Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,42

think you are.”

“I hope you’re right. It hasn’t been a long time, but if I lose her, it will be like having an arm torn off, you know?”

“I do know. That’s how I feel about Sari.”

“She’s a winner.”

He smiled. “I agree. Hey, if you’re not better Saturday, you can bring Bernie over for lunch Sunday, you’ll be welcome. You can take her walking around the property, maybe even catch that movie you went to see at the drive-in. It wasn’t a new one, because it’s on pay-per-view now.”

“That sounds nice,” Mikey replied. “I hope this stupid headache goes away before then,” he added. “They usually last two or three days.”

“I remember. You take your meds. Maybe they’ll cut this one short.”

“I hope so. Thanks for the cousinly visit,” he added. “Anything more from Carrera?”

Paul shook his head. “He’s got Tony in a safe place, he says, and not to worry.”

“I’m in a safer place,” Mikey chuckled. “Little bitty town in the middle of nowhere, with half the retired mercs in the country. Lucky me.”

Paul grinned. “I’ll second that. Ask Bernie over Sunday.”

“I will. Thanks.”

“No problem. See you later.”

“Yeah.”

* * *

Bernie was delighted with the invitation. It did take Mikey a few days to get over the headache, but he was fine Sunday afternoon. “Are you sure they don’t mind?” she asked.

“They wouldn’t invite you if they minded, honey,” he told her as they sped toward Paul and Sari’s house. “You warm enough?”

“I’m fine,” she said, huddling down in her warm berber coat. “It’s chilly tonight.”

“Imagine that, chilly in south Texas,” he teased. “Now if you want to see chilly, you have to come to Jersey. We know about cold weather.”

“I guess you get a lot of snow.”

“We used to get more, when Paulie and I were kids. We had some great snowball battles in the neighborhood. These older boys would lie in wait for us and pelt us with frozen snowballs every chance they got. So Paulie and I got some ice cubes and put them inside our snowballs. Ouch! The bullies ran for their lives.”

She laughed. “I’ll bet they did.”

“Our grandmother was so fierce that they were more afraid of her than even the big boss in the neighborhood,” he recalled with a smile. “I told you about her hitting him with a salami. Chased him all the way out the front door with it, and his people didn’t dare laugh. It taught him a whole new respect for women.”

She laughed softly. “I wish I could have met your grandmother.”

“Me, too, honey. She’d have loved you.” His hand reached for hers and held it tight. “She had no time for modern women with modern ideas.”

She sighed. “Me, neither. I’m a throwback to another generation, I guess. My dad pretty much raised me after we came back here.” Her heart felt like lead in her chest. She hated remembering why they’d come to Jacobsville.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensitive to her mood.

She grimaced. “Things I can’t talk about. Bad things.”

“Honey, I could write you a book on bad things,” he commented. He drew in a breath. “One of these days we have to have a long talk about my past, and it isn’t going to be nice.”

“It won’t matter,” she said quietly. “The person you were isn’t the man you are today.”

“That’s not as true as I wish it was,” he replied.

“I can’t believe you’d do anything terrible.”

But he had. Really terrible things. They hadn’t bothered him much until now. This sweet, kind woman beside him didn’t have any idea about what sort of evil lived in his real world, the world she’d never seen.

“Listen, you read books?” he asked.

“Oh, yes. It’s how I get through bad nights, when the pain overpowers the medicines I take for it.”

“There’s this book—I’ll give you the title. It’s about a man who paints houses.”

“A painter?” she asked.

His fingers contracted. “It’s a different sort of painting. If you read the book, you’ll begin to get some idea of the sort of world I live in.” His face tautened. “It’s a hard life. Dog eat dog, and I mean that literally. The man I work for is hiding out from a man even worse than he is. What I know, what I’ve seen, can clear him. The feds just have to keep me alive long enough until the trial comes up.” He turned and glanced at her. “It’s a business. Like regular business, in a way. It’s just that somebody wants what you have and thinks