Chapter Twelve
Mica saw Nellie Mae’s expression change and looked over her shoulder. They were sitting at a table in the diner and had just placed their lunch order. Until a moment ago, Nellie Mae had been all smiles. Now, a slight frown creased her forehead.
Five women had just entered the diner, all elderly and all dressed to the nines. Mica recognized one of them, Netta Bloom. She’d seen Nellie Mae with Netta several times and knew they were fast friends. It struck her as odd that Nellie Mae seemed unhappy to see Netta.
“Isn’t that your friend, Mrs. Netta and the ladies from your Red Hat Society?”
“Yes, that’s them.”
“Well why do you look so unhappy to see them?”
Nellie Mae leaned in as close as she could to the table. “Those gals haven’t given me a moment’s peace since I showed them this beautiful bracelet you gave me. They want some gossip on you and I’m not having any part of that.”
That answered a question for Mica. She’d heard more than one snide comment about Nellie Mae and her friend Netta. The Gossip Girls is what many people called them behind their backs. Maybe they were. A lot of people gossiped, and Mica had been prepared for gossip to arise about her and Matty.
It was why she told Nellie Mae she was trying to seduce Deacon. She didn’t care if Nellie Mae repeated it. It was the truth and she wasn’t ashamed of being attracted to him. But to her surprise and pleasure, Nellie Mae valued their relationship more than the momentary attention she could have gained from talking about Mica behind her back.
“Yoo hooo!!” Netta called out loudly. “Nellie Mae?”
“You can’t just ignore her,” Mica said. “Besides, I think I may have a way to satisfy their thirst for gossip.”
“Come join us, hon.” Netta called. “We made sure there’s room.”
Mica pulled out her phone and texted as she spoke to Nellie Mae. “Tell her we’ll be right over.”
“What are you up to?”
“Just a way to give them what they want.” Mica grinned.
“You might regret this,” Nellie Mae said as she hefted herself out of her seat, picked up her purse and gave a wave and a smile to the ladies watching.
“Maybe.” She finished her text to Deacon.
Help a girl out? My friend is in a pickle because she won’t give up any gossip on me. I’m thinking I need to give these ladies something to talk about. Signed—Holding on for a Hero in the Diner
Mica smiled as she hit Send. She knew Deacon was in town, because he’d just pulled up at the smithy as she was leaving. He’d walked over, pinned her against her truck, and given her a kiss that had her still tingling, then asked if she wanted to have a cook-out at the lake that evening.
She immediately accepted, gave him a quick kiss and left. Now, she wondered if he would respond to the text and just how her plan might play out. With Nellie Mae cutting a look back at her, she pocketed her phone and hurried to join her friend.
Mica hadn’t met most of the women, and probably wouldn’t remember their names, but she could tell they were all curious. She answered questions as honestly as she could and tried not to be offended by the number of times she and Matty were referred to as Indian people.
It took a bit of time for everyone to get their drinks and then to place their orders. Mica kept sneaking looks at her phone. Damn. No response from Deacon. Had she overstepped with her request?
Just as she wondered, the door to the diner open and in he walked. She didn’t have to pretend to be excited and reached over to put her hand on Nellie Mae’s arm. “Would you just look at that?”
Every head at her table turned to look at Deacon and she grinned. “Isn’t that one of those SEAL men?” Netta asked.
“Not one of them,” Mica replied. “The Commander. Deacon Johns.” She leaned in a little and lowered her voice as he tipped his hat in their direction. “You know, Nellie Mae helped me seduce him with a pot roast and a coconut cream pie.”
It was analogous to the sound of a bunch of birds chirping, the twitter that rose between the women at that remark. “Did it work?” Netta finally asked.
Mica smiled and waved at Deacon, motioning him over. She stood as he approached, but did remark in a stage whisper. “My God, have you ever?”
“Hello, Commander Johns,” she said in a breathy voice when he stopped beside her.
“Good day, Miss Gray Horse.”
“To what do we owe this honor?”
“Just stopped by to deliver this.” She could have cheered when he put his hand behind her neck and pulled her in, wrapping his free arm around her back as he planted a kiss on her. Mica didn’t have to pretend to be affected, and was a bit breathy for real when the kiss ended.
“Talk about special delivery. Oh, I’m sorry, what awful manners I have. Commander Johns, this is my dear friend, Nellie Mae Baker.”
“Not the Nellie Mae Baker?”
“Yes, the Nellie Mae.”
“I owe you a thanks, Mrs. Baker.” Deacon moved behind Mica and extended his hand to Nellie Mae.
She put her hand in his and he leaned down and kissed her knuckles. “Your coconut cream pie is the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Why, it had me half falling in love with Mica here, then she ’fessed up and told me you made it.”
“Oh, my goodness.” Nellie Mae blushed and smiled. “I’m delighted you enjoyed it.”
“I did indeed, and it’s a real pleasure, ma’am.” He then turned to Mica, leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then whispered in her ear. “Is that enough for them to chew on for a while?”
“I think that will be just perfect,” she replied and smiled at him when he straightened. “See you later, Commander.”
“Indeed, Ms. Gray Horse.” He then tipped his hat. “Mrs. Baker, ladies. Have a nice day.”
Mica could have laughed out loud at the faces of the women at that table, and the way every one of them, along with most of the people in the restaurant, watched him walk away. When he exited the diner, all the ladies turned their attention to Mica.
“Good lord and a quarter,” Netta Bloom was the first to speak. “That man makes me wish I was thirty years younger.”
The table erupted in chatter and Mica leaned over to whisper to Nellie Mae. “Think that’ll give ’em something to talk about?”
“Child, you just gave the whole town something to chew on. You do know that now everyone in Cotton Creek will be talking about the young Indian girl who’s chasing that older SEAL man over at Sanctuary?”
“Yes, I know.”
“And?”
“And they’d be right,” Mica said and winked. She had no doubt that by day’s end, the whole of Cotton Creek would know that she’d been kissed in the diner by Commander Johns.
It struck her that for a private man, which she knew him to be, he hadn’t just stepped up to help her out, he’d pretty much shown the whole town that he was interested in her.
And that made her the happiest she’d ever been.
***
A month ago, if someone had told her that in thirty days she’d be humming to herself and thinking what a wonderful day it was, she would have laughed in his face. But here she was, humming away and thinking about the date she had tonight with Deacon as she prepared to head for the shop.
The last three weeks had been better than she ever imagined. If this was dating, then she loved it. They had picnics, went to dinner at the steakhouse where they talked and laughed, went dancing at the Honky Tonk, and even went horseback riding at Sanctuary.
While there’d been kisses that had made her weak in the knees, she had not invited Deacon into her bed. Despite wanting him with an intensity that made her crazy at times, she didn’t want to rush into something physical.
Actually, the truth of it was that she was a bit scared. Mica had a lot of experience with the opposite sex, but none of it what you might call loving. Tony, the man who’d rescued her from the reservation, had been a man whose sexual tastes were pretty vanilla. And before she was twenty, he’d developed a rather extreme case of erectile dysfunction so sex was a very infrequent part of their relationship.
There were times she wanted to jump Deacon, but she’d promised herself that she wasn’t going to screw up this new start, even if it was one that had been forced on her. If this was her life, then she was going to make the most of it.
Since their little public display in the diner, he’d seemed a lot more relaxed and was not at all hesitant to be affectionate toward her in public. Mica had never been so thrilled by anything in her life and felt like the high school nerd who’d suddenly won the affection of the football quarterback.
With her tablet in the crook of her arm and an oversized coffee mug in the other, Mica used her free hand to open the door as she called out to Matty over her shoulder. “I’m headed over to Sanctuary to go for a run with Etta. Want me to go start the forge before I leave?”
When the screen door that she pushed open with her hip suddenly stopped its outward swing, coffee sloshed over the rim of the cup and her head jerked around to look through the screen.
“Oh, sorry.”
A man stood on the porch. The man whose foot the door had collided with was tall and wore a white Stetson. Were it not for the badge clipped to his belt, he’d look every inch a gunslinger. And a damn sexy one at that, with those eyes.
This can’t be good. Mica forced a smile to her face. “Can I help you?”
“Cipriana Dumitra Julliani?” the man with the badge asked. “Texas Ranger Zeb Childress.”
Fuck. Mica didn’t move from her place at the door. “May I have your badge number, Ranger Childress?”
He handed her the badge. She left him standing on the front porch and hurried to the kitchen where she’d left her phone. Her contact from the US Marshal’s Services was still programmed into her phone.
It took less than five minutes to confirm that Zeb Childress was a genuine Texas Ranger and had been asked to make contact with her. She was instructed to follow Zeb’s directions since he was working in conjunction with the US Marshals.
Mica returned to the front door and pushed open the screen. “Thank you for waiting, Ranger Childress.Please, come in.” When he stepped inside, she gestured to the dining room. “Have a seat, please. Can I offer you coffee?”
“That’d be nice.”
Mica nodded, then hurried to the kitchen and put on a fresh pot of coffee.
“Mica? I thought you were—” Mathias stopped and looked at the man seated at the dining room table. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Mica hurried into the room and addressed her next word to the Ranger. “I just invited the Ranger for coffee to talk about some tactical knives he said the Rangers wanted to have designed. Why don’t you head on over to the shop and get things going? I won’t be long.”
“You sure?”
“Of course I am. See you in a bit.”
“Okay.”
Mathias left and Mica looked at Ranger Childress. “Mathias has nothing to do with this. He only knows me as Mica Gray Horse, his older sister. I’d like to keep it that way.”
“I understand and I’m not here to cause you problems, Ms. Gray Horse.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I got a call from the Marshals Services. They have reason to believe that someone may have figured out that Cipriana Dumitra and Mica Gray Horse are the same person.”
“No. That’s impossible. I never used my real name once I left the reservation. Tony helped me establish a new identity. I made sure to never let Cipriana be connected with my real name or my family in any way.”
“I understand, and it appears that you were quite successful for the most part. Cipriana Dumitra is the Romanian immigrant who married Julliani in a Las Vegas Chapel when she was twenty-three years old and fresh off the boat, so to speak.
“According to police reports, she was killed in the massacre that took Julliani’s life along with the lives of four of his men, also members of one of the mob’s more prominent families.”
“Yes, that’s the story.”
“And you’re sure no one knows that you’re alive and that you testified against Jimmy Vinsanti’s brother, the man who was responsible for the hit?”
“No one could know. I never appeared in open court. I knew Jimmy Vinsanti. He’d been to the casino a hundred times. He and Tony went way back and he was…” She looked down, not ready to face Ranger Childress with the rest of what she had to say.
“… He was one of my clients.”
“Your clients. You mean you were his Dominatrix.”
“Yes.” She moved her gaze to meet his. “He saw me get shot that night. I was told that I hit my head when I fell and that rendered me unconscious, which is why he thought I was dead.”
“I’ve read the report. Still, someone has been asking questions about Mica Gray Horse and that raised a flag.”
“It doesn’t make sense. Mica is virtually invisible. I left the reservation, signed on as an employee in one of Tony’s cheap hotels in Los Angeles, rented a dump, and bought an old car. I collected a paycheck that was just enough to pay the bills, renew the license tag on the car, and keep the power turned on for two decades. Mica is nothing but another escapee from the reservation who will live and die poor. There’s no reason for anyone to look into her past.”
“You mean your past.”
“Sorry, yes. My past.”
“Well, someone is showing interest and the Marshals Services wants to make sure that you’re not in any danger, so they asked me to check in with you. I think it might be wise if we brought someone in from local law authority to act as a point of contact in case you need it.”
“No. Money can buy loyalty and if it’s the Vinsantis who are looking, then they’ll stop at nothing to have my head on a plate. And they have a lot of money to spend.”
“What about Deputy Judd? I’ve worked with her and would vouch for her trustworthiness.”
“Charli?” Mica considered it. “Yes, I’d trust her, but honestly, I’d hate like hell to have to reveal my past to her.”
“I understand, but you’re not only risking your own safety, but your brother’s as well.”
“Let me think about it, okay? Just for a day. If I decide to tell Charli then I need to tell her husband as well. I don’t want to be the reason she keeps secrets from him.”
“I understand and I’m confident I can get clearance for you to bring Grady in on this. If anyone can be trusted, it’s someone of his caliber. And Mica? You might want to think about telling your brother the truth.”
“You might be right, but it’s going to take me a bit to find a way to do that. My past isn’t exactly normal, if you know what I mean.”
“I do, but it’s the past and I’m concerned that you stay alive to have a future.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Zeb pulled a card from his jacket pocket and put in on the table. “If you need me, call.”
She picked up the card. “Thank you, Ranger Childress.”
“Zeb. Call if you need me and also when you decide. Just don’t take too long.”
“All right. I will. Thank you. Oh, I forgot the coffee.”
“That’s okay, I promised my wife Willa I’d cut down. Have a nice day, Mica.” He stood and she rose to walk him to the door.
“Goodbye, Zeb.”
“You take care, Mica.” Zeb put his hand on her shoulder for a brief moment.
“I will.”
Mica watched him walk down the front steps and cross the yard to his car. And that was when she saw Deacon’s truck parked on the street in front of the house. She saw the expression on his face and the way he looked from her to Zeb as Zeb got in his car and drove off.
She started down the steps, but before she reached the edge of the yard, he pulled away and drove off. Mica saw the look of anger on his face and watched him go.
Now what? Suddenly, the new life she’d started didn’t seem so rosy. In fact, it felt like it was all starting to crumble around her. Mica turned around, went back inside the house and straight to her room where she fell face down on the bed.
And cried.
***
Deacon was still angry when he got home, and seeing Etta sitting on his front porch was no help.
“Oh, oh.” She stood as he approached. “What’s wrong?”
“None of your business.”
“Oh, trouble with Mica.”
“What makes you automatically assume it’s a woman?”
“Because we’re the only people that can give a man that look. Besides, empath, remember? I can feel your anger and jealousy. And then there’s the fact that she didn’t show up for our run.”
It was the word jealousy that took the wind right out of his sails. “There was a man leaving her house this morning. Tall, handsome, half my age.”
“And you automatically assume what? That he spent the night there? Seriously? You know she’s crazy about you.”
“Then why was a man leaving her house that early?”
“Why didn’t you ask her?”
He didn’t have an answer for that, at least not one he was willing to give. The truth was, when he saw the man, jealousy grabbed him with an iron grip and squeezed so hard he couldn’t see straight.
Etta’s phone rang, and she pulled it out of her pocket. “It’s Mica.” She answered. “Hey, what happened? No, I understand. Sure. Okay. Yeah, actually that will be fine. Okay, great, I’ll see you soon.”
She stuck the phone back in her pocket. “She said she had an unexpected visitor and it made her run late, but she’s on her way. Just in case you’re interested.”
“I’m not.”
“Fine. I’ll see you later.”
Etta walked away, but cut a look back over her shoulder. She’d never seen Deacon like this. But then, he never really got involved with women. At least, not emotionally. He would share a meal or a movie, but more often than not he’d just share a bed and then he would be done with them. In some ways, he was a cold man. Not that he was mean or indifferent to the women, he just wasn’t with them for any reason other than a fling and he made no bones about it.
Deacon didn’t let women get that close. She guessed his failed marriage had left more of a mark on him than anyone, and she hated it for him. As someone who’d been the recipient of his love and friendship, she knew what a wonderful man he could be.
And she’d thought he was on his way to being that man with Mica. The last few weeks he’d smiled more than he ever had and she’d heard him whistling while he worked. He seemed genuinely happy and she’d actually seen him kiss or touch Mica in an affectionate gesture in public, which was a major step for him. She’d hoped this was the beginning of something for them because she knew from talking with Mica that Mica really was crazy about Deacon.
One thing about Mica was that even though Etta knew Mica had secrets about her past, she was very open and straightforward with her feelings. She made no bones about the fact that she was interested in Deacon.
Etta wondered who the unexpected visitor was that had so upset Deacon. Maybe she’d just ask Mica. She went into the house to change and found a note JJ had left on the kitchen table. There was a classified report waiting on her. The notice had come in half an hour ago.
She checked her phone and sure enough, there was an encrypted message from Admiral Angel. The report on Mathias and his sister was ready. Etta quickly headed for her office, downloaded the report, and started to read. She got so caught up with the report that she lost track of time.
“Etta?” Mica’s voice from the front of the office had Etta quickly closing her laptop and shoving it into the drawer. She locked the drawer and hurried from her office.
“Hey.”
“You ready?”
“I am, but what about you?”
Mica held up both hands, palms out, and made a dismissive wave with them. “It’s been a shitty morning.”
“I heard.”
“You heard?”
“Deacon came back mad as a hornet over finding some man leaving your house this morning. Some man half his age.”
“He did?”
“Girl, he was so jealous he couldn’t see straight.”
“He was?” That news had a fresh flood of tears starting up and she knelt down right there in the doorway and covered her face with her hands.
“Mica, girl, I’m sorry. What’s wrong?” Etta hurried to Mica and knelt down beside her.
“Life. Life is wrong,” Mica said between sobs.
“What do you mean?” Etta could feel fear and anger rolling off Mica in waves. She didn’t understand why, but she knew it was real. “Talk to me, Mica.”
Mica moved her hands from her face. “Only if you let me pay you. As a therapist. If I do, then you can’t tell anyone what I tell you, right?”
That question gave Etta a jolt of concern. “That’s correct, but as a friend I’d never betray−”
“I know you wouldn’t, but I need more than a friend’s promise. I need you to be legally bound to keep what I say in confidence.”
“Then let’s go into my office and I’ll bill you for whatever time we spend.”
Mica nodded and accompanied Etta to her office. Etta took a seat in her customary chair by the window and gestured to the chair across from her. “Please, sit.”
Mica did and after a moment, she wiped her hands over her face and blew out a breath. “Okay. The man Deacon saw was Ranger Zeb Childress. The Marshals Services asked him to check in on me.”
“The Marshals Services? Wait. Are you in WITSEC?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“But…isn’t your real name Mica Gray Horse? I thought you had to change your name when you went into WITSEC?”
“You do, but no one is looking for Mica Gray Horse. They’re looking for Cipriana Dumitra Julliani.”
“Do you realize that you spoke with a distinctive European accent?”
“Romanian, yes. I learned to speak it before I was twenty.”
“Okay, I’m totally confused. Are you this Cipriana person?”
“I am.”
Etta nodded. “I think we need to start at the beginning.”
Mica hated going back to the beginning. It meant remembering the pain of her mother abandoning her and Mathias and of her father abandoning them while still living in the house with them.
“When I was five, my mother left…”
*****
Deacon didn’t remember Etta saying anything about having a client, but she wasn’t at home so he walked over to her office and let himself in. The reception area was empty, but that was pretty normal. Etta’s assistant only worked half a day, three days a week and this wasn’t one of the days she typically worked.
His thoughts were on the report that had just arrived on Mica. Anger bubbled, trying to come to a full boil. His hand tightened on the rolled pages. Now it all made sense.
When he reached Etta’s office, he noticed the door was standing ajar. He could hear her voice.
“So you were kind of a what? Sex counselor, Dominatrix, what?”
“A little of both, I guess.”
Deacon felt his entire body tense at the sound of the second voice. Mica. As he stood there in shock, the conversation continued.
“And you did this while you were married?”
“Yes.”
“For money?”
“Not entirely.”
“Then what?”
“Power.”
“What kind of power?”
“The kind that keeping that sort of secret for powerful people brings.”
“But they paid you?”
“Yes.”
“A lot?”
“Yes.”
Something came over Deacon that was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. A complete loss of control. He’d always prided himself in his clear head and ability to assess a situation before reacting.
Today was the first time that ability failed him. He didn’t make a conscious decision to act, but the next thing he knew he was pushing the door open. “So what you’re saying is that you’re a whore.”
Etta and Mica both looked at him in surprise. Etta’s expression turned quickly to alarm, but Mica’s morphed into something that delivered its own surprise. Rage.
“Don’t you ever call me that.” She stood and faced him, her back ramrod straight and her gaze zeroed in on his. He saw her anger and it fueled his own.
“Then what should I call you? A liar?” He tossed the report at Etta. “I had an investigator look into her and Mathias’ past. She’s been lying to us—about everything. She’s been living in LA since she was 16, in a dump owned by a mobster and she works for a dry cleaner he also owns that’s reputed to be a drop for drugs.
“And apparently she’s been earning her real money spreading her legs for whoever has the cash.”
“Deacon, you shouldn’t be here.” Etta said.
“No? Why? Don’t you want the truth?” He looked at Mica. “Go ahead, say it. You’re a whore. Now I understand what was going on at your house with the cowboy.”
He thought she’d back down. He cowed grown men with his rage. But she didn’t even flinch. Instead, Mica marched up to him, stopping only inches away. He was a good bit taller, which made her have to tilt her chin up to look him square in the eyes, but she didn’t hesitate.
“Fuck you, Deacon.”
With that, she brushed past him. He could hear the sound of her footsteps and then the slam of the door.
He looked at Etta and she had mad stamped all over her face.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked.
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Yes.”
“You did hear her, didn’t you? She’s nothing but a common whore.”
“There’s nothing common about her, Deacon, and I thought you were smart enough to know that.”
Before his temper could get away from him, he turned and walked out.
*****
The moment Mica left, Etta unlocked her desk drawer and took out her laptop. She accessed the report she’d received and continued reading. There was information about Mathias and Mica’s parents, about the mother leaving and the father’s alcoholism.
The report indicated that Mica ran away from home at the age of sixteen, went to Los Angeles and moved in a rundown section of the city in a small studio apartment until recently when she and her brother moved to Cotton Creek.
That jibed with what Mica told her, but Etta was looking for more, something to substantiate what Mica had told her about Tony Julliani. She ran a search on his name and was shocked by the results. There were fifteen pages of links.
What Etta read was enough to prove that Mica hadn’t lied. Tony, or Anthony Julliani was the youngest son of Victor Julliani, one of the most notorious mob bosses in the country. He owned several casinos in Vegas, Atlantic City, had city contracts for garbage and construction in a dozen major cities, and his father was reputed to be the man responsible for ordering the deaths of more than a dozen people.
Etta cruised through pages of photos and was scrolling down the page when suddenly a face jumped out at her. She backed up and clicked on a photo.
“Holy shit.” It was Mica. Dressed in gold lame, and wearing a lot of diamond jewelry, she stood between Victor and Tony Julliani on her wedding day to Tony. There were more photos of Mica with Tony at events, Mica with celebrities and politicians, and then news articles about the murders of Tony and his wife, along with other members of his family and “gang.”
“Holy shit.” Etta bookmarked each of the pages of interest and hit the print button. She next ran a search on Mica Gray Horse. The search netted nothing.
That was a relief. At least with no photos online under the name Mica Gray Horse, no one could match her up with her alias Cipriana. Etta logged off, locked the laptop away, and stuck the printed pages into the top drawer of her desk. She needed to go for a run and clear her head, think about what Mica had told her, and decide what to do about Deacon.
She didn’t believe for a moment that Mica was a bad person or bad for Deacon, but if she was a target, then didn’t Etta owe it to Deacon and everyone here at Sanctuary to warn them of potential danger?
But what about her friendship with Mica? Deacon had behaved badly and she didn’t think it was fair to Mica. And then there was her professional obligation of confidentiality to Mica? It was a conundrum and one she didn’t know how to solve. But she needed to figure it out and fast.