Loving a Bad Boy (44 page)

Whore? Boy-toy?
A frown dipped low on Julio’s forehead as he
tried to figure out who Boots was talking about.

Another gunshot went off, but this one was
from outside.

“
Damn it, I told you to
wait,” Boots yelled as he dashed through the front door, rolled on
the floor and fired, missing everybody. Julio fired, hitting the
man in the chest. He moved closer to get a clear view.

It wasn’t Boots. Julio spun as Boots slammed
into him, knocking the gun from his hand.

Boots' meaty fist clipped Julio’s jaw. He
dodged the next blow and pushed Boots to the side. The thud of the
bald head hitting the ceramic tile echoed in the room. Julio rushed
over, grabbed Boots by the shirt and punched him in the face
repeatedly. The man struggled in vain to protect himself against
the blows, but with adrenaline-fueled strength, Julio counteracted
his every move.

As his strength ebbed, Julio staggered back
from the bloody body beneath him and searched the floor for his
gun. Before he could locate it, a popping sound filled the room.
Spinning, Julio noticed the bullet mark in Boot’s forehead.
“What?...Tex!” he called, while trying to wrap his mind around what
had just happened. Had one of his men shot this guy while his back
was turned? No. They wouldn’t have done that. But somebody had.
This was a deliberate execution.

“
Tex!” he yelled again,
concern for his team rising in the quiet.

“
Hold on,” Tex
yelled.

“
Hog, Pete, Miguel,
Stephen, Brinks!” Julio called out, wanting to make sure everyone
was okay.

Hog peered inside the patio door. “I’m
good.” He looked at the two men on the floor. “Glad you took out
the trash.”

Julio rubbed the back of his neck, still
confused. “Did you see anyone come in here?”

Hog shook his head. “No, I been watching the
wall. Got rid of some vermin, but didn’t see nothing inside.”

“
Okay, thanks.” Julio
waved off any more questions as the other men came into the
room.

“
You okay?” Pete asked,
walking around the bodies on the floor. Miguel stooped and placed
his fingers on the neck of the first man who'd entered the door.
Stephen leaned against the wall watching.

Brinks knelt next to Boots and checked his
pulse. “Dead. Good shot.”

“
Yeah, it was,” Julio
said, looking at the front door and then down at Boots. That was a
difficult shot from the doorway when someone was on the ground.
“Pity I didn’t make it.”

“
You didn’t?” Miguel
asked, moving to Boots. “Who did?”

“
I dunno. I was looking
for my gun, heard a popping sound and that’s what I saw when I
turned around.” He looked at the four men. “Did anybody hear
anything?”

“
No, I had the patio off
the master bedroom. Took out a coupla guns and then it went quiet,”
Pete said. “How much time we got to take care of this?” He waved to
the bodies of the deceased.

“
Tex is on the way. I
think we need to get this cleaned up as soon as possible,” Julio
said, looking toward the front entry. “Close that door.”

Chapter 27

“
Leeann, when did mom get
her last meds?” Pam touched her mom’s brow. It was warmer than it
had been.

“
Two hours. They don’t
seem to be working as good as they had before. She’s not resting
well.” Leeann stood on the other side of the bed, her knuckles
whitening from her tight grip on the railing.

“
I noticed that a few days
ago.” The thought that her mama was slipping away filled her with
anxiety. “The doctor didn’t say anything when he came out
yesterday. Still, I don’t like this.”

“
Like I told you before.
No one has seen anything like Huntington’s in years. The doc is
finding his way and may not have picked up on the sustained
fevers,” Leeann said.

“
But I told him about
them,” Pam said, frustrated that there wasn’t more she could do for
her mother.

“
He didn’t have an answer
then.”

“
He should’ve,” Pam
argued.

Leeann nodded. “Perhaps. But we all know he
is just as baffled that your dad won’t take her to the States where
she can get better care. We are limited here.”

Pam exhaled as she wiped her mom’s brow with
the cool towel. “He made a promise. Trust me, he won’t break it.”
Her lips twisted sardonically.

“
Then we have to deal with
what we have and not get bent out of shape over what we don’t,”
Leeann said in a sage tone.

“
Yeah…I know. It just
hurts to see her fading like this.” Hearing footsteps, Pam turned
toward the doorway.

“
How’s she today?” her
father asked as he strode right up to her mama’s bed, taking her
thin hand in his. He frowned. “She’s warm.”

“
Yeah, we know.” Gauging
his reaction, she continued. “It’s too soon to give her anymore
meds, we just have to wait it out.”

He released a heavy breath and pulled off
his hoodie, a sure sign he planned to visit for a while. “Leeann,
can you give us a moment?”

“
Sure, Mr. Burrows.” She
stepped back from the bed and walked briskly out the
room.

He took the spot on the side of the bed
Leeann had just vacated. Minutes passed and neither of them
spoke.

“
Long day?” Pam asked,
genuinely curious. All her life she'd thought her dad worked the
docks as a fisherman. Lately she’d been surprised to learn he
dabbled in real estate, boating, had a fishing business, and owned
a throng of small local companies.

“
Not too bad,” he said,
looking at the hand he held. Gently, he rubbed the protruding veins
in the thin skin before placing a kiss on the back and inside of
her palm. “I love you, Nora,” he whispered hoarsely.

Pam swallowed hard at the ache in his voice.
She’d always known her parents had a deep wellspring of love
between them. But the past week had shown her a level of devotion
that most women merely dreamed of. Certainly she dreamt what it
would be like to have her man, enter Julio, love her the way her
father loved her mama. How could she not?

Through sickness and
health.
She grimaced at the refrain from
most wedding ceremonies. For most they were mere words, with no
thought to the depth of devotion required to maintain such a
vow.

Zachery Burrows put action to those vows in
a way Pam had never seen before, and she’d spent a lot of time with
the sick. Every evening he’d sit next to her mom and talk with her.
It didn’t matter if her mom was lucid or not. He always told her
how much he loved her and why. There were times when Pam felt like
a third wheel and would leave them alone.

Those times triggered such a deep longing
for her man that she’d curl up in a ball and dream of the next time
they’d be together. In her dream world, Julio was the perfect
husband, fulfilling her expectations before she voiced them. Could
Julio love her through sickness and health? She wasn’t sure and
that sent her mood plummeting.

Without meaning to, and in a strange turn of
events, she compared every action of her father against Julio. It
wasn’t fair, she knew that. But she desperately wanted a love that
defied time and reason.

Despite his last claim that she was his, she
craved the intimacy of a man one hundred plus percent committed to
his woman. After seeing it in action this past week, she knew
nothing else would satisfy her. That required taking a serious look
at the one man who’d slid into her heart, Julio Cardenas.

Three days after she had been at her mom’s
bedside, she realized her phone had died. She’d asked her dad to
pick up her phone charger or have Tex call her. But he claimed he
didn’t see it at her house, and Tex was never at home when he went
by.

There had been too many times to count when
she’d wracked her brain trying to remember Julio and Tex’s phone
numbers. Unfortunately, because of speed-dial, she’d never actually
dialed anybody’s phone number and that bit of technology had now
bit her in the ass.

Right now, Pam wasn’t up to watching him
moon over mama. Standing to leave, she brushed off some crumbs from
an earlier meal.

“
Your young man is back on
the island.”

All her thoughts
froze.
Her young man
? Who? “What?” she turned slightly, frowning.

He waved her off. “You know, the one you had
to spend time wit when he came here the last time.”

Her mouth opened and snapped shut. She
didn’t bother to ask how he knew this information. She’d discovered
there was little that happened in the Bahamas her father didn’t
know. All of her preconceived ideas of him had been challenged and
deemed wide of the mark. She shook off those thoughts to focus on
what he’d just said.

Julio here?
Her heart lit with joy. And just as suddenly
crashed.
Tex
. He
came to check on Tex. Wait. Just because she hadn’t been able to
talk to him, didn’t mean he and Tex hadn’t talked. Another thought
popped into her mind.

“
Every time I asked if
you’d seen Tex or gone by for my charger, you said no. Have you
been to his place? Did you get my phone charger? Or some clothes
like I asked? Did you see Julio there?” She crossed her arms while
staring him down. True, she’d been caught up in mama’s care, but
her phone? He could’ve left Tex a message and she’d have had the
damn charger by now.

“
I got a call from the
airport when he landed. I’d told them I wanted to know if he ever
came to the island again.” His comment was so matter-of-fact that
her anger switched from anger to amazement. It never occurred to
him how odd it was to make a request like that to the police. And
that they had honored it just went to show he was right in his
thinking.

Julio is
here
.
Julio is
here
. With superhuman effort, she stopped
the giggle that tickled the back of her throat. She wanted to erupt
in pleasurable excitement. Straight-faced, she asked. “Have you
seen or talked to him to make sure they got the right guy.” She
didn’t know everything about her father, but she did know he was
thorough, which meant he probably had talked to, or at least seen
Julio.

For the first time since his announcement,
he looked at her. There was a glimmer of satisfaction in his gaze
that startled her. She braced herself for bad news.

“
Yeah, I did. Claims he’s
here for you. I told him you were okay. But he wants to see for
himself. Reckon he’ll be coming to see you soon,” he said, in a dry
tone.

Her hands flew to her hair. It was a mess.
She looked down at the faded sundress she had borrowed so she
didn’t have to leave her mom. At the time, not returning for more
clothes had seemed like the right solution, now she wasn’t so sure.
Frantic over her appearance, she almost missed his next
comment.

“
Said he had to take care
of a few t’ings first, so that he’d have more time to visit wit
you,” he finished.

“
So, he’s…he’s coming
here?”

He frowned. He never allowed strangers
anywhere on the premises. Besides, mama was fading and Pam
couldn’t, no - wouldn’t, leave her now. Knowing she couldn't be
with Julio right now left her bereft and holding back tears for the
loss.

“
I supposed so, though I’m
not ‘xactly sure,” he hedged.

Not
sure
? The object of her nighttime dreams
was nearby and he wasn’t sure? What the hell? A rush of liberating
resentment erupted.

Hands on hips, she glared at him. “What do
you mean? The only way he could get here is if you brought him. The
roads to this place are unmarked and not on any maps,” she snapped,
remembering when he’d informed her of that smidgen of information.
He’d been unyielding in his decree that no one, and that included
Tex, could come on the grounds unless he brought them personally.
Now, he wasn’t sure if he’d bring her man? No way!

He rubbed his neck.

Tendrils of suspicion sprouted in her mind.
“When did you talk to him?” she asked.

“
I think it was
yesterday.”

She jerked at the unexpected answer.
“Yesterday? And you didn’t tell me?” They'd spent hours this past
week talking, getting to know one another. Bridges of past
misconceptions had been repaired to the point she believed they had
a really good relationship, built on mutual respect and trust.
Evidently she’d been wrong and that sucked.