Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,59
have to understand if we go forward together. So. What secrets are you keeping?” he added in a tender voice.
She took a deep breath. “My grandfather owned a little store over in Floresville. He and my grandmother ran it. We noticed that Granddaddy was forgetful, and sometimes he had rages, when he just went wild over something he saw on television, or something a politician said. We overlooked it because we thought it was just the product of normal aging.”
He moved closer. “But it wasn’t?”
“It wasn’t. One day, he was listening to what a politician said about the economy and new regulations that were going to go into effect. Granddaddy started yelling that those people needed to be killed, slaughtered.”
She hesitated, then plowed ahead without looking at him. “Maybe he would have calmed down, but the mayor was in his store buying some hardware, and he and Granddaddy got into an argument about politics. They were completely opposite in their views. The mayor tried to calm my grandfather down, and he thought he had. My grandmother chided him for being so violent over just stupid politics. She said he needed to lie down for a while. Granddaddy didn’t argue with her. He went out from behind the counter without a word. My grandmother was relieved, she thought he was over his anger. Not five minutes later, he came back into the front of the store with an automatic pistol.” She swallowed hard. “He killed my grandmother and the mayor, and then he turned the gun on three customers and killed them, too. The survivors screamed and ran out of the store. A local policeman heard the screams and went into the store with his pistol drawn. Granddaddy shot him dead the minute he walked into the store. The police called in the SWAT team from San Antonio. Granddaddy was holed up in the store, and he wouldn’t come out and give up his gun.” She sighed. “Long story short, the SWAT team went in and shot my grandfather. He died on the way to the hospital. My mother was so ashamed and sick at what her father had done, so grieved at the loss of her mother and the forthcoming fury of the townspeople, that she locked herself in the bathroom and slashed her own throat with a razor blade. We thought she was taking a bath.” Her eyes closed. “By the time we realized something was wrong and Daddy got the door open, it was much too late. She died.”
“Oh, God,” he said. “You poor kid!”
She bit her lower lip. “Daddy sold the house and moved us here. It was horrible, the aftermath. We were hated by so many people who lost loved ones that day. I didn’t blame them, you know, but Daddy and I had nothing to do with what happened. Nothing at all.”
He moved forward and pulled her into his arms, folding her close, rocking her while she cried. “And I thought I’d had a hard life,” he whispered at her ear. “Baby, I wish I’d known you then. Nobody would ever have hurt you!”
She pressed close, resting her wet cheek over his heart. “I thought you might not want anything else to do with me when you knew about what happened.”
“Dopey girl,” he murmured, and laughed softly. “I’m hooked. Haven’t you noticed? Who do I hang around with all the time? Who do I take to movies and into rooms where we do naughty things together?”
She laughed through her tears. “Me, I guess.”
“You.” He drew in a long, slow breath. His arms tightened. “I pledged allegiance to Tony. I have to fulfill my vows. I can’t let him die, whatever I have to do to save him.”
“Family is more important than your own life, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” His breath was warm at her ear. “I’m mixed up in this in a bad way. I can’t make commitments right now. But when it’s over, when I clear Tony...”
She didn’t move. Her eyes closed. “I told you,” she whispered. “I meant it. It won’t matter.”
“God!” His mouth moved over hers and he kissed her with subdued passion, with pure hunger. He hadn’t imagined that she could live with the things he’d done, that she could still want him after she knew them. She was an extraordinary woman. “Bernie,” he said unsteadily, “you’re the very breath in my body!”
She couldn’t even find words to express what she felt, so she kissed him with her whole heart, her arms stealing