Diamond, page 3
Unaware of the turmoil she had left behind, Diamond leaned against the wall outside as she fought down her rising nausea. Whitelaw saw her exit and followed. “Now, honey,” he said as he walked up behind her. “Don’t let it get you down. I’ll do all I can to help you.” His hands slid across her shoulders and started down toward her breasts. “If you’d just let me, I could…”
She slapped his hands away and pivoted toward him.
“Help? You want to help?”
The tremor in her voice should have alerted him, but it didn’t. He nodded when he should have run.
“Let’s see,” she said, choking on her words as fury enveloped her. “By help, you mean lowering the price you’ve been offering on our house for the past ten years. By help, you mean cheating three women who’ve just lost their father. By help you mean—”
“Now, Di, baby,” he began, “you’ve got to understand my position.”
“No I don’t,” she said, jabbing her forefinger into his paunch. “You’re the one who’s got to understand. And don’t call me baby!”
She leaned closer until all he could see was the green fire in her eyes.
“Our asking price has gone up, not down. You make out a separate cashier’s check to each of us in the amount of five thousand dollars, or I swear to God we’ll give the damned property to that Holiness Church in the next hollow. Then you can spend the next five years with a nest of holy rollers and their snakes in your backyard. They’ll preach the wages of sin to your customers until they’re blue in the face and you’re broke.”
Morton blanched. She was serious. He could just picture those cages of rattlers and the men who believed that snake handling went hand in hand with faith. He started to argue and then realized that the less he said, the better. Mad as she was, it would be just like her to up the price again.
“Okay now, girlie,” he growled, grabbing her by the arm. “You win, okay? But you can’t blame a man for trying.”
“I want the money by Saturday,” she said, unable to believe that he’d folded so easily. She’d pictured having to go home and tell her sisters that they weren’t getting five thousand dollars after all and that, instead, they had to give their house away to a religious congregation that had publicly reviled them and their father’s ways.
“Sonofabitch,” Morton mumbled. “That’s day after tomorrow.”
“Before noon,” she said. “The bank closes at 1:00. Oh,” she added, as Morton started inside, “I quit.”
He spit, glared, and stomped back into the bar, shoving his way past a man with a hat full of money.
Jesse hesitated outside the doorway and stared into the darkness, trying to find the owner of that voice.
“Are you there?” he finally asked.
“Depends on who you’re looking for,” Diamond answered, and drew back a little farther into the shadows.
She didn’t recognize him, but he had her money. That much she did recognize. And yet the longer she stared at the tall, dark-haired stranger, the more familiar he became. In fact, if she didn’t know better, she’d swear that he was—
“You’re Jesse Eagle, aren’t you?”
Her question was expected. The lack of excitement in her voice was not. It wasn’t the usual female reaction. Jesse was uncertain what came next. If she’d have asked for an autograph, or giggled, or thrown herself at him, he’d have known. But she did none of the above. She simply waited for his answer.
“I have your money,” he said. “Heard about your father. I’m sorry.”
Diamond’s stomach tilted. She stepped out of the shadows and onto the porch. “Thanks,” she said. “He died like he lived. Fast.”
“I’m really sorry,” Jesse repeated. “Accident?”
“Shock—I think,” she said, and then started to laugh. “He’d just drawn a full house.” Tears of laughter mixed with those of sorrow as she leaned against the wall and buried her face in her hands. “He had the rottenest luck of any fool gambler I ever knew.”
It was the laughter that did it. When she widened that beautiful mouth and smiled through her tears, Jesse felt his belly sliding toward his boot tops. He didn’t want to feel this attraction. He’d come to see a woman about her voice, not the rest of her life.
Diamond dropped her hands and let her head tilt backward. It hit the wall with a thump. She winced but relished the pain. She needed a good jolt of something to get her out of this funk.
“So, Jesse Eagle, what in God’s name are you doing in a dump like this?” Then she started to laugh again. “Excuse me, I think that should have been your line. You know the routine,” she added, catching the puzzled look on his face. “What’s a beautiful girl like you doing in a place like this?”
He looked down at his hat, brimming with wads of bills and heavy with coins, then back up at her. “I came for you,” he said, and handed her the Stetson.
Diamond took the hat and two steps backward, sliding along the wall of the porch toward the darker shadows. It wasn’t far to the house. Lucky was probably inside, and Queen had to be home, too. If she yelled as she jumped they’d surely hear her. He wouldn’t have time to—
He saw her fear, and it made him angry that he’d been so completely misunderstood. He stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm just as she started to run.
“Dammit, lady, I didn’t backtrack across a hundred and seventy miles of pissant mountain roads to attack a total stranger. Who in blazes do you think I am, anyway?”
“I know who you are, but not why you’re here.”
Her answer silenced him. It was as good as a slap, any day. He ran his hands through his hair, but it only made it more unruly.
“Will you at least listen to what I have to say? Please?”
She shrugged.
He persisted. “Where do you live?”
For one long moment they stared, assessing each other. Diamond was the first to speak, and when she did, she was rewarded with one of the most beautiful smiles she’d ever seen a fully dressed man wear.
“Next door. I guess you can come over, but I won’t be alone. My sisters are home.”
He sighed with relief as he followed her retreat. “Good,” he muttered quietly. “The way I feel right now, we both need referees.”
His gut twisted as her hips swayed seductively with each long stride she took toward home. Her body was a study in rhythm and motion, and he wondered if she made love as slowly as she walked. The thought elicited a groan that made Diamond turn and glare, thinking he’d bumped into something in the dark.
“Watch your step,” she cautioned. “We don’t have homeowner’s insurance, you know. You fall and bust that pretty face of yours, you fix it yourself.”
He laughed.
Diamond frowned again. This was a man to be wary of. It didn’t seem to matter how rude she got. He never seemed to mind. In fact, if she didn’t know better, she’d swear he liked it. She opened the door and walked into the house, leaving him to follow at will.
“Queenie, look!” Lucky’s squeal at the sight of all that money in the hat was nothing compared to the glare Queen sent toward the tall, dark-haired man who followed Diamond through the door.
“Who’s he?” she asked.
Lucky’s second squeal was answer enough. “Ohmigosh! Jesse Eagle!” She tugged at her T-shirt and then shoved her hands into the pockets of her cutoffs, trying desperately not to giggle.
Queen stood up, willing herself not to overreact to the fact that a very famous man had just walked into their home. But she had an awful feeling about this man and his arrival. She knew what he did for a living. And she knew what a gift her sister had. Please God, not that—not now, she thought. She couldn’t face losing a sister, not this soon after Johnny. And then he spoke.
“Ladies. I’m really sorry to intrude into your family during your time of grief.”
“But you did it anyway,” Queen said. “Just what we need, another man intruding when our defenses are down.”
Diamond interrupted. “Our defenses aren’t quite as down as they were, Queenie.” She grinned as her older sister glared at the use of that nickname. “It seems that Morton Whitelaw had a change of heart. By Saturday noon, we’re each going to be in possession of a cashier’s check for five thousand dollars.”
“Each?” Lucky staggered backward and landed on the sofa. She didn’t even wince when the curling edges of the middle cushion snagged the tender insides of her bare legs. “Why did he change his mind?”
“Because I told him if he didn’t, we were going to give the property to the Holiness Church across the hollow.”
“Those snake handlers? My God, Di! Did he faint or what?” Lucky asked, then started to smile. Just the thought of Whitelaw side by side with Bible thumpers was priceless.
Lucky jumped up from the sofa and threw her arms around her sisters. They laughed and shouted and did a little dance of jubilation in the center of the room.
Jesse was forgotten in the tumult, and it was just as well. He wouldn’t have wanted them to see how dumbstruck he’d been by their abandon. Over the years he’d seen a lot of women. Some more beautiful than others. But he’d never seen anything like these three sisters.
Their height was unusual and as striking as the high Slavic cheekbones shaping their faces. And those matching sets of eyes, as clear and pure a green as new spring grass. But there the similarities seemed to end. A redhead, a blonde, and one with hair as black as coal. Each sister also seemed to have a distinct personality. He stared at them.
Diamond sighed as she dropped onto the couch and dumped her tips from the hat. “I was scared to death the entire time,” she said. “I just knew I’d have to come back and tell you I’d failed.”
“Are you ready to listen now?” Jesse asked, interrupting their moment. His eyes never left Diamond’s face.
His voice was like a splash of cold water. The sisters looked at him with wary interest. All except for Queen, who closed her eyes and waited for the bullet.
“I don’t even know your name,” Jesse said to Diamond, “but I heard you sing yesterday at your father’s grave—and then I drove away. It was a mistake. I don’t often make them. That’s why I came back. Lady, if you’re willing, I’ll take you with me to Nashville. I can guarantee you a record. I can guarantee you a manager. The rest will be up to you. If you want the career, it’s yours.”
“Diamond.”
He frowned. His heart sank. He couldn’t have misjudged her so badly. He’d promised her a shot at stardom, and she was already asking for diamonds?
“My name is Diamond Houston,” she repeated.
“Hell, I thought you were…” He shrugged. “Never mind. Is that the name you use when you sing at the—”
She laughed. “I’d hardly assume a stage name for that dump. It’s real. And you may as well meet the rest of us, Mr. Eagle.”
“Jesse,” he corrected.
She shrugged. “This is Queen. She’s the oldest. And Lucky is the baby. My father had a propensity for gambling and all that went with it. We know that they’re rather unusual names, but we’ve grown to love them, right girls?”
They looked at one another and then burst into laughter.
“I suppose that’s an inside joke,” he drawled.
“I don’t suppose you were just blowing smoke about Di’s singing?” Queen asked. Anxiety was evident in the taut lines around her mouth.
Jesse shook his head. “I’ve never been more serious in my life.”
For one long moment the girls stared at him, and then they stared at Diamond, absorbing the implications of his offer.
Diamond looked up at the man in their doorway. This had to be a dream—or a nightmare. Yesterday they’d buried Johnny, and today they’d sold their house for more than it was worth while someone offered her a chance at stardom as icing on the cake.
“Take it, Di,” Lucky said quickly. “Don’t waste luck. Johnny would turn over in his grave.”
Queen swallowed once. “Go if you want,” she said. “But I’m not following on your coat tail. I’ve always had a yearning to see New Mexico…or maybe Arizona. Somewhere that doesn’t have a permanent pall of black coating the air I breathe.”
Lucky’s eyes widened. The fear of being on her own was almost overwhelming, but the excitement overshadowed it. “I’ll go west,” she whispered, her fingers curling in her lap at the thought of Vegas…and Reno…and all the shiny places that Johnny had spoken of.
Jesse felt their fear and, in a way, felt responsible. If he hadn’t come back and been the one to separate them, they might never have done it on their own.
“Will you wait?” Diamond asked him.
Jesse nodded. Right then he would have waited forever.
She disappeared into a room off the hallway.
Queen walked toward him. When they were inches apart she spoke. Once again the hair crawled on the back of his neck. Jesse realized that these women were capable of eliciting great emotion, even fear.
“Don’t hurt her,” she said softly, her eyes never wavering from his face. “If you do, somehow I’ll know. And I’ll find you, Jesse Eagle. I’ll find you.”
The pain was tearing her apart. He could feel it. Without conscious thought his hand cupped her face.
“You won’t have to look far, lady. I’ll be standing in the shadow of your sister’s glory.”
He dropped his hand from her face and stepped back, sensing her discomfort. It was obvious that men and touching were not common commodities in this house. He dug through his pocket and then handed her a card.
“Here,” he said. “This is my private number. And you can write to your sister at this address.”
She nodded, took the card, and stuffed it in her jeans as Diamond came back into the room.
Jesse stared. One small bag. The woman was carrying a single, small duffle bag. He’d dated women who carried larger purses. When you didn’t have much, it didn’t take a lot to pack it.
“I’m ready,” she said, trying not to cry.
“I’ll wait outside,” he said quietly, suddenly realizing their need for privacy. The sound of one quiet sob followed him off the porch and into the night.
He’d never seen sunrise from this side of night. His eyes were dry and burning, his shoulders stiff from the long hours behind the wheel. Last night he’d simply loaded her up, bag and all, and headed west. Stopping at a motel with her had been unthinkable. He’d sensed her panic and known that one more shock would have been her undoing. And so he’d driven…and finally she’d slept.
A familiar curve in the road and the cattle guard they bumped across was warning enough that he’d just driven onto his property.
“Thank God,” Jesse muttered, and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
He glanced over at his passenger and tried to ignore the fact that the two top buttons on her shirt were missing. A generous amount of ivory skin showed beneath the faded plaid shirt she wore tucked into a pair of very worn, very tight jeans. Sometime during their drive she’d shed her boots, and he noticed that she wore no socks. Something about the small red blister on the side of her big toe made him want to curse. Instead he pulled beneath the split-log roof of his carport, shoved the stick shift into park, and turned off the engine, welcoming the silence.
He leaned wearily against the headrest and closed his eyes as he inhaled. A faint scent wafted across the interior of the car. He inhaled again, trying to identify the smell. And then he opened his eyes and turned to look at his sleeping passenger.
Her hands were curled into loose fists, lying limply in her lap. There, poking out the side of her hand, was a half-eaten roll of Lifesavers. Cinnamon.
Guilt overwhelmed him. He’d never even seen her put one in her mouth. He didn’t want to guess when she’d eaten last. But he hadn’t offered, and she hadn’t asked.
“Come on, sweetheart,” he said, shaking her gently. “Let’s go inside and find you a bed. You can stretch out those long, pretty legs and sleep till you wake. We’ll talk later.”
Diamond didn’t hear the endearment. She was too sleep-muddled. And if she had, she wouldn’t have trusted him. She’d been dreaming. Of a tall, dark-haired man with laughing eyes who kept promising her heaven. And she’d cried because she hadn’t believed him.
She crawled stiffly out of the small, low-slung car, her boots in one hand, her bag in the other, and staggered into the house behind him, thinking that maybe she wasn’t so different from her father after all. She’d just gambled her life and her future on a stranger’s promises.
3
A door banged in another part of the house. Diamond sat straight up in bed and looked around wildly, wondering why the wallpaper wasn’t still peeling off the walls around her and why she smelled coffee instead of smoke from the mines.
Then she remembered.
What had she done? she wondered, looking down in dismay. Her nudity was as obvious as the room’s opulence. Vague memories surfaced of Jesse’s touch, and his voice, and something about promises. She’d undressed alone, of that she was almost certain. But the thought of food and coffee superseded any other worries that might have surfaced.
The comer of a bathtub was visible through the half-open doorway at the end of the room. She staggered toward it and into the shower, unable to appreciate the unexpected luxuries she was experiencing due to the deep growl her stomach was making. More than twenty-four hours had passed since she’d eaten anything substantial.
The hot water helped, as did the shampoo and blow-dryer conveniently placed on the vanity. And it didn’t take long to dress. There wasn’t that much in her bag from which to choose.
She stomped her foot to slide a boot into place and then headed for the door. She heard men’s voices nearby and followed them and the smells of breakfast to what she supposed was the kitchen.
“It’s the middle of the goddamned afternoon, you asshole,” a man was saying to Jesse. “If your car hadn’t been in the driveway when I arrived, I was calling the state police.”
