Wyoming Tough - Diana Palmer [57]
Shelby laughed. “It will be a gala occasion. We have a famous soccer star, four A-list actors and actresses, the CEO of a giant computer/software corporation, two government agents, a few assorted mercenaries and the former vice president.”
“Vice president?” Morie asked, surprised.
“He’s a friend of your father’s,” she replied. “Of course, so are the mercenaries,” she added amusedly. “He likes black sheep.”
“Well, they are interesting people,” Tenny added. Her face changed. “Especially that man, Grange, who works for the Pendletons. The stories I’ve heard about him!”
“Yes, he was a former major in the Green Berets,” Shelby confided. “And there was a rumor that he actually led a group of mercs down into Mexico to rescue Gracie Pendleton when she was kidnapped by that deposed South American dictator, Emilio Machado.”
“I’ve heard about him,” Morie said. She frowned. “Wasn’t something said about a connection between Machado and our Rick Marquez, who works as a homicide detective with San Antonio P.D.?” she added.
“Yes,” Tenny replied in a soft tone. “Some document has surfaced that connects him with Marquez’s mother.”
“Barbara, who owns the café in Jacobsville,” Morie commented. “She has wonderful food. I’ve eaten there when I visited a girlfriend….”
“No,” Tenny interrupted gently. “Not his foster mother. His real mother.”
Both women looked at her without speaking.
“Now isn’t that interesting,” Shelby said.
“And don’t you dare repeat it,” Tenny replied. “I heard it from someone I know and trust and I’m not supposed to tell. But you can keep a secret.” She smiled as she met Shelby’s eyes. “As I well know.”
“Yes.” Shelby didn’t comment further, leaving her daughter to wonder about the strange remark.
DARYL CAME OVER TO TALK to King about a new seed bull that his father wanted to add to the breeding program, but he stopped by long enough to speak with Morie privately.
“You said you wanted rubies,” he reminded her.
She flushed, because she hadn’t really taken the engagement thing seriously. He had, apparently. “Daryl…”
“If you don’t like the design, we can change it,” he assured her. He opened the jeweler’s box. “I had it made up like this, because I know how much you love roses.”
She caught her breath when she saw the rings. They were the most unique and beautiful settings she’d ever seen in her life. They looked like living blood in their exquisite eighteen-karat-gold settings. The engagement ring was a rose, its petals outlined in gold and set in glittering pigeon’s blood rubies, the largest of which made the center. The engagement ring was studded with rubies and made to interlock with the wedding band.
“Here.” Daryl pulled them out of the box and took her hand. He hesitated with a grin. “Want to try them on? No sales pressure. They come with a demented fiancé, but you can dump him anytime you like if you find someone more deserving.”
She looked into his black eyes with real pleasure. He’d taken her to movies and taught her to tango, he’d ridden with her over the acres and acres of her father’s huge ranch. He’d been a friend and even a confidant. She’d told him, although not her parents, the whole truth of her sojourn on the Rancho Real and found him a sympathetic and caring listener. He was also as quiet as a clam. He’d never divulged her secrets to her parents.
She could do worse.
He laughed, because she’d said it out loud. “Yes, you could,” he assured her. “I even still have most of my own teeth!”
“Most of them?” she asked with a curious frown.
His black eyes twinkled. “Your brother knocked one of them out when we were in college together. I can’t even remember what we fought over. But he said that since he couldn’t beat me in a fair fight, we’d be better off as friends, and we have been, all these years.”
“Yes, well, my brother has an attitude problem from time to time,” she conceded. He was hot-tempered, the way Shelby had said their father once was, and he tended to be impulsive