Her Dark Dragon (13 page)

He wandered through town and stopped before a shop window, the unique globe catching his eye. Nico had never seen anything like it before. While simply a paperweight, the glass had been molded around an impression of the sun. Inside, there were several others: the individual planets, Halley's Comet, the Northern Lights, and even a replica of the Cat's Eye Nebula. He chose the one with the Earth centered inside, the blue-green colors mixed with the whites and browns, all surrounded by the clear glass, and chose a triangle pedestal, asking for it to be gift-wrapped. He tucked a small card inside the box.

As he detoured to the Cirillo yard, it seemed everyone was gone for the day. Carmen rolled her eyes skyward when he asked how Danni had been. She told him Robert and Felice had left by taxi early this morning and Danni even earlier by pickup truck. She had no idea when anyone would be back.

Nico found he didn't like not knowing where Danni was. Silly of course, because he had her cell phone number, and had to admit she'd survived quite nicely until now without him. Already they had surpassed their parents. They'd moved beyond emotion to the flesh. And that was when it struck him. He was driving back to Casa Maria when he realized he didn't verbalize to Danni that he truly loved her, the woman . He found it hard to, especially after she'd turned down his proposal. With a sigh of disgust, he just wanted his old life back, minus all these complications. Only that would mean without Danielle. He had to accept his ego prevented him from acknowledging she might not accept his proposal and his predicted perfect future for everyone.

* * * *

Danni was finally home after a long afternoon. Carmen had left a plate in the warming oven for her, which she picked at. Felice and Robert were nowhere to be seen or heard. She decided to escape to her room before that situation changed. She showered and sat on her bed, ready to open the ornately wrapped package. Only three weeks since she'd started her arrangement with Nico, and it felt odd to be without him. His business meeting was always the third Saturday of the month. He hadn't offered to see her on Sunday. It was a good thing because she knew she'd jump at the chance to spend more time with him. Every night if he asked, but he didn't.

Danni decided it was a good lesson for her future, not assuming he'd be there. After all, in a short time she'd be far away. Pulling back the ribbons and paper, the envelope was tucked on top of the tissue paper. The weight alone had made her wonder all through the evening what it might be. Now she would find out. With a deep breath, she tugged the small card from the envelope and recognized the handwriting immediately.

Danni, I can't give you Cirillo back, but I can give you the world
.

It was signed with just his initial. She laughed at the card until pulling back the paper, revealing the earth enclosed in glass. Taking the stand from the box, she set it beside her bed and watched the light reflect as she turned the globe to view it from different angles. It was an amazing piece, something she'd never seen before.

His words hit home. Cirillo would be gone. Today's meetings with the accountants had confirmed it. Nico had given her a broad reminder she was still alive and would find a place for herself when the time came. She slept, but not as deeply as she did when she was beside him.

The following week was a long one for Nico. He spoke to Danni only twice. Once when she called to thank him for the world, and a second time, an even shorter conversation, to set up their date. She'd shown up with a carefree attitude, willing to go to dinner in town and return to Casa Maria for the night. She was more than willing to re-create the Spooning carving, liking the new position. It seemed to Nico that it was all too perfect. But he couldn't come right out and ask her why she was so happy. For the first time since she'd returned, she actually laughed with him, and he wouldn't jeopardize what little happiness she was holding onto. She refused to talk about the vineyard, her parents, or any legal battle that lay ahead.

The following week she reminded him of her cycle and thought to stay home. He managed to talk her into a movie and dinner, then back to his house for a good night's sleep. Surprisingly, they did just that. As if they'd been an old married couple, they fell into the routine of her tucking herself against him, falling into a deep sleep, comfortable in his cotton tee to cover herself. The following morning, she made breakfast for them both. Then she was gone.

It was Wednesday, and he still hadn't heard from her. She hadn't returned his calls, and he was getting pissed. He handed his horse off to Marco and was trudging toward the office to accomplish some of the necessary paperwork he'd pushed aside when his cell rang. It was Carmen, asking him to come to Cirillo. The sheriff suggested she call him because he was tied up across county and couldn't get there right away. Nico grabbed back the horse's reins and bolted across Severino land and onto Cirillo. There he saw a group of people at the tasting room entrance, including an angry Danielle and the security men who stood barring entrance to the other strangers. He approached, slowing the horse, trying to get a grip on the situation.

"Danielle," he said, slipping off his horse, dropping his reins over a nearby tree branch. "Sheriff Addams called, said he'd be a while before he could get here."

"Hello, Nico. I'm sorry he called. He shouldn't have bothered you."

"Well, I'm here now, anything I can do to help?" He moved beside her, keeping her eye while trying to access the situation. He nodded to the security men and turned back to Robert and Felice, who was now having another emotional fit of hysterics. It was one of the two strangers that spoke first.

"I don't know who you are, buddy, but we don't need your input. We're just here to collect on a debt. That means I fill that truck with the wine on this list. No interference and nobody will get hurt."

"And why would you think anyone would allow you to take the finest of Cirillo's stock?" he asked, glancing at the list he'd been handed. He looked to Danni and she gave him an odd look. The second man, a short, rounded, angry-looking man interceded.

"Look, we're already late. Just get out of the way and we'll load up. Talk to Mr. Hanson. He knows all about the arrangement with our boss."

"I'll bet he does." Nico turned to Robert. "Care to explain?"

This wasn't the first time in the last years Nico wanted to take a shot at Robert. Instinct told him today wasn't the day either. But it was coming. Nico knew he'd get his shot soon. Besides being a jerk, he'd annoyed Nico for years. Time was growing short with the break-up of the business. Soon it would get personal between them, even if it was just for a few minutes of private time where he could tell Robert Hanson just what he thought of him. Felice was another matter. He'd never touch her, but he'd come to hate the sight of her, for how she had treated Danni all these years.

"Not to you! I have a right to settle a debt with the wine. It's been all arranged. Just get these so-called security thugs away from the cellars and let them load up."

"I can't do that, Robert. You know as well as we all do, the wine's not yours to leverage."

"They'll hurt him," Felice cried, letting a fresh torrent of tears streak her cheeks. Nobody seemed impressed. Finally Danni spoke up.

"Let them. Cirillo is still paying for your health insurance. Have a field day on him, guys, but no wine leaves the cellars. If your boss has a problem with that, tell him to call Sam Parkins. He'll make arrangements for him to present his markers in eight weeks when we turn over the yard."

"Look, lady, the boss don't wait on anybody. He sent us here for the cases on that list."

"And you're leaving without them. Take Robert with you. He can explain to your boss he gambled with no backing." The second man shook his head, not liking the situation.

"Lady," he started, moving closer toward Danielle. That was when Nico took a direct step in front of her.

"Don't even begin to think about getting near her, or you go through me." Nico's stance left no doubt as to his ability to protect her. "Now, give your boss the message and have him call Sam Parkins. And don't come back. Security just got tighter on Cirillo land."

"Look, bud, I don't know her. I don't know you or care to. I simply have orders."

"Give me a phone number," Nico said, using his cell to punch in the numbers while both strangers grumbled in the background. When it was answered, Nico informed the man on the other end of the same information he was giving his drivers. A protracted silence wafted around them before the stranger said he didn't do business this way. Nico told him it would be a new experience for him then and disconnected. By then the sheriff's car, its red lights flashing and the sirens turned off, was heading down the long road into Cirillo.

Both men were anxious to leave suddenly and managed to get in their truck before Coy got out of his. He meandered over to them, speaking quietly through the driver's window. They pulled away in a hurry, kicking up dust and pebbles around everyone standing there. Danni gave Coy the condensed version, and he just shook his head at Robert.

"You know better than getting hooked up with him." His disgusted tone said more than the words did. It was Felice who reinforced the injury factor, and Coy looked away, trying to hide the smile forming on his lips. "I suggest you keep a tighter rein on your husband, Mrs. Hanson."

"But…"

"But nothing. No wine leaves here, especially to pay for his gambling debts." Danni got her spine back and turned to Robert. "I meant what I said. The insurance is paid up. Do us all a favor and take a broken leg for the yard, Robert. You deserve more, but Coy would have to press charges against me if I beat the crap out of you for being a lowlife." She turned on her heel and walked away, pulling out her cell phone as she did. Nico didn't follow. He chose to stand beside Coy, waiting for Felice and Robert to leave.

"You know better than this, both of you. And you were both warned."

"I have a right to the wine. I'm the one who spent my youth on this god-forsaken rock pile." Felice turned, heading toward the house. It seemed her only choice, as Danni was pulling out of the driveway in the pickup. Robert followed her, shaking his head, mumbling about needing a drink.

"I could use one too," Coy said.

"She needs more security," Nico said.

"Probably the call she was making as she left. I gave her the name and number of a guy in San Francisco who can get her some more help. Our guys will be in charge, but the extra bodies can't hurt." Nico mounted his horse, assured by the sheriff and his team that they'd keep a careful eye on things in the coming weeks, all of them knowing it would get worse before the turnover.

* * * *

Nico didn't get any call-backs during the week, and when she didn't show up on Friday night, he was beyond annoyed. He drove to the Cirillo yard in a snit, only to be told by the security she was last seen in the barn. That was where he found her, brushing down one of the older horses. He stood in the doorway watching, knowing she knew he was there. A woman who obviously worked all day and was tending her horse shouldn't look so good. Her jeans and boots were grubby. The braid she always wore had loosened, wind-strewn tendrils escaped their bond. Her T-shirt looked soft, even if dusty. She was the woman he loved, plain and simple. He'd have to figure out something to make this situation better.

He put out feelers to other land buyers with no response. They all knew what was going on at Cirillo. The valley in general was waiting with bated breath to find out what would happen in the next weeks. Danni had to feel betrayed by her entire hometown, not to mention those closest to her. Nico didn't like this soft side of himself. Where was the competent, self-assured businessman? Gone in a haze of Danielle.

Their evening depended on how he approached her and how she responded.

"Bad week?"

"Aren't they all now?" This wasn't the Danielle he'd come to know in the last weeks. She'd gone drastically in a different direction—bitchy, to be precise.

"We had a date," he started, but was cut off by her acid-toned words.

"I'm not in the mood," she told him, dismissing him with a shake of her head, too exasperated for words.

"Fine, but a call would have been polite." Control was difficult. He was sick of walking on eggs around her, afraid to do or say the wrong thing.

"Fuck polite. I've been nice and kind all my life, and look where it got me."

"Danni, if you want to vent, fine. But I'm not the enemy." He was leaning against the stall door, his hands folded over his chest.

"Of course you're one of them. Go away, Nico. Keep the netsukes. I don't care anymore. Just go away."

Something inside Nico snapped. He could take arguing with her, but this dismissal wasn't earned. They bantered back and forth several times further, and he found himself grumbling under his breath. She cursed him in English and Italian before he finally moved toward her.

"If you think this was about the netsukes, you're mistaken." The bluntness of his statement stung from the look on her face..

"Of course it was."

"No, it was a means to the end, you and me, Danielle, beyond land, carvings, or any label." He held her gaze, forcing her to accept his perspective or at least admit it was valid.