Page 60 of Bourbon & Blood

I could see the curiosity in her eyes when she looked at me, and I knew that some time, someday, when we were alone again, that she’d want to know about mine.

She’d hit the nail on the head back in her bar, though. Ruth done give me my name; said I reminded him of the seltzer she’d referenced. That it sounded French Cajun enough to make my big ass fit in, but that I was just like the beverage; you expect somethin’ refreshing, but all you got was flat, boring, and somethin’ that tasted like despair.

I couldn’t argue with that last part. I mean, for most of the motherfuckers I came up on? I was woe and despair personified.

Leaving her at her place was hard, and it did something to me when she’d let her hand linger in mine, towed herself up to me, and stood on her toes to kiss me goodbye. Her fingers twined in the cord through her great-grandmama’s ring and she plucked at it, before finally letting it go.

“You’ll get it back,” I’d promised her. “When the time’s right.”

“When will that be?” she’d asked softly.

“When I decide and not a minute before,” I said, and I’d kissed her again, one final time, and I’d left her there.

Now, I was back at the club and lookin’ forward to getting’ in it with the boys and figurin’ this shit out.

Hex looked up when I came through the door and threw me some chin as he talked on the phone.

“Ah-huh, alright now. Thanks, cher, we got it from here, I think.”

He hung up, and I cocked my head.

“Cutter’s woman,” he said. “Said her boy inside the NOPD got pulled in by the brass for even lookin’ up Maya’s name an’ huntin’ for that report. Had to do him some fast talkin’ to get hisself outta trouble.”

“Phew, you smell that?” I asked.

“Ah-huh. That’s the distinct odor of bullshit,” Hex agreed. I nodded.

“Probably coverin’ up a body,” I said, and he nodded.

“I think so, too.”

“Any luck chasin’ down who she hooked up with that night?”

“That was the other thing they all let me know,” he said, sliding a notebook down the bar at me, the pages ruffling some before settling back down. I picked it up and looked.

“Name and address, alright,” I said, nodding.

“Not so fast. That might not be who met up with her. That might just be who booked the room.” He spun around on his bar stool and took up his glass, chasing back whatever he had in it. “You want I should send some of the boys to handle it?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Naw, I gotta confess, I’m feelin’ violent.”

“Chatty too,” he said with a wink. “I think your girl’s got you loosened up some. This is the most I heard you talk in a while.”

I scowled at him and tore the page out of his book, sliding the notebook back down his way.

His laughter followed me back out into the daylight, which only had a few hours left to it.

I took Saint and Cy with me. We took the van, slapping a magnet up on the side for some fake-ass handyman business, inconspicuous in the neighborhood. Just some handy guys here for an evening emergency repair – nothin’ to see here.

Nothin’ at all to see…

CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE

Alina…

My phone started to blow up inside my jacket pocket the moment we’d returned to an area with cell service. I worried about it, wondering what it could be about, but didn’t have the nerve to look until I was home and after La Croix had gone.

It was Dorian and Marcus both freaking out, and I immediately called them on Dorian’s phone.

---