Bravo Unwrapped by Christine Rimmer Read Free Book Online Page B

the camera as Lupe snapped shot after shot. “I got all the best stories—and I can tell you where all the bodies are buried…if you know what I mean.” He wiggled his bushy white eyebrows.
    â€œTony, you know you’re the first one I’ll come see.”
    The old guy nodded, looking gratified. “I’ll hold you to it, see if I don’t.” He winked again at B.J.—and then at Lupe, too. “I like a pretty woman. Which one of these is yours?”
    Buck sent B.J. a far too intimate look. She pretended not to notice.
    â€œWell?” prompted old Tony with a chuckle.
    Lupe blew a midnight strand of hair out of her eye and brought her camera into position again. “Leave me out of it. I’m just here to take the pictures.”
    â€œAh,” said Tony, turning to size B.J. up. “You, then.”
    â€œNo. I’m not his—and he’s not mine.”
    â€œYou sound real definite about that,” said Tony. “Maybe too definite. So definite I’m wondering who you’re tryin’ to convince.” Tony did some more chuckling.
    Buck stepped in and made the introductions. “Tony Dellazola, this is B. J. Carlyle and Lupe Martinez.”
    â€œWell, I am pleased to meet you both—so Buck. Tell me. You still livin’ in New York City?”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œNever been there, never will. It’s not healthy, folks livin’ all on top of each other that way. Like rats in a maze. They start chewin’ off their own tails.”
    â€œHey.” B.J. couldn’t let that remark pass. “ I’m a New Yorker. You couldn’t pay me enough to live anywhere else.”
    â€œAnd I like a good-lookin’ woman who knows her own mind,” declared old Tony. He pulled a toothpick from his shirt pocket, stuck it between his yellowed teeth, leaned back on the bench and asked Lupe, “What d’you need all those pictures for?”
    Lupe kept shooting and let Buck answer for her. “We’re here to do an article for Alpha magazine.”
    Tony snapped to attention. “What’s that? I’m gonna have my picture in Alpha magazine?”
    â€œCould be.”
    Tony thought it over. “Well. I suppose that’s okay with me. Alpha ’s a fine magazine. Classy, you know? And those Alpha Girls…each one prettier’n the last, all of ’em wearing a nice, big friendly smile—and not a whole lot more.” He gave yet another cackling chuckle and then grew serious again. “You’ll send me a free copy so I’ll know I was in there?”
    â€œAbsolutely,” said B.J.
    Buck thanked the old guy and they moved on, crossing the street and heading down the other side, back toward the bridge to Chastity’s place.
    â€œQuite a character,” Lupe remarked once they were out of earshot.
    Buck said, “He was sitting on that bench all day every day back when I was a kid. I swear, he looks exactly the same today as he did then. He’s gotta be ninety by now. Glory’s his great-granddaughter.”
    â€œGlory.” Lupe looked pained. “You mean the screamer?”
    Buck ignored Lupe’s question. He seemed faintly bemused. “Glory was maybe ten years old when I left town. And now look at her.”
    â€œYeah,” said Lupe, “hanging around your mother’s B & B, terrorizing the clientele.”
    Buck shrugged. “No one to terrorize. It’s the slow season. For tonight, I think we’re the only guests—and whatever she was screaming about, Glory does have a valid reason to be there. She lives downstairs, in an add-on apartment in back. She’s the maid.”
    Lupe shuddered. “Remind me to lock up my valuables when I leave my room.”
    â€œRelax,” Buck said. “Glory’s a good kid. Yeah, she’s got a little drama queen in her. Like all the Dellazolas. They’re a big, rowdy family and