“MACCURDY,” Ross greeted, a grim smile on his lips.
“MacCurdy?” Claudia repeated, not sure she knew what was happening.
“Didn’t you catch his full name?” Ross asked Claudia. “Allow me to introduce James MacCurdy III. Or as he is more commonly known in mob circles, Jimmy.”
“Antoinette was right,” Claudia noted. “You do have beady eyes.”
He smirked and wiggled his brows for effect. “So you figured it out, Ross? I suppose it was that infamous gut of yours.”
“It wasn’t hard to put it together. Rocco found Claudia. Only you, me and Frank knew where she was. I know I didn’t tell Rocco.”
“And good old Frank certainly wouldn’t have turned out to be the leak,” MacCurdy returned, apparently repeating a familiar refrain.
“Frank is an honest man. You…Let’s just say I always had my suspicions.”
His face mocked surprise. “Me? Really? But I was clean when we were partners. I didn’t get into this whole gig until a few years ago.”
Time. Ross needed it to plan his escape. He’d been forced to drop his gun, and the Cara—Schultz brothers were collecting theirs and shuffling back to stand behind MacCurdy. All too soon it would be three guns to none. “Exactly what kind of gig is this, MacCurdy? A little moonlighting as a contracted hit man?”
Seemingly anxious to confess, MacCurdy shook his head. “Not at first. I started out just providing some inside information every once in a while. But you know how it goes. You do a good job, you work really hard and you get promoted.”
“Why was he naked?” Claudia wondered.
Ross didn’t see that information as pertinent, but what the hell, the more time they bought the better.
“I popped him in the shower. What you don’t know is that the naked guy lived in the apartment above Rocco’s. I was trying to take his body someplace to send the appropriate message to someone when some cops pulled up to the building. Rocco’s door was closer, so I hid inside, dumped the body in the bathtub, threw some bags of ice that Rocco had in the freezer on the guy so he wouldn’t stink up the joint, and left. I figured Rocco would keep his mouth shut until I could come back for him. What I didn’t figure on was his girlfriend and you finding the body and squealing to the police. You know you bumped into me that day on your way out the door. I knew then that I had to take you out. As a precaution, you understand.”
“Sure. A precaution,” she agreed as if that made all the sense in the world. Claudia tried to recall that day and the people she’d seen, but she’d been rattled by the dead guy and was too busy trying to escape from Rocco to pay much attention to her surroundings. “But why bring me out here?”
“By the time I got to you the FBI was already involved. I couldn’t take you out with a bunch of agents around you at every turn.”
“Sorry for not making myself an easier target,” Claudia tossed out sarcastically.
“Was it the money?” Ross prodded. He glanced toward the barn. The doors were still open. If he could shove Claudia aside, maybe she could reach the safety of the barn while he charged MacCurdy. Too far, he recognized at once. She’d never make it. He needed another plan.
Just keep talking, MacCurdy. Tell me what a smart guy you are.
“That corrupted me?” MacCurdy clarified. “Is there any other reason? I was going nowhere quick living in your shadow. Everybody figured I’d been riding your coattails. I got tired of trying to prove myself. So I found a job where I could shine. My aim is accurate. And I know how to dispose of evidence.”
“Not very well,” Ross reminded him. “You missed Claudia, twice.”
“Yeah!” she cheered, backing up her man.
MacCurdy snorted. “I didn’t miss. These two idiots missed.” MacCurdy pointed his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the twins. “It’s a good thing I didn’t leave anything to chance this time. Enough talk. I’ve got a lot to do today. These guys will make the hit. I’ll call Rocco’s number from your phone. Frank will think that Claudia once again gave her location away, and Rocco will go to jail in my place. See, neat as can be.” MacCurdy turned his head. “Okay guys, let them have it.”
“Are you going to stand there and take orders from a guy who just called you idiots? Really, Donald. Really, Irving. You can do much better than this loser.” Claudia looked over the shoulder of MacCurdy straight into the eyes of the Schultz brothers.
“Do it,” MacCurdy ordered. “Now.”
“Don’t do it. Think of the prom we might have gone to together. Do you really want to murder the girl who could have been your senior prom date?” Six point one, Claudia judged. Absolutely lacking any teeth. But she was desperate. “And think of Ingrid. You know she would have failed coloring if it hadn’t been for me. And then where would she be? Washing hair for the rest of her life, that’s for sure.”
Ross couldn’t believe it. The Schultz brothers actually appeared to be undecided. It was time to make his move, but MacCurdy still had a gun pinned on him. He needed a distraction.
Beeep! Beeep!
“Yo! Claudia! It’s me. Your for-real engaged friend and employee!”
“Antoinette!”
A large black Cadillac was tumbling over the ruts in Ross’s extended driveway. Ross couldn’t help but keep his eye trained on the big-breasted, dyed blond temptress that was hanging out the passenger window. With flailing arms and a voice that ricocheted off every cow on the farm, she demanded everyone’s attention.
Including MacCurdy’s.
Ross was quick to react. Smoothly he twisted his body, simultaneously landing a hard fist to MacCurdy’s jaw while his other reached for the gun. By the time the rest of the cast remembered that they were in a standoff and turned their attention back to the matter at hand, Ross was standing over an unconscious MacCurdy, armed.
“How did you do that?” Claudia gasped. Her mouth gaped as she tried to assimilate the fact that they were going to live after all. And she hadn’t even been watching.
Ross didn’t comment, but instead took aim against the Schultz brothers. “Well, what’s it going to be?”
The brothers looked down at their fully automatic 9mm guns, then considered Ross’s lone gun. It was still two against one.
“Nobody is shootin’ nobody.”
Rocco swaggered hip-first up to the gathered crowd. “Donald, Irving, put your guns away. You mo-mos.”
The twins did as they were told. Ross lowered his weapon, but kept it clenched tightly in his fist. The short guy may have had pull with the Schultz boys, but his orders carried no weight with him.
“Rocco, I presume?” Ross held out his empty hand in offering.
The smaller man took the hand and crunched it between his beefy fingers. Ross kept his expression neutral, but inwardly grimaced at the unnecessary clench.
“Yeah. Who are you?”
“Ross Evans. I own the farm.”
“Like the sausage, right?” Antoinette blurted.
Claudia shook her head in resignation. “No, honey. That’s Bob Evans. This is Ross. He’s been hiding me for the last few weeks.”
“Oh.” Antoinette openly ran her eyes over Ross, stopping for a moment at some of his more interesting body parts. “Ooohhh.”
The laughter erupted from Claudia as the blush encompassed Ross’s whole face. He lowered his eyes, and Claudia would have bet that he was fighting the urge to cover his lap with his hands.
“And exactly where has he been hiding you?” Antoinette wanted to know.
“Down girl,” Claudia warned. “Now is not the time or place.” Especially since she was going to start blushing herself any minute. She turned to Ross, who as far as she could tell was the only sane person left on this farm. Other than herself, of course. “So now what?”
“I’ll call Frank and let him deal with this mess.”
“Nobody’s callin’ nobody.” Rocco hitched up his faux silk slacks over his protruding belly.
Claudia rolled her eyes.
Ross looked bored.
Antoinette beamed proudly at her man.
The Schultz boys shuffled over to stand behind Rocco.
And MacCurdy let out a groan.
Logically, Ross pointed out, “Rocco, I’ve got a bad agent who has got to be turned in. But the way I see it, that’s all the FBI has to know. MacCurdy will get pinned with the murder of the naked guy, as I’ve fondly come to know him, and you are free to leave.”
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Ross’s plan was the best for all concerned.
Rocco was no rocket scientist. “So you’re saying all I gotta do is…go?”
“That’s right. Take the twins with you.”
“They did try to kill me, Ross,” Claudia whispered. “Maybe we shouldn’t let them off so lightly.”
“Trust me,” Ross whispered back. “I’m not worried about the population at large. If these two stay on the same career path it won’t be long until they find themselves sharing a cell. Then they can dress alike forever.”
It took a minute. Rocco rocked back on his heels, his thumbs tucked into the waistband of his pants in a distorted Napoleon pose. If Ross had to guess, he would say that he was attempting to think. And it seemed that Antoinette was doing her level best to help him by staring at him intently. It was as if it required their combined brain power to reach a decision.
“Yeah,” Rocco nodded. “I’ll do that. Sugarpuff, get your buns in the car. You mo-mos, the back seat. Evans, you’re an okay guy. And you,” Rocco pointed to Claudia, his eyes fierce and his mouth tight, “see what happens when you mess with mob business? Next time, leave the dead naked guys lying in the bathtubs on bags of ice to me. Capisce?”
“Capisce.” Next time, Claudia cringed. There had better not be a next time.
“See ya, Claudia.” Antoinette attempted to walk backward to the car as she said farewell, only she kept tripping in her three-inch heels. “Don’t forget, when you get back we got to go shopping for gowns and stuff.”
Visions of pink chiffon lace with fake flowers sewn across the bust and along the hemline danced in front of Claudia’s eyes. “I’ll call you.”
The doors of the Cadillac closed and the engine started up. In a cloud of dust, the car took off down the road, weaving and bumping the whole way.
“I’ve got to do something about that road,” Ross muttered.
“No, you’ve got to do something about our beady-eyed friend. He’s coming around.”
He moaned on cue and cracked his eyes open.
“I can fix that.” Ross leaned down and clipped him neatly on the jaw. Before MacCurdy’s eyes had a chance to completely open, they were closed again. “That’s for trying to hurt Claudia.”
“My hero,” she crooned. As he stood she reached out to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You know the hero always gets to kiss the girl after he saves the day.”
“The hero is a sucker then.” Ross lifted Claudia into his embrace cupping her buttocks in his palms. “I’m getting a hell of a lot more than a kiss for my efforts.”
“SO WHAT happened then?” Rosa May was perched on her chair, excited beyond reason by the events that had taken place in her very own backyard.
Ross and Claudia shared a secret smile. The version of the story they told Rosa May would have to be rated PG. “We tied MacCurdy up and left him outside, then called your pop’s old boss to come pick him up. After he was gone we uh…we…took a nap. It had been a rough day. You understand.”
Her expression was one of pure disgust. “You took a nap. Geesh! What are you guys, like eighty years old or something?”
“Or something,” Ross answered slyly. Claudia had left a considerable chunk out of the story. For which he was grateful. But there was another piece of the story she was also omitting that had Ross wondering.
Frank had flown out on the first flight and had arrived at the farm three hours after Rocco’s departure. He took MacCurdy away in handcuffs, and cheerfully thanked Ross for his aid. He’d told them both that he suspected James for some time and was looking for a way to trip him up. He knew that if he sent Claudia to Ross’s farm, she’d be safe and MacCurdy would be forced to show his hand if any attack was made. Ross had told him that he didn’t like the idea of the Bureau using Claudia to trap one of their own, but Frank had shrugged off the complaint behind the excuse that he’d only been serving justice.
Frank commented that at one time that was all Ross had ever wanted to do, too. But Ross honestly admitted that those days were over for him. He wouldn’t deny that he missed the action from time to time. He’d forgotten what it felt like to have adrenaline pump pure and clean through his system, exhilarating him. But he’d also forgotten that when his adrenaline was pumping, it was usually because somebody else was in danger. This time it had been his loved ones that were at risk. While Ross dealt with the threat at hand, he couldn’t for a minute forget that Rosa May and Claudia were counting on him. He didn’t know what he would have done if anything had happened to them.
That fear had illuminated a truth. Rosa May and Claudia were linked in his mind. He viewed them both as his family. That revelation confirmed the obvious fact that he was in love with Claudia. It shouldn’t have surprised him. After the other night, he knew that what he felt for her was more powerful than lust. That level of intimacy, that kind of intense communication, could only be achieved between two people who cared deeply.
Which is why it disturbed him so when Frank told Claudia that he would return for her tomorrow after he dealt with MacCurdy.
Claudia said nothing. She didn’t correct Frank. She didn’t turn to him for confirmation. She just stood there, in the middle of his driveway and nodded. When she turned back to him she wore a large smile that he didn’t for a minute believe was sincere. But she said nothing, so Ross said nothing.
Did she want to stay? How could she, Ross thought dismally. She hated the farm. Didn’t she? Sure, maybe she didn’t flinch as much when she had to retrieve eggs from the chicken coop. Maybe she even liked to feed the horses with the organic oats she discovered. She did deal with the horses much better than she had, and Ross was convinced that in another few months he could get her back into the milking barn.
If he thought about it, there was no reason why she wouldn’t want to stay. She loved the house. She had turned it back into a home in the short time she’d been here. Now it was filled with the smells of good Italian cooking and her perfume.
Added to that, she had practically started up her own business. His den had been transformed into her temporary shop with hundreds of different-colored nail polishes, lotions and strange-shaped instruments that she said were for making nails more beautiful but he believed were some kind of torture devices. Apparently the women didn’t mind the torture if the fact that Claudia was completely booked for next Monday was any indication.
More important than any of that was that he had something to give her: love. Family.
The question was, was it enough? Everything had happened so quickly he doubted he could persuade her that it was for real. Then again, he could be stubborn when he needed to be. His heart had been so stubborn it had done exactly what his brain had told him not to do. He’d gone and fallen in love with the damn woman. His feelings weren’t fleeting. And maybe that scared him more than anything. If she did leave, he’d be lost. Where could he ever find her equal?
Ask her to stay.
But what if she stayed because of the way she felt now and realized down the road that she couldn’t live the rest of her life here? What would that do to Rosa May if she left? It would be like losing a mother all over again. Ross couldn’t let that happen. Not for his daughter. Not for himself
He couldn’t ask.
CLAUDIA WRAPPED HERSELF into her afghan that night and inhaled deeply. She was trying to muffle her sobs with little success. Finally, she gave in and pulled the covers over her head and turned her face into the pillow and let loose.
After a few minutes, exhaustion finally set in and Claudia was forced to either stop bawling or literally drown in her own tears. Ross was right. She did cry a lot. Only when she had good reason to, though. And tonight she had the best reason of all.
He didn’t ask her to stay.
Not that she could have stayed even if he had asked. She’d already decided that she wasn’t the right woman for him to marry. However, she at least wanted the chance to prove how selfless and noble she could be by telling him that she had to leave for his own good. That chance never came.
“Why?” she asked in hushed tones to an empty room. Why hadn’t he asked her to stay? Why couldn’t she be the right person for him? Why did she fall in love with him when she knew it was all so hopeless?
No answers came. Not that she was surprised. Life, Claudia found, held many questions and few answers. Her only option was to leave with Frank in the morning. She would say her goodbyes as emotionlessly as possible, walk stoically down the driveway to Frank’s waiting car, and she wouldn’t look back. Not once.
MORNING CAME EARLY. Earlier than usual since she’d been up most of the night crying. Gingerly, she cracked her eyes open as her brain registered that there was sunlight in her room. How pathetic was that? she thought. She was even conditioned to wake up with the sun.
When she turned her head on the pillow, her mouth stretched in a huge yawn, she saw him standing in the doorway with his arms crossed over his sculpted chest.
His chest, she sighed inwardly. She’d never touch it again.
Tears started to spurt, but ruthlessly she stopped them. All crying jags had to be postponed until she was safely on the plane back to New York. It wouldn’t do anybody any good to see her as an emotional wreck. For the time being she had to be strong.
For a moment they stared at each other; words were unnecessary. He was remembering, she knew, all the other mornings he’d been forced to practically drag her out of bed by her hair. And she was remembering all the times she purposefully stayed in bed just so she could feel his arms around her when he inevitably had to lift her out of the bed. She smiled, and he smiled back. Their thoughts were synonymous.
Ask me to stay.
Ask her to stay.
Clamping down on the overwhelming urge to utter the words, Ross paused before he spoke. “Time to get up. Because this is your last morning, Rosa May and I made you breakfast. We wanted to thank you for all you’ve done for us.”
Claudia nodded, but said nothing. Because if she had said anything it would have been something like: First, don’t thank me. I did what I did out of love for you and Rosie. Second, I can’t believe you are not going to ask me to stay, you lily-livered coward!
It was a hunch she had—perhaps Ross wasn’t asking her to stay because he didn’t know what her answer would be. She’d often grumbled about the farm. And just as often praised New York City. And there was her salon, which she had worked so hard to make a success. Maybe he thought she wanted to go. Didn’t he know that the women of Sun Prairie were going to need touch-ups?
“Ross,” she called just as he started to walk away.
He moved back into the doorway, “Yes?”
“I—I—”
“Claudia tongue-tied. That’s a first,” he teased.
She smiled lamely, then swallowed and tried again. “I’ve had a really good time.”
This time he nodded, but said nothing. Then he just walked away.
Obviously, that hunch had been wrong. Okay, now she was getting angry. She practically came right out and said that she loved his smelly old farm and he still didn’t ask her to stay. What did she have to do send up smoke signals? Paint it in lipstick on her forehead? Revved with a fire fueled by her anger, Claudia hopped out of bed. She stepped into the outfit she had set aside last night while packing. It was a killer. Leather pants with a lime-green scooped neck top. She wore high-heeled sandals and made sure her hair was at its all-time fullest. If he was going to let her go, he was going to regret it every minute of the rest of his life.
Downstairs, Rosa May was trying hard to be brave, but her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were swollen with tears. Claudia’s heart ached for the girl as well as for herself. This girl needed a woman in her life, and Claudia needed her. It wasn’t right that they should have to separate just because Ross was being stubborn. One more thing to be angry about.
“I made pancakes,” he said from across the room. She wanted to tell him that he looked silly with her apron on, but she was too furious to speak. She marched over to the kitchen table and took her seat, then reached out for Rosa May’s hand and gripped it tightly in her own.
“It’s going to be okay, sweetie,” Claudia comforted.
“No, it’s not,” Rosa May wailed. “You’re leaving and I don’t know when I’ll ever see you again.”
Claudia said nothing, but she glanced over her shoulder in Ross’s direction to see the impact Rosa May’s words had on him. Apparently none, because he was still flipping pancakes.
“That’s enough, Rosa May. Claudia doesn’t want to see your tears.” And neither do I, he added silently. It was bad enough to deal with his own pain, but he couldn’t cope with his daughter’s as well. “Why don’t you go outside and wait for Uncle Frank? I think I hear his car now.”
This was it. Frank was here. Ross still hadn’t asked her to stay and so she was going to have to go. It felt like sand slipping through her fingers. No matter how hard she clenched her fingers together she still couldn’t stop it. The overwhelming sense of hopelessness plunged her into a place that she hadn’t been since her mother died.
“Hey, Ross,” Frank called out from the back door. He entered the house and the two men shook hands in greeting. He was an older man, but in very good shape, Claudia noticed. He carried himself ramrod straight, wore his gray hair army short and sported a strong, if weathered, face. He reminded her of what Ross might look like in another twenty years. Only she wouldn’t be around to know if she was right.
“Good morning, Miss Bertucci. Are you ready for your trip back to civilization?” He was trying to be funny, but she couldn’t laugh, not even politely.
“Yes.”
Frank immediately ended his small talk. A perceptive man, she thought. He guessed immediately that this wasn’t going to be a happy send-off.
“I’ll go get your things,” Ross announced, not knowing what else to do.
“Excuse me, Frank.” Claudia left the kitchen and went out back in search of Rosa May. She found her sitting on a tree stump not far from the barn, swinging a stick back and forth across the grass.
When she heard Claudia’s footsteps she lifted her head. “Is it time?”
“Don’t make it sound like I’m going to the electric chair. It’s just New York. Although people have made that comparison in the past.”
Rosie didn’t crack a smile. Claudia understood. “You know you can come visit me whenever you want. Maybe next summer break…”
“I don’t understand why you won’t stay. Don’t you love us? I thought you did. I mean you and Dad…” The girl waved her hands in the air to indicate that there was something there between them that she didn’t know how to verbalize.
“It’s not that simple. You know I love you.”
“Is it the farm?” Rosa May asked.
“No.”
“Is it the fact that we don’t have an espresso machine? Because I saw one in a catalog for real cheap.”
“No. Although no home really should be without one.”
“Then what is it?”
Claudia shrugged her shoulders. How did she explain to the girl what she herself didn’t understand. “I—”
“We’re ready.” Ross stood next to Frank’s blue sedan. Frank was loading the last piece of luggage into the trunk and the two men were shaking hands.
Claudia stood and called back, “I have to get my bag.” Slowly, with the sound of a requiem ringing through her ears, she walked back to the house and retrieved her bag from the couch in the living room. She looked around one last time and tried desperately not to dwell on the fact that it could have all been hers if only Ross had asked her to stay. She did love this farm. It protected her and made her feel secure in a time during her life when she needed it most. If nothing else she would always remember that.
Shoulders back. Chin up. Claudia marched out the front door and down the porch steps toward Frank’s car. She needed this to be as quick and painless as possible. No turning back. Not a peek. Not a glance. Nothing. She knew Ross and Rosa May stood together farther down the driveway, but she would not look at them, could not look at them.
But as she walked closer to the car, her steps slowed. So slow she stopped completely.
“What are you doing?” she asked herself out loud. “Walk over to that car and get in. Do it now!” Her body refused to obey.
Ross stood a distance away watching Claudia. She was stopped halfway to Frank’s car and it appeared that she was talking to herself. Her head was bobbing, her arms were flailing and Frank was looking at her as though she had just lost her mind.
Then it happened. She turned around in a flash and came storming down the driveway directly toward him.
“First,” she shouted.
Ross beamed.
“I can’t believe you were going to let me get in that car and drive away when you know you want me to stay. Second.”
The joy burst inside him.
“You never once gave me the chance to prove how noble I could be, by telling you that I couldn’t stay even if you did ask because you needed someone better than me to run this smelly farm with you. Third.”
Ross moved forward and wrapped his arms about her waist, pulling her up against his chest. The perfect place for her.
“Third,” she repeated, a little calmer now that she was where she was always meant to be. “Nobility is for the birds. I may not be the best helpmate, but I do love you. And I will make you a spectacular wife.”
Rosa May jumped up and down, little squeals erupting from her mouth.
“Fourth,” Ross finished. “I love you, too. Desperately. Which makes you the best helpmate I could ever have.”
“I am going to want to start up my own nail salon in town.”
“Does that mean I get my living room back on Mondays?”
“Yes, but we’re going to have to get an espresso machine,” she warned him.
“And you’re going to have to learn to milk a cow,” he promised.
A decent compromise. To seal the bargain they kissed on it.
Claudia felt the blush spread across her shoulders, up her neck and over her face to the very tip of her head. She was absolutely positive she was glowing. Lesson number five at the Brooklyn Academy of Beauty: Love is the ultimate cosmetic!