For His Daughter

Dani could see she had left Gary speechless at last. In all fairness, she knew he sympathized with her exile.

Giving him a genuine smile this time, she went to the driver’s side of his car, reached up on tiptoe and planted a kiss on the side of his cheek. He went beet-red.

“I know you’re trying,” she told him. “Just don’t forget about me up here.”

“I won’t,” Gary promised. “I have a voodoo doll with Lorraine’s picture on it, and the moment it works, I’ll be on the phone to you.”

“Great. My fate lies in the hands of a man who believes in the power of black magic but can’t balance his checkbook.”

He gave her a hopeful smile. “Lorraine’s fate lies with the voodoo doll, Dani. Your fate lies with you. Make this time work for you.”

She nodded and stepped back from the car. She watched him pull away, turn at the corner and go over the bridge that crossed Lightning River, the creek that bisected the town. He’d be in Denver in less than an hour, but it might as well be the end of the universe. It was all she could do to finally turn away and go back to the bureau office.

Becky was still there, sitting on the corner of Cissy’s desk, playing with a pen between two brightly polished nails. She didn’t even look up when Dani entered.

She lifted one hand as though preparing to swear on a stack of bibles. “If I’m lying, I’m dying,” she said to Cissy. “Althea Bendix saw him through the window of the real-estate office yesterday making eyes at that slutty Nina Jordan, who just about fell at his feet. Of course.”

Cissy didn’t look all that impressed. “Could have been business.”

“Monkey business, if you want my guess,” Becky said with a sharp nod of her head. “He’s up to no good, I’ll just bet you, and you know Nina. The woman can speak six languages but doesn’t know how to say no in any of them.”

Dani had been making her way back to her office, but suddenly swung around to join the women’s conversation. People who were “up to no good” were of considerable interest to her. Rule followers seldom did anything worthy of the front pages of the newspaper.

“Who’s up to no good?” she asked the two women.

“Rafe D’Angelo,” Becky supplied. “He’s back in town.”

The name meant nothing to her, although she knew that the D’Angelo family ran the Lightning River Lodge resort up Windy Mountain Road. The upcoming marriage of their son, Matt, was the talk around town. “And that’s a bad thing?”

Becky pursed her lips. “That remains to be seen. Lots of folks around here were glad to see the last of Rafe when he left.”

“When was that?”

“Straight out of high school. At least twelve years ago. Hasn’t been back since.”

“And people are still holding a grudge?” Some of Dani’s enthusiasm dissipated. This was starting to sound like stale news to her. Besides, she’d heard the D’Angelos were some of Broken Yoke’s town leaders. She didn’t need to make any more enemies.

“Not holding a grudge, exactly. Just hoping that his stay here is temporary.”

Cissy laughed. “Considering the way Rafe and his dad got along, I’m sure it will be.” She whistled through her teeth. “Just being around the two of them during one of their disagreements was like spending an hour in a blender.”

“Never dull, that’s for sure,” Becky agreed. For Dani’s benefit she added, “But what could you expect, really? His parents had their hands full trying to keep up with him. Rafe was such a daredevil. And the women—he was like the Pied Piper.”

Dani waited for more, but Cissy had discovered a final black olive in her salad and was busy chasing it down with her fork, a feat that Becky seemed to find fascinating.

“I can’t wait to see him,” Becky said at last. “He was so great looking as a teenager. Imagine what the man must look like.”

Dani could think of several boys from high school who had not aged well at all. “A lot can happen to change a person in that amount of time,” she said. “Are you sure he’s still worthy of all this anticipation?”

Becky rolled her eyes. “Honey, I went to school with him. You didn’t. Trust me, he’s worth it no matter what age he is. Besides, he’s one of the D’Angelos. They’ve all got that mysterious Italian blood. They age like fine wine.”

Cissy had found her olive and now sat happily munching it. She nodded agreement to Becky’s claim.

Dani frowned down at her. “You couldn’t have been more than ten when he left.”

“I was nine. But I remember my older sister being nuts for him. She snuck out of the house once to meet him. Ended up getting grounded for two weeks. Even after our parents had yelled at her, she just looked at me all dreamy-eyed and said with a goofy smile, ‘Cissy, it was all worth it.’”

Becky’s head bobbed. “You can find stories like that all over this town.”

Dani sniffed. “I wonder if that’s not all you can find all over this town because of Rafe D’Angelo.”

Becky looked confused, but Cissy arched one blond brow. “You mean little kiddies? Naw. Any woman who hung around with Rafe will tell you he was always a gentleman, even when you were getting dumped by him. Sexy, powerful…”

“How can an eighteen-year-old have any power?” Dani asked, truly skeptical now.

“You’d have to have been here to understand. Demanding, daring—but according to my sister, he always took good care of you.”

That made Dani laugh. “Ah. A thoughtful cad.”

Becky tilted her head at Dani. “I’m sensing you have some hostility toward men.”

“Really?” Dani replied. “Because if they rounded up every man on earth right now and sent them all to the moon, they would still be too close to suit me.”

She sounded so bitter that she wished she hadn’t said anything. But the truth was she knew all about devilishly attractive men who didn’t have it in them to be faithful or trustworthy. She’d just broken off with a first-class rat. Two years ago, she’d come close to moving in with one. Even as far back as when she’d been working in Vegas she could remember one particular playboy whose favorite hobby seemed to be breaking hearts. Oz had been his name—the Wizard of Women.

Her mother had been right. Men never failed to let you down.

Becky gave her a sad-eyed glance. “Divorced, sweetie?”

Oh, well. Might as well admit the truth. Besides, she was well over Kirk. “No. But I just dumped a rich, powerful jerk who sounds just like your Rafe D’Angelo.”

Becky perked up considerably. Even Dani had heard that Becky was looking for husband number three. “Does he live around here by any chance?”

“No. Denver. And you’re welcome to his address if you think you can make him concentrate on anyone but himself for more than ten minutes at a time. The louse has a Ph.D. in arrogance and a master’s degree in snake-oil salesmanship.”

“You’ll get over him.”

“Already am. But you were saying…”

“Oh, yes.” Becky settled in, heading back to gossipy basics. “Just that I heard from Althea Bendix who heard it from Polly Swinburne that Rafe has bought up half a block of old buildings on the town’s main street. Including the old Three Bs Social Club.”

Very few of the buildings in Broken Yoke were noteworthy, but Dani had already learned that one of the genuine historic sites in town was the Three Bs, a rambling, deserted old hotel and watering hole of questionable origin. Given the right designer and a huge infusion of cash, it might make an interesting salute to the town’s silver-mining days.

“What’s wrong with fixing up the Three Bs?” Cissy asked Becky. “It’s been an eyesore long enough.”

“Well, where would he get that kind of money, for one thing? When he and his daddy had their big falling out, he ran off without a nickel to his name. Of course, he could have won the lottery. He always was a lucky devil.”

Dani tapped her chin, thinking of the business possibilities for the old place. “He could cut it up, I suppose. Turn it into shops and restaurants and maybe even condominiums.”