Jeremy let out a whistle. "That's pretty impressive. And the name Billy Bree that you said was also your father's name?"
"Part of the story to throw people off. The marshals want you to keep your first name because if someone calls out your old name, more often than not you respond, so I kept Billy and Dad kept Bill. His full name is actually William Eugene Fuller and I'm actually Billy Gene, but people think the Gene is spelled with a J like the girl's name, which made me feel like a hillbilly. The kids at school started that, but they made it Hillbilly Jean."
"Was that teasing a result of your speech impediment?"
Billy laughed. "No speech impediment. That's the story I was supposed to tell if I couldn't think up an answer right away. Now I'm learning how to deflect questions by asking questions, and sometimes I get a person to talk about themselves, which works pretty well because most people like to do that, but I never realized how much I talked about my own past until I didn't have one to talk about."
"So, how did you end up in this place?" Jeremy asked. "And what's the story about a mobster living here before?"
"That's actually true," Billy replied. "Mario Moretti never told us who the real mobster was, only that the Feds owned the house and had the man here under the program for a short while."
"So then, Mario Moretti is…"
"A U.S. Marshal," Billy replied. "His job is to keep us alive and he takes it seriously."
"Then you don't own this place," Jeremy said.
"Actually, I do," Billy replied. "Mario said the Feds wanted to dispose of it because it was too far out of the way to keep up, so they made me a deal, and after they sell my place in Nevada I'll have some money left over."
"Then you'll never be able to go back there?" Jeremy asked.
Billy shook her head. "We were told we had to keep our new names and location a secret from all relatives and friends from the past and never have any contact with them again, and if we violated that, we could be dropped from the program and have no protection. When the realization hit that my past would have to be erased from my mind and a new background would replace it, and that I could never go back to my grandfather's place where I practically grew up, I was so mad at Sal and Rachel for putting me in that position I wanted nothing to do with them, and I still don't. They've practically ruined my life."
"Your life's not ruined," Jeremy said, drawing her against him. "We'll go from here and make new memories, and you already have friends at the Kincaid Ranch. So, how long will this program last? I assume your brother-in-law's testimony will send the bad guys to jail."
"I asked the marshals that same question, and they said it could be months or even years, and maybe I'd never be able to leave the program."
"So the Feds moved your stock here, which is why they didn't have certificates, until some troublesome brand inspector arrived on your doorstep demanding them," Jeremy teased.
Billy smiled. "That was actually a good day," she said. "Before then I'd been play-acting, but when you came into my life I wasn't play-acting anymore because I was happy with my new life and having you in it, and when I started making friends with Annie and Genie, and everyone at the Kincaid Ranch, what I'd left behind didn't matter so much, and I finally stopped looking over my shoulder. At least I did until Rachael showed up because of a video that's on the internet."
Hearing several vehicles, Billy got up and went to the window and looked out, and when she said nothing, Jeremy asked, "Who's here?"
Her eyes still focused beyond the window, Billy replied, "Mario Moretti, my sister, and the sheriff."
CHAPTER 13
When Mario Moretti got out of his SUV, he motioned for the others to follow him to the house. Billy went to the door and opened it before he could knock, and said to him, "What's happening?"
"I think you already know." Mario stepped inside, followed by Rachael, with a sleepy toddler in her arms, and the sheriff right behind.
Mario looked at Jeremy, flashed a U.S. Marshal's badge, and said, "I need to talk to these people alone so you'll have to step outside."
"It's okay," Billy told him. "Jeremy knows everything that's going on, and I'm sure you know all about Jeremy."
Mario's eyes flicked over Jeremy in agitation then rested on Billy, as he said, "I don't need to tell you that you and your sister have broken about every rule in the book." Without waiting for Billy's response, he said to Rachael, "What's all this shit, you showing up here?"
"I needed to talk to Billy," Rachael replied.
"I've been putting my ass on the line for you since you entered this program and you'd damn well better follow the rules or you'll be back in Vegas on your own with about fifteen minutes to live. Now what in hell are you doing leaving the city and traveling around the country without my knowledge?"
"You stuck Sal and me in a craphole with bimbos for neighbors and I found out one of them was Sal's girlfriend and I needed to talk to someone," Rachael said. "We had a big beautiful home before and servants and a limo, and when Sal agreed to tell you guys what you need to know to arrest all those guys you couldn't arrest before, you told him we'd have a lifestyle similar to what we left behind, and because of you, we're stuck in Mayberry."
"Let's get this right," Mario said. "Your husband is the bad guy. I'm the good guy. There's no in between. You follow my orders or you'll find yourself living on a goddamned island surrounded by sharks to keep you, your husband, and your daughter safe until this is over."
"This may never be over," Rachael cried. "The only reason Sal has a girlfriend is because he's bored working in a grocery store since that's the only job he can get!"
"Being a working stiff and living in a house is a damn sight better than cooling his heels in a ten-by-twelve cell in the federal pen," Mario replied. "You and your husband are guests of the federal government and we're the only people who can save your husband's sorry ass, but you can walk away any time you want, though I wouldn't give a plug nickel for your life if you do. Now, I want some answers. How did you locate Billy?"
"Through a Youtube video from a rodeo in Pendleton," Rachael replied. "Billy was interviewed at the rodeo and they posted the video on the internet and Sal found it. It wasn't hard to figure out where Billy lived from what was said."
Looking beyond Rachel at Jeremy, Mario said, "And you. How did you find Billy's house in Nevada?"
"How did you know I was there?" Jeremy asked.
"I'm the one asking questions," Mario replied.
Jeremy squared his shoulders and jutted out his chin, like he was going to challenge Mario, then reconsidered, and said, "As brand inspector I knew the bull's brand had been altered. I found out where the bull came from and got Billy's former address from the breeder."
Mario looked at the sheriff, and said, "Escort Mrs. Bianchi back to the station in Burns. Another marshal will meet you there and escort her the rest of the way." Turning to Rachael, he added, "You and Sal will be relocated again, and this time you might find yourselves wishing to hell you were back in Mayberry."
After the sheriff and Rachael left, Mario said to Billy, "You've managed to blow your cover with a video, and your sister managed to set down a trail here, so you and your father will have to be relocated too."
"Please, no," Billy said, alarmed. "I can stop the buckouts and no one will know where to find me. I'm finally settling into a new life here that's beginning to take hold and on a ranch I'm growing to love, and if I'm relocated I'll be forced to leave behind… people who are important to me, and have no connection with them again. Besides, no one other than Sal and Rachael know what I look like so the video doesn't matter."
"Two of DeLuca's soldiers know what you look like," Mario replied. "They had a good look at you the night you overheard them talking. You will be relocated."
Billy looked at Jeremy, who was staring at her with an intense look in his eyes, like he was mulling something over, then she said to Mario, "Can I still keep this place? I have friends here and I want to come back when
this is over." At least it would be a connection to Jeremy, if it would ever be safe to leave the program.
"This place will go back to the Feds and you'll be reimbursed for whatever you have in it," Mario replied. "This program isn't about investing in property. It's about staying alive. You'll also have to leave the animals behind this time. We'll take care of the sales."
"But, I have a prize bucking bull and another coming up, and my cows are from bucking stock," Billy replied. "They're not just cattle. Can't I keep them with me wherever I'm relocated and work with them there until I can come out of hiding?"
"This thing with Sal Bianchi isn't winding down," Mario said. "His testimony against the DeLuca crime family will go on for months, maybe years. The cattle have to go."
Jeremy rested his hand on the back of Billy's neck, and said, "I'll move Billy and the cattle to the ranch where I live and take care of Billy there, and we'll both stay out of rodeos."
"You can do whatever you want," Mario said, "but my job is keeping Billy and her father alive, and to do that they'll be given new identities and backgrounds and moved to a new location where there'll be no communication between you. You'll no longer exist to her, and she'll be inaccessible to you."
"Wait!" Jeremy said, raising a hand. "You're saying I'll be cut off from Billy, completely?"
"For the duration of your life," Mario replied.
"What about after the trials are over? Can't she come out of hiding then?" Jeremy asked.
"Let me put it to you this way," Mario replied. "In the twenty plus years I've been a U.S. Marshal I've never told a witness it was safe to come out of hiding because there could always be someone left behind who's out for revenge."
"Then witnesses never rejoin their families?" Jeremy asked.
"This program is voluntary," Mario replied. "It's set up to keep witnesses and their families alive and they can leave at any time, but if they do, they lose the protection. We've never lost a witness while in the program, but some who left on their own turned up dead within a few days or even hours of their return. Billy has information to use in testimony against a crime family, if her brother-in-law gets whacked, and they want her dead. Witness protection is set up for the purpose of getting bad guys to testify against worse guys, so it boils down to lifelong protection for some scumbag in exchange for the conviction of the upper echelon of organized crime and putting the whole mob behind bars."
Jeremy put his arm around Billy, and said to Mario, "If Billy is relocated I want to go with her. What does getting into the program entail?"
"First of all, you don't just sign up," Mario said. "The Justice Department will decide if your life is in danger because of one of our witnesses. If you're not connected to Billy, you won't be cleared for the program, and if you're not in the program, you won't be going when Billy and her father are relocated, so you'll have to say your goodbyes and walk away."
"I'm not walking away," Jeremy said. "What do I need to do to get the Justice Department to clear me?"
"First, you need to stop talking like a goddamned white knight and get a good clear picture of what this is all about," Mario said in a terse voice. "This isn't a game of hide and seek. It's a game of telling your family goodbye forever, obliterating your past, and disappearing off the face of the earth. You become another person. Move to a place we choose. Live in a house we pick. Find a job, any job you want, except the one you left behind. You blend into society and never talk about your old life. You cease to exist as Jeremy Hansen, and at the same time you become a person who doesn't exist, so you repeatedly ask yourself, who the hell am I? Meanwhile, I'll be babysitting you for the unforeseeable future, and my job will be to keep you alive. Salvatore Bianchi is an informant with a half-million dollar bounty on his head and strong death threats against him and his family, and the mob will do whatever it takes to get him because once he starts talking, there's a whole list of wiseguys who'll go to jail, but before that time, they'll do everything in their power to shut Sal Bianchi up, permanently, and that means whatever it takes."
"I get the picture," Jeremy said.
"No, I don't think you do," Mario replied. "The mob has no problem torturing anyone connected to the witness in order to learn where the witness is hiding—cut off hands, bust up legs, cut off a man's dick and stuff it in his mouth. Wiseguys have incredible instincts for survival. They kill each other like they're flicking away a fly. They're capable of unbelievable atrocities, and when they butcher people they don't gag or throw up because all sense of revulsion has been bred right out of them."
"Okay, you're getting your point across," Jeremy said.
"I'm not done yet," Mario replied. "You go places. I follow. It's my ass if anything goes wrong, so I make the decisions, which means, in order to protect you and the family you leave behind you communicate with them through us. No emails, no Facebook, no internet. Handwritten letters only, and they're screened and forwarded, and phone conversations to family go through our switchboard. But I can tell you this much, your family would rather you be alive and not with them than seeing you in a casket at your funeral."
"Then we can communicate with our families," Jeremy affirmed, dismissing the rest.
"Only through us," Mario replied. "The program is set up to throw potential assassins off the scent and keep witnesses alive, which means no physical contact with families. That's not negotiable. We also have hideouts on military bases, in mountain cabins, even on remote islands, and because my job is to keep witnesses and their families alive, if threats arise, witnesses have to be ready to be shuttled between these locations at the drop of a hat, the way we're about to do with Billy and her father."
"If I marry Billy will I be accepted into the program?" Jeremy asked. He looked at Billy and she held his gaze while trying to digest what he'd just said…
"I still don't think you know what this is all about," Mario replied. "First off, you'll go through a thorough psychological debriefing and if you pass that, you'll go through a permanent identity change which means a total obliteration of all ties with the past. After that you'll go through detailed role-playing scenarios and walked through the step-by-step procedure of reinventing yourself, and when you're done, you'll become the guarded new neighbor with the secret history, and you'll remain an uncomfortable actor in a play that will run the rest of your life. We're talking new beginnings here. Will you be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life? The short answer is, yes. The long answer is, I don't know. But for the moment, there's a bull's-eye on Billy's back and I'm her best chance at staying alive."
"You never answered my question about getting married," Jeremy said.
"There's nothing preventing you from doing that," Marion replied, "but marrying Billy means you can never see your family again. This is the price you pay for protection and it's a big price, not a decision to make in fifteen minutes because you met a woman three weeks ago who you don't think you can live without. It will also be the end of the Hansen line for you. Your kids will have your new name and their ancestry will be wiped clean and they'll have a phony genealogy if they ever want to trace it. But getting married doesn't guarantee the Justice Department's stamp of approval, and without it, you can't get in. Adding another witness costs the program money and adds another burden for me because I have another person to watch. Make no mistake. I don't want you along when Billy and Dr. Fuller disappear this time."
"Why should my being in the program add a burden for you?" Jeremy asked. "I've been coming here for three weeks and you haven't been around during that entire time."
"I've been around," Mario said. "You've been checked out thoroughly."
"Then you should be relieved that Billy would have me with her all the time," Jeremy said. "I'm not a small man. I'm capable of protecting Billy and her father if someone comes around."
"Not if you're filled with lead from a .45 ACP," Mario replied. "If you marry Billy you'll be flirting with all sorts of evil shit out there who'll want nothing more t
han to see your broken body cast in the concrete footing of a bridge, or crushed and shaped into the fender of a car, or hanging from a wall by a meat hook, just to get their point across to other potential snitches about what will happen to their family if they talk."
"I'm willing to take that chance," Jeremy said. "Assuming I'm approved, could my brother take Billy's animals? He wants to raise bucking bulls and he could buy the herd or hold them for Billy for later."
"Maybe," Mario replied. "The Feds would first have to impound the animals, then they'd go through a private sale with new documentation so the sale couldn't be traced."
"What about the horses?" Jeremy asked. "Could Billy keep them? And the dog? He'd be added protection, and the horses would be used as pleasure horses."
Mario looked at Jeremy long and hard, like he was trying to get a handle on the man Billy already knew Jeremy to be, a true white knight who loved her unconditionally, and was about to sever his ties with his family and give up everything he loved, including his chance at the National Finals Rodeo. She also knew she couldn't let him ruin his life by going through what she knew would lay ahead for him, but for now, she wanted him to get the whole picture.
After a few moments, Mario said, "She can keep the horses as long as neither of you go anywhere near a rodeo, ever. Everything you do once you're relocated will be under the radar, in the shadows, and out of the limelight."
Jeremy tightened his arm around Billy, like he was giving her the reassurance that he understood the program and still intended to move ahead with it, and said, "I could take Billy away from here under our real names and we could live in a remote cabin someplace where no one would find us, and in a few years, we could come back. By then it will be over and no one would have a reason to go after us."
Bucking The Odds (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 9) Page 15