Deadly Embrace (24 page)

"That was smart of him."

"I think I like America—except for the baby boys. They're no
fun. In Cuba the boys are more ... adult."

"You speak perfect English."

"Our father taught us that education is important."

"Another smart move."

"Yes, we grew up learning several languages."

"And your mom—where's she?"

"Ran off with another man when we were three. She was
wild—exactly like me!"

"A»' you're proud of that?"

"You can talk," she said sharply. "Weren't you recently released
from prison?"

Jeez! Bad news travels fast
.

"Gotta go," he said, heading for the door.

"Too bad," she said, following him.

He was halfway through the door when she called out, "Had any
pussy since you left prison?"

He stopped, quite shocked. "
What
?"

"Just
asking
," she said innocently. "No harm in that, is
there?"

He shook his head in wonderment; this girl was something else.
"Ask me again in five years when you're all grown up," he said.

"Ha!" she replied. "You don't know what you're missing!"

Yeah, and he had no intention of finding out.

By the time he met up with Tina and Max, Tina had lined up two new
prospects—a bucktoothed brunette and an anorexic redhead. They
both leapt on him like ants on peanut butter—plying him with
questions, and in between the questions telling him all about
themselves. As if he cared.

"I'm gettin' an earache," he complained to Max.

"I got a hunch you should bang the redhead," Max said with a
ribald laugh. "She needs it most."

"You bang her."

"
I'm
a married man."

"You gotta tell Tina to stop fixing me up."

"Why? You wanna get your rocks off, don'tcha?"

"I can do it on my own time."

"Then do it," Max said. "You've been out a week, or did ya get a
taste for somethin' different in jail?"

"Screw you, Max. That's not funny."

"Then why aren't you horny?"

"You want the truth, or a lie?"

"I'll take the truth."

"I went to a hooker the day after I got out," he lied. It was
easier to tell a fib rather than start explaining why he wasn't in
the mood for sex.

Max's eyes bulged. "You did
what
?"

"Yeah. I paid for it. First time."

"Why'd you do
that
?"

" 'Cause I don't need to take a girl out an' sweet-talk her into
bed, make her think it means anything when it doesn't. Right now I
gotta concentrate. So do me a big favor, no more of Tina's
fix-ups."

"Holy crap!" Max said. "You
paid
for it. Jeez! What was it
like?"

"Uncomplicated," he said. "And right now, that's the way it has to
be."

A few nights later, Tina announced that the Delagado twins' aunt
Gloria was having a party to celebrate the girls' sixteenth
birthday.

"I promised her we'd drop by," Tina said. "She's quite a fabulous
character. It'll be a blast."

"We can't leave the kids alone," Max pointed out.

"Yes we can," Tina replied, determined to go. "What's the big
deal? They're in bed asleep, and we'll be right next door."

"I'll stay with the kids," Michael volunteered. "You two go enjoy
yourselves."

"That's not fair," Tina began.

"You might as well make the most of me," he said. "Any-day now
I'll be outta here."

"You're sure ...," she said, reluctant to leave him behind.

"I'm sure," he said firmly. He had no desire to go to a sweet
sixteen celebration—staying home was a far more tempting
prospect.

Earlier in the day he'd met up with Gus, who'd told him there was
something coming up that he might be interested in.

"What?" he'd asked.

"I'll let you know," Gus had said. "It's a big-bucks job that'll
pay good."

"What'll I havta do t' make big bucks?"

"Drive. You can do that, huh?"

He was twenty-five with no job and a prison record. Did he have a
choice?

Yes. He could call the number that Karl Edgington had given him.
And maybe he would. Eventually.

Tonight, he decided, was going to be the last night he spent on
Max and Tina's couch. He was getting lazy and too comfortable.
Besides, leeching off his friends was not his style. If Gus came up
with the job, he was definitely in. He needed to make some money, and
fast.

The sound of Latin music began drifting over from next door. He
put on the TV and tuned into Monday night football.

After a while he must've fallen asleep, because the next thing he
knew there were sirens and lights flashing outside the window.

Jumping up, he hurried to the front door and walked into the
street. People were milling about on the sidewalk as two ambulance
attendants carried a stretcher to the back of their vehicle.

He grabbed a fat woman in a floral dress. "What's goin' on?" he
asked.

"She's dead!" the woman wailed, clumps of thick black mascara
dripping down her cheeks. "The poor dear is gone!"

"Who?" he asked urgently. "Who's dead?"

"Those little children will be all alone in the world," the woman
sobbed. "It's a tragedy!"

Suddenly he spotted Max. His friend was sitting on the curb with
his head in his hands.

Jesus Christ! Something must have happened to Tina. Something
bad.

"There's someone I think you should meet," Gemini said.

"What do you mean—meet?" Dani replied, quite flustered. "Is
it a man? Because I can't meet any men—I'm still married."

They were sitting in the park watching Vincent and Nando playing
in the sandbox. It was Dani's favorite thing to do, watching her son
at play. He was so serious and intent, while Nando was all over the
place.

"Oh, please," Gemini said in her lilting French accent. "I know
you do not love your husband, Dani. You are a woman, and you need to
be fulfilled. It is time you left him."

"I can't do that," Dani said, feeling immediately guilty. "Sam was
there for me when I needed him."

"I understand your guilt because he is the father of your child,"
Gemini said, quite serious. "However, if Sam does not give Vincent or
you the love you deserve, then you must think of your future."

"It's not that easy, Gem," Dani said, frowning. "It's
complicated."

"Everything is complicated. Look at me. I left Nando's father, and
he was from a very affluent family. However, I decided that happiness
is more important than money."

"Why
did
you leave him?"

"He abused me," Gemini said simply. "His father was a powerful man
in Colombia, and Moralis was merely the son. Because of his
circumstances he took his frustration out on me—mentally
and
physically. After I gave birth to Nando, I realized to
survive I must get away from him, so I came here."

"Why did you choose Vegas?" Dani asked. "You could've gone
anywhere."

"I was a dancer in Paris when I met Moralis. I felt it unwise to
return to France. Vegas seemed like a place where I could find a good
job doing what I love to do."

"Didn't he come after you?"

"I am sure he did. But I have learned that once a woman walks out
on a man, it is never prudent to return."

"I think about leaving Sam all the time," Dani sighed, glancing
over at her son, who was happily making mud pies with Nando. "I can't
stand his drinking, and he never works. We fight all the time. It's
not the right atmosphere for Vincent to grow up in."

"No, it's not."

"And," Dani continued, "he's always asking me for money to invest
in crazy schemes."

"I hope you don't give it to him."

"Of course not. I'm saving my money for Vincent's education."

"You have quite a dilemma," Gemini said. "It is always better for
a boy to have a man in his life."

"I know," Dani agreed. "That's why it's taken me so long to make a
move." She hesitated a moment. "You see, Sam rescued me and my sister
from a terrible situation. I don't want to talk about it, but believe
me, it was bad. Sam brought us to Vegas and looked after us. Then
later he married my sister. They were very happy, until one day she
vanished, and we've never found her. After that, it was my turn to be
there for Sam and get him through it."

"And you did."

"For a while. Then
he
took care of
me
when I was
pregnant."

"So he should," Gemini said. "It's his baby."

"No," Dani admitted. "Sam is
not
Vincent's father."

"Is this the truth?" Gemini asked, quite shocked.

"It's hardly something I'd make up."

"Does Sam know?"

Dani shook her head. She wasn't sorry she'd revealed her secret;
in a way it was a relief to share the knowledge with
someone—especially since that someone was her closest
friend.

"If he's not Vincent's father, then you have no responsibility
toward him," Gemini said. "Why should you support this man for the
rest of your life?"

Gemini was right, she'd paid Sam back for everything he'd done for
her. The tough part would be telling him that Vincent wasn't his son,
because that was something she had to do. It was only fair.

"So," Gemini said, "after the show tonight I am having dinner with
my business manager. I would love you to come and meet his friend
from Houston. He's a very nice man."

"If he's so nice, why aren't
you
dating him?"

"He's seen you in the show, Dani," Gemini said with a slight
smile. "He is desperate to meet you."

"I must be honest with you, Gem. I've had it with men. They fail
to interest me. All I care about is my son, he's everything to
me."

"May I ask who his real father is?"

"A man I met when I was very young. I guess he wasn't that much
older than me, although he had no idea I was only sixteen and a
virgin. I imagine he thought we were the same age. He was probably
nineteen or twenty. Unfortunately it turned out to be a one-night
event."

"And when you informed him you were pregnant, what did he do?"
Gemini asked.

"I didn't tell him."

"Why not?"

"Because after our one night together, I never heard from him
again. So ... I decided to marry Sam."

"And pretend that Vincent is his?"

She nodded shamefacedly. "Yes."

"Perhaps something happened to your one-night lover. Life is like
that."

"Maybe."

"At least if you'd told him you were pregnant, he could have
helped support your son. Or do you not think he's entitled to know he
has one?"

"No," she said fiercely. "He's not. Vincent is mine.
I'm
the one who's always been there for him, and I always will be."

"If that's the way you feel...," Gemini said.

"Yes," Dani said, nodding her head vigorously. "That's exactly how
I feel."

"So ... tonight, you will come?"

"I don't think so."

"You're sure?"

"Very sure."

A few weeks later she threw Sam out. He staggered home at four in
the morning, completely drunk, falling over furniture «nd
spewing obscenities.

Wearily she got out of bed and hurried downstairs, hoping to shut
him up before he woke Vincent.

He wasn't alone. There was a woman with him, a painted whore
chugging from a half-full bottle of whiskey while draping herself all
over him.

"Wassamatter?" Sam mumbled, giving Dani a bleary-eyed look.
"Don'tcha wanna join the party?"

"Get out!" she screamed, suddenly losing it. "Get out of my house
and never come back!"

He left without a fight, the woman clinging on to him like a
leech.

The next day she waited for him to come home, begging her
forgiveness. Surprisingly, he didn't.

A few months later Gemini suggested dinner with her friend.

This time she agreed.

And so she met Dean King, and almost fell in love.

"I'm getting an abortion and
you're
paying for it," Beth
announced, tossing back her long black hair, a defiant expression on
her young face.

"
What
?" Michael replied, in shock. She'd invited him over
to the house, and
this
is what she had to lay on him.

"You heard," she said, as if she'd casually mentioned she was
about to get a root canal.

"You
gotta
be kidding me," he said, pacing around the room.
"I only slept with you once, and that was months ago."

"We did it twice in one night," she corrected. "You knocked me up,
and now
you're
paying to get rid of the kid."

Christ! How had he ever gotten involved with this wild child? She
was fucking insane! And so was he for going anywhere near her.

"What the hell makes you think it's mine?" he demanded.

She threw him a scornful look. "Of course it's yours. If you don't
believe me, we can take a blood test."

He stared at this seductive child-woman who was accusing him of
knocking her up, and attempted to get his thoughts straight
Everything seemed to have happened so fast. It wasn't Tina who'd been
carried out to the ambulance that fateful night a year ago, it was
the twins' aunt Gloria. She'd suffered a fatal heart attack in the
middle of a sexy tango with Max. Poor Max had been plagued with guilt
ever since.

After Gloria's demise, the twins were on their own. The lawyer
representing Gloria's estate had arranged for them to remain in the
house next door, with Max and Tina as their legal guardians.

By this time Michael had found a smarl apartment and moved out.
He'd decided it wasn't worth trying to get back in with Vito Giovanni
when he could be making good money elsewhere, so he'd taken the job
Gus had offered him, and after a few successful runs, he'd become
part of Gus's crew in the Lucchese family.