Mercenary's Woman (23 page)

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MERCENARY'S WOMAN

DIANA PALMER

173

gardless of his bloody
reputation," Dallas said tersely.
"We have to hope that he told the
truth."

Jessica nibbled on
her fingernails all the way to the mall,
which was only about six minutes away from
Eb's ranch.
She sat close beside Dallas in the back seat, holding his hand tightly.
Sally glanced back at them, silently praying
all the way, worried for all of them,
but especially for little
Stevie. Her hand felt for Eb's and he grasped it tightly,
sparing
her a reassuring smile.

The minutes seemed
like hours as they sped into town.
Eb had no sooner parked the vehicle in the
parking lot
than Jessica was out the door, hurrying with Dallas right
beside her to guide
her steps.

Eb and Sally followed
the couple into the small toy
store,
and there was Stevie, sitting on the floor, playing
with a mechanical elephant that walked and lifted its trunk
and trumpeted.

"It's Stevie," Dallas said huskily. "He's...fine!"

"Where?
Stevie!" Jessica called brokenly, holding out
her arms.

"Hi, Mom!"
Stevie exclaimed, leaving the toy to run
into her arms. "Gosh, I was scared, but
the man taught
me how to play poker and gave me a soda! He said I was
brave and he admired
my courage! Were you scared,
Mom?"

Jessica was crying so hard that she could
barely speak
at all. She hugged her child
close and couldn't seem to let
him go, even when he wiggled.

"Let his dad
have a little of this joyful reunion,'' Dallas
murmured dryly, holding out his arms.

Stevie went right
into them and hugged him hard. "I don't have a real dad now," he
said, "but you're going to
be a great dad, Dallas! You and me will go to
all the

wrestling matches and take Mom and describe
everything
to her, won't we?"

"Yes,"
Dallas said, his voice husky, his eyes bright as
he rocked his child in his arms with
mingled relief and
affection. "We'll do that."

Jessica felt her way
into Dallas's arms with Stevie and
pressed there for a long moment. Beside them,
Sally held
tight to Eb's hand and smiled with pure relief.

"I had an
adventure," Stevie said when his parents let
go of him. "But
it's nice to be home again. Can I have
that elephant? He sure is neat!"

"You can have a
whole circus if I can find one for
sale," Dallas laughed huskily. "But for now, I think
we'll
go back to the ranch."

They paid for the
elephant and got into the truck with Eb and Sally.

"Can
you drop us off at our house?'' Jessica asked Eb.

There was a hesitation. She heard it and smiled.

"Lopez said
that he had no more business with me,"
Jessica told him. "He didn't even
question what I told
him," she added. "He said that Isabella was
always asking
him questions and pretending to care about him. He knew
she didn't. He did
sound very sorry that he killed her.
Perhaps the small part of him that's still human can feel
remorse. Who knows?"

"One day,"
Dallas said curtly, "we'll catch up with
him. This isn't over, you know, even
if he is through mak
ing
threats toward you and Stevie. He's going to pay for
this. And, somehow, we're going to stop him from setting
up business in Jacobsville."

"We have Rodrigo
in place," Eb agreed, "and Cy
watching the progress of the warehouse. It
won't be easy,
but if we're careful, we may cut his source of supply and

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WOMAN

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175

his distribution network right in half. Cut
off the head and
the snake dies."

"Amen," Dallas replied.

Dallas got out of
the sports utility vehicle with Jessica
and Stevie, waving the other couple off with a big smile.

"You really
believe Lopez meant it when he said he
was quits with Jessica?" Sally asked,
still not quite con
vinced of the outlaw's sincerity.

"Yes, I
do," Eb replied, glancing at her with a smile.
"He's a snake,
but his word is worth something."

Sally turned her
head toward Eb and studied his profile
warmly, with soft, covetous eyes.

He glanced over and
met that look. His own eyes nar
rowed. "A lot has happened since last
night," he said quietly. "Do you still mean what you told me at
dawn?"

"That I'd marry you?" she asked

He nodded.

"Oh, yes,"
she said, "I meant every word. I want to
live with you all my life,"

"It won't bother
you to have professional mercenaries
running around the place at all hours for a
while?" he
teased.

She grinned.
"Why should it? I am, after all, a merce
nary's woman."

"Not quite
yet," he murmured with a wry glance. "And
very soon, a
mercenary's wife."

"That sounds very respectable," she commented.

"I'm
glad you waited for me, Sally," he said seriously.

"So am I." She slid her hand
into his big one and held
on tight. It
tingled all the way up her arm.

"We've had
enough excitement for today," he said.
"But tomorrow we'll see about getting
the license. Do you
want a justice of the peace or a minister to marry us?''

"A
minister," she said at once. "I want a permanent
marriage."

He nodded, "So do
I. And you have to have a white
gown with a veil."

Her eyebrows arched.

"You're not just
a mercenary's woman, you're a vir
tuous mercenary's woman. I want to watch you
float down
the aisle to me covered in silk and satin and lace, and with
a veil for me to lift
after we've said our vows."

She smiled with her
whole heart. "That would be nice.
There's a little boutique..."

"We'll fly up to
Dallas and get one at Neiman-
Marcus."

She gasped.

"You're
marrying a rich man," he pointed out. "Humor
me. It's going to be
a social event. Let me deck you out
like a comet."

She laughed."All
right. I'd really love a white wedding,
if you don't mind."

"And we'll both
wear rings," he added "We'll get
those in Dallas, too."

Her eyes were full of
dreams as she looked at her future husband hungrily. There was only one small
worry. "Eb,
about Maggie..."

"Maggie is a
closed chapter," he told her. "I adored
her, in my way, but
she was never in love with me. I stood in Cord's shadow even then, and she
never realized it. She
still hasn't." He glanced at her and smiled. "I
love you,
you
know," he murmured, watching her eyes light up.
"I'd never have
proposed if I hadn't."

"I love you,
too, Eb," she said solemnly. "I always
will."

His fingers curled
tighter into hers. "Dreams really do
come true."

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177

She wouldn't have
argued with that statement to save her life, and she said so.

It was the society
event of the year in Jacobsville,
eclipsed only by Simon Hart's wedding with
the governor
giving Tira
away. There were no major celebrities at Eb
and
Sally's wedding, but Eb did have a conglomeration of
mercenaries and government agents the like of
which Ja
cobsville had never seen.
Cord Romero was sitting with
Maggie
on the groom's side of the church, along with a
tall, striking dark-haired man with a small mustache and
neat brief beard. Beside him was a big blond man
who
made even Dallas look shorter. On the pew across from
him, on Sally's side of the church, was a
blue-eyed bru
nette who avoided
looking at the big blond man. Sally
recognized her as Callie, the
stepsister of the big blond
man, who was
Eb's friend Micah Steele.

A number of men in
suits filled the rest of the groom's pews. Some were wearing sunglasses inside.
Others were
watching the people on the bride's side of the church,
which wasn't packed,
since Sally hadn't been back in Ja
cobsville long enough to make close friends
in the com
munity. Jessica was there with Stevie and Dallas, of
course.

Sally walked down the aisle all by
herself, since she
hadn't contacted either
of her parents about her wedding.
They
had their own lives now, and neither of them had
written to Sally since the breakup of their family when she
moved in with Jessica. She didn't really mind going
it
alone. Somehow, under the
circumstances, it even seemed
appropriate.
She wore a dream of a wedding gown, with yards and yards of delicate lace and a
train, and a veil that
accentuated
her blond beauty.

Eb stood at the altar waiting for her, in a gray vested

suit with a white rose in his lapel. He
turned as she joined
him, and looked down at her with eyes that made her
knees
weak.

The ceremony was
brief, but poignant, and when Eb
lifted the veil to kiss her for the first
time as her husband, tears welled up in her eyes as his mouth tenderly claimed
hers. They held hands going back down the aisle, wearing
matching simple gold
bands. Outside the church, they were
pelted with rice and good wishes. Laughing,
Sally tossed
her bouquet and Dallas intercepted it to make sure it
landed in Jessica's
hands.

They climbed into the
rented limousine and minutes
later, they were at Eb's ranch, pausing just long enough
to
change
into traveling clothes and rush to the private airstrip
to board a loaned
Learjet for the trip to Puerto Vallarta,
Mexico, for their brief honeymoon.

The trip was tiring,
and so was the aftermath of the
day's excitement. Sally climbed into the huge whirlpool
bath while Eb made dinner reservations for that
evening.

She didn't realize
that she wasn't alone until Eb climbed down into the water with her. He
chuckled at her expres
sion and then he kissed her. Very soon, she forgot all
about
her
shock at the first sight of her unclothed bridegroom in
the joy of an embrace
that knew no obstacles.

He kissed her until
she was clinging, gasping for breath
and shivering with pleasure.

"Where?" he whispered, stroking
her tenderly, enjoy
ing her reactions to her
first real intimacy. "Here, or in
the
bed?"

She could barely speak. "In bed," she said huskily.

"That suits me."

He got out and turned
off the jets, lifting her clear of
the water to towel them both dry. He picked
her up and
carried her quickly into the bedroom, barely taking time