okay, her being unable to conceive, but would it? His words echoed in her heart. And that’s the day I knew what real love was. She was going to miss out on that kind of love, and she would never wish that pain on Matt. He wanted more children, and a man like him should have them.
Pulling away, she met his eyes. “I’m sorry. Just go.”
“Damn it. I know I was wrong for not telling you, but—”
“That’s how I know this won’t work.” It wasn’t the truth, but she knew Matt would want a reason.
“You still love Jose?” he asked.
She wouldn’t lie about that. “No, but you obviously don’t trust me enough to be honest. And any relationship that doesn’t have trust isn’t worth pursuing.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
A week passed, and Shala lost herself in getting Precious whipped into shape. She’d met with just about everyone who belonged to the Chamber or who could help make the town the next big vacation spot in Texas. She’d offered recommendations, given her gotta-fix list to the mayor—heck, even her meeting down at the Funky Chicken had gone well, although she’d agreed to dance with Bo again if he did all the things on her list.
After reviewing all her images, she’d decided she didn’t need any others, with the exception of the powwow, which was still against the rules. Tomorrow, however, was the big day. Tomorrow was the tribal-council meeting.
Not that she was too worried. She had no time to worry. She remained focused on the work. Well, she was focused on work when she wasn’t focused on having curl-your-toes-up, headboard-banging sex with the chief of police. Or shower sex. A smile played over her face as she recalled the steamy scene from that morning. Who knew sex could be so much fun?
Maria walked into the bedroom that Shala and Sky were occupying at Lucas’s. She held a box in her hands. “I got the pictures. Now tell me what they are for.”
“Fantastic.” Shala had asked Maria to see if the wives of the men on the tribal council might loan her some vacation photos.
When Maria and Shala had met about building the art community last week, and about possibly opening an art studio, they’d clicked like lost sisters. Maria had even discussed Matt, though Shala got the feeling she hadn’t revealed the whole story. Not that Shala could blame her. She hadn’t been forthcoming about Sky and herself, either. Maybe her feelings weren’t as crazy and mixed up as she felt, but they certainly seemed so.
“So, what are they for?” Maria asked.
Shala glanced at the box. “They’re for my presentation.”
Maria looked puzzled. “What would pictures of the council’s family vacations…Wait! I get it. This is your way of convincing them to let visitors take pictures, isn’t it? You’re good.”
“Of course, she’s good.” Sky walked in and, pressing a knee on the mattress, leaned down to kiss Shala. A real kiss, too. He’d been doing that more lately. For a while he’d seemed the type who didn’t go in for public displays of affection, but that had changed. Everything had changed. Except the sex. It was still toe-curlingly wonderful.
Oh, the other thing that hadn’t changed was the investigation. So far, nothing had turned up. And the more time that passed, the more it seemed that Charlie Rainmaker was behind things. Apparently he and whomever he’d hired to do his dirty work had suffered a falling-out. With Charlie killed by him, the unidentified man had surely left town. There was no one to threaten her and no one to pay her assailant, which basically meant that Shala was no longer in danger. She could head back to Houston.
When she’d mentioned it to Sky, however, he’d hit the roof. For a minute there, she’d thought he was going to threaten to arrest her again. Shala wondered if he just didn’t want her to leave. She didn’t want to leave, either, but sooner or later they had to deal with the fact that they lived hundreds of miles apart. They needed to talk about how they intended to deal with a long-distance relationship, or better yet, needed to figure out exactly what kind of relationship they had.
Where her own emotions were concerned, she’d already done the figuring. If she wasn’t perfectly in love with Sky, she stood on the verge. But in a relationship, one-sided figuring didn’t work. It took two people wanting the same end for things to add up. Odd as it seemed, Sky never mentioned his feelings. Call her insecure, but she at least wanted a hint that she wasn’t alone before she declared any love.
She looked at her watch. “You’re early.”
“Phillip and the others left, and I figured what the hell. I closed shop early. Just felt like taking another shower and calling it a day.” His eyes twinkled with implication, and Shala blushed as she saw Maria smile.
Pulling away from the bed, Sky faced Maria. “How’s the crew at your place?”
“The same,” his sister said. “It’s as if someone sucked the joy right out of the house. Redfoot just mopes around. Yesterday, he didn’t even change out of his pajamas. Jose spends all his time on his laptop. If he has to work so much, why doesn’t he just go back to New York?”
“Give them time, they’ll work it out,” Sky said.
Sky and Maria had each told Shala about the situation. Little did they know, she was secretly jealous of their family, even with the drama. Yesterday she’d called her brother, hoping to find some of the warmth from him that she felt between Sky and Redfoot’s crew. Only it didn’t happen. Her brother had given her two minutes before he had to run. She hadn’t even begun to tell him about the danger she’d faced. Oh, she knew he loved her, but his life was too full for him to be concerned about her right now.
“I’m trying to give them time,” Maria continued. “But I can’t stand the dark cloud hanging over the house. Which is part of the reason I’m here. I thought after the council meeting tomorrow everyone could come over for dinner. Maybe company will pep things up.”
Sky and Maria both eyed Shala. “Is that okay?” they asked at the same time.
Shala’s heart swelled. They planned to include her in a family get-together! “Sounds great,” she said with a smile. “The last time I visited Redfoot’s, it was rather exciting.”
“Don’t worry.” Maria laughed. “I’ll make sure Jose is wearing clothes this time.”
“So will I,” Sky growled.
“I’d like some proof, is what I’d like,” Sky practically yelled at Phillip the next morning. “Charlie lived here all his life. Where would he have reached out to hire this guy? And how the hell was he planning on paying him?”
His friend shrugged. “Look, I know this is personal for you, but we’ve done everything we can. Until some forensic evidence comes in—”
“We’ve got a murder, three attempted murders, and you’re just walking away?” Worse, once Shala heard the rangers were gone, she’d be right on their coattails.
“The case has gone cold,” Phillip said. “We got six people telling us Charlie practically admitted to having Shala scared out of town. Now Charlie’s dead and we have nothing else to look at, zilch to go on. If we get something back from forensics, we’ll pick it up then.”
“I got something,” boomed a voice from the doorway.
Sky turned to find Lucas. Phillip did, too. Although Sky had invited his reclusive friend many times to their poker parties, Lucas had always declined. Last week, the two men had met briefly for the first time. As a matter of fact, Sky was pretty sure that Lucas had met more people in the last few weeks than in the last five years. Surpr
isingly, Lucas hadn’t seemed to mind.
The seriousness in the man’s expression caught Sky’s attention. “Where’s Shala?” Had she already left town?
“She’s here.” Lucas motioned down the hall and slapped a manila envelope against his palm. “But I got something.”
“What?” Phillip asked.
“Possibly your killer.” Lucas focused on Sky. “I told you, I sent a few pictures to a friend. They did a facerecognition search and got a hit.”
“We sent one in,” Phillip said, looking confused. “But they’re backlogged for months.” He shook his head. “Who do you know that does that, anyway?” Phillip asked.
Respecting his friend’s wishes, Sky hadn’t told Phillip about Lucas’s government ties.
Lucas shrugged. “A friend of a friend.”
“A friend of whose friend?” Phillip insisted, obviously annoyed that Lucas had come through when his own boys were still chasing their tails.
“Doesn’t matter,” Sky interrupted. “What do you have?”
“It matters,” Phillip interrupted. “I can’t use—”
“Then don’t use it,” Lucas said, his tone dry.
“Damn it, Phillip,” Sky said. “This isn’t a big-dick contest. He’s helping. Whatever information he gives us, I’ll bet my life we can back it up as soon your guys get you their results.”
Lucas handed Sky the envelope. “His name is Bradley Conners. He’s got an arrest record longer than a PMSing woman’s complaint list. Got out of the joint six months ago. Was in for nearly killing a guy in a bar. It was thought to be a hired hit, but that couldn’t be proven. He got seven years, only served three.” Sky pulled out the papers and began looking through them while Lucas continued. “Guess who Mr. Conners shared a cell with for a few months in Huntsville?”
“Who?” Phillip asked, now more curious than pissed.
“Rainmaker’s brother,” Lucas said.
Shut Up and Kiss Me Page 27
