Beautiful Bounty (The Bounty Hunters: The Marino Bros. Book 1) (2 page)

“We can’t. . .” she started to speak and then she saw the pained expression on his face.

He pulled back a few inches and looked at her to see if she was serious.  She was. “You’re kidding me, right,” he fumed. Her expression remained firm. “Just wonderful,” was his frustrated response. His hand whipped to his head, pushing back a stray lock of black hair.

She was about to say, we can’t, not right now, but he had turned from her by then and she could hear the disappointment in his sighs as he began to once again readjust his clothing.

“I’m sorry Nikko, but I know my mom. She will come back,” she muttered irritably. Didn’t he realize she wanted this too? Selfish jerk, she thought. Just like a man to only think about himself.

Her annoyance dissipated like vapor the moment Nikko turned to her. His blue eyes, tanned face, and chiseled features took her breath away. Gone was his earlier look of irritation. No man should be that gorgeous. That was the problem she had with him from their first meeting. He was one of those guys who was unbelievably hot, and knew it. She watched him flirting with numerous girls prior to the wedding, batting those incredibly long eyelashes at several of Monica’s friends. No man should have lashes like those.

“Sorry Ronnie,” he grinned, and dimples appeared in his chiseled cheeks. Fucking dimples, too! What the hell kind of genes did this guy have in his genetic pool? His three older brothers were also drop dead gorgeous. “I’m just frustrated. Maybe . . .” he started to say as they got onto the path before being interrupted by a voice as rough as gravel.

“Veronica, holy shit, your mom is having a conniption fit. She’s looking everywhere for you.” The voice belonged to Jay, her mom’s boyfriend, um, well fiancé now, apparently. He had proposed earlier. Her mom and her crazy friends had made Monica’s wedding truly memorable with all their announcements and surprises this evening.

“Hey, Jay,” Veronica, aka Ronnie, called out clearing her throat and giving Nikko one quick glance that was meant to silence him. Looking to Jay again, she gave him a smile, preparing her excuses as they approached. She liked him, and hated lying to him, but felt she had no choice. He was a hoot, made her mom laugh, and he loved her. She was thrilled that they had found each other. Her mom had finally gotten this relationship thing right. “Um, Nikko took me for a walk to help me clear my head. I had a bit too much to drink I think, and was feeling over heated.”

Jay stared the younger couple down, a telling expression on his face. He used one of those grimaces that said, you little liars, but I’ll go along with that story if you want me too. Then, he said just that. “You want to use that story, fine, but you’d better let her see you soon or she’ll freak the fuck out. I know your twenty one now, but you know your mom,” he told her contritely, winking at Nikko and shrugging his shoulders.

“Yes, I know my Mom,” Ronnie sighed resignedly as she gave Nikko a sad look and shrugged her shoulders too, in apology.

Nikko had calmed down and knew this opportunity was lost, but hoped there would be another.  He wasn’t ready to let this one escape just yet. Smiling, he brokered, “Well, let’s get back to the reception then.” Nikko took Ronnie’s hand. All three of them made their way back the last dozen or so yards.

As they slipped inside the white flap of the massive tent, Ronnie noticed that Nikko turned his charm back on rather quickly. He hid his frustration well.  The sound of the music soon drowned out her other thoughts as they followed Jay to the rear of the tent where the wedding party was seated.

Nikko trailed behind, and seeing Louisa approaching, he gave her his most innocent of smiles.  Ronnie’s mother did not look pleased.

“Found her babe. Nikko walked her to the restroom.” Jay winked at Nikko who smiled and nodded his appreciation.  Nikko stayed long enough to make polite small talk with Ronnie’s suspicious mother, and soon had her laughing and blushing as he pronounced her too beautiful and young to have a twenty-one year old daughter.

Ronnie took a sip of the water Jay thrust into her hand, and watched as Nikko worked her mom over.  Damn, he was good.  She couldn’t help but smile though, when he grabbed her mother and pulled her onto the dance floor.  Yes, the man was better than good. 

When he returned minutes later, he hastily made his goodbyes to Jay and Louisa, saying he wanted to check in on his brothers and aunt; he kissed Ronnie on the cheek, and whispered a promise to return for another dance later. Yes, why not, she thought, the butterflies in her stomach swarming again at his closeness. You only live once. 

***

One hour later that dance never happened.  The reception winding down, Ronnie began her search for Nikko. She had seen neither hide nor hair of him since he left. About half of the guests had said their goodbyes and Monica and Victor were about to announce their departure for their honeymoon in Cancun.

Even Jay and Louisa were making preparations to leave, and she told them that Nikko had promised to give her a ride home. She’d braved her mom’s cool look, and now she couldn’t even find him.  Where the heck was he? She wanted to finish what they started. She thought he did too.

Ronnie searched high and low. He wasn’t in the reception. She signaled to her mom to go ahead and leave, that she would be fine, then ducked outside after she saw Lou nod her understanding.

She began to make her way around the tent. There were people outside, but not one of them was Nikko. She went to the restrooms, and he wasn’t there either. She began the trek back to the tent, disappointed that her summer fling apparently was not to be. Even though the summer had just begun, she had been excited by the possibility of starting something new. Nikko had not taken the hint apparently. Resigned that tonight would not be the night, she began to walk back to the reception, in the hopes that her mother had not already left. She wasn’t too concerned though. Many of the guests were friends of her mom and would be willing to give her a ride home. Maybe she could get his number from Victor when he and Monica returned from their honeymoon in a week, she thought glumly.

Just a few feet from the tent’s entrance, she heard something. Nikko’s laugh; she stopped short. Her heart leapt. The parking lot! She turned in that direction and saw his head just over the top of a black SUV. Yes! Score! Her plans were not ruined after all. She quickened her pace. His head disappeared from sight, but she could still hear him.

“Really?” His deep, sexy laugh floated across the lot.  Her steps faltered when she heard a woman’s voice.

“Yes.” In Veronica’s mind, that sound came out like a seductive purr.

Her pace remained slow, but she walked softly not wanting the sound of her heels on the pavement to give her away.  She wanted to surprise the couple. Surely, she thought, he wouldn’t. An hour later? She took those last few steps around the corner of the vehicle. Then she knew. He would!

All was silent for a moment and then the blood rushed into her ears like a tsunami. She lost it.

“You ass!” Ronnie hissed at Nikko and the scene she stormed upon. 

Nikko’s blue eyes widened in surprise and shock as Ronnie began to turn on her heel. He was at a momentary loss, but recovered quickly. “Wait!” Nikko tried to explain as he pushed the other woman’s hand off of the fastening of his slacks again, but Ronnie had already fled. The red head, Nancy, was still trying to clutch his waist band with her greedy hands.  She pulled him back to her with a strength he didn’t know a woman could possess all the while laughing. By the time he wrestled Nancy’s fingers off of him and freed himself from the drunken woman’s clutches, it was too late. He wanted to give chase to the beautiful bounty he truly desired, but Ronnie wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

Minutes later Ronnie saw him still searching for her, and fumed as she sat in the back of Francine and Tom’s car. She was lucky she had seen them just pulling out. She bummed a ride home from them since her mom had already left.  Nikko looked upset as his eyes scanned the parking lot, and she sunk lower into her seat to avoid him seeing her.  Great, just ab-so-lute-ly great, Ronnie thought. That image of him and the red head with her raspy laugh would plague her all summer long! Even though it seemed he had left the willowy vixen to come in search of her, she was disappointed. Her earlier judgment of him had been correct all along. Nikko Marino was a dirty dog, slime-ball Casanova who chased anything with tits and a skirt. Although she wanted a summer fling, wanted to experience a bit more than her limited world, she didn’t want to be just another notch on his bed post.  Good riddance, she thought as the car slipped out of the parking lot along Pier Sixty.  As mad as she was at herself for even considering him a possibility in the first place, albeit briefly, she couldn’t help but turn and gaze one more time at the fine specimen of a man that was Nikko Marino.

“What a nightmare!” Veronica muttered and groaned under her breath as she rolled to a sitting position from the hard cot. Rubbing the grit from her eyes, she finished the maneuver and began to stretch the tightness from her shoulders and muscles from such cramped quarters. Waking up from a cat nap induced by stress and exhaustion in a prison cell was a whole new experience for her, one she didn’t want to get used to.  The clang of metal resounded as her breakfast tray slid against the bars onto the small table at the foot of her bed.  She glanced unpleasantly at the congealed oatmeal, and toast, with the small packet of jam they had given her.  Three days in a row. Yum, she thought, as her stomach growled and she scooted across the bed towards her repast.

Three days of this, and she already had the routine down.  She reached for the milk and felt the moisture on the container. Again, she realized it wouldn’t be very cold. The guards never seemed to be in a hurry to deliver meals. The hot stuff was cold, the cold stuff warm. Delish!

She opened the cardboard container and took a long swallow trying to choke it down.  Her stomach needed something, and though not as active as she usually was she found her energy sapping.  One more look at the oatmeal, and she knew she couldn’t do it. The milk was already curdling in her stomach. She pushed it away, and reached for the toast and jam. Peeling off the cover on the small plastic packet, she stuck her finger into the gooey contents, and spread the strawberry jelly-like substance across the surface of the barely toasted bread. No knives in jail, not even plastic.

Her hearing was today, thank goodness. Then she’d be out of here.  Out, and ready to fight to prove her innocence.  The first day she had been in complete shock and denial. The second day, she’d been a mess, an emotional basket case.  But after her visit with her mom, her gumption and fight returned and last night she began putting the pieces of the puzzle together.  She was ready to fight.

Seeing her mom had helped. Tremendously.  Her mom was a beacon of strength, had always been. She told her not to worry about bail and a lawyer.  She was already on it.

How could she not worry about those things?  Her mom didn’t have that kind of money.  But, she was glad for the reassurance anyway, and despite the tell-tale signs, her mom’s red rimmed eyes, the twisting of her wedding band around her finger, Ronnie knew she was worried but trying not to show it. 

Ronnie hated putting any kind of hurt and stress on her mother. Not just the worry, and the fear, but now the economic burden of trying to prove her daughter’s innocence. She’d pay back every penny, she swore to her. 

“Baby, you’re my daughter.  My heart.  I would do anything for you, you know that.” Her mom reached out putting her palm on the glass partition separating them.  Ronnie touched the surface of the glass as well, hating that her hand shook as she placed her palm against the cool surface. 

She had never been in this kind of predicament before, and disappointing her mother was the worst thing of all.  Her mom had worked hard, put her dreams on hold, and lived only for Ronnie for twenty years. She was supposed to be making her mom proud that all her hard work had not been in vain.

Choking back the sob that threatened to come out of her throat, she asked, she had to, “Mom, you believe me, don’t you?”

“Baby, Veronica, of course I believe you.  I have more faith in you than in anything else in my life.”  Lou looked into her daughter’s frightened eyes, and wanted more than anything to pull her daughter into her arms, rock her, and chase away the nightmare she was going through. But this wasn’t one of her childhood nightmares that could so easily be chased away with soft soothing words. This was real, and she was terrified for her daughter. 

“Thank-you Mom,” Ronnie sniffed and pushed a blonde strand of hair out of her eyes.  “I’ll pay you back for the lawyer, for the bail, everything, some day,”

“Hey, none of that,” Lou chastised, wanting to build up her daughter’s courage. She knew she raised a strong girl, and she would need to be strong now. They both would.

After Veronica had described the public defenders response to her, Lou knew getting a lawyer, a good one, was absolutely essential.  She also had a person in mind. Her dear friend Ana’s brother-in-law. She had heard stories of his successes in the news. Surely, he would help her for a friend of the family, for his new sister-in-law. Not one to normally ask for favors, Lou would grovel for her daughter, on her knees, on broken glass or hot coals. Whatever it took. “I’ve got a great attorney in mind. Jay is working on the bail now. He went to talk to a bondsman this morning.”