Chapter Seven
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rey stared at his new cook as if she’d suddenly sprouted feathers on her head. His summation of her abilities was suddenly smoke. She was someone he didn’t even know. She was a health-care professional, not a flighty cook, and certainly not the sort of woman to streetwalk as a sideline.
She nodded solemnly. “I figured it would come as a shock,” she told him. She turned her attention back to the EMTs. “Thanks for being so prompt. Think he’ll be okay?”
The female EMT smiled. “I think so. His heartbeat’s stronger, his breathing is regular, and he’s regaining consciousness. Good job!”
She grinned. “You, too.”
They waved and took off, lights flashing, but without turning on the sirens.
“Why aren’t the sirens going?” Rey wanted to know. “He’s not out of danger yet, surely?”
“They don’t like to run the sirens unless they have to,” Meredith told him.
“Some people actually run off the road and wreck their cars because the sirens rattle them. They use the lights, but they only turn on the sirens if they hit heavy traffic and have to force their way through it. Those EMTs,” she added with a smile, “they’re the real heroes and heroines. They do the hardest job of all.”
“You saved Billy Joe’s life,” Jack said huskily, shaking her hand hard. “He’s the best friend I got. Thank you.”
She smiled gently and returned the handshake. “It goes with the job description. Don’t try to keep up with the ambulance,” she cautioned when he went toward Billy Joe’s truck, which still had the key in the ignition. The two men had come together.
“I’ll be careful,” the older man promised.
“Whew!” Leo let out the breath he’d almost been holding, and put up his cell phone. “You’re one cool lady under fire, Meredith.”
She smiled sadly. “I’ve had to be,” she replied.
She glanced at Rey, who looked cold and angry as it occurred to him, belatedly, that she’d played him for a fool.
“I can see what you’re thinking, but I didn’t actually lie to you.
You never asked me exactly what I did for a living.
Of course, you thought you already knew,” she added with faint sarcasm.
He didn’t reply. He gave her a long, contemptuous look and turned away. “I’ve lost my taste for practice,” he said quietly. “I want to go on to the hospital and see about Billy Joe.”
“Me, too,” Leo added. “Meredith…?”
“I’ll go along,” she said. “I’d like to meet that resident I spoke with. He’s very good.”
Rey glanced toward her. “You’ll get along. He keeps secrets, too,” he said bitterly, and got behind the wheel.
Leo made a face at Meredith, opening the third door of the big double-cabbed truck so that she could sit in back. He put the gun cases in the boot, in a locked area, and climbed in beside Rey.
* * *
The resident turned out to be a former mercenary named Micah Steele. He was married to a local girl, and he’d gone back to school to finish his course of study for his medical license.
“I couldn’t very well carry a wife and child around the jungles with me,” Micah told her with a grin.
He was tall and big, and not at all bad-looking.
She could picture him with a rifle in one arm.
But now, in a white lab coat with a stethoscope thrown carelessly around his neck, he seemed equally at home.
“When’s Callie due?” Leo asked.
“Any minute,” he said, tongue-in-cheek. “Can’t you see me shaking? I’m the soul of self-confidence around here, but one little pregnant woman makes me a basket case!”
“Callie’s quite a girl,” Rey agreed, smiling at the big man.
Micah gave him a look. “Yes, and isn’t it lucky for me that you hardly ever went into her boss Kemp’s office for legal advice, while she was still single?”
Rey pursed his lips. “Kemp eats scorpions for breakfast, I hear. I like my lawyers less caustic.”
“Last I heard, the local bar association had you down as a contagious plague and was warning its members to avoid you at all costs,” Micah replied wickedly.
“I never hit any local lawyers.” Rey looked uncomfortable. “It was that Victoria lawyer, Matherson,” he muttered. “And I didn’t even hit him that hard. Hell, he’s lucky I wasn’t sober at the time! Otherwise, he’d have had twice the number of stitches!”
Meredith listened to the repartee with wide, fascinated eyes, but Rey wouldn’t meet her eyes and Micah, too, cleared his throat and didn’t pursue the subject.
“Matherson took a client who accused us of assault,” Leo volunteered.
“Cag had hit him, several times, after he got drunk and assaulted Tess, who’s now Cag’s wife.
But the bounder swore that he was the injured party, that we falsely accused him and all took turns pounding him.
He convinced a jury to award him damages.
Not a lot of money,” Leo added solemnly, “but the principle was what set Rey off. He was in a bad mood already and he had a few too many drinks at Shea’s Bar, out on the Victoria road.
To make a long story short,” he added with a chuckle, “Matherson was having a quiet beer when Rey accused him of handling the ex-employee’s case for spite because he lost an argument with us over Tess when he was handling her inheritance.
Matherson took exception to Rey’s remarks, and the two of them set about wrecking the pretty stained-glass window that used to overlook the parking lot. ”
“Used to?” Meredith fished, sensing something ominous.
“Yes, well, Matherson made a rather large hole in it when Rey helped him into the parking lot the hard way,” Leo concluded.
Micah Steele looked as if it was killing him not to burst out laughing.
“He,” Leo jerked his thumb toward Steele, “had to remove quite a number of glass particles from Matherson’s rear end. And we got sued again, for that!”
“But the jury, after hearing Kemp’s masterful summation of our grievances,” Rey interrupted, “decided that Matherson was only entitled to the cost of the repair job on his butt. Shea had insurance that replaced the stained-glass window with one of comparable age and exclusivity.” Rey smiled smugly.
“And the judge said that if she’d been sitting on the first case, the rat Matherson was representing would have gotten a jail sentence. ”
Leo chuckled. “Only because Kemp put Tess on the stand and had her testify about what really happened the night Matherson’s client took her on a date. The jury felt that Rey was justifiably incensed by the former verdict.” He glanced at Meredith wryly.
“Yes, but I understand that Shea’s two bouncers meet Rey at the door these days and won’t let him in if he’s not smiling,” Micah contributed.
Rey shrugged. “I never get drunk anymore. I’ve learned to handle aggression in a nonphysical manner.”
The other two men actually walked down the hall. Meredith noticed their shoulders vibrating.
Rey took a step toward Meredith, half irritated by the character assassination job his brother and Micah Steele had just done on him, and even more put out by Meredith’s unmasking.
“You knew I had no idea about your education,” Rey accused Meredith. “Why didn’t you say something at the outset, when Leo first went to the hospital?” he demanded in a low, deep tone. “I may have jumped to conclusions, but you provided the springs, didn’t you?”
She grimaced. “I guess so. But it was only a little jump from telling you about my job to talking about the reason Daddy started drinking. It’s…still very fresh in my mind,” she added huskily. “It’s only been six months. The memories are—” she swallowed and looked away “—bad.”
Unexpectedly he reached out and caught her fingers in his, tugging her closer. The hall was deserted. In the background there were muted bell-tones and announcements and the sound of lunch trays being distributed. “Tell me,” he said gently.
She bit her lower lip hard and lifted her tormented eyes to his curious ones. “Not…yet,” she whispered tightly. “One day, but…not yet. I can’t.”
“Okay,” he said after a minute. “But I’d like to know how you learned to shoot.”
“My brother, Mike, taught me,” she said reluctantly, staring at his broad chest. She wanted to lay her head on it and cry out her pain.
There hadn’t been anyone to hold her, not when it happened, not afterward.
Her father withdrew into his own mind and started drinking to excess at once.
Her job was all that had kept Meredith sane.
She hadn’t been able to let out her grief in any normal way.
Rey’s mind was working overtime. He stared down at her, still holding her fingers entwined tightly with his own, and he frowned as bits and pieces of memory began fitting themselves together.
“Mike. Mike Johns.” His eyes narrowed. “Our cousin Colter’s best friend, and one of Leo’s acquaintances. He was killed…!”
She tried to tug her fingers away. He wouldn’t let her. He pulled her into his arms, holding her there even when she struggled. But a few seconds of resistance were all she had. She laid her flushed cheek against his broad chest and let the tears flow.
Rey’s arms contracted roughly. He smoothed his hand over her nape, caressing, soothing.
“There was a bank robbery in Houston,” he recalled quietly.
“Mike was a cop. He was at the bank with your mother. It was Saturday. He was off duty, but he had his service revolver under his jacket.” His arms tightened as her sobs grew painful to hear.
“He drew and fired automatically, and one of the robbers sprayed fire from one of those damned little automatic rifles in his general direction. He and your mother died instantly…”
Meredith’s fingers dug into his wide back. He rocked her, barely aware of curious glances from passersby.
“Both men were caught. You don’t kill a cop and get away with it in Texas,” he added softly. “They were arraigned and treated to a speedy trial just a month ago. You and your father testified. That was when your father really went off the deep end, wasn’t it, when he had to see the autopsy photos…”