Dust Devil (48 page)

Renzo’s
own breathing was equally labored. He had pitched the nightstick down
on the floor, and now he stood tiredly but warily, his nose still
bleeding, so bright splotches of red splattered his torn shirt.
Finishing ripping away the lower half himself, he pressed the fine
cotton to his nose in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood.

“
Are—are
you okay, Dad?” Alex asked in the tense silence that had
fallen.

A
low, agonized groan issued from Bubba’s split lips as he heard
Alex acknowledge Renzo as his father. Renzo himself nodded tersely,
throwing down his makeshift towel and sniffing to hold back the blood
that still trickled from his nose as he strode toward the sheriff.

Stretching
out his cuffed wrists, Renzo demanded fiercely, “Take ’em
off, Hoag! You’ve got no cause to hold me here any longer or to
charge me, either.”

“
Do
as he says, Hoag,” Judge Pierce instructed warningly. “Renzo’s
right. He’s got what would appear to be an ironclad alibi, and
unless you can prove Miss Kincaid is a liar, you’ve got no call
to hold him further.” Muttering hotly under his breath, the
sheriff reluctantly unlocked the cuffs. “This ain’t by no
means the end of this affair, boy—not by a long shot!” he
blustered, motioning curtly toward Alex, who stood at Sarah’s
side, both of them trembling in the aftermath of the violence.

“
I
reckon we can all see plain as day why that there fucking wop’s
whore lied for you!”

Renzo’s
head jerked up sharply at that. His eyes narrowed, glinted as hard as
nails in the sunlight that streamed in brightly through the windows
of the sheriff’s office. It was the only warning Hoag received
before Renzo abruptly backfisted him smack across his pasty, leering
face. The impact of the powerful blow was such that the sheriff went
down like a poleaxed steer, falling heavily to the floor, to lie
there in a crumpled heap, moaning. After that, turning wordlessly to
his family, Renzo put one arm around Sarah’s waist, the other
around Alex’s shoulders. Together the three of them began to
walk out of the sheriff’s office.

“
Sarah!”
Bubba hollered hoarsely behind them. “Sarah! You leave here
with that fucking guinea bastard, and we’re through! We’re
through, do you hear me? Sarah! I had you an engagement ring, damn
it! I was going to give it to you tonight! Sarah honey, please!
Goddamn it, Sarah! You’re fired!”

“
Shut
up, Bubba!” J.D. snapped disgustedly. “You’re
making a total cake of yourself!”

Sarah
ignored Bubba and J.D. both, leaning against Renzo, her arm wrapped
tightly around his waist as they and their son stepped outside onto
the sidewalk, to make their way to the Jeep. All around the square,
people were staring at them, whispering. The three of them got into
the vehicle, Renzo in the driver’s seat. His nose had finally
stopped bleeding, Sarah observed as, after fumbling in her purse, she
withdrew her car keys and handed them to him. He inserted the proper
one into the ignition. After that, he just sat there for a long,
silent moment. Then, without
warning,
turning in his seat, he reached out and yanked Sarah to him, tangling
his hands in her hair and kissing her deeply, feverishly. In the
backseat, Alex gazed out the window, tactfully pretending his
interest was absorbed by something across the square.

After
a while, Renzo reluctantly released Sarah, his eyes staring into hers
intently, searchingly, gleaming with love and wonder that a woman
such as she should belong to him. Because more than anyone, he knew
what it had cost her to come here, to publicly acknowledge their
relationship—and him as the father of her child. He combed her
dark brown hair back from her face, laid his hand gently against her
cheek. Then, without speaking, knowing she already understood all he
might have said, he started the Jeep and backed slowly away from the
curb, into the street.

The
days may come, the days may go,

But
still the hands of memory weave

The
blissful dreams of long ago.

Sweet
Genevieve

—
George
Cooper

To
fill the silence on the way home, Renzo turned on the Jeep’s
radio, punching the buttons until he found a station he thought
everybody could live with. Soon the mellow strains of Kenny G.’s
saxophone crooning “Forever in Love” drifted from the
speakers. The music was not only apropos, but also slow, lilting and
soothing, Renzo thought, something they all three needed right now,
this having so far proved to be a momentous day in more ways than
one. It didn’t seem possible to him that it was only half over.
He couldn’t imagine what might happen next, could hardly
repress the urge that assailed him to take his small family home and
lock all the doors and windows up
tight
against whatever else might come. He suspected that by now, the news
about him and Sarah and Alex was all over town. Renzo’s jaw set
grimly, a muscle pulsing as he remembered what Hoag Laidlaw had
called her, and all the hateful telephone calls and mail she had
received when he, Renzo, hadn’t been here to protect her, as he
should have been.

“
Sarah,
is that old garage out back empty?” he asked as he turned on to
the gravel drive that led to the farmhouse.

“
Yes,
why?”

“
I’m
going to put the Jeep and the Jag away. Under the circumstances, it
just seems a sensible precaution. Alex, are you strong enough to open
those heavy wooden doors for me?”

“
I
don’t know. But I’ll sure try, Dad.”

“
All
right, why don’t you hop on out here and get started on ’em,
then, while I drop your mother off up at the house?” Renzo
pulled the Jeep to a halt so Alex could get out, then drove Sarah on
around to the front door. “Sary, I know you have an unlisted
telephone number, but first thing Monday morning, I want you to get
it changed. Bubba has it, I’m sure, and there’s no
telling who he may give it to—and I’m not having you go
through all over again what you did before. When you get inside, you
call that secretary of yours...the one you told not to make any more
damned appointments for me.” At the memory, Renzo eyed her with
mocking accusation, his mouth turning down wryly at the corners, so
she flushed with guilt. “What’s her name? Kate Alcott.
You ask her to go into FYI and box up all your personal possessions
in your office, because you’re not going back there. Even if
Bubba hadn’t fired you, I wouldn’t have let you go back
there after today. No, don’t argue with me about this—and
if you say one word to me about you not having any job now and no way
to support yourself and Alex, my black temper’s really going to
be provoked. You know damned good and well that I intend to marry
you, that I have intended to marry you since I was twelve years old,
and that I would have done so long before now if my mother and your
own—however well-intentioned they may have thought
themselves—hadn’t seen fit to meddle in our business
after that day at the old quarry!”

“
I—I
don’t even know if you ever married anybody else, Renzo,”
Sarah murmured, her heart beginning to pound fiercely in her breast
at his words. “If you’re divorced—”

“
No,
I didn’t, so I’m not. That’s one of the things we
would have talked about today if Hoag and Dwayne hadn’t hauled
me away. One of the things we
will
talk
about. Look, sweetheart, I know you must know I haven’t exactly
lived like a monk these past twelve years, that one of the ways a man
tries to forget one special woman is with a string of other women who
don’t mean a damn to him. And none of ’em did mean a damn
to me, either. I know, too, how it must hurt you to know I wasn’t
as faithful as you. But you have to remember that until this summer,
Sarah, I thought you had got married and moved away barely three
months after I fled from this town. If it helps the hurt at all,
however, I will tell you this—if I had known, if I’d had
even an
inkling
of
the truth, of what was really happening to you here,
nothing
—
not
even the thought of being charged with murdering Sonny
Holbrooke—would have kept me from coming back to this town for
you. I hope you believe that,
cara,
because
I mean it with all my heart.”

“
Oh,
Renzo...” Sarah began. But of course, by then, she was sobbing
so hard that she couldn’t go on. But that didn’t matter,
because he had her in his arms, cradled against his broad chest, and
he was crooning to her, stroking her hair and kissing the tears from
her cheeks.

“
Shh.
Hush, baby, hush. Because I’m afraid that if you don’t
stop all this crying you’ve been doing since last night, Cooper
Northrup’ll be hotfooting it over here next—trying to
make off with you so he can fill up his damned water tower!”

Cooper
Northrup managed the water-treatment plant. Rumor had it he was so
desperate for rain to take the pressure off the plant and the tower
both that he did a rain dance in his boxer shorts every morning in
his backyard. The idea of him dragging her up to the water tower to
fill it with her tears couldn’t help but make Sarah laugh.

“
That’s
better,” Renzo declared, tilting her face up to his and smiling
gently before his mouth brushed hers. “Go on inside now and do
what I told you.”

Nodding
wordlessly, Sarah got out of the Jeep and went into the house. She
called Kate, saying only that she and Bubba had quarreled, that they
were through and that he had fired her as a result. Kate was upset,
but finally realizing nothing she said was going to persuade Sarah
things would all blow over, as they always had before, the secretary
agreed to clean out Sarah’s office. Then, feeling hot, sweaty
and dirtied by the way Hoag Laidlaw had leered at her earlier, by
what he had called her in his office, Sarah
trudged
upstairs to take a shower. She had just finished washing and
dressing, and was seated before her vanity, brushing her long hair,
when Renzo appeared in her bedroom. He carried a black leather
overnight bag—a fact that momentarily took her aback and roused
her indignation.

“
Now,
now, Sary,” Renzo said placatingly before she could speak.
“Don’t go getting on your high horse, thinking I came out
here last night expecting to spend the weekend with you—even if
I did,” he added cockily, grinning. “The truth is that
over the years, in my profession, I’ve never known where an
assignment might take me or for how long, is all. So I’ve just
got into the habit of carrying a few essentials with me in the
roadster at all times.”

Unzipping
the case, Renzo began to unpack it, laying its contents on the bed—a
change of clothes, a razor, a bottle of cologne and various other
items. To Sarah’s shock and dread, the very last thing he
removed was a huge automatic pistol. With obvious skill and
familiarity, he slid the magazine from the grip, then checked to
ensure that the chamber was empty.