Showdown in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #3)(25)

The older woman put her hands on her hips and gave them all a stern look. “Not until someone explains to me what is going on in my hotel.”

“He’s not here to kill her,” the young one said, then paused and gave him the once-over. “Well, on the other hand…” She grinned at Raissa and pulled the older woman out of the lobby. “You’re in big trouble, Raissa,” she called over her shoulder as she trekked up the stairs with the hotel owner. “Huge. Enormous.” He could hear her laughing all the way up to the second floor.

Zach struggled up from the floor, trying to appear anything but mortally embarrassed. “Friends of yours?”

Raissa smiled. “Why, Detective, you don’t think perfect strangers would attack a man over me, do you?”

Zach cast a glance at the staircase. “Maybe not. The young one was scary.”

Raissa laughed. “Oh, you have no idea. Maryse is a scientist.”

“Let me guess…a mad one?”

Raissa gave him a sexy smile and stepped so close to him that he could feel the heat coming off her body. “I assume you didn’t spend time tracking me down just for some night action. Might as well come up to my room. You can use my bathroom to clean up and tell me why you broke into a hotel and risked assault by two crazy women.”

Zach hesitated, knowing being alone with Raissa in a hotel room…with a bed…was about the worst idea ever. He’s already completely lost control and paid for it with his eyesight and a burn mark on his neck, but as she walked past him and up the stairs, he realized he was walking slowly behind her.

Raissa’s room was quaint and homey, as he’d expected it would be, but he was surprised with the size and the equipment. What was likely once a sitting area contained two folding tables lined with computer monitors. He took a step toward the tables and glanced down the row of monitors. Different views of the street and alley outside the hotel and the lobby inside the hotel displayed on the screens.

He looked over at Raissa, who was, unfortunately, slipping a silk robe over her skimpy negligee. It was just as well. Being electrocuted hadn’t been on his list of things to do, but it was probably far less painful than the mistake he had been about to make.

Raissa reached for a bottle on the dresser and poured two glasses of scotch. “The bathroom’s through the far door if you need to flush your eyes more.”

Zach shook his head. “I think I’ll see again. Hopefully not blurry.” He pointed to the row of computers. “What the hell is going on here? You’ve got more security on this hotel than we have at the police department.”

Raissa handed him a glass and motioned to two chairs pushed over to the side of the tables. She dropped into one and took a long drink of her scotch. Zach slid into the chair beside her, hoping he was finally going to get an answer to the question of the enigmatic Raissa Bordeaux.

“I’m expecting company,” Raissa said. “And I’m not really interested in visitors at the moment.”

“I can tell,” Zach said, and rubbed his neck.

Raissa reached for a backpack next to her chair and rummaged through it for a minute. Finally, she pulled out a tube of aloe vera cream and handed it to Zach. “I’m sorry about the burn. I honestly didn’t know that Maryse and Mildred had their own closed-circuit system hooked up. Heck, I didn’t even know Maryse was here. I thought I was the only one who knew you were in the hotel.”

Zach squeezed some of the cream onto his fingers and rubbed a bit onto his neck. “So why does a psychic need so much hardware? If you were for real, you should have known I was coming here before I did, right? So why the Fort Knox routine?”

“I don’t mean to offend your manliness, but you’re not the reason all this hardware is here. Right now, you are actually the least of my worries.” Raissa tapped one finger on her glass and stared at the wall behind him. Finally, she looked directly at him. “You’re not supposed to be talking to me, are you?”

“Well, no. Not exactly.”

Raissa sighed. “Who did they send?”

Zach didn’t bother to play dumb. Clearly, Raissa knew the drill. “Some prick named Fields.”

Raissa laughed. “You gotta be kidding me. Hell, Fields couldn’t find me if I was sitting on top of him.”

Zach couldn’t help feeling pleased that Raissa had the same opinion of Agent Fields. “Yeah, I liked him about that much myself. The idiot’s parked in front of your shop, beating on the door every ten minutes. I told your landlord a bum was banging up his property. It should distract him for an hour or so.”

Raissa smiled. “Fields is going to be royally pissed that he’s stuck at my house. He’s sorta an early-to-bed guy.”

Zach sobered and looked her directly in the eyes. “So are you going to tell me why you’re wanted by the FBI and hiding out in a hotel room with Pentagon-level security? You wouldn’t have given me that fingerprint if your secret still mattered. I knew that at the time. Something changed, but what?”

“What did Fields tell you?”

“Nothing, except that it was FBI business and the New Orleans PD was forbidden to contact you. Given the tip you provided on the Franco girl, my captain is about to have a coronary over that directive. I fi gured I’d just go ahead and ignore it and likely pay for it later.”