Close Cover (Masters and Mercenaries #16)(82)

He feared for a world where Maia had all the power, but for now he had other things to worry about. “Thanks, and give me a heads-up if you hear anything else.”

She hung up and Remy wondered how long he had with Lisa. It wouldn’t be enough. She’d just started fitting in. No one in Dallas knew where she was, but if Maia was right, she might be willing to risk it if Will could be convinced they were at a standoff. She would want to go home to her family.

He felt heavier as he walked back out into the kitchen. At least Michel was back, though he was sporting leaves all over his clothes. His mother was trying to tell if he’d gotten into poison ivy.

“I can cure it, of course. I’ve got a lotion that will fix you up,” his mother was saying.

Zep was stirring the hell out of that gumbo. “You should get to the dining room, Remy. We had a bus pull up ten minutes ago. They’re on a swamp tour. Seraphina said it was thirty hungry, ancient people. Like really old. I bet it looks like the walking dead out there.”

Somehow he didn’t think that was what Seraphina had said. “Jean-Claude told me he’d started taking tour buses. Damn it. I shouldn’t have given the other server the day off.”

He hustled, ready to find the place in complete chaos, but it was quiet in the dining room. There were still ten tables occupied, and Mindy St. Clair was covering them. The college student was far better at table management than Zep.

“I heard we had a busload,” he said.

Mindy smiled. “Yeah, Sera and Lisa handled it. They’re on the patio explaining the food choices.”

“She’s passing out the menus?”

Mindy shook her head. “No. She talked to Michel yesterday and they’re doing a prix fixe luncheon. They get one of two choices for three courses. Everything’s ready. Michel only has to plate it. She’s got the whole group on the patio and she’s giving everyone who wants one a complimentary hurricane. I’m going to serve the appetizer in ten minutes, and I set the bus driver up with a private table. Lisa organized it all when she realized we had a bus coming in. It’s okay, right?”

Of course she did. She’d been prepared and now this lunch was going to make money and run smoothly. “It sounds perfect.”

“And tell Zep that he’s got to actually spend time on the floor if he wants tips.” She turned, her ponytail swinging.

“Unca. Unca.”

He looked down and he was standing in front of the big playpen. Guidry’s had always had one. He’d played in one when he was a kid, the work of the wharf going on all around him. Patrons would come in and drop their own toddlers in. When he was big enough, he would hang out on the playground off the parking lot, the same one that had been fenced in after Otis had started making his appearances.

Of course the best times were when his pop-pop would lift him up and walk him around. He reached down and hauled Luc up. “Hey, buddy. You getting bored in there? We’ll put you to work. We can go see what Lisa is doing. Look real cute now. You’re one of my best weapons in this war. You have to balance out Otis and your other uncle.”

He started toward the patio but stopped. The sun was coming in at just the right angle and he held his breath. This was it. This was what he saw when he had the vision of his woman, of the life he could have. He’d never seen her face before, but it was her. He knew it deep down in his soul.

She came through the door, her sweet, sexy form backlit by the sun. His heart nearly stopped as she cleared the shadows and he watched her smile up at him.

“You looked awfully manly handling that gator.” She ruffled Luc’s hair. “Gotta go and get the drinks ready. I think that’s going to be a rowdy crowd.”

He watched her walk away.

And wondered how he could ever let her go.





Chapter Twelve


Remy locked the door and turned off the overhead lights.

Another day done.

A big low-hanging moon illuminated the bay, the light slipping across the dining room floor. On a night like this, he could sit and watch the bay for hours, letting the peace of the gently rocking waves fill his soul. This was what he’d come back for.

A deep sense of satisfaction filled him. It had been a profitable day. Zep had even seemed pleased. He’d walked out with a hundred and twenty dollars in tips after working two shifts. Whether he would use that cash to actually pay off his tickets had yet to be seen. The last time Remy had caught a glimpse of his younger brother, he’d been heading out with a set of red-haired twins. He’d promised to come back to finish closing up the marina, but Remy was fairly certain his brother would conveniently forget now that he had some cash.

But things were working and he rather thought they were working because of the woman currently counting cash and documenting the day on the laptop they used for accounting.

She was standing at the bar, her face illuminated with the light from the laptop. So damn pretty and she worked hard. “Can I finish for you?”

She looked up, her face softening. “I’m almost done. I loaded some accounting software. The program Jean-Claude was using was old and not very adaptable. I like to write my own code for some of this. We’ll be able to see the data in a couple of different ways when we come to the end of the week, month, and quarter.”

She loved to talk about data. Her eyes lit up when she started talking about how she could use the data to predict what to purchase, how many people to staff on any particular night, what to invest in. She got so animated when she discussed the business.