by Rayne, Sara
“So we worked a con where we catered special events, then we picked the crowd’s pockets. At the end of the night, we’d tell the management some of our expensive equipment was stolen. They never suspected us of stealing from the guests, and they usually reimbursed us for our ‘stolen equipment’.” Boone grinned. “Simon was an amazing cook, so we got gigs all the time.”
“Did Phee know about this?” Lex asked. She had to admit, however dishonest, it was a clever plan.
The grin faded. “I did what I could to keep her from finding out, but she caught on, yeah. It wasn’t a great time in our relationship, but we worked past it. She understood my reasons.”
Lex opened her mouth.
“Ah-ah.” Boone wagged his finger at her. “That story’s for another time. Suffice it to say, Simon’s grand-mére was more upset than even Phee. His junky parents died cooking up meth, and she raised Simon. The idea of him becoming a criminal because he thought she couldn’t afford his upkeep—it broke her heart.”
Lex curled deeper into her seat. “How awful.”
“You always hurt the ones you love, non?” Boone lifted a brow. “Anyways, he met Artemis at one of those gigs and voilà! He played the part until the day she died. So well, he earned himself half of Mt. Olympus in her will. Simon always had a knack for blending in.”
“Sounds like a real nice guy.” She sighed.
“He had reasons for stealing and lying, but I don’t understand leavin’ your family behind when things are darkest. I can’t forgive it.”
Josie placed a hand on her cousin’s shoulder. “Boone tracked him down to the small town he’d holed up in. The only thing Apollo wants more than money is his family’s hotel back. It’s been closed for ten years because Simon can’t stand to see it open after he lost his fiancée.”
“You want him to trade?”
Boone traced the rim of his scotch glass with an index finger. “I already asked him for help once—he refused to speak to me. The way I figure it, he doesn’t even want to run the hotel so what does it matter? He could save ours. This one runs. This one’s beautiful. This one is…home.”
Lex ached for the Brulés. She couldn’t stand the thought of them not having a home anymore, either. “What makes you think he’ll change his mind?”
“I don’t.” Boone lifted his chin in challenge.
“And I say everyone changes. Maybe he’s moved past her now. Maybe he can let Mt. Olympus go.” Josie shifted her gaze away from Lex, looking almost guilty.
Hmmm.
“Not to be negative, but what if it doesn’t work? Do you have a Plan B?”
“We’re well past Plan B, sweetie.” Josie rubbed her temples. “Getting Simon to change his mind was Plan X.”
“Plan Y, my current favorite,” Boone said with relish, “is to throw one helluva party. The biggest party this place has ever seen. And see if we can’t drum up enough cash to hold back the levees one more day.”
“A party’s your big plan?” Lex shook her head. How very Big Easy.
“Hey, if it fails, at least we went out having fun. Laissez les bon temps rouler!” He raised his empty glass in the air. “That’s the New Orleans spirit.”
Josie laughed.
“Can I ask what Plan Z is?” Lex took another long sip of champagne.
“Voodoo.”
“What?” Lex sputtered, orange juice burning her nose.
A mischievous smile curved Josie’s lips. “We’re gonna see this voodoo priestess Boone knows. Remember the guitar pick I brought you last Thanksgiving? She gave it to me.”
Oh, right. New Orleans. Culture. Voodoo, as in the religion. Not the sexy asshat.
Lex had given the pick to Jagger, to bring him and the Crossroad Crows good luck. He now wore it on a chain around his neck.
“You’re going to put a voodoo curse on your loan shark?”
“Don’t be silly. Voodoo isn’t all about curses, you know,” Boone said.
“But yes, we are.” Josie nodded emphatically. She cracked a grin when Lex burst out laughing. “We’re going to encourage a little karmic comeuppance. Not like we’re going after him vigilante-style. Though, come to think of it, if some vigilantes feel the need to take care of our problem….”
“Sounds like a happy ending to me,” Boone said.
“I’m not the vigilante type, but I can plan a mean party. And I know someone who could do some serious social media advertising.”
“You want to help?” Josie took her hand. Guilt twisted her expression. “I meant for you to come down here and get away from your blues. Not catch ours.”
“Nonsense. The Chance is a worthy cause.” Lex stood and raised her glass. “Let’s do this. Laissez les bon temps rouler!”
“Now you’re getting it.” Boone snagged Lex around the waist and dropped down on the chair next to Josie, pulling Lex onto his lap amid a chorus of giggles. “Hey, cousin, get a picture of this! Having a beautiful woman in my lap accentuates my good side.”
Josie grabbed her camera and snapped a few pics. Lex leaned back against Boone, already thinking about party themes.
Boone caught Josie’s eye. “Make sure you post it to both our profiles, would you? I got a feelin’ it’s gonna be a keeper.”
Chapter Thirteen
Relentless pounding on the front door roused Voo from his drunken stupor. His head ached just trying to hold it up. He had a record for holding his liquor, but he hadn’t crawled out of the bottle in two days. Or was it three? Hell if he knew.
“I know you’re in there! If you don’t open up in two seconds, I swear to God, I’m picking the lock!”
No matter, today’s agenda was the same—wallowing in a haze of drunken self-pity. Dani was fucking up the plan. She was pissed on Lex’s behalf, and he was not nearly intoxicated enough to face this conversation. Stumbling to his feet, he staggered across the living room and wrenched the door open.
“Don’t you dare. I hate it when you do that.”
“What the ever-loving fuck, Voo?” Dani slammed a fist against the doorframe. “She moved to New Orleans.”
Voo squinted at her. “What the hell are you talkin’ about?”
“You look like death eatin’ a cracker.”
“Feels like an accurate description.” He rubbed his temples, wishing he could run from the truth Shep had bluntly spelled out for him. But he couldn’t deny the all-too-familiar aching burn in his soul. He’d promised never to lie to himself again.
Voo was head over biker boots in love with Lex Cooper. And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
His empty stomach heaved.
“Lex. New Orleans. Hello?” She sighed. “You’re hungover, aren’t you?”
“Pretty sure I’m still drunk.” He leaned against the doorjamb.
“Take some aspirin, clean the testosterone out of your ears, whatever you gotta do to pay attention because this is serious.” Dani leaned forward, and Voo wondered if she was going to sucker punch him. “Lex is gone.”
“And by gone, you mean…?”
“Jesus, you’re slow this morning. Gone. Vamoosed. Elvis has left the building.”
He blinked at her.
“Lex done split. She took off to New Orleans with everything she owns. Said she wasn’t sure when she was coming back.”
The hollow pit in Voo’s stomach widened. Lex visiting New Orleans without him felt all kinds of wrong. He felt exposed, like she’d snuck into his bedroom while he was gone. “Did she say why?”
“‘Did she say why’…? You’re goddamn killin’ me. She left because you were a gigantic douche.” Dani crossed her arms.
“Lex is strong enough to handle rejection. This isn’t my doing.”
Dani laced her fingers together and cracked her knuckles. “For someone who knows her so fucking well, you’re clueless. Once you’re into a girl, do you guys lose all ability to think things through? All the blood in your body rushed to little Voo, and now you’re an idiot attached to a big
dick?”
“Dani…,” Voo warned softly. Her comments cut too close to the truth.
Dani flipped him off with both middle fingers, all What’re ya gonna do about it, bro? “See me not giving a fuck if you’re upset? Know why? Because you’re stupid, she’s right, and you gotta fix this.”
Voo surrendered. He was either going to hear what Dani had to say now or spend the rest of his life avoiding her. She hadn’t been born with a “give up” button. Turning back into the house where it wasn’t so bright, he grabbed an open bottle of aspirin off the coffee table and popped four pills, washing them down with the end of his rum.
“Seriously?” Dani followed him inside, squinting in the dim interior.
“Fire away, shrew.” Just because he was about to get ripped a new one didn’t mean he had to be polite about it.
Dani’s jaw locked, and her eyes narrowed.
Merde.
Half of Dani’s charm was in showmanship. The exaggerated laughs, the crude humor, the nicknames all pointed to a youngest child used to easing the household tension. Most of her outbursts were meant to entertain.
But when Dani was real pissed off? She got quiet. And mean. Like her father.
“Lex loved college more than anythin’. She worked her ass off to get there and never quit.”
“I know.” His Lex was the determined sort. Voo frowned. He had to stop thinking of her as his.
“The bastard who tried to rape her took it away from her. She had to go back to Brad’s house. And they kicked her out—her own mother.”
“They didn’t exactly kick her out,” Voo argued. “She left. I was there.”
“Yeah, she left. Must’ve been pretty bad for Miss Has-A-Plan to jump ship on the fly, don’t you think?” Her words were steady and blunt, like a relentless beating from a baseball bat. “So she goes to Captain’s place, and he doesn’t want her, either.”
Voo swallowed, feeling sicker by the second. He had done the right thing—hadn’t he?
“And then there’s you. Lex gets tanked and goes home with you. After months of sexual tension and flirting—and don’t you dare deny it because I’ll slap you to next Sunday and back again, I swear to baby Jesus—you say you don’t want her.”
He covered his mouth as guilt congealed in his stomach. He stood by his decision, but he’d botched handling it. Regret had consumed him when Lex walked out the door, but he didn’t know how to make it better.
She wanted something he couldn’t offer.
“Let’s see, how would it make me feel? Unwanted. Unwelcome. Tainted, maybe? After the worst goddamn experience of her life, no one wants her—not the college, not her mother and Brad, not Captain, not even you,” Dani sneered. “And then you have the motherfuckin’ balls to suggest she wouldn’t take off over ‘rejection’? You’re not ‘some guy’ who didn’t want her, Voo. You’re the fucking straw that broke the camel she’s been carrying.”
Fuck. Me.
His eyes closed, and he swallowed. “You’re right.”
“I know.”
“I’m an asshole.”
“Believe me, I know.”
“You want Lex to be with an asshole like me?”
“At this moment, hell no. But since you mucked things up until she left the goddamn state, I’d like you to fix it so I can have my friend back. Merci.”
“I’m not gonna change my mind. Lex and I will never happen.”
Dani blew her bangs out of her eyes. “If you’re stupid enough to not want her, then I can’t help you, but you were friends. You can’t leave it like this. It’s like a broken bone that ain’t set right.”
He folded his hands together. She was right. Lex had been a good friend, and he owed her an honest answer. Maybe once she knew the truth about his past she’d hate him, but at least she’d know it had nothing to do with her. “I’ll talk with her when she returns.”
“I’m gonna come across this coffee table,” Dani warned, eyes razor sharp and teeth bared as she made a fist and cocked her arm.
Dodging her in his current state was out of the question. She had a lightning-fast right hook.
“Whoa!” Luckily for Voo’s face, Coyote rushed in through the door behind her, his good hand closing over her fist. “See, Voo? This is why you need an online form for customer complaints. So they don’t stop by for a house visit.”
Dani turned to Coyote. “I’m fixin’ to kick your ass if you don’t turn me loose.”
“No, you ain’t.” His face remained calm as he gently gripped her fist.
“Just so we’re clear, I always lodge my complaints in person.” She twisted away.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I heard Dani shouting and figured trouble was sure to follow.” Coyote ignored Dani sticking her tongue out at him. “I’m assumin’ this is about Lex.”
Voodoo cursed. “Bon Dieu. Does anybody in this godforsaken town mind their own damn business?”
Coyote chuckled. “I certainly don’t.”
“We’re just friends.”
Dani glanced at Coyote. “You want to take this one, or…?”
“Knock yourself out.” Coyote settled himself in Voo’s recliner and pulled the patch he’d been stitching from the pocket of his cut. “I was in on the last round.”
“I know better than to try to talk a biker into doing anythin’ he’s set his mind against, but let’s get this straight. You ain’t friends. That’s why you’re fuckin’ drunk at nine a.m., and she’s a thousand miles away.”
Voo stared at the carpet. “It’s complicated. But we’ll never be more than friends.”
Dani rubbed her forehead as if a migraine had set in. “The crazy, wild attraction that makes no fucking sense to you? Feelin’ like you’re going to suffocate when she’s hurt, the way your heart leaps when you see her—no matter how shitty the circumstances? It ain’t friendship, dipshit. And it’s not going away. It’ll eat you alive first.”
Voo flinched.
“Hurtin’ my girl aside, your romantic life ain’t my business. But since you brought it up, I gotta tell you what’s stickin’ in my craw.” Dani stared at a point on the wall over Voo’s shoulder. “Right now, while you’re sittin’ here suffering, fucking lying about not missing her, there’s not a damn thing standin’ in your way but your own lame excuses.”
Voo’s jaw clenched. “You ever pull a punch in your life?”
“Wouldn’t know how, even if I tried. Look, I’m just sayin’—get the hell out of your own way and be happy. Whatever you think is keepin’ you and Lex apart—it ain’t real. It’s fixable.” She paused then looked Voo in the eye and added, “Not all of us get that lucky, okay?”
The next person to tell Voo how “lucky” he was would get the ass beating of their life. He’d had a bellyful of people telling him he was lucky to be alive on the worst damn day of his life. But the sad note at the end of her rant caught his attention.
“What’s standin’ in your way, Dani?”
“Self-respect.” Her laugh was hollow. “Now, seriously. How do we get her back?”
“I’m not going to get her back.”
Coyote snatched Dani’s fist again. She glared at him. “Sorry, pre-emptive strike. Afraid you were about to vault over the table again.”
A war raged inside Voo’s chest, the first shot fired when Lex left his bed and walked out the door. For years, he’d been ruthlessly honest with himself about everything—who he was, where he came from, what he wanted, what he deserved. There was the problem.
Voo didn’t deserve what he wanted—who he wanted.
Throwing his hands in the air, he retreated to the kitchen for his rum. There was no getting around the Lex situation. He’d spent the last few days racking his brain for a way, but it always circled back to the same thing. If he tried to reach above his station again, the loa were likely to be twice as vicious in taking their due. He’d had his happiness, however brief.
“Neat trick, but two-bedroom houses aren’t exactly mazes. The ki
tchen’s not a secret hidey-hole,” Dani said behind him.
“Dammit, Dani.” His hands fisted, frustration filling him. “You think I don’t want…”
“I know you do.”
“I’m not a nice guy. I never was. And I ain’t got the strength to pretend anymore. Not even for her.” Voo sighed. “Lex will find someone good. At least someone who can still fake it.”
Dani stilled. “You’re nice to her.”
Voo didn’t reply.
“You’re not worried about what she’s doing in New Orleans? Who she’s with? If she’s safe?” Dani prodded.
Yep, no “give up” button.
“I can solve this mystery,” Coyote said. “She’s at the Chance Brulé Bed and Breakfast having brunch.” He handed his phone to Voo. “With this guy.”
No. Not fucking possible.
Lex’s smile beamed from the tiny screen, her face surrounded by a halo of loose curls. A mimosa in hand, she sat on her companion’s lap, legs draped over the arm of his chair.
And her companion was Boone fucking Brulé.
“Voo? You okay, bro?” Coyote retrieved the phone from Voo’s numb hand.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” Voo straightened. He needed to hit the shower and sober up. “Tell Angel to gas up my bike. I’m fixin’ to leave town for a few days.”
“You’re going?” Dani grinned. “Yes!”
When he bought Hades, Voo vowed never to set foot in the Crescent City again. Fate loved making him a liar—but he’d be damned if he’d sit back and abandon Lex to the likes of his former best friend. Voo hadn’t let her go so she could fall into the lap of Boone.
Chapter Fourteen
The Brulés decided the themed party would be a Feast for Baron Samedi—the spirit of resurrection and last hopes. He was a crossroads loa, responsible for digging the graves of those he’d bring to the other side.
“If anyone can breathe life back into the Chance, it’s Baron Samedi,” Phee had said when she signed off on the idea.
Seemed damned-near poetic to Lex.
A person who wanted a favor from Baron Samedi brought him offerings of black coffee, grilled peanuts, and expensive cigars—or rum infused with hot pepper for his wife, Maman Brigitte, who guarded graveyards marked with crosses. They themed the menu and decorations accordingly, including an altar set up at the crossroads markers on the Chance’s grounds—the remains of two old roads long ago retired from human use.