Diamond (4 page)

“Ladies. I’m really sorry to intrude into your family during your time of grief.”

“But you did it anyway,” Queen said. “Just what we need, another man intruding when our defenses are down.”

Diamond interrupted. “Our defenses aren’t quite as down as they were, Queenie.” She grinned as her older sister glared at the use of that nickname. “It seems that Morton Whitelaw had a change of heart. By Saturday noon, we’re each going to be in possession of a cashier’s check for five thousand dollars.”

“Each?” Lucky staggered backward and landed on the sofa. She didn’t even wince when the curling edges of the middle cushion snagged the tender insides of her bare legs. “Why did he change his mind?”

“Because I told him if he didn’t, we were going to give the property to the Holiness Church across the hollow.”

“Those snake handlers? My God, Di! Did he faint or what?” Lucky asked, then started to smile. Just the thought of Whitelaw side by side with Bible thumpers was priceless.

Lucky jumped up from the sofa and threw her arms around her sisters. They laughed and shouted and did a little dance of jubilation in the center of the room.

Jesse was forgotten in the tumult, and it was just as well. He wouldn’t have wanted them to see how dumbstruck he’d been by their abandon. Over the years he’d seen a lot of women. Some more beautiful than others. But he’d never seen anything like these three sisters.

Their height was unusual and as striking as the high Slavic cheekbones shaping their faces. And those matching sets of eyes, as clear and pure a green as new spring grass. But there the similarities seemed to end. A redhead, a blonde, and one with hair as black as coal. Each sister also seemed to have a distinct personality. He stared at them.

Diamond sighed as she dropped onto the couch and dumped her tips from the hat. “I was scared to death the entire time,” she said. “I just knew I’d have to come back and tell you I’d failed.”

“Are you ready to listen now?” Jesse asked, interrupting their moment. His eyes never left Diamond’s face.

His voice was like a splash of cold water. The sisters looked at him with wary interest. All except for Queen, who closed her eyes and waited for the bullet.

“I don’t even know your name,” Jesse said to Diamond, “but I heard you sing yesterday at your father’s grave—and then I drove away. It was a mistake. I don’t often make them. That’s why I came back. Lady, if you’re willing, I’ll take you with me to Nashville. I can guarantee you a record. I can guarantee you a manager. The rest will be up to you. If you want the career, it’s yours.”

“Diamond.”

He frowned. His heart sank. He couldn’t have misjudged her so badly. He’d promised her a shot at stardom, and she was already asking for diamonds?

“My name is Diamond Houston,” she repeated.

“Hell, I thought you were…” He shrugged. “Never mind. Is that the name you use when you sing at the—”

She laughed. “I’d hardly assume a stage name for that dump. It’s real. And you may as well meet the rest of us, Mr. Eagle.”

“Jesse,” he corrected.

She shrugged. “This is Queen. She’s the oldest. And Lucky is the baby. My father had a propensity for gambling and all that went with it. We know that they’re rather unusual names, but we’ve grown to love them, right girls?”

They looked at one another and then burst into laughter.

“I suppose that’s an inside joke,” he drawled.

“I don’t suppose you were just blowing smoke about Di’s singing?” Queen asked. Anxiety was evident in the taut lines around her mouth.

Jesse shook his head. “I’ve never been more serious in my life.”

For one long moment the girls stared at him, and then they stared at Diamond, absorbing the implications of his offer.

Diamond looked up at the man in their doorway. This had to be a dream—or a nightmare. Yesterday they’d buried Johnny, and today they’d sold their house for more than it was worth while someone offered her a chance at stardom as icing on the cake.

“Take it, Di,” Lucky said quickly. “Don’t waste luck. Johnny would turn over in his grave.”

Queen swallowed once. “Go if you want,” she said. “But I’m not following on your coat tail. I’ve always had a yearning to see New Mexico…or maybe Arizona. Somewhere that doesn’t have a permanent pall of black coating the air I breathe.”

Lucky’s eyes widened. The fear of being on her own was almost overwhelming, but the excitement overshadowed it. “I’ll go west,” she whispered, her fingers curling in her lap at the thought of Vegas…and Reno…and all the shiny places that Johnny had spoken of.

Jesse felt their fear and, in a way, felt responsible. If he hadn’t come back and been the one to separate them, they might never have done it on their own.

“Will you wait?” Diamond asked him.

Jesse nodded. Right then he would have waited forever.

She disappeared into a room off the hallway.

Queen walked toward him. When they were inches apart she spoke. Once again the hair crawled on the back of his neck. Jesse realized that these women were capable of eliciting great emotion, even fear.

“Don’t hurt her,” she said softly, her eyes never wavering from his face. “If you do, somehow I’ll know. And I’ll find you, Jesse Eagle. I’ll find you.”

The pain was tearing her apart. He could feel it. Without conscious thought his hand cupped her face.

“You won’t have to look far, lady. I’ll be standing in the shadow of your sister’s glory.”

He dropped his hand from her face and stepped back, sensing her discomfort. It was obvious that men and touching were not common commodities in this house. He dug through his pocket and then handed her a card.

“Here,” he said. “This is my private number. And you can write to your sister at this address.”

She nodded, took the card, and stuffed it in her jeans as Diamond came back into the room.

Jesse stared. One small bag. The woman was carrying a single, small duffle bag. He’d dated women who carried larger purses. When you didn’t have much, it didn’t take a lot to pack it.

“I’m ready,” she said, trying not to cry.

“I’ll wait outside,” he said quietly, suddenly realizing their need for privacy. The sound of one quiet sob followed him off the porch and into the night.

He’d never seen sunrise from this side of night. His eyes were dry and burning, his shoulders stiff from the long hours behind the wheel. Last night he’d simply loaded her up, bag and all, and headed west. Stopping at a motel with her had been unthinkable. He’d sensed her panic and known that one more shock would have been her undoing. And so he’d driven…and finally she’d slept.

A familiar curve in the road and the cattle guard they bumped across was warning enough that he’d just driven onto his property.

“Thank God,” Jesse muttered, and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.

He glanced over at his passenger and tried to ignore the fact that the two top buttons on her shirt were missing. A generous amount of ivory skin showed beneath the faded plaid shirt she wore tucked into a pair of very worn, very tight jeans. Sometime during their drive she’d shed her boots, and he noticed that she wore no socks. Something about the small red blister on the side of her big toe made him want to curse. Instead he pulled beneath the split-log roof of his carport, shoved the stick shift into park, and turned off the engine, welcoming the silence.

He leaned wearily against the headrest and closed his eyes as he inhaled. A faint scent wafted across the interior of the car. He inhaled again, trying to identify the smell. And then he opened his eyes and turned to look at his sleeping passenger.

Her hands were curled into loose fists, lying limply in her lap. There, poking out the side of her hand, was a half-eaten roll of Lifesavers. Cinnamon.

Guilt overwhelmed him. He’d never even seen her put one in her mouth. He didn’t want to guess when she’d eaten last. But he hadn’t offered, and she hadn’t asked.

“Come on, sweetheart,” he said, shaking her gently. “Let’s go inside and find you a bed. You can stretch out those long, pretty legs and sleep till you wake. We’ll talk later.”

Diamond didn’t hear the endearment. She was too sleep-muddled. And if she had, she wouldn’t have trusted him. She’d been dreaming. Of a tall, dark-haired man with laughing eyes who kept promising her heaven. And she’d cried because she hadn’t believed him.

She crawled stiffly out of the small, low-slung car, her boots in one hand, her bag in the other, and staggered into the house behind him, thinking that maybe she wasn’t so different from her father after all. She’d just gambled her life and her future on a stranger’s promises.

3

A door banged in another
part of the house. Diamond sat straight up in bed and looked around wildly, wondering why the wallpaper wasn’t still peeling off the walls around her and why she smelled coffee instead of smoke from the mines.

Then she remembered.

What had she done? she wondered, looking down in dismay. Her nudity was as obvious as the room’s opulence. Vague memories surfaced of Jesse’s touch, and his voice, and something about promises. She’d undressed alone, of that she was almost certain. But the thought of food and coffee superseded any other worries that might have surfaced.

The comer of a bathtub was visible through the half-open doorway at the end of the room. She staggered toward it and into the shower, unable to appreciate the unexpected luxuries she was experiencing due to the deep growl her stomach was making. More than twenty-four hours had passed since she’d eaten anything substantial.

The hot water helped, as did the shampoo and blow-dryer conveniently placed on the vanity. And it didn’t take long to dress. There wasn’t that much in her bag from which to choose.

She stomped her foot to slide a boot into place and then headed for the door. She heard men’s voices nearby and followed them and the smells of breakfast to what she supposed was the kitchen.

“It’s the middle of the goddamned afternoon, you asshole,” a man was saying to Jesse. “If your car hadn’t been in the driveway when I arrived, I was calling the state police.”

“Bull,” Jesse muttered, rolling off the side of the bed. He headed for the bathroom, ignoring his nudity and his manager as he stepped beneath the shower head and turned on the water full force. “…worse than…if I’d…old mother hen.”

Jesse may just as well have just shut up and saved his breath. Tommy had been near hysterics. He’d expected Jesse to arrive a full day earlier. As far as he was concerned, one phone call in the middle of the night over twenty-four hours ago did not constitute “checking in.” And he was nobody’s mother, least of all this man’s. If he had been, he would have beat the hell out of him years ago.

Minutes later they headed toward the kitchen, with Jesse in the lead. “I made you some coffee,” Tommy said. “There wasn’t any ready. I suppose Henley’s still gone?”

Jesse didn’t answer, refusing to acknowledge Tommy’s thoughtfulness as well as his reference to the missing houseman.

“Goddammit, Jesse, you had me worried,” Tommy went on, relenting just the least bit as he realized that his heavy hand was about to undo the uneasy truce they’d come to a few days earlier.

Jesse shrugged and poured himself a cup of coffee. Tommy’s anger was justified, and he knew it. He just couldn’t bring himself to admit why he’d been delayed. Even in the daylight, he could hardly believe it himself.

And then she walked into the room.

Tommy spun around, his bootheels leaving small black scuff marks on the ivory floor tile.

“Well, that explains everything,” he said, waving his finger in Jesse’s face. “Just what we need, some dumb blonde groupie hanging around when you’ve got that new album to cut. What happened? Couldn’t you get enough without bringing her with you?”

Jesse saw red—and Diamond. But he didn’t react quickly enough to stop her. From the corner of his eye he saw her swing, and then Tommy was flat on his back against the cabinet, holding his hand against his mouth as a thin stream of blood seeped between his fingers.

“Hell! You busted my damned mouth.”

“I missed,” Diamond said. “I was aiming for your nose.”

She turned to Jesse, her coffee and her hunger forgotten in the fury that overwhelmed her. The words the little man had said were nothing she hadn’t heard before, but their injustice was the last straw in a week of hell.

“Which way to Nashville?” she asked Jesse. “I want out.”

Jesse staggered. Her reaction to Tommy’s words had been unexpected but justified. But this took him unaware. He panicked.

“Diamond, no,” he pleaded. “He didn’t mean—”

“Let the bitch go,” Tommy muttered.

Jesse pulled him up from the floor by his collar. The words he whispered in Tommy’s face were all the more ominous by their lack of emotion.

“If you call her one more indecent name, so help me God, I’ll bust your nose myself. Now shut the hell up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Tommy sat on a bar stool and bled quietly.

“He meant what he said, and we both know it,” Diamond said. The pain in her eyes didn’t reach her voice. “It doesn’t matter,” she continued, and turned her back. “You don’t owe me anything.”

She started for the door.

Jesse grabbed her by the shoulder and then let go the moment she turned. He took two steps backward just for good measure and held up his hands. He’d learned his first lesson about Diamond Houston. She, like her sister Queen, didn’t like to be touched.

“Just listen to me,” he said. “Tommy was upset. I didn’t call him, and I should have. He thought something had happened to me. It’s my fault for worrying him.”

She crossed her arms and braced her feet, trying to ignore the quake in her belly and the tremble in her legs. Coffee drifted back across her senses, and her stomach growled again, reminding her once more how long it had been since she’d eaten.

“If this was worry, I’d hate to see him mad,” she snapped, then closed her eyes as the room tilted.

“You’re right,” Jesse said. “And Tommy is going to apologize. Aren’t you, Tommy?” He turned and glared at his manager.