Page 29 of Madam Temptress
I squeeze her back. “Thanks, Ke-ke. You’re the best.”
She releases me after a long, but much-needed moment. “All I want is to see you happy. Now, we just need to find this motherfucker and kill him all the way dead.”
The smile she adds to punctuate her sentence knocks a chuckle loose from me, when I could have sworn it would be impossible to laugh for the rest of the day.
“Mount’s rubbing off on you.”
“I’m sure he is, but that’s what real love does.” She pulls back, and her head falls to the side. “It makes you stronger than you ever dreamed and do things you never imagined possible. And now it’s your turn.”
Real love.What a concept.
Sixteen
Moses
Mount sits at the head of the table, with his wife to his right and their daughter between them. I don’t know why that surprises me, but it does. She wears a bib that readsMy Dad Says It’s Okay, and I’m still shocked that he’s so openly affectionate with the girl.
Then again, we are in the inner sanctum. If he thought any of us were a threat or would use any of this information against him, we’d be dead before we could make it out of the room.
Jules and Trey are on their best behavior, although they don’t escape Mount’s notice.
“I understand you’re the hacker,” he says to Trey as wine is poured.
“I prefer to think of myself as chief technical officer of our operation, but yeah, hacking’s part of what I do.”
The king lifts his chin. “Most difficult hack?”
“Nothing I can disclose without getting arrested by Interpol.”
Mount looks suitably impressed. “Interesting.” He focuses on Jules next. “And what is your role?”
“Probably a lot like your silent guy. I watch Moses’s six. Do what needs doing. We go back a long way.”
I give Jules a nod. “Jules and I have been colleagues for over a decade. Trey’s been with us for just a year less.”
“Quite the impressive business the three of you have built.”
“Wouldn’t have built it if not for you,” I say.
Mount’s full attention swings to me. “How’s that?”
I glance across the table at Magnolia, wondering if I should have told her this first, but either way, it’ll be good for her to hear. “When you banned me from the state of Louisiana—”
“Of course you would do something like that,” Keira says, shooting her husband a dirty look.
“Different time, hellion. Different time.”
She rolls her eyes and goes back to her salad, and I continue telling my story.
“I was on my way through Texas when I ran into a guy on the outskirts of Houston. His accent was strong and distinctly New Orleans. He was drunk in a bar, talking about starting over. Being that I was starting over too, I moved down a stool and listened to him ramble. I was on my second drink when he finally came out and told me he’d faked his own death in the aftermath of the storm.”
Jules and Trey both grin because they’ve heard this story before.
“No shit?” Magnolia says, curiosity stamped on her pretty features.
“Yeah. He, uh ...” I squint toward the baby, not sure I should be adding the last piece of the story.
“She doesn’t understand what you’re saying, so go ahead,” Keira tells me.
