Scarlet Nights (38 page)

“You have! And that’s all I’m going to say. Now go! If your mother sees me she’ll make me move the porta potties.”

“No wonder you and my father get along so well. You should get him to show you the places where he hides from my mother. Okay, go, but tonight I mean to get to the bottom of this.”

Mike raised an eyebrow. “I mean to get right down to the bottom of everything.”

Sara grinned. “Okay, keep your secrets … for now.”

He kissed her cheek again, then hurried off.

Mike didn’t get back to the apartment until midnight. Sara was sitting in the living room in the big chair, sewing on her lap, and sound asleep. He didn’t want to wake her, so he went into the bathroom and took a long shower. When he was clean, he went back to the living room and scooped up Sara, sewing and all. She snuggled against him, only half awake.

He put her on the bed and picked up what she’d been sewing. It was a triangle-shaped piece of translucent black silk with little disks of gold-colored metal sewn along the top. “What is this?”

Sara rolled onto her back. “A veil for Joce. She said that people, even strangers, were asking more about when the babies are due than were listening to her readings. We thought that maybe if she put a veil over her face she’d look more mysterious.”

Mike stretched out beside her. “Like Mitzi,” he murmured.

“I did think of her.”

“To hide her big nose and no lips.”

“Joce is too pretty to want to cover anything, but I think it’ll help keep her identity a secret. So are you ready to tell me what you and Luke have been up to today?”

When he didn’t answer, she looked at him, and saw that he was asleep. She turned out the light, pulled the cover over both of them, and snuggled into his arms.

26

M
IKE WAS DOING
his best to stay calm, but it wasn’t easy. He’d been told that Stefan Vandlo was still three hours away, taking his time, sitting in restaurants, flirting with waitresses, and boring the men who were trailing him. “He has a couple of bodyguards with him, so watch out,” one of the agents told Mike when they stood in line for lemonade. “And one guy was his cell mate in prison, and he looks like he’s been in a lot of fights.”

As Mike sipped his drink, he looked around to see who could help him if he needed it. He could easily spot the men who’d done some training, but their problem was that they thought that if they built up their biceps and spent thirty minutes on a treadmill they were ready for anything. He didn’t see one man who could actually move his body in a way that would be needed if there really were a fight.

This morning at six he’d been awakened by his mother-in-law pounding on the bedroom door. Sleepily, he said, “I guess she knows the way to open your front door.”

“Of every house in town,” Sara said tiredly. The day before had been a long one, and she’d have liked nothing more than to spend a few hours in bed with Mike.

“You two need to get dressed,” Ellie called through the door. “Mike, you can’t run around in Levi’s for a second day in a row. You must put on your kilt.”

“But Luke—”

Sara knew what he was going to say. “Luke was in jeans yesterday because he was setting up a booth. You’d better do what my mother says or she’ll be in here.” She was referring to the fact that Mike hadn’t bothered to put on any clothes after last night’s shower.

Grumbling, Mike pulled on a pair of trousers and left the room.

“Aren’t you a sight for the morning,” Ellie said, looking at his bare chest.

Mike closed the bedroom door and Sara snuggled back under the covers. She’d thought that she’d be nervous about meeting Greg today, but she wasn’t. She knew her confrontation with him was going to send him into a rage. In the past, she’d been afraid of his temper. She hadn’t realized that then, but she had been. In fact, she’d done a lot of things she didn’t want to just to keep him from getting angry—and to keep him from hurting her with his many little put-downs.

Why hadn’t she stood up to him? she wondered. Why hadn’t she told him she wouldn’t be spoken to like that? But she knew that at the time it had all been so gradual, and with the huge amount of work he’d given her to do, she hadn’t had time to think about what was going on. Every time she protested what he was saying or doing, he would tell her
she
was the problem. “This is why you’ve never made money, Sara,” Greg used to say. “This is why you live in your cousin’s house and don’t have a place of your
own.” At the time, his words had made her want to try harder, but now she couldn’t understand why she didn’t tell him what he could do with his complaints.

There was one thing she was very glad for and that was that she’d let Tess oversee her finances. She’d never told anyone, but Greg had repeatedly tried to get her to sign papers giving him power of attorney over everything she owned. “It’s for your own good,” he’d said, his tone implying she didn’t know much about anything. “You know I love you and that I want only the best for you. I’m just afraid that if anything happened to me you’d be left with nothing.” “How does my giving you all I own now leave me with nothing if you died?” Sara’d asked, as she was genuinely confused. “See what I mean?” Greg said. “You don’t understand even the most basic things about finance.” But Sara hadn’t signed anything because she knew she’d have to face Tess.

Her mother’s voice brought her back to the present. “And you, missy,” she heard her mother say with a tap on the door, “unless you want me to come in there and dress you, I suggest you get up now.”

“So much for being treated like an adult,” Sara murmured as she got her clothes and went to the bathroom.

When she came out, still only partially dressed, she caught a glimpse of plaid in the living room and went to see it. Her mother had helped Mike dress in the full regalia of a Scotsman. It wasn’t the dress kilt that he’d wear on the last day, but the one he’d have on when he competed in the games. His big shirt had gathered sleeves, and the kilt reached to his knees. He had on thick Scottish brogues with woolen socks that went over his muscular calves. He was gorgeous! He looked like something out of a storybook about conflicts of honor. She could almost hear the bagpipes and smell the heather.

“Oh, my,” Sara said.

“Yeah,” Mike said with a grimace. “Girl’s clothes.”

Sara looked at her mother, and they smiled at each other. There was nothing on earth more masculine than a man in the ancient Scottish costume.

Mike was looking at Sara in the long mirror that Ellie had set against the wall, and he read what was on her face.

“There’s no time for that,” Ellie said. “You two’ll have to wait until tonight.”

“Since when did you ever wait for what you want?” Mike asked his mother-in-law.

Ellie laughed. “Not often. Sara! Go put on your skirt. I’ll give him back to you after the first battle. If the Fraziers haven’t mutilated him, that is.”

“Hmph!” Sara said. “My Mike will pulverize them.” With her nose in the air, she went back to the bedroom.

Mike was looking after her and smiling until he saw Ellie glaring at him in the mirror.

“You hurt her and—”

“I know,” Mike said. “I’ve already been warned. You won’t mind that she lives with me in Fort Lauderdale for a few years until we move back here?”

“All I want is for my girls to be happy.” Bending, she pulled on the hem of his kilt. “Everything will go all right today, won’t it?”

“As soon as Sara sees Anders and tells him she’s married, she’ll be taken away from here until they’re all in custody.”

Ellie nodded as she adjusted Mike’s shirt, and he was quiet because he could see that she had more to say. “About the marriage … I know you did it for the case, but—”

Mike smiled at her. “That was just an excuse. There’ve been a lot of women I could have saved by marrying them, but I didn’t. Stop worrying. Concern yourself about what those giant cousins of mine are going to do to me today.”

“Now
that
I’m not worried about,” Ellie said as she turned away, but then she went back and hugged Mike. “Thank you. It was horrible to have to stand by and see my daughter so unhappy after the way Brian treated her. I understood why she took up with a jerk like Greg Anders, but I still didn’t like it.”

Mike said nothing. Later, as he bandaged Sara’s hand to hide her wedding rings, he thought that if Ellie knew the truth about Brian Tolworthy and what had been done to him and why, she’d probably kidnap her own daughter and hide her away somewhere safe. That’s just what Mike wanted to do, but he knew that as long as the Vandlos were out there, Sara would never be out of danger. Mitzi was well known for taking revenge, and if only her son were in custody, she would go after Sara for destroying what had taken them a long time to put into motion.

Today, the main goal for all of them was to catch Mitzi Vandlo.

When Mike got to the fairgrounds, his curiosity about the Fraziers came into play. Size didn’t always make the best fighters. Luke had told him the basics of the mock sword fight he was to perform with the Fraziers today, but Mike wasn’t interested in that. What he wanted to know was how the Fraziers felt about Sara. She spoke of them with affection, but then she sounded that way about everyone in Edilean. Even while she complained about her sisters, you could hear the love in her voice.

The way she talks to me, Mike thought and couldn’t help his smile.

Minutes before, he’d reminded Sara that she wanted to tell Colin Frazier what she thought about his not telling her that Greg Anders was having affairs. Mike wanted to see how the oldest Frazier son reacted to being bawled out by a woman half his size.

Surreptitiously, Mike made his way around the fairgrounds as he followed Sara. Twice, he gave a slight nod to men he knew were
there undercover. When Sara reached Colin, Mike stepped into the shadows.

He had to admit that it was amusing to watch Sara talking to Colin. As she talked to the huge young man, her head was so far back it was almost touching her spinal column. Colin kept his eyes on her and seemed to be giving her his total attention. But when he glanced to the side and saw a wooden crate beside one of the rides, he took Sara’s arm and led her there. From the way she didn’t stop talking as she stepped up on the crate, Mike thought it was something they’d done many times before.

Two rides over from them was a Ferris wheel; Colin was facing it, and Sara had her back to it. Mike heard a yell and saw a red snow cone dropping down from the sky, and it looked like it was going to hit Sara. Mike started to leave his hiding place, but then Colin put his hands on Sara’s waist and moved her to the right, her feet not touching the ground. The snow cone splattered on the ground, inches from where she’d been standing, then Colin set her back on the crate and kept listening.

Grinning, Mike started to move away. He’d seen what he’d wanted to: Sara was being protected. But before he could move, Colin looked straight into Mike’s eyes. He’d known all along that Mike was there and watching.

There was a question on Colin’s face, asking if he’d passed the test. Mike gave a nod, then slipped away into the crowd. If he was to have cousins, he could do worse. The fight that was to take place in about an hour was going to be more interesting than he’d originally thought.

Sara was sitting on the bleachers, wedged between three women from her church. Two benches below her, Ariel was sitting beside her youngest brother, Shamus, and Luke was making his way toward Sara.

Below, on the large open field was Mike, looking so very handsome in his kilt and voluminous shirt. He was holding what Sara knew was a broadsword, a heavy weapon that weighed about thirty-five pounds. From the way he was letting the tip of it lie in the dirt, it seemed to be almost too much for him.

Circling him, and wearing kilts that Sara had made for them last year, were three of the giant Fraziers. Sara knew that the idea was to re-create some battle where the single, lone soldier had given up his life for his clan, but right now she didn’t like that story. Every year the Fraziers participated in this, and she knew that they loved the boos and hisses aimed at them. This afternoon they’d redeem themselves as they played valiant warriors who won against the enemy, but this game was meant to put tears in people’s eyes, to remind them of what the Scots had gone through in their history.