Rian was smart enough to stay behind.
* * *
KANE SAW COCO run down the stairs and exit through the front door, tears streaking her face, and he knew Rian must’ve delivered the news. He set his coffee cup down and caught Laci’s confused stare but before he could explain, Rian bounded down the stairs to glare at him as he said, “It’s done. Happy?” and then chased after CoCo, though in his opinion he should’ve let the girl walk off some steam. He returned to his coffee but Laci had put two and two together.
“What’d you do?” she asked, annoyed. “I have a feeling your hands are all over this one. Fess up. What’d you make that boy do?”
“He’s not a boy, he’s a man, and if he’d thought like a man, he wouldn’t have put himself in this position.”
“Answer me.” Laci propped her hands on her hips. “Please tell me you did not meddle in their relationship.”
“That’s exactly the problem. There shouldn’t have been a relationship. She’s a client. We have a hands-off policy and you know it. Without it, where’s the integrity? Trust me, it’s better this way. Less mess.”
“Sometimes life’s messy,” she said, slapping her oven mitt down. “And you of all people should know that. And while I understand that you have to do things to protect your reputation, if you can’t see that your brother is in love with that woman, you’re blind as a bat.”
He scoffed. “In love? Not hardly. I know you’re a romantic at heart and you like to play matchmaker but Rian’s a player, not a guy comfortable with a commitment. I’m doing that poor girl a favor.”
“Kane Dalton, that’s not your job to judge. Shame on you for being a meddling fool in business that’s none of your concern. You’re right, Rian is an adult, so you better let him make his own choices instead of bullying him into making choices that you think are right for him. He loves her. And you just made him break up with her. Sort of like when my daddy made you break up with me. How’d that make you feel?”
Damn the woman had a sharp tongue but a sharper mind. Was he making the same mistake? But Rian had known better! “Rian knew not to mess with a client,” he said stubbornly. “This is on him, not me.”
“Has Rian ever broken that rule before?” she asked, crossing her arms and glaring.
“No,” he had to admit.
“Then what makes you think he would lightly trip over something so big? He didn’t mean to fall in love, you big dolt. No one does. That’s the beauty of it. I spent a good portion of my time last night after dinner convincing that poor girl to take a chance and then you sent Rian to crush her heart, making me out to be a liar!”
Aw, hell. How was he supposed to know what the women were laughing and carrying on about in the kitchen after dinner? The tips of his ears burned but his stubborn tongue refused to admit he’d stepped over the line. Not that he had to. Laci was burning a hole in his head with that blazing fury directed straight at him. “This is just the way it has to be—”
“Bullshit. Don’t you go selling me a bag of goods when you know full well you screwed up and put your nose where it didn’t belong. I can’t believe you, Kane. Your brother is a good man and you need to trust that he can handle himself. And for the record, I like her. I like her a lot. She’s spunky and courageous and she isn’t put off by that Dalton obstinate streak that’ll likely be the death of you both!”
Laci scooped up her oven mitt and marched back to the kitchen, leaving him slack-jawed at the verbal ass-chewing she’d just given him. How am I the bad guy in this? He thought of Rian and how up to this point he’d never so much as crossed a toe over the line in spite of being a consummate player, always keeping things professional in spite of the aggressive women that sometimes waved their tails beneath his nose, and he realized he might’ve overreacted to the situation.
He took the last swallow of coffee in his mug and prepared to make amends, if only to get back in the good graces of his wife, but as he walked to the screen door and stepped out on the porch everything seemed to move in slow motion as shots rang out and CoCo, emerging from the barn, crumpled to the ground, and Rian dived to cover her fallen body with his own.
“Stay back!” he said to Laci when she came running. “Go to the bedroom and lock the door!”
Laci didn’t waste time arguing and fled up the stairs. He reached into the armoire by the door and pulled his gun. Who the hell was out there? And how did they find the ranch?
* * *
“WHAT THE HELL have you done?” Rian screamed, holding pressure against CoCo’s stomach where a fountain of blood was spilling onto the dust. He looked at the stranger walking toward him, the man’s gun pointed straight at him, but he didn’t care about dying. He’d let CoCo down. He’d brought her all the way to Kentucky and she’d been shot anyway!
Tears blinded him but he had to keep pressure on the wound. “Who are you? Why have you done this? What’d she ever do to you?” He was babbling, losing his cool and his training, but he’d never held the woman of his dreams dying in his arms before and he lost all sense of objectivity. He was at a disadvantage. He could only hope that Kane could get to him before the man blew his head off, too.
“The entire Abelli line deserves to die for being the thieving liars they all are,” the man said with a thick Italian accent. “Her father stole my father’s work and passed it off as his own. Then pushed my father out of the company without so much as a penny for his vision. We lived in poverty while Enzo’s star rose. Enzo Abelli is a thief and a crook. His blood will run with his daughter’s but first, he must know loss.” He cocked the gun and leveled it at Rian with a dispassionate stare. “Goodbye, Mr. Dalton.”
A second shot rang out but when Rian expected to feel the rip of a bullet tearing through his flesh, the Italian dropped to the ground in a heap. Rian whipped his gaze around, shocked to see Warren with his smoking shotgun.
“Son of a bitch comes onto my land and starts shooting up the people I love? Not happening on my watch! Adeline, call 911, the girl’s been hit.”
Rian sagged with relief at not being dead but the feeling was short-lived as CoCo was still leaking like a sieve and growing paler by the minute. Good God, she was going to die in his arms. He saw Kane run out and do a quick perimeter search to make sure the Italian had been working alone.
Kane jogged over to Rian, concern in his eyes. “She’s going to make it, buddy,” he promised, though his eyes told another story.
Tears blinded Rian as he tried to keep CoCo from bleeding out, but there was so much blood. A gut shot... It was usually a game ender. “I don’t know where he came from. He just popped out of his car and shot her. I wasn’t paying attention. It’s my fault. It’s my fault!”
“Stop it!” Kane said sternly, getting his attention. “We don’t have details and in the absence of details we deal in facts. What we know is that he’s dead and he’s not going to hurt anyone else. Now we have to focus on CoCo.”
Rian jerked a nod and swallowed, getting a hold of himself. The sound of ambulance sirens splitting the air sent a wave of shaky relief through him. Kane waved the ambulance over and it stopped short of Rian and CoCo in a puff of dust as the sheriff deputies rolled in behind the ambulance. It was a three-ring circus but Rian only cared about CoCo.
Why’d he let her go off by herself into the barn? Why’d he go and do something as stupid as saying he wanted to end things? If he’d just kept his mouth shut, they would’ve been in the bedroom still, and maybe they would’ve seen the strange Italian pull up and they could’ve stopped him. Too many questions without answers. He climbed into the ambulance with CoCo, refusing to leave her. He didn’t care who the man was at the moment. He just wanted to make sure CoCo was going to be okay. They’d find the answers to everything else later.
Fight, baby. Fight.
23
COCO HAD NEVER truly b
elieved in miracles until she’d somehow woken in a hospital, bandaged and alive after a twelve-hour surgery to put her guts back together. She wasn’t dead and that in itself, according to her doctor, was a damn miracle.
Being shot in the stomach was pretty much going to kill most people, unless the bullet somehow, by the grace of God, missed every vital organ and only nicked her liver on its way out. Yeah, talk about miracles.
Pain bloomed in her body as she tried shifting in bed, nearly blacking out from the intensity of the agony. Okay, so surviving a gut shot wasn’t all ice cream and rainbows. The pain would be enough to make her scream if it weren’t for that lovely morphine drip that came whenever she pushed a button. Today was the first day she’d felt up to talking to anyone and everyone wanted a little time at her bedside.
She had so many questions but she wasn’t sure if she was up to the answers. Even though she’d been losing consciousness, she’d heard what that man had said. Her father? A crook? What did that mean?
Rian walked in and a weak smile found her lips. Her heart lightened at the sight of him even though it shouldn’t. But he’d thrown himself over her body and that meant something. She just didn’t know what it meant in the big scheme of things. Would he do that for any client? Or was he prepared to die with her?
“How are you feeling?” he asked, going to sit beside her, taking her hand into his. “Your color is better. You had us going for a while.”
“I like to keep people on their toes,” she said with a weak smile.
“You definitely did that.” His gaze roved her face and her heart nearly broke at the raw emotion she saw there. That was no act. Whatever he was feeling, it was real and she was relieved. “Your dad is anxious to see you. Are you feeling up to talking to him?”
“Who was that man?” she asked, confused. “I’d never seen him before in my life. He seemed so normal when he stepped out of the car. I thought he was a friend of Warren’s or something. But then he...took out a gun and just sh-sh-shot me. No hesitation whatsoever.”
As difficult as it was for her to get the words out, it seemed equally so for Rian to relive that moment. “His name was Barto Calvino and he was the son of a man who worked with your father before you were born. He was sick, and he knew he wasn’t going to make it much longer. So when he pulled the trigger, he had nothing to lose.”
“Why would he hate my father so much?” she asked, pained. “My father is the sweetest man on the planet.”
“I think that’s something you and your dad should talk about,” he said gently. “I’m going to let you get a few minutes with him. He’s been here since you went into surgery.”
She nodded, blinking back tears. She wanted to ask Rian to stay but after everything that had happened, she didn’t know where they stood. The last words between them were Rian breaking up with her. She didn’t want him to stay with her out of pity. She wanted him to stay because he wanted to be with her, even if they didn’t know how their worlds would mesh. She wanted him to not care about that stuff, to care only about her. Rian let himself out and her father, looking older than ever before, walked in, a wealth of worry and relief etched in his expression.
He took her hand and kissed it, patting it lovingly even as his eyes watered.
“Babbo,” she said, her eyes watering, as well. “I’m okay. Please don’t cry.”
“I’m so sorry for putting you in this position. It’s all my fault.”
She shook her head. “Don’t blame yourself, please.”
He shook his head resolutely before sitting heavily in the seat beside her bed. “No, I have something to tell you. It’s something I’m not proud of but it’s time you know my secret shame.”
CoCo frowned, scared of what possible secrets her father had been keeping, but she had to be mature enough to handle the information. Whatever it was, they’d handle it together. “Go ahead, Babbo... I’m listening.”
“Vincent and I were best friends. We shared a dream of creating fine shoes for upstanding gentleman. Vincent was the quiet one while I was the one who wasn’t afraid to talk. One day he sketched a design... It was brilliant. Even to my amateur eye, I knew it was something special. But I told him the opposite. I manipulated him into thinking it was trash. He discarded the idea, trusting me.” His voice wavered. “But I knew I had to get him out of the company or else it might happen again. We fought. I started a rumor that he had stolen from the company. Back then your honor and dignity were worth more than gold. You could get a loan simply based on your integrity. I made it so that no one would ever believe him if he tried to say that I had taken his idea. I sold my soul to the devil for the riches we have today and you nearly paid with your life for my greedy ambition. Can you forgive me?”
CoCo was stunned. There was no better word for it. Her silence caused her father to cry.
“You hate me, I understand. I am nothing. Vincent was the talent and I stole it. Barto wanted to make me pay for killing his father’s spirit. I deserve it. He should’ve aimed that bullet at me.”
“Stop, Babbo,” she said gently, hating that her father carried such guilt over something he’d done so many years ago. “What you did was wrong, but if Vincent was truly that talented, he would’ve been able to create new visions, new sketches. You are talented, too. You were ambitious. You had what it took to get ahead and create a name for yourself.”
“Don’t let me off the hook, sweetheart. I need to make amends.”
“Barto is dead. It doesn’t matter his reasons, what he did was worse than what you did. He took the coward’s way out.”
He nodded. “But I can’t blame him for his rage. He was trying to avenge his father.”
“This isn’t fifteenth-century Italy. You can’t go around shooting people because they screwed you out of a good idea,” she replied, her head beginning to throb. She closed her eyes briefly, needing a minute, then reopened them. “Babbo, it’s over. Let’s start fresh.”
“How?”
CoCo licked her lips, suddenly parched, and her father quickly handed her a cup of water. She took several swallows before gaining the courage to admit that she’d been sketching. “I want to join the family business. But,” she cut in when he started to babble happily, “I’m not designing men’s shoes. I want to design women’s shoes. I have a few designs I want to show you if you’re willing to bend a little in what you think the Abelli brand is all about.”
She expected a gentle but surefire no because that’s what her father had always done when she’d approached him about designing heels but this time he simply nodded. Maybe her brush with death had made him realize that he’d been hanging on to all the wrong things but CoCo wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“I would be honored to start over with you, my daughter. I’ve been stubbornly clinging to my own ways for too long. Perhaps it’s time for a woman’s touch.”
CoCo smiled, exhausted but happy. “Thank you, Babbo. I’m going to work hard not to disappoint you.”
Enzo ran a knuckle lightly across her cheek, his gaze filled with love. “You could never. It is I who will work to not disappoint you with my stubbornness.”
She would’ve laughed but she feared the pain and simply smiled. “I’ve recently had some experience with a stubborn man. I think I can handle you.”
He laughed but didn’t ask who she was referring to and she was grateful. She wasn’t sure what was happening between her and Rian and at the moment, she was too tired to figure it out.
* * *
THE CASE WAS OVER. There was really no reason to hang around anymore. CoCo’s father was here, the FBI were coordinating with the local sheriff to deal with the body of Barto Calvino and since Rian wasn’t in charge of the investigation, his part was finished.
But he couldn’t leave CoCo. Laci and Kane showed up in the waiting room and Laci folded
him into a hug. “So what’s the word?” she asked, concerned.
“I don’t know, her dad was in there with her. I wanted to give them some privacy,” he said, feeling lost and useless. He looked to Kane. “I’ll get the report filed—”
“Screw that. Don’t worry about the paperwork. Look, I’m so sorry about how this all went down,” Kane admitted, looking to Laci for reinforcements. She gave him an imperceptible nod and he continued, “I overstepped when I insisted that you break things off with CoCo. I should’ve realized that you’d never put the company in danger. The fact that you were willing to die for her tells me that she’s something special and I was too blind to see it. I’m sorry, man, for being such a dick.” Laci nudged him with her elbow. “And I’m glad your girl didn’t die.”
The old Rian would’ve balked at the implication that he’d fallen head over heels for a woman but he didn’t feel the least bit reluctant to admit it out loud. The reason he couldn’t bring himself to leave was because CoCo had ceased being just another client. Their fates had been sealed from day one even if neither had realized it. “I do love her,” he said simply, feeling a whoosh of relief wash over him. “I can’t explain it. But I love her and I’m not leaving this hospital until she leaves with me.”
Laci squealed and clapped her hands together. “Oh, Rian! I’m so happy for you! And I’m so happy for CoCo, too! Now, go in there and tell her how you feel. Quick! Before you lose your nerve and something gets in the way.”
Rian hesitated. Her dad was still in there. He didn’t want to interrupt. But as he started walking, he passed Enzo leaving CoCo’s room and the two paused before Rian thrust his hand out, his voice threatening to betray his nervousness. “Sir, I love your daughter. I didn’t mean to fall in love with her but I did and I understand if you don’t appreciate my feelings but I’m not going anywhere until she leaves this hospital with me. I hope you can understand that. I also hope that maybe someday you can forgive me for falling in love while on the job because it’s going to be awfully awkward around the dinner table during holidays if we’re not able to get along. Not to mention, I want our kids to know their grandfather.”
Sex, Lies and Designer Shoes Page 17
