Diamond (17 page)

She sighed, and then cried, and then moved along with him as the ride began.

Lost in the touch of the woman and her body, the eagle took flight and took his mate with him.

Hours later, they lay together in a tangle of arms and legs and listened to the rain until it was no more.

“Look,” Tommy argued. “It’ll happen. I promise. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll check on it first thing when we get back off this trip.”

“Give me a break,” Diamond said, lowering her voice to a harsh whisper. “I’ve been hearing that old excuse for months. You know exactly what’s going on. It’s what you’ve spent months engineering. I’m not stupid, Tommy, just fed up. Do me a favor and just shut up.”

He was angry that she saw through his every excuse, yet unwilling to admit anything to her that could be held over his head. He held a grudging admiration for the woman, because she had yet to run to Jesse and tell him about their ongoing feud.

Jesse believed everything Tommy told him about the record companies and their hesitance to give Diamond a contract. Jesse also believed that the crazy rumors and the press he was getting regarding his association with Diamond were nothing more than just that—bad press. And if Tommy’s conscience pricked him every now and then about all the lies and deceit he was weaving, it wasn’t enough to make him stop.

Tommy glared at her. “No one tells me to shut up,” he said.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, God! The ultimate male threat.” Her voice was thick with sarcasm. “I
already
told you to shut up. It’s obvious you’re not going to, but that’s another matter entirely and one I have no desire to enforce.” She turned and shrugged, unable to resist one last thrust. “Although we both know I could…if I so chose.”

He was livid. She’d just reminded him that when push came to shove, she could put him on his butt. It was the last straw. He shouted at her just as Jesse walked into the room. “You don’t know shit!”

Jesse stopped in the doorway, watched Diamond’s face as she sailed past him without a word, and then looked back at Tommy.

Tommy’s face paled perceptibly. He hadn’t meant to lose his temper. And he certainly hadn’t meant for Jesse to overhear him if he did.

“What the hell’s going on in here?” Jesse asked. “I leave you two alone for five minutes to take a call, and I come back to this?”

Tommy began to talk. At that, he was a master. “I tried to tell her she has to be patient. I tried to tell her that fame doesn’t come packaged for sale at the local Quick Stop. But no! She doesn’t believe me. She thinks I’m backpedaling on her, Jesse. And I swear it’s not so!”

Jesse stared. Tommy’s words rang true. Jesse knew too well how long it took—sometimes forever—before a lucky break would come a singer’s way.

He shrugged. “I’ll talk to her,” Jesse said. “Let yourself out.” He started out the door, then stopped and turned. “And don’t ever let me hear you curse at her again okay?”

“Sure, Jesse,” Tommy said. “You know me. I just lost my temper. I forgot and yelled at her just like I yell at you. I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear.”

Jesse nodded and grinned. It was true that from time to time, he and Tommy fought like a pair of caged roosters.

“I know,” Jesse said. “And I appreciate all you’re doing for her, Tommy.”

Tommy’s eyes narrowed as Jesse left the room. “I don’t think that’s possible,” he muttered.

Launch day arrived. It was Jesse’s last trip for the year, and it dawned gray and gloomy. With it came another in the series of arguments that Diamond and Jesse had been having for over a week.

In actuality, Diamond wasn’t arguing, and Jesse was only pleading, but it still resulted in the same thing. He had to leave, and she refused to go with him.

“I don’t understand,” Jesse said. “You can’t let a little thing like this stuff get to you,” he said, shoving a handful of newspaper clippings beneath her nose. “Hell, darlin’, I don’t usually even read this stuff, and you’ve gone and made a damned issue of them.”

“You’re just not listening, or you would understand,” Diamond said. “Half of your fame is your talent, the other half the way your fans respond to you, right?”

He flung the clippings into the air, refusing to answer her with so much as a look.

“You know I’m right. You’re just too stubborn to admit it,” she said. “Besides, I don’t want to go on the road and hang back waiting just to have a minute now and then to ourselves. And if I go, where will I sleep, hunh? You know as well as I do that the tour bus is not fixed up for separate quarters. My presence will only embarrass the boys and make them resentful.”

“What about my suggestion to fly with you and let the band travel on the bus?” he argued.

“Right! Separate yourself even more from your fans and the band. That’ll really give the papers something to rant about.”

She couldn’t get the memory out of her mind of all that fan mail Tommy had shown her. Letters upon letters begging Jesse to get back to his roots, to let go of a woman who was only trying to ruin him. Pleading for him to remember what country music and the singers who sang it were all about. They sang of family and values, of love gone wrong, and the roots from whence they came. Many of Jesse Eagle’s fans had decided that he’d gone far wrong by moving a woman into his life who was only using him for her own benefit.

Diamond feared that her presence in Jesse’s life was ruining everything he’d worked so hard to build.

“Dammit, Diamond, I don’t want to leave you,” he said, and grabbed her.

The pressure of his embrace was almost frightening. She sensed his indecision. And when he sighed and buried his face in her hair, she knew he’d accepted her terms.

He drew back. For long moments they stared into each other’s eyes. Then he cupped her face in his hands, letting his thumbs gently trace the curve of her lower lip.

“I love you, darlin’,” he said. “And when I come back, we talk about us, okay?”

His announcement caught her unaware. The implications were plain, and the promise behind his eyes brought tears to her own.

“As God is my witness, Jesse Eagle, I love you, too.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his shirt front. And when they stepped away from each other, she had a sudden urge to shout, “Wait for me,” and to pack and go with him. But she ignored it, as well as the look on his face.

Diamond turned away and went to make the call to Tommy, telling him that Jesse was ready to go. She scoffed at the panic filling her heart as she dialed the number. Nothing was going to happen to Jesse. He was only going on tour with his band. He was going to play his music and sing his songs and come back, tired but happy.

“Come and get him,” she said, unwilling to give Tommy time to question her or argue the issue again. It was between her and Jesse, and the decision had been made without Tommy’s help.

“Is everyone packed?” Tommy asked.

“We’re waiting,” she said.

Tommy cursed and hung up the phone. It wasn’t until the bus arrived at Jesse’s ranch, and he saw the anger on Jesse’s face and the pain on hers, that he knew. And for one moment, he regretted what had to be done. But later, he thought, Jesse would thank him for everything.

Diamond watched the bus drive away until there was nothing left but a faint trail of dust hanging in the air.

“Will there be anything you’ll be needing, Miss Diamond?” Henley asked. “I don’t like the idea of you being alone here.”

“I’m fine,” she said. “He’ll only be gone a week. Before I came, you always had this time free. There’s no reason to change anyone’s plans because of me. Besides,” she said, smiling gently at the worry on his face, “I took care of myself a long time before I knew that you or Jesse ever existed. I can surely manage seven days.”

“Still…” Something in her manner made him hesitate.

“I don’t want to hear any more about it,” she said. “Thanks to you I have my driver’s license. If I need anything, all I have to do is go get it myself. Go visit your brother and leave me in peace, Joe Henley.”

He sighed, nodded, and smiled.

Diamond called out as he walked, away. “I’ll miss you, Joe. Be careful and be safe.”

The warmth her words elicited within him stayed for a long, long time. He was still remembering them when he came back the day before Jesse was due home and found the house empty and everything she’d brought with her gone.

“No, no, no!” Henley couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The note was there.
Dear Jesse,
it began. He felt as if he were trespassing as he continued to read, although he knew that if there was a chance of finding her before Jesse returned, he had to take it.
I’ll never forget what you did for me, or the love we shared. Saying good-bye is never easy. Seeing you when I said it would have been impossible. Forgive me for my cowardice. Be happy.
It was signed
Diamond.

The P.S. at the bottom of the page was addressed to Henley. Tears quickened at the corners of his eyes as he read.
I’ll miss you, Joe. Take care of Jesse for me. You can pick up Jesse’s car at the bus station. I locked his keys inside so you’ll have to take the extra set to get in.

Henley swiped a shaky hand across his face. The note was too organized, the emotion too sparse. There was too much unsaid between the lines. He had a terrible suspicion that Jesse’s manager could explain a lot but knew there was no way in hell of that ever happening.

He laid the note back on the kitchen table where he’d found it and went to call a cab. Maybe when he got the car he’d find something inside that would tell him where she’d gone.

“What do you mean, she’s gone?”

Seeing the disbelief on Jesse’s face was painful. Henley simply shook his head and handed him the note. It had been all he could do to stand firm when Jesse had burst through the front door shouting, “I’m home,” and be the only person present to greet him.

Jesse’s heart skipped a beat as Henley handed him the note. He read it through twice and still thought it was a joke. “But she was here every time I called except the night before last. I didn’t think…”

He headed for the stairs, taking them two at a time. He opened the door to her room and then stopped at the doorway, staring blindly at the array of clothing she’d left spread across her bed. It was all there. The green sequined dress, the red minidress she’d worn the night of the awards ceremony, along with everything else he’d ever bought her. She’d left everything behind, including him.

A terrible blackness began to envelop him as acceptance finally dawned. Rage swept through him, coupled with a pain so fierce he couldn’t speak. He walked out and slammed the door behind him, then blindly went from room to room, opening doors and slamming them shut.

The music room was last. The guitar she’d borrowed still lay on the couch where she’d left it. He walked inside, picked it up by the neck, and started to shake. Unaware of the tears running down his face, he swung. The guitar splintered against the desk. Over and over, he struck until wood flew and strings broke, along with Jesse’s heart.

Henley stood in the hall and tried not to make a sound. He didn’t want Jesse to know that he could hear his harsh, choking sobs coming from inside the music room. He didn’t want his boss to know that he, too, was crying.

Henley waited and watched. And when there were no more sounds coming from inside, he quietly opened the door and then stared in shock. The room was in shambles, and Jesse was nowhere in sight. The French doors that led out onto the patio were ajar. Henley dashed through but was too late to stop the inevitable. Jesse was gone—and so was his car.

Fear came over him as he looked back at the room and imagined Jesse’s state of mind. Driving now would be like playing Russian roulette behind the wheel.

He grabbed the phone and dialed, taking long, deep breaths as he calmed himself enough to be coherent. What he wanted was to rage at the injustice of it all.

Tommy answered the phone and then paled as Henley began to talk. For the first time since his assault on Diamond Houston began, he had regrets. But they weren’t for what he’d done to her. They were for the fact that he might just have cut off his nose to spite his face. If Jesse went and wrapped himself around a tree, ending his life and career, where did that leave Tommy?

“Don’t worry,” he told Henley. “I’ll find him. I’ll take care of everything. I always do.” He patted his pocket for a cigarette as he headed for the door, and then cursed when he remembered he was out. “What the hell,” he said to himself. “Who knows? I just might quit again.”

It took a week for Jesse to sober up enough to talk. When he did, he wouldn’t stop. And the questions he kept asking were making Tommy more nervous by the hour.

“Hell no, I didn’t do anything to her!” Tommy yelled. “Why is everything always my fault?” He stood toe to toe with Jesse, aware that if he faltered, Jesse would suspect his duplicity.

“I heard you two fighting more than once, that’s why,” Jesse said. “And Mack has already confessed to me what he did. The only saving grace he has is that they made their peace before she left.”

Jesse spun on his heel and flung his coffee cup across the room. It shattered in bits, leaving a small, damp stain on Tommy’s office wall.

“Where are you going?” Tommy asked, panic filling his voice as he watched Jesse heading for the door.

“To find her,” he said. “And so help me God, when I do, if I find out you had anything to do with her leaving, I’ll kill you myself. Do you understand?”

Tommy spit and cursed, thrusting papers in Jesse’s face as he shouted wildly. “You can’t leave. You have personal appearances to make. You need to plug your new album. It comes out in less than a week.”

“I don’t give a damn about that album, or anything else. You want to plug the album, then do it.”

“You’ll ruin your reputation if you don’t show.”

“According to you, it’s already ruined,” Jesse said. Then he walked out and slammed the door behind him. Tommy cursed until he ran out of words and then slumped down into his chair, burying his head in his hands.

“I’d kill myself, but I’m too damned tired,” he muttered. He opened his appointment book, took a deep breath, and began to make the calls. It might take all night, but he was going to get out of this smelling like a rose or his name wasn’t Tommy Thomas.