Diamond (26 page)

Jesse walked out of the apartment and into the night, drawing deep, aching gulps of cold air into his lungs to clear away the stench of what he’d left behind. He got into his car, leaned his forehead on the steering wheel, and tried to regain control of his emotions. He couldn’t walk into the Union Station Hotel spoiling for a fight.

Then he started the car, turned on the radio for soothing company, and drove away. Only once on his way downtown did he contemplate turning around and going home. And that was when his latest hit came on the radio and he had to listen to a repeat of what had started it all.

“Yessir, country music fans,” the disc jockey said, “this is the fifth week in a row that ‘Lies’ has been at number one. Everyone’s been speculating as to who the woman is who’s singing with the famous Jesse Eagle. This is the best piece of marketing strategy I’ve ever heard of. Create a blockbuster hit and then leave the fans guessing as to the identity of the other half of the duo. Well, it takes all kinds, I suppose. So if you think you know who the woman is, give us a call at…”

Jesse frowned. This was so far out of hand, he wondered if it would ever be rectified. Diamond’s name had been omitted from the album, but Tommy swore it was an oversight. Yet her voice was half of what had sent the song to the top of the charts. His claim that he’d never gotten around to signing her to a contract was bullshit. It was the most unprofessional thing that Jesse had ever heard of, and as far as he was concerned, it bordered on criminal.

Jesse had been asked about the identity of the woman on his song so often during the past few weeks that he’d developed a standard answer for the whole situation. His only response was “ask my manager.” He sighed. Maybe that was part of why Tommy was so plastered. Maybe his manager had run out of answers, too.

Diamond’s voice was taunting him from the speakers as she sang of lies and broken promises, and his voice came back strong and sure, promising it would never happen again.

“I just hope I get the chance to prove it to you, darlin’,” he said, switching off the radio and turning down Broadway as he headed for the party at Union Station.

The party was just beginning as Jesse entered the room. Al and Rita were standing in the doorway, and Rita grabbed his arm as he entered.

“Where have you been, good-lookin’?” she teased. “This is your party and we’re stuck here playing host and hostess. And where the heck is Tommy? I thought he’d be early. You know how he is.”

“Tommy won’t be coming,” Jesse said. “It seems he started celebrating a few days early and is a little under the weather.”

Al’s eyebrows rose, but he wisely refrained from questioning Jesse about the backslide of their manager’s manners. From the look on Jesse’s face, he knew he wouldn’t like the answers.

Rita didn’t particularly like Tommy and could not have cared less whether he came.

“You greet your own guests,” she said. “I’m goin’ to get myself a glass of bubbly.”

Jesse kissed Rita on the cheek and apologized to Al, who promptly followed his wife, leaving Jesse alone at the door. Jesse pasted on a smile and began to do his thing as Nashville came to party.

Civic leaders, heads of recording studios, old friends, and a host of country music’s finest were mixing and drinking like there was no tomorrow. Jesse watched the champagne flow and the buffet disappear and knew that his party was a success. The only thing that would make the night perfect was if Diamond was by his side, and that wasn’t going to happen. At least not tonight.

“Jesse! Darling! There you are! I have someone I want you to meet.”

Jesse frowned, mentally cursing Tommy into the next century as he recognized the strident voice of the woman yanking at his arm. He bit his lip, pasted on a smile, and turned to face Selma Bennett in all her silver-sequined glory.

“Selma—I didn’t see you arrive. Are you finding everything you need?” he asked, ever conscious of his role as host.
Damn you, Tommy. I might have known you’d invite this witch
.

“I never have all I need, honey,” she laughed, and winked, flirting audaciously with complete disregard for the years that separated them in age.

The urge to laugh aloud was strong. The idea of unveiling this bitch and then crawling into bed with her was ludicrous, but common sense told him that laughing in Selma Bennett’s face would do nothing but cause trouble, and Jesse had already had enough of that for the evening.

Selma sighed. The line she’d tossed was sinking fast. Jesse wasn’t biting, at least not on her hook.

“As I said, there’s someone I want you to meet. She’s the daughter of one of my dearest friends and is in town for the holidays. You two would simply be perfect together.”

Jesse placed his hand on Selma’s elbow and tightened it just enough to make his point. “Thanks, but no thanks,” he said. “I’m afraid my heart is already taken, at least for the next hundred years. After that, if your friend’s still in town, feel free to look me up.”

He managed a smile to soften his refusal, but he may as well have saved himself the effort. Selma turned red. Jesse deduced it was anger, not embarrassment, that prompted it. Her lips thinned and her eyes narrowed.

“Don’t tell me you’re still pining after that blonde groupie?”

“I’ve said all I’m going to, Selma. Let it be,” Jesse said, and turned away, wishing she would fall off the face of the earth and take Tommy with her.

But Selma wasn’t having any of it. Once she got hold of an idea, she was apt to ruin it by talking it to death.

“You are!” Her laughter was shrill, and there was a high flush of red slashed across her cheeks. “She left you, and you’ve still got the hots for—”

Jesse spun. His lack of color should have been warning enough for Selma, but she’d always been slow on the uptake. It was the angry hiss of his breath across her face that got her attention.

“Mrs. Bennett, if you’re real smart, you’ll stop right there. I have no intention of discussing Diamond with you or anyone else like you. My personal life is just that—personal. However, you and your friend enjoy yourselves this evening as my guests. And you’d be well advised to let sleeping dogs lie, before one of them bites you on the ass.”

He walked away and didn’t look back. He didn’t care if she was insulted or just incensed. Either way, he hoped she left and took her friend with her. He yanked his hat from the rack and headed for the door. He needed some air.

“Jesse! Where have you been?” Mack asked, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the vestibule.

“Playing host for Tommy while he tosses his cookies.”

Mack frowned. “Tommy’s sick?”

“Tommy’s drunk.”

“Good deal,” Mack said. “Then that means he’s not here.”

“What does that have to do with—”

Mack leaned forward as he stared intently into his boss’s face. He could hardly wait to share his news. The idea that Tommy wasn’t here to put a damper on things was even better.

“I saw her.”

Jesse’s stomach turned, and his knees went weak. He knew who Mack meant. As far as his world was concerned, there was only one “her.”

“Where?”

“At Melvin Call’s club over on the strip. You know the one I mean.”

“She was singing there?”

Mack grinned. “Hell yes, she was singing. Man, I never heard anything so sweet in my life. It’s even better than on the album.”

“What did she say? Where is she? Did she ask about—”

This was where it got sticky. Mack ran his hands through his hair so many times that it bushed just like his beard.

“That’s just it—I didn’t exactly talk to her. In fact, I’m pretty sure she didn’t even see me. Hell, I was so shocked to see her that I just sat and stared. Pissed off my date big time, and it’d taken me an entire month just to get that redhead to go out with me.” He grinned for effect, but it was lost on Jesse. Obviously Jesse didn’t care what happened to any of Mack’s dates.

Filled with frustration, Jesse started to circle Mack as one dog circles another, wanting to tear into him and yank the information out of him, yet knowing that he was going to have to wait and let Mack tell his story his own way.

“And…” Jesse urged.

“Oh yeah,” Mack said. “So, by the time I came to my senses she was gone.”

“No!” Jesse moaned, and leaned against the wall.

“It’s not as bad as you think,” Mack said. “I found out where she’s been working. And I know where she is tonight.”

Jesse jerked. The news spiked adrenaline through his system. “Okay, Mack. Talk. I can’t take anymore of this suspense. Just tell me where the hell I can find my lady. You can tell me about the redhead later.”

“Better yet,” Mack said, “I’ll show you.”

The party was forgotten as they bolted for the front door. In seconds they were in Mack’s car and headed for the strip. Jesse was surprised when Mack pulled off the street and turned into a parking lot ringed with security lights that lit up the lot like a night game at a baseball field.

“We’re back at Melvin Call’s club,” Jesse said. “Did she get herself a booking here?”

“No,” Mack said. “She works at a place called Dooley’s over on Jefferson. When she isn’t slinging drinks, she sings there too, as I understand. Tonight she’s filling in for a no-show.”

Jesse frowned. It sounded like nothing more than a repeat of Whitelaw’s Bar back in Cradle Creek.

As soon as Mack parked, Jesse was out and heading for the door. Seconds later he made a complete turn and headed back the way he’d come.

“What’s wrong?” Mack asked. “Don’t you want to see her?”

“My God, yes,” Jesse said, and then braced his arms on the car in front of him as he leaned forward and stared at the distorted reflection of himself in the shiny hood of the BMW. “But what if she doesn’t want to see me? What if seeing me just sends her running again? I couldn’t handle that, Mack. I still don’t know for sure what made her leave me.”

Mack nodded. He hadn’t considered the ramifications of confrontation. “Maybe it was me,” Mack said, facing the guilt of his earlier harassment of Diamond.

“No,” Jesse said, and pushed away from the car. “You’d already made your peace with each other. And if I know one thing about that woman, she’s not the kind to hold grudges. It was something…or someone else. Until I trust her not to run, I don’t trust myself to talk to her. Understand?”

Mack nodded and sighed. “I understand…but man, don’t you even want to see her?”

Jesse’s voice shook. The look he gave Mack was desperate. “I’d give a year of my life just to see her face,” he said.

“Well, hell,” Mack said. “I don’t think it’ll cost you that much. If you’ll come with me, I can fix it so you can see and hear her but she won’t see you.”

The office in the club was Mel’s pride and joy. He’d modeled it after one he’d seen in a Las Vegas gambling casino. The carpeting was plush, the lighting subdued. And the entire west wall was one-way glass. Mel could see out, but no one could see in.

“It’s all yours, buddy,” Mack said. “Just lock the door so you won’t be disturbed. I’m gonna go lose myself in the back of the crowd. She won’t see me, I promise.”

Jesse nodded, turned the lock, and then walked to the wall, staring intently down into the club below. His stomach muscles tightened as the lights dimmed, a sure sign that an entertainer was about to be announced. He tossed his hat on the chair behind him and then tried to swallow the lump in his throat.

Mel was in rare form, happy with the crowd and pleased with the world in general. He walked onstage, waving to indicate the need for silence, and then whistled loudly between his teeth to get the attention of his customers. It didn’t take him long to introduce his next guest. All he had time to say was “Miss Diamond Houston,” because the noise of the crowd took him off stage and brought her on.

“Ah, God.”

Jesse leaned against the wall as his legs went weak. His hands splayed across the glass as he stared at the woman below. She was thinner than he remembered. And from where he stood, part of her face was in shadow. But it was Diamond. And when she laughed at something one of the customers said, he shook in fury and in shock. How could she be laughing when he’d tried so hard to die? What had he done that was so bad she’d run away and never looked back?

It took everything he had not to walk out of the office and up to that stage, carry her off into the night and to hell with why she’d ever left to begin with. But good sense overcame the urge, and so he watched and died a little in the process.

Rockabilly rhythm and toe-tapping music rocked the room as Diamond sang. She was dressed all in black. The stage lights caught and sparkled in the rhinestones decorating the neck and shoulder of her shirt; a line of matching glitter ran the long, long length of her black pants. Silver-tipped black boots with small, shiny spurs kept time to the rhythm of the song as her fingers flew across the strings of Dooley’s guitar.

I walked out that door and I never looked hack
.

I took everything I needed in a brown paper sack
.

Didn’t take what he bought, I gave everything back
.

All I ever need is in my brown paper sack
.

Jesse listened and stared, unable to tear his gaze away from Diamond. What was worse, the words of her song were nothing more than a reminder of what she’d done to him. She had left him without looking back. And what she owned probably had fit into a sack. Everything else she’d left behind. Of all the things that he’d endured, that had been one of the worst. Leaving what he’d given her was like throwing his love back in his face.

Left the love of my life, and that’s a little known fact
.

But you can’t carry love in a brown paper sack
.

Jesse listened to the words, certain that they were part of the secret. But for all the good it did him, she revealed nothing except her talent.

She looked up past the audience, smiling as her fingers strummed across the last chord. She seemed to stare straight into Jesse’s eyes.