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“He was just reiterating that,” Agnes said. The stupid son of a bitch.
“Yes, I was,” Taylor said, trying to sound stern.
“And I was telling him that I understood that.” Agnes picked up the next cake tier and brought it down the counter. “So now you can both vacate my premises so I can finish this cake for Palmer.”
“Green?” Brenda said, contempt all but curling from her mouth.
“Golf course.” Agnes unwrapped her next ball of grass green fondant. “With flamingos. He’s going to love it.”
“Well, nobody ever accused you of having taste,” Brenda said. “Bless your heart.”
“Taylor,” Agnes said. “You can go now. You and the whore you rode in on. Bless her heart.”
Brenda exhaled through her teeth.
Taylor looked helplessly from Agnes to Brenda while Agnes began to roll fondant, the heat of her anger making her strong and the fondant smooth.
“We can go into town now if you want, Brenda,” he said.
Brenda lifted her chin. “I suppose. I do hate picking my way across that dangerous splintered old bridge, though. I surely don’t see how anybody’s going to get to the wedding now. So I’ll call Evie?—”
“Oh, the bridge is fine,” Taylor said. “Sturdy as all get-out. Much better than the old one. I drove right up to the house, so you just have to walk along the path.”
Brenda’s lips parted, but no sound came out.
Agnes smiled as she rolled fondant like a maniac. “That Shane. He sure is a miracle worker. Got that bridge in last night. It’s a beauty. And after that he hung the prettiest black shutters you’ve ever seen on every single window in Two Rivers. If you didn’t notice them, you make sure you look, Brenda, because they certainly are gorgeous. Check out the carriage lamps, too.” She beamed at Brenda. “Now get the hell out of my house.”
Taylor went over to Brenda and ushered her out the back door, turning as she went out to give Agnes one last look.
“No,” Agnes said, and he nodded and went out, a lost soul, which was what he deserved.
She rolled the fondant onto the rolling pin, lifted it over the cake, and flipped it on. “Don’t give me any crap,” she told the icing and smoothed it swiftly down over the sides.
Perfect
“No flamingos for you,” she said, and went to get the next layer, wondering exactly how much Brenda had heard and exactly how much trouble Taylor was in.
And why her subconscious thought she was an idiot.
Shane knew Carpenter was behind him, perfectly still. He could almost sense his friend’s calmness in the face of his own surging anger.
Fortunato. Fuck.
“What happened to my father?” Shane asked finally. “And my mother. You told me she died in a boating accident.”
“She did,” Joey said. “The same accident your father died in. I couldn’t tell you who he was, because that would have made you a threat to the Don, as the son of the eldest brother. He’s got no kids, he ain’t gonna have any, so you’re the heir, that’s no good. So I made a deal with him. I’d raise you, tell you nothing of your father, and he’d leave you in peace, he’d?—”
Shane was on his feet before he even realized it. He punched Joey square on the mouth, knocking the old man to the floor of the jet boat, and then Carpenter was there, wrapping his powerful arms around Shane, pulling him away.
“Easy, my friend, easy,” Carpenter said.
Shane allowed Carpenter to push him back to one of the chairs and shove him into it. All the rage he’d suddenly felt was just as quickly gone. He couldn’t believe he’d lost control like that. He never lost control. And he could see it now, what his uncle had done. “You did it to protect me.”
Joey nodded as he dabbed off the trickle of blood on the side of his mouth with a handkerchief he’d pulled out of a pocket. “I did. It was okay as long as Frankie was here. He was protecting you, too. Protecting all of us. Him staying down here was part of the deal, too. Let Michael become Don even though he was youngest. Frankie didn’t want it anyway, though it sure pissed Brenda off. Then Frankie disappeared the night of the robbery, and I knew I had to get you out of here. That’s when I shipped you off to military school.”
“You could have told me,” Shane said.
Carpenter let go of him and went back to the wheel, reversing them off the beach and turning south down the Intracoastal.
