A Fortune Wedding Read online

  “So am I.”

  “She’s under duress right now. And vulnerable.”

  “Don’t underestimate her,” Roberto returned. “She’s stronger than you think. And smart.”

  “Smart enough to know what she needs?”

  “One of the things she needs, and I hope she’s got,” Roberto said tightly, “is a brother who believes in her.” He let out a breath. “Look, I know where you’re coming from. If it was one of my sisters, I’d be doing the same thing. So even though it’s none of your business, I’ll tell you that she matters to me, a lot. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. Whatever she needs from me, she’s got it. And if there’s anything that I can do to take care of her, it’s done.”

  Ross studied him. “She was the reason you came forward about the crowbar, wasn’t she?”

  “What do you think?”

  “That you took a hell of a chance, as it turned out.”

  Roberto smiled faintly. “I didn’t know they’d react quite that way.”

  “Would it have mattered?”

  “No.”

  Ross was silent for a long time and finally nodded. “All right. Good to know where we stand.” He picked up his beer.

  Roberto clinked his bottle against Ross’. “Now that that’s done, let’s figure out what the hell I can do to help you find Lloyd’s killer and get Frannie and Josh off the hook.”

  Chapter Seven

  Roberto wedged the pry bar between the cover board and the stack of two-by-fours that formed the frame around Frannie’s garage door. Between rain, sun and chipmunks, the wood was cracked, gnawed and peeling—damage that couldn’t be covered by a coat of paint. Better to replace them altogether, he’d judged.

  He set himself and pulled until the nails creaked. It was satisfying to feel the resistance, satisfying to do something with his muscles for a change. It gave him an outlet for the tension that seemed to run through him perpetually now, the ceaseless companion of his days and his nights. It was more than the unsolved murder and the arson at Red. It was the wanting, the need for Frannie.

  Just being around her again was more than he’d ever hoped for and yet, with every day that went by, it was further and further from enough. Seeing her walk by, catching the elusive hint of her scent, hearing the laughter that came more and more often as the days passed only combined to make him want her more.

  The hell of it was, he understood why she needed space. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through. Lloyd Fredericks, damn his soul, had very nearly extinguished hers. But he hadn’t; the spark had survived and it was coming back.

  And seeing it just sunk Roberto deeper than ever. She needed to figure out her life, though, and she wanted to do it alone. He’d agreed to give her the time to do it.

  He just hoped he could keep to his word.

  Dropping the bar, Roberto reached back to slide the claw hammer out of his tool belt.

  He needed a bigger job, that was the thing, something he could lose himself in. A few hours and the current repairs would be done, leaving him once again to be sitting around jumping out of his skin. He needed a project that lasted for days, weeks, something that kept him working hard, hammering, sawing, lifting, carrying. He was built for effort and strain, not sitting around and getting soft.

  Not for endless waiting.

  He’d been working with Ross Fortune, asking questions, building up pictures, trying to find out anything he could about the fires at Red and the Double Crown, about the Spring Fling and Lloyd. And about a person in a hoodie that only he had seen. It wasn’t enough to keep his mind off Frannie, though. None of it was enough.

  Behind him, he heard a car pull up into the driveway. The rush of adrenaline had him shaking his head at himself. That was how pathetic he was. She’d been gone five minutes and he already missed her. Five minutes? Shoot, he’d begun to miss her before she’d even left.

  Truly lame, he told himself, and yet all he could do was turn to see her with a ridiculous smile plastered over his face.

  But the vehicle wasn’t Frannie’s tidy silver Volvo, and the person getting out of it wasn’t Frannie, he saw.

  Cindy Fortune slammed the door of the fire-enginered Viper, adjusting the skirt of the white sleeveless sheath she wore. She took her time sauntering up, taking a long, slow survey of the work underway. And of him. “Well, about time she got this place fixed up a little. You get done here, I’ve got a few things you can do for me, sugar.” She winked.

  Then recognition hit. It was almost comical the way her expression cycled from seduction through shock, dismay and alarm before settling on livid. “You,” she breathed.

  And that quickly he was back in that dark barnyard, staring at her with impotent fury as she tore his dreams to shreds.

  She looked now as though she’d be happier tearing him apart instead. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” she demanded.

  Roberto turned back to the door frame and set the hammer claw against a projecting nail. “Fixing the garage.”

  “That’s not all you’re fixing, I bet.”

  He ignored the comment. “If you’re looking for Frannie, she’s gone. It’s her morning to work at the Fortune Foundation.” With one swift move, he wrenched the nail out.

  “Well, listen to that,” Cindy said nastily. “He even knows her schedule. You didn’t waste a minute moving in on her, did you? I guess you think you’re pretty cute.”

  “I’m not moving in on anything.” In quick sequence, he ripped out the other nails and tossed the loose board aside on the grass nearby. “I’m just helping her get the house ready to sell.”

  “Oh, sure, helping out the poor little widow.”

  “Someone should be a help to her.” He set the crowbar to pry off the next two-by-four in the stack.

  “She doesn’t need your kind of help.”

  He turned to her. “With you around? I think she can use all the help she can get.”

  “What do you think you’re going to do, cozy up to her and take her for all she’s got?”

  “I think you and Lloyd already took care of that.”

  “Oh, you’ve got an angle.” The words dripped with scorn. “Your type always does.”

  “You don’t know what my type is. You never bothered to find out.” He dropped the crowbar. “You were too busy sticking your daughter with that miserable excuse for a human being.”

  “Lloyd Fredericks was worth ten of you.”

  “Doesn’t look that way now, does it? But I guess at the time, you were hoping the two of you would become good friends. Maybe good enough that he texted you just before he was killed.” Roberto strode into the garage to his toolbox.

  She followed him. “What are you talking about?”

  “He sent you my picture from the Spring Fling. What else did he send? Who was he meeting there?” He rounded on her. “Help your daughter.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “And maybe you know a whole lot more than you’re saying.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t you point the finger at me. You’re the one they had in jail.”

  “But Frannie’s the one they filed charges against and they haven’t dropped them. It could be her freedom at stake. For once in your life, look past your own nose and do something to help her.”

  “I always took care of her,” she said hotly.

  “Who are you trying to kid?” His voice was incredulous. “Do you have any idea what her life was like with that creep?”

  “I did what was best for her.”

  “You did what was best for you,” he shot back. “I’m not sure what you got out of it—maybe Lloyd threw a few checks your way—but don’t ever think you can fool anyone into thinking you did any of it for Frannie’s benefit.”

  “I suppose that’s what you’re telling her. You’re trying to turn her against me, aren’t you? Well, it won’t work,” Cindy snarled. “I know all about trash like you. I ran you off once before and
I’ll run you off again.”

  “Try it,” he invited. “Go ahead, take me on. We’re not kids anymore and I’m more than a match for you. Give it up, Cindy.”

  “Don’t you tell me what to do, you parasite,” she shouted, pure fury distorting her features.

  A clank behind them had them both spinning. Josh stood at the edge of the garage where sunlight met shadow. “Hey,” he said weakly.

  Alarm flashed over Cindy’s face. “Josh, my God, where did you come from? You scared the life out of me.”

  “Lyndsey dropped me off. What’s going on?”

  “Oh, nothing,” she said, her gaze jumping nervously between Roberto and Josh. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Mendoza?”

  Roberto wasn’t particularly crazy about jumping in on Cindy’s side, but there was no sense in dragging the kid into her histrionics. That said, Josh had grown up with Cindy as his grandmother. He probably had a pretty good idea what she was like. He certainly didn’t look convinced by her attempts to gloss things over.

  Roberto cleared his throat. “I need to get back to work,” he said, fishing a chisel out of his toolbox.

  “Give me a hug, baby.” Cindy crossed over to kiss Josh.

  “I didn’t know you were around.”

  “I couldn’t miss my best boy’s graduation, could I?”

  Josh gave her a cynical look. “That was a week ago.”

  “Oh…of course,” she floundered. “I, uh, meant I couldn’t miss celebrating it with you. Sorry I wasn’t at the ceremony. Something came up.”

  “It usually does,” Josh said.

  “I’ll make it up to you. We’ll go out to the mall, buy you something.”

  Josh shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, there’s nothing I need.” He turned to watch Roberto.

  Cindy just stood a moment, ill at ease, glancing between the two of them. She was clearly dying to ask when Frannie would be back, Roberto realized in sour amusement, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. Finally, she turned toward her car.

  “Well, I can’t stay around all afternoon. Tell your mom…” She hesitated. “Tell her I stopped by,” she said to Josh.

  “Okay.” He watched her get into her car and drive away.

  Roberto, meanwhile, was stripping out the rest of the nails from the last board. He felt, more than saw, Josh staring at him.

  “What were y’all fighting about?”

  Roberto pulled the board loose and tossed it onto the grass near the other. “I’d say that’s between us.”

  “It sounded like it had something to do with my mom. That makes it my business.”

  “No, that makes it your mom’s business.”

  “Yeah? You going to tell her about it?”

  “Not if I don’t have to. She doesn’t need any more grief right now.” Roberto picked up one of the replacement boards and got out his tape measure to check the length.

  Josh let his backpack drop to the ground. “So, what’s the deal with you and my mom?”

  “That’s also your mom’s business.”

  “She’s not here. I’m asking you.” He raised his chin. “I’ve never seen you before, my dad gets killed, and all of a sudden you’re showing up around the place. You got something going on with her?” There was an edge to the kid’s voice made up as much of anxiety as challenge.

  He’d stood at the door to protect his mother, Roberto remembered. And maybe he deserved a little straight talk.

  He leaned the board up against the door frame. “You mean are we having an affair? No. Until last week, I hadn’t seen your mother for almost twenty years.”

  The cynical look returned. “And now you just happen to be here. You expect me to buy that?”

  “I don’t expect you to buy anything,” Roberto said evenly. “You asked, I answered. I happened to be here to see family and your mother and I ran into each other.”

  “They arrested you for my father’s murder, didn’t they?” Something flickered in Josh’s expression, something that Roberto couldn’t quite identify.

  “No, they just asked me some questions.”

  “Then why’d they lock you up?”

  “They thought I knew some things that I didn’t.”

  “What?” Josh’s gaze skated away, over to the crowbar lying on the driveway.

  Roberto watched him. “Legally, I can’t tell you. All you need to know is that it got your mom out.”

  “Is that why you went to the cops, so they’d let her go? Whatever happened with you guys must have been a big deal for you to do that after all this time.”

  “We were…friends, for a little while.”

  “More than friends.”

  “Definitely not your business.”

  “Definitely more than friends,” Josh said, nodding to himself. “But I guess it didn’t last. I heard what my grandmother said about running you off. Is that what she did? You and my mom hooked up twenty years ago and she didn’t like it? She wrecked things?”

  There was an intensity in the kid’s eyes that went far beyond curiosity. “There’s more to it than that, but yeah, basically.”

  Josh glared upward, shaking his head. “I don’t freakin’ believe it,” he exploded, spinning to slam his palm against the garage-door frame.

  “Hey,” Roberto said.

  “Man, parents are so full of it. For the whole last year, almost since Lyndsey and I got together, all my mom and dad could do was try to break us up. And now you tell me that she went through the same thing with you?” He cursed. “You’d think she would’ve remembered what it was like and gotten my dad off my back. I mean, he was always on me, you know? It was like I was eight instead of almost eighteen, and he’s ordering me around and yelling and talking all this trash about Lyndsey, I mean trash, and telling me what I can and can’t do and getting in my face until I swear I just wanted to knock his damned head—” He stopped abruptly.

  “Yeah?” Roberto stayed absolutely still.

  Josh looked down, reddening. “I’m just saying that. I didn’t mean for real.”

  “Sure.” Roberto studied him, the high color, the agitation, the fear that came off him in waves. “But it doesn’t matter how your dad acted now, does it? He can’t stand in your way anymore.”

  “He sucked,” Josh muttered. “I hated the way he treated my mom. I hated him. But I didn’t want him dead.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  “Who did?”

  “I don’t know.” Josh shifted his feet and looked away.

  “They could still take your mom in at any time. You want that to happen?”

  “No! I never wanted that. That was the worst.”

  “Well, she’s out for now and I want to keep it that way. If you know anything about the murder, you’d better tell me.”

  “I don’t,” Josh said, staring at the crowbar. “I don’t know anything at all.”

  “Well?” Lily looked expectantly at Frannie. “How did it go?”

  The café was a little slice of Europe on Red Rock’s Main Street, with snowy-white linen, wrought-iron chairs and baskets of crimson geraniums hanging from the glossy green lampposts along the curb. It was unseasonably cool for June, which in Texas meant it was just right for lunch outdoors.

  Frannie sat down, propping her portfolio case against the chair. “How did it go? I was a nervous wreck. My hands are still shaking,” she confessed, holding them up. “See?”

  “How can you be nervous? Nick Fortune is your cousin. You see him every week at the Fortune Foundation when you volunteer. And Emmett and Linda. They don’t bite.”

  “But they do run the Foundation. It’s one thing to see them when I’m helping out. It’s another to be looking at them across a conference table, trying to convince them to hire me.” The breeze pushed a lock of hair into her face and Frannie tucked it behind her ear impatiently.

  “I don’t see what the problem is,” Lily said, signaling to the waiter inside the café. “You have something to off
er, a service that they need.”

  “I’m sure they have their choice of fancy marketing agencies to do the photographs for the new Foundation brochure. They don’t need me.”

  But it was worth taking a chance to see if they might. If nothing else, it was good practice. All things considered, the meeting had gone better than Frannie had expected. She hadn’t detected any signs of surprise when they looked at the portfolio, which gave her confidence that she hadn’t done anything wildly wrong. For the pitch, she’d gone with her instincts. Now, she just had to wait for their decision.

  “So, what did they say?”

  “They’re still interviewing photographers. They expect to decide next week.” It was a long shot, but if she came through it would be a big win—her first professional job, one that would lead to others.

  She hoped.

  “Why the big rush to start a business?” Lily asked as the waiter filled Frannie’s water glass. “I mean, I can understand that you’d want something to do now that Lloyd’s gone, but with everything that’s going on right now, wouldn’t it be better to wait?”

  “I can’t wait.” The words were too quick, the desperation in her voice a little too naked. “I mean, I want to get it going,” she said more moderately. “You know, take my mind off things.”

  “I can appreciate that, but isn’t there a better way? One that doesn’t give you more stress to deal with?”

  “I need to do this, Lily.” She kept her voice low, for the pedestrians walking beside their table.

  “Why?” Lily stared at her. “What’s going on, Frannie?”

  She let out a breath. “This is for you and you alone to know, all right?”

  Lily nodded.

  “Lloyd left me with a lot of debt, Lily, a lot. And he never bothered to get life insurance.”

  “He always seemed like one of those guys who figured he’d live forever.”

  “Yeah, but he was wrong. He left me in a deep hole and I’ve got to figure out a way to get out of it.”

  Lily turned for her purse. “Well, that’s easy,” she said briskly. “How much do you need?”

  “None, Lily. I don’t want your money. I need to do this myself.”