Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,76

So?”

“You’re about to ruin your life,” Paul said curtly. “What if Bernie finds out? Jessie works in the office with her, for God’s sake!”

“I told you,” Mikey said, averting his eyes. “Bernie and I are no longer an item. I can date any woman I like. Jessie’s not so bad.”

But Paul was thinking that Jessie was every bit as bad as she seemed. She was rubbing Bernie’s nose in the fact that she had Mikey’s attention. Not only that, she was pressuring Mikey to be alone with her, without Santi. That was suspicious. Very suspicious. He glanced at a taciturn Cash Grier and had the impression that the police chief was thinking the same thing.

“I need a night on the town, anyway,” Mikey said as he finished his pie and washed it down with coffee. “I’ve been vegetating down here in cowboy town.”

“You watch your step,” Paul said shortly. “Don’t forget that Cotillo may have people here that we don’t even know about.”

“Surely you don’t think Jessie’s one of them?” Mikey drawled. “You checked her out and found no connections to any of Cotillo’s people.”

“Yeah, I checked out our last limo driver, too, and he almost got Merrie killed because the perp had connections I didn’t ferret out,” he was reminded.

“I can handle myself,” Mikey reminded him curtly.

“You’d better have a concealed carry permit if you walk around with a weapon in my town,” Cash told him humorously, but with a cold glint in his eyes.

“I got one the second day I was in town, for your information,” Mikey said smugly. “I know you, Grier. No way I’m stepping out of line around here!”

Cash just chuckled.

* * *

Paul cornered him after Grier left, while they were waiting on the sidewalk for Santi to collect Mikey.

“This is going to ruin any chance you have of getting back together with Bernie,” he told his cousin. “You know that, right?”

Mikey’s eyes were hollow with pain. “She can’t live with a crook, Paulie,” he said shortly. “That’s what she said.”

Paul’s lower jaw fell. “She said that to you?”

“Of course, she didn’t say it to me! She wouldn’t hurt my feelings for anything. But she was overheard saying it,” he added, and flushed, remembering who’d told him. “There’s Santi. I gotta go. See you around, cuz.”

“Watch your back!” Paul called after him.

Mikey waved and climbed into the limo.

Paul stood watching it pull away from the curb. Something Mikey had said piqued his curiosity. He was going to speak to Sari about it when he got home.

Chapter Thirteen

Sari was going over a brief when Paul walked into the study and closed the door.

“What’s up?” she asked, because he looked worried.

“Did Bernie say anything to you about having an issue with Mikey’s background?” he asked curiously.

“No,” she replied. She grimaced. “But she doesn’t really discuss Mikey with me,” she added. “I guess she thinks I might tell him what she said.” She put down the pencil she was using to edit the document she was working on. “Why?”

“He said she told somebody that she couldn’t live with a man who made his living outside the law, with a criminal,” he replied. “Would she tell somebody at work something so personal?” he persisted.

She frowned. “Well, I don’t really think so. Bernie’s a very private person. She’s not the kind to blurt out intimate details of her life to people she works with. It’s not the way she is. And there’s not really anybody else she might tell, either. She has no close friends.”

“That’s what I thought. Mikey has the impression that she can’t live with his past.”

“I know that’s not true,” Sari said gently. “She loves him.”

One side of his mouth pulled down. “I tried to tell him that. He wouldn’t listen. He’s destroying any chance that he could get back together with Bernie.”

“How?”

“He’s taking your coworker Jessie out on the town in San Antonio tonight,” he said through his teeth.

“Oh, no!”

“I tried to warn him. It will ruin everything. But he wouldn’t listen. He’s convinced that he’s so bad, only a bad woman would ever want him.”

“What an idiot. Even if he is your cousin.”

“Hey, no argument from me. I said the same thing, to his face.”

“It will kill Bernie if she finds out.”

He laughed coldly. “If? Jessie will tell the world tomorrow. I don’t doubt she’ll embroider it into something even more than it is.”

“Jessie.” Sari made a rough sound. “She was our worst nightmare for weeks. Then overnight she turned into a caring, worrying coworker