Risky Shot (9 page)

“Rahmi is a small island country near Dubai. The primary income is through oil production and fishing. I have a small racing stable there that raced in Dubai and England. However, I have always wanted to win the Kentucky Derby.”

“Is your family still there? I know how hard it is to live so far away from them. Mine spend most of their time in Italy now.” She looked down at her lap when she felt him put his hand on her knee and give a reaffirming squeeze. His hand looked good there, she thought. She looked up and saw him casting a questioning glance at her, as if asking permission to touch her. She felt his hand relax when she gave him a quick smile. She looked back out the window and tried not to focus on the sensations his hand was causing.

“My parents and my older brothers are in Rahmi, but my sisters moved away when they were married.”

“Wow. That must have been nice having such a large family. Were you all close?”

“No. Sadly we were not. My father can be a bit dominating. Everyone had their roles. So we never got a chance to form bonds that come through child’s play. I have made a promise to myself that when I have children of my own, they will not be held to such strict standards. They should be able to enjoy their childhood.” Mo removed his hand from her leg as he pulled into a parking lot. “This is Midway. Lots of arts, crafts, antiques, and home cooked food.”

She glanced down one side of the circular street and then up the other. Apparently this was it. It couldn’t be more than a quarter mile long, but she saw the warm glow of shop lights. People sat outside and numerous displays caught her attention begging her to go shopping.

Mo got out of the car and opened her door for her. He extended his hand and she took it as she stood up.

“Here we go,” he said as he pointed to one of the restaurants. Mo escorted her through the door and they were quickly seated at a small table for two. Dani was at war with her feelings as her knee brushed up against his. It was impossible to feel what she was feeling so soon. She had only known this man for hours, not months.

She spent the rest of dinner looking for a reason to squelch these feelings for Mo. By the time dinner was over, she was falling even deeper for him. She had hoped he was arrogant, but he never mentioned his money. She hoped he was egotistical, but he only talked about himself when she asked. She hoped he was boring, but he captivated her with his conversation. She hoped her interest in him would wan when conversation died down, but it never did. He kept her laughing with funny stories from the horse world and got her to talk about the amusing things that went on behind the scenes of beauty pageants.

“I guess we should be going. I think they want to close down,” Mo said and he glanced around the restaurant.

Danielle looked away from his face and couldn’t believe the restaurant was empty. Well, damn, so much for squashing her fascination with Mo. All tonight did was cement these feelings. She was starting to understand what her mother meant when she said falling in love felt like being run over by a big logging truck.

Danielle felt the familiar sensation of Mo’s hand on the small of her back as he escorted her up the walk to Miss Lily’s front porch.

“Thank you for accompanying me to dinner tonight,” Mo said as they stopped in front of the door.

“No, thank you. The food was wonderful and so was the company.” She felt her face heat and laced her hands together in an attempt to calm her nerves. She was hopeful and fearful that he’d kiss her at the same time.

He moved in closer and placed his hands on either side of her waist. She felt him pull her in close. Oh my, he was going to do it. She closed her eyes and felt his lips above hers while his fingers squeezed into her hips. A bright porch light flipped on and the screen door banged open. They whipped their heads around and found Miss Lily, broom in hand, standing by the door. She could have sworn she heard Miss Lily mumbling something like, “Not another one.”

Dani slipped on a t-shirt Miss Lily had washed for her that day. She unpacked the laptop Kenna loaned her and signed on. She pulled up Skype and called her parents via video phone. She stared at her picture in the box on the screen and startled. She had lost a lot of weight. Her face was almost hollow. No wonder Mo kept ordering desserts for her and why the Rose sisters kept sending over food. The darkened box on the screen came alive with picture of her mother and father’s face.

“
Grazie a Dio!
” her father whispered, laying his cheek against her mother’s head. “We thought you were dead!”

She watched as tears rolled down her mother’s face. “What has happened, Papa? Why would I be dead?”

Her mother shot up from her seat. “What happened? I’ll tell you what happened. We got a photo of you and some man, along with a copy of your obituary! And you ask us what happened?”

Her mother never screamed. Her imposing height, athletic frame, blonde hair loosely tied back, and piercing blue eyes were enough to make her skiing competitors shake in their boots. But her mother screaming was enough to make Dani very thankful she had never pissed her mom off before. However, she had never seen her mother this worked up before and it scared her. Her father, with his olive skin, same height, dark brown eyes, and black hair slightly salted was the complete opposite of her mother. He was calm, quiet and still whispering his thanks to as many Saints he could think of.

“What photo, what obituary? I don’t understand.”

“Your boyfriend, Chad, sent us a picture of the two of you along with his condolences on our loss,” her father explained. He picked up a picture and brought it to the camera. It was the picture from Kenna’s birthday, but it had been cropped to show just her and Chad. “Daughter, I believe you have some explaining to do.”

An hour later she had explained the situation to her parents. She had told them about Kenna, Chad, GTH, her time in New York, what she had learned, and her arrival in Keeneston. Her parents were ready to book plane tickets to arrive tomorrow, but Danielle assured them that the local FBI was on top of it. If her parents were here, she wouldn’t be able to focus on catching Chad because she would be too worried about him targeting them. They had agreed that they would give her one month. They booked their tickets for July and told her if she didn’t check in via video chat everyday they would be on a plane that night.

Dani logged off the computer and climbed into bed. She felt so much better being able to talk with her parents. Despite being an ocean apart, they were always close. Tonight she finally felt close to them again after four months of short conversations and leaving them in the dark. Her mother had given her advice on checking the area out and looking for hiding places or escape routes. Pulling up the covers and rolling onto her side, Dani slept for the first time in four months.

Chapter Eight

Dani sat back in her chair and put down the highlighter. While Kenna was in court that morning, she had been doing some research on Chad. She compared the origin of the UPS package from Chad to the areas of town she had spotted him. She color coded a map of the city and scanned it. She had just emailed it to Cole and Ahmed when the intercom rang. Tammy’s voice told her Kenna was on the phone.

Ten minutes later Dani walked down the street. Sweat trickled down her back and her red sleeveless silk shirt clung to her breasts and back. Jesus, it was hot. She looked up at the bank sign that displayed the temperature and was shocked when it read only eighty-eight degrees. She would have sworn it was at least a hundred.

“Good afternoon, Miss Danielle.”

Dani looked up and saw John Wolfe in black dress pants and sports jacket walking toward her without a single drop of sweat on him. He was magical. “Hi, John. Actually, you’re the perfect person to ask. Is it always so hot?” She knew the answer couldn’t be good when John just laughed.

“Honey, this ain’t hot. Wait until August. This is just the humidity. You’re not used to it yet. By the way, did you enjoy your dinner date last night?”

“How on earth... What they say about you is true, isn’t it?” Dani asked. She and Mo had been in a completely different town. John just shrugged and took off down the street whistling.

Dani pushed open the front door and thought she’d faint from the joy of feeling air conditioning. She took in a deep breath and all thoughts of being hot fled when she smelled the food. She spotted Kenna in the back booth and started towards her.

“Excuse me.”

Dani turned and saw a cute girl a couple years younger than her dressed in scrubs. She was sitting at a table full of women in matching attire.

“Yes?” Dani took a quick glance at the back of her skirt to make sure she didn’t tuck it in her underwear. Usually when some one stopped you politely, it was tell you your panties were showing or toilet paper was trailing after her.

“We were all wondering what dinner was like with Mohtadi.” When the girl said his name she added a little sigh. Oh my, Mo had girls fawning over him!

“How did you know Mo and I had dinner? And, I am sorry, but who are you?” Dani felt Kenna step up next to her.

Leaning over Kenna whispered, “Welcome to the Keeneston Grapevine.” Kenna then gestured to the girl, “Dani, this is Amanda Webber. She and the rest of the ladies work out at Doc Truett’s Large Animal Vet Clinic.” Leaning back over to Dani, she whispered again, “You might as well tell them. Everyone will just keep asking until you tell them everything. It’s really quite fascinating. And, I want to know too,” she smiled.

Dani looked around the room and found that most everyone had put their forks down and angled their chairs to face her. When Kenna gave another little nod, she decided to give in. “Well, it was nice. We ate in Midway, which I am guessing you all already knew.”

The nodding heads confirmed her suspicions.

“But, what is he like? He’s so mysterious,” Amanda said with a dreamy tone to her voice. The others at the table nodded their agreement.

“Um. He’s great. He is friendly, polite, and funny. That’s all I can really say,” Dani shrugged.

“Are you going to see him again? Is The Bachelor off the list?”

“I have no idea if we’ll go out on another date. But, I do count him a friend. So, I guess he’s still on whatever list you want to put him on.” Signaling she was done with questions by turning toward Kenna, the conversation level rose to near deafening. She heard lots of discussion about his qualities, or lack there of.

Kenna slid into the booth first and as Dani was getting in, said, “You know, he is rather a mystery to most people. For the longest time, they thought he was the cause of all the problems at Will’s farm. He has only recently started coming to town functions and letting people get to know him. That’s why they are so curious.”

Dani shrugged her shoulders and picked up the menu as Kenna continued talking.

“Actually, the reason I asked you here is because I have a secret to tell you.”

This caught her attention. She put the menu down and placed her elbows on the table as she leaned forward to hear. Kenna dropped her voice and also leaned toward her. “The engagement party next week isn’t’ really an engagement party.”

“What in the world does that mean?”

“It’s actually going to be my wedding day!”

“What!” Dani clamped a hand over her mouth when she realized she had spoken way too loud. She glanced around at the room and saw many people looking their way. “Sorry. You kinda took me by surprise there.”

Kenna’s smile looked like it couldn’t be contained. “When you know it’s right, it’s just right. So, Will and I thought to surprise everyone. Well, that and we didn’t want to wait any longer! Betsy has invited everyone we would have invited for the wedding anyway. I have talked to Judge Cooper and he’s going to marry us. I want to know if you’ll be my Maid of Honor.” Kenna bit her lip as if she was worried what Dani may say.

“Girl, you are crazy if you think for one minute I wouldn’t kill you myself if you asked anyone else!” Dani felt a real smile come over her. Her friend was truly happy and that made her happy in return.

“Great! I found my dress by accident when I was shopping the other week. I also found two amazing bridesmaid dresses. One in pale pink and one in pale green. I went ahead and bought them. I am storing them at Paige’s. She hasn’t seen them either, so I was hoping we could run down there and surprise Paige. We can also try on the dresses to pick out which one you want.”

“Screw lunch! Let’s go now,” Dani said as she looked around for Miss Daisy. She looked back to Kenna when she heard her laugh. “What?”

“I already ordered our lunch to go!”

Dani reached behind her back and zipped the dress. She felt the satin dress kiss her legs as she wiggled around to help the zipper up. The dress was pale pink and strapless. It had a fitted bodice with an A-line, tea length skirt. It was so Kenna with the clean lines and classy appearance. She twirled around and couldn’t help laughing like a little girl when the skirt billowed out.

She pushed open the curtain of one the changing rooms at Southern Charms and came out to find Paige similarly spinning in front of the three sided mirror set up in the hat room of her store. Dani had been taken aback at first by the hat room. Hats filled the room from front to back. Paige had made small, large, and really freaking big hats in every color combination. She had never seen anything like it before. She looked away from the hats and checked out Paige's dress. Paige's dress was the exact same as Dani's, but in a pale green color that matched her tanned skin tone perfectly.

“Kenna, these are great!” Dani exclaimed.

Paige nodded her agreement before doing another spin. The spinning was contagious and Dani couldn’t help herself as she spun round and round.