was no doubt in his mind that he would do all in his power to help Mickey. He owed everything he had in life to two people: Reuben and Mickey. Without their help and encouragement, their love and support, he shuddered to think what might have happened to him. How he was going to fulfill Mickey’s request was another question. He had a certain amount of clout in D.C., but not enough to wangle transportation to war-torn Europe. And Reuben couldn’t help him with this one. Max, Reuben’s underworld friend, probably couldn’t help him, either. That left only his own influential friends from Harvard days. If there was any way at all to get to Europe, Rocky Rockefeller would find it and Jerry Vanderbilt would ease the path. They wouldn’t ask questions, either, which was all to the good.
The ship-to-shore operator took down both numbers Daniel gave her and said she would place the calls back to back. When Rocky’s groggy voice came over the static-filled wire, Daniel identified himself immediately. Rocky became alert instantly at the sound of his friend’s troubled voice. After he’d listened to the problem Daniel outlined to him, he didn’t hesitate. “Jesus, Daniel, right now your chances of getting to the moon are better than France. I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t promise—I’ll do my best. You okay, buddy?”
“Pretty much so. I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t…Hey, I didn’t mention that transportation back includes someone else…a friend.” Daniel let that sink in. “I’m heading home first thing in the morning. You can reach me at the office if you need to.”
“Hell, I wasn’t in the mood for sleep anyway,” Rocky groused good-naturedly. “Did you get to Jerry yet?”
“No, I’ve got a call in to him, though.”
“I’ll call him for you. Sit tight and one of us will get back to you.”
“Rocky—thanks,” Daniel said.
Rocky laughed. “I always wondered how you were going to call in your favor.”
“What favor?”
“You told me I owed you my life for all the clean underwear I used to borrow from you. Remember?”
“Yeah! And I also remember the pile of dirty underwear…. Listen, seriously now, I’ll owe you my life if you pull this off.”
“I’ll talk to you in the morning. Try to get some sleep.”
Daniel canceled his call to Jerry and made himself a stiff drink. The rain had stopped, and a low fog hung over the ocean. The sound of a far-off foghorn nuzzled itself into the surrounding air while the lighthouse searchlight swooped overhead at regular intervals, brazenly passing through the swirling mists. Daniel sat in his spacious cabin and allowed the swaying of the boat to calm his nerves. There was no way in hell he would sleep, so why pretend.
Paybacks always rolled around, and they could be a bitch. Had he ever given any thought to his and Reuben’s payback? Yes, hundreds of times, but that’s all they were—thoughts. He wasn’t even thinking of financial payback; that one was easy, that one was over and done with. This one, as they said, was the real McCoy. He was piss-assed scared. Not for himself, but for Reuben. And for Mickey, too. Dear, wonderful Mickey.
It was all so long ago. Maybe he should just sit here and go over everything, clear the air, clear his mind. Get everything in order. What really went on in France after the Great War? He realized now that he might not have all the answers, but he was determined to try to search for them. Reuben and Mickey, Mickey and Reuben. Mickey and Reuben and himself. She’d dubbed them the Three Musketeers…He was getting ahead of himself. He drained his drink and made another. What came first? Reuben and himself…
The war. He remembered the long lines of recruits, and himself in one of them, finally reaching the desk and getting his equipment for boot camp. The long journey overseas, wide-eyed and full of adventure and shaking in his new army-issued shoes and leg wraps. And then the trenches and the bitter realities of war—death and death. There didn’t seem to be anything else but a thousand ways to die. He’d been reduced to a trembling mass of raw, exposed nerves until Reuben Tarz had entered his life and taken him under his citified, knowing wing like a big, kindly, loving brother. The brother he’d never had. They’d shared rations and fears, the pain of an emotional past and then almost identical physical pain—gassed and blinded in the same overwhelming moment. Recovery at Soissons; the makeshift hospital was like a double-edged sword. Will I be blind forever, and if I recover, will that mean that I’ll be sent back to the front again? To die this time? Reuben had been just as green, just as scared as he’d been underneath that swaggering, city-boy arrogance. He remembered one night in particular when he and Reuben, both scared out of their wits, sat through an unusually fearful blitz. Daniel almost laughed now at the memory. How could you distinguish one night from another? Then he remembered how the body of a young boy had been thrown at him, bleeding open and steaming at the same time, the mingled stench of gunpowder and burning flesh. When Reuben had extricated him from the mutilated corpse, they had stared at each other and voiced the same overpowering fear—that they would die on strange soil with no one but the other to care. They’d shared their youth, their dreams, and their innocence over the next few hours, looking deeply into each other’s souls. When the sun came up they shook hands in open acknowledgement of their friendship. Who could ever forget the unbreakable bond they’d formed that fearful night? It was Reuben who put his ass on the line—or was it his body?—to get them out of the tail end of the war.
Michelene Fonsard was benefactress to half the United States Army, or so they said. It didn’t take Daniel long to discover that the insinuations concerning her sexual prowess were half-truths. Yes, she was generous; and yes, she was vital; but he could never think of her as promiscuous. That simply was not the way he knew her. Beautiful, kind, wonderful Mickey had taken a shine to Reuben and worked her special brand of magic to get both of them mustered out before the Armistice was signed. They would never have to face the dreaded front again with its death and destruction. She’d taken them to her château and nursed them back to health. She’d royally fed and clothed them as they had never been fed and clothed before. She’d educated them, turned them into gentlemen, and shared her life with them, and she never asked for anything in return except Reuben’s love—and that he had given freely. Daniel knew now, as he had known then, that Reuben had insisted on a package deal before accepting Mickey’s offer. She had told him early on that Reuben had refused to go anywhere without his best friend.
Daniel loved Mickey, but not the way Reuben loved her. She’d provided them with everything they could have dreamed of needing in those days and months after the war. Incredibly wealthy thanks to her late husband’s lucrative wine business, she shared and gave as though money were no object. She had provided a tutor…an old man with a mind so sharp that by the time they’d been well enough to travel to Mickey’s Paris town house, Daniel had learned enough to study at the Sorbonne, which Mickey and Reuben insisted he do. Orphan that he was, the knowledge that two such wonderful people cared about him, about his future and his well-being, was overwhelming. He’d have done anything they’d asked, but of course, they’d asked nothing in return, except his love. That was the true friendship that existed between them.
Things changed when Mickey’s niece Bebe Rosen arrived on the scene. Daniel’s eyes clouded at the thought. He almost didn’t want to continue his musings. Get another drink, he urged himself. While he fixed it, he realized it took all the pieces to finish the puzzle. He decided he had to go on.
Sixteen years old, beautiful, spoiled, and hot to trot, Bebe Rosen set her cap for Reuben the minute she laid eyes on him. But she was just a precocious adolescent! Daniel laughed at the realization that he still tried to defend Bebe, some twenty years later. From what he could remember Mickey felt the same way, but she also felt maternal and jealous at the same time. But he remembered Reuben handling Bebe roughly,
