Missing in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law #5)(27)

“I’ve got my gun,” Maryse said.

Jadyn rubbed her hand across her mouth. The last time her cousin had brandished a weapon, it hadn’t turned out so good for a hutch, an urn, and her dead father’s ashes.

“Ahhh,” Mildred said, “you’re not exactly a sharpshooter. If you got into trouble, I don’t know that you’d be able to handle it.”

“So I’ll take Jadyn with me. She’s a crack shot and Colt doesn’t need any help.”

Jadyn froze. She’d connected with her cousin from the first moment they’d met, and she definitely cared a lot about her, but no way did she want to be in a boat all day with a pissed-off, gun-toting Maryse. Frantically, she ran through a list of reasons they couldn’t ride out together.

“I have to go out with Colt,” Jadyn said, latching onto the one logical reason she could come up with. “Technically, he’s my contractor, which is why he has the right to be in the swamps. If Agent Ross or his men catch him out there alone, they’ll arrest first and ask questions later. If I’m there, it will get him a pass, at least for a while.”

Maryse slumped down in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest. “Then I’ll go with you two and it will take twice as long to get the job done, but I’m not sitting in my office all day pretending nothing is wrong.”

A knock at the kitchen door broke into Jadyn’s thoughts and she whirled around to see Colt standing in the doorway. They’d been so busy arguing, she hadn’t even heard him come in.

“Am I interrupting?” Colt asked.

“Yes,” Maryse said, “but that’s never stopped anybody in this town before. You may as well come in.”

After a moment of hesitation, he stepped inside.

“Look,” Jadyn said to Maryse, “I understand how you feel, and in your shoes, I’d feel the same way. But it’s a really bad idea.”

Maryse sat up straight in her chair, her expression moving from sullen to angry. “You think I’m going to let some…some man tell me what to do?”

“He’s not some man,” Mildred said. “He’s your husband.”

Colt shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe I should wait outside.”

“No!” Maryse said. “You’re part of this.”

Colt’s eyes widened. “Me?”

Maryse nodded. “I want to go with you and Jadyn today to search the camps. I probably know this swamp better than anyone.”

“Probably.” Colt looked over at Jadyn and Mildred. “I get the feeling I missed an important part of this conversation.”

Mildred shot a frustrated look at Maryse. “You missed the part where Luc said he doesn’t want her in the swamp because of a case he’s working.”

“Oh.” Colt shoved his hands in his pocket, looking more uncomfortable than Jadyn had ever seen him. “That puts a different spin on things. If Luc says no, then it’s no.”

Maryse narrowed her eyes at him. “I thought you had a pair.”

“Did when I dressed this morning,” he said, “and even though you like to walk down streets in a robe and carrying a handgun, I’m more afraid of what Luc would do to me if I let you go with us.”

“Coward,” Maryse said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Jadyn held in a smile, mentally giving Colt points for both intelligence and knowing how to win an argument with a woman.

“You ready?” Jadyn asked Colt, hoping to get out of the hotel before Maryse launched another offensive.

“Hell, yeah.”

Jadyn rose from her chair and gave her cousin’s arm a squeeze. “Please don’t be mad. I haven’t known Luc very long but he doesn’t strike me as the type of guy who’d ask you to do something like this unless it was really important.”

Maryse glared at her for a couple of seconds, then sighed. “You think I don’t know that? But this is Raissa we’re talking about.”

Her voice broke as she delivered the last sentence, and Jadyn’s heart broke a little. She knew that helpless feeling all too well, and wished more than anything that she could alleviate her cousin’s pain. But right now, she couldn’t think of a single way to help besides finding Raissa and returning her to the people who loved her.

“Colt and I are going to find her,” Jadyn said, even though she knew it was a promise she might not be able to keep.

“You do that, and you bring her home safe to Zach.”

Jadyn gave her a nod and followed Colt out of the hotel.

“Long morning?” he asked as they climbed into his truck.

“You have no idea.”

“Normally, I wouldn’t ask about women’s business, but what’s up with Maryse and Luc?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know exactly. He’s being really secretive about the whole thing—has been for a couple of weeks now, according to Maryse. I know he can’t talk about his cases, but I wish he’d tell her more than just ‘don’t go into the swamps unless absolutely necessary.’”

He frowned. “I’ve known Luc for years. Worked with him on a couple of cross-agency cases when I was with the New Orleans police. I know Maryse is his wife and that makes things different, but he’s never been an alarmist. Maryse doesn’t have any idea what kind of case he’s working?”