In the Arms of the Wind (25 page)

“Says who?” he demanded with heat. “If your goddamned sisters…”

“I say so, Danny,” she said. “I am not a virgin and you can call me old-fashioned, but I firmly believe only virgins should wear white dresses on their wedding day.”

He thought about that for a moment. “Not old-fashioned,” he said. “Principled.”

“But the wedding cake? Five tiers sounds about right.”

His face crinkled. “Tuxedo and cucumber bun?”

She laughed. “What about just a nice suit?” she countered.

“Don’t own one, but yeah, that works for me.”

“I draw the line at no socks though,” she said, referring to his propensity for not wearing socks.

“What about underwear?” he asked. “Do I gotta wear underwear?”

“No one is going to pull your pants down to check your weenie so that’s not a deal breaker.”

“No one?” he asked, turning his face toward her to wag his brows.

“No one other than me, big boy,” she replied.

“When?” he asked.

“When would you like it to be?” she queried, knowing he meant the wedding date.

“As soon as possible,” he said firmly.

“Before you wind up getting me pregnant?” she joked, and when the smile slid from his face, she reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. “Sweetie, it’s all right if you don’t want kids.”

Once more he jerked the car into a parking lot—this time of a strip mall—and Duncan rolled in right behind him. He didn’t turn off the car but turned in the seat to face her.

“I can’t give you kids, Kaycee,” he said without preamble. He took a deep breath and the words came tumbling out like a lanced wound. “I had a vasectomy right after Kathleen and I married. I knew that first month that it wasn’t going to work out between us. I was miserable, she was miserable. The last thing our marriage needed was a child forcing us to stay together. It wouldn’t have been fair to bring an innocent spirit into that kind of hellish situation and she wouldn’t have made a good mother anyway.” He plowed a hand through his hair. “I am crazy about Bradan and Dolyn but I’ve never wanted kids of my own. I always feared they’d turn out like Roseen. If knowing this is the deal breaker…”

She shook her head. “It’s not.” When he started to protest, she put her fingers over his lips. “No, Danny, it’s not an issue.”

He kissed her fingers then drew her into his arms. “Baby, I love you so much,” he whispered against her mouth.

Once more the kisses became fiery and once more he couldn’t get them out of the parking lot quick enough—Duncan following a few car lengths behind. By the time they reached Johnny’s condo, they were twitching like horny teenagers and barely made it into the bedroom before they were tearing each other’s clothes off.

* * * * *

“My, my, my,” Moirrey said the next morning at the breakfast table when she spied the engagement ring. “Leave it to Dan-o to buy the gaudiest ring in the store.”

“It is garish, isn’t it, Mama?” Roseen asked haughtily.

“Define garish, Roseen,” Danny said without missing a beat as he took four slices of bacon from the maid’s platter.

Kaycee said nothing. The beatific smile on her face and the well-sated look in her eyes revealed volumes on how she felt.

“Congratulations again,” Johnny said. He slathered a huge dollop of mayhaw jelly on his toast. “When’s the wedding going to be?”

“I’m sure we’ll be subjected to a showy monstrosity of a ceremony with the Monsignor officiating and Father Sean joining him at the altar,” Moirrey grumbled.

“Oh I’m sorry, Mrs. Gallagher,” Kaycee said, smiling sweetly, “but you and your daughter aren’t invited so you don’t have to worry about being subjected to anything.”

Both Moirrey and Roseen stared at Danny’s fiancée as though she had lost her mind, their faces scarlet.

“I assume though, that the boys and I are on the guest list,” Johnny said, biting into his toast.

“Naturally. I was hoping you’d be my best man,” Danny replied, “and the boys would serve the altar.”

“Sure!” Bradan and Dolyn said together.

“You most certainly will not!” Moirrey declared. “If Roseen and I aren’t welcome, then I will not allow my sons…”

“They are my sons,” Johnny corrected, “and certainly they will be attending their uncle’s wedding. Maybe if you and Rose had kept a civil tongue in your hateful mouths you would be going too.”

“I will not have this, John!” Moirrey shouted. She turned the full force of her wrath on Kaycee. “You see what you’ve done?”

“All she’s done is tell you that you didn’t have to subject yourself to our monstrosity of a ceremony,” Danny reminded her. “I think that was damned white of her myself.”

“You sick bastard!” Moirrey threw at him, and shot out of her chair so suddenly it crashed to the floor behind her. “I despise you!”

“Feeling’s mutual, you evil bitch,” Danny replied, and ladled a very unhealthy helping of sausage gravy onto the four buttermilk biscuits he’s opened on his plate. He glanced at his nephews. “Sorry, guys.”

The twins snickered. They got up noisily to head off for school, giving their usual high-five seal of approval to their uncle before they ran out.

Kaycee merely grinned as she spooned sugar into her oatmeal. She didn’t look up as Moirrey and her daughter stormed from the room again.

“Good on you, girl,” Johnny said to her. “I love it when Mally gets put in her proper place.”

“She can come if she really wants to,” Kaycee said.

“The hell she can,” Danny growled. “I don’t want her there, and if you hadn’t said something to her, I would have.”

“So when is the grand event?” Johnny asked again.

“We decided on mid-October,” Danny said. “I thought we could take a train ride across Canada and see the changing of the leaves.”

“Sounds good to me. Should I call Monsignor Liam and make the arrangements for you?”

“I’ll do it,” Danny said. “It’s just going to be immediate family, no big guest list, but she is gonna get a five-tier cake.”

“And plenty of French champagne,” Johnny said. “My treat.”

One of the maids came in to tell Danny he had a phone call from his captain. He excused himself to answer, leaving Johnny and Kaycee alone.

“He’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him,” Johnny said as he settled back comfortably in his chair with coffee cup in hand.

“I’m glad because I’m the happiest I’ve ever been despite all the turmoil we’re having,” Kaycee replied.

“Ah yes, the bomb,” Johnny said. “Perhaps his captain has news about that this morning.”

Kaycee chewed on her bottom lip for a moment then leaned forward with her elbows on the table. “Is he in a lot of danger, Johnny?” she asked.

“No more than he ever is,” Johnny replied. “
Daideo
has men on him Danny doesn’t even know about. There were two cars behind Duncan last evening. We’re not going to let anything happen to Danny.”

Kaycee’s eyes bore into his. “You love your brother very much, don’t you?” she asked.

Johnny shifted in his chair. “He’s family,” he answered, looking down at his lap where he pretended to brush away a piece of lint.

“He doesn’t think you love him, Johnny,” she said quietly, and when her host looked up at her, she smiled. “I can tell and—no offense—but he doesn’t know he’s the apple of his grandfather’s eye either.”

“None taken,” Johnny said in a gruff voice, “but I think you’re wrong. Danny knows the old man worships the ground he walks on.”

She shook her head. “No, he doesn’t know that. You’re the big brother and the protector of the family. Sean’s the good-guy priest, and he sees himself as the black sheep no one wants around.” She tilted her head to one side. “You should hear the way he talks about you. His feelings run very deep for you, Johnny.”

A dull red flush spread over Johnny Gallagher’s face and he put up a hand to cough away the sudden tightening in the back of his throat. “Ah, that’s nice of you to tell me,” he managed to say.

“He feels so bad about the problem with Moirrey. There’s nothing there as far as he’s concerned and he knows how it hurts you when she acts the way she does. It goes right to his heart.”

Johnny couldn’t take any more of what she was saying to him. Guilt was lashing him with steel barbs so he placed his coffee cup on the table and stood. “I’ve got a bunch of business to see to,” he said with a stiff smile. “The least of which is that contract for you to sign so you can take over the antiques shop. Have you thought of a name for it yet?”

She nodded. “I think the Gallagher Gallery has a rather nice ring to it, don’t you?”

“You would name it after the family?” he asked. “Don’t you think that would be like waving a red flag at the Feds?”

“They are going to come after me anyway,” she said with a shrug. “Might as well be sooner rather than later.”

“Oh, once they start, they keep right on coming, Kaycee,” he said.

“Let ’em,” she said. “I’m rather looking forward to it!”

Johnny laughed. “
Daideo
was right. You do have spunk, girl.”

“I’ve got a family to protect me now, don’t I, Johnny?” she asked. “Like you protect Danny?”

He stared at her for a short moment then smiled. “Yes, little sister. You can count on it.”

After her future brother-in-law had left her alone at the table, Kaycee released a long, shaky breath. She had kept her wits during her conversation with Johnny Gallagher because she neither liked nor trusted the gangster. The moment she had met him, she’d known he was not a man around whom she wanted to spend much time. Instinct told her John Gallagher bore absolutely no love for his younger brother. If anything, the man hated Danny. Disregarding the fact he seemed to have no love for his wife, male ego being what it was, she was sure it angered him greatly that his wife loved Danny so deeply. That, in and of itself, was enough to make Johnny Gallagher an enemy to be watched.

Kaycee didn’t think Johnny had been behind the attempts on Danny’s life but she couldn’t rule it out either. There was every reason to believe him capable of such villainy and no reason not to. Today, she had put him on notice. She would do or say whatever she needed to in order to keep Danny safe—including lie. And if it meant voicing her suspicions to his grandfather, she would not hesitate.

It was always easier to lure a slimy fly to his ultimate destruction with sugar than vinegar.

She turned her head to watch Moirrey walking past the dining room with Roseen in tow. When Moirrey stopped to give Kaycee a hard look, Kaycee smiled.

“God, I hate you,” Moirrey hissed.

“Bite me,” Kaycee said sweetly, smiling.

Roseen stuck her tongue out at Kaycee, Moirrey flipped her the bird, and then mother and daughter continued on.

“And there’s another one to be watched,” she said softly.

Instinct again nudged Kaycee and she thought of the poisonous venom she’d seen in Moirrey’s eyes when she’d tattled about Danny’s ongoing affair with Rosemary Adams. There had been loathing in those green eyes, twisted disgust on the sensual lips when she spoke of the older woman. How steeped in the deadly lifestyle of her husband might Johnny’s wife be? She wondered. Deep enough to hire someone to do away with a hated rival? Having lived with Johnny for nearly twenty years, Moirrey was bound to know people who—well—knew people who did lethal things. Was it possible Rosemary’s death had less to do with what she did for a living as who she was doing? What was it she had said?

“She had her filthy hands all over him, touched him in places she had no right to touch him!”

Her mind went further back to Danny’s words,
“They cut off her fingers.”

When she’d asked him why, he had said it could have been for…

“Revenge,” Kaycee said.

“What, babe?” Danny asked as he came into the dining room.

“Nothing,” she said. “Just talking to myself.”

“First sign of senility, you know,” he warned then came to her chair and leaned down to kiss her. “Gotta run. There’s been a break in a case Jack and I’ve been working on for over a year. If you need something, ask someone to call Dermot or Duncan Curran. Dunc’s your personal bodyguard and he’ll drive you wherever you need to go. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said.

“You listen to what he says,” Danny stressed.

“I will,” she agreed.

He kissed her once more and then left, leaving her staring at the sweet way his ass moved in the tight pants he wore.

She shook her head to an offer of more coffee from the maid and instead made a decision she hoped was the right one.

“Can I get Mr. Xavier’s number from you?” she asked the maid.

“Of course, Miss Connor. I’ll write it down for you.”

A few minutes later with the number in hand, Kaycee closed the door to the bedroom she shared with Danny and dialed the number.

“Yes, this is Kaycee Connor, Danny Gallagher’s fiancée,” she identified herself to the woman who answered the call. “May I please speak with…” She lifted her head. “
Daideo
.”

* * * * *