“Yes, Lotus, it’s Gedeon. You want to have children with me, don’t you?”
“Yes, but...” She trailed off, a delicate frown marring her face.
“I need to hear your objection, baby, or I can’t fix it.”
“Did you see all the bodyguards everywhere? I mean everywhere. Not just in the building, but outside of it. They were everywhere, Gedeon. If we have children, we’d have to hire bodyguards. Given our pasts, we’d have no choice. They’d have to be protected at all times.”
The tension in him subsided. “That’s what you’re concerned about? Their safety? I’m prepared for that. Lotus, I surround you with bodyguards when I’m not with you. You object so I just have them pull back a little further, but they’re required to stay on you. Naturally our children would have bodyguards.”
She leaned toward him. “I’m going to kiss you.”
“I’ll let you if you let me lick the sugar off your lower lip,” he teased, and proceeded to do just that. He framed her face with his hands and first took off the smudge of powdered sugar from the beignets and then brought his mouth down to hers.
The moment his mouth took hers, thunder rolled in his ears, lightning streaked through his body from his throat to his groin and his heart stuttered in his chest. His woman. Melting him without half trying. They were working. On a job. He couldn’t get distracted, and she was one hell of a distraction.
He lifted his head. “Behave yourself, woman. We’re supposed to be working here. Stay on your own side of the table.”
Meiling laughed. “If I have to. Show me where you think the runaway couple is hiding. I can’t believe they’ve pulled this off.”
“They didn’t get on a plane. We know they didn’t takea car. They’re still here in New Orleans. They wanted Hawkins to think they left. I don’t know what game they’re going to run on him eventually, but my gut says they’re still here. If I’m right, and I’m always right, this is the only place they could be.” He smoothed out the paper and tapped the island he’d drawn out.
Meiling hitched closer. “We’ve gone out a couple of times, Gedeon, and we didn’t find anything.”
“I had their location narrowed down to three islands. We checked out the other two first because I thought it more likely they would go to the hunting cabins on one of them. The last one is more remote and has no electricity. Laverne is city all the way. I didn’t think she’d last out in the swamp without fans and a few modern amenities. She’s proving me wrong.”
“You believe the two of them are camping out on that island?”
“Yeah, I do. Her bodyguard has ties to the Cajun community. He goes way back. He can ask for help and someone will deliver groceries. He knows how to fish and trap. They can live out there for a long time until they decide to do whatever it is they plan. We don’t have to worry about that. We just need to take a few pictures to prove to Hawkins she’s alive and give him a map to her location, and then it’s up to him to decide whether he wants a divorce or he wants to go talk to her. We’re clear. It isn’t our business.”
“I’m glad we aren’t going at night. The swamp is a little on the scary side at night.”
“Seriously, Lotus?” Gedeon raised an eyebrow. “I know my way around. We aren’t going to get lost.”
“The river seems to change all the time. One minute we’re traveling along a channel that’s so shallow we can barely make it through, when the day before it was perfectly good to run through it with a boat. I can’t keep up, and I get turned around all the time, especially at night.”
“I know it feels like that. I’m careful, Meiling. Look, I’ll show you which way we’ll go and the channels we’ll use. Once you see them, you’re good at committing things to memory.”
“I am. Thank you. It will make me feel a little better. I know we won’t get separated, but I always like to feel as if I can make my way home if necessary.”
Gedeon took out a pen and drew the course starting from their pier all the way to the island and back. Meiling studied it and then finished off her coffee. “Thanks, I’ve got it.”
“Good, we’ll get started.”
As he started to rise, Meiling’s phone lit up with what looked like colorful fireworks. Gedeon raised his eyebrow, expecting her to flash her smile, but she was suddenly very sober, the color slipping out from under her skin. He rested the pads of his fingers gently on her wrist in inquiry. She turned the phone over to allow him to see that the text was from Etienne.
Jules Louis slipped away. I’m sorry. Sending you encryption. Read immediately. UR Danger. Will do whatever you need.
She looked up at Gedeon as her phone went off again with more fireworks. Gedeon indicated the bench by the river. She nodded. He stood, tore the map into six strips and tossed it into the nearest trash can along with their coffee cups. He held out his hand to her. “Let’s get this done. It will take a while to get there, and I want to have good lighting to get the best pictures.”
“Sounds good to me. I just want to sit by the river first and watch the sun come up like we always do.”
“We have time.” Gedeon took her hand and, ignoring the man reading at the table closest to them, walked outand down to the bench where they sat together nearly every morning. “What the fuck, Meiling? What does Etienne mean?”
“I’m retrieving the file now. He sends it encoded if it’s important. If anyone tries to read it without the right key, it will burn immediately, first time.” She pressed a hand over her heart. “Something is really wrong for him to break protocol and send me a firework and a warning in a text. He’ll remove it once he sees I’ve read it.”
Gedeon got as close to her as possible, his thigh pressed tightly against hers, one arm sliding along the back of the bench. He didn’t give a fuck if they blew the entire setup they’d fabricated for McGregor Handler. He had a very bad feeling. He’d asked Rene to keep an eye on the Frenchman’s two nephews, but he hadn’t followed up. He should have. He knew better than to leave loose ends, especially when his gut told him not to. He told himself to take a breath; they could handle the two men if they came looking for trouble.
She pulled up the email from Etienne but didn’t open it immediately. She retrieved another program and opened the email in that program. At first there were only numbers and symbols floating all over the page, but then order began to restore itself quickly and lines of text appeared.
