Dinner with the Blakemores (The Blakemore Files Book 5) (11 page)

It was the longest Thanksgiving in history.  Saxton showered, removing all the blood from him as he took his truck into town to check on Roget. It was an unsettling experience for everyone, especially Ryanne. The confusion she was feeling was palpable.  Eduardo had not made mention of their night together, or how they had met, or even how he had her number.

Her father wanted to know, as well as everyone else. “How did you meet him, Odessa?” Ryanne asked, changing the subject and getting the heat off of her.

“I met him in the mercantile when I went in the store with Ms. Patsy. He said he was a traveling musician and wanted to take a photo with me for his kids.  He said he wanted to show them all the nice people he was meeting while he was on tour in Texas,” she said.

“Where did you meet him, Ryanne?” Big Sarge wanted to know.  Dora already knew the answer, as well as where her daughter was last night and whom she was with.

“I met him a few days ago.  He told me the same thing and he took a picture with me.  He took a selfie with me on my phone,” she told them.  She swiped back through her phone to photos before the baby shower to show them. “He sent this selfie to himself.  I guess that is how he got my number.”

Big Sarge bought it, Odessa bought it, but Dora knew better.  The look her daughter had on her face when she walked through that door was the look of a woman who spent the night being made love to.  It was more interesting to Dora that Eduardo Delgado made no mention of it during his call. The cartel leader was very careful in his word choice.  He’d told Saxton,
I have touched everything near and dear to you
; Dora knew that included her daughter.

The question that plagued Dora was why Ryanne had also chosen her words so carefully.  She had done it on the phone with Dwight’s mother and she was doing it now. The pieces were there and Dora was seeing the whole puzzle. “Do you think that this man could have also killed Dwight, Ryanne?”

Dora watched her daughter give the first honest answer out of her mouth since she walked in that door. “I don’t know, Mama. He could have been the man paying Dwight for information on us.” 

Ryanne was torn.  What she felt last night with Eddie was real.
I know it was real.  It had to have been real to him as well because he didn’t mention it
. She knew he could have humiliated her in front of her family but he didn’t. Kevin was not so lucky.

He had tied him up as he found him sleeping.  Something that did not go unnoticed by anyone, especially the Blakemores.  Eduardo had gotten into their home and taken a drugged up Kevin out of his room. A chill ran across Odessa as she wondered if he had been in the room with Kevin when she had gone in to check on her brother last night before she went to bed.

Ryanne could not speak up, because pointing out that Eduardo must have had an inside man to get Kevin out of his bed and out of the house would raise too many questions. She knew Eduardo didn’t take Kevin out of the house last night.  The man could not be in two places at once.  As active as he was in bed with her, she was surprised he even had the energy to do everything he’d done today. She barely had any energy herself.

Dora was watching her closely. “Baby, maybe a hot shower will help you feel better.”

Again she was torn.  The smell of Eduardo was still on her skin.  Washing her body would be like washing away the best memory she would have of this whole dark scenario. “Actually, Mama, I feel better than I have felt in a very long time.”  Even after throwing up her breakfast, she understood that her time with Eduardo Delgado was far from over.

A man like that never leaves a stone unturned.  He had removed her from the equation for a reason; for what purpose she was uncertain. The thing she was certain about was that nothing he did was random.

He even made love with a purpose.

By the time dinner rolled around, Lucy Blakemore was drunk, Bobby Ray was furious, and Connard wanted to be anywhere but at another family function.  He sat in the kitchen at the table listening to another one of his mother’s drunken speeches about the importance of family and sticking together.  He’d had enough.

“Oh shut up, Mama!” He said it out loud.

Every head at the gigantic dinner table turned to look at him.  “I am so sick of the bullshit and fake platitudes.  You are a drunk and I am sending you to rehab. For God’s sake, you are about to be a grandmother.  No one is going to trust some drunk, dull-brained woman with their child!”

Lucy’s mouth was flopping open and shut like she was gasping for air. Connard kept going. “Go ahead and get sauced today, because tomorrow, the men in the white truck are coming for you!”

Bobby Ray sprang to his feet. “Son, you have no right!”

“I have every right, Daddy. I am the head of Blakemore Oil and it is my responsibility to make sure the company moves forward.  I want to make sure this family moves forward as well.  We hide behind our words when we should be looking at our actions.  And I am taking some action.  I am also getting a divorce,” he said.  “I have worked out a settlement with her, and she is officially out of my life.”

Dusty spoke up, “So does this mean you are finally bringing your happy ass out of the closet?”

“I am kicking down the damn closet door,” Connard explained. He looked at Lucy.  “And, yes, all of your socialite friends are going to find out the two of you have a gay son!”

Big Sarge and Dora were watching the action go back and forth down the table.  Dora’s eyes were affixed on Lucy. Big Sarge was focused in on Bobby Ray, who stood, lifted his wine glass in askance for a toast. “I will make a toast and I want to go around the table and have each of you state the thing that you are most thankful to have.”

Connard was confused.

This was not the reaction he was expecting from his father.

Big Sarge went first. He was thankful for his children and loving wife.

Ryanne spoke. “I am thankful for finally finding my voice.”

Kevin, who had been very quiet the entire day, spoke softly. “I am thankful whoever kidnapped me last night didn’t pull a
Pulp Fiction
on me.”  He looked at Odessa, mouthing the words, “
Why was I naked
?”

His sister, whose hand rubbed her belly, said, “I am thankful for all of you, my husband, and this little guy.”

Dora was thankful for her family.  Belva was grateful for fresh starts.  Uncle Dusty, well, when he finished, no one was certain what he was talking about.  Neither was his wife, his two sons, or his grandkids at the kiddie table in the kitchen.

Grandma Patsy had nothing to say.  She was still trying to understand why she was still alive. This was the worst Thanksgiving dinner in her family history. The dinner table looked like an ad for a diversity poster.

Lucy, still stunned, picked up the bottle of Chardonnay, threw it against the wall and started yelling for someone to bring her a frickin’ highball.

Saxton, who recently came through the door, brought good news. “Roget pulled through.”  He picked up his glass from the table sidestepping the broken wine bottle, acting as if he didn’t even see his mother’s outburst.  This was also something that everyone in Odessa’s family noticed as he picked up his glass to make his toast. “I am very grateful to my father, his quick thinking, and always being there whenever I needed him.  In your honor, Odessa and I would like to show our gratitude to you by naming our son Robert Raymond Blakemore, III.”

Bobby Ray’s eyes teared up. He used the back of his massive, age-weathered hands to wipe away the tears as he stood and said, “Raise your glasses. I am grateful for my family.”  He looked down the table, making eye contact with everyone seated. “You have reminded me this week how important family is.  And to you, Connard, thank you for making the decision to do something I never could; get your damned mama sober.”

“And my life choice, Daddy?  Will you still love me … and not disown me?”

Bobby Ray moved around the table so fast, everyone was scared to move. He pulled Connard into his arms. “I have loved you unconditionally from the first time I held you in my arms.  I will love you unconditionally to the last time I can hold you in my arms.”

Big Sarge sat up. “This is better than watching a soap opera, but damn it, I’m hungry and I have to take my pill. Can we eat?”

Friday, Dallas, TX

The flight back to Dallas was quiet as Big Sarge tried to understand everything that had occurred during the week.  It was shocking to learn that his grandbaby was going to inherit the Blakemore kingdom.  An even more pleasant surprise was how well Odessa was handling it all.  Hell, he was shocked how well Ryanne was dealing with the craziness that struck her out of left field.  She had only been married six months and was a widow.

Dora walked into the den to find him staring out the window.  “Honey, are you okay?”

“I am.  There was just so much to process,” he told her.  His hip was bothering him more each day and sleeping on the floor had not helped.

“I’m still reeling from so much happening.  What bothers me more than anything is that someone walked into that house, picked our son up out of bed, and carried him to the barn.  Someone was in their house, baby!” Dora told him with surprise on her face.

Big Sarge still had not moved. “Life is so fleeting.  I am thankful whoever it was didn’t want our boy dead. I am also grateful they didn’t take Bobby Ray’s boy either, he loves his son.  I have come to love Saxton as well.”

Dora was watching him.  She wanted her husband to say what she was thinking.  “And what about Ryanne?”

He turned a bit to face her. “She is about to undergo some changes as she finds herself.  I knew so many years of schooling would make her miss too much.  Now she is going to try and capture a new kind of life, because she has never had one outside of a classroom.”

“What about the Eduardo guy?” Dora asked.

Big Sarge was now completely facing his wife.  In his right hand he held his cane, in the left, he held up a bottle of the 42-year-old Scotch that Bobby Ray had given him.  “It is going to have to run its course, Dora.  I didn’t miss it either.  She is the reason why Kevin is not dead. Something happened between them…but that Eduardo fellow didn’t want her put on blast about it. The rest … I’m not going to think about right now.”

In an effort to change the subject, Dora went in from the left side of the conversation. “Saxton’s family was nice.  Can you believe his grandmother gave the baby an oil well?”

Big Sarge chuffed. “Yeah, it will probably be spitting out the same thing Old Patsy does – dust!”

He moved to the counter to grab two glasses. “You know this stuff is a thousand dollars a bottle.  Bobby Ray gave me a case,” he said to Dora.  He poured a finger of Scotch for him and his wife, taking a seat on the couch beside her.  “I am blessed to be alive and see my children become adults.  In a little while we will be proud grandparents.”

“Yes, but that child will have to call me Gigi or something.  I am way too sexy to be anyone’s grandma!” Dora told him.

“You got that right,” Big Sarge said as he pulled his wife in for a kiss.

Friday night, Dallas, TX

Saxton was leaning back in the tub, squeezing his favorite rubber duck, Plucky, his mind whirling with thoughts and ideas, but most of all the realization that they had come close to dying again. His mind was made up.  He was quitting the agency.  Uncle Dusty would be 65 the following year and ready to retire.  He and his wife lived in the ranch house on site and completed many upgrades to the old house. The ranch had always been the only thing he wanted to run, never the company.  Connard could keep that job.  He would ask him to train his son to succeed him, but that, too, would be up to Connard.

“Mr. Blakemore, it’s time for bed,” Odessa called to him.

He flipped the drain plug to release the water from the tub. The housekeeper comes in tomorrow, but he never liked leaving a dirty tub.  He dried off quickly before entering the bedroom.

“Can’t sleep without all of this sexy, can you?” he asked.

“You know it is hard for me,” she told him.

Saxton stuck his hand underneath the towel. “Not yet, but I can make it happen for you, baby.”

She laughed at his innuendo. “Yes, but we know that can’t happen when you are drunk.”

“Yeah … about that …” he said sheepishly as he climbed into bed with her.

Odessa placed her finger to his lips. “We don’t need to talk about that, or mention it, ever … ever … ever again.”

He laughed as he pulled her close.  “We do need to talk about Eduardo and him killing my horse….”

She rolled over to face him. “In all honesty, you can buy another horse.  I cannot buy another sister or brother.  He could have done to them what he did to Mateo.”

“Do you think that is where Ryanne was Wednesday night; with Eduardo… he specifically said he touched everything close to me…” Saxton asked.

“I don’t want or need to speak about that ever again either.  If she were with Eduardo on Wednesday night, it means that he didn’t personally come in that house to take out Kevin, but someone on your parents’ staff is on his payroll,” she told her husband.

Saxton nodded. “I did pull Dwight’s bank accounts.  He was on someone’s payroll as well, just like she said.”

“Hubby, I want a normal life for our son… our children,” she told him.

“There is no such thing as normal.  In either of my worlds. In the spy world, people want to kill me.  In the Blakemore world, people kiss my ass because of my name. I hate them both, but at least when I take over the ranch, it can be as normal as we make it,” he told her.

“You seem excited about taking it over. Moving our import company won’t be too hard,” she told him.

He was grinning at her lasciviously.  “Hmmm… Odessa…”

Odessa put her finger over his lips. “Say goodnight, Mr. Blakemore.”

“Goodnight,” he said.

Friday night, Dallas, TX

Ryanne stepped from the bath holding the oversized towel around her body.  The steam from the shower had fogged up the mirror and she could barely see her reflection.  She used an end of the towel to wipe away some of the condensation as she stared at the image of herself that gazed back at the new woman she had morphed into.  As she regarded herself in the mirror, she noticed the teeth marks on her collarbone.
He sank those fangs into my skin
.

Using her finger, she traced over the indentations of Eddie’s teeth in her flesh. Her hand moved down to the brown skin which covered her breast.  The perfect shape of that man’s mouth left marks upon her skin where he had pressed his lips together while he sucked at her flesh, creating small hematomas. They were also on the insides of her thighs, and one on her right butt cheek.

“I am 34 years old and covered in hickeys,” she said to herself. She turned in the mirror to check her back.  It was covered in scratches that looked like claw marks. So much of her life had been spent in a classroom, educating herself via books. In one night, Eddie, Eduardo, or whatever his name was, had schooled her in the ways of love.  He was only the third man she had ever been intimate with and if she had her way, he would easily be her last.

The pleasure he brought to her body as she surrender herself to their passion was earth shattering.  The mere thought of his mouth on her breast, rushed blood to the capillaries drawing the skin around the buds tight.

“Damn it Eddie!” She said as she heard her phone chime in the other room.  She moved to the dresser to see his face on the screen.  Her initial response was to run her fingers across the image of his lips before swiping the screen to answer the call.

“Hello,” she said.

She heard his voice catch as he exhaled in relief. Eduardo spoke in the phone in a breathy voice, “I know you are thinking about me because I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“This is not a good idea,” she told him.

“I don’t care.  I want…no I need to see you again,” he said.

“That is a worse idea,” she told him.

The line was quiet as the lover’s waited for the other to state the next words.  Ryanne was saying nothing, but Eduardo had a lot to say.

“Ryanne, if you felt nothing from the night we shared, I will hang up and say no more,” Eduardo told her.

She hated herself for wanting him, but she did. She spoke the words she knew he wanted to hear, “Even if it is just for a night... this is about you, about us….”   

Eduardo’s smile was almost audible through the phone, “I will come to you when it is safe.”

And he hung up.

Ryanne knew he was dangerous.  Dangerous in the worst kind of way, but the way he made love to her, she didn’t care.  Even if it was just once more…she was going to go for it.

I deserve some happiness too
.