“Hey,” he said and gently clasped her arm, pulling her from her trance.
She snatched away and drew back until she saw his puzzled look. “Shit, sorry.” She sighed and ran her hands up and down her thighs.
“Damn, are you ok? What’s going on?” He leaned in, making eye contact.
“It’s Lolli. She’s gone. They said she just up and left, didn’t see anyone or anything.” Baby’s knees were weak. Slade was close by. She felt it in her bones.
Drew placed his hands on her shoulders. “Honey, you’re shaking. Let’s get you out of here.” He pushed the elevator button.
“Miss! Miss!”
Baby looked beyond his shoulder. She recognized the woman hollering her name as one of Lolli’s night nurses. “Hold on a second,” she said.
“I’m glad I caught you. I have something for you,” the nurse panted.
Her brow flexed, confused. “For me? Are you sure?”
The woman dug into her pocket, pulling out an envelope. “Yes, the man specifically said to make sure I gave it to you, and only you.”
“A man? Was he with Lolli?”
The nurse shook her head. “No, this was after I found her room empty.”
“What did the man look like? Tall, white guy with muscles? Ponytail?”
“Actually, just the opposite. He was a black man. I think he was younger, and really thin. Thinking about it, he actually looked pretty scared, but I never saw him with the girl.” She handed the sealed envelope to Baby and touched her hand. “You take care of yourself, ok? I don’t want to see you lying in one of these beds.” She locked her expectant eyes on Baby, who responded with a slow nod, before marching back to the nurses’ station.
Baby plucked the seal on the back of the envelope and pulled out a slip of paper.
“Wanna play? You know you’re my favorite toy.”
“Everything ok?” Drew asked.
Vomit sloshed in her stomach before boiling in her throat. She had gone through hell and back with Slade. He wasn’t exactly known for failing, or being gentle in getting his way.
“Baby, do you need to sit down? You’re white as a fucking ghost.” He guided her backward, bracing her limp body against the wall.
She closed her eyes and struggled to pull in air. Her head was fuzzy, her lips tingling. After a few breaths, Baby shoved the paper into her bag and snapped her focus back to Drew.
“Um, yeah, I’m ok. Just some bad news is all. Can you give me a lift home?”
“Of course.”
Drew walked Baby Jade up to her door. She could smell the strong, scent of sage and patchouli coming from Ma’Linn’s, and knew that she was burning incense for a ritual. If Drew noticed, he didn’t say anything.
“Are you sure you’re ok? I don’t want to leave you like this.” He lightly placed his hand on her hip.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just some things to take care of. No worries.” Her voice broke as she attempted to sound unphased. “Hey, thanks for everything. It looks like there’s no need to go back to the hospital, so I guess I’ll see you around the club, huh?”
She didn’t like the way he stared at her, with his eyes full of desire. He never had a shot in hell, but that didn’t mean she wanted to hurt him.
“I was hoping we could see each other outside of the club sometime. You know, when you didn’t have so much going on.”
And there it was.
She dropped her head and shifted her feet. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”
“Why? Is it the dude from the hospital? I could tell there was something there, but I was hoping it was all history.”
Baby gave an uncomfortable chuckle. “You could say that. I’m just not looking to get into something new right now. Things are just too insane; I hope you understand.”
Drew held her hands in his, running his fingers over her skin. She felt nothing for him. She didn’t know if she could ever cut Lucky loose, or if she even wanted to, but Drew wasn’t the answer.
“Have you ever heard that old saying, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission?” he asked.
She eyed him, trying to make sense of his question when Drew snaked one arm around her waist and the other hand behind her neck, pulling her to him. His mouth clamping down onto hers. His lips were warm. He used his tongue to part her lips, swiping it across the inside of her mouth. Baby didn’t pull away, but her stiff response must have served as a clue.
This dismal expression in his eyes cut her to the core.
“Yeah, um,” Drew backed away. “I’m gonna go.”
“Don’t be upset. I just can’t right now. I’m sorry.” Baby felt as if she had been sucker punched. From what she could tell, Drew was a good guy. He deserved better.
He reached up and skimmed her face with his fingertips. “Don’t be sorry. I just hate to be benched so early in the game. If you need anything, you call me, ok?”
Baby nodded.
She watched Drew sulk back to his car and drive away.
“Hello, Ma’Linn.”
“How yo be knowin’ I be lis’ning?” The old woman’s deep voice came from the neighboring kitchen window.
Baby peered through the screen. “If your window’s open, you’re listening.”
The hearty chuckle made Baby Jade smile.
“So, tis true?” Ma’Linn asked with her plump chin propped up with both hands.
The smell of herbs lingered on Baby’s tongue. For the first time in a long time, her tummy growled. “Is what true?”
Ma’Linn raised her eyebrows. “Girl, don’tch yo be playn’ wit me. Yo know ‘zactly what I’s talkin’ ‘bout. Your man be back?”
Baby knew the question was coming, but it still took her by surprise. She didn’t have an answer, not one that made sense. “He’s back in town, but not my man.”
“Pfft. Babe girl, yo jus’ keep tellin’ yo’self dat.”
Baby Jade groaned. As always, her wise friend was correct.
“Oh, tifi. It all goin’ be oke. Promise baby girl.”
She smiled. True Ma’Linn form. “Thank you, love. I’m going to go curl up with my book and try to get some sleep. You shut this damn window and lock it up, woman. Check the door, too.”
“A’ight now. ‘Night, sweet girl.”
Baby Jade blew a kiss and waited to hear Ma’Linn’s locks click into place.
Once inside, she slipped out of her clothes and into one of her favorite old tees. She grabbed a Shiner and took a long swig. The carbonation from the stout liquid fizzed in her throat. She continued to drink the beer in spite of her already queasy tummy. Between not eating throughout the day and Slade slithering around, her nerves didn’t have a chance in hell.
Baby took some of Ma’Linn’s voodoo, sleeping concoction before turning out all of the lights. She double-checked the doors and windows before crawling into bed. She grabbed a book from the overturned milk crate that served as her night table and hoped the new Kelly Collins novel would help keep her mind occupied.
Romance novels were her go to comfort zone, which was odd because she didn’t believe in the happily ever after. Not anymore. However, it was still a fun place to hide out for a while. She tried to forget about the night before and the way her bed still smelled of Lucky’s natural scent, but the more she tried to forget, the more her body reminded her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lucky
Lucky spent the day at the hospital as his mother went through a grueling round of tests. They still didn’t have any answers, but she was looking better. And in case there was any confusion who was in charge, she made sure to bark orders from her now plush hospital bed.
“I don’t understand why I can’t just come back for the tests. I’m gonna come down with something far worse just by being stuck in here!” Tilly Gauthier wasn’t making any friends among the hospital staff.
“Now, you know they’re not going to send you home with your blood pressure bottoming out like it is. Sit back
and suck it up,” Joyce insisted while smoothing out her boss’s comforter that she had brought from home, along with silk pajamas, slippers, lotions, a sleep mask, and a cashmere robe.
Lucky had to chuckle at the two older women.
“I don’t pay you to talk to me like that.” Tilly pursed her lips. Playing the hard ass was her specialty.
“Well, I guess I can go then. I’m sure there’s plenty of stuff that needs to be done at the manor, which is, of course, what I get paid to do.”
Tilly rolled her eyes. “Don’t be silly.” She propped herself up in the bed. “Who would pick up lunch? I’m going to want bisque today.”
“Mulate’s?” Joyce asked. That woman knew Tilly better than Tilly knew herself.
“Of course.”
“Mmhmm,” Joyce mumbled before grabbing her purse. On her way out the door, she patted Lucky’s arm. He was used to her nurturing gestures, but they still caught him off guard.
Once they were alone, Tilly directed her attention towards her son.
“It’s the first chance we’ve had to be alone.” She pointed to the chair next to her bed.
Lucky sat, crossing one ankle over the other leg.
“Well?”
“Well, what?” he asked his mother.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I was doing in your father’s office? What I was looking for?”
“I figured you’d tell me when you were ready. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know it probably has something to do with Carrie. She came by that night. Claims she heard about you being in the hospital, but I think she was looking for something too. So what gives?”
Tilly pumped a generous portion of expensive lotion into her hands and took her time rubbing it in. “James, she is up to something, and I don’t think she’s working on her own. I’ve had my suspicions about her long before your father passed. She was always needling him and looking over his shoulder, insisting on learning from the best, as she put it.”
“What’s so strange about that? She’s also been driven by prestige and money.”
“Well, I suppose it wasn’t strange in the beginning, but then they started having late night calls and closed-door meetings.”
He sat up straighter. “An affair?”
Tilly waved her hand through the air. “Oh, no. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure your father had a fling or two, but it wasn’t like that. I don’t think he even liked her.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He and I may not have been over the moon in love recently, but I was married to the man for almost thirty years. I could read him like a book. How do you think I knew about the other women? I just chose to pick my battles, and sex wasn’t one of them.”
“Mother, seriously?”
“James, grow up. Anyway, he didn’t like Carrie hovering. It seemed that when she was around or when they had a meeting, it was more like putting him out. She was a bother to him, but for some reason, not one he could simply rid himself of and I needed to know why. So, I spoke to Human Resources to find out information. I did some digging because her resume appeared too good to be true. I mean, I know the college and education parts were true, we all know the history there.”
“Not that that stopped you from hiring her.”
“I suppose it should have.” Tilly rolled her eyes.
“Yes, mother. Her history does speak a little to her character.”
She sighed. It wasn’t the right time for this particular fight.
“Well, I put our legal team on the case to find out some more information with the goal of letting her go, without legal repercussions, of course.” Tilly adjusted herself in the bed. Lucky knew she was uncomfortable. Three weeks ago, they had no relationship, and she had a husband. Today, she was a widow and Lucky was the only person she had to turn to with this kind of stuff.
“And?”
She peered at him. Her sharp nose wrinkled. “No one can find her contract with Gauthier. There’s an empty folder where her portfolio should be with Human Resources, and the only thing that the attorneys have to say is that your father wanted to handle her contract personally.”
Lucky began to pace the room. “That doesn’t make any sense. What’s so special about Carrie Scott that would make him do that?”
“Nothing that I’m aware of. She sent in her resume and made it through the interview process just like all of the other applicants. It came down to her and a gentleman from Washington. I thought he had the job; everyone did. He was highly qualified and had even interned with a marine transport outfit on the west coast.”
“Well, what happened?” Lucky couldn’t figure out how Carrie had done it, but it was bound to involve breaking the rules and manipulation.
Tilly shrugged her thin shoulders.
“Could she have something on Dad?”
She shrugged again. “I couldn’t imagine what, but I suppose it’s possible.” She took the straw into her mouth and took a sip of her Pellegrino. “All I know is a contract has to exist. Your father wouldn’t have conducted business without one.”
“So that’s why you were ransacking the office,” Lucky concluded.
Tilly nodded and arched her perfectly trimmed brows before she laid her head back and closed her eyes. Although she was trying to control the world from her hospital bed, his mother was still actually very ill.
He was a little ashamed that it was so easy to lose sight of that.
***
Lucky opened the stainless steel door of the massive refrigerator. Smiling when he spotted the new covered dish with his name scrawled across the top. Joyce was the only person connected with the Gauthier’s who called him by his nickname. She must have slipped in while running errands for his mother. He pulled out the dish and ladled out a generous helping of gumbo before sticking it in the microwave to warm.
The mouthwatering smell of smoked sausage and shrimp made his stomach rumble.
Another long ass day. It seemed like a lifetime ago that Baby Jade had been lying in his arms, resting her gorgeous head on his chest. He tried not to remember the gut wrenching way her face twisted in pain when he walked out the door. It cut him like a dull knife to know that she thought he just up and left her.
How can she not remember telling him to leave the hospital and to get out of her life forever?
What a clusterfuck.
His head should be with his family, trying to figure out what the hell was happening at Gauthier. But this bullshit with Baby was really screwing with him. He ate the gumbo and poured himself a glass of whiskey. A little liquid courage to help him finish going through his father’s belongings.
***
The scalding water beaded off Lucky’s chiseled back. He had spent a long night going through papers and files, some of that time he spent trying to figure out the password to his father’s laptop. That fucker was locked down tighter than Fort Knox.
At some point, he had passed out. His body was stiff and achy from dozing on the floor.
He called Joyce to check on his mother while he drank a large mug of strong, black coffee, trying to gather his game plan for the day.
“She’s large and in charge,” Joyce said with a snicker.
“I guess that’s good, for her anyway.”
“Yes, better than the alternative. They’re trying some new medicine for her blood pressure. If everything goes well, she should be able to go home soon.”
“Good deal.” Lucky finished off the rest of the pot of coffee.
“You eating?”
“You know I am. Thanks for the gumbo, good stuff.”
“Hopefully, we’ll be home soon, and we can get things back to normal. As normal as they can be anyway. I’ve got to admit, I was pretty scared.”
“I know you were, Joyce. I was too, but it’s all gonna be ok. She’s in the clear, and we just have to get her back home and settled in,” he reassured her before hanging up.
Since he wasn’t having any luck with the office at
home, he decided to try Gauthier. He contemplated checking in on Baby Jade but concluded that he could only handle one hurdle at a time. He dressed in a pair of clean jeans and, out of respect for his father, a nice button down rather than a t-shirt.
“Mr. Gauthier, it’s good to see you back in the office.”
He tried to bypass the front desk, but the flirty receptionist wasn’t having it. Every year it was the same thing, desperate and clingy.
He nodded and roamed past her desk and toward the elevators. There was no need to lead her on.
He caught the expected gawks and stares as he made his way down the executive hallway. He wasn’t one to show his face in the office building often, but he was sure the stares had more to do with the death of his father than with his absenteeism.
No one knew he had been in his father’s office a few nights ago. No one other than Carrie.
Lucky tried to keep his breath steady to appear calm on the outside, but on the inside, his pulse was racing. He had spent so much time in this office building. He could still smell the strong, spicy scent of his father’s expensive cologne.
He held his chin high and paraded down the corridor, recognizing some faces, while others were new and attempting to blend into the mix. Lucky read the nameplates as he passed each door, stopping two down from his father’s office.
It wasn’t the sound of Carrie’s screeching voice that caught his attention; it was the snide way she spat out the words, ‘stripping gold digger’. Her door remained half-open, and Lucky was able to determine from the one-sided conversation that she was on the phone.
“You know as well as I do that that stripping gold digger is only after one thing. You need to get your shit together.”
Silence
“Don’t give me excuses. You don’t get paid to think. Just do your damn job.”
Silence
“Good. Now, get your head back in the game.”
Silence
“Yes, I’ll call you with a time to meet when I see some progress.”
Click
Lucky’s heart hammered in his chest so loudly he thought Carrie might hear it. He dashed down the hall and into his father’s office, settling in behind the desk to appear busy. Meanwhile, his blood soared as anger bubbled deep in his abdomen.
Bourbon Street Royalty: Jaded Series, Book Two Page 8