DutyBoundARe (23 page)

“Another Amanda.” Odalia shrugged.

“And what am I?”

“Not Amanda. I might even like you. Eventually.”

They stared at each other, studying and evaluating what they saw. Lisette knew the ugly serpent of jealousy squeezing her chest was of her own making.

The ring of Lisette’s phone broke the stand-off. She dug in her backpack pocket and could have leapt when she saw Lafayette’s name on the screen.

“Hey,” she said, half-turning away from her new hostess. She needn’t have worried. Odalia rose from the couch and took the two dogs out to the back yard, snagging a rubber toy on the way.

“What are you doing tonight?” Lafayette asked.

“Uh…nothing.”

“Let’s have dinner.”

Hm. Spend time with a woman Lisette was jealous of, or hang out with her brother.

“Okay. When? What time should I meet you? Where?”

“There’s one catch.”

“And that is?”

“It’s dinner with Mom and Dad.”

Lisette swallowed hard. Was she ready for that? Was it safe?

Last night she’d allowed herself to step beyond the last year and the wrongs done to her. She’d moved forward. Maybe the next step really was trying to make amends with her parents. There might not be much hope there, but giving it a try would be one more achievement on her side.

“Okay. You’ll bring the cheese puffs at least?”

“Two bags of them. I’m glad you’re coming.”

Lisette hung up and breathed deep. Shit. What did she wear to dinner now?

chapter Fifteen

Danger

Mathieu stood out in front of the precinct, breathing a little easier as he read Odalia’s latest text.

Odalia:
Got her. She’s hot. Kind of a bitch.

Lisette was a sweet soul—unless you crossed her. He could all too easily remember how pissed off she could get. She’d do that crossing her hands business, take her deep breath and unleash a few Cajun curses on him that just bounced off. This time though, he’d feel them. And every second he spent apart from her would rend his soul just a little bit more.

But she was safe.

She might not understand, but for now she was out of Seth’s reach.

My fault. Sorry.
He texted back.

It was time to set the trap.

He pulled out the business card Seth had left him and dialed the number. Officers passed him, none the wiser for what was going on. The lives in the balance. He knew Seth had killed those women. He didn’t know if it was an escalation from battery, or if Lisette was merely the victim who got away. Regardless, Mathieu intended to put him away.

“Detective Mouton. I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon.” Seth’s words were clipped, short. Economical.

“I just wanted to touch base with you again,” Mathieu drawled.

“Really?” Seth’s reply dripped of disbelief. They both knew they were each positioning themselves for something.

“You said the name Lisette. The only Lisette I know was a little girl’s rabbit found dead in its hutch. You wouldn’t be an animal killer would you, now?” He could practically hear Seth’s teeth grinding through the phone. He was baiting the man—a dangerous thing—but Seth’s focus needed to be on Mathieu, not Lissy.

“Play things should be taken care of better than that,” Seth replied coolly. “No, I don’t know anything about Lisette the rabbit, detective. Anything else?”

“That’s a shame. I promised that little girl I’d find out who hurt her bunny.”

“Where is this little girl? Maybe I can help her,” Seth replied, surprising Mathieu with his response.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I won’t warn you again to stay away, detective.”

“I’ll do my job.” Mathieu wouldn’t be warned off the case.

“Suit yourself.”

The line went dead, leaving Mathieu standing in a light misting rain as others scurried inside to avoid the moisture. He blew out a breath and wiped the droplets off his brow before heading inside.

His shift was slipping by like sand between his fingers. The other cases he was legitimately working on lay unopened on his desk. Between Seth’s visit, arranging for Lisette to stay with Odalia, and an impromptu meeting with Amber, the day was halfway gone, and yet it felt as if he’d been there a month. Was it really just last night he’d lost himself in Lisette’s body? She’d sighed softly as she fell asleep, nestled against him.

She was a force. Maybe not of nature, but she had the power to make him forget all reason and intention. Without her he’d be a bitter, lonely man, perfectly willing to wallow in his poor decisions. She’d pulled him out of the fog and reminded him what it was to want something again.

He’d begun by desiring her body, he’d continue by demanding her submission. Sex, twining their bodies together in sweet pleasure was something he remembered all too easily from before. Now, he wanted more. It wasn’t his right to ask for her heart, but her submission—that he would take and cherish. She’d thought herself broken. He’d show her just how strong and capable she really was.

First, he needed to do his job. Hours later than usual, he sat back down at his desk and began his daily routine, browsing his cases, plucking the threads up from where he’d let them rest for a night. There were details to follow up, paperwork to fill out, phone calls to make and other departments to check in with. It was a hollow process of activity today. Usually his job gave him satisfaction. Pride. Now, he was consumed with thoughts of Lisette.

Was she really safe? Could Seth get to her before Mathieu could lay a trap?

Mid-afternoon, his phone rang and warmth pierced his chest, spreading down his limbs and into his soul. Grandmère would say he was enchanted, and if he was, he didn’t want it to end.

“Lissy. . .”

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Her irritation seeped through the phone, but she was alive to be pissed at him.

“No.”

“Ugh. Is this about last night?”

“No.”

“Are you going to say anything besides no?”

“I’d rather not talk about that right now.” He leaned forward at his desk and doodled on a stack of sticky notes.

“Well, too bad. I’m not going to let you brush me under the rug.” He wished he could see her now. Lisette pissed off was a spectacular sight. Her cheeks would grow rosy and her eyes would flash.

“I’m not sweeping you under a rug and this has nothing to do with last night.”

“But you won’t tell me what it is about?”

“No.”

“Fine. I have nothing else to say to you.”

“Hey, wait a minute. . .”

“Seriously, Mathieu, if you aren’t going to tell me what’s going on, I have nothing else I want to talk to you about.”

“That’s not very nice.”

“Well you aren’t being nice. I don’t get so much as a good morning or goodbye, you’re gone and now I’m staying with your—whatever she is to you.”

“Odalia is my ex-partner, nothing more.”

“Yeah. Whatever.”

Mathieu had half a mind to tell her what he was doing for her, but he didn’t want to destroy the peace she’d found. The safety she felt with him. Seth could do all of that.

“Lisette?”

No answer.

He glanced at the phone, but the call had ended. He couldn’t chance seeing her tonight, but soon, very soon, she’d understand exactly what she was to him.

Seth glanced up and down the street
, but no one paid him any mind. And why should they? He was one of many going to and fro tonight, though most of them had their heads down or shielded themselves with an umbrella. Seth didn’t bother with either. He embraced the elements, used them to his advantage.

Witnesses couldn’t tell as much about a person in the rain. He was just another person scurrying home. Well, not to his home.

Somewhere on this street was the home of Mathieu Mouton. He had a good hunch that if he followed the detective, he’d lead Seth straight to Lisette. He didn’t know how the black man fit with his ex, but he wouldn’t rule out any possibility.

Mouton had smelled of Lisette. That alone spoke of intimacy. He tamped down on the tendrils of jealousy. Lisette had been a good fuck but nothing more.

His phone rang, vibrating against his hip. Seth pulled it out far enough to see the Caller ID flashing the same name ringing him for the third day straight. He was still on leave, so his CO could go fuck himself. He’d show up once this was finished, like he always did after a mission. He didn’t want to have any loose ends left hanging when he went back on duty. He’d made that mistake once, and what a headache it had been. Which meant he needed to find Lisette. Soon.

Mathieu’s foot fell like a lead weight
on the brake, throwing him and Gator forward.

“Sorry, boy,” he muttered over his shoulder as Gator resituated on the back seat.

Lisette bolted out from under the awning of the gas station and dove in the passenger seat of the car. She was soaked to the bone, her hair slicked to her cheeks, teeth chattering and make-up smudged around her eyes.

“Where the fuck have you been?” he practically roared, all the hours of pent-up worry and fears that Seth had found her bubbling out of him in that instant.

She stared at him for a second as if she didn’t recognize him. “I had dinner with my family.”

Her family? He gaped at her. Seth knew everything about her family. He glanced over his shoulder, but the rain obscured everything. The skin between his shoulder blades prickled as if they were being watched. It could be his imagination or it could be reality. He had no way to know the truth.

Mathieu accelerated out of the parking lot and mapped out a path in his head, one that would take them in circles, back track a bit and through some areas where a tail would be incredibly obvious. And it was all completely necessary. She had no idea what kind of danger she’d put herself in. How close he might have come to losing her if Seth had been on her trail at the exact moment.

“What is your problem?” Lisette snapped as he took a turn too fast.

“You. You’re my problem.” He slammed his palm against the steering wheel. “Why would you go out like that and not tell anyone where you were going?”

“What? Are you my keeper now?”

“Yes.” He pulled into a lonely stretch of open parking spaces on a dimly lit street. “Yes, I am your fucking keeper. You came to me to keep you safe. Me. And if you go off without telling me where or why or what’s going on—I can’t keep you safe.”

Gator whined from the back seat and the rain pelted the top of the car.

Lisette stared at him, confusion creasing her brow and pulling one side of her mouth up as if she wanted to speak but didn’t know what to say. He stared at her, breathed in her scent. She was safe. There wasn’t a scratch on her.

He reached for her then, pulling her halfway across the center console and sealing his mouth over hers. Her skin was slick with rain he sucked away. Her hair twined around his fingers, as if seeking a permanent connection. He drank her in, soaking up her presence and goodness, soothing the raw edges and the strain on his nerves the last few hours of searching had wrought on him.

Lisette pushed him back, panting for breath. “What the fuck, Mathieu? What’s going on?”

“I didn’t know where you were.”

“You didn’t know where I was for the last eight years.”

“Yeah, well, it’s different now.”

Her gaze narrowed and she licked her lips. The tension between them stretched tight. Couldn’t she tell how it was different? Didn’t she want to see where that went? Or had she realized what a wreck he was?

“I had dinner with my parents,” she said into the near silence.

“Why would you do a thing like that?” He groaned and shifted in his seat. Just kissing her made him hard. “Don’t you get it? Seth knows all about your family. If you go to them, he might find you. Track you from there to here, or wherever.”

“Wait, how does Seth factor into this?” Her brow scrunched farther.

Shit.

“Mathieu, what’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”

He couldn’t tell her the whole truth. He wouldn’t have her in fear of her life, but he could give a partial truth. “I looked into him a bit.”

“Mathieu!”

“What? I had to know if what you were saying was real. This is one seriously fucked up mother fucker. I’m worried about you.” There. No mention that Seth was in New Orleans or that Mathieu had spoken to him. Twice.

“I didn’t ask you to do that.”

Hadn’t she? Not really, but to him this was the natural course of action. He protected people. Put bad guys in jail. Seth deserved worse.

“Mathieu, just leave Seth alone. He’ll be deployed soon and then it’ll all be over.”

He didn’t think so. Seth didn’t strike him as the kind of man to just leave something he’d obsessed over, and Lisette had to be his focus. Why else would the man have come to New Orleans and had a little chat with him this morning? This was serious, and though he’d known it was, now the devil had come knocking on their door and he knew just how bad this could really become.

Mathieu reached over and took Lisette’s hand in his, squeezing it tightly. What would it be like when it was all over? How would it end? Would there be an ending? He pushed aside the images flitting through his mind of the women he was pretty certain Seth had killed right under Mathieu’s nose. Some of them had Lisette’s face. It was too easy to remember the photographs and superimpose her onto the bodies. He wouldn’t let that happen.

Lisette pushed the console up and slid across the space, as far as she could go. He wrapped an arm around her and glanced at his mirrors. No one that hadn’t been there before.

“Hey.” She cupped his cheek, seeming to understand how on edge he was.

He wasn’t sure who leaned in first, but it didn’t matter. Their lips met and the world regained a little of its goodness. Her breasts pressed against his chest, her other hand gripping his jacket. He pulled her in closer and opened his mouth, seeking more. She gave it, allowing him to suckle her lips, teasing them with the tip of his tongue and a gentle nip.

Didn’t she know how precious she was?

He rested his cheek atop her head and blew out a deep breath. She was safe, but his heart wasn’t.