by Mallory Kane
She hoped Seth and his mysterious avengers knew what they were doing.
As soon as all this was over, she would take her mother and get as far away as she could. Some place where Jerome and Tony couldn't find her. Maybe whomever Seth was working for could help.
As she placed the last stack of bills into the drawer, a familiar knock sounded on her front door. Seth. She could see his silhouette outlined through the beveled glass. A tension she'd barely noticed dissolved from her shoulders and neck. Maybe he was here to take her to see her mother. Rising, she pushed the drawer closed with her foot and went to the door.
As soon as she turned the lock, Seth slipped inside and closed the door behind him. He looked cool and handsome in a casual blue jacket cut perfectly for his athletic body, tailored tan pants and a white shirt.
Adrienne couldn't help the flutter of her heart or the stirrings deep inside her. Just his presence made her feel hopeful, even though a frown marred his even features.
"Seth? Is everything okay? It's not Mother, is it?"
He shook his head and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Adrienne, we don't have much time. You've got to listen carefully."
A police siren sounded in the distance. Seth lifted his head and listened for a second. His expression turned hard.
Trepidation spread through Adrienne. He was on guard, almost predatory, as if he expected an ambush from behind. His fingers were curled, his body perfectly balanced. This was a different side of him, the military side. She'd never seen it before.
"There are raids going on all over the city."
"Raids?"
He held up a hand to quiet her and his fingers tightened on her arm. "Remember I said you were going to have to be brave? The police are going to arrest you. Be cooperative, but don't answer any questions until I get you a lawyer."
Alarm reverberated through her. "Arrest? I don't understand."
He touched her cheek. "I know you don't. I wanted to get here sooner but I couldn't. Just remember, don't talk. I'll get you a lawyer who can help you. Do not use Senegal's lawyer."
Oh God. A sliver of alarm embedded itself into Adri-enne's stomach like a stiletto. Had the mob found out she'd moved her mother out of their reach? "Is Jerome doing this? Why would they arrest me?"
"They're going to accuse you of dealing in illegal drugs."
"Drugs? Me?"
A car pulled up out front and cut its engine. "I can't explain it all now. Just remember what I told you." With his hand still on her shoulder, Seth opened the front door and guided her out onto the porch.
Two uniformed officers were getting out of a patrol car just as another car pulled up behind them.
Adrienne reached for Seth's hand. She needed to feel his strength.
"Hold it right there," one of the uniforms said as a man and a woman in street clothes approached.
"What is this about—?"
"Just do what they say," Seth whispered as the woman held out a leather-clad badge.
"Please stand still, ma'am."
Adrienne's scalp tightened and her skin felt hot as adrenaline pumped through her veins. "Seth?"
"Step away from the lady, sir, and come down here."
Seth backed up two steps, his arms held out slightly from his body as he descended the steps.
Adrienne wanted to follow him.
"Don't move, ma'am." The woman tucked the tail of her blazer behind a holstered gun.
Adrienne stared at it, hardly comprehending that this woman was here to take her into custody.
"I'm Detective Sharon Freeman. Are you Adrienne DeBlanc?"
"Yes. What is this?"
"Ma'am, step down off the porch. Keep your hands away from your sides at all times."
She looked at Seth, who nodded fractionally. She stepped down onto the sidewalk.
"That's far enough, ma'am."
Fear knotting her stomach, Adrienne glanced at Seth, but his attention was on the detective. His gaze flickered briefly but didn't meet hers.
The policemen's faces were carefully blank, but excitement gleamed in their eyes. Seth still didn't look at her.
"Do you know who I am?" Adrienne asked the woman.
Detective Freeman shot her a grim smile. "Oh, yes, ma'am. We certainly do." Her words dripped with sarcasm.
Embarrassment heated Adrienne's face. "I didn't mean—I just think you have the wrong person."
She felt Seth's disapproval. He'd told her not to talk.
The detective gestured toward the taller of the two officers.
He stepped up to Adrienne, pulling a pair of handcuffs from his belt. "Mrs. DeBlanc, we're placing you under arrest for trafficking in illegal substances. Please turn around and put your hands behind your back."
"Trafficking?" Seth was right. How had he known?
She looked at Detective Freeman, but the woman's menacing stance and her cold green eyes offered no further explanation as the officer informed her of her right to remain silent, her right to an attorney and so on.
As the cold metal closed around her wrists, a cold dread settled around Adrienne's heart. Seth had told her he was one of the good guys. He'd gotten her mother to safety. But how had he known about the arrest?
She looked at him, standing near the detectives. Whose side was he really on?
Detective Freeman jerked her thumb toward the policeman. "Put her in the car. Then search the house."
"What are you looking for?" Adrienne's wrists were already hurting from the pressure of the cuffs. "If 1 knew, perhaps—"
Freeman laughed. "Perhaps you could save us the trouble of searching? That'd be nice. We're looking for drugs, Mrs. DeBlanc. Evidence linking you to a drug and prostitution ring that's been operating in the New Orleans area." She nodded at the officer. "Pat her down."
"She doesn't have a weapon." Seth's voice commanded attention, but to Adrienne, it sounded like the promise of a guardian angel. He was trying to protect her.
Tears of desperation turned to tears of relief as he finally looked at her. There was a look in his changeable eyes that she hadn't seen before. He stood like a marble statue, determined, unyielding, like a military officer. But what made her heart ache was what wasn't there. The tender look he'd always reserved for her was gone. His jaw appeared sculpted from marble. His gaze was cool, professional.
He looked away as the officer ran his hands over her body, and she thought she saw a shadow cloud his eyes.
"I assume you have a warrant?" he asked the detective.
Detective Freeman rounded on him after her sharp eyes ensured that Adrienne was unarmed. "Of course. Duly signed by Judge Duvall."
Judge Duvall. Adrienne had met Arthur Duvall several times, at Jerome's house. Her heart sank to her toes. She had been set up. She shot a desperate glance at Seth, but his expression was guarded. He turned his attention back to Detective Freeman.
The officer took Adrienne's arm and guided her toward the police car. His grip caused her wrist to pull against the sharp metal of the cuffs but she bit her lip, determined not to complain or even wince.
He opened the rear door and pushed her inside. As the door closed, fresh tears welled up and spilled from Adrienne's eyes. Through the dirty car window, she saw Seth glance toward her but she couldn't read his face. She prayed that somehow he could work a miracle and get her released.
She shifted, trying to release the pressure on her cuffed hands as the detective's words echoed in her head.
Trafficking in illegal substances. If the police had information that she was involved with drugs, then she was certain their search warrant would turn up the evidence to prove it. She knew how the Cajun mob worked.
She was going to prison.
"Seth Lewis, I presume?" the detective demanded.
Seth tore his gaze away from the unbearable sight of his princess being handcuffed and shoved into a police car. His jaw was so tight it ached. Trying to mask the fury he knew burned in his gaze, he assessed the detective.
"Th
at's right."
"I was told you'd be here." The detective's voice was tinged with a faint disgust. She obviously wasn't happy about it. "I don't know who this company is you work for, Mr. Lewis, but I'd appreciate it if you'd let me do my job."
"No problem. I'm here to help."
Freeman looked him up and down, then glanced at the patrol car where Adrienne was being held. "Right." She adjusted her blazer back over her holster and crossed her arms. "If you don't mind, I'd like to see some ID."
Seth pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. "I'm undercover. The ID supports my undercover persona."
Freeman nodded, checked his wallet quickly, then handed it back to him.
"You got a weapon?"
"Small Sig Sauer, right ankle."
"All right. Let's go." Freeman called to her men. "Bert, stay with Mrs. DeBlanc."
One uniformed officer and the other detective preceded Seth and Detective Freeman into the house. As he stepped through the door, Seth glanced at Adrienne's pale face shining from the dark interior of the patrol car.
The three officers systematically tore her house apart. Seth folded his arms and leaned against the wall, watching. Freeman kept her eye on him. She didn't like his presence, didn't quite trust him.
He approved. She was a good cop. He wouldn't trust a private undercover agent from a mysterious organization either, if he were in her shoes.
He followed Freeman into the study, remembering Senegal and District Attorney Primeaux ducking in there for a secret meeting.
The detective donned gloves and began her search. She opened and emptied each drawer in the desk, examining certain documents closely before discarding them.
"You're good at your job," he commented.
Freeman glanced up at him and turned her back on the desk. She started pulling books out of the bookcase. "I do my best, even when I'm given orders from the top to allow a P.I. to hang around."
"I'm not a P.I. And we're on the same side."
"Hmph. You expect me to believe you're hoping we find incriminating evidence here?"
"I'm not hoping anything. I want the same thing you do To get the drug off the street."
Detective Freeman turned around and put a silver box on the desk. "What have we here? Looks like the happy couple's wedding album."
Seth couldn't read the engraving on the front of the silver album, but he had no doubt that Freeman was correct.
Just as she was about to open the box, there was a shout from the living room.
"Freeman, get out here!"
Detective Freeman picked up a silver box and gestured to Seth. "After you, Mr. Lewis."
Seth preceded her out of the study.
"What is it, Sam?" she asked her fellow detective.
"I wanted you to see this before I touched it." Sam was crouched in front of the huge marble-topped chest in Adrienne's dining room.
"See what?" Freeman sat on her heels to take a look.
Seth stood a few feet back, watching Even from his vantage point, he could see what Sam was so excited about. Apparently the base of the chest held a secret drawer. The drawer was cracked. Seth could imagine that if it were closed properly, it would appear to be just a part of the base. No one would know it was there. But it hadn't been closed. Something had stuck in a corner. It had the distinctive color and pattern of a dollar bill.
"Did you get a picture?"
Sam nodded, holding up the instant camera.
"Okay then, open it," Freeman commanded. Sam did.
Seth's heart sank as Freeman whistled and Sam whooped.
"Damn that's a lot of cash," Sam exclaimed.
"Yeah." Freeman looked at Seth.
He wiped his face of all expression.
"Do you know what Mrs DeBlanc was planning to do with all this?"
"No."
"It looks like enough to make a quick and easy getaway."
Seth wanted to protest, but he kept his mouth shut. He was certain he knew what the cash was for. It was Adrienne's attempt to break away from the mob. She had probably been saving it for years, planning to take her mother and disappear.
It hurt his heart to think of her secreting away money little by little, hoping that one day she could afford to buy safety for herself and her mother.
Freeman frowned at him, then turned back to Sam. "Bag it, and tag the chest as evidence." She laid the silver box she carried down on the dining room table. "Now let's see the happy couple's wedding pictures."
She opened the box and flipped through the photographs, stopping with a sound of pure pleasure. "So. Our Mrs DeBlanc hid a truckload of cash, and now look what we have here." She held up an object.
Seth's whole body tightened in shock when he recognized what Detective Freeman was holding. He wasn't surprised, but he was worried. He had to prove the mob had set up Adrienne to take the fall for their drug-trafficking operation.
Detective Freeman smiled at him. "Good work, Lewis. Looks like we've got our evidence. Hey, Sam, take a look It's a cup sleeve from Cajun Perk See these bulges here, and here, and back here?" She pointed.
"This sleeve contains packets of Category Five."
Jerome Senegal sat in his study, worrying a Cuban cigar and waiting for Arsenault to call. He glanced at his cell phone every few seconds. Tony better not have gotten himself picked up.
A discreet knock on the heavy wooden door made him jump.
"What?"
The door opened and his personal bodyguard looked in. "Sorry, boss. Your wife wants to know if you're having dinner with them."
"No. Tell her to take the kids upstairs like 1 told her to, and stay there. You call Remy. See what the word is on the street."
The cell phone on his desk rang. "Go!"
Senegal snatched up the phone and peered at the caller ID. He let out a whoosh of breath and pressed the answer button.
"Tony. Where are you?"
"Metairie. They hit every Cajun Perk at the same exact moment."
"Who did? Who'd you see?" Senegal demanded.
"Police, and some plainclothes guys who looked like FBI or DEA."
"Courville's got to be behind this. Nobody knows who tipped 'em off?"
"Must have been one of those putains from the bordello raid," Tony scoffed. "That's all I can figure. Who do you think the plainclothes muscle is, eh? DEA?"
"No. Primeaux would have let me know."
Senegal heard Tony snort.
"Primeaux. I'd believe a putain before I'd believe him. Where's he at, anyhow?"
"He ran. He's lower than a gator's belly and yellow as a gator's eye, but he'll be back. How many got picked up?" Senegal asked.
"Hard to say. I have been listening to the police scanners. I think they rounded up about thirty distributors and whores."
"The drug lab?"
"The lab, it is safe," Tony assured his boss. "Nobody even came near it."
"What about DeBlanc?"
"They arrested her at her house," Tony replied. "Her boyfriend Lewis was with her, but they left him behind. He headed back to Crescent City Transports."
"Probably arranging for a lawyer for her. Get one of ours in there. Send Favre. We can't afford to have her talking. Make sure he reminds her who she takes her orders from."
"Boss, they found something in her house. My contact says it's a cup sleeve with drugs in it. Did you plant it?"
"Hell, no!" Senegal cursed again. "You know I've never touched one of those things." He paced, chewing on the unlit cigar. How were the police managing to stay one step ahead of him? He'd never had this kind of trouble before. It had all started with that bordello raid.
"Primeaux must have done it. That slime ball D.A. He thinks he can protect himself from me. He probably did it the night of that charity thing. He stayed behind in DeBlanc's study. Well, all the better to pin the Cajun Perk operation on her."
"I surely don't like Primeaux. He's going to turn on us, c'est vrai."
"I don't pay you to worry about him. I've got him
right where I want him. You get Favre inside with our little Mrs. DeBlanc. She's the wild card. If she decides to start talking about what she's seen, she could ruin everything. Get Favre to let you see her. Then you can pull her chain, remind her of her mother's delicate condition."
"Maudit! That's what I was on my way to tell you. Her mother has disappeared. I found out right before the raids went down."
"Quoi d'autre? What else is going to happen?" Jerome cursed fluently in Cajun French. "How does a paralyzed woman disappear? When did this happen?"
"A couple of days ago. The nurse's aide we planted said an ambulance rolled up to the door, Adrienne appeared with Lewis by her side and her mother was gone within ten minutes."
"Lewis. I'm sick of hearing about Lewis. He's involved with this somehow. I want him taken care of. Non. Wait. On second thought, bring him to me. I want to have a talk with him first. And find Adrienne De-Blanc's mother. If we can't find her, we must get to Adrienne and eliminate her."
Chapter Ten
Adrienne was photographed and fingerprinted. Her clothes were taken away, except for her underwear, and she was forced to endure the pain and humiliation of a strip search.
Then she was given an ill-fitting orange jumpsuit and placed in a holding cell with several other women. The cell was gray and dark, with a dirty, stainless steel toilet in one corner.
She asked to be allowed to call her lawyer, but no one paid any attention to her.
She sat on the edge of a grimy bunk and tried not to look the other women in the eye. The three women she was housed with were rough-looking. Two were older, with the worn tired faces of over-the-hill prostitutes. The third couldn't have been more than about eighteen. She had a ring in her nose and one in her lip, and her hair was coal-black and shaved on the sides and back. Her eyes were lined with black. She complained constantly about not being able to smoke.
Adrienne felt nauseated, probably because of the smells. The cell smelled of urine, unwashed bodies and a sour odor, like vomit. She sat with her arms crossed and her eyes closed, jumping whenever one of the women ventured toward her. She had no idea how long she'd sat there before a female officer came and got her.