Chapter Twelve

When five o’clock rolled around, Caleb stood outside her door, looking at her like she was a million dollars, or, at the very least, a nice Angus bull. It would matter if she left him for some Caribbean island. How had the guy wrapped himself around her heart already?

“Beautiful, Laura, just beautiful.”

He moved inside the hotel room door and closed it behind him. His lips were on hers before she could even wonder what was on his mind. He spun her around, putting her back against the door.

“Thank you for doing this for me.”

“Doing what?” she asked, breathless from the kiss.

“Coming here to a boring beef conference. Keeping me company. Being you.” He kissed her again, the pressure of his lips and taut body pressing against her.

She could feel his arousal pushing into her stomach. He wanted her, probably as much as she wanted him.

She pushed him gently away, knowing if they continued, they would miss the social hour and the networking Caleb so desperately needed. Wanting a minute to compose herself, she ducked under his arm and went into the bathroom where she grabbed a pristine white washcloth and came back to a ruffled Caleb.

“Lipstick.” She wiped the cloth over his lips, gently removing the lip rouge. “Most men aren’t wearing it this season.” When she finished, she put the cloth back in the bathroom and looked quickly in the mirror to touch up her own lips.

“We better get going,” Caleb said, helping her slip her wrap over her shoulders. “Or I may not leave this room tonight.”

“That would kind of hurt your chances of getting financing.” She bit her lip after she said it. Jasper had told her not to mention anything.

“What was that?” He frowned at her.

“Isn’t that why you’re here? To partner with someone to try to better your herd?”

“Yes, it is.” He rested his hands on her shoulders and frowned. “But why do you sound so angry about it?”

“I’m not. I just feel a little used, I guess.” She fixed her wrap. Not ready to meet his eyes, she double checked that she had her wallet and room key inside her evening bag. “Jasper commented that the best way to get men to talk with you was to have an attractive woman on your arm.” She looked up and smiled her most dazzling smile. “Do I fit the bill?”

“You think—” He shook his head and crossed his suit-clad arms over his chest. “Let’s get this straight here and now, Laura.” He pointed at her. “I asked you along for company. Nothing more. I wanted to get to know you, spend time with you. I don’t need a pretty woman to get me what I need.”

He opened the hotel door and walked out, not even waiting for her to join him.

“Well, this is a great way to start the evening,” she murmured as she chased him down the hall. Dammit to hell, she’d really messed this up.

 

* * *

 

Jasper and his damn loud mouth. Caleb was so angry the collar of his shirt tightened around his neck. He ran a finger under it, not even caring if Laura was behind him still or a million miles away. She thought he was using her to get money. Of all the stupid things.

“Caleb Kirkpatrick, could you slow down, please?” Laura asked.

He stopped short, and she bumped into his back. He turned around to steady her with his hands.

“Get a room, why don’t you?”

He recognized the voice without looking up. When Caleb did look up, he saw Don Peterson, his former partner, strutting down the hall, pulling the waistband of his slacks higher.

“Don.” Caleb held out his hand, still holding Laura around the waist.

“I thought I’d try to catch you. Who’s your date?” Don looked expectantly at Laura.

“Laura Marshall, please meet Don Peterson.”

An odd expression passed across Laura’s face. Why was she gritting her teeth? Don didn’t seem to notice as he quickly pumped her hand.

“You found yourself a pretty gal this time, Caleb.” Don winked. “Are you headed to the happy hour?”

“Yes.” Caleb nodded. “Care to join us?”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

Don led them down the hallway, explaining over his shoulder that he was staying at a different hotel, one with a suite, so he had room to do his wheeling and dealing at the conference.

“I’ll buy the first round.” Caleb held a chair out for Laura at the table. “What can I get both of you?”

“Whatever you’re having,” Laura said.

“Whiskey, straight.” Don set his cowboy hat on the empty chair at the table.

Caleb watched from the bar, curious what they were talking about. Laura wasn’t smiling like she usually did. What was it about Don that bothered her?

The bartender was fast. He took a guess at what she might like and ordered her a glass of white wine. She knew his aversion to liquor, but didn’t all women like wine? The whiskey came next and then his glass of pop. The bartender gave him a tray, and Caleb started a tab.

“Bella Vita,” Don said, as Caleb set the tray at the table and handed Laura her glass of wine. “That’s the restaurant. The best Italian in Chicago.” Don took a quick sip and continued. “I was telling your girl that when I’m in Chicago, it’s the only place I eat.”

“Don travels a lot,” Caleb added. “He’s got business interests all over the country.”

“Chicago is a business hub for certain.” She took a sip of wine.

“Well, I find myself there a lot.” Don shot a look at Laura, who was staring into her glass, running a finger along the base.

What the hell is wrong with her?

Caleb said, “Denver once a year is plenty enough time in the big cities for me.”

“You get used to the size of cities the more you’re there. A person finds the hotspots and sticks to what they like.” Don finished his whiskey and motioned for another. “What do you like about the ranch so far, Laura?”

“The wide-open spaces. And I don’t think I have ever smelled such fresh air.”

She sipped on her wine, and Caleb noticed she failed to meet Don’s eyes as she answered his question. He decided to ignore his lingering anger from her earlier accusation and placed his hand on her knee. She didn’t look his way but instead placed her hand in his.

“What about the animals?” Don asked.

“What about them?” She smiled then, even chuckled a little.

Caleb waved to Jasper and Phyllis as they entered the bar. “You guys are both full of surprises. Who got the woman first?”

“It was a tie.” Caleb stood and added a fifth chair to the table for Phyllis.

“Hi, Don.” Jasper shook Don’s hand and nodded to Caleb.

“You look nice, Phyllis,” Caleb said with a smile.

“Thanks.” The woman beamed. She’d come a long way in a short time.

Caleb watched Laura closely. From her body language, she wanted to be anywhere but here. Was it their argument that had her in such a mood, or was it the company?

The bell sounded for dinner. They were all in the first seating, so they stood and walked to the door. Caleb put her next to him as he went to settle the bar tab. “I’m sorry I got mad at you,” he whispered in her ear and then kissed the area just behind her ear lobe.

“I didn’t handle it well, either, I’m afraid.” She offered him a smile. “It just hurt to think you might be using me.”

“I’m not, Laura.” He gave the bartender a twenty and waved off the change. “Well, I may be.” He put an arm around her waist and led her to the fancy decorated ballroom. “I guess I’m using you to bring some happiness to my life. Is that okay with you?”

She smiled and nodded. “Let’s go eat.”

Caleb was surprised by all the people. The room was filled with men wearing all sorts of attire, from jeans and jackets to a couple guys in tuxedoes. The women were all done up in similar fashion to Laura and Phyllis. Caleb and Laura were assigned a table with two other couples already seated. The men half stood as Caleb pulled out Laura’s chair, and the women smiled at her.

“Caleb Kirkpatrick.” He introduced himself, shaking the men’s hands before he sat down. “This is Laura.”

Laura nodded and smiled.

“Where are you from, Caleb?” the woman named Kathleen asked, swirling the wine in her glass.

“We’re from Nebraska, just north of a town called Mullen. And you?”

“Omaha,” Kathleen’s husband, Ken, answered.

“Do you farm?” Caleb sipped on his pop.

“We have three sections of ground about an hour northwest of Omaha,” the man said. “But we live in the city.”

“That’s a good-sized operation for around there. Beans and corn?”

The man nodded and took a pull of his beer. “You get to Omaha much?”

Did Caleb look like a country hick? Laura looked like a woman out of a fashion magazine, so even if he appeared backward, she compensated for it. “I go a few times a year. It’s a good six-hour drive.”

“Oh, Laura,” Kathleen groaned. “Where on Earth do you shop?”

“Online, mostly,” she answered quietly. “Chicago, every now and then.”

Caleb like her nonchalant response. Where he was slightly intimidated by the barrage of questions, she took them in stride.

“Do you have children?” the other lady, Betty, asked.

“A son,” Caleb answered before Laura could say no.

“Do you work outside the home?” Kathleen chimed in again.

Why were they so curious about Laura?

“No. Housework and Connor keeps me pretty busy.” She offered her a genuine smile.

The waitress came with the bread baskets and salads. She took their order, a choice between steak and chicken. The table quieted for a few minutes as people settled into their plates. He was sure their dining companions thought he and Laura were married, but he didn’t care. The wolfish leer the man sitting across from Laura was shooting her way, and the way the man’s wife was looking at Caleb, well…. It was probably best they thought Caleb and Laura were married.

“Do you have children, Kathleen?” Laura asked.

“Three,” she answered in between bites of sourdough bread. “I work for an attorney, so of course we have a nanny.”

“That’s convenient.” Laura smiled and forked up her salad.

“What part of agriculture are you involved in, Caleb?” Betty’s husband, Phil, asked. “Do you have cattle?”

Caleb was glad the topic at the table had turned to more general farming practices. They talked at length about the soil conditions in western Nebraska, how it was easier to grow corn in the east with higher bushel yields.

“I wonder, though,” Laura started, “since the land is so much less expensive to purchase and pay taxes on in the west, if it might still be cheaper to grow corn where we are. The bushels per acre are lower, but the overhead is significantly lower too.”

Conversation stalled and all of them stared at Laura. She was oblivious, eating her salad, looking down at her plate. She looked up and color flooded her face. “What?”

“Sorry.” Ken chuckled. “I’m not used to women talking in those terms, that’s all.” He laughed again. “Costs are much lower in the west. You folks can’t get irrigation, so you don’t have the water expenses, and as you said, land values there are lower, so the taxes are lower.”

“I imagine if you put the balance sheet side-by-side, they would be comparable.” Laura sipped her wine. “The cattle expenses would be similar too, although Caleb has the benefit of BLM leases, where the cattle graze at least part of the year.”

Caleb stared at her, thinking he was in a dream. Had she been listening while he and Josh talked at meals? How else would she know what she was saying? She understood it though, even used the correct terminology. He hoped his face didn’t give away his shock.

She turned and smiled at him and placed her hand on his thigh.

“Does she do the books, Caleb?” Ken laughed and shoved a fork of salad into his mouth.

“No, but maybe I should consider it, huh?”

 

* * *

 

“She’s not exactly a country hick like you’d expect.” A woman’s voice echoed off the bathroom tile.

Laura was in the stall, fixing her body shaper, eavesdropping on the conversation between two women who’d come in the bathroom a moment or so after she had.

“Her dress is either a very nice knockoff or she spent a fortune on it.”

“I think the latter. She’s classy.”

“I want to hate her, but I can’t. I wish Ken hadn’t noticed her. He sat at the table, staring at her throughout the whole meal. Pissed me off. Course, her guy is hot too. Didn’t mind looking across the table at him. Think they’d be into it? Wonder how to approach them about it?”

“I don’t know. Probably too straight, but you never now. Ken’ll get over her. It’s just another day, then you go back to Omaha, and they go back to…where was she from again?”

“Mullen, I think the guy said. I don’t think they’re married. She doesn’t wear a ring.”

Laura swallowed. The hags were either talking about her or about Phyllis. No one else from Mullen was at the conference. Laura had asked Caleb earlier.

“Then she made all those business comments. Hell, Ken got a hard-on just listening to her talk.”

They were referring to her. Now what? She was stuck in a stall. She figured Caleb wouldn’t be doing business with the husbands of these women, so what did she have to lose? Dinner was over; Caleb and she wouldn’t be sitting with them anymore.

She flushed the toilet, opened the stall door, and walked out. She smiled at the horrified faces in the mirror, washed and dried her hands, checked her lipstick, and walked out, head held high. Let them stew about it.

Caleb was standing in the hallway outside the restroom waiting for her. “Phyllis and Jasper are holding a table for us. The band will start up soon.” He took her hand and guided her to a quiet spot at the end of the hallway. He tilted her chin up and looked into her eyes. “You and I will have a discussion tonight. I think I may have underestimated you.” He kissed her gently on the mouth. “I think, honey, you are not just a simple cook.”

Taking her hand, he guided her back to the main room. Most of the tables had been taken down, and the dance floor was open.

“What’s wrong with being a simple cook?” she asked.

“Not a thing. I think my initial impression of you was more accurate though.”

“What was that?”

“A very smart woman with things in her past that I very much want to know.”

That comment, made casually as he sat her at the table where Phyllis was sitting, twisted her stomach. Don Peterson had recognized her. He ate at Bella Vita every few weeks. He did travel to Chicago often, and she’d talked with him every time he came. She talked to all her patrons when they visited, and as often as he’d been at her restaurant, he and she were on a first-name basis. She might have lost some weight and dyed her hair since she’d last seen him, but surely he had recognized her. Why else would he have brought up her restaurant?

What the hell was she going to do? He was sure to blow her cover, and then what?

So much for the safety of a remote cattle ranch.

“A pretty lady like you shouldn’t be sitting here with music ready to start playing.”

She hadn’t heard Don come up behind her chair. He held out his hand, inviting her to join him. Laura swallowed and smiled, hoping Caleb would say something—anything—but he only nodded in agreement for Don to steal her away.

She put her hand in his and let him lead her out onto the floor. The band was just warming up, playing the slower stuff first, as a larger number of attendees seemed older, probably in their sixties. She fought the cringe she felt as Don placed his hand at the base of her back. She wasn’t going to enjoy this dance.

“I’ll cut to the chase, pretty girl.” He spoke quietly just next to her ear. “You know me. You’ve talked to me no less than a dozen times at Bella Vita.” He turned her smoothly but continued talking. “At first, I thought maybe it wasn’t you, but I know you, Sabrina: your smile, your mannerisms. The way you talk to people with your eyes.”

“And?” She had tried to prepare for this but hadn’t expected such a quick onslaught.

“I heard about the troubles, of course. Your father’s murder was plastered all over the Chicago Trib. You were out of the restaurant the last time I was in.”

Laura nodded, biting down the bile rising up her throat. She was the daughter of the top mob hitman. She was used to rough characters trying to make deals. She hoped she wouldn’t have to sell her soul to secure her safety, but she had no idea what Don would expect from her. He had power over her, and that scared her.

“I have to guess that’s why you’re out here, in the middle of nowhere. You’re hiding?”

She nodded again, glancing over at Caleb and meeting his concerned expression with a forced smile.

“You like him?” Don’s gaze followed hers.

“More than that.” She met his eyes.

“He’s the best there is, Sabrina. He’ll take good care of you.” Don turned her again. “It’s not anything like Chicago out here. People don’t run spreadsheets and hire lawyers to fight every word of a contract. On a more personal level, they’re spontaneous, go with their gut—right or wrong—and seal the deal with a handshake. A boy meets a girl in high school, marries her because she’s pretty and her daddy’s land borders his daddy’s.”

“I’ve realized that already,” she said. “They’re good, honest people out here.”

“A simple life is sometimes the best life.”

She nodded, thinking about how her life had changed in the blink of an eye. The greed and power struggles that controlled and ultimately led to the destruction of her father and his associates.

“Was your pop’s murder mob related?”

She nodded and swallowed.

“Garbaldo?”

She looked up into his eyes, surprised at the gentle expression on his face. She glanced away, touched by his concern, and looked at the band, blinking her eyes quickly, hoping her legs would still hold her up, as shaky and wobbly as she was feeling.

“Are you involved with him?” she whispered, afraid he would say yes.

“Hell, no!” He laughed. “All my business is legit and aboveboard. Just as your Bella Vita was.”

She nodded again, forgetting the stomach issues and worrying instead that tears might start to fall. How the hell would she explain that? “The FBI suggested Nebraska. I’m not officially in their protection program, but if I find myself in need, I have a contact.”

“What about your restaurant?”

“I had to give up Bella.” She sniffed, her eyes tearing up more.

“I was there again last week. It’s not quite the same. No pretty dark-haired, blue-eyed smiling lady welcoming me, checking on my meal. But I guess I know where I can find you.”

“You won’t tell anyone?”

He shook his head. “Not if you make me a deal.”

What the hell did the man want? He was holding her future, possibly her life in his hands. “A deal?”

“I thought about this earlier after our drinks, through dinner. How was I going to get you to talk to me? I’ve always really liked to you. I’ve known you for almost six years, you know. Not that we were friends, but I had something to look forward to every time I came to the Windy City.”

“It’s kind of you to say that, Don.” She looked back at him. “What are your terms?”

He laughed. “Don’t look so worried; it’s nothing you can’t handle. You need to tell Caleb who you really are. Especially if your heart is going to get involved with him. That’s the first part.”

“I had planned to. Your appearance just sped up the need to do so.”

She looked back at Caleb. He was talking with Phyllis and Jasper.

“What else?” she asked.

“How about you agree to make me sweet potato gnocchi the next time I come out to the ranch? They don’t serve it at Bella anymore.”

“I know it’s your favorite.” She smiled, feeling less worried about her secret getting out. But could she trust this guy? “I took the recipe with me when I left. You’re welcome to supper anytime. Just give me a little heads-up.”

“Since I’ve met your mother and we’ve talked about it before, I sort of know how much money you’re worth. At least ballpark. Unless the FBI froze your assets?”

She shook her head, skeptical. “They couldn’t prove any of that money came from illegal means. Because it didn’t.” Did he expect a payoff?

“Invest it in Caleb,” he said. “He won’t take any more money from me. Paid me off three years before we agreed. He’s definitely motivated to expand and grow, so he’s got something for his kid, unlike what his dad did to him and Josh.”

Sounded as if there was a story there, but she would wait and ask Caleb about that.

“Think he’d use my money?” she asked quietly.

“Make it a wedding gift.” The song ended. He laughed at her expression and kissed her cheek. “You’ve made him happy already.”

Don led her back to Caleb who was standing, waiting for her.