• 23 •

RADCLY fFE

detailed. Whereas Deo’s compelling beauty verged on androgyny, Pia was the archetype of female loveliness. God, can this family get any more attractive?

“Hi,” Pia said, holding out her hand. “I’m Pia, Joey’s sister. Sorry to barge in.”

Nita took her hand. “That’s quite all right. Hi, KT.”

“Nita. What have you got?”

“The X-rays are over here.” Nita led the three to the light box. “He’s got a fracture of the middle phalanx of his small fi nger. Fortunately, it’s favorably angled and once we reduce it, he should do well with a splint.”

Nita waited while KT leaned forward and perused all the fi lms.

Then she went on. “He’s completely transected his extensor tendon in that fi nger and nicked the one in the ring fi nger.”

“Looks like he’s bought himself a couple of months out of work,”

KT commented.

“No way,” Deo said, having moved closer while everyone was talking. “He’s still got one good hand and two legs. He’s not laying off for half the summer. He can have until Tuesday, then he needs to get his candy ass back to work.”

Nita was about to remind Deo that she was making the decisions when Pia wrapped her arm around Deo’s waist and kissed her cheek.

Struck by the obvious affection in Pia’s gesture and the fl eeting look of tenderness that passed over Deo’s face, she hesitated.

Pia said, “You okay, tough girl?”

“I’m fi ne.” Deo’s voice sounded surprisingly husky. “I’m sorry about this, Pia.”

“We’ll talk later,” Pia murmured. “It’ll be okay.”

“Yeah. Right.”

Once again, Nita caught a glimpse of something raw and vulnerable in Deo’s eyes, and against her will, she was drawn to it. Heart pounding, she turned her back to the cousins. She needed to get Joey taken care of and get them all out of the clinic. Especially Deo Camara. The woman was dangerous.

“I was just about to do the tendon repair. If you want to do it, KT, it’s fi ne with me.” Even though it was a straightforward procedure, Nita wasn’t about to stand on ceremony when one of the best trauma surgeons on the East Coast was available to do the job. Especially not

• 24 •

Winds of Fortune

when a family member was involved.

“Why don’t we do it together.” KT grinned. “Then we can all get back to the party.”

“I’ll see the rest of the patients while you two take care of Joey,”

Tory offered.

Nita nodded in surrender. “Well, I guess it’s decided.”

❖

“Look,” Deo said, trying to extricate herself from Pia’s grasp as they crossed the parking lot outside the clinic. “I don’t want to crash this party.”

“It’s a baby’s birthday party!” Pia gave Deo a playful shove before she opened the passenger door of Deo’s camo green Defender and climbed in. Waving goodbye through the open top to KT, who was headed back to the party in Reese’s cruiser, she said, “It’s just a bunch of people you already know—and Tory invited you, so you can’t be crashing. Come on. I know you’ve been working fi fteen hours a day since April without a day off. Why pass up free food and beer and good company?”

“I can manage to get food and beer and plenty of company on my own,” Deo grumbled. “Jesus. I don’t need a social director.”

“Yeah? Well I didn’t see you at the Memorial Day picnic or the Fourth of July barbecue yesterday.”

“You know why.” Deo gunned the truck out of the parking lot, spewing gravel. “No point spoiling everyone’s day.”

Pia rested her hand on Deo’s thigh. “You don’t know it would have been like that.”

“Don’t I?” Deo said darkly. “It was a family gathering, wasn’t it?

When was the last time I came to one where my father didn’t get drunk and practically call me out and my mother didn’t cry?”

“Honey, it’s been ten years. Everyone needs to let it go.”

Deo clenched her jaw. “Then someone should tell them that.”

“I know, you’re right.”

“And Christ almighty, wait until everyone hears about Joey. It’ll be Gabe all over again.”

“My mother is not going to get hysterical and blame you,” Pia said. “And it isn’t your fault. Joey had an accident.”

• 25 •

RADCLY fFE

Deo shook her head as she turned onto 6A and headed west toward Reese and Tory’s home. “He got hurt working for me. I’m supposed to be looking out for my crew. It was my fault.”

“Joey is a carpenter. These things happen.”

“Let it go, Pia.”

Pia sighed and patted Deo’s leg. “So, who are you dating now?”

“What, now you want to fi nd me a girlfriend?” Deo grinned. “I don’t think our tastes run in quite the same direction.”

“You don’t think KT’s hot?”

“Jesus, Pia, don’t put me on the spot here.”

“Come on, admit it,” Pia teased. “She’s got a gorgeous body, a face to die for, and a mouth that can make a girl’s cli—”

“Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa!” Laughing, Deo stuck out one arm as if to cover Pia’s mouth. “None of that. Jesus, I don’t want to look at her and have those pictures in my head.”

“Well we used to share things about our girlfriends.”

“Yeah, maybe when we were sixteen! Besides, you never did anything except kiss, as I recall, so there wasn’t much to tell.”

Pia blushed. “You were doing enough of everything else for both of us.”

Deo shot her a glance. “You really didn’t…you know, get it on with anyone before KT?”

“Well I wasn’t living in a convent, but, no. Not entirely.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, you know,” Deo said gently. “KT

is a lucky woman. She knows that, right?”

“Yes, cousin, she knows, so you don’t have to defend my honor.”

Pia stroked the top of Deo’s hand where it rested on the gear shift between them. “Do any of your girlfriends know what a big softie you are?”

“Don’t spread nasty rumors about me,” Deo said, pulling into Reese and Tory’s drive. “They’ve got enough reason to be pissed off at me when I don’t marry them.”

“Someday someone’s going to see through that tough girl act of yours,” Pia warned playfully. “Then you’ll be in trouble.”

Deo didn’t bother to argue. She defi nitely didn’t feel like explaining that what had once been an act had long since become second nature.

Life was simpler that way.

• 26 •

Winds of Fortune

❖

“I take it that’s your sister,” Nita said to Tory, indicating a fair-haired, blue-eyed woman in a sun dress and sandals who bounced a laughing Reggie on her knee. “She looks a lot like you.”

“That’s Cath,” Tory said. “My brother-in-law just took their two kids down to the beach. And that guy over there,” she pointed to a husky, middle-aged man with dark hair shot-through with gray ensconced in a wooden Adirondack rocker and deep in conversation with Reese, “is Chief Nelson Parker, Reese’s boss.”

“Wait a minute. Parker. Isn’t that the name of that skinny, black-haired walking hormone with the adorable little blond girlfriend?”

Tory laughed. “You mean Bri? The one leaning against the railing in the corner over there while her girlfriend tries to climb inside her skin?”

“Oh my,” Nita said, after sneaking a peek. Sure enough, Bri, in tight black jeans and a sleeveless black T-shirt that accentuated her wiry frame, had her arms around her girlfriend, who wore nothing but itty-bitty white shorts and a pink halter top. The little blonde was wedged between Bri’s thighs with her arms around Bri’s neck and the two of them looked like they might need to be hosed down any second. She shook her head. “I’m not all that much older than them but they make me feel ancient.”

“Believe it or not, Bri and Caroline have been together almost six years and as far as I can tell, they’ve still got the nonstop hungries for each other. Bri’s an offi cer in town, too. Caroline’s an artist, studying in New York City.”

“Well I’ll say one thing for this place,” Nita said. “You’ve got drop-dead gorgeous cops of all species.”

“Mmm,” Tory said, watching Reese. “We do.” She glanced at Nita. “You’ve got cops in your family, right?”

“Everywhere you look,” Nita said fl atly.

Tory regarded her curiously. “Did they pressure you to carry on the family tradition?”

“You couldn’t exactly call it pressure. I don’t think anyone ever considered that I wouldn’t. It was pretty much a given. My grandfather, my uncles and aunts, my older siblings—they’re all cops. One renegade sister is a fi refi ghter, but close enough.” She wrapped her arms around

• 27 •

RADCLY fFE

her middle and stared down toward the harbor, remembering the astonishment on her father’s face when she had announced at seventeen that she wanted to go to medical school. She had thought he would be proud. Looking back, she didn’t know why she’d expected that. She had never been as tough as her brothers and sisters, not in the obvious ways, at least. Knowing that she couldn’t measure up to her physically competitive brothers and sisters, she had worked tirelessly to excel in the only way she could. She had been fi rst in her class year after year, but it never seemed to be enough. No matter how good she was academically, she didn’t measure up. “One of my brothers went to a two-year college before entering the academy, but all my other siblings went straight on the job after high school. I was the odd one out.”

“Breaking with tradition that deep is hard.” Tory couldn’t help but think about Reese, raised by her father to follow in his footsteps in the marines. Reese had done everything her father expected. She had been willing to sacrifi ce anything, including her life, for her duty, but all that paled in his eyes when he learned she was a lesbian. Tory shook her head. “Sometimes the people who love us are our toughest critics.”

“I’ve gotten used to the fact that I’m a disappointment to them.”