nodded to Ruby. “Ready?”
“Just a minute.” She fished her wallet from her purse and placed several dollar bills on top of the ones he’d already left.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Adding to the tip.”
He stared at her in exasperation. Did she think he was a tightwad, out to stiff a person who had served them well?
“I already left twenty percent.”
“I know. But waitresses are notoriously underpaid. Every little bit extra helps.”
“Joseph won’t reimburse that.”
“I don’t care.” Standing, she made her way to the front of the diner.
Bemused, Antonio watched her for a long minute before following. By her own admission, she was a woman whose main goal in life was to marry a rich man, yet she’d thrown away her own money on a woman she would never see again. It galled him anew that she had such low expectations for herself.
As they walked to the truck, he decided to give it one last try.
“Not to beat a dead horse, but you’re throwing your life away, Ruby. Can’t you see that?”
She eyed him curiously. “You’re referring to my relationship with Joseph?”
“Yes.”
“Even if it is true, why should it bother you?”
Antonio stifled a curse. She’d done it again. She’d made him forget who he was supposed to be. And what he was supposed to be doing.
“Damned if I know,” he muttered.
“I guess this means you wouldn’t want an invitation to the wedding.”
He started. Had things gone that far between her and Joseph?
“Joseph has asked you to marry him?”
“Not yet. But it’s coming, I can feel it. Good thing I don’t need much lead time. When your brother’s a priest, you can be pretty flexible with your plans.”
He paused with his hand on the passenger door handle. “Your brother’s a priest?”
She dimpled. “Someone has to atone for my sins. Wouldn’t you agree?”
She climbed up into the truck, and he closed the door after her. As he buckled himself into the driver’s seat, Antonio decided it was time to do the work he’d been sent here to do. His superiors had gone to great pains to make his cover just perfect. Hopefully, the reason Joseph had hired him was as much for his “past record” as for his abilities as an auctioneer.
“Maybe your brother could work on my sins,” he said.
“You mean you’re not the mild-mannered auctioneer everyone believes you to be?”
He started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot. “Is any man what he appears to be?”
“You do have a past, then.”
“You could say that.”
“A murky past,” she observed, with obvious relish.
“I did some time once, back when I was young and stupid.”
“How much time?”
“My sentence was five years, but I was released after serving thirty months. Good behavior.”
“What were you convicted of?”
If she already knew, she wasn’t letting on. “Possession, with the intent to sell.”
Still no judgment on her face. “Were you a dealer?”
He had to tread carefully here. If she was, as he suspected, Joseph’s eyes and ears on this trip, and if she was going to report back every word he said, he didn’t want Joseph to think he was going to try to horn in on his business.
“From time to time I’d sell stuff.”
“Why?”
“For the money, of course.”
“What did your sister think of that?” she asked.
To make his cover story easier to remember, Antonio had given Michael the same five brothers and one sister that he had. “She hated it. Unlike me, she’s pretty much of a straight arrow.”
“Like my brother.”
“Exactly.”
“You said you were young and stupid,” Ruby commented. “Does that mean you’ve reformed your ways?”
He chose his words carefully and for the greatest effect. “I like money, Ruby. Like I said earlier, it’s my number-one need. Truth is, I’d do most anything to get it. I just won’t be stupid enough to get caught again.”
“I see,” she said slowly.
“You sound disappointed.”
“Why should I be disappointed?”
That’s what he wondered.
Chapter 4
“Who lives out in the middle of nowhere like this?” Michael groused as the truck hit a dip in the dirt road and gave an alarming bounce.
“An eccentric millionaire tired of the lights and noise of the city, that’s who,” Laura replied, holding on to the dashboard for dear life.
They had been driving along the narrow, winding and extremely bumpy road for more than fifteen minutes. On either side of the road stood tall trees that blocked most of the sunlight, tangled bushes—many with nasty-looking thorns—and a profusion of wildflowers. While the wildflowers were beautiful, and despite the No Trespassing signs posted at regular intervals, she still felt like she was in the middle of an overgrown jungle without a guide to see her safely through to the other side. She wouldn’t be surprised if, any minute now, they encountered a group of lions and tigers and bears. Oh, my.
A stray branch brushed along the side of the truck, and she saw Michael wince. In all likelihood, it would need a new paint job by the time they returned to Pittsburgh, and probably new shocks, as well. Heaven knew how Joseph was going to get his fleet of moving vans down this road.
“I understand needing to get away,” he said, “but did he have to escape this far?”
“If he had simply moved to the suburbs,” she pointed out, “people wouldn’t have labeled him eccentric.”
Laura knew the true cause of his distress, and it had little to do with the remoteness of their destination or the pounding his truck was taking, although he could be pretty weird about the vehicle. Two hours earlier he had spied a wriggling canvas bag by the side of the road. When they had stopped to investigate, they’d found two puppies inside.
At the sight, Michael had sworn furiously, then launched into a diatribe directed toward the soulless creatures who had abandoned the puppies along the side of the road, where they would either starve to death or be hit by a car. He had also insisted that he and Laura find the nearest humane society. He didn’t care how far out of their way it took them.
It was a side of him Laura hadn’t imagined existed, and it fascinated her. It also touched her deeply. She knew she would forever carry a picture around in her head of the way he had laughingly allowed the puppies to climb all over him and lick his face and hands. There was something terribly appealing about a man who got upset over a couple of puppies. An ex-con who loved animals. She supposed it was the gangster equivalent of the hooker with a heart of gold.
“You couldn’t keep them, Michael.”
He didn’t pretend not to understand. “I know.”
“You travel too much, work too many hours.”
“I