Close Cover (Masters and Mercenaries #16)(84)

“Taggart himself does that,” Remy explained. “Charlotte Taggart has close ties to the Denisovitch Syndicate. By Taggart standing next to you in court, he was letting everyone know that he backs you and therefore the syndicate does as well. Now whether or not Dusan Denisovitch would go to war on Big Tag’s word, I have no idea, but I don’t think anyone wants to find out.”

She sat there quiet for a moment, as though letting it all sink in. “So you think they’ll leave me alone as long as there’s no trial.”

“I do. I’m talking to Big Tag tomorrow and he’s going to sit down with Will,” Remy explained. “They’ll decide when it’s safe to bring you home. They’ll put some protocols in place, ensure you have all the safety features money can buy, and you’ll be relatively free to move on with your life. Big Tag is trying to get in touch with Biondo to find out what his real motives are.”

“So I could be home by next week.” Her tone was bland, emotionless.

Was she desperate to leave him behind? “I think it’ll likely be the week after. He has to be sure.”

“But that time is coming.” She turned back to the bar and opened the refrigerator. “Well, I want to know before I go and now is as good a time as any.”

“Know what?”

She grabbed the simple syrup. He’d watched her make it in the kitchen before the lunch crowd came. “I want to see if I pass. The daiquiri test. You didn’t get to try it before. I was too busy drowning in oysters and shrimp and glitter. Would this make me qualified to work here?”

“I would never put you behind the bar. You’re too valuable to the rest of the place. I can train a bartender. I can’t train an all-around manager.” He actually didn’t know what he would do without her. In the few days she’d been around, he’d come to rely on her. She’d made some changes that had helped out enormously and her processes, as she called them, forced the whole team to be prepared.

She placed the daiquiri in front of him. “Try it. I’d love to know what you think.”

“I think it’s going to be perfect because almost everything about you is perfect to me, chèrie.”

“Almost?”

Damn but his whole soul ached at how beautiful she was. “Well, I’m not crazy about the fact that you’re going to leave me.”

She went still and for a moment, he prayed she would argue with him. “I have a life to get back to. I have a family in Texas.”

And you lied to me. I can’t trust you. I can’t love you because I would always be waiting for you to betray me again. She didn’t have to say those words. He could hear them in his head.

He’d had everything he wanted in his hands and he’d lost it all. Maybe not all, but certainly the best part. He would go on, moving through his days working in a place he loved, but now he wondered how hollow it would be without her.

He took a sip of the daiquiri. Simple. Cool. Perfect. Like the woman herself. “Yes, I would hire you on the spot. You know what you’re doing.” He slid off the barstool. “I think I’ll head up to the office and get some paperwork done. You finish up here and get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning and we’ll talk about Chartier House then. I suppose at some point we do need someone there. I have no idea when or if Jean-Claude is coming back. We can’t leave it empty.”

“Remy?”

He turned and she was standing, facing him with her back toward the moon. This was how he would remember her. So beautiful and full of life. “Yes?”

“I don’t want to sleep alone. Even if you don’t want me sexually anymore, I don’t want a separate room. And you don’t have to avoid me. I won’t bug you. I feel better…happier when you’re in bed beside me.”

His heart damn near broke and he couldn’t stay away from her a minute longer. He couldn’t let her believe for a second that he didn’t want her. He crossed the space between them and caught her face in his hands. “There’s nothing I want more in life than to be by your side, ma crevette.”

He kissed her, devouring her mouth like a starving man. Days and days had gone by and he realized what had been missing. This. The way she relaxed when he touched her, how she softened and gave herself up to his kisses and touches. Having her close was wonderful, but he needed this to feel whole.

He dominated her mouth, his tongue delving deep and dancing with hers. He lost himself in the experience, in the scent and feel of her. His body came alive and he realized he’d been numb for days, going through the motions of life but not truly living.

How could this be one sided?

“God, I need this,” she whispered when he moved to kiss the line of her jaw. “I need you.”

He might have been able to back away if she’d kept it to the impersonal, but the idea that she needed him satisfied something deep inside. He wasn’t the only one who felt it, this live-wire connection between the two of them. She was still going to walk away and that would break him in a way he’d never been broken before, but if she needed him, he would be there. He would throw himself into work and family, always knowing that if she called, he would go to her.

But he wasn’t thinking about that now. They had a handful of days and he was done wasting them. He’d given her space and now she’d let him back in. That wasn’t something he would take for granted. He would take her as many times as she would let him, branding himself on her body, making sensual memories to call upon when he was alone again.