Close Cover (Masters and Mercenaries #16)(70)

Except wasn’t that what they’d been saying all night long? God, they’d already thought she and Remy were together. Why else would her brother have written that check? That had to be it. And suddenly she didn’t want these nice people with their yummy food and twinkle lights and complex French names to think she was nothing more than a client.

He looked down at her and his smile was gone. “It’ll be okay. I’ll deal with it in the morning.”

“Everyone in this town knows you’re marrying that uptight city bitch for her money. What does that make you, Remy? Huh? How do you feel having to whore your body out for that damn wharf?”

And that was when the Solo cup got pitched to the ground and the world went a nice shade of red.

As red as the cup.

As red as her ass was going to be.

Lisa didn’t care as she proceeded to show the entire town of Papillon how a Texas woman defended her man.





Chapter Ten


Remy took the mug of coffee from his cousin’s hand, the smell of that dark chicory waking him up in a way no plain roast ever would. “Thank you. I need this. That was a long night.”

Jean-Claude had his own. “So I heard. Did your new girl really pull out Josette’s hair extensions in the middle of the square?”

Remy groaned. He should have known there had been no way that story didn’t make the rounds. He wasn’t surprised Jean-Claude had already heard it even though he hadn’t been at the party the night before. Of course, neither had his other guest this morning.

“I heard she told the sheriff she was keeping the longest piece as a war trophy.” His brother, Zep, had been sitting in the bar when he’d walked out. He and Jean-Claude already had the coffeemaker working, a big old box of donuts on the bar.

Remy yawned, covering his mouth with his hand as he settled into one of the chairs. It was barely six in the morning. They didn’t open for an hour. Oh, the regulars knew how to get around that if they needed something, but the tourists wouldn’t show up for a bit. “Why are you two here? I thought Jean-Claude was ditching this town first thing he could and, Zep, don’t you sleep until afternoon?”

“I had to come once I found out I had a brand spanking new sister-in-law.” Zep was sitting across from him, one long leg crossed over the other. Despite his late night, Zep looked fresh as a daisy. Which turned out to be the name of the stripper he’d spent the night with. Daisy No Last Name. His younger brother was still raising hell. “I would also like to protest the horrible unfair treatment I get. Lisa and Josette go at it in the middle of the square and Armie lets them off with a warning that young ladies shouldn’t fight over men. I get into one tiny barroom brawl and I spend the night in his incredibly unclean jail cell. It’s discrimination, I tell you.”

Discrimination, his ass. Remy downed a good shot of the chicory. “Lisa had a bit too much to drink and was merely attempting to ensure that Josette understood our relationship.”

Remy didn’t understand their relationship. One minute she could never trust him again, the next she was clinging to that platinum blonde extension like it was gold she’d won in a tournament. She’d wanted to know if they had a contract. She’d been the one to introduce herself as his fiancée. Oh, he’d known that was what everyone suspected—even Josette, who’d pretended to have never heard the name Lisa before. He’d known he would have to dismiss that rumor, but now maybe he didn’t. There was a good chance that she would be so embarrassed by the night before that she would actually go through with a wedding. At least he thought there was a chance. He was willing to take it. He would take her any way he could. Of course, he was also well aware that she would be back up and ready for a fight this morning.

“Damn, now I wish I’d been there,” Zep said.

“And why weren’t you?” Remy eyed his younger brother. “Sera gave me some song and dance about how you weren’t sure of your welcome.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure of my welcome at all, but you weren’t the one I was worried about. That was mostly because Mr. Gentry found out that I haven’t exactly been mowing his yard all these years.” Zep had the good sense to flush. “I mean it started out that way, but after a while Mrs. Gentry paid the Smith kid to mow and she and I would spend the afternoon fucking. It’s not my fault. It started when I was seventeen. I was too young to know what I was doing.”

“Are you telling me you’ve had a Thursday afternoon booty call with Emma Gentry for the last five years?”

Zep shrugged. “Well, Momma told me I needed to get a job. I did. It led me to sin. And you know when you think about it, it’s all old man Gentry’s fault. He’s damn near ninety. What’s he doing marrying a thirty-year-old?”

“Well, I think it’s called buying himself a gold digger,” Jean-Claude explained.

Zep held a hand out. “Sorry I missed the party, big brother. It’s good to have you home.”

His younger brother was obnoxious and damn, but he’d missed him. “Good to be home, Zep. But you have to stay away from other men’s wives.”

“Oh, you have to be more precise these days, mon frère,” Jean-Claude said. “It’s not merely other men’s wives. When it comes to adultery, Zep doesn’t care if you’re a woman married to a man or another woman.”