Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,80
She told somebody else and she was overheard.”
“Let me guess—by Jessie.”
Mikey scowled. “What?”
“Jessie told Bernie that you went with her to an apartment in San Antonio.”
Mikey grimaced. He could only imagine how much that had hurt Bernie. He was hurting from her rejection, but it wounded him to think he’d caused her even more pain.
“She let something else slip. She has a ‘family’ that she takes orders from.”
Mikey lost color. “Hell!”
“I’ve got a man digging hard into her past. He’s hit a couple of dead ends, but he thinks he’s onto something. I should have an answer today,” Paul told him.
“You think she’s on Cotillo’s payroll.”
“I think she might be,” Paul replied. “Think about it. She and Billie are as out of place here as roaches in a ritzy hotel. So why are they here? Maybe to watch you and report on your movements to a third party.”
“Like a cleaner,” Mikey said, referring to a contract killer.
“Maybe. It depends on which family she has ties to. Cotillo’s not the only man in the game. He has enemies. She’s from New York. Cotillo’s moving on Tony Garza in Jersey. Suppose another boss has Cotillo in his sights and wants to know if you’re protected before he orders a hit.”
Mikey toyed with his coffee cup. “That’s a possibility.”
“Cotillo’s drawn a lot of attention to himself and to the outfit in general with this takeover thing. He’s harking back to the mob wars in the past, which were bloody and public and ended in the congressional hearings that tore the Five Families apart. They can’t really afford to make themselves too visible even today. Cotillo’s a threat to them as well as to you and Tony. They might decide to act.”
“If Jessie was lining up a hit, she had a perfect opportunity while we were at the restaurant,” Mikey said. “Santi was at another table. Of course, I was watching the door. I know how hits go down.”
“Which is why I don’t think her boss is Cotillo.”
Mikey drew in a long breath. “That might be.” He looked into the coffee cup at the thick black liquid. “Bernie will never forgive me. I don’t guess it matters. She didn’t want me to begin with.”
“Or so Jessie told you. She likes rich men. Kemp already called her down about it at least once. Of course, he fired her this morning.”
“What?”
“She mouthed off to Ted Regan, of all people, and told him court had been canceled. Since she was calling from the DA’s office, he believed her. He didn’t show up and the case was thrown out of court. Kemp was livid.”
“I guess so. She’ll get another job, I guess.”
“She and Billie left town late this afternoon,” Paul replied. “I got that from Mandy. She knows everything that goes on in this town. But I’m sure Jessie will keep in touch with you,” he added sarcastically. “I mean, since you’re dating her and all.”
“You don’t understand,” he burst out. “I lost everything! Bernie couldn’t live with what I am, and I don’t know how I’m going to live without her! Jessie kept asking if we could get a meal somewhere and I said yes. I know I shouldn’t have done it. I was so damned low I didn’t care about how it would look.”
“Jessie is poison,” Paul said. “I’d bet real money that she told Bernie some tale about you, as well, to the tune of your not being able to live with a woman who might be an invalid later on.”
Mikey was very still. He just stared at his cousin.
“Think about it. She told you that Bernie hated your past. Maybe she told Bernie that you hated her disease.”
“Dear God,” Mikey said huskily, and buried his face in his hands. “Oh, God, what am I going to do?”
“Talk to Bernie.”
Mikey removed his hands from his face and drank the coffee. “Sure. I’m going to walk into the office, and she’s going to throw me out headfirst, or the verbal equivalent. She thinks I slept with damned Jessie. She’ll hate me.”
“Sari hated me, too, when I first came back here.” Paul grinned. “Remember what I did when she wouldn’t speak to me?”
“Everybody in Jacobsville remembers,” Mikey chuckled. “They even talked about it at the boardinghouse and it was three years ago.”
“Whatever works,” he commented pointedly.
Mikey drew in a breath. “I’ll think about it.”
“Meanwhile, I have news.”
“About Cotillo?”
Paul chuckled. “Not yet. About Sari.”
Mikey’s eyebrows arched.
“She’s pregnant,” Paul said, and smiled from ear to ear.