Blue Knight by Tracy Cooper-Posey Read Free Book Online Page A

you’re scaring Calli.”
    He glanced at her apologetically. “This needs to be said, mi amor .” He looked at Minnie once more. “I was wrong, Minnie, all those weeks ago, when you were insisting Duardo was alive. I was wrong, you were right and I keep thinking of the hell we put you through because we wouldn’t listen. I dismissed you as a woman in mourning and paid no more attention to what you said and I should have. My error cost us dearly and we’re still paying for it.”
    “Nick, you weren’t the only one who didn’t listen,” Calli told him softly.
    “But I’m the one everyone else follows. ‘The buck stops here’, right?” He grimaced. “I was part of Duardo’s debriefing, so I know in detail what happened when you went back to Vistaria.”
    Minnie brought her hands up to cover her mouth. “Did you have to let me know you know all that?” she whispered.
    “Yes,” he said flatly. “It’s taken me this long to find a way to tell you how much I admire you. I still can’t find the words. I don’t think they exist. All I can tell you is that I will never underestimate you again. Nor will I take you for granted.”
    Calli smiled. She could hear the steel of a lifetime promise in Nick’s voice. El leopardo had spoken.
    Minnie let her hands drop. Her face was pink. “I just came here to ask if it was okay to steal Calli for a day or two.”
    Calli cleared her throat. “Actually, now that Nick is President pro tem, I think you have to ask for formal permission to marry one of his officers, too.”
    Minnie’s mouth opened. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding! That’s archaic!”
    Calli laughed. “It’s actually supposed to be the other way around. The officer is supposed to ask for permission, but you said you were speaking for Duardo. It is a very old law and it’s really just a formality for the senior officers. But it’s still in effect.”
    Minnie rose to her full height of five feet and one inch. “I’m not asking anyone’s permission,” she said. “Duardo can do the damn asking.”
    Calli saw laughter ripple through Nick’s shoulders. “Very well then,” he said, his voice even. “You may borrow Calli to arrange your wedding, but Calli will borrow you for whatever responsibilities she feels appropriate for you to handle in return. I warn you, Minerva, your honeymoon will be screamingly short and probably a working one.”
    “Yeah, I figured,” Minnie said, her shoulders slumping.
    Nick smiled. “Have Colonel Peña arrange a time with my new Chief of Staff to report formally to me as soon as possible.” He looked at his watch. “ Jesus Marie , Flores is waiting for me.” He kissed Calli quickly and squeezed Minnie’s shoulder as he walked past her and was gone.
    Calli reached for her laptop, sitting on the table in the back corner of the balcony. “I’ve got Nick’s calendar right here. Let’s set up a time for Duardo right now.”
    “He wasn’t kidding, was he?” Minnie said, looking at the door into the house. “He’s really going to make Duardo ask for permission to marry me?”
    Calli looked up from tapping through layers of menus to the calendar. “Minnie, you’ve been involved with Vistarian men for nearly a year now. You really have to ask if they mean it when they get all formal and stiff about some sort of point of honor or tradition?”
    * * * * *
    As they were being shepherded to the lounge area after breakfast, Olivia noticed the change immediately. Everyone was talking among themselves.
    Normally they were sheep being herded along almost single file through the arches, across the silent foyer with its beautiful Spanish tiles and the same soaring stone arches that helped keep the ambient temperature cool. They would be marched past the wide elegant doors of the hotel, closed now and guarded by armed soldiers. Cowed into submission, they would be hurried into the interconnected lounges and the velvet ropes put up across the arches into the foyer and