Midnight in Ruby Bayou (25 page)

“You're worth appreciating,” he said casually. “So, what's your interpretation of this?” He gestured to the next display, which held a small, jeweled sculpture that looked to him like a Chihuahua plugged into an electric socket. “Nope,” he said, covering her eyes. “No fair reading the card.”

She was still laughing when a guard approached. “There you are, Ms. Donovan. A Mr. Anthony Kerrigan has been looking for you.”

Walker felt Faith's body stiffen. He removed his hand from her eyes. Her skin was pale as bone, the way it had been when she sat down to dinner last night. A shudder went through her that could have been fear. For an instant she leaned toward Walker as though seeking shelter. Then she straightened and turned to the guard.

“Tell Mr. Kerrigan what he already knows,” she said in a clipped voice. “I have no desire to see him. Ever.”

It was too late. Tony was shouldering through the crowd with the carelessness of a man who was used to being bigger and stronger than anyone else around.

“Hiya, babe,” Tony said, reaching toward Faith with the obvious intention of grabbing her for a big kiss. “I had business in Savannah and saw your name in the papers. Lots of fancy jewelry. Bet you could use a little protection.”

She sidestepped him in a move that took her farther away from Walker. She sensed that Walker, like her brothers, was protective of her. Unlike her brothers, Walker was five inches shorter and at least eighty pounds lighter than Tony. Worse, Walker was injured.

And she had bitter experience with how Tony dealt with those who were weaker than he was.

“Good-bye, Tony,” she said.

“Now, don't pout. You know I hate it when you pout.”

“Do I know you?” Walker asked idly.

“Don't let it bother you,” Tony said, dismissing the other man without looking away from Faith. “This is between me and my fiancée.”

“I'm not your fiancée,” Faith said.

“Nothing has changed, baby. I love you and you love me.”

Rage sizzled through Faith, burning away anxiety and fear. She wished she was big enough to pound Tony into paste. “You're wrong. I don't love you and you don't know how to love. It's over, Tony. Good-bye. Don't bother me again.”

Though Faith hadn't raised her voice, heads began to turn. Tony's voice carried well enough to be its own PA system.

“Hey, hey,” Tony said, smiling despite the narrowing of his light blue eyes. He reached out as though to take her arm in his ham-sized hand. “You've had enough time to get over your mad. If you haven't, it's because you won't talk to me, listen to my side. Now, this isn't the best place to do it, but you're not giving me any choice.”

Faith didn't want to be humiliated in front of a room full of fellow professionals. Tony's grin said he knew that as well as she did.

Walker hooked his cane over his own arm and reached out as though to shake Tony's hand. Considering the result, Walker's movement was remarkably subtle. Only the guard noticed and understood why Tony's face lost color. The lumbering nose tackle sucked air through his teeth in reaction to sudden, blinding pain. The guard smiled slightly. Looked like the guy who was harassing the pretty jeweler had bitten off more than he could chew.

With a few steps, Walker “encouraged” Tony to turn his back on Faith. “Hi there. My name is Owen Walker.” Smiling, pumping the other man's big hand, Walker put more pressure on Tony's thumb, bending it back and under until it almost touched the big man's wrist. “Good to meet you. Faith is kinda busy right now, but I'd really like your autograph. I hear you used to be a big football hero. You can tell me all about it outside.”

Tony's mouth opened, but no sound came out.

“Great,” Walker said genially. Against the cover of his body, Walker switched hands without releasing Tony from the nearly paralytic pain of the “come-along” grip. To the people standing around, the big man appeared to be helping the smaller man with the cane walk to the door. “C'mon, pal. I'll buy you a beer.”

Faith watched Tony and Walker leave. She didn't know how Walker had managed to hustle Tony out without a fuss, but the proof was in front of her eyes. He and Walker were going out side by side, with Tony leaning down as though to hear whatever the smiling, soft-voiced Walker was saying.

Even when they were on the street outside the hotel, Walker maintained his grip on Tony's hand. He turned and faced the much bigger man. To anyone watching, they still looked like two friends having a chat on the sidewalk.

“Let me tell you how it's going to be.” Walker's voice was as gentle as his hold on Tony's hand was agonizing. “Faith already knows what you are, so you're not going to apologize to her for being a sorry asshole. You hearing me okay, boy?”

Tony was sweating, but he managed a nod.

“That's real good,” Walker said. “Apparently you didn't hear what Faith told you, so I'm going to go over it again, just to make certain you get it through your thick head. Faith is finished with you. Don't call her. Don't e-mail her. Don't write her. Don't bump into her anywhere in the world. If you see her coming anywhere, anytime, haul your lard butt in the opposite direction. You hearing me?”

Tony nodded. He could still hear, even if he couldn't speak.

“Just so you don't make a mistake as stupid as you are big,” Walker continued easily, “you got the nice one with me. Yesterday Faith put down an Atlantic City mobster with one swipe. She would have ripped off his balls, but I stepped in. Blood makes me puke, you see? So if you're thinking of catching her alone, think again. Her brothers have taught that lady some purely nasty tricks. They work best on big, slow, beefy types like you. Of course, if there was anything left after she was finished with you, I'd feel honor-bound to finish the job, and I purely hate yakking up my guts. Sure as sin, I'd take it out on you. You still with me?”

“Let—go,” Tony managed hoarsely.

“You still with me?” Walker repeated, squeezing.

Tony nodded jerkily.

“Good boy,” Walker said, as though congratulating a particularly dim hound on remembering not to pee on the floor. “This is the only warning you'll get, and one more than Faith wanted you to have. You see, she was looking forward to tearing off your pitiful pecker and shoving it up your nose. Followed by your pea-sized balls. Hear me?”

“Esss.”

The sound was more a hiss than a word, but Walker understood. He waited for a long three-count before he released Tony's hand. Then he watched to see if the other man was truly as stupid as he was big.

Color trickled back into Tony's face, then flooded it with red. “Who the hell are you?”

“Faith's.”

“Her what?”

“Now you're catching on.”

Tony looked at Walker's calm, measuring blue eyes and took a quick step backward. Tony was used to rough-and-tumble games like football.

Walker wasn't playing games.

“I could break you in two,” Tony said.

Walker waited for him to try.

“But I don't fight smaller men,” Tony sneered.

“Just women? Boy, you're a real grade-A chickenshit, aren't you?”

Tony's face darkened. “You're lucky I don't take you apart.”

A gentle smile was Walker's only answer.

“Anything Faith got, she asked for,” Tony said.

“Damn, but you are
dumb
.”

Walker moved as though to turn away. As he did, his cane swung out carelessly and tangled in Tony's feet. A quick jerk, and both men fell in a surprised heap.

At least, that was what it looked like to anyone who was watching. To Tony, the world suddenly turned upside down, his feet flew up, and he was flat on his ass on the concrete, wheezing while Walker tried to scramble back to his feet, using Tony as a floor. Elbow to the throat, knee to the balls, a flying hand to the nose. The seemingly accidental blows all connected before Walker managed to stand upright again.

“You okay?” Walker asked anxiously, bending over Tony for the benefit of the few bystanders who had stopped to watch. “I'm awful clumsy with that cane. Can't seem to get the hang of the damned thing. Here, let me help you up.”

Dazed, Tony let himself be levered to his feet and dusted off with a force that left him breathless. Blood ran from his nose. He couldn't stand straight for the pain throbbing up from his groin in sickening waves. His kidneys ached in a way that told him he was just starting to hurt.

“Let me call you a cab,” Walker said. “You don't want to be walking in this heat.”

Raising his cane, he signaled for a cab and bundled Tony into it. Walker gave the driver a twenty and an address in the roughest part of town before he smiled at Tony. “Good talkin' with you, boy. Say hi to the folks back home.”

Walker slammed the door, smiled at the nice people gathered around, and was careful to limp heavily all the way back into the building.

When Faith saw Walker, she rushed over and put her hands on either side of his face. Her eyes searched him for signs of injury. All she saw was smooth skin, dark silky beard, and eyes the color of lapis lazuli. “Are you all right?”

“Sure thing. Why?”

“Tony can be . . . very difficult.”

“That ol' boy?” Walker smiled and looked surprised. “He was purely apologetic about interrupting you. Said he won't do it again. He was just hoping you were over your mad.”

“I'm not. I never will be.”

Walker smiled despite the rage simmering in his gut when he remembered Tony's words:
Anything Faith got, she asked for.
Those were familiar words. His stepfather, Steve Atkins, had used them every time he slapped Walker's mother around. The excuses for the beatings had varied from a late dinner to T-shirts that weren't clean enough, but the result was always the same.
Anything she got, she asked for.

“Sometimes a good mad is the only thing that gets the job done,” Walker said. “You deserve a lot better than that pile of road apples.”

Faith's smile was shaky, but real. “Yeah. I finally figured that out for myself.”

“I'm surprised one of your brothers didn't figure it out for Tony,” Walker muttered.

“I'm old enough to make my own mistakes and to clean up after them, too.”

Privately Walker thought that Tony was out of Faith's weight class, but he knew better than to say it aloud. She resented the unfairness of life that made men stronger than women. “There you go.”

“This must be my lucky day,” she said. “I just sold that emerald cat and Tony finally got the message.”

Walker smiled. “The cat, huh? To the woman with makeup and scars?”

“No. Some guy who needed a birthday present for his niece.”

Walker's eyebrows went up. “Quite a present. Was it really for his niece?”

“He was seventy years old if he was a day. What do you think?”

“I think his niece is blond and built.”

“So do I.”

T
he jewelry show closed at noon of the third day, which gave the exhibitors plenty of time to pack up and secure their valuables before heading home. Walker spent every minute trying to talk Faith out of going to Ruby Bayou to deliver the necklace and hang around for Mel's wedding.

Kyle's gut was in overdrive. So was Walker's. The more he thought about the dead Seattle street person, the dead Savannah tourist, and the fact that Buddy's knife was clean of everything except steak juice, the less Walker liked any of it. But he didn't want to tell Faith that a murderous knife artist might be after her, so his hands were tied when it came to good arguments to get her to leave.

Faith ignored all of his arguments, good or bad or ridiculous.

Walker didn't give up. He spent the short drive to Hilton Head Island and Ruby Bayou trying to talk her into leaving.

“It's not too late to get you on a plane,” he pointed out. “Hilton Head has a nice little airport not two miles from here. Modern, good landing strip, plenty of room for one of the small corporate jets. I'll deliver the necklace. You can check your shop's inventory personally, just like you were screaming to do before we left.”

“I know what's missing.”

“Kyle and Lianne might have overlooked something. Nobody knows what's in that shop as well as you do.”

“When I tried to stay home in the first place, you and Archer kept pointing out how I promised Mel I'd be at her wedding.”

“That was then. This is now.”

“Now, there's a reasonable argument if I ever heard one.”

“How about this one?” Walker's back was to the wall. “The same folks who knew you were at the expo know you're going to Ruby Bayou. You're safer in Seattle and so are the Montegeaus.”

“I pointed that out to Daddy Montegeau on the phone, just before we left the inn, but he wouldn't hear of it.”