Close Cover (Masters and Mercenaries #16)(54)

Will held up a hand. “One thing at a time and I know what you’re going to say, but I think Moneybags will insist. You need it. I would rather you got it from family than a bank. We can work out terms down the line, but I want Lisa to have a steady home. She deserves it.”

His pride made him want to turn it all down, but Will was right. Pride would leave them both without jobs and his town in shambles. Their town. “All right, but she won’t talk to me.”

“Yeah, she can be stubborn. You’re going to have to insist, I’m afraid. The good news is she’s being moved to a private room. Lila’s with her, but I think she needs a guard on her door,” Will mused. “You up for the task?”

He was. He was going to talk to her, to make her understand. “Yes, I believe I am.”





Lila looked down at her, examining the bandage around her brainpan. “You did this to yourself, you know.”

“Lila!” Laurel sat in the chair to Lisa’s right, sending their big sister a what-the-hell look.

Sometimes her know-it-all nurse of a sister was kind of a bitch. “Well, I was bored and there was nothing to do but bang my head against a heavy metal trunk lid. What can I say? It’s a hobby.”

Laurel leaned over, putting a hand on Lisa’s. “You’re okay now.”

“I’m as okay as a traumatized chick with a mafia assassin after her can be,” she qualified. Yep, an assassin. She would be in the hands of an assassin had Remy not saved her. At least that was what everyone said. She hadn’t talked to him. “And I probably am out of another job. I hope I dented that asshole’s trunk and they charge him for it. I’m pretty sure that was a rental. Good luck getting back that deposit, asshole.”

She wanted Remy here with her, holding her hand. When she’d woken up, her head aching along with every muscle in her body, she’d been wheeling down the hallway, her brother looking down at her. All she’d wanted was Remy, but she remembered well that he didn’t want her.

Absolutely not. I’m not taking you with me.

She could still see the look of distaste on his face, feel how her heart seemed to stop.

Lila frowned, letting her know she didn’t appreciate the sarcasm. “I would have thought you would have gotten over that particular trauma. You would have if you’d attend therapy like I told you to.”

Laurel sighed. “No one gets over that kind of trauma.”

She groaned. “Can I get another nurse?”

Preferably one who didn’t know all her childhood damage.

“Nope,” Lila replied, picking up her chart and looking through it. “Though I’m not technically your nurse. And yes, you can get over trauma, Laurel. You simply have to work hard and be open and honest with yourself. Now, do you want to tell me why there’s a sad-looking Cajun stalking the halls instead of sitting in here with you?”

“I don’t want to see him.”

Laurel stood, looking down at her with soft eyes. “What happened? You seemed happy the last time I saw you. And I heard about that scene at Sanctum. Oh, Charlotte hasn’t stopped talking about how romantic he was. Does he really recite poetry while he ties you up?”

Lila’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “There’s nothing romantic about that.”

Oh, it had been incredibly romantic. “He doesn’t recite it. He makes it up as he goes along.” She wanted to complain bitterly, to throw his hot ass under the bus that was her sister’s disapproval, but she couldn’t. He hadn’t really done anything wrong. He simply hadn’t loved her the way she loved him. “And we broke up. That’s all. We knew it would happen. He has to go home.”

“So go with him,” Laurel said.

Lila huffed. “She’s not going to some backwater Louisiana town. Don’t be ridiculous. She’s got an MBA. What would she do there? Besides, all of her family is here.”

“But her heart is going to be there,” Laurel insisted.

“Lisa is smart enough to know that her heart doesn’t make the decisions,” Lila shot back.

Oh, how little her eldest sister knew her. Lila was being optimistic about her intelligence. “Nope. I totally went with my heart on this one. I asked him to take me with him.”

Laurel smiled. “I knew you would make the right decision.”

And Laurel was obviously optimistic about everything. “He turned me down flat. Said he wouldn’t take me with him.”

“Smart man,” Lila said under her breath. “At least one of you is thinking with your head.”

Laurel ignored their sister. “He’ll change his mind. He likely already has. You know the EMTs talked about how he reacted to finding you in the trunk. He cried. Men like that don’t cry over women they don’t love. They found him crying while he was holding you, begging you to come back. He didn’t realize you weren’t dying. That Italian guy told him he’d gassed you.”

“Remy’s a good guy.” She tried to imagine that big, tough guy crying over her, but she couldn’t see it. “We’re friends. I know he cares about me, but he doesn’t love me.”

“I don’t know about that.” Laurel patted her hand. “Men can be strange. Sometimes they get this notion in their head that they aren’t good enough for us and they should walk away.”