Intimate Portraits (31 page)

Francisco hadn’t.

He’d ached for Fran. Still did.

And Sarita had known he would,
damn her.

He cleared his throat.

What happened between Francisco
and Sarita, or him and Sarita didn’t matter. Francisco had to protect himself.

“Listen, Francisco. You didn’t
care when Sarita dumped you. You knew from the beginning it wouldn’t last.”

“That isn’t true.” Fran sat up,
his eyes bleary. “I did care, Rennie. I thought we had something more than sex
going. Oh, yeah, maybe I subconsciously knew, but it was still…” Dull red
blotched his complexion. “Out of the blue, she ended it. She up and ended it
without even telling me why.”

Would he have to spell it out?
Was Francisco still so hung up on Sarita he didn’t realize he was in trouble?

Rennie moved in, gripped his
brother’s shoulder. “You and she both knew it wouldn’t last.” He pronounced
each word precisely, drilling it in. “You may have said a few things but there
was absolutely no bitterness afterward. It was expedient for both of you to
call it quits.”

“Expedient? What do you mean?” Understanding
sunk in. Francisco went pale. “They won’t think I… Oh.”

The brothers stared at one
another before Francisco jumped up. “You don’t think I’d hurt Sarita, do you?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think.
The police are the ones who matter. There were no hard feelings between you and
Sarita,” Rennie said doggedly.

Francisco licked his lip, finally
looking as scared as Rennie felt. “We tried, but in the end we both decided it
wouldn’t work,” he said slowly. “We didn’t quarrel, if that’s what you’re
asking. I may have said a few things, but she was pretty snide about my bed
manners, calling me a two-bit Romeo without the equipment to back it up.”

So Sarita’s words still rankled.

“Forget what she said. Just
remember you got over the break-up. You and she were still on good terms.”

“All right.” Francisco
straightened his hair. “Besides, she said those things so I’d lose my temper
and give her an excuse to break it off. I cooled off fast once I realized that.”

“I’m not asking you to tell me
anything about what was said.” He knew too much already.

Sarita, gleeful at how she’d cut
Francisco down, had repeated everything she’d said, every sneering innuendo,
every hateful taunt about his masculinity. She had loved describing how Francisco
cried when he watched her screwing another man, how he’d fought the pilot
afterward.

Yeah, Rennie could imagine how it
had gone. He’d seen her manipulate men until they exploded. The blood and violence
turned her on.

Francisco hadn’t known that.
Afterward she’d sought out Rennie and pretended she wanted him to tell Francisco
she was sorry, that she’d been carried away in the heat of the moment and hadn’t
meant her cruel words.

But Rennie was wise to Sarita and
her ways.

The real reason Sarita had told
Rennie about the breakup was to let Rennie know that Francisco was in love with
her, and that she had destroyed him.

Francisco had been her payback
for Rennie walking out on her.

Rennie shivered. Sarita had led
him a long way down the path to hell. He’d wanted to help her, show her she was
better than what she’d become, encourage her to change. Instead, he’d ended up
in her cozy little sexual carousals. He was the one who’d changed.

At first, he’d assumed her
self-esteem was the big problem. Sarita, darling of the critics and adored by the
public, wanted everyone to love her. All her life, she’d wanted everyone to
love her and couldn’t stand it when someone held out. She’d do anything to make
sure he fell into line.

But her low self-esteem was a
symptom. One morning Rennie woke up to the stench of several sweaty bodies
still hung over from alcohol and drugs, and wondered what he was doing. Sarita
couldn’t change because she didn’t want to change. He didn’t like her or
himself any more. He left and never went back.

But Sarita didn’t forgive slights.
She’d taken Rennie’s defection out on Francisco.

Back to what was important. “You
and Sarita broke up by a mutual decision, Francisco. No hard feelings, no
leftover grudges. That’s all I know about it, all I want to know.”

Francisco nodded, eyes darting
back and forth. “That’s what I’ll tell the police if they ask.”

“Yes. You do that. And Francisco.”

Francisco had turned away but
looked back. “What?”

“Something else. When Autumn made
Sarita’s photographs, Sarita was wearing some jewelry. Some jewelry that looks
like that in the French exhibit at the High.”

“Dani’s exhibit?” Francisco’s
brow furrowed. “Sarita?”

If Francisco had expected the
question, he would be careful to show surprise, but Rennie would stake his life
his brother knew nothing. “Is there any way she could have gotten hold of it?”

“I wouldn’t think so. I'm not
privy to their security arrangement, but I’d guess Dani and her people never
let that stuff out of their sight.”

“Not even if a close friend asked
to borrow it for some photo shots?”

Francisco’s eyes widened and his mouth
gaped. He laid a hand on a stack of boxes to steady himself. “Are you accusing
me of taking it for Sarita?”

“No.” The word exploded in the
air. Quick. Too quick. “Not at all. But let me know if you think of any way
Sarita could have got access to it, okay?”

“Sure.” Francisco rubbed a hand
over his eyes, like he was gauging what Rennie meant.

Better let him know Autumn was
involved, too. “I think Autumn’s tied into it because she photographed Sarita
in the jewelry.”

“Autumn did what?” Again the
surprise wasn’t feigned.

Rennie explained about the butt
bag being slit and why he thought the fall was connected. “So Autumn’s going to
stay with us for a while.”

Francisco, stunned, didn’t even
leer. “Yeah. Okay. I guess that… Autumn… I can’t believe this.”

He looked frightened, but who
could tell what was going through Francisco’s mind?

Rennie wasn’t sure he wanted to
know.

Chapter 18

At the reception desk of Gus
Huertole’s campaign headquarters, Autumn waited patiently for Rennie.

So her feelings were hurt. So
what? After all these years, she was used to being excluded.

I’m just being hyper-sensitive
.

Not that telling herself that helped,
not even after the past night when he had told her he loved her and proved it
so sweetly. She’d assumed, in her happiness, his loving her meant the two of
them would share everything, that she would never again feel like a child
looking into a candy store window.

Nope. She was still the odd man
out.

That’s what gnawed at her gut,
that unhappy awareness of being a stranger looking on while the other kids had
fun.

Once when she was ten, playing
dolls at the Degardovera home with Laney and Norma, Reseda had stormed in after
someone broke a porcelain Madonna that normally sat on a shelf in the hallway.
Reseda demanded to know who’d done it.

Norma said, “Probably the dog,
Mom,” without looking up from dressing her Barbie.

“Yes, Chief was in there earlier,
Mom,” Laney added, busy arranging her own doll’s hair.

From across the room where Fran
and some of his friends were watching television, he called, “Chief wouldn’t
mean to, Mom. You know how his tail catches things.”

Autumn knew Fran and his friends were
the cause of the broken statue because she’d seen them roughhousing with a
football in the hall when she first got there. But she sat quiet as a mouse
while the Degardoveras perjured themselves. None of them asked her to keep
quiet, but she still didn’t say anything.

She had rationalized that she
wasn’t lying, that she would be truthful if Reseda specifically asked her
whether she knew anything about what had happened.

But the rest of the Degardovera
children, including Norma and Laney, had known and covered up. When they never
spoke of the broken statue again, she realized they wouldn’t even admit to her
who’d broken it.

However much she loved the
Degardoveras, she would never be one of them. No matter much how she wanted to
be.

Except Rennie had admitted he loved
her. That ought to count for something, shouldn’t it? She should automatically become
part of the tacit conspiracy of trust the Degardoveras shared.

At least where Rennie was
concerned.

Guess she was wrong.

The Degardoveras closed ranks
whenever outside forces threatened one of them. Closed ranks as Rennie and Fran
did now, coming out from the back office and standing together in a solid front
against the world and everyone else, including her.

That was what hurt.

The men’s grave faces made them
seem more alike than ever.

“It’ll work out,” Rennie was
saying, “I’m going to take Autumn by her place and let her get some clothes. She’s
going to stay at Mom’s house for a few days.”

“No, I’m not.” She would learn to
live with exclusion from their councils and get over smarting because she was
still an outsider. No matter how she felt about Rennie, she was responsible for
herself and could still make her own decisions. “I’ll be as safe at my condo as
I would at Reseda’s.”

So there.

“Autumn, we all agree these things
are connected, that someone may be…” Rennie hesitated. “Someone may be after
you. Maybe whoever it is thinks Sarita told you something. Or maybe you saw
something you don’t realize you saw.”

“She didn’t, and I didn’t.” She
looked at her watch. “I thought we were going to the exhibit.”

“Oh, damn.” Eschewing his usual
care, Fran ran his fingers through his curls without noticing he’d mussed them.
“I forgot about it. Laney and Norma will be waiting for us.”

“Then we’d better go,” Autumn
said with false cheer.

Rennie looked at her a long
moment before his lazy grin hit her, warmed her despite her disillusionment. “Whatever
the lady wants.” He picked up her hand, held it.

She let him.

She loved him.

Even though she was an
interloper. Even though she was an outsider. Rennie had made love to her so
beautifully that she had forgotten for a while he would never treat her as one
of the Degardoveras, never turn to her as he did his family.

He loves me
, she told herself fiercely.
He
said he loves me. And I know I love him.

When she held his hand to her
cheek, Fran’s brows rose. He launched a darkening stare at her and then at Rennie.
“So that’s the way things are heading, huh? Big brother moved in on you while I
was looking the other way? Kind of fast, wasn’t it?”

She shouldn’t have been so
blatant, but it was hard to hide her feelings for Rennie. “You make it sound
like Rennie’s a trespasser.”

“I thought you and I had an
understanding.” Fran pushed his bottom lip out in a gesture he’d long grown out
of. “I guess I was wrong.”

“Now, Fran. Don’t pout.” She
tried to tease him out of his ill humor. “I was a shoulder to cry on. We both
know I’ve never been your type.”

“I didn’t think you were Rennie’s
type, either.” Fran’s eyes moved from her to his brother. “Or is it retaliation?
Is that what it is, Rennie? Are you using Autumn to pay me back for Sarita? Because
I dared go where big brother couldn’t make it? Because I went where you’d
already gone and failed, right between Sarita Sartowe’s thighs? Is that it?”

Shocked, Autumn at first didn’t
understand Fran’s crudity, then when she did, she uttered a little cry, though
it must have been in her mind for neither of the men looked at her.

“Don’t be foolish, Fran,” Rennie
said wearily.

The blood roared in Autumn’s
ears.

She had accepted Jane’s existence
as a part of Rennie’s life. Jane didn’t matter after Rennie said he loved her.

But Sarita? What had he called
her? Every man’s fantasy.

Rennie and Sarita? She didn’t
want to imagine them together.

Fran’s hands clenched. “I took Sarita
away from you so now you take Autumn away from me. What’s the old saying, sauce
for the goose, sauce for the gander? Is that what you’re thinking?”

“Sarita was never mine for you to
take.” Rennie’s voice was deathly quiet. “No one ever owned Sarita.”

“No, but you would have liked to,
wouldn’t you?” Fran’s voice was rising. “She told me how you begged, pleaded
with her when she got sick and tired of you and your scruples. She bragged
about you calling her on the phone, sending her flowers, trying to get her back
after she dropped you.”