Page 46 of Home Again

13

Gianna couldn’t turn off her phone because she needed it for the navigation app, but all of Jada’s incessant calls and texts were driving her batty. By the time she pulled into the Watermark hotel valet, she was ready for a glass of wine and a bath, and it wasn’t even noon. Heck, was she turning into a wino?

It really ticked her off that she relied so heavily on Jada for everything when it came to computer snooping, because she really wanted to track down this Bradley Fontenot, and when she’d done a google search there had been a lot of them in Louisiana. Of course, she had his telephone number, but it wasn’t like she could just call him up. Or could she?

She bit her thumbnail as she waited up in her hotel room for her luggage to be brought up. Her phone rang again. It was Jada. She let it go to voicemail. Then she got a text.

Just booked my ticket to New Orleans. Will be there tonight.

Oh no!

Gianna called Jada.

“Thought that would get your attention.” Gianna could hear the smirk in her friend’s voice.

“Did you really book your ticket?”

“Yep.”

“I don’t want you here. You have responsibilities at home. This is my issue.”

“Gianna,” Jada’s voice was almost tender. “I don’t doubt your abilities in the slightest. You are the strongest woman I know.”

Gianna bit her lip as she sat down on the edge of the hotel bed. “You don’t mean that.”

“Yes, I do,” Jada disagreed. “After the first month of rooming with you I figured things out, I realized you were the one with the backbone of steel. I was just the mouthy bitch who would throw down, but you were the real deal.”

Gianna looked up and saw her reflection in the mirror over the dresser. The woman she saw didn’t look too strong to her at the moment. “Sometimes it feels like it’s all an act, and I’m that same little girl who was sitting on the floor of that dirty house when the police showed up. I feel lost and alone.”

“But you’re not. You inhale life. You don’t let anything stop you. I hide behind my computer screen.”

Gianna giggled. “That is the biggest load of horse pucky I’ve ever heard. You wouldn’t own so many pairs of five-inch heels if you stayed hidden behind a computer screen.”

“Okay, you might have a point,” Jada agreed. “Now, where are you?”

“Baton Rouge.”

“The state capitol. What are you thinking you can find, Little Miss Nancy Drew?”

“I want to track down Bradley Fontenot.”

“So that’s the guy’s name.”

Gianna giggled again. “Yep.”

“I’m still pissed that you took that kind of risk by drugging Armand and digging through his phone. And you thought I was the strong one, pfft.”

“I was fine,” Gianna grinned. She knew that her friend’s mama bear instincts would kick in, Jada just couldn’t help herself.

“Well, you shouldn’t have,” Jada mumbled. “Okay, so what happened after you drugged Armand?”

“So I got his name and his number. I tried to track him down, but I haven’t had much luck. There are a lot of Bradley, Brad, and B. Fontenots in Louisiana, and I haven’t been able to find that phone number.”

“And you didn’t ask me to track it why?”

Gianna sniffed. “I wanted to do one damn thing on my own, okay?”

“But why?”