Renegade

“Yes, I heard from them at Thanksgiving,” she confessed. “A girl and a boy, right?”

“Jared and Jessamina,” he said, smiling. The twins had captured their godfather’s heart the second he laid eyes on them in the hospital. Of course, Jessamina was Cash’s favorite and he made no bones about it. “Jessamina’s such a little doll. A head full of jet-black hair and her eyes are dark blue. They’ll change, of course.”

“How about Jared?” she probed, amused at his fascination with the little girl.

“Looks like his dad,” he replied. “Jared belongs to them, but Jessamina is mine. I told them so. Repeatedly.” He sighed. “It does no good, of course, they won’t give her to me.”

She laughed. It was like the sound of silver bells on a summer night. Her voice was one of her greatest as sets.

“How are you?”

“Working on a new film,” she told him. “We’ve just stopped shooting so that we can all have Christmas at home. I’m glad. It’s got a lot of physical stuff in it, and I’m out of shape. I’ll have to work out more if I’m going to have to be athletic.”

“What sort of physical stuff?” he wanted to know.

“Tucks and rolls, bouncing off trampolines, falls from high places, martial arts, that sort of thing,” she said, sounding tired. “I’m bruised all over. Rory’s going to pass out when he sees me. He says I’ve got no business doing rough stuff like this at my age.”

“At your age?” he asked, because he knew she was only twenty-six.

“I’m old,” she said. “Didn’t you know? From his perspective, I should be walking with a cane!”

“That puts me in my place,” he chuckled, mentally noting that he was twelve years her senior. “Is he coming home for Christmas?”

“Sure. He comes home every holiday. I have a nice little place here, near Fifth Street in the lower East Village, near a bookstore and a coffee shop. It’s very pleasant, for a big city.”

“I like a little more room.”

“You would.” She hesitated. “Are you in trouble or anything?”

He felt odd. “What do you mean?”

“Do you need me to do something for you?” she persisted.

He’d never had anyone offer. He didn’t know how to handle such a statement.

“I’m fine,” he bit off.

“Then why did you call…?”

“Not because I want anything,” he said, more harshly than he meant to. “You don’t think I might have called just because I wanted to know how you were?”

“Not really,” she confessed. “I didn’t make a great impression on people around Jacobsville while we were filming down there. Especially on you.”

“That was before Christabel got shot,” he reminded her. “You changed my mind in a split second when you stripped off that expensive sweater you were wearing without a second thought and used it to put pressure on her gunshot wound. You made a lot of friends that day.”

“Thanks,” she said, sounding shy.

“Listen, I thought I might come up to New York for a few days before Christmas,” he said. “Did you mean what you said, about the rain check? I could take you and Rory out on the town.”

He could hear the excitement in her voice. “Wow. That would make Rory’s day.”

“Is he there?”

“No. I have to take the train down to Maryland and pick him up at the academy. They won’t release him unless I sign him out. We had to arrange it that way to keep my mother from taking him to extort money from me.” She sounded bitter. “She knows how much money I’m making and she wants some. She and her boyfriend would do anything to get their hands on money for drugs.”

“Suppose I pick him up and bring him to New York for you?”

She hesitated. “You’d…do that?”

“Sure. I’ll photocopy my ID and fax it to the school. You can call them and verify who I am. Rory will recognize me.”

“It would be the thrill of his life,” she confessed. “He’s talked about nothing except you since you met at the premiere of my film last month.”

“I liked him, too. He’s honest.”

“I taught him that honesty was the most important part of character,” she said. “I’ve been lied to so much in my life that I value nothing more,” she added quietly.

“I know how you feel. Well, I’d planned to leave here on the nineteenth. Tell me how to get to the military academy,” he added, “and the address of your apartment and what time you want us there. And I’ll do the rest!”

JUDD WAS HIGHLY AMUSED at Cash’s animation and changed mood after the older man spoke with Tippy.

“You don’t smile much these days,” Judd said. “Nice to see that you remembered how.”

“Tippy’s brother’s at military school,” Cash said. “I’m going to pick him up on the way and drive him there.”

“Will your truck make it all the way to New York?” Judd chided, recalling the big black pickup that Cash drove around town. It was a nice one—but inexpensive—and it had some wear on it.

Cash looked oddly hesitant. “I have a car,” he said. “It’s garaged in Houston. I don’t drive it a lot, but I maintain it. It was for emergencies.”

“Now you’ve got me curious,” Judd said. “What sort of car?”

“It’s just a car,” Cash said, shrugging, too embarrassed to tell Judd what sort of car it really was. He never talked about his finances. “Nothing fancy. Listen, are you sure you can handle the work here while I’m gone?”

“I was a Texas Ranger.”

Cash grinned. “Yeah, but this is a hard job…!”

He moved out of the way just in time to avoid retribution.

“You wait,” Judd threatened with dancing eyes. “I’ll hire you the ugliest secretary east of the Brazos River!”

“You would,” Cash sighed. “Well, at least get me somebody who isn’t so skittish, would you?”

“Why exactly did she quit?”

Cash sighed. “The punk rocker was upset about not being allowed into my filing cabinet. I didn’t want to tell her about my baby python being in there temporarily, so I told her I kept top secret flying-saucer material in there.”

“That’s when she upended the trash can over your head,” Judd guessed.