Texas Kissing (38 page)

Bull

I slid down off the horse, gave it a pat and stalked into the store.
Betty’s Fine China Emporium,
said the sign.

Inside, narrow aisles threaded between shelves. The shelves groaned under the weight of plates and teacups in a million different patterns.

I saw the dark-haired asshole halfway down an aisle, dragging a protesting Lily behind him.

I saw red.

I bellowed and charged down the aisle. The shelves shook under my footsteps, setting up a clattering vibration. The aisle narrowed and my shoulders were too wide for it.

Fortunately, the shelves weren’t attached to the floor. I just smashed them out of the way, jolting and sometimes tipping them. Piles of china slid and crashed all around me, drowning out everything else. When the Mafia guy turned to glance over his shoulder, I had to settle for seeing his lips move. “
Shit,”
he mouthed.

He pulled his gun and fired once, twice. A teapot and a stack of side plates exploded. The third bullet grazed the top of my shoulder. And then he ran out of time.

I’d lowered my head to avoid the shots and wound up hitting him in the legs like I was sacking a quarterback. He slammed backwards into another shelf of crockery and the gun fell from his hand. He slumped, limp and groaning.

Suddenly, the store was very quiet aside from the occasional plate sliding off a pile and breaking. Outside, I heard sirens. Probably Calahan and the local police catching up with the driver.

Lily was standing with her back up against a shelf, panting. “You crazy fool,” she told me. “You could have been killed!” Then, in her next breath, “Thank you.”

I rubbed my head and figured that was probably the right time to kiss her, so I did.

Lily

With Antonio and the other thugs who’d come to Gold Lake in custody, Calahan allowed us a day to say our goodbyes.

Meeting your boyfriend’s parents is always hard. Meeting them and telling them what
we
had to tell them...that was on a whole different level.

I cleaned myself up as best I could, put on a blouse and jeans that I prayed made me look respectable and we drove to Dallas: Bull, me and an FBI agent.

The house was a huge white mansion. The driveway alone must have been a mile long, with white fences the whole way and horses grazing in the fields on either side. By the time we pulled up, Bull’s mom and dad were already waiting for us on the doorstep.

His mom was a petite little thing with a cloud of frizzy blonde hair that had been brought firmly under control with about a thousand pins. His dad was in his sixties—a towering man with a thick white mustache.

“Mom,” said Bull. “Dad. This is Lily.”

We’d decided I was going to keep the name, for now.
Tessa
felt like someone else.

His parents hugged me and told me how pleased they were to meet me. His mom bustled off to get drinks and his dad started to show me around and it was only when they saw our worried faces that things...stopped. We’d hoped to get them sitting down but in the end we blurted out most of our story standing in the hallway.

“No,” said Bull’s mom. “No. No, there must be some other way.”

“There isn’t,” said Bull. “Even if Lily’s uncle goes to jail, the rest of the mob will be looking for us. We have to disappear. New names. A new town. We don’t even know where we’ll be going.”

His mom had tears in her eyes, now.
“No!”
she insisted. “Your sister’s not home! Your brother’s in North Dakota, of all places! They need to see you, they need to say goodbye!”

His dad stepped forward and put his arms around her, but she shook him off and grabbed Bull, pulling him into a tearful embrace. I made myself scarce.

Outside, I leaned against the fence, tears welling up in my eyes. How could I ask him to leave all this behind, and with zero notice? I’d never known a real family. I couldn’t even conceive of how difficult it must be for Bull.

His dad quietly leaned against the fence next to me. We both stood staring at the horses.

“Hell of a thing,” said Bull’s dad. “
Hell
of a thing.”

I nodded sadly.

“His brother can maybe get here,” he said. “I just made the call. But his sister I can’t get hold of. You can’t even stay a day or two?”

I shook my head. “There are people who want to kill us,” I told him. “They’re
desperate
for this trial to fail. It’s not just my uncle. If
he
goes down, there are other bosses who are worried he’ll turn
them
in. Too many people have a stake in seeing him walk.” I turned to him. “It’s not too late, for Bull. If I go on from here on my own and he stays in Texas...”

“Is that what
he
wants to do?” asked Bull’s dad.

“No, but—“

“Is this the
same Bull
we’re talking about?”

We exchanged looks and, despite everything, we both smiled.

“All I know is,” he said, “I saw the way he looked at you when he introduced you. My boy’s no stranger to women, but I never saw him look at one the way he looks at you.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry I won’t get a chance to get to know you, Lily. But I’m glad you’re with my son.”

***

Bull’s brother flew in that night—the benefits of having a private jet at your disposal. Bull hadn’t been kidding about him being rich. He was very different to Bull, less hulking muscle, more of a lean panther. But he shared Bull’s good looks. When he heard what was going on, he pulled Bull into a man hug that lasted for long minutes.

Bull’s sister, though, we only managed to reach at the last minute and she couldn’t be there until the next morning. We begged the FBI agent but his orders were clear. And we knew that by staying there, we could be putting the whole family at risk. When we drove away, Bull’s mom tried to hold it together—but at the last minute she broke down and ran after the car, sobbing.

“Keep going,” said Bull in a broken voice. It was the only time I’d ever seen him with tears in his eyes.

I knew we were doing the right thing. That didn’t stop it feeling wrong.

***

We spent three months in a temporary home in Illinois (where, as I’d thought, there were no horses) while the pretrial work was completed. We had to stay out of sight so we went quietly stir crazy. I read a lot. Bull, who wasn’t much for reading, probably would have lost it completely if it hadn’t been for sex. Fortunately, with both of us at home all day, there was plenty of that.

We debated what to do with the bus. I hated the idea of it going to a junkyard, after all my hard work on it. But we couldn’t take it with us—it was far too recognizable. Eventually, we donated it to charity and it wound up as a mobile, drop-in health center for the homeless.

***

On the first day of the trial, I held Bull’s hand and waited for them to appear. I hadn’t been able to eat breakfast that morning. I’d been fearing this day for so long...

Antonio appeared first, his jaw set and his whole body tense with brooding, vicious anger. His eyes searched the courtroom...and then found me.

I squeezed Bull’s hand so hard that any other man would have gasped in pain.

Then my uncle, looking as calm and refined as ever.
He doesn’t believe he can lose,
I realized. As I watched him walk across the courtroom, every memory of my childhood came spinning back to me. I felt as if I was falling backwards through time.

And then he turned and saw me and his gaze pinned me to my seat.
You’re still mine,
it said.
You still belong to this family.

I dropped my eyes, overwhelmed. When I dared to look again, there was a look of victory in his eyes.

I grabbed Bull’s hand in both of mine and felt his warmth and strength pump into me.

I looked back to my uncle...and this time, I met his gaze and held it.

***

There was a whole raft of charges to work through, from racketeering to drug trafficking, but the key to the trial was Annette’s murder. Bull and I sat side-by-side in the courtroom day after day as the case unfolded.

We received death threats—some subtle, some hollered on the courtroom steps. Calahan and his team probably stopped many more of them before they reached us. Each time, I gripped Bull’s hand and carried on.

When it was my turn in the witness stand, I recounted everything that had happened to Annette. When my uncle’s stare got too much for me and I broke down and sobbed, I looked over to Bull for a moment and let those blue eyes fill me with their calm. And then I carried on.

I testified about all the things I’d seen and heard, growing up—contract killings and protection rackets, bribes to politicians and the police. I left the jury in absolutely no doubt as to the sort of man my uncle was.

I testified against Antonio, too, for his part in the killing and for his attempted kidnapping on the bus. At first, he glared contemptuously at me from his seat. As the hours passed, though, his expression started to falter. He was beginning to realize he’d underestimated me.

The trial stretched on for weeks. But when it came time for the jury to deliberate, they took less than a day. They found my uncle guilty on all charges and Antonio guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted kidnapping and assault.

My uncle and Antonio both looked at me as the verdict was read out. And for the first time, it was them who looked scared. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding...and then I felt Bull’s strong arms around me, lifting me up out of my seat and pulling me close.

The trial was over...and our new life could begin.

***

We could pick any names we liked, as long as they weren’t our own. I couldn’t be Lily
or
Tessa, so I chose Mary. After teasing me with
Cletus
for a while, Bull chose Luke.

“Mary and Luke,” I noted. “Very Old Testament.”

Bull shrugged. “They’re good names.
Honest
names.”

We weren’t given a choice as to our destination, but I pleaded with the FBI for somewhere in the country. It was a huge relief when they told us we were going to Montana.

Within a few days, Bull’s comment about honest names made sense: he enrolled with the sheriff’s department as a trainee.

It took a while longer for me to figure out what to do with my life. I couldn’t go back to faking passports and driver’s licenses—it felt like that was tempting fate. I boxed all of that stuff up...but couldn’t quite bring myself to throw it away. Those skills had helped me escape my uncle—without them, I’d never have met Bull.

So I stashed the boxes under our bed and told all my clients I was retiring. I pulled back from all the underground forums I was on and kept just one email address alive, for emergencies. Because, you know. You never know.

A month after we arrived in Montana, I went back to college...but nothing to do with computers, this time. I started training to be a teacher.

“You turned out to be a schoolmarm after all,” said Bull, coming up behind me. I was standing on the porch, looking out over our land. We’d bought a cozy little place on the edge of town with a couple of acres of land. There were trees and a river and we were even talking about getting a couple of horses. It was simple. It was everything we needed.

“Don’t forget, though,” I said, turning around. “I’m a former saloon girl.” And, after checking that no one was in sight, I hooked one shoulder strap of my summer dress off, then the other, and let the whole thing fall to the floor.

Underneath, I was wearing a scarlet bra and panties set. Bull took a step back so that he could fully appreciate the view. He gave a long, low growl of approval. “Woman,” he said, “I hope there ain’t nothing you need to be doing for the next few hours.”