Red Leopard (The Vistaria Affair Series) (17 page)

Nick growled under his breath and opened his eyes. He pushed her gently towards the waiting soldier. “Go,” he told her.

Then she was being hurried away, towards the military helicopter, with no answer, not even hope to cling to.

Chapter Eight

For the first time since she had landed in Vistaria, Calli slept the sleep of the dead. They had been dropped at the apartment a little past midnight, after being checked over and given a shower and a change of clothes. Calli was barefoot. They could find no shoes that fit her. She dropped into bed as soon as she had seen Minnie tucked into hers, and slept dreamlessly for ten hours.

Minnie had woken her a little after eleven a.m. Her cousin bubbled over with happiness, for Duardo had phoned and assured her he was okay. Now Minnie straddled Calli’s back and doing her best to work the stiffness out of her shoulders. Calli had found herself nearly unable to move for the soreness.

“Calli, the way the men deferred to Nicolás Escobedo yesterday...he’s the one they call the Red Leopard, isn’t he?”

“Why do you think that?”

“Red hair, red leopard. And Duardo said ‘
rojo’
yesterday just before you went over to talk to him. He’s the one that helped you in the jail. That’s how you know him.”

“Yes.”

“You know who he is, don’t you?”

Calli sighed into her pillow. “Yes.”

Minnie kneaded and worked at one of the knots by her right shoulder blade. “He would be a very dangerous man to get involved with.”

Calli jumped a little at her unexpected statement. “I rather doubt he’d trouble with the likes of you and I, Minnie. He’s virtually royalty here, or so your dad keeps telling me.”

“Maybe. But he wants you anyway.”

This time the leap of her heart made her whole body twitch. Calli rolled over, dislodging Minnie and drew the gown back around her shoulders. “How do you know that?” she asked her cousin.

“I know men. Much better than you, Miss Academic. I saw him watching you, and later when you talked, just before the explosion. He wants you. Most people wouldn’t see it, but it came off him in waves. He barely held himself in.”

Calli chewed at her lip. “No one else would know?” she repeated.

Minnie wrinkled her nose. “Unless they could tune into that sort of thing, like me.”

“God, I hope not,” Calli muttered.

“You can’t get involved, Calli. Not with him.”

“I know.”

“You told him no, didn’t you?”

“Well, more or less, but....”

“
But
?” Minnie pounced on the prevarication.

“But afterwards...” She shook her head. “After the explosion, Minnie, it felt like nothing really mattered, like I should just cut through all the bullshit and tell it like it is. And I did. I told him how I feel.”

Minnie drew her knees to her chest and hugged them, resting her chin on them. “What did you tell him? That you’re in love with him?”

“It’s more...in lust. I know I go a little crazy when he’s near. I can’t breathe properly. The ache to have him...it’s overwhelming and I can’t think of anything else. It’s the first time I’ve felt that since....”

“Since Robert,” Minnie finished.

Calli shook her head. “I’ve never felt this, not even with Robert. Not this way.”

“You don’t think that could be love?”

“I don’t even know him,” Calli protested.

“You don’t have to know him,” Minnie whispered and Callie was alarmed to see two big tears roll down her cheeks. She brushed them away impatiently.

“What is it?” Calli asked. “Duardo?”

Minnie half laughed, even as she began crying in earnest. “I’m such an idiot,” she said. “But watching him hanging there yesterday, God, Calli, I would have died if he’d let go, if you hadn’t been able to hold on for as long as you did, if Nick hadn’t come along.”

Calli felt her own eyes welling with tears, in reaction to Minnie’s genuine distress. She rubbed her cousin’s shoulder, trying to find something appropriate to say. “It could just be the stress of the occasion,” she offered.

Minnie gave a gigantic sniff, like a little girl. “Yeah and tell me that the way you want Nicolás Escobedo is just the stress of the moment,” she said.

Calli stayed silent.

“There you go, then,” Minnie said.

* * * * *

Uncle Josh listened in total to silence to all Calli had to say and even Minnie repressed her natural tendency to slide in shocking side commentary. He remained silent for long moments after she had finished, absorbing it all.

Finally he blew out his breath, making his cheeks pop. “I’m glad you were there, Calli. For Minnie’s sake. Thank you for that. But what concerns me more is Escobedo’s airy assurance that Americans are safe. Why would we be safe?”

“There’s no advantage to hurting Americans,” Calli explained. “Or anyone but the Vistarian Army, who are the power-holders.”

“And how long will it take the rebels to figure out that the army needs us here to get to silver production going? And how long after that will they start taking potshots at us?”

Calli had no answer for that, but she knew Nick would have and wished he were here to supply it.

“Can you give me any reason why I shouldn’t phone Dan Mellon right now and recommend we shut down the mine and ship everyone back home?” Josh asked.

“If you do, then the president will have no chance of sorting this out at all. None. The rebels will have won.”

“We didn’t come here to get mixed up in their politics,” he replied.

“Dad, you threw your lot in with the government just by coming here,” Minnie said. “You can’t leave them to the wolves now.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t like this at all. Knowing this—in a way I wish you hadn’t told me. It’s a responsibility.”

“It is,” Calli agreed. “What if you spoke to Nicolás Escobedo yourself, uncle Josh? Would that reassure you?”

He thought about it and shook his head. “It’s not just me I have to think about, or even you two. It’s the whole damned company. It’s everyone out here.”

Minnie sat forward on the sofa. “What if Dan Mellon spoke to Nicolás Escobedo? Or even the president?”

“That,” he declared, “would make a difference.” Then he looked at them both. “Don’t tell me you can pull that off?” He looked sharply at Calli. “You can?”

“Not without Minnie’s help,” Calli said. “Minnie has to make a phone call.”

Joshua turned his head to look at his daughter. Minnie shrugged. “What can I say? It’s this
femme fatale
quality I have.”

He shook his head. “I get the impression you’re not joking and I don’t know that I want to know the details. Okay, make the call.”

* * * * *

It took one phone call and a great deal of waiting but eventually the phone rang and Uncle Josh went off to a meeting with a worried look. He returned several hours later, very quiet.

“We’re staying. For now,” he added. “Nicolás Escobedo can be very persuasive.”

“What did he say that convinced you?” Calli asked.

“It’s more what he didn’t say. The President was very clear about economic impacts and even the impact on the company should we pull up stakes—they have a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of our own financial situation. He insisted it hadn’t been proved yet the explosion at Dominio de Leo was rebel action. Rebel action or not, it had been aimed at the army. No one else. Dan Mellon didn’t accept any of it. That’s when Nicolás leaned forward and said in a quiet way he would personally guarantee no harm would ever come to any American in Vistaria. Not one. Because the moment that happened, his country would be lost and he had no intention of losing it to rebels who would run it into the ground inside a generation. And Dan Mellon looked at him and nodded. And that ended it.”

Minnie smiled.

Her father lifted a finger. “But you stay away from the army from now on, Minerva. It’s too dangerous. I can’t lock you up behind palisades because you’re a grown woman, but I wish to God I could. I want you to promise me.”

Her smile faded. “I can’t promise that, Dad.”

He stared at her, surprised. “Why not?”

She put her hands together in her lap. “There’s a man. A captain in the army.”

“With you, there’s
always
a man, Minnie. D’you think just because I’m your father I’m deaf, dumb and blind?”

“This is different,” she said firmly. Simply.

“Calli, help me,” he pleaded.

“I can’t,” Calli said softly. “I believe her. This is different.”

He scrubbed his hand backwards and forwards through his hair. “Oh hell’s bells,” he muttered. “Minnie, don’t you understand that hanging around with army personnel is liable to get you into trouble?”

“It already has.”

“I could ship you back to America,” he said. “In fact, I’m thinking of sending your mother back home anyway. The climate here isn’t helping her.”

“I’d just leave home,” Minnie said quietly, without undue emphasis.

He growled a little under his breath and Calli knew Minnie’s passive, truthful answers drove him into an unaccustomed corner. She put a hand on her uncle’s forearm. “I’ll watch out for her, Uncle Josh, and we will be very careful. We know, better than you, the dangers here.”

“Do you? Are you so sure?” he shot back. “I was in Vietnam when the communists rolled their way through town. Revolutions are the ugliest events in the world. Terrible things can happen. No one is spared.”

Calli tried to keep her gaze steady. “I will watch out for her.”

“You already have, I know,” he said, relenting. Then he straightened and put his hand over her own. “Stay away from Nicolás Escobedo, Calli. I know there’s a connection there, but he is a far different sort of trouble than an army captain. When revolutions happen, the heads of government tend to end up very dead and so do their kith and kin. Stay away from him.”

“That’s an easy promise to make,” Calli assured him.

Josh considered this for a moment, then looked at Minnie. “An army captain, huh? And Vistarian. Here’s me hoping you’d settle for a Wall Street guru, when you finally took the plunge and look after me in my old age.”

* * * * *

In the cooler evenings, Minnie’s mother sat with them at the dining table and tonight Beryl even cooked a little. She talked of her return to the States and it seemed the impending departure energized her. It saddened Calli that Beryl’s health prevented her from enjoying the beauty of Vistaria, but knew the return would do her good.

They were still eating when a child came to the door bearing a huge bouquet of vivid colored flowers. She curtsied when Minnie answered the door and held out the flowers with a lovely smile.

Minnie took them and read the card tucked in amongst them. “Ah!” she said, and held them out to Calli. “They’re for you.” She smiled.

Calli opened the little card.

Thank you, Miss Calli. D.

She looked at Minnie. “You knew.”

“He said he might. I encouraged him like mad.” She giggled. “They don’t have a delivery service here, so he had to pay a local kid.”

Calli looked at the flowers. Many of them she could not name, but they were gorgeous. Beryl exclaimed over them while Calli got water and a vase. “Whatever is this D person thanking you for?” Beryl asked.

“Calli saved his life,” Minnie said.

“No, really,” Beryl insisted.

“Really,” Minnie insisted right back.

“Oh,” Beryl said in a small voice.

Josh looked over his glasses at them. “D?” he asked.

“Duardo,” Minnie said.

“Army?” he asked, suspicion tingeing his tone.

“Captain,” Minnie said happily.

Josh’s gaze swiveled to Calli. “I see,” he said. He went back to his meal.

After dinner, when Calli stood out on the balcony grabbing some fresh air, Josh found her there and shut the sliding door soundlessly. He came and leaned against the balcony. “Tell me about this Duardo,” he said. “Is he a good man?”

“Yes,” Calli said, without hesitation.

“Does he care for her?”

“Yes.”

“Enough?”

She sighed. “I don’t know, Uncle Josh. I think so...but I don’t know. All I can say is that I’ll watch out for her.”

He thought about that one for a while. “It’s hard. I know she must take these bumps, make her own way, but it’s hard to watch your only daughter risk...everything. I remember your father saying the same thing about Robert and now I know how he felt.”

Calli sighed. “I’m glad he died without knowing what Robert did.”

“He knew, Calli. He knew in his gut.”

She looked at him. “He never said anything.”

“You’d made your choice. What could he say? He just hung around, hoping you’d figure it out, or else to be there to help you to pick up the pieces when it all fell apart, as he knew it would.”