Close Cover (Masters and Mercenaries #16)(61)

“So did Miss Josette get tired of working?”

He turned as the bridge became highway again and he could see the Gulf in the distance. If he opened the window he would be able to smell the ocean. “Josie didn’t work.”

“You’re kidding. That’s a family business.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t much of one since neither my brother or sister worked either, and my momma…” How to explain his mother. “Well, when we let Momma work, she ends up causing trouble. She’s kind of a con artist. Not a terrible-meaning one. She’s always looking to make a quick buck. If she offers to read your palm, turn her down. She’s got not an ounce of psychic ability, but she hangs out with the local hoodoo priestess a lot. They have a girls’ night every Thursday.”

“Hoodoo?”

“It’s what we call voodoo around here,” he explained. “Don’t be afraid. It’s not like the movies.”

Her eyes had gone wide. “You have a voodoo priestess?”

“No, we have Miss Marcelle, who gives overblown ghost tours and sells blessings and candles to tourists. She’s got a shop attached to her hair salon. You can get your hair did, as they say in these parts, and pick up a love potion before your date.” They weren’t far now, and he wished they had more time. She would likely run into the guest room and lock herself inside. He might not get to talk to her again for a while. “Miss Marcelle’s daughter is named Sylvie, and she’s the town’s mayor. I still can’t quite believe that. She used to throw mud pies at me.”

“Smart girl,” she said under her breath. “So Josette was too good to work?”

“She thought she was becoming a trophy wife. I think she watched too much reality TV. She hadn’t been out of Papillon often. Her family lived out on the bayou. Her daddy wasn’t the kindest of men. She was a couple years younger than me. I guess I felt like I was saving her. Anyway, she got bored because I couldn’t take her all the places she thought we would go. I encouraged her to go back to school. I caught her fucking her history professor, who happened to know an excellent lawyer. By that point my mom-mom had passed and I owned half the business.”

“She wanted her half in cash,” Lisa said, her eyes wide. “She made you sell?”

“I couldn’t sell my momma’s house. I couldn’t. It was the house or the business. I sold my half of the business to my cousin and then I left town. I enlisted and I sent back what I could. When I got my ass blown up so badly not even the Navy wanted me anymore, I got the job at McKay-Taggart. I saved up with the hopes that I could buy back in, but I knew there was a possibility Jean-Claude would tell me to go pound sand and I would stay in Dallas. There was a time when I worried I wouldn’t go home at all.”

“Ever?”

He shook his head. “Like I said, there was a chance. The first time I asked Jean-Claude, he didn’t even give me a response. Then about a year ago, he told me he was open to the idea for the right price. Around the time you first approached me.”

“We don’t need to ever mention that idiocy again,” she replied.

“Did I ever tell you how pretty you looked that day? I remember you were wearing a purple corset and your hair was flowing all around your shoulders.” He’d run as fast as he could and then every time he would close his damn eyes, he would see her standing there asking him politely.

“I told you I don’t want to talk about our nonexistent relationship,” she said primly.

“Just because we don’t talk about it doesn’t mean it’s not real. I told your brother to keep the money. I got the loan for a good portion. I’m going to tell Jean-Claude he has to wait for the rest of it. I’m going to sell this truck and my house in Dallas and we’ll see where we go from there.”

“Will wired your cousin the money this morning,” she said quietly. “Once you hand over the check the bank gave you, the wharf is all yours.”

“He did what?”

She didn’t turn his way. “He paid you. I made sure you got paid. I told Will the only way I would come down here with you was if you got your full pay. I know you don’t watch over me for free.”

How could she? He’d tried to get them out of this position and she’d put them right back in. “That’s not fair.”

“No, not telling the woman you’re sleeping with that you’re on the payroll isn’t fair.”

“What would you have done?” he asked. “If I’d told you that I was your bodyguard. How would you have reacted?”

“We’ll never know now. I might have been perfectly reasonable.”

He stared straight ahead because that was utterly ridiculous. Nothing about her situation was reasonable.

She sighed. “I don’t know what I would have done. I probably would have wanted someone who wasn’t you.”

There was a problem with that scenario. “I wouldn’t have allowed anyone else to guard you.”

“According to Will, you were the only one available.”

“I wouldn’t have allowed anyone else to guard you.” At least he wasn’t going to lie to himself anymore. He couldn’t have handed her over to one of the other bodyguards.

“I want to talk about something else or nothing at all,” she said stubbornly. “So you didn’t think you would come home. Did you miss this place?”