Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,77

who did everything she could to make things easier for us.”

“And all an act,” Paul said. “I can see right through her. I wish Mikey could.”

“I didn’t. Neither did Bernie or Glory or Olivia,” Sari said.

“I’ve spent my life with people who bend the truth. I’m good at recognizing phonies.”

“Poor Bernie.”

“Poor Mikey, when he finally realizes he’s been had,” Paul said flatly. “I’m checking out an acquaintance of Jessie’s in Upstate New York. I have a suspicion that she didn’t just happen down here with her friend Billie.”

“What about the cook from New Jersey who’s working in Barbara’s Café?”

He laughed. “I’ll tell you about that,” he said. “It’s a hoot.” And he did tell her.

* * *

“Now, this is my kind of place,” Jessie said as they were seated in the five-star restaurant.

“Mine, too,” Mikey said, but without any real enthusiasm. He studied the gorgeous woman across from him with only vague interest. She was wearing a couture cocktail dress with diamond earrings, necklace, bracelet and several rings. All diamonds. The best quality and set in 18 karat gold. He knew, because he’d spent a fortune on them for various women over the years. He was curious about how she afforded that kind of jewelry on a receptionist’s salary.

Even as he had the thought, he felt cold chills inside. He was carrying. He had a snub .38 in a pancake holster behind his back, and a hidden gun in an ankle holster. He never went anywhere without being armed. Would he need to be? Santi was at the next table, apparently oblivious, but watching.

Odd, how he suddenly remembered that if the family ordered a hit on you, they sent your best friend to do it. He was warned that if he didn’t, somebody else would, and he’d end up as dead as the intended victim. His blood ran cold as he stared at Santi.

But his bodyguard just grinned at him and went to work on a huge plate of spaghetti. He was getting paranoid, Mikey considered, just like his old man.

He remembered his father with loathing. The man had been a dirty jobs soldier for the underboss in New Jersey, the one who’d preceded Tony Garza. Mikey’s dad had killed men over and over again, never felt the least remorse, and spent his life at a local bar where the outfit hung out. Mikey rarely saw him, and if he ever did, his father treated him like a disease. He hated Mikey and made no secret of the fact that he thought the kid was some other man’s son. Mikey’s mother, long dead, had an affair, he’d told the boy one day, and Mikey was the result. It was to get even with him for something he’d done to her. So Mikey had no real family at all until his maternal grandmother, Paulie’s grandmother, too, took both boys in and raised them. The old lady was Greek. She still spoke the old language. Mikey and Paulie had been schooled in Italian by the other kids and the families they associated with, but their grandmother taught them Greek, as well. Mikey could even read in it. Not a lot of people knew that. He kept his intelligence hidden; it gave him an advantage if his colleagues thought he was stupid.

“How was it you heard what Bernie said in the office?” he asked out of the blue.

Jessie’s hand, which was holding her wineglass, jerked, but she recovered quickly. “Oh, she and Olivia didn’t know I was there,” she replied. “I’d just come out of Mr. Kemp’s office and they were in the hallway.”

“I see.” He didn’t know Bernie well, but it seemed unlike her to confide something so personal to an office worker, even one she was close to. She was, like him, a very private person.

“This place is nice,” she said, changing the subject. She smiled at him alluringly. “You know, I have the use of a friend’s apartment here in town,” Her voice changed to a throaty purr. “We could be all alone there.”

Mikey just stared at her. His dark eyes were cold, as cold as they’d ever been when he had another man at gunpoint. “Really?”

His glare disconcerted her. “You know, Bernie won’t change her mind, and she’ll never tell you what she really thinks of you,” she said.

He cocked his head. “You’re trying too hard.”

“Excuse me?”

He just laughed, but it had a hollow sound. He was just beginning to believe he’d been had. And he was out with