Blue Knight Read Online Free Page B

They’ve noticed it. This is the kick up the backside we deserve. We five will have to go short on sleep for a while in order to get the results we need to win Mexico back to our side.”
    He laid his hand on the table in front of Calli. “Calli, I’ve never made it official, but now I will. You’ve just become my Chief of Staff. General Flores, do you want me to translate that for you?” He turned his head to look at the general. It was critical the man accept Calli’s formal position and the authority it gave her, because she would now be his superior.
    The general took a breath. Then another. “No, thank you, Señor Escobedo. I understand perfectly.” He nodded his head at Calli.
    Josh leaned forward again. “Excuse me, Nick. ‘Your’ Chief of Staff?”
    Nick nodded. “Mexico wants a leader. We’ll give them one. Until we’re in a position to hold a full, democratic and proper election, and until the army has itself sorted out with a complete compliment of generals to offer up for that election, I’m stepping in as President pro tem. As everyone has been insisting I do this, I’m assuming there will be no protests now?” He looked around the room. Duardo was smiling. Flores actually looked relieved.
    Josh blew out his cheeks. “About bloody time, son.”
     
     

Chapter Two
    Minnie glanced at her watch again. Only ten minutes late. She picked up her pen and tried to get back to the paperwork in front of her, but the vine leaves overhead rustled softly in the late afternoon breeze. It was so refreshingly cool under the trellis and away from people that she kept being disturbed by the lack of distractions. No one was calling her name or asking impossible-to-answer questions that usually involved going to Calli for answers.
    How had she ended up with this job, anyway? In the last few weeks, since Duardo had come back—
    She paused, as she always did, to savor that morsel of truth. Duardo. Here in the big house. Alive and with her every night. Her heart started to beat a little harder. If she had told herself two months ago that this was in her future, she would have had a hard time believing it. Even five weeks ago, she would have laughed in anyone’s face.
    She glanced over at the patch of dirt where the patio under the formal trellis work ended. Six weeks ago, it was there she had crumpled to the ground and vomited after fighting Carmen Escobedo to a bloody standstill, because Carmen had told Minnie it was her fault Duardo had died.
    Warm hands slid over Minnie’s shoulders, bringing her wander down memory lane to an abrupt halt. She rolled her head back so she could look up at Duardo. “You’re so damn sneaky!”
    “You were miles away,” he said. He brushed his lips across her brow. “I could have been a passing army in hobnail boots and you would not have noticed.” He rested his hip on the table next to her notebooks and looked down at her. She felt the same tiny thrill she did every time she saw him. He was wearing one of the new very dark green uniforms. On his long legs, the double red stripe seemed to run forever. The four stripes on his jacket sleeve looked solid and thick after the two she was used to seeing. “Where were you?” he asked her. “You looked like you could cry with little encouragement.”
    She smiled. “Crappy memories. You don’t want the details.” She reached for the notebooks and started closing them up, but Duardo caught her wrist, halting her. He tugged her to her feet, then pushed the bench she had been sitting on away with his boot and pulled her between his knees. “Minnie,” he said simply.
    “Ah, shit,” she said, with a sigh. “Do you have to know absolutely everything?”
    “Of course.”
    She screwed up her face. “A girl doesn’t get to keep any secrets?”
    “Not when it comes to us, she doesn’t.” His expression was impassive. “Minnie, mi amor , you have seen such darkness inside me. Why does this bother you?”
    She had to think about