The Calamity Janes: Gina and Emma

6

There had been times in her life—even after enduring Carlo’s possessiveness—when Gina had deeply regretted the lack of a man who’d be there when she woke up and when she went to bed at night, a man who cared more about spending time with her than about his career. Now it seemed she had one.

It wasn’t nearly as much fun as she’d anticipated.

Rafe O’Donnell was everywhere she turned, his expression remote, his gaze cool. The nonstop surveillance wasn’t exactly what she’d dreamed of. In fact, it was all too reminiscent of Carlo. The fact that Rafe was so blatant about it grated on her nerves. She hated that everyone in town knew he was there to keep an eye on her for some reason that neither of them had revealed.

Other than her one conversation with Tony, Gina had refused to discuss Rafe’s presence with her friends or her family. Only Lauren knew part of it—that she had to give a deposition when she got back to New York and that she wasn’t looking forward to it. Cassie, Karen and Emma were studying her almost as intently as Rafe was, but their motive was concern, his was distrust.

He’d been at it for nearly two weeks now, though he’d stayed true to his word and remained mostly in the background ever since that chance meeting at Henderson’s Toy Store over a week earlier. For some perverse reason Gina found that even more annoying and nerve-racking than having to deal with him. She was constantly on edge, continually reminded of the times they’d kissed and just how much she wanted him to kiss her again. For a few minutes in his arms she’d been able to forget why he was here. In fact, she’d forgotten almost everything, including her name.

His unexpected admission that he, too, had been affected by those kisses, had thrown her. Not that it made any real difference. He might be attracted to her, but he wasn’t happy about it. In fact, Rafe didn’t strike her as the kind of man who would violate his own ethical standards on a regular basis. Kissing a suspect, no matter how unjustly accused, was bound to be a breach of those ethics. No wonder he was keeping his distance.

Right now, for example, he was sitting in the booth next to hers at the diner, sipping coffee and pretending to read the morning paper. She knew it was only pretense, because his gaze rarely shifted away from her long enough for more than a glimpse of the headlines. She sighed heavily.

“You might as well come over here and join me,” she said finally. Maybe they could discuss this like two reasonable people and find a way to peacefully coexist, since it was evident that nothing was going to make him go away.

He stared at her, clearly surprised by the invitation. “You sure about that?”

“Lately I don’t seem to be sure about much of anything, but you’re getting on my nerves over there, so, what the heck?”

A grin came and went so quickly she thought she’d imagined it. It was probably a good thing he didn’t smile too often. She had a hunch the effect could be devastating, even more devastating than the rare hint of vulnerability she’d seen on his face as he and Caitlyn had played with the toy trains. Wondering what that was about had kept her awake for several nights, despite repeated lectures to herself that Rafe’s past was none of her concern.

Carrying the paper and his cup of coffee, Rafe slid into the booth opposite her. Gina tried to pretend he was someone who’d come into her restaurant for a good meal, someone deserving of friendly conversation. She’d certainly been forced to be polite to a lot of arrogant, exasperating people over the years. What was one more?

“Still enjoying your visit to Winding River?” she asked politely, as if he were just another tourist instead of a man with an agenda.

“It’s been interesting,” he said.

“Finding much to do?”

He regarded her with amusement. “You know the answer to that, since I’ve pretty much been doing whatever you’re doing. Are you bored?”

“I’m never bored when I’m home, especially with so many of my friends around.”

“If you’re so fond of this place, why did you leave?”

“I wanted to be a chef, a really good one. Tony ran out of recipes.” It was a simplistic answer, but true enough.

“So you left here and went to New York?”

“Not right away. I trained all over at a series of culinary institutes here and in Europe,” she said.

“Must have been expensive.”

She had a hunch his interest in the cost had less to do with curiosity than with his desire to build a case that she’d needed Café Tuscany money to pay off old debts. She leaned forward and met his gaze evenly.

“I was very good. I received several scholarships,” she told him.

“Is that how you met Rinaldi, at one of those cooking schools?”

“Yes,” she said. “But before we go too far along that particular path, let’s agree here and now to save all those nasty deposition questions for New York.”

“It might not leave us much to talk about,” he said, that grin sneaking back.

“Consider it a challenge. You look like the kind of man who thrives on challenges.”

“I do,” he agreed. “Okay then, you pick a nice, neutral topic. What shall we talk about?”

“Let’s talk about you,” she suggested. “Why did you decide to become a lawyer?”

“To protect the little guy from swindlers and crooks,” he said readily.

Gina laughed. “Didn’t take long to get back to your low opinion of me, did it?”

“That’s your interpretation,” he said. “Guilty conscience?”

“Not me.” She regarded him intently. “Tell me something. Why did you take this case? Usually your firm is involved in much more lucrative, high-profile cases. You don’t actually work for the little guys. You work for corporate America. Yet here you are up to your neck in a case that involves peanuts. Even if you recover every missing dollar that Bobby allegedly stole, your cut won’t amount to much by your firm’s standards. And just think of all the billable hours you’re missing while you hang around out here keeping me under surveillance.”

He shrugged. “I was due for a vacation, anyway.”

“But you wouldn’t have chosen to take it here, would you?”

“No,” he admitted. “Probably not.”

“So why did you take a case that was going to cost so much for such little reward?”

“It was personal,” he said, his expression turning grim.

“Oh? In what way?”

“My mother was among those Rinaldi swindled out of their money.” There was a dangerous glint in his eyes. “I imagine you can see why I’d want him caught.”

Gina was taken aback by the admission. She hadn’t thought about Rafe having a mother—or any other family, for that matter—let alone a mother who’d backed Café Tuscany. “How much did she give Bobby?”

“I doubt she viewed it as a gift. She invested a hundred thousand.”

She stared at him, openmouthed with shock. “What? Where did she get that kind of cash? Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I got the impression the other day that your family didn’t have a lot of money. Or were you just trying to play on my sympathy at the toy store?”

“We didn’t. Not when I was a kid. My dad worked two jobs to keep food on the table. It was a constant source of friction between him and my mother. She was used to having the finer things in life, but she made the mistake of falling for a guy working construction on one of my grandfather’s skyscrapers. Needless to say, my grandparents disapproved. They cut her off without a dime.”

He regarded Gina with a bleak expression. “At first I don’t think it really mattered to her. They were doing okay and they were wildly in love. Then I came along, and the finances got a little tighter. When my sister was born, every dollar was stretched to the limit. My grandfather saw to it that my dad was never hired on the best-paying jobs.”

Gina was appalled. “What a mean-spirited thing to do.”

“You won’t get any argument from me about that. It was the worst kind of abuse of power. Eventually it took its toll on the marriage, probably just as my grandfather intended. The fights got louder and nastier. My mother found richer companions. Ultimately my father tired of being humiliated and divorced her. He’s living somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. We’re not in touch, though I did get a copy of the newspaper announcement when he remarried a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Gina said quietly. “His leaving must have made things even more difficult.”

“It could have, but my mother is a survivor. She remarried a little more quickly, within months of the divorce, this time to someone my grandparents approved of. The money began to flow again, so my sister has had an easier time of it, despite the fact that the marriage only lasted a year. There was a hefty settlement.”

His expression turned wry. “Then came another marriage, another divorce, another settlement. Financially my mother has done well for herself, but she’s never found the kind of love she had with my father. While she’s looking for it, she gets mixed up with guys like Rinaldi.”

Gina was surprised by the depth of compassion she felt for him. His motives in going after Bobby and her made a lot more sense now. It also explained why he was distrustful, not just of her, but of all women. “So this is your chance to get even with all the people who’ve taken advantage of her?”

“Something like that.”

She met his gaze with an unflinching look. “I had nothing to do with any of this. Unless she’s been a customer, I don’t even know your mother.”

“You wouldn’t have to in order to benefit from Rinaldi’s con,” he pointed out. “But I imagine you do know her. In fact, I suspect she’s been a frequent diner at Café Tuscany, usually on Rinaldi’s arm.”

Gina shook her head. “Bobby never brought his women to the restaurant. They would’ve distracted him from cooking. Whatever else can be said about Bobby—and at the moment, there’s quite a lot I could say—he was a total professional in the kitchen. Nobody except employees was allowed back there, not even his investors. He gave them a private tour a few days before our official opening, but told them it was off-limits from that moment on.”

There was no mistaking the disbelief in Rafe’s expression. “Are you sure he wasn’t inviting guests in for a little after-hours hanky-panky?”

“If you mean his women, no. We had an agreement.”

Rafe grinned at that. “Yeah, he had one with my mother, too. It wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.”

“But—”

He held up his hand. “Don’t even try to defend him, Gina. The man is a con artist.”

“And you think I am, as well,” she concluded.

“The jury’s still out on that, but at the very least you demonstrated lousy judgment in choosing your business partner. Whose idea was it for the two of you to go into business together, anyway? Yours or Rinaldi’s?”

“I’m not going to answer that,” she said. “Frankly, you should know better than to ask.”

“We’re just chatting,” he said blandly. “Getting acquainted.”

“We’re already acquainted. I think getting to know each other any better would be a risky business.”

“You could be right about that,” he agreed with apparent regret.

Before they could continue, several of Gina’s friends showed up. Radiating indignation, they stood beside the table glaring at Rafe. They might not understand what was going on between Gina and him, but obviously they were prepared to leap to her defense.

“What is he doing here?” Emma demanded. “Is he harassing you again?”

“No. He was here all alone. Since I was killing time waiting for you guys, I took pity on him and invited him to join me,” Gina admitted.

“Why?” Emma said. She gave Gina an apologetic look. “I bugged Lauren till she told me about the deposition. Sorry. He’s not trying to question you without counsel present, is he?”

Rafe chuckled. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Emma drew herself up. “I should hope not. I’d have you disbarred.”

Gina grinned. “As you know, Emma is an attorney.”

“Yours?” Rafe asked. “Did you change your mind and hire her?”

“No,” Gina said.

“But I will be if she needs me, and if she needs a New York attorney, I can arrange that, too,” Emma responded, gaze narrowed. “Does she need legal representation?”

“Not if she’s innocent.”

“Innocent of what?” Emma asked.

“Never mind. I am,” Gina said.

“Back up a minute,” Lauren said. “I thought she was just some sort of witness you were trying to question. Why is there any doubt about Gina’s innocence? Gina has never done anything illegal in her entire life.”

“Not even when Cassie begged her to,” Karen said in an obvious attempt to lighten the tense mood. “She was always the voice of calm and reason.” She grinned. “Not that the rest of us ever paid any attention to her.”

Gina held up a hand to prevent a recitation of the pranks the Calamity Janes had been involved with years ago. A few of them might have skirted the fringes of the law. A clever attorney—which Rafe most definitely was—might be able to use them to suggest a pattern of behavior likely to culminate in this massive swindle.

“Let’s not go there,” she pleaded. “Could we change the subject?”

“In a minute,” Emma promised. “First, I’d like to remind Mr. O’Donnell that sometimes the innocent need better representation than the guilty, especially if some shark is out to get them.” She regarded Rafe pointedly. “Watch your step, Mr. O’Donnell.”

Her gaze shifted to Gina. “Stay away from him,” she advised.

“I wish I could,” Gina told her.

“I’m crushed,” he said.

“Something tells me a freight train couldn’t crush your ego,” she retorted.

“Making judgments about me again?”

She shrugged. “I guess that makes us even, doesn’t it?”

He laughed and slid from the booth. “See you around, Gina.”

“I’m sure,” she said with a heartfelt sigh.

Somehow, though, in the last few minutes she had discovered that Rafe was far more complex and intriguing than she’d originally guessed. That made the prospect of bumping into him everywhere she turned a lot less daunting. She figured that was a very bad sign, given that the man wanted to lock her away.

* * *

Rafe assumed Gina wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while. He had a feeling these friendly gabfests went on and on once the five women got together. Just in case he was wrong, he walked down the block, leaned against the bumper of his rental car and placed a call on his cell phone to the paralegal who was doing follow-up on the case back in New York.

“Have you been able to get into the bank records of Café Tuscany or Rinaldi or Petrillo yet?” he asked Joan Lansing.

“The judge is looking over the paperwork now,” Joan told him. “We should know something before the end of the day.”

“I need those records. We need to see if any withdrawals and deposits match up.”

“I know, boss. I think we made a good case to the judge, though, if you ask me, that money is in some off-shore account by now, not in a personal checking account at the corner bank.”

Rafe sighed. “You’re probably right, but we need to know for certain.”

“Anything else I can do on this end?”

“Stay on that investigator. He should have found something on Rinaldi’s whereabouts by now.”

“Will do. No clues from Ms. Petrillo?”

“None. I’m actually beginning to believe she might not know anything, not about the con and not about Rinaldi’s disappearance.”

“How is that possible? They were partners.”

“We already know the man was a smooth operator. She could have been taken in by him, too.”

“Uh-oh, boss. I think I hear that knight on a white horse charging to the rescue.”

“Could be,” he conceded. “But please don’t tell Lydia. She’ll never let me hear the end of it.”

He glanced up just in time to see Gina and the other women emerging from Stella’s. They piled into Lauren’s fancy sports utility vehicle. Rafe got behind the wheel of his own rental car and started after them. His pulse began to pound when he realized they were heading straight for the small airstrip on the outskirts of town.

Sure enough, Lauren turned in, drove to a hangar operated by a charter company and parked. Blood boiling, Rafe stalked across the tarmac to intercept them.

“Going somewhere?” he asked Gina.

“You followed us?” she countered, her expression indignant.

“Of course I did. It’s a good thing, too. Are you planning on skipping town?”

“Oh, for heaven’s sakes,” Emma snapped. “There is nothing to prevent her from going anywhere, Mr. O’Donnell. Back off.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Then you’ll have to charter your own plane, because you’re not getting on board with us,” Lauren snapped.

Rafe ignored them both and kept his gaze on Gina. “Why the sudden decision to run?”

“I’m not running anywhere.”

“Then why didn’t you mention this trip when we were talking?”

“It didn’t come up. Besides, Lauren was still working out the details. I didn’t know if we were going.”

“Going where?” he asked.

She frowned at him, but she answered with barely concealed impatience. “I am going to Denver with my friends because Cassie’s mother is having surgery. We want to be there to support her. It’s not a big deal. We’ll be back in a day or so, as soon as we know that everything’s okay.”

Rafe caught the unmistakable worry in her eyes, the hint of urgency in her voice. Because of his career, because of his mother’s short-term attention span with men, he was a cynical man. There weren’t a lot of people he trusted. Something told him he could trust Gina, at least about this.

Finally he nodded and stepped out of her path. “Don’t make me regret this,” he warned.

“I won’t,” she promised. Her lips curved into the beginnings of a smile. “Careful, Rafe. Someone might get the idea that you have a heart.”

“They’d be wrong,” he said tightly, then watched her go. As she was about to take the final step into the plane, he called to her. She looked back. “I hope everything goes okay with Cassie’s mother.”

She acknowledged his words with a wave, then disappeared inside the plane. Rafe walked slowly back into the hangar, then crossed to the office.

Inside, he found a middle-aged woman chatting on the phone. She glanced up, murmured something to whoever was on the other end of the line, then smiled at Rafe.

“What can I do for you?”

“That charter you’ve got going out, did the pilot file a flight plan?”

“He sure did. Plus, when Lauren called, she told me where they’re going.”

“Which is?”

Her gaze narrowed. “Are you with the media?”

“No.”

“Because I’m not doing or saying anything that’s going to get that woman’s picture splashed all over one of those supermarket tabloids. When she’s around here, she’s among friends. What she does and where she goes is nobody’s business.”

“Believe it or not, I don’t give two hoots about where Lauren Winters goes, but I do care about her friend Gina. I need to know where that plane is headed.”

Her eyes widened at his fierce tone. “Is Gina in some kind of trouble?”

“That depends on where that flight is going.”

“Denver,” she told him finally. “They’re going to Denver to be there for Cassie while her mom has her surgery.”

Relief flooded through Rafe. Gina hadn’t lied to him. “Good,” he murmured. “That’s great.”

The woman regarded him with a puzzled expression. “You think it’s great that Cassie’s mother is having surgery?”

“No, of course not.” Any explanation he tried to give would be way too complicated and unnecessary. “Never mind. Thanks for the information.”

“Sure thing.”

Rafe felt lighter somehow as he drove back into town. For once in his life his trust hadn’t been misplaced.

Of course, it remained to be seen if Gina actually showed up back in Winding River when this mission of mercy ended. Something told him that until she came back again, he was going to be doing a lot of pacing and worrying.

7

Rafe was not used to having time on his hands. He didn’t like being idle. Worse, he realized that he actually missed Gina, and not just because he couldn’t ask a few more sneaky questions in an attempt to learn something new about Rinaldi and the missing money. He also found it worrisome that her planned two-week trip was now creeping on into its third week with no sign of Gina in Winding River.

“Still in town?” a gruff voice inquired just before Gina’s father slid into the booth opposite him at Stella’s. “I thought you’d be long gone by now, especially with Gina out of town for the last few days.”

“Unfortunately, I haven’t finished my business here,” Rafe said. “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

“Don’t mind if you do,” George Petrillo replied, signaling to Stella. “You never did say what your business here is, did you?”

“No.”

George’s gaze narrowed. “Is there some deep, dark secret to it?”

“No, it’s just a confidential matter. I can’t discuss it.”

“Okay, then, let me think. What kind of professions take their secrets so seriously? You don’t strike me as a psychiatrist. And given the way you were kissing my daughter, I doubt you’re a priest. How am I doing so far?”

“Right on target,” Rafe conceded, impressed with the man’s deductive reasoning, if not the suspicion behind it.

“Then I’d say that leaves the law. Are you an attorney, Mr. O’Donnell? And if you are, what business could you possibly have that concerns my daughter?”

“I never said—”

“Let’s get serious,” George said, leaning forward. “Your being here is no accident. You’re not a tourist. Your bumping into Gina way out here, when it just so happens that the two of you live in New York, is no coincidence. The way I figure it, you’re either stalking her or she’s in trouble. Which is it?”

Rafe admired the man’s blunt assessment. He had a feeling that under other circumstances, they could get along very well. “I think you should discuss this with Gina, not me.”

“The only person I’m going to be discussing anything with is the sheriff, if I don’t get a straight answer in the next ten seconds.”

Rafe nodded, accepting the fatherly concern and the determination he saw on George Petrillo’s face. “Okay, then. I’ll tell you as much as I can. I came out here because of your daughter. I’m handling a case involving her business partner. I thought Gina might have some information.”

“Does she?”

“She says she doesn’t.”

“Then go home, Mr. O’Donnell. If Gina says she doesn’t know anything, then she doesn’t know anything.”

“I wish I could do that, Mr. Petrillo, but I can’t. Your daughter is my best link to Roberto Rinaldi. Sooner or later they’re bound to be in contact.”

“And when they are, I’m sure she’ll let you know,” her father said. “Gina’s an honest, law-abiding citizen. That’s the way we raised her.”

“As reassuring as it is to hear you say that, it’s not good enough.”

George frowned. “You’re not suggesting that my daughter is mixed up in whatever this Rinaldi fellow did, are you?” There was a sudden flash of alarm in his eyes. “Did he kill somebody? Gina’s not in any danger, is she?”

“No, it’s nothing like that, I assure you.”