by Nancy Gideon
Louella. Giles hadn’t considered that, and it tightened the knot in his gut.
“Why do you think I brought you here?” Emmett asked, as uncomfortable with the whole thing as he was. “It’s time you knew, so you could understand how it is.”
A sultry waitress stopped behind Emmett’s chair. She was older and, from her slow smile, Giles assumed definitely wiser. Her fingertips trailed along his uncle’s now tense shoulders. “Howdy, Em. See you later?”
Emmett caught the roaming hand and pushed it away, saying mildly, “Rita, this is Irene’s boy, Giles.”
Her smile dazzled. “Pleased to meetcha. Two-thirty, Em?”
“That’s fine, darlin’.” Instead of watching her hip-twitching walk as she moved away from the table, Emmett fixed his attention on Giles’s expressionless face. “ ’Fore you say anything, your mama knows all about Rita. And about Sally before her and Gina before her.”
“Knowing,” Giles said softly, “and being okay with it are two different things.”
“Giles, there ain’t another female in this world, ’cept maybe her sister, that I have more love for than your mama. I was your daddy’s best friend. I was there for Irene after he died, just like she was there for me and my kids when her sister passed. I’d as soon cut off my own arm than cause her any pain.”
“That’s not exactly what I was thinking to remove.”
Emmett swallowed, sweat beginning to bead on his brow. He didn’t break eye contact the way a guilty man would have. Because of that, Giles remained unmoving, letting him continue his explanation instead of going for his throat.
“After the accident—”
“It wasn’t an accident.” That growled from him, low and fierce.
“After she got out of the hospital,” Emmett amended, “your mama was never the same. Your daddy was the only man for her. But she had you kids and couldn’t get around, so I stepped up, just like I said, to do what I could. After a time, that dependence we had for each other . . . well, it turned into something else, something good for both of us.
“But your mama, she never healed proper, in heart or in body, and there were certain things . . . ah, hell, intimate things she couldn’t give me. So we made an arrangement, and to be honest, she was the one who come up with it. So I’ll be meeting with Rita at two-thirty, but I’ll be having breakfast with your mama at eight. And that suits both of us just fine.” His gaze softened. “How’s that gonna sit with you?”
Emmett, like Boyd, always had women buzzing around him. They loved the ladies, and the ladies loved them. But when his stepfather was with his mother, Giles had never witnessed anything but esteem and affection between them. Emmett had been there for her, for all of them, consistently, lovingly. Weighing that against these new revelations, Giles choked down his initial outrage and answered carefully, honestly. “You’ve always been good to her and good to us, Emmett. If she has no quarrel with you, then neither do I.”
Emmett’s breath exited in a gust of relief. “Good. Good to know.” He relaxed in his seat until he began to mull over another issue. Watching it work its way up clued Giles that it wasn’t going to be any more pleasant than the first.
“Things ain’t been too good for us lately, Giles.”
“What kind of things?”
“Money, mostly. That sister of yours has a clever head on her shoulders, just like you did, and it shames me to say I can’t help her get proper schooling.”
“She won’t take money from me.” Bluntly and painfully said.
“Her and Boyd have so much to offer, and I was thinking maybe you could speak to your boss about them.”
With a single blink, Giles’s mood went from amiable to stone-cold. “And have my mama cut them out of her heart, too? I don’t think so.”
“I’m not talking about the same kind of work you do,” Emmett rushed on clumsily. “I’m worried about my boy, about him making the same kinda mistakes that—”
“I did,” Giles supplied smoothly.
Emmett skipped over that sore subject. “I know your mama is a stubborn woman and set in her thinking, but you done good for yourself with Mr. Legere. It may not be honest work, but it’s work, and we ain’t got much of that around here no more. If you could take him under your wing like you did when you was kids—”
“Sorry, but we’ve got a hiring freeze on at the moment. Fresh out of spots for leg breakers and the like. He’s better off here.”
“Easy for you to say. You don’t know what’s going on here.”
The tension in his uncle’s voice had him leaning in. “Enlighten me.”
Emmett looked uneasily toward the group at the bar. “Since your people took out Victor Vantour, there’s a new batch handling his business. Some of it’s pretty bad business. I don’t want Boyd getting caught up in it.”
“Who?”
“From up Memphis way. A family by the name of Guedry. You heard of them?”
Guedry. Giles betrayed nothing. “Could be. What kind of business they doing?”
Now Emmett was evasive. “They took to running Vantour’s cargo up through the swamps. If your people stepped in . . .”
“We don’t traffic in that sort of thing, so if you and Boyd were looking to start up a franchise, sorry, can’t back you.”
Sensing he’d rubbed his nephew the wrong way, Emmett smiled a bit too brightly. “Nothing like that. Just saying we still got some of your daddy’s boats, and Cori, she can navigate the bayou like a city street.”
Giles’s tone lowered to a deep-freeze rumble. “My sister is not piloting for a drug pipeline so you can line your pockets.”
Emmett threw up his hands. “I didn’t mean nothing like that.”
“I think you meant exactly that. You’re not involving her in any of your get-rich schemes. And if I find out something of that nature is going on, my next visit will be all business.”
“No need to get riled, boy.” Emmett’s attention shifted as Brigit moved up behind Giles’s chair. He put on his best smile. “Hey, there, little girl. You take all my foolish boy’s money already?”
“I left him enough to pick up the next round.”
The way her fingertips traced across the line of his shoulders distracted Giles from his dark mood to glance up at her in question.
“You boys about finished with your manly discussions?”
“You in a hurry to get back to the basics of no electricity?” he goaded with a tight smile.
Her dark eyes gave a sultry droop as she settled on his knee with a little wiggle of her hips, her arms looping around his neck. “It has its advantages.”
She was a sweet armful. Her fingertips stroked up his neck to trace around his ear, taking his thoughts in a direction he’d promised himself he wouldn’t go. Back to his bedroom on River Road. Back to the feel of her wrapped around him, all sleek and hot and needy.
But this was not then.
The way she tucked her bright head into the shelter of his chest so her face was hidden made him wonder if it had anything to do with the way the group at the bar had begun to stare at her. If this was Guedry country, how great was the risk of her being recognized?
“We can go if you like,” he murmured. “Me and Emmett have said all that needs saying.”
The drinks were knocked back in a hurry. The ride that followed back to the Point was mostly silent.
Cradling her to-go box of hot battered shrimp the way some would a child, Brigit continued to curl close in the small backseat. Just playing the role, Giles reminded himself. Or playing an angle, and he’d had enough of that kind of manipulation for one night. But her motives didn’t change the way the scent of her hair teased up his nose.
It was getting dark by the time they reached the house. Giles declined Emmett’s awkward suggestion that they linger to say good-bye to the girls but was agreeable to Boyd’s offer to shorten their trip back to the cabin by taking them the better part of the way in his muscular ski boat.
While Brig
it made quick finger-licking work of the shrimp on the rear bench seat, Giles asked their pilot, “What’s your father into, Boyd?”
A flash of white teeth. “You know Daddy.”
“No. I really don’t think I do.”
“He just trying to get a toehold so’s he can hang on. Can’t blame a man for that. Ain’t his fault he’s got no head for business. If it weren’t for Cori, everything your daddy built would have been gone about an hour after you went off to school. She’s the one who’s been keeping things going and the bills paid. Can’t say that I’ve been much help to her other than slipping her what you send our way, pretending it’s from me.”
“Tell me about the Guedrys.”
Boyd slanted him a glance. “Dangerous and well connected. They’re spreading from parish to parish like an oil spill, ruining everything they touch. My guess would be they’re digging trenches for a fight to take New Orleans from your boss.”
“And you think this why?”
“I hear things. You know what a talkative fellow I am. I could be helpful to you, Rob-E.”
“I don’t want you involved, T.”
Boyd’s chuckle was low and bitter. “Yeah, wouldn’t want me horning in on all your good fortune.”
Giles gripped his cousin’s arm. “You think that’s what I have?”
Boyd cut a scathing glance his way. “Living large in the city, hot woman, good money? Yeah, that’s what I think.”
“You’re wrong. I’d trade it all for a chance to get back what you take for granted.”
Boyd’s stare glittered like their running lights off water. “Done. I’ll take that swap.” When Giles turned away, he continued with a greater emphasis. “Fine. Maybe I’m not cut out for that high life you’re living, but I could be your eyes and ears here. I could sidle up to the Guedrys for information.”
Giles fixed him with a fierce stare and a firm “No.”
“You put that to your boss man and have him get back to me.” Boyd throttled down as they came to the shallow turnoff and eased the boat to a standstill, the same rocky place he and Giles seemed to have reached. “You’ve been gone a long time, Rob-E. I’ve been lacing my own shoes for a lotta years now. Talk to Savoie. He’ll see I can be useful.”
“No promises” was all Giles would give him, because he knew if Max were still running the show, he’d be all over what Boyd was offering. And so would Silas when he got back. If Giles passed on the information.
When Giles started from his seat, Boyd gripped his arm to command his attention. “Give me the chance you had. That’s all I’m asking.”
A chance? Giles thought angrily. He hadn’t had a chance or a choice when it came to his future. But this time, with Boyd’s, he did.
Even with the help of the small trolling motor and high-powered floodlight Emmett loaned them, to Brigit it seemed to take forever for them to get back to the cabin. She needn’t have worried that Giles would notice her impatience. Weighed down by what he’d learned and by the emotional toll of reuniting with his family, Giles was preoccupied to the point of nearly forgetting she was there, which suited her perfectly.
Once they finally arrived, he helped her up onto their wobbly dock and pressed the front-door key into her hand with a distracted “Go on up. I have a few calls to make.”
So did she.
“Take your time,” she told him with a smile. “I’ll be out in the backyard spa.”
He almost smiled back as he shone the big light up the path for her. She’d never seen him look so despondent, and she hesitated, thinking she should do something to ease that crushing sadness. Would he allow it or resent her for showing sympathy? She started to reach out to him, to make a connection she might not be able to ever take back.
And again paused.
Giles St. Clair’s family problems didn’t involve her. They were his to shoulder. She had her own to attend and a small window in which to do it. So, reluctantly, she withdrew the gesture before he noticed it and hurried toward the house.
Once inside, Brigit stood at the window where she could keep an eye on her bodyguard, trying to ignore how painfully alone he seemed while she quickly entered a number on the borrowed phone. She asked, “Is it safe to talk?” when the call was answered.
“Just a minute.” Silence was followed by the sound of a door closing and then a breathy “Bree, where are you? Are you all right?”
Silly moisture flooded her eyes at the sound of her best friend’s voice. She blinked it away and affected a cheerful tone. “I’m in New Orleans. Why wouldn’t I be all right?”
“I was just afraid . . . There was a lot of commotion around here just after you left. No one would tell me anything. I thought something might have happened.”
Something like a botched murder attempt? No need to worry Kendra about that now.
“I had a boring flight, and I’m staying with Silas, which is equally boring.”
The relieved laugh on the other end was worth the lie.
“How’s Silas? Is he there?” Kendra’s voice trembled slightly in the flustered way of a woman who was head over heels. “Could I speak to him?”
“He’s away for a few days on clan business. He had to tie up some loose ends.”
That lie sprang from Brigit’s lips before she could question her reason for withholding the truth. The fact that he was bonded to another by clan and human law. What purpose would it serve to shatter Kendra’s long-held dream except to tear away another layer of hope when she had so little to cling to already? There was no harm in letting her think Silas was still her rescuing hero, that her virginal fantasies could come true. Or so Brigit hoped, having never had such foolish dreams since childhood. If she could protect her fragile cousin from the cruel lessons she’d learned about hope and dreams for just a bit longer, she’d willingly pay the price of that deception.
“So Silas is willing to put aside his . . . his other interests? For me?”
Brigit knew she was damning herself as she answered, “Nothing is as important to him as your safety.”
A quiet sigh of relief on the other end.
Trying not to dispel that false sense of safety, Brigit kept her tone light as she asked, “How are things there?”
“Tense. Scary. The same. Except now I’m alone.”
Her protective instincts growling, Brigit urged, “You stay strong. I promised I’d be back for you, and I will be. You are not alone. Remember that. We’re your family. We love you. We won’t abandon you. Stall as long as can. Don’t give those brutes any excuse to harm you.”
“I don’t think I can put things off for much longer.”
The soft voice quivered, tightening a fist of urgency within Brigit’s belly. If Kendra weakened, if she allowed herself to be claimed, there’d be nothing Brigit could do to break that bond. Her friend’s future would be irrevocably cast into one of servitude and brutality.
“You can, Kendra,” she argued, angry with herself for the pride and stubbornness and attitude that had ripped her from her cousin’s side, where she belonged. Where she could have continued to protect Kendra instead of being banished to this impotent position, able to support her only with half-truths and lies that wouldn’t come close to keeping the impatient would-be Terriot heirs at bay. “Of course you can.” Her voice warmed with encouragement. “You’re clever, and you grew up with me. You know everything there is to know about playing hard to get.”
A weak laugh, then a shaky, heartbreaking “I miss you so much.”
Again that hot welling in her eyes. “I miss you, too.” Brigit took a deep breath, then ventured, “There are some things I need to talk to you about, too. Things I can’t discuss with anyone else.”
“What kind of things? You’re not in trouble again, are you?”
Brigit smiled at that. How well her cousin knew her. “No. Nothing like that.” Oh, if only it were something that simple. The panic and uncertainty she’d been suppressing for weeks began to rise in the back of her throat, b
urning as she fought to swallow. “There are some choices I’m going to have to make real soon, and I don’t know what to do.” And all she wanted, she who was always the strong one, was the chance to pour out her fears to that tender soul of sympathetic wisdom.
“You’ll do the right thing. Trust yourself, Bree. You never give yourself enough credit.”
“Me?” A laugh. “When have I ever made a good decision without your guidance or my brother’s threats?”
“And when did you ever listen to me when I was there?”
Brigit’s conscience clenched at that bittersweet chiding. For a moment, she couldn’t find her voice. She’d listen now. If only she had the opportunity.
“Talk to Silas,” Kendra urged.
“The rock of good advice.” Brigit wiped at her cheeks. “Silas has more important things on his mind these days.”
“There’s nothing more important to Silas than us. You just said so yourself.”
If she only knew. But Brigit said, “Maybe I will.”
“I have to go.” The fear was back, shivering through her friend’s words. Brigit hated the distance and the circumstances. “I love you, Bree. Don’t do anything reckless.”
“Me? Reckless?” Brigit smiled through her tears. “Be careful, Kendra. I’ll be there soon. Trust me to take care of things.”
Trust me. What a bit of useless bravado that was getting to be.
Trust yourself. The more impossible of the two tasks.
She stared out the window for long minutes, her mind scrambling through a maze of frustration. Giles was pacing the end of the dock, apparently having no better conservation than she was. Watching him brought a curious calm to her thoughts as she made the second call using the number she’d gotten from Giles’s wallet back in New Orleans.
It went right to voice mail.